The Raleigh News & Observer takes pride in its power to break stories and shape public opinion. But in the wake of recent campaign scandals, are they using that power responsibly? More...
FACING SOUTH - Online Magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies
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February 2010 Archives
Former New Orleans Police Department Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to obstruct justice, in connection with the Danziger Bridge incident. More...
Anthem Blue Cross of California's widely-criticized plan to hike health insurance rates 39% wasn't an isolated incident: Insurers in Georgia, North Carolina and other states are jacking up premiums up to 50 and 70 percent. Will public outrage give Obama the boost he's been looking for to pass reform? More...
Environmental groups have found 31 new cases of water contamination from coal ash dumps, with dangerous levels of toxic metals leaching into wells and rivers. Why is the White House delaying release of long-promised regulations to prevent more problems? More...
A watchdog group charges the Evangelical Christian school with trying to influence a Virginia House of Delegates election. The controversy comes after officials disbanded the College Democrats, calling its platform "contrary" to Christian doctrine. More...
The Obama administration reached a historic $1.25 billion settlement last week in a lawsuit involving African-American farmers discriminated against by federal loan programs. But will Congress appropriate the money owed? More...
An industry group representing private security firms is gathering to discuss business possibilities in the devastated nation. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is promoting the low-wage garment industry as the path to Haitian recovery. More...
Southern whites have been the Achilles heel for Obama's national approval ratings for months. But does that hold true in a moderate, blue-trending state like North Carolina? Facing South crunches the numbers. More...
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a rescue plan not just for unemployed workers and struggling state governments but also for parts of corporate America. But are direct subsidies to businesses a smart investment? More...
The Alabama senate has passed two measures to help preserve native people's sacred sites. The move comes in the wake of controversies involving two Indian burial mounds in the state. More...
Miami-Dade County has taken historic action to protect workers from exploitation and to level the playing field for honest employers. Similar measures are being considered in other cities including New Orleans. More...
Joseph Andrew Stack's suicide attack on an IRS building in Austin, Texas, this week was a chilling reminder of how alienated some feel from their country and its government -- and the lengths they'll go to show it. More...
This week marked one year since Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to address the nation's ongoing economic crisis. We look at the legislation's achievements and failings by the numbers. More...
President Obama's net approval ratings are positive in every region except the South. But they've been negative among Southern whites almost since he set foot in office, suggesting they weren't going to give him a chance anyway. PLUS: The economy; Millennials; and evolution in Texas. More...
President Obama announced this week that taxpayers would guarantee $8.3 billion in loans for two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. But what he didn't say was that taxpayers would also provide the loans they're guaranteeing. More...
A groundbreaking state process created to investigate prisoners' claims of innocence has ruled that Gregory Taylor did not commit the murder for which he was convicted, joining a growing list of people nationally freed after wrongful convictions. More...
A complaint filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents serious problems including arsenic-laden runoff at a landfill taking the coal ash spilled in the Kingston disaster. The affected community is poor, black and rural, raising environmental justice concerns. More...
Professor Ivor van Heerden lost his job after he refused to be silent about his findings that the devastating flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina was due to improper levee designs. More...
Last year, the Obama administration promised a new future of green jobs that could tackle our nation's twin challenges of mass unemployment and energy pollution. But for those hardest hit by the recession, the promise remains elusive. More...
North Carolina successfully sued the Tennessee Valley Authority to force cuts in air pollution from some of its coal-fired power plants. But TVA is appealing -- and Alabama is on its side. More...
A rookie New Orleans police officer who had been on the force for just a year is under investigation in the shooting of Henry Glover outside an Algiers strip mall four days after Hurricane Katrina. More...
Is the federal government doing enough to ensure its efforts to create green jobs are helping communities with the greatest need? More...
Texas, Georgia and North Carolina each lost hundreds of millions of federal funds due to under-counts in the 2000 Census. As the 2010 Census gets underway, Southern states are again at risk of losing money and political clout. More...
A requirement that ratepayers fork over the money in advance for two new reactors -- the design for which still has not been approved by federal regulators -- sparks legal action. More...
Revelations that it knew about defective gas pedals for years before taking action has damaged the reputation of Toyota, the Japanese auto giant with manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Kentucky, Texas and West Virginia. The scandal shows the limits of voluntary social responsibility policies. More...
The Florida-based firm AshBritt, which was sued for failing to pay its subcontractors for cleanup work after Hurricane Katrina, is now lobbying the Haitian government for a cleanup contract there. More...
The project is the latest threat to sacred Indian sites in the Southeast. More...
The EPA has released plans drawn up by 22 coal-fired power plants to improve the safety of structures like the one that failed at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility in 2008. But some of the plans are vague and all are largely unenforceable. More...
Between the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, it hardly went noticed that New Orleans elected a new mayor this weekend -- an historic event that speaks volumes about the struggles and future of the city. More...
Unemployment has reached crisis levels, especially among African-Americans. Does Washington have the will to launch a public jobs program to put our country back to work? More...
To date, tea party activists had steered clear of divisive social issues like immigration. But at the Tea Party Convention in Tennessee this weekend, activists galvanized around opposition to immigration reform. More...
Over 600 activists and leading conservatives gathered this weekend at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Is the tea party cause for real -- and can it succeed in the long march for political power? More...
President Obama has proposed tripling the budget for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors, to $54 billion. Why shouldn't that money go to more sustainable solutions? More...
Given that environmental advocates have already documented groundwater contamination from all of the ponds, some are asking whether the move is too little, too late. More...
A new poll finds that large numbers of Republicans believe Obama is a racist, socialist and not a U.S. citizen -- and GOP voters in the South are especially receptive to the conservative movement's most far-right and paranoid views. More...
Owners of a landfill that's been taking toxic coal ash spilled in the December 2008 Kingston disaster claim the operators have withheld money paid by TVA, leaving a lawsuit to halt the dumping up in the air. More...
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling opening the floodgates to corporate money in elections, corporations should be subject to intense scrutiny about their agenda and weapons of persuasion. More...
When the president calls for a "new generation" of nuclear power plants, what exactly does he mean? And is the latest technology really all it's cracked up to be? More...
The Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. was a birthplace of the sit-in movement that helped topple Jim Crow segregation. Today, on the 50th anniversary of the first sit-in there, it opens as a civil rights museum. More...
