September 20, 2013 -
As U.S. incarceration rates fall, private prison companies are taking steps to guarantee profits with contracts requiring states to either meet prison occupancy quotas or pay for empty beds. Louisiana and Virginia are among the states locked into the highest occupancy guarantee requirements.
September 20, 2013 -
A private political nonprofit that does not have to publicly disclose its donors is running TV ads across North Carolina touting the governor's agenda amid widespread criticism and slipping poll numbers.
September 20, 2013 -
The Republican governor is traveling to states led by Democrats in an effort to lure companies to Texas -- an effort financed largely by corporations that risk alienating political allies and residents in the targeted states.
September 19, 2013 -
The Texas chapter of the NAACP and the state's Mexican American Legislative Caucus are the latest groups to challenge the state's voter photo ID law as racially discriminatory. The Texas fight is likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, where other states like Mississippi and North Carolina that recently passed similar laws will be watching closely.
September 18, 2013 -
Attorneys with UNC's Center for Civil Rights kept seeing the same injustices -- environmental, educational, economic -- crop up in minority communities where they work across the state. They decided to take a systematic look at the problem and have produced a report and interactive map that illuminate the social and economic disparities created and perpetuated by segregation.
September 17, 2013 -
The AFL-CIO is undertaking a new strategy that involves building closer ties with non-labor allies, from the NAACP to the Sierra Club. But given the extreme attacks workers are suffering, will that be enough to meet the challenges of the day?
September 16, 2013 -
A new report documents an overall rise in homicides in states that have passed versions of the controversial self-defense law. The increase in "justifiable" homicides has been especially dramatic in some Southern states, and African Americans have borne the brunt of the increase in deadly violence.
