August 28, 2014 -
Last week a North Carolina judge minced no words in his ruling that a law giving taxpayer-funded vouchers to low-income families that want to send their children to private schools was a violation of the state constitution and the public good. Supporters of the program have asked the state Supreme Court to take emergency action to release the money anyway.
August 27, 2014 -
Terminated without due process in the chaos that reigned after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' unionized public schoolteachers have been fighting back in court -- and winning. After victories in district and appeals courts, they head to the Louisiana Supreme Court next week. Meanwhile, teachers in the charter schools that now control the city's public education system are beginning to unionize.
August 25, 2014 -
Following the $16 billion Justice Department settlement with North Carolina-based Bank of America for financial crimes, Dirt Diggers Digest looks at prosecution of corporate crime of another sort -- and finds less-than-vigorous prosecution for environmental offense.
August 22, 2014 -
North Carolina has passed the nation's first state law regulating coal ash, but it's being met with protests for not doing enough to protect public health and the environment -- and for placing oversight in the hands of political appointees in a state where Duke Energy is a major campaign financier.
August 22, 2014 -
This week and next, people in 12 states are taking part in a "Moral Week of Action." The event marks the first time the Moral Monday demonstrations that began in North Carolina 16 months ago have been coordinated across multiple states.
August 22, 2014 -
While anti-immigrant sentiment has flared up in the South in response to the flood of Central American children seeking refuge in the United States, some Southern leaders have set a different tone by welcoming children from the border to their communities.
August 21, 2014 -
This week marks 50 years since Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delivered historic, nationally televised testimony from the Democratic National Convention about voting rights suppression and racist law enforcement violence -- themes that are once again making headlines across America.
