Health and Public Safety
Whether it's the famous oil disaster in the gulf that happened in 2010, the implications of mountaintop removal, or congressional moves against reproductive healthcare, politicians continue to argue while many Southerners suffer and are put needlessly in danger. Health and safety continues to remain a hot button issue that hits entirely too close to home for a lot of Southerners.
Life After BP
|
January 10, 2012
When the BP Deepwater Horizon rig blew up off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010, it triggered what would turn out to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history, with almost 200...
INSTITUTE INDEX: Sequestering our mothers
|
May 10, 2013
Rank of low-income mothers, particularly women of color, among those expected to be hit hardest by automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester that took effect in March...
Carrying water for an end to mountaintop removal
|
May 10, 2013
Residents of Appalachia brought over 100 gallons of polluted drinking water to the Washington, D.C. offices of the Environmental Protection Agency this week to call attention to...
UN human rights group calls for investigation of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia
|
May 2, 2013
After visiting West Virginia communities affected by mountaintop removal coal mining, the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights is calling for an investigation...
Death in Bangladesh and Texas: Will bottom-feeder industries and their corporate customers ever put people over profits?
|
April 30, 2013
By Joe Atkins, Labor South
How many tragedies will it take before the bottom-feeders of the global economy stop their relentless, immoral search for the world's...
What went wrong in West, Texas - and where were the regulators?
|
April 26, 2013
By Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica
A week after a blast at a Texas fertilizer plant killed at least 15 people and hurt more than 200, authorities still don't know exactly why the...
A turning point for mountaintop removal?
|
April 24, 2013
There were two important developments this week on mountaintop removal mining that represent setbacks to the Appalachian coal industry and a boost to groups fighting the...
Three years after the BP disaster, an urgent call for feds to address health effects
|
April 23, 2013
Gulf Coast advocates representing environmental, fishing, faith and other groups throughout the region have written a letter to a host of federal agencies documenting ongoing...
INSTITUTE INDEX: Three years into the BP disaster
|
April 19, 2013
In the three years since BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and spilled 200 million gallons of oil, number of bills enacted by...
BP head defends dispersant use as Gulf Coast communities speak out at shareholder meeting
|
April 18, 2013
By Karen Savage, Bridge the Gulf
Last week, three delegates from the Gulf Coast attended BP's Annual General Meeting in London and spoke about ongoing impacts of company's...
Drowning in industry in Houston's East End
|
April 11, 2013
By Ada McMahon, Bridge the Gulf
If you want to get a sense of what the Keystone XL pipeline would do to Gulf Coast communities (and which communities will bear the brunt of...
INSTITUTE INDEX: The South under the gun
|
April 5, 2013
Percent by which the rate of gun violence in states with the weakest gun laws exceeds that of states with the strongest gun laws, according to a new report from the Center for...
Exxon Mobil hit with $1.7M pipeline safety fine days before Arkansas oil spill
|
April 1, 2013
Last Friday afternoon, residents of the central Arkansas community of Mayflower looked on in horror as thousands of barrels of crude oil bubbled up in their yards and poured down...
South's rivers and streams in poor condition, EPA finds
|
March 27, 2013
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the results of its first comprehensive look at the health of rivers and streams nationwide, and it finds that the South's...
Union health plans will suffer under Obamacare
|
March 21, 2013
By James McGee, Labor Notes
"From each according to his ability, and to each according to his need": does this sound like a model for health care reform?
At a January...
Climate change is drowning out 'jobs vs. environment' debate
|
February 15, 2013
By Jenny Brown, Labor Notes
The old argument that unions must choose between jobs and the environment is losing its grip, as climate change becomes more evident and more urgent....
Texas construction workers: 40 hours a week, living in poverty
|
January 28, 2013
By Equal Voice News
Texas is one of the largest and most important construction markets in the country. It's driving the industry at a time when much of the country is still...
INSTITUTE INDEX: How Southern states' weak gun laws jeopardize the nation
|
January 18, 2013
Number of gun-related murders that take place on the average day in the United States: 30
Of the 10 states with the highest gun death rates, number in the South: 41
Of the 10...
INSTITUTE INDEX: Confronting a deepening climate crisis
|
January 11, 2013
Rank of 2012 among the warmest years on record for the contiguous United States: 1
Degrees by which the average 2012 temperature for the lower 48 states exceeded the 20th century...
Home builders lobby weakens drywall legislation
|
January 8, 2013
By Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica
Last week, federal lawmakers trumpeted the passage of the Drywall Safety Act of 2012 as a bipartisan victory for thousands of homeowners harmed by...
VOICES: Medicaid misinformation multiplies
|
January 3, 2013
By Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch
One of the biggest decisions facing the new General Assembly and Governor Pat McCrory this year is whether or not North Carolina will expand...
INSTITUTE INDEX: The big money behind Big Gun
|
December 21, 2012
Amount the National Rifle Association, the leading U.S. gun-rights lobbying group, spent on the 2012 election: $18.6 million
Factor by which that exceeded spending by the leading...
Four years after Tennessee tragedy, politicians are blocking federal oversight of coal ash
|
December 21, 2012
This Saturday, Dec. 22 marks four years since a massive coal ash impoundment collapsed at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee, sending...
Private equity firm selling NC maker of assault rifle used in Sandy Hook massacre
|
December 18, 2012
The military-style assault weapon used to kill most of the victims in last week's Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Connecticut was a Bushmaster XM-15 .223 caliber...
BP engulfed in lawsuit over 40-day Texas flare
|
December 7, 2012
By Kristen Lombardi, Center for Public Integrity
By now images of the April 2010 Gulf oil spill are indelible: The rig engulfed in smoke, oil gushing into the ocean, beaches...
