May 27, 2015 -
A Facing South/Institute for Southern Studies analysis finds that disclosure of more than $7 million spent in North Carolina's 2014 state-level elections was slowed due to inconsistencies in state reporting rules — including details about more than $1.6 million that were hidden from the public until after the elections had passed.
May 22, 2015 -
The disaster near Santa Barbara, the site of a 1969 oil spill that sparked the modern environmental movement, comes amid a push to open the Atlantic and Eastern Gulf to oil and gas drilling. It underscores the risk presented by coastal energy development coupled with weak regulation.
May 22, 2015 -
Immigrant and refugee rights advocates are making headway in their efforts to end the Obama administration's punitive family detention policy even as detention centers, like the privately-managed and largest center in Dilley, Texas, are set to expand.
May 21, 2015 -
Nine states, four of them in the South, hold judicial elections but don't ban judges from seeking campaign cash from people that could appear before them. Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Florida case upholding such bans, judicial watchdogs are working to change the law in these outlier states.
May 21, 2015 -
The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has launched a "Southern Voices" oral history project to capture the stories of Southern leaders working for social and economic justice. The latest installment focuses on organizing for immigration reform.
May 20, 2015 -
Last week Florida became the latest among 28 states that now or will soon offer statewide online voter registration. Evidence shows such systems are less prone to fraud, more cost-effective and popular among voters and elections officials alike.
May 18, 2015 -
The Republicans running Mississippi have the prison system in shambles, workers' compensation gutted, education on a precipice — and journalist Joe Atkins looking back to populist Louisiana Gov. "Uncle" Earl Long for solace.
