In recent years, state legislatures in the South and elsewhere across the country have taken steps to crack down on predatory lenders -- payday advance companies, title loan firms, and other outfits that charge borrowers exorbitant interest rates sometimes as... More...

Net profit of ExxonMobil in 2nd quarter of 2008 (March-June): $11.7 billionTotal annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the entire country of Haiti: $11.1 billionIf ExxonMobil was a country, its 2nd-quarter profits alone would rank it as the 133rd-biggest economy... More...

Chris O'Brien, reporter for the San Jose Mercury News has posted excerpts from his interview with T. Boone Pickens, the Texas-based oil-man-turned-wind-energy-advocate.The Pickens Plan, as O'Brien lays it out:In short, Pickens wants to build massive wind farms to generate 22... More...

Arkansas-based Wal-Mart has more than 4,000 stores and distribution centers across the United States -- and the group Wal-Mart Watch is trying to map every single one of them.The watchdog group's interactive map aims to provide reliable, up-to-date information on... More...

With reports -- widely spread, rarely verified -- that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is near the top of Sen. Barack Obama's VP candidate list, it's interesting to look at his record since taking the governor's mansion in 2005.For progressives, Kaine... More...

The Times-Picayune reports that repeated changes in rules for the Road Home recovery program have made it more difficult for applicants to collect the same grants they were once promised by the program.At the launch of the program, grant calculations... More...

As the N.C. Public Utilities Commission opened hearings yesterday on Duke Energy's controversial Save-a-Watt energy efficiency proposal, the plan's opponents called on commissioners to remove the conflict of interest inherent in having an investor-owned energy company promote efficiency -- by... More...

This past weekend, Louisiana Environmental Action Network technical supervisor Wilma Subra toured the banks of the Mississippi River through Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes to witness firsthand the effects of last week's devastating oil spill. She has posted her... More...

Keith Hempstead, an attorney in Durham, N.C., has dropped the lawsuit he filed against the Raleigh News & Observer for breach of contract, the paper reports. He filed the suit when paper owner McClatchy Co. made cutbacks in the paper's... More...

A man with a shotgun entered a church Sunday and opened fire on congregants during a children's play at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. The assailant killed 2 adult parishioners and wounded at least eight others before... More...

In states across the South, utility companies are pushing ahead with plans to construct a new kind of nuclear reactor. Designed by Westinghouse Electric Co., the AP1000 is to date but an idea on paper, having never been tested with... More...

The Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper and Atchafalaya Basinkeeper patrolled the air yesterday to check on the section of the Mississippi River affected by Wednesday's oil spill. What they found was "not encouraging," they report:Oil continues to leak from the wreckage of... More...

New Orleans City Business reports that New Orleans District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson is filling up Louisiana’s prisons with a new policy charging minor marijuana offenders with felonies if they have prior convictions. Landrum-Johnson's predecessors routinely exercised their discretion to treat... More...

This week, Facing South's Book Fridays brings you a selection of online photo essays.Over at Southern Spaces, Earl Dotter presents “Coalfield Generations: Health, Mining, and the Environment," an exploration of mining communities in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The... More...

There's been considerable attention paid to the role played by private security firms in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As it turns out, one such firm is also helping with the stateside war against dogfighting.Earlier this month, the... More...

The massive oil slick from the crash that occurred yesterday on the Mississippi near New Orleans has now spread 100 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, it's come to light that the barge carrying the 400,000 gallons of fuel... More...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday asked a federal judge to dismiss it from lawsuits filed over the formaldehyde-contaminated trailers provided to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Arguing on FEMA's behalf, the Department of Justice told the judge the agency... More...

The Times Picayune reported on the new study released by AMBIO, a peer-reviewed science journal, which found that coastal wetlands provide $23.2 billion worth of protection from hurricane-related flooding in the United States each year. As quoted in the Times... More...

It appears that the Lower Rio Grande Valley dodged a bullet yesterday, the earthen levees along the river reportedly holding up to Hurricane Dolly's rains. Before the storm made landfall, residents had been warned to seek shelter because officials feared... More...

As politicians from across the South clamor to lift the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, the disaster that took place early this morning near New Orleans highlights the very real dangers faced by oil-producing communities.Around 1:30 a.m., a chemical... More...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed using the state’s royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling (OCS) revenues to pay Louisiana's $1.8 billion share of future federal levee improvements.But at a Congressional tour of New Orleans this week, U.S. House Speaker... More...

Hurricane Dolly is poised to strike the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Mexico border later today, maybe even escalating to a Category 2 storm. About 1.5 million Texans stand in the storm's projected path, and the governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico is... More...

The ACLU sued Alabama elections officials this week over an overly expansive policy disenfranchising felons. According to the New York Times:Like virtually all states, Alabama restricts the rights of many felons to vote, but in Monday’s suit the group contends... More...

Several black leaders, community groups, and legislatures voiced outrage when the North Carolina Senate did not take up the North Carolina Racial Justice Act bill before adjourning last week. As Facing South previously reported, the North Carolina House approved the... More...

WalkScore has released its annual list of the Most Walkable Cities in the United States. Sadly, no Southern cities crack the top 10 list. The highest-ranking city -- Louisville, KY -- comes in at #15.In fact, out of the 40... More...

About 50 residents of Appalachian coal communities gathered yesterday on eastern Tennessee's Zeb Mountain, where they marched in nonviolent protest against National Coal Corp.'s mountaintop removal mining operations. Four marchers were arrested after they intentionally stepped onto the company's property.Having... More...

First came all the good news about the explosion of interest in Election 2008 -- skyrocketing registration, high primary turnout. Now come the darker warnings: is our patch-work national election system ready for an engaged electorate?The New York Times spells... More...

When we launched our Friday dogblogging feature earlier this year, we mentioned Southerners' special love for canines. But an honest understanding of dogs' history in our region also recognizes how the animals were used to brutalize Southerners and Southern progress.Rev.... More...

I had a good conversation yesterday about they myth of so-called "clean coal" with business journalist Doug Henwood on New York's WBAI radio. You can find the interview archived online here by scrolling down to the Thursday, July 17 edition... More...

The following commentary appeared in this week's Institute e-newsletter. To sign up and have it delivered free to your email inbox, sign up in the box in the upper right hand corner.What does one say at the funeral of a... More...

This week the remaining residents were moved from the large homeless encampment underneath the Claiborne Avenue freeway overpass near Canal Street in New Orleans.The once crowded and noisy tent city had become notorious, as an eyesore to some (in January... More...

Researchers at Duke University want to update the history and statistics of 20th Century social change in the South, combining social science research with narrative, oral histories with statistics, in a new Center for the Study of the South.In an... More...

Mayor Frank Melton and his two police bodyguards, Michael Recio and Marcus Wright, were indicted last week on three counts each of conspiracy and violating the civil rights of an owner of a private residence and the man who lived... More...

Despite his green media image, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers is facing a fight from environmental advocates over his plans to build a polluting new coal-fired power plant in western North Carolina.In the latest effort to stop the Cliffside project,... More...

There will be a grand-opening celebration next month for a new pediatric clinic in the impoverished and predominantly African-American community of West Anniston, Ala. The clinic was financed by the $700 million legal settlement over manufacturer Monsanto's reckless contamination of... More...

This Thursday afternoon, July 17, I'll be on Doug Henwood's "Behind the News" show on New York City's WBAI radio, discussing so-called "clean coal" technology. Henwood is the editor and founder of Left Business Observer and a frequent contributor to... More...

Last month, Facing South reported on the CNN investigation that revealed $85 million in household goods and supplies earmarked for Gulf Coast hurricane survivors were given away to unaffected areas of the country.The CNN investigation uncovered that 121 truckloads of... More...

The Florida Public Service Commission today unanimously approved Progress Energy's proposal for two new nuclear reactors on an undeveloped site in Levy County.The new complex is planned for Florida's west coast about seven miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico... More...

Ralph Nader is back, running for president as an independent challenging corporate power. While his campaign has received little media attention since its February launch, it's gotten a boost recently from left-leaning voters upset over Sen. Barack Obama's recent reversals... More...

Facing South will be heading to Netroots Nation this Thursday, which we are pleased to see is being held here in the South (Austin, Texas). We would love to connect with other Southern and South-watching bloggers -- please drop me... More...

As the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, the AP is reporting that few expect the New Orleans Hurricane Katrina monument to be built by the target date of Aug. 29. During the second-anniversary ceremony, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin... More...

Two decisions handed down last week, one by a federal court and the other by a federal agency, will have critical implications for our nation's environmental health -- and for the Bush administration's environmental legacy.On Friday morning, a federal appeals... More...

The death penalty debate continues to heat up in North Carolina. The Raleigh News & Observer reports that while Black leaders and anti-death penalty groups continue to push the state legislature to pass a law that would allow defendants facing... More...

Tough spay and neuter laws in many states have dramatically reduced the number of unwanted puppies languishing in animal shelters. But in North Carolina, weak laws have created an enormous homeless puppy problem.Besides contributing to a kill rate more than... More...

Facing South's bi-weekly listing features new books about the U.S. South and books written by Southern writers.Perpetual Care: Stories by James Nolan, 239 pages, Jefferson Press (May 2008)Perpetual Care, the winner of the 2007 Jefferson Prize in Fiction, is the... More...

Here's a creative way to protest staff cuts at your daily paper: Sue 'em.McClatchy Corp.'s Raleigh News & Observer, the target of just such a lawsuit, reports:Keith Hempstead, a Durham lawyer, filed the suit last month in Wake Superior Court.... More...

Gulf Stream Coach -- the politically connected company handed a $500 million federal contract to manufacture trailers for Hurricane Katrina victims -- knew its product was contaminated with dangerous levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde in early 2006.But it failed to notify... More...

One of the many downsides to high gas prices is that it unleashes a flurry of conservative punditry claiming that "the market" will solve our energy problems, including catastrophic climate change.See, when the price of gas goes up, they say,... More...

We recently reported on a lawsuit charging three Virginia companies with involvement in torturing detainees in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.Now it's a Florida firm that finds itself in hot water over alleged torture -- and this time the allegations... More...

Coca-Cola has agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit charging officials at the Atlanta-based company with misrepresenting or omitting information from public statements, causing artificial inflation of stock prices.The plaintiffs in the class-action suit were led by... More...

The Times Picayune reported that of the flooded areas in Louisiana’s St. Bernard and Orleans parishes, 62 percent of homes have been rebuilt or are under renovation, according to data from a University of New Orleans study released this week.The... More...

Tennessee is seeing a surge in ex-offenders seeking a restoration of their voting rights. Tennessee’s WBIR reported this year the state could double the number of felons who may see their voting rights restored.The numbers could skyrocket even further if... More...

This Wednesday, July 9, staff with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting in Atlanta with officials from the Westinghouse Nuclear Fuels Plant in Columbia, S.C. to discuss nuclear materials that went missing back in February. The meeting will... More...

States across the South are working to promote the use of plant-based fuel as an alternative to imported petroleum, but the biofuels movement is not without its down side.In Texas, for example, Gov. Rick Perry recently petitioned the Environmental Protection... More...

South Carolina is making plans to issue plates featuring a Christian cross and the words “I Believe.” Facing South reported last spring on Florida lawmakers’ attempts to issue this same plate, but the plate was later rejected there because of... More...

Some pundits are still debating whether the South is politically important. But both Democrats and Republicans know that the future of Congress may depend on who can gain momentum in the South.Why? Redistricting.As we've reported before, the South is the... More...

It's another hot July 4 down South -- and in what has become something of a Facing South tradition, we again share two of our favorite commentaries on the subjects of patriotism, independence and our nation's ongoing struggle to live... More...

While the U.S. nuclear industry is pushing plans to build seven new nuclear reactors -- all of them south of the Mason-Dixon line -- its regulators have failed to adequately enforce fire regulations at existing nuclear power plants.That's the finding... More...

North Carolina is one of the last Southern states to still support the federal ban on new offshore oil drilling, but lifting that ban has now become an issue in the governor's race.This week, Republican nominee and Charlotte Mayor Pat... More...

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In North Carolina last week more than 300 clergy members signed onto a letter sent to lawmakers urging the passage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act, a bill giving capital murder defendants the right to challenge prosecutions on... More...

Spurred by competitive primaries and hopes that their states might be in play come November, voters are registering in record numbers in Georgia and North Carolina.Georgia has grown the most: an astounding 300,000 new voters have been added to the... More...

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights was part of a legal team that last year filed suit against North Carolina-based private security contractor Blackwater for its role in the mass shooting of Iraqi civilians.Now the nonprofit law firm is... More...

Construction on Georgia's first new coal-fired power plant in decades came to a halt yesterday, thanks to a groundbreaking decision by a judge.Overturning an administrative court's earlier ruling permitting Dynegy's Longleaf plant, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings... More...

A New York Times editorial last week took a hit at Mississippi over its misspending of Hurricane Katrina relief funds. Facing South has reported on the controversy surrounding the State of Mississippi’s plans to divert emergency federal funding from... More...

President Bush on Monday signed the $162 billion supplemental appropriations bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a move that will provide funding to the wars through the first month of the next president’s term. According to CNN,... More...

National average gas prices, July 1 2007: $2.97/gallonNational average gas prices, July 1 2008: $4.09/gallonSource: AAA Fuel Gauge ReportPLUS: Is Texas benefiting from the oil price boom? The Houston Chronicle reports that the net balance sheet isn't great for the... More...