Grassroots efforts to address the Gulf Coast's housing crisis are growing just as a federal judge has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to resume rental aid to Gulf Coast residents displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.U.S. District Court Judge... More...

New Orleanians -- those still living in the city as well as those displaced by last year's hurricanes -- will gather Saturday, Dec. 2 at locations across the country to help set priorities for their city's rebuilding.Community Congress II will... More...

Update from NC-8: Democratic challenger Larry Kissell has conceded to Rep. Robin Hayes halfway through the recount after finding only two new votes. You may recall that Rep. Robin Hayes, who is vice chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism,... More...

Earlier today, I reported on the 600,000 kids in 17 states that are at risk of losing health insurance, thanks to a $921 million shortfall in federal spending for the Children's Health Insurance Program.In light of President Bush's request for... More...

Speaking of the problems plaguing New Orleans' justice system since Katrina, today's Times-Picayune has a story about a man who came to help rebuild the city -- and ended up spending 13 months in three different Louisiana prisons without ever... More...

As many as a third of the people now living in the New Orleans area say they may leave within the next two years due to poor quality of life in the storm-stricken city.That's the finding of a telephone poll... More...

The State Children's Health Insurance Program, by most measures, has been a big success. Jointly funded by states and the federal government, SCHIP now covers over 4 million kids, most of whom otherwise wouldn't have access to health care.But according... More...

For all the talk in politics about "listening to voters" and "mobilizing the grassroots," people who have worked at both the public policy and grassroots community levels know that there is a vast divide between the two worlds.Policy decisions --... More...

The audit of voting machines begun yesterday in Sarasota County, Florida was supposed to help clarify when happened to the 18,000 ballots which "undervotes" that didn't register a choice for Congress. But puzzling glitches and criticisms of the audit itself... More...

I had an item on my desktop from a couple of months ago about Wal-Mart's pilot program in Florida to offer 30 day fills of generic prescription drugs for $4. I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand,... More...

As Chris mentioned here last week, voting problems in Sarasota County for the Florida 13th Congressional District race may change the future of e-voting in America. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California says it's time to take a hard look at... More...

Despite the claims of a handful of pundits that the 2006 elections show the South isn't competitive for Democrats, evidence continues to roll in that all the trends in the South point to a region that will only become more... More...

This weekend, the Dallas Morning News wrapped up an eye-opening, three-part series about work in the meatpacking industry.The Morning News focuses on Cactus, Texas, which like many Southern towns is drawing immigrant workers to jobs that are dangerous and increasingly... More...

In the chaos that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of people arrested for petty crimes such as passing bad checks, begging and public intoxication ended up trapped behind bars for weeks on end without ever seeing a lawyer... More...

In our celebrity-drenched culture, it's nice to find places that honor the extraordinary work done by ordinary people for change.This week, The Independent Weekly, based in the Institute's hometown of Durham, NC, featured its annual "Citizen Awards" to recognize the... More...

Farmers across the South stand to lose millions of dollars as a result of a North Carolina biotech firm's quest to genetically modify rice -- and now the company is blaming the farmers and God for the crisis.The claims by... More...

The legal battle brewing in Florida District 13, where Dem. Christine Jennings is contending that 18,000 "undervotes" cost her the election vs. Republican Vern Buchanan, could have implications well beyond Florida. After the State of Florida certified the election for... More...

The nation's flagship universities -- including most of those across the South -- are serving disproportionately fewer minority and low-income students today than they did in the past. And, unfortunately, the situation appears to be growing worse.That's the finding of... More...

Before the 2006 mid-terms, there was plenty of speculation about what would happen with religious voters. The "God gap" that favored Republicans in previous contests was at risk, as concern grew of a demoralized religious right.Last week, the Pew Forum... More...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there were countless unsung heroes who rose up to not only help those in need, but who started organizing to demand a more just reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.One of those grassroots leaders was... More...

The Census Bureau has a new website called American FactFinder with massive databases of census and demographic info with tools that provide a variety of ways to view it. There is also a new 2005 American Community Survey with data... More...

The United Food and Commercial Workers have just issue the following statement about where things stand with the Smithfield Foods walkout, which we've been covering at Facing South:Thanks to the determined workers at Smithfield's plant in Tar Heel, who bravely... More...

Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation writes about the walk-out of 1,000 workers at Smithfield Foods in North Carolina last week -- which, by sheer coincidence, started one day before the film version of Fast Food Nation hit movie theaters... More...

Do you remember the "purple maps" from the 2004 elections? They showed that -- contrary to the "red state" vs. "blue state" hype -- in reality, our country was deeply divided. In most of the country, states weren't solidly Democratic... More...

The deepening housing crisis in storm-battered New Orleans is putting the lives of the city's poorest and most vulnerable residents at risk -- and officials so far have failed to take adequate action.The city normally activates its "freeze plan" for... More...

Nearly two weeks after the election, and there are still four U.S. House races to be decided in the South -- two due to slim margins of victory, and two more thanks to run-offs (Texas 23rd district and Louisiana's 2nd).In... More...

After a massive walk-out that eventually involved over 1,000 employees, workers at Smithfield Foods have gone back to work -- for now:Workers at Smithfield Foods slaughtering plant in North Carolina are planning to return to work today. [...]Operations slowed at... More...

The historic walk-out of workers at a Smithfield Foods operation in Tarheel, N.C. -- the largest pork processing plant in the country, known for its checkered labor history -- that we reported on yesterday continues.It's now being reported that over... More...

Here at Facing South, we were as surprised as all of you to read about the revival of Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), who was driven from Republican leadership in 2003 after waxing nostalgic for the days of the Old Confederacy.... More...

This weekend, thousands of priests, nuns, and other activists will descend on Fort Benning, Georgia, to demonstrate against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC).The annual demonstrations against the U.S. training center have become one of the largest expressions... More...

If organized labor does indeed start pushing for trade agreements that better protect workers' rights, as my fellow Facing South blogger R. Neal reports, it will likely find support from an electorate that's proven to be deeply concerned about fair-trade... More...

As Facing South reported earlier, today over 500 workers spontaneously walked off their jobs at Smithfield Foods, to protest "abuse and intimidation" after the company retaliated against workers who had spoken out about conditions at Smithfield.The workers took the action... More...

We've written before at Facing South about Smithfield Foods, the meat-processing giant which runs the largest pork-processing plant in the world in Tarheel, North Carolina.The dangerous working conditions and mistreatment of workers -- including reports of company security guards beating... More...

Organized labor played a huge role in the 2006 mid-term elections, and is now expecting a return on its investment. According to this AP report, the AFL-CIO alone spent more than $40 million, and organized labor ran a huge get... More...

There's a lively discussion brewing over a Daily Kos, where I cross-posted my piece what the 2006 elections showed about Democrats and the South.... More...

Charging that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has "hijacked" billions of dollars of federal reconstruction money, a coalition of groups representing Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors plans to hold a mass protest march in Baton Rouge this Saturday, Nov. 18.Organized by... More...

This post, along with earlier entries here, here and here, will be part of ongoing analysis we'll be doing at Facing South about the 2006 elections and the South. Stay tuned for more in the future.The Democratic and progressive South-bashers... More...

Magic 8 Ball says: Outlook is GoodOne of the new Democratic majority's First 100 Hours agenda items is to increase the federal minimum wage, which has been stalled at $5.15 per hour for ten years. They don't say exactly what... More...

Defined as communities located on urban fringes where housing density is low, population growth is high and at least 20 percent of workers commute to jobs in an urban area, "exurbs" are booming throughout the United States, and especially across... More...

Most of the politicians running for office in 2006 have folded up their circus tents, but the residents of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans will have to endure a final round of voting to determine their House Representative. In a race with... More...

Dear Facing South readers:Over the last two days, Facing South experienced some "technical difficulties," which seem to have been sorted out. We've been hard at work -- look below for some of the post-election coverage we've been working on. Thanks... More...

In addition to the high-profile race for the U.S. Senate, there were other elections held in Tennessee on Tuesday.Incumbent Governor Phil Bredesen beat the Republican challenger by a whopping 69% margin as expected. Gov. Bredesen is listed on the ballot... More...

The Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina played a "very big role" in the Republican Party's losses in this week's midterm elections, according to one of the architects behind the Democrats' victory.Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chair of the... More...

Did undervotes throw a key U.S. House race in Florida? The evidence is still coming in, and it looks suspicious."Undervotes" in election parlance are when the number of votes tallied in a given race are smaller than the total number... More...

Seven Southern states had races for governor on Tuesday, and both Democrats and Republicans can point to victories.Democrats must be pleased with the triumph of Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe (D), who held off politically-connected former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson... More...

Despite glitches with voting machines in some precincts and charges of voter intimidation in isolated races, yesterday's election seems to have been free of the sort of widespread, catastrophic breakdowns that plagued the 2000 and 2004 contests.CBS News reports that... More...

The first national election since Hurricane Katrina resulted in the Democrats taking control of the U.S. House -- but that means trouble for Louisiana's influence on Capitol Hill.With five Republicans and two Democrats now representing the state in Congress, Louisiana... More...

Democrate Harold Ford Jr. ran one of the best campaigns in the modern history of Tennessee politics to make this race so close (Corker 51% v. Ford 48%), but his Republican opponent Bob Corker's campaign was better by just enough.... More...

As the nation fixes its eyes on the Senate outcomes in Virginia and Montana, there are still five U.S. House races in the South hanging in the balance, underscoring the competitive nature of the South in the 2006 elections.In North... More...

UPDATE: Our Alabama tables got switched. That's another state legislature that's in the DEMOCRATIC column.Democrats were victorious in key Southern races for U.S. Congress. But how did the election play out in Southern state legislatures?According to the latest results available,... More...

The Associated Press looks at the exit polls, and finds that the reports we've been seeing for months about frustrated Christian conservative "values voters" ended up having an impact:Those early exit polls also showed that three in four voters said... More...

Amendments to ban gay marriage have easily passed in the three Southern states where they were on the ballot: South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.The margins are most lopsided in SC and TN, a bit tighter in VA. Key question is... More...

Famous North Carolina blogger and Institute board member Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend is blogging with with representatives of 30 of the top blogs at the CNN E-lection Blogger Party.It looks like an interesting gathering of bloggers across the... More...

So far, there's been no update on this report from the Associated Press which appeared earlier today, confirming that the FBI and State Board of Elections in Virginia would be investigating multiple reports of voter suppression tactics:The FBI said today... More...

A follow-up to our earlier post about Durham County, North Carolina, and their enlightened decision to extend poll hours at a precinct where 100 voters where waiting this morning at a locked church. Election Central at TPM Cafe is reporting... More...

OK, sorry for the bad joke in the headline, but South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was turned away from the polls because he forgot his voter registration card:A sheepish Gov. Mark Sanford was turned away from a South Carolina polling... More...

Citizens across the country have been encountering difficulties at the polls today, with some of the problems occurring in the South.Voters at several precincts in South Mississippi reported problems with new touch-screen machines being used in today's midterm elections, the... More...

For most of the South, it's a rainy Election Day. According to The Weather Channel, Floridians can expect "scattered thunderstorms" and central/mid-Atlantic states are in for a "good soaking."The media and pundits all agree that weather is bad for voter... More...

Yesterday's final push for the Tennessee U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Bill Frist saw both major party candidates all over the state making their pitches, and brought an all-star GOP lineup to East Tennessee for Republican candidate Bob... More...

Faulty voting machines and other systems failures will be getting a lot of attention today, but some of the biggest problems on Election Day are the litany of small break-downs that, when added together, can wreak havoc in a close... More...

Following up on Sue's excellent post yesterday: the Laywyer's Committee on Civil Rights and other groups have a Voting Rights Hotline to call if ou have any voting problems today:1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)The Institute worked with the Committee to coordinate Election Protection... More...

With midterm elections taking place tomorrow, civil rights groups nationwide are gearing up for protect-the-vote initiatives to ensure fairness at the polls, and many of the efforts are focused on Southern states.The NAACP is joining forces with the Lawyers' Committee... More...

Due to our loophole-ridden system of campaign financing, a few deep-pocket donors can change the entire dynamic of elections, especially in small races. Bloomberg reports today on Texas tycoon Bob Perry, whose cash deeply impacted the 2004 presidential race, and... More...

With midterm elections days away, public concern is growing over potential problems with the technology used to count the overwhelming majority of American votes cast in county, state and federal races. Further fueling worries about a hijacked electoral system, tonight... More...

North Carolina hasn't received the same national hype this election season as neighbors Tennessee and Virginia, but there's still plenty of political drama unfolding in the Old North State.The battle for House District 11 in the mountains remains tight, with... More...

The Future of Music Coalition -- a national nonprofit that aims to find creative solutions to challenges involving music and technology -- will gather in New Orleans from Friday, Nov. 3 through Monday, Nov. 6. The meeting hopes to shine... More...

The latest developments in the Tennessee U.S. Senate race still do not seem to give either candidate a clear edge, and there are too many moving parts in this race to single out any one deciding factor.On Tuesday, a CNN/Opinion... More...

Those looking for signs of a backlash against recent campaign mudslinging may have to look no further than this column in Wednesday's Dallas Morning News: I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.On all those counts,... More...

The New York Times ads to the evidence that Iraq will define the 2006 mid-term elections, a frame that benefits Democrats:A substantial majority of Americans expect Democrats to reduce or end American military involvement in Iraq if they win control... More...

Whatever the negative attacks and personal gaffes swirling around the 2006 mid-terms, evidence is mounting that elections -- more than any other issue -- will be a vote about Iraq. As a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll released yesterday found:Voters... More...

As the 2006 mid-term elections near and races tighten, each party is now focused on turnout: making sure their base of committed supporters get to the polls and vote.Republicans continue to face doubts about whether their core voters, white conservative... More...

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today in a Clean Air Act case against North Carolina-based Duke Energy, one of the nation's largest power companies. Environmental Defense, et al. v. Duke Energy Corp. began six years ago after the U.S.... More...