Sue here at Facing South reported on Wednesday about the sudden "glitch" that befell WHNT TV in Huntsville, Alabama last weekend -- precisely at the moment that a 60 Minutes expose was airing which argued that the prosecution of former... More...

This week, the Pew Center on the States released a bombshell study revealing that our country is locking up record numbers of people in jail and prison.For the first time in history, the U.S. -- which, according to Pew, lock... More...

This Valentine's Day, a black and white border collie arrived at Dulles Airport from Iraq, where he had been found months earlier by Sgt. Edward Watson during a patrol. Weak and malnourished, the shivering puppy looked near death, but Watson... More...

The global warming skeptics are miffed because those of us whose work on climate matters is informed by science rather than the interests of fossil fuel paymasters aren't interested in putting on a show with them.The John Locke Foundation, a... More...

In an effort to de-escalate the growing tensions between Georgia and Tennessee regarding water rights and the boundary between the states, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield issued a proclamation:WHEREAS, it has come to pass that the heavens are shut up and... More...

The same day South Florida was paralyzed by a massive and still-mysterious power outage following a fire in an electrical substation, Texas narrowly avoided rolling blackouts after a sudden drop in wind in the western part of the state, where... More...

In case you have somehow missed it, earlier in the week the Tennessee Republican Party put out an official press release referring to Barack "Hussein" Obama's "anti-Semite" positions, featuring the Drudge photo of Obama in Somali traditional garb.From the Knoxville... More...

Conservative icon William F. Buckley was found dead today in his Connecticut study at the age of 82. The magazine he founded is in mourning, with tributes on the National Review's Web site from political heavyweights like Sen. John McCain,... More...

At the same time public housing complexes in New Orleans are being torn down and redeveloped into mixed-income communities with less space for the poorest families, Mayor Ray Nagin has announced his intent to push the homeless people who've been... More...

Because utilities in the South operate under a traditional rate regulatory structure that encourages investment in new plants and limits competition, companies seeking to develop nuclear power facilities in order to take advantage of federal tax incentives are drawn to... More...

A top executive at WHNT in Huntsville, Ala. denies that his TV station intentionally blacked out the CBS "60 Minutes" report about the politically motivated prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman -- even though the 12-minute blackout came just as... More...

A major power outage across South Florida today brought normal life screeching to a halt, as traffic signals, schools, homes, and workplaces went dark around 1 p.m. At the peak of the outage, about 700,000 customers were left without power.Throughout... More...

A former inmate of a CCA run prison is protesting a former CCA executive's nomination to a federal judge post:President Bush in June nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV, chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America, to become a U.S. district... More...

Stateline.org reports that 20 state governors -- 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans -- have yet to endorse a 2008 presidential candidate.Southern governors make up the bulk of those taking their sweet old time; out of the 20, nine are from... More...

Over at Politico, Martin Kady II and Victoria McGrane echo a theme that columnist David Sirota has been hammering at for months (years, actually): the revival of populist politics.It's not unusual for Democrats to try on a little populism in... More...

The Coal Moratorium NOW! conference kicks off this Wednesday in Houston. The two-day event will bring together activists from across the country who are working to stop the building of new coal-fired power plants in their communities.The event coincides with... More...

WHNT -- the CBS affiliate for northern Alabama where the "60 Minutes" report on former Gov. Don Siegelman's controversial prosecution was blacked out last night -- is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners. The investment firm was founded by billionaire... More...

With the March 4 Democratic primaries looming in Texas, much has been made of the Latino vote -- a significant 25% of the Democratic primary electorate there.But in a close race, the key block may turn out to be a... More...

Last night the CBS show "60 minutes" aired a powerful report on what appears to be the politically motivated prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. Unfortunately, viewers in northern Alabama who tuned in to watch the show found a... More...

This Sunday, the CBS news show "60 Minutes" will report on an alleged five-year secret campaign spearheaded by former White House advisor Karl Rove to bring down Don Siegelman, who served as Alabama's governor from 1999 to 2003 after previous... More...

The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board this month heard the pleas of fox hunters who are seeking a change in state rules to preserve a version of their sport that uses packs of scent hounds to track foxes or sometimes coyotes... More...

Everyone says they're for the environment these days -- but among those who represent you in Washington, who votes like they talk?The League of Conservation Voters, which has been rating lawmakers for years, now has a neat online tool for... More...

Several Gulf Coast organizations have purchased two FEMA trailers that are now touring the country to raise awareness about the ongoing nature of the crisis in the region and the government's failure so far to rebuild in a manner that... More...

In our ongoing Southern drought coverage, you may recall us mentioning what at the time seemed like nothing more than a historical curiosity regarding the Tennessee border. It seems the team sent out in 1818 to survey the border missed... More...

Today marks the start of public hearings on the U.S. Department of Energy's $150 billion plans to streamline the nation's current atomic arsenal of some 10,000 warheads -- and to build new nuclear weapons at various sites, including several in... More...

For year, British officials denied involvement in U.S. "extraordinary rendition" flights, like those that the Institute revealed last year started in North Carolina and led to torture of terror suspects.But now, a senior official in the Blair administration has "discovered"... More...

Just when it looked like former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's stock was going up, the Wall Street Journal reports his legal troubles may be just beginning (sub req'd for full piece):Federal agents are investigating whether former Senate Majority Leader... More...

Amory Lovins is the visionary co-founder and chair of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based "think-and-do" tank that helps businesses, communities, individuals and governments increase profits and competitive advantage through efficiency while building a more just and sustainable world. Lovins... More...

Fidel Castro, Cuba's long-sitting head of state, has stepped down. But despite new calls to end the punitive U.S. embargo against the country -- which nearly every U.N. member nation condemns -- U.S. policy towards Cuba is unlikely to change... More...

Sen. Trent Lott -- remember him? For the first time since 1988, the U.S. Senate convened this year without the Mississippi lawmaker -- known for his nostalgic feelings for the Old South -- after his abrupt retirement in 2007.Where is... More...

Human rights activists from the United States are gathering in the Swiss city of Geneva this week to hold the government to account for violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The international... More...

An explosion and fire at a Texas oil refinery on Monday injured four workers, and news that the facility would be closed for as long as two months was a factor behind oil prices jumping to more than $100 a... More...

In a telling follow-up to my last post on states slashing budgets to trim deficits, Jordan Green at YES! Weekly in Greensboro, NC has an excellent piece of reporting on what happens to workers who get stiffed by their employers.Despite... More...

Homeowners and credit card consumers aren't the only ones drowning in debt. A new analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities warns that 20 states are facing a combined budget shortfall of $35 billion in 2009, and eight... More...

There have been reports of rogue political operatives attempting to disrupt student voter registration drives by spreading false information. Students should not let anyone tell them it is illegal to register in the state where they attend school, or that... More...

The top three contributors to the Republican presidential campaign of Texas Congressman Ron Paul are members of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, according to an analysis of federal election data by OpenSecrets.org. A former Air Force officer with... More...

The Plott Hound is probably not the sort of beast one expects to find among the carefully coiffed poodles and other aristocratic breeds at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. First bred in the Great Smoky Mountains back in the... More...

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards spent years trying to make NAFTA and the impact of global investment deals (mis-labeled "free trade" deals) a major election-year issue. But it's taken a recent spat this week between front-runners Sens. Hillary Clinton and... More...

In response to the federal government's findings of dangerously high formaldehyde levels in manufactured homes provided to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley sent a letter yesterday to the head of the state Manufactured Housing Institute... More...

Tennessee voting machines may get replacedUnder legislation that won initial committee approval Tuesday, all Tennessee voters will eventually mark paper ballots, check them for accuracy and then run them through an "optical scan" voting machine.The bill, SB1363, has cleared the... More...

But no financial assistance provided for those sickened by unsafe housingAlmost two years after first being notified about the problem by environmental advocates, federal health officials this week confirmed dangerously high levels of formaldehyde in travel trailers and mobile homes... More...

Move comes amid ongoing coverup of key federal health reportThe Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced it will make some of the mobile homes sitting empty in an Arkansas field available to victims of the tornadoes that recently devastated the... More...

The next time you pick up a House of Raeford product at the grocery store -- Black Forest Turkey Ham, perhaps, or maybe some Chicken Tenders -- you should stop and think about the human suffering that's not listed among... More...

Similar to how check cashers and payday lenders set up shop around military bases to prey on enlisted personnel and their families, they're now lurking around retirement homes to prey on the elderly. And worse, a loophole in federal law... More...

Apparently Muslim extremists aren't the only ones angered by irreverent political cartoons.Kentucky state Rep. Jim Gooch, a Democrat who chairs the Natural Resources and Environment Committee, is unhappy about the way he's been portrayed by editorial cartoonists because of his... More...

A federal appeals court on Friday decided that an Environmental Protection Agency rule that left coal- and oil-fired power plants off the hook for tough mercury controls violated the Clean Air Act. The decision cheered opponents of Duke Energy's planned... More...

That's the question being considered in today's hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering Gus Puryear's nomination to a federal judgeship for U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee. This happens to be the same... More...

Are we looking at the end of a political era?When former Gov. Mike Huckabee swept the GOP's Southern primaries last week, I wrote about how his dominance -- and Sen. John McCain's failure -- in conservative states pointed to a... More...

The House Election Task Force held a hearing Friday on the contested Florida District 13 race of 2006. The Government Accountability Office presented the findings of its final report [PDF] into Sarasota County's mysterious 18,000 undervotes in that contest, which... More...

Check out the newly-expanded page about the Institute for Southern Studies on Wikipedia.... More...

(You may have heard of the tradition of Friday catblogging. Well, in honor of our region's special passion for the canine, we here at Facing South have decided to launch a special Friday feature devoted to dogs. Enjoy!)They're known as... More...

Big news for all you Facing South fans: we are now bumping up our popular email newsletter -- also called Facing South (it's not confusing, it's a brand!) -- to publishing on a bi-weekly schedule.That's right -- the South's most-read... More...

Today's issue of Stateside Dispatch, a publication of the Progressive States Network, takes a critical look at conservative efforts to squelch dissent on college campuses. In the right's latest attempt to discourage viewpoints it deems politically unpalatable, the American Council... More...

In the aftermath of Super Tuesday, we've seen lots of analysis about what groups voted for Sens. Clinton and Obama. One of those is the "race gap," as evidence by the fact that Obama drew a resounding 82% of the... More...

A roundup of reports from around the South, where deadly storms ripped through Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky Tuesday night leaving a wake of death and destruction...From the 9PM Wednesday TEMA Situation Report:There are 31 persons reported as fatalities... More...

At least 50 people were killed in fierce storms that struck across the South yesterday. Tennessee appears to have been hardest hit, with more than two dozen deaths reported so far -- including 10 in Macon County alone. Arkansas, Alabama... More...

Later this month, representatives of the Bush administration will travel to Geneva, Switzerland to defend the the United States' human rights record before a United Nations committee. Meanwhile, human rights advocates charge that the administration is not only failing to... More...

We've seen the maps of who won Super Tuesday in each state, and how many delegates that means towards the nomination.But what are the primary results from that purest measure of democracy -- the popular vote?For Democrats, a blogger at... More...

Of the several interesting story lines coming out of the post-Super Tuesday South, by far the most striking was former Gov. Mike Huckabee's total sweep of the five Southern Republican primaries.Despite earlier losses in South Carolina and Florida, Huckabee knew... More...

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Here we are, the Big Day for the Election 2008 primaries -- which may turn out to be just Another Day, especially for Democrats, if the races stay tight and Sens. Clinton and Obama split the delegate count.Our friends at... More...

New Orleans once again takes a short break from their struggle and puts aside the bitterness and pain to celebrate Mardi Gras and a spirit that cannot be drowned, kept down, or run out of town. Meanwhile, twenty-four states set... More...

Tennessee lawmakers have introduced a tort "reform" bill aimed at protecting nursing home operators from lawsuits. The bill (SB4075/HB4053) would:• Require lawsuits against long-term care facilities involving health-related services to be brought solely as medical malpractice action (see separate post... More...

We've reported previously on revelations that U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson oversaw the award of a contract for redeveloping a New Orleans public housing complex to a company that owes him hundreds of thousands of dollars, that... More...

Forget the Super Bowl -- in the political world, it's now the Super Tuesday Channel, all the time. And what about the Southern wing of the electoral tsunami that will sweep the nation tomorrow?Out of the 24 primary contests tomorrow,... More...

We recently brought you the story of a plan being pushed by EnergySolutions Inc. to import nuclear waste from Italy to the South. The material from decommissioned reactors would be shipped in through the ports of Charleston, S.C. and New... More...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending a special inspection team to the Global Nuclear Fuel Americas commercial nuclear fuel processing plant near Wilmington, N.C. after an incident last week in which moisture was detected in a vessel containing uranium --... More...

Last week, I wrote about signs of the South's growing influence in U.S. politics. Since that post, two Southern primaries -- Florida and South Carolina, representing different facets of the fast-changing South -- have transformed the 2008 campaign, disposing of... More...