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Pat McCrory hasn't fared too well with protesters.

The Republican governor of North Carolina has signed off on a vast array of conservative legislation this year, cutting taxes, slashing unemployment benefits and abolishing teacher tenure. So much change so fast has led to protests, including "Moral Monday" events staged at the capitol a dozen weeks in a row by the NAACP.

McCrory said last month he was "cussed" out by those protesters, but it turned out he hadn't met with them. Earlier this week, he dropped off a plate of cookies for women protesting new abortion restrictions, but they gave them back.

"Hey, Pat, that was rude, you wouldn't give cookies to a dude," they chanted.

The rafter of new laws enacted in the state last year has earned McCrory plenty of negative press, including critical coverage not only in The New York Times and Washington Post, but in state newspapers and blogs as well.

But in Raleigh, it's not at all clear how much any of this is hurting the governor. Democrats, of course, are unhappy — but they don't control the votes. After more than a century of Democratic domination, Republicans hold not just the governorship, but supermajorities in both legislative chambers as well.

North Carolina has long had a reputation for being perhaps the most progressive state in the South. Now, it may more closely resemble its neighbors. Throughout the region over the past 20 years, states that were long controlled by Democrats have almost entirely turned over power to the GOP — and then stayed that way.

"My view is that North Carolina will be leading the red-state resurgence," says Marc Rotterman, a GOP media strategist in the state. "I think McCrory is going to end up being one of the most popular governors in the country."

Democrats Set The Stage

Rotterman is a partisan and his predictions may come as a surprise, given the spate of critical attention the state's received. After all, from a national perspective, North Carolina has been looking more ripe for Democrats, not less.

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The Standard & Poor's 500 index, the benchmark of America's largest corporations, surpassed 1,700 points for the first time Thursday. The rise is being tied to assurances from central banks in the U.S. and Europe that they would continue to bolster their economies, as well as a drop in U.S. jobless claims.

"The S&P 500 has reversed course after pulling within 2 points of 1,700 three times in the past seven days," Bloomberg Businessweek reports. "The benchmark index is trading at 15.3 times estimated earnings, compared with an average valuation of 13.9 times profit over the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."

Here are the top 10 entities that are currently in the index:

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Apple Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Johnson & Johnson

General Electric Co.

Google Inc.

Chevron Corp.

Procter & Gamble

Berkshire Hathaway B

Wells Fargo & Co.

As August begins, retailers are stepping up sales promotions to attract back-to-school shoppers. And several states are offering tax-free shopping to encourage purchases.

But most economists say this year's sales will be slower than last summer's because consumers have been coping with more expensive gasoline and higher payroll taxes.

"This year's back-to-school shopping season appears slightly weaker than last year," economist Chris Christopher, with IHS Global Insight, said of the retail period that ranks second only to the holiday shopping season.

To get consumers in the mood to shop, many retailers started back-to-school advertising and sale pricing weeks ago. The data aren't in yet to show the final impact of those early promotions on July sales.

But traditionally, August is the key month for sales of kids' backpacks, shoes, clothes, lunchboxes and notebooks. Those sales are expected to total $635 for the average family with school-age children, down from last year's $689, according to the National Retail Federation.

Spending is higher for college-bound students, who need more expensive things like computers and textbooks, as well as bedding and beanbag chairs for dorm rooms. This year, the average family with a child in college will spend $837, down from last year's $907, the trade association estimates.

The NRF says school and college shopping combined will add up to $72.5 billion.

Looking To Cut Corners

"As they continue to grapple with the impact of increased payroll taxes, Americans will look to cut corners where they can, but will buy what their kids need," NRF President Matthew Shay said in a statement on the season's outlook.

Examples of corner-cutting include shopping for generic rather than brand-name goods, he said. Roughly 1 in 3 shoppers said in a recent NRF survey that he would do that, as well as wait for sales.

And more people will be heading to discount stores, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers. A survey done in mid-July by that group showed 9 in 10 consumers plan to shop in discount stores this year, up from 83 percent in 2012.

To give shoppers yet another way to reduce the hit to their pocketbooks, 18 states are offering sales tax holidays this summer.

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Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world. Coming as a dirt poor kid from Scotland to the U.S., by the 1880s he'd built an empire in steel — and then gave it all away: $60 million to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.

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