Tasers, Pepper Spray, and Arrests in the Struggle for Affordable Housing in New Orleansby Bill QuigleyGuest ContributorIn a remarkable symbol of the injustices of post-Katrina reconstruction, hundreds of people were locked out of a public New Orleans City Council meeting... More...
FACING SOUTH - Online Magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies
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December 2007 Archives
Well, I saw the bo weavil, Lord, a-circle in the airNext time I seed him, Lord, he had his family thereBo weavil told the farmer that "I 'tain't got ticket fare"Sucks all the blossom and leave your hedges squareBo weavil,... More...
The controversial "Road to Nowhere" is officially not going to be built. An environmental impact study recommendation in October led the way for Congress to appropriate money for a $6 million "down payment" on a $52 million cash settlement with... More...
In an open letter sent Friday to U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called on HUD to provide more details on its redevelopment plans before the city will grant demolition permits for two... More...
Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (one of the most important books of 2007, in our opinion), offers her take on the decision to demolish four public housing complexes in New Orleans at Huffington... More...
THANK YOU to all of you who have already pitched in for Facing South's Year-End Holiday Fundraiser -- already more than $5,000 has come in! We've fixed the online donation server -- try it out now! -- and you can... More...
Today we sent out an appeal for those interested in supporting our work at the Institute. We've since learned our online donation system is being buggy -- if you run into that problem, you can mail your tax-deductible contribution to... More...
Now that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sen. David Vitter, Mayor Ray Nagin and the entire City Council have turned their backs on the struggle to guarantee adequate affordable housing for New Orleans' poorest residents, what happens... More...
Violence broke out today at New Orleans City Hall as council met to consider the demolition of four public housing complexes. At 4:39 p.m., members voted unanimously to approve the tear-downs, the Times-Picayune reports:"We have the opportunity to make our... More...
AP reports a disturbance at city hall:Police used chemical spray and stun devices Thursday as dozens of protesters seeking to halt the demolition of public housing in New Orleans tried to force their way through an iron gate at City... More...
By Dr. Lance HillGuest ContributorAdam Nossiter, writing for the New York Times, makes the startling claim that since displaced black voters failed to vote in large numbers in the city-wide election last fall, "the decision was made: there was no... More...
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today into the allegations of Jamie Leigh Jones, a young Texas woman who claims she was drugged and gang-raped by her fellow KBR/Halliburton employees in Iraq -- and then imprisoned and threatened with... More...
Today President Bush signed into law an energy bill that increases efficiency standards for vehicles, phases out incandescent light bulbs, and for the first time places limits on the amount of water that can be used by new washing machines... More...
The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) is conducting an ongoing study of voting and election systems in Tennessee. The first report on voting machine systems was presented to TACIR in June. TACIR staff prepared a subsequent report of... More...
That's the questioned examined by an article in the latest issue of Newsweek, which reports on allegations that the former Arkansas governor's son David was involved in the hanging death of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in... More...
The plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit to block demolition of public housing complexes in New Orleans reached an agreement in court Friday with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans that the teardowns won't... More...
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) reportedly raised more than $6 million yesterday for his presidential campaign, surpassing the one-day record of $5.7 million previously held by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.The grassroots fundraising effort was timed to coincide with the 234th... More...
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next Wednesday on the disturbing case of Jamie Leigh Jones, the young Houston woman who alleges she was raped by several of her KBR coworkers in Iraq in July 2005 and then... More...
The federal government has known there were toxic levels of formaldehyde in temporary trailers provided to people displaced by Hurricane Katrina at least as far back as April 2006. That's when the Sierra Club released the results of tests it... More...
Most of Alabama and Georgia, the Tennessee Valley, and now North Carolina are experiencing "exceptional" drought conditions in the record-breaking drought that has plagued the South throughout the second half of 2007.Rainfall in Alabama is more than 30 inches below... More...
As demolition crews dispatched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began tearing down the 14 brick buildings that make up the B.W. Cooper public housing complex in New Orleans yesterday, about 500 protesters tried to block a... More...
Texas, a state that's home to 24 million people, releases more greenhouse gas pollution than the United Kingdom, a nation with 60 million residents. It also emits more than Italy or France. Louisiana, which has a population of about 4.5... More...
The Supreme Court's 7-0 decision yesterday to reduce extraordinarily harsh sentences for crimes related to crack cocaine is drawing widespread applause from advocates who have long noted the lack of fairness in drug sentencing.The decision will retroactively affect nearly 20,000... More...
The U.S. Department of Energy published a public notice in local newspapers today to "inform the public of DOE enforceable requirements for protection of human health and the environment from past releases of contaminants within the Melton Valley portion of... More...
...and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming."So concludes a statement by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about its report [PDF] released yesterday on the findings of a 16-month investigation into allegations of... More...
A New Orleans city committee yesterday refused to approve demolition of one of the four public housing complexes as part of a redevelopment plan being pushed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Times-Picayune reports. Though the... More...
It's 80 degrees here in Raleigh, N.C. today -- a new record high for this date. We're also expecting record-setting temperatures tomorrow and Wednesday. Temperature records are also being broken in Georgia and South Carolina, with 2007 forecast to be... More...
It's 80 degrees here in Raleigh, N.C. today -- a new record high for this date. We're also expecting record-setting temperatures tomorrow and Wednesday. Temperature records are also being broken in Georgia and South Carolina, with 2007 forecast to be... More...
About a dozen people gathered outside the offices of Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) in Raleigh this afternoon asking her to support the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (S. 1668). The action was one of many taking place across the nation... More...
MEDIA ADVISORYFor immediate release: Monday, December 10, 2007For more information, contact:Ajamu Dillahunt (856-3194; ajamu@ncjustice.org)Chris Kromm (419-8311 x26; chris@southernstudies.org)Katrina Victims, Allies to Hold Press Conference at Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s Office Demanding Homes for New Orleans!Senate inaction on a key housing bill... More...
Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (H.R. 6), a wide-ranging measure that promotes renewable energy sources, improves automotive fuel economy and boosts production of homegrown biofuels. According to the Southern Alliance for Clean... More...
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association and Physicians for Social Responsibility are going to court today to present their legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Mercury Rule -- which... More...
This recent Economist article about Dollywood is making the Tennessee blog rounds. It's a somewhat amusing look at Southern/Appalachian culture from a British/European point of view. Characterizing Dolly Parton as the "backwoods Barbie", the article observes:People do not fly to... More...
We recently reported on the effort led by the fossil-fuel-funded John Locke Foundation and Heartland Institute to scuttle North Carolina's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. Among their arguments against addressing such pollution: the biblical End Times are coming, so... More...
Storms bringing heavy rainfall are now 24 percent more frequent across the United States today than they were 60 years ago, including in many areas of the South. That confirms scientists' warnings that a warming global climate will bring more... More...
Next Monday, Dec. 10, is international Human Rights Day. It's also the day when activists in New Orleans are calling for actions opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to tear down more than 4,600 public housing... More...
Good Jobs First, a "national policy resource center for grassroots groups and public officials, promoting corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families" has compiled a report entitled The State of State Disclosure which evaluates... More...
By Bill QuigleyGuest contributorOn the 12th day before Christmas, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable... More...
Our report on the controversy over CDC's release of its latest AIDS data got the attention of Kenyon Farrow. Citing the "Southern States Manifesto," we noted that among the factors contributing to the region's disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS/STDs are its... More...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2007 National HIV Prevention Conference is underway in Atlanta right now amid controversy over the federal agency's refusal to release the latest HIV incidence estimates for the United States.AIDS activists say annual HIV... More...
