Nearly 2,000 immigrant-rights protesters marched through Denver Thursday morning, carrying signs saying “Immigration rights are human rights” and demanding that the next president make comprehensive immigration reform a priority, reported Colorado’s Greely Tribune.“We want to stop the raids," Ramon Del... More...

The Mississippi Clarion-Ledger reports about 2,800 families remain in emergency housing this anniversary. According to the Clarion-Ledger:...the state of recovery varies from city to city, person to person. Wages on the Coast have not kept up with the rising cost... More...

Two weeks after the levees failed, President Bush stood in Jackson Square in New Orleans and promised “to rebuild the city and the region.” At the time he said: “We will do what it takes, we will stay as long... More...

Today marks the third anniversary of Katrina’s landfall over the Gulf Coast, but the recovery efforts in New Orleans remain slow and problematic and several barriers remain to rebuilding, according to several reports released this month.Gulf Coast rebuilding must become... More...

With Tropical Storm Gustav spinning toward the Gulf Coast and expected to strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has returned home from the Democratic National... More...

Today marks the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, spoken at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King gave his landmark speech during the March on Washington for jobs, justice and civil... More...

Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama was nominated by acclamation to be the nominee for the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election, becoming the first African-American to be nominated as a presidential candidate for any of the major parties. (Several third... More...

By: Jeffrey BuchananGuest ContributorThe federal government and national organizations have failed to meet the needs of the Gulf Coast 3 years after Katrina hit. How are local communities coming together to build a new vision for resident-led recovery?Almost three years... More...

Faith groups were the unsung heroes in the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina. What role can they play now in rebuilding a still-devastated region? More...

By: Jordan FlahertyGuest ContributorAs headlines focus on conventions and running mates, the third anniversary of Katrina offers an opportunity to examine the results of disastrous federal, state and local policy on the people of New Orleans.  Several organizations have released... More...

By: Bill QuigleyGuest Contributor0.  Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant – compared to 116,708 homeowners.0.  Number of apartments currently being built to... More...

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the world’s media has lost sight of the ongoing problems in New Orleans, reports the UK’s Independent, underscoring that “one of the world’s most cataclysmic natural disasters, one made worse by official incompetence and corruption,... More...

The Mississippi Sun Herald reports that Mississippi's coastal cities are showing varied levels of recovery.  According to the Sun Herald:In quaint downtown Ocean Springs, for instance, it's hard to tell from the thriving shops and tree-lined streets that there even... More...

Since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast three years ago, we've reported extensively on the factors that contributed to making the storm one of the worst disasters ever to afflict the United States. One of the themes that's come up... More...

The Associate Press reports that the Department of Defense plans on hiring an independent engineering company to review allegations that the Army Corps of Engineers let a contractor install faulty pumps after Hurricane Katrina despite a warning that they might... More...

Facing South reported earlier about the affordable housing crisis on the Mississippi coast that continues to slow post-Katrina recovery in that state. But Mississippians aren’t the only ones whose post-Katrina housing needs are not being met. A new report released... More...

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi's battered coast is regaining population but still lacks affordable housing for its poorest residents, reports USA Today. The article goes on the say:Lack of affordable housing remains a thorny challenge, according to a study... More...

Trouble the Water, directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, Zeitgeist Films, Opens August 22Being hailed by the New York Times as “one of the best American documentaries in recent memory,” the film Trouble the Water opens today in theatres... More...

The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit this week seeking the release of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency test data for a relatively new class of pesticides that might be playing a role in what's come to be known as... More...

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group that works to cast doubt on the scientific consensus around the reality and seriousness of manmade global warming, was scheduled to hold a town hall meeting today in Fort Myers, Fla. and another... More...

As Facing South previously reported, Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal made an important commitment last week to spending a billion dollars in state funds on coastal restoration and protection projects in the coming years.But many coastal activists continue to point out... More...

It's been the sort of week that probably makes Duke Energy chief Jim Rogers feel he's earned his $9.9 million annual salary, what with all the trouble he's had to deal with.Yesterday the chairman, president and CEO of the Charlotte,... More...

Rates of obesity continued to rise across the country during the past year, according to a report released Tuesday by Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.The report found that Mississippi's adult obesity rate is 31.7% -... More...

An editorial in today’s NOLA Times-Picayune applauds the financial commitment being made to protect Louisiana’s coast. Last week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced plans for more than $1 billion in coastal protection and restoration projects in Louisiana - the largest... More...

It's now been over two months since Sen. Barack Obama officially clinched the Democratic Party nomination. In terms of sizing up the presidential race, that means we now have 10 weeks of poll data to figure out how McCain and... More...

There's been a barrage of bad news on the economic front this week, with inflation growing at the fastest rate in 17 years, average weekly wages posting the the biggest year-over-year decline since November 1990, and the number of people... More...

Earlier this week federal investigators raided and seized documents from the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corporation, the city-chartered and city-financed nonprofit that ran a home-remediation program in 2006 and 2007. The grand jury issued a subpoena last week allowing investigators... More...

Murder and attempted-murder charges against seven New Orleans police officers—accused of shooting unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina—were tossed out by a judge who concluded that a prosecutor violated grand jury secrecy, the Times-Picayune... More...

Fresh from his election as chair of the Southern Governors Association, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine kicked off a year-long effort this week aimed at encouraging his regional colleagues to take a more active role in reducing greenhouse gas pollution linked... More...

Rural America is increasingly dependent on military dollars to keep its economy afloat, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (pdf). Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on how you look at... More...

A note to Facing South readers: this week, we made our 2,500th post to the blog since launching in spring 2005.We launched Facing South to offer a take on the South you can't find anywhere else. Over the last 3... More...

The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record reports that Wal-Mart's federal political action committee, the retailer's political arm, has been expanding its donations to candidates seeking North Carolina state office, including $54,000 to state-level candidates during the current election cycle.According to... More...

The shrimping industry in the Gulf Coast continues to suffer post-Hurricane Katrina. The 2005 hurricanes, rising fuel prices, and foreign competition has put the industry “at the center of a perfect storm that just won’t quit” reports USA Today this... More...

The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group for the U.S. nuclear industry, is in the process of selecting at least two rural U.S. communities to serve as potential dump sites for highly radioactive spent fuel from the nation's nuclear power... More...

Today, music enthusiasts across the nation are remembering the work of Southern-born soul legend Isaac Hayes, who was found dead in his home in Memphis, Tennessee on Sunday. He was 65.Hayes, known as a pioneering singer, songwriter and musician, was... More...

Environmental Defense and the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition have agreed to drop their opposition to NRG's proposed expansion of a coal-burning power facility in East Texas in exchange for a number of environmental concessions from the New Jersey-based energy... More...

Since 2004, the Institute has critically looked at the efforts of the Department of Justice and others to go after "voter fraud," efforts which usually end up aiming to restrict voter registration.For example, last year the North Carolina State Auditor,... More...

Facing South's bi-weekly listing features new books about the U.S. South and books written by Southern writers.Covering for the Bosses: Labor and the Southern Press by Joseph B. Atkins, 280 pages, University Press of Mississippi (July 2008)From the publisher: Covering... More...

A three-legged mutt named Cassidy underwent experimental surgery at the N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine last month -- a high-tech procedure that one day could help military veterans and other people who have lost limbs.Cassidy was missing the lower... More...

More news today about AREVA, the French state-owned nuclear company whose experimental mixed-oxide fuel assembly had to be removed from Duke Energy's Catawba plant in South Carolina after experiencing potentially hazardous physical changes. Beyond Nuclear, a watchdog organization headquartered in... More...

Duke Energy has been forced to abort a test of an experimental fuel assembly at its Catawba nuclear power plant in York County, S.C. after noticing unusual physical changes that can damage the fuel and create a safety hazard.The Charlotte,... More...

UPDATE:The WaPo is running the following correction to this story: "An earlier version of this story about campaign donations that Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III raised for Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Sen. Hillary Rodham... More...

The 17th International AIDS Conference opened this week in Mexico City, with appeals for the international community not to slow down its fight against a disease that has claimed more than 25 million lives. While HIV/AIDS is often touted as... More...

The closing of FEMA trailer parks, hastened by unhealthy levels of formaldehyde in the trailers, has highlighted continued problems faced by Katrina evacuees three years after the disaster: the lack of affordable housing, inadequate social safety nets, and the risk... More...

The Washington Times has an exclusive report today on a disturbing scandal at a veteran's hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas:An investigation of research conducted at an Arkansas veterans hospital has uncovered rampant violations in its human experiments program, including missing... More...

Texas plans to ignore the World Court today by executing a Mexican national. Last month, the World Court ordered the U.S. government to “take all measures necessary” to halt the upcoming execution of five Mexican nationals until it makes a... More...

What is allegedly the world's largest Confederate battle flag recently began flapping from a 139-foot flagpole at the crossroads of Interstates 10 and 4 in Florida, placed there by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.It's one of at at least four... More...

Front-page DailyKos contributor DemFromCT leads a post today with this one-liner:There are 92 day [sic] until Republicans formally become a regional party based in the South.This assertion -- that the GOP is a party whose only base is in the... More...

Tuesday the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity” of slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws. The apology has drawn mixed reactions across the country.Since it was the first... More...

CNN reports that FEMA officials were subjected to sharp questioning in Thursday’s joint congressional hearing that examined how FEMA supplies meant for Katrina and Rita victims sat unused and were ultimately marked as surplus and distributed to other states and... More...

A bipartisan commission held a hearing Thursday to investigate illegal housing discrimination practices following Hurricane Katrina. The day-long hearing held in Houston, entitled “The Re-Segregation on the Gulf Coast in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” represents the second leg of... More...

One of my dogs recently had her regular check-up at our veterinarian's office, where despite my oft-stated concerns over pesticide safety I was convinced to buy an expensive product to keep fleas, ticks and mosquitoes at bay during this exceptionally... More...

We reported yesterday on Texas-based Exxon Mobil's second-quarter net profit of $11.7 billion -- the highest quarterly profit ever for a U.S. company without one-time gains.But Wall Street was disappointed by a drop in output, sending the company's stock sliding... More...