The case of the Jena Six in Louisiana closed quietly on Friday as the remaining defendants accepted a plea deal. The case highlighted the miscarriages of justice that black youth face across the country. More...

Finally, the much-expected meeting on immigration reform between President Barack Obama and lawmakers from both parties took place Thursday. Participating legislators said the president promised to put his energy into moving forward right away. The response from some reform advocates was "Game On! More...

Two Georgia banks failed Friday, with 14 failing across the state since last August. Bad real estate lending is a major culprit, reports Jake Bernstein of ProPublica. More...

North Carolina is the state with the most sites -- a dozen -- where a failure like the recent one in Tennessee could kill significant numbers of people. Meanwhile, North Carolina-based Duke Energy has the most facilities on the list with 10. More...

Southern lawmakers demonstrated considerable hostility to the Waxman-Markey climate act in Friday's vote approving the measure. Is that simply a reflection of the conservative region's partisan bent, or is something else going on here? More...

Links between the Honduran coup leaders and a Pentagon training school at Fort Benning, Georgia, revive a debate about U.S. intervention -- and the U.S. connection to human rights abuses like torture. More...

On the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the Fort Worth Police Department raided a gay club called the Rainbow Lounge, and began harassing and arresting patrons. More...

Two reports try to measure the cost of coal -- and both find that the "black gold" of Appalachia causes more problems than it solves, reports Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder. More...

At least two leaders of Sunday's dramatic coup in Honduras overthrowing leftist President Manuel Zelaya were trained at a controversial military school based in Georgia that has been criticized for ties to dictators, death squads and other human rights abuses. More...

Hundreds of doctors, nurses and other social and health care workers gathered in Washington, D.C.'s Freedom Park Wednesday, asking Congress to end the racial and economic disparities in the United States' health care system. More...

Culture and politics writer Jeff Chang looks at the pop star and what his life tells us about our culture's celebrating-making machine. More...

Engineers say the massive ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston plant last December was caused by a unique set of factors, but watchdogs are skeptical. Are other disasters waiting to happen at U.S. coal plants? More...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour won't let calls from housing advocates and lawmakers deter his plans to divert $570 million of federal hurricane recovery funds from a housing program to the expansion of the Port of Gulfport. More...

A Senate hearing on the destructive mining practice suggests a consensus is developing that it needs to stop. More...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers this week that it was time to close the gap in prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine crimes, a disparity in sentencing that has a large impact on the African-American community. More...

A Florida community group is staging a hunger strike in protest of Bank of America's lack of transparency in its lending practices toward low-income minorities. More...

Thousands of people rallied Thursday in Washington, D.C. for "affordable and comprehensive" health care. New studies show that skyrocketing insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical costs are taking a huge toll on struggling families. More...

Last weekend in Jackson, Miss., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference launched a modern-day "Poor People's Campaign," an initiative first envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. More...

Thanks to incentives and funding included in the federal stimulus bill, states across the country have enacted measures to make it easier for unemployed Americans to obtain unemployment insurance benefits. More...

As the vote nears for the Waxman-Markey bill, opponents spread questionable information about its economic impact. What will the bill really cost Americans -- and how does that compare to the cost of inaction? More...

The fall of Gov. Mark Sanford has not only led Gov. Haley Barbour to take the reins of the powerful Republican Governors Association -- it also removes a key rival in Barbour's apparent bid to be the GOP's "values voter" presidential candidate in 2012. More...

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits that he didn't go hiking on the Appalachian trail after all: He was in Argentina, ending an affair that he says began about a year ago. Did he also end his shot at the presidency? More...

Opponents of the "public option" for health care say that it would hurt competition. But in fact, most health insurance markets fall under what the Department of Justice considers a "highly-concentrated market," or near-monopoly. More...

A protest yesterday at a Massey Energy mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia drew big names including NASA climate scientist James Hansen and actress Darryl Hannah as well as scores of counter-protesters, and it reportedly turned violent at moments. On Thursday, the Senate will hold a hearing on the impact of the destructive mining practice -- but will elected leaders take action to stop it? More...

The search for the governor of South Carolina ends with the revelation that he took an undisclosed trip to Buenos Aires. The State newspaper provides a helpful timeline, but many questions remain -- including why did he go to Argentina in the dead of winter? More...

A recent study found that housing costs for both renters and homeowners in New Orleans was less affordable than for the nation as a whole. More...

The Democratic proposal for a "public option" for health care reform is running up against a surprisingly stubborn obstacle: North Carolina's newly-elected senator Kay Hagan, who is bottling up the vote in committee. More...

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires a number of states and many local governments -- mostly in the South -- to get federal permission before changing their voting procedures. Judith Browne-Dianis makes the case for why that provision is still crucial today. More...

Business groups got lots of media play for a study they funded saying Canada's labor experience shows the Employee Free Choice Act would lead to massive unemployment. But Canadian economists are now saying it's not true -- will they get the same attention? More...

The North Carolina-based utility recently signed a deal to dramatically cut energy demand at a cost of 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. So why did it then announce plans to build a dangerous and polluting new nuclear plant that will cost upwards of 12 cents per kilowatt-hour? More...

The U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act -- in essence protecting it -- while agreeing to allow a small utility district in Texas to opt out of the provision. More...

Last week a UN special rapporteur on racism offered recommendations to the United States to address ongoing issues of racial discrimination, including the treatment of Katrina survivors. More...

A coalition of health care groups advocating for public health insurance have launched a 10-day television ad campaign targeting senators in 10 states, including Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina. More...

Pam Spaulding of the popular and much-lauded blog Pam's House Blend was honored this week with an award honoring the best work by women in news and entertainment. More...

The Senate passed a resolution Thursday apologizing for slavery, but with a disclaimer that such an apology could not be used to support reparations claims from descendants of African slaves. More...

Foes of mountaintop removal mining are gathering in North Carolina this weekend for a benefit concert featuring coalfields native Kathy Mattea, with the aim of building a new elementary school for an Appalachian community endangered by destructive mining practices. More...

A short primer on Juneteenth -- the holiday marking the day in 1865 that slaves in Texas were finally told they were free, and still celebrated across the South and country. More...

Today marks Juneteenth, a holiday that began in Texas in 1865 to celebrate the end of slavery in the United States. In honor of the occasion, we share a remarkable letter written by freedman Jourdon Anderson after he received an invitation to return as a laborer to the Tennessee plantation where he was once held as a slave. More...

A new report finds Texas is the deadliest state for construction workers, with one dying every 2.5 days. And on-the-job deaths are a growing problem across the country, with an estimated wait time for workplace inspections in some states of more than 150 years. More...

The Inspector General says the federal corporation released inaccurate information to the public. TVA chafes at the charge -- but a closer look reveals the audit actually understates the effort to downplay the environmental hazards. More...

A new federal report documents the changes the U.S. South has already experienced because of global warming and warns of more dangerous disruption to come if we fail to rein in carbon emissions. Are we doing enough to address the problem? More...

Scholar-activist Aviva Chomsky recently traveled to Kentucky and Colombia as part of a Witness for Peace delegation to understand the coal mining's impact on local communities. In a conversation with independent journalist Hans Bennett, she discusses the challenges facing organizers in those areas, where big corporations are exploiting the marginalized. More...

Health reform advocates and progressive bloggers are furious at conservative-leaning Democrats who oppose Obama's "public option" proposal. But Southern Democrats are surprisingly divided -- and some may turn out to be Obama's best allies. More...

Following protests from human rights and housing advocates, the Biloxi City Council voted unanimously this week to give FEMA trailer residents another six months to find permanent housing. More...

Members of the Embassy of Heaven Church -- a so-called "sovereign citizens" group that does not recognize the legitimacy of the U.S. government -- have wreaked havoc in the South and elsewhere around the country. More...

A legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court to the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall was declared dead Monday. The justices declined to hear an appeal by the County of El Paso, Texas, to an earlier decision by a U.S. federal court judge that allowed the Bush administration to proceed with construction of the controversial wall. More...

Private prisons have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the boom in federal immigrant detention over the past few years. But as stories of inadequate health care for detainees and questionable deaths in custody continue to surface, immigrant rights advocates are demanding better oversight and accountability. More...

The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 44 coal ash disposal sites so hazardous that their failure would imperil the lives of nearby residents -- but it won't tell the public where they are, citing security concerns. What about citizens' right to know? More...

President Barack Obama decided to allow people still living in FEMA trailers to remain there while the federal government helps them find permanent housing, but the city of Biloxi, Miss. plans to kick them out. More...

Despite the fact that the federal stimulus provides over $100 billion nationwide for education over the next two years, many schools, such as Ty'Sheoma Bethea's in Dillon, S.C., won't be seeing much improvement. More...

Novelist and McSweeney's-founder Dave Eggers has written a new nonfiction book detailing the riveting story of a Syrian-American family who lived through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and its aftermath. More...

The situation of prisoners at Guantanamo is shaping the national debate around incarceration, but it is far from America's only prison problem. Calling the U.S. prison system a "national disgrace," U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia has introduced legislation aimed at overhauling the nation's prison system and reducing its huge population. More...

The same week that North Carolina legislators passed a resolution honoring Sen. Jesse Helms, a memorial to pioneering scholar John Hope Franklin reminds us of the darker legacy of "Senator No." More...

As Blackwater faces yet another lawsuit for a civilian killing in Iraq, Jeremy Scahill reports on new allegations that have surfaced about the company's continued presence there using different corporate names. More...

Though they did not find Shuler used his position to get waterfront access for a real-estate development in which he's invested millions of dollars, auditors criticized TVA's handling of the program for creating the appearance of improper influence. More...

THURS 6/11 | Hundreds have gathered at Duke University to remember pioneering historian and scholar John Hope Franklin. More...

As the debate rages over health care reform, a new study by a group of Harvard doctors found that several major health and life-insurance companies in both the United States and overseas have nearly $4.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks. More...

With millions of workers lacking paid sick leave or care-taking time, Linda Meric of the working women's advocacy group 9to5 says federal lawmakers need to act now. More...

JUNE 2009 | A new study has found that exposure to arsenic -- a cancer-causing element emitted in large quantities by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities -- made mice more likely to experience the most severe effects of swine flu. So why are some lawmakers fighting regulations that would better protect Americans from arsenic pollution? More...

The Rockefeller Institute of Government released a report last week calling for legislative change that would authorize a presidential appointee to take charge of the government's response to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina. More...

In a precedent-setting case involving Appalachian mountaintop removal mining giant Massey Energy, a closely divided high court says elected judges must step aside from cases involving big campaign contributors. More...

Facing mounds of hazardous trash in need of disposal and lacking proper incinerators, private contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan burned the stuff in big open pits -- and they're now accused of sickening troops, contractors and civilians. More...

The Great Recession isn't new to New Orleans -- they've been mired in economic crisis since Katrina struck nearly four years ago. The city's fitful and frustrating recovery has crucial lessons about the ingredients needed for revival. More...

Some 42 percent of North Carolinians in the private sector do not have access to paid sick leave. Ajamu Dillahunt reports on the importance of the fight for paid sick days in North Carolina. More...

Emily Dickinson's dictum "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" is wise counsel for writers sidling into the thickets of politics and religion. "The Truth must dazzle gradually/Or every man be blind." Well, Kentucky farmer and poet Wendell Berry would sooner strike us sightless - knock us off our asses like Saul on the road to Damascus - to stop the heedless plundering of the earth. More...

While lawmakers from both parties called Alabama's legislative session this year "peaceful" and "amazingly productive," some observers were more likely to criticize missed opportunities. More...

In his historic speech on relations between the United States and the Muslim world, President Obama asked Palestinians to remember the lessons of the U.S. civil rights struggle and other successful freedom movements around the world and to abandon violence in their quest for dignity and a homeland of their own. More...

Drummond Co. is facing a third lawsuit alleging serious human rights abuses at its South American mining operations. Will Congress keep the widespread anti-union terrorism in mind when it considers a free trade deal with Colombia later this year? More...

In a decision praised by voting rights advocates, the Justice Department ruled against Georgia's voter verification program, calling the citizenship screening system flawed and unfair to minorities. More...

Even though Georgia is at the center of the housing crisis with one in eight mortgages either delinquent or in some stage of foreclosure, its state resources for consumers looking for help are shrinking. More...

Landmark legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions is making its way through Congress. The bill makes some positive changes, says Ted Glick of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network -- but King Coal still comes out on top. More...

The final battle over $700 million of South Carolina's stimulus aid comes to a head Wednesday as the state Supreme Court begins hearing the arguments in the cases filed by two students and the South Carolina Association of School Administrators. More...

As the hurricane season opens, officials on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts are concerned about the record number of foreclosed homes -- which when left unsecured could become sources of dangerous wind-blown debris and damage neighboring homes in already-struggling communities. More...

The Catholic priest and North Carolina native developed a profound and influential philosophy of universal interconnectedness, which rejected the notion that only humans have rights. More...

Details emerging in Sunday's church shooting death of Dr. George Tiller suggest that suspect Scott Roeder has ties to a nationwide domestic terror network that promotes the justifiable homicide of abortion providers. More...

Today marks the first day of hurricane season, and much is being reported on preparations happening along the Gulf Coast to prepare for stormier weather. But Gulf Coast advocates have also been preparing another big push to shore up Congressional support for the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. More...

Federal aid is covering roughly 30-40 percent of state budget shortfalls. The Progressive States Network takes a look at some of the ways states are responding to the funds. More...

In a victory for environmentalists working to halt the destruction of Appalachia, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee resigned his position with Massey Energy of Virginia. He was the target of a letter-writing campaign that charged the association undermined his credibility as a clean-energy advocate. More...