Given that environmental advocates have already documented groundwater contamination from all of the ponds, some are asking whether the move is too little, too late. More...
FACING SOUTH - Online Magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies
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Are utilities' plans for shoring up hazardous coal ash dams good enough?
The EPA has released plans drawn up by 22 coal-fired power plants to improve the safety of the same sort of structures that failed catastrophically at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility in 2008. But some of the plans are vague and all are largely unenforceable, raising questions about their usefulness. More...
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Daily Blog
Who dat in the New Orleans mayor's office?
MON 2/8 | Between the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, it hardly went noticed that New Orleans elected a new mayor this weekend -- an historic event that speaks volumes about the struggles and future of the city. More...
VOICES: Job losses a social state of emergency
MON 2/8 | Unemployment has reached crisis levels, especially among African-Americans. Does Washington have the will to launch a public jobs program to put our country back to work? More...
Tea Party dabbles in immigration politics
FRI 2/5 | To date, tea party activists had steered clear of divisive social issues like immigration. But at the Tea Party Convention in Tennessee this weekend, activists galvanized around opposition to immigration reform. More...
Tea Time: What next for the tea party "movement?"
FRI 2/5 | Over 600 activists and leading conservatives gathered this weekend at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Is the tea party cause for real -- and can it succeed in the long march for political power? More...
INDEX: Nuking the taxpayers
THURS 2/4 | President Obama has proposed tripling the budget for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors, to $54 billion. Why shouldn't that money go to more sustainable solutions? More...
ANALYSIS: Southerners a stronghold of far-right views in Republican Party
WED 2/3 | A new poll finds that large numbers of Republicans believe Obama is a racist, socialist and not a U.S. citizen -- and GOP voters in the South are especially receptive to the conservative movement's most far-right and paranoid views. More...
Investigations & Reports
Top 10 Stories of 2009 #1: The biggest eco-disaster you never heard about (unless you read Facing South)
DECEMBER 2009 | Facing South was one of the first to report on the huge -- and hugely under-reported -- coal ash disaster last in Tennessee last December: the biggest industrial waste accident in U.S. history, and a warning to millions of Americans living near similarly unregulated coal waste dumps. More...
Top 10 Stories of 2009 #2: The hidden battles over health reform
DECEMBER 2009 | Despite wall-to-wall coverage of the health reform debate, the media missed some of the biggest stories -- which get to the heart of power, profit and politics in Washington. More...
Top 10 Stories of 2009 #3: What really happened at Three Mile Island?
DECEMBER 2009 | 30 years ago, disaster struck at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. In an in-depth investigation this April, Facing South revealed flaws in the official story of what happened -- and what it means for the new "nuclear revival." More...
Top 10 Stories of 2009 #4: The best research money can buy
DECEMBER 2009 | When the battle over the Employee Free Choice Act geared up this spring, the media trumpeted a study claiming the labor bill would cost thousands of jobs. They forgot to mention it was based on shoddy research and paid for by corporate interests. More...
Broken promises follow Tennessee coal ash disaster
DECEMBER 2009 | A year after a massive coal ash spill in east Tennessee, residents say the TVA has yet to confront the aftermath -- and Washington has failed to ensure millions of Americans won't be vulnerable to similar disasters. More...
SPECIAL REPORT: How is Obama doing on Gulf Coast recovery?
AUGUST 2009 | In the Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast, the election of Barack Obama and a new Congress brought new hope. But four years after the storm, an Institute survey finds many local leaders believe Obama hasn't lived up to his promises. More...
More Recent Coverage
Owners of a landfill that's been taking toxic coal ash spilled in the December 2008 Kingston disaster claim the operators have withheld money paid by TVA, leaving a lawsuit to halt the dumping up in the air. More...
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling opening the floodgates to corporate money in elections, corporations should be subject to intense scrutiny about their agenda and weapons of persuasion. More...
When the president calls for a "new generation" of nuclear power plants, what exactly does he mean? And is the latest technology really all it's cracked up to be? More...
The Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. was a birthplace of the sit-in movement that helped topple Jim Crow segregation. Today, on the 50th anniversary of the first sit-in there, it opens as a civil rights museum. More...
Amid scenes of horror on the streets of Port-au-Prince, hope still reigns. More...
In 1991, the first President Bush signed into law a bipartisan bill that gave birth to our nation's high-speed rail program. Why are conservatives now calling it a crazy "boondoggle?" More...
Today is National Day of Action on Coal Ash -- an effort that comes on the heels of revelations that the Environmental Protection Agency allowed the coal ash industry to edit official government reports to downplay the dangers of the toxic stuff. More...
