Makaelah is the 2022 Julian Bond Fellow. She previously worked as a reporter for the Watauga Democrat and interned as an editorial assistant for the nonprofit advocacy group Appalachian Voices.
December 2, 2022 -
Mega-donors have spent millions of dollars supporting election deniers for federal and state offices in the South, while Republican-controlled states have launched law enforcement units aimed at fueling the deniers' narrative. But all that spending so far hasn't translated into big wins for deniers in key positions.
October 27, 2022 -
A new report from the Sustainable Investments Institute found that most Fortune 250 companies' spending on politics over the last two election cycles benefited candidates, committees, and parties that favor restricting abortion rights. It also found that the companies spent the most in the South, where 10 states now ban abortion.
September 30, 2022 -
Wood pellet giant Enviva wants to expand production at its plant in poor, rural, majority-Black Hertford County, North Carolina. It's facing a fight from a coalition of local residents and Southern forest advocates, who worry about the environmental health and climate impacts.
September 16, 2022 -
On the heels of a 2020 legal settlement with the Georgia city of LaGrange, human rights and immigrant advocates continue their fight against local utility policies in communities across the South that deny service to people who lack Social Security numbers.
August 11, 2022 -
As climate change-fueled heat waves become more frequent and intense, many incarcerated people endure dangerous triple-digit temperatures for long periods. Efforts are underway in some states to bring relief from the heat — and to challenge the underlying constitutional provisions that allow prisoners to be treated as subhuman.
July 21, 2022 -
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) pushed for the new state budget to allocate millions of dollars to close hog farms, which are concentrated in environmental justice communities in the state's increasingly flood-prone east. But the Republican-controlled state legislature, where the industry is a powerful force, passed a budget without the funds — and Cooper signed it.
June 23, 2022 -
An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Freeport, Texas, in early June sparked a fire that emitted toxic air pollution. The national conversation about the incident quickly pivoted to global energy economics, but residents of fence-line communities worry about what the rapidly expanding industry means for their safety.
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