If you're thinking it’s the middle of the long, hot summer, and nothing’s going on, well, we’ve got news for you. Things are so busy we need to do a quick update today regarding the latest developments on several stories we’ve previously reported:

* If you’re a Duke Energy shareholder, you’re probably breathing a sigh of relief at the news that the Environmental Protection Agency pronounced the sight of one of the country’s worst-ever polluting disasters - a nasty coal-ash spill into the Dan River in February - resolved! Fixed! And Duke followed the EPA’s announcement by declaring it’s clean-up work there “finished.” Great news, right?

Not so fast. The EPA’s Myles Bartos told the Danville, Va. City Council Tuesday night that while more than 600 water samples taken from the river since the spill have consistently shown the water to be safe to drink, the river has “historical” environmental quality issues, including lead, arsenic, selenium and PCBs. He acknowledged that Duke is not being required to clean those up since they “were not responsible for creating them.” And the Virginia Dept. of Health’s warning about the quality of fish from the river as not being safe to eat remains the same as it was prior to the February spill. So - drink that with a bit of salt!

Meanwhile, closer to home, and still on Duke’s agenda, is the war over who will be responsible for picking up the much larger tab for the costs of cleaning up Duke’s coal-ash mess across the state, estimated at $10 billion. This morning, North Carolina environmental activists including Greenpeace and Charlotte Environmental Action presented Thom Tillis’ Senate campaign staff with a big, fake check in that amount. The check, supposedly signed by Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good, is “compensation” for Tillis’ efforts “to weaken the recent coal ash bill,” calling it, in a press release, a handout to Duke Energy. “The bill does not require Duke to clean up 10 locations where coal ash is stored across the state and instead allows the ash to be left in place. Duke would also be able to pass along the costs associated with any cleanup to NC residents in the form of a rate increase.”

For as long as most people around here can remember, the term “The Great State of Mecklenburg” has been a pejorative many other-area residents of North Carolina use to refer to our perceived attitude that what we think matters more than what they think. (We were right in that, of course!)

However, judging by the latest demographic figures, it looks like the “poison” that has infected us throughout most of the last century is now spreading through the rest of the state. While it’s only making this area more of what we were already becoming - a diverse electorate, not dominated by a homogenous, mostly-White, native-born population — it may, in fact, make the home-grown, North Carolinian voter an endangered species.

That difference in perceived attitude and perspective within Charlotte and Mecklenburg County was usually attributed to the large number of transplanted citizens moving here from other parts of the country. What was usually migrants pursuing employment opportunities in what was seen as an “up-and-coming” region is now becoming a statewide phenomenon.

Are you losing sleep worrying about invasions from outer space, blood-sucking zombies or genetically mutated organisms? You've been nicely distracted from the real threat: Flesh-and-blood human beings supplanted by corporations, which, according to the highest court in the land, have not only the right to spend as much money as they like buying politicians via campaign donations, but now also have the right to ignore other laws they believe infringe on their newly recognized rights to religious freedom.

In a landmark ruling known as the Hobby Lobby case, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the 2013-14 docket with a 5-4 decision, written by the conservative Justice Samuel Alito, in which the court said that privately held companies - those not traded via the markets, wholly owned by a family or by individuals - can refuse to pay for contraceptive prescriptions under the Affordable Care Act because such prescriptions are tantamount to abortions, which some company owners believe amount to murder through their evangelical Christian beliefs. The family that owns Hobby Lobby argued through its lawyers that Obamacare forced them to violate their religious beliefs in offering that option to its employees, while others said that corporations had no right to impose their religious beliefs on those who work for them. The five justices in the majority were all appointed by Republicans. They are also all men.

• Wally Gobetz (Flickr Creative Commons)

In case you haven't been paying attention to the latest Moral Monday headlines, things have been getting just a tad testy lately. Are protesters headed for real trouble, as many in other states have faced over the past few years (I'm looking at you, Wisconsin), or has this whole thing about run its course?

If it's up to the Rev. William J. Barber II, lead organizer of Moral Mondays and the head of the state's NAACP, as impressive as some events have been, including one in February that was compared in size to marches from the 1960s, they're just getting started. As he sees it, just as the Republican majority passed measures in early May restricting the size and sound of what the protesters could do, this movement is in keeping with the grand tradition of other civil disobedience efforts in this country's history. And he's got the arrest record to show for his efforts, including an incident June 15 in which he went head-to-head with Lieutenant Marvin Brock of the General Assembly Police.

• Jane Wester

When it comes to women's issues that stir the collective pot, abortion is at the top of the list. That's understandable. When you start talking about life and death, babies and fetuses, a women's right to choose or a baby/fetus' right to live, the conversation can get emotional. It can get loud.

But what happens later, when a woman decides to keep her baby? Is everything all milk and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies then? No, not necessarily. Not if she's a member of the American work force.