July 23, 2021 -
Taking a cue from controversial efforts in other states like Arizona and Georgia, North Carolina's far-right House Freedom Caucus — repeating the Big Lie about "rigged elections" — wants to be allowed to open up the state's voting machines and peer inside, but state elections officials say that presents an unacceptable security risk. We look at who's funding the caucus leaders' campaigns.
July 23, 2021 -
In 1982, a rural, Black North Carolina community suffered damages from a timber company's careless aerial application of toxic pesticides. The fight that ensued with state authorities led to local resident Billie Lee Rogers becoming a lifelong advocate for pesticide safety and environmental justice. Rogers passed away in June, and we share pesticide safety advocate Allen Spalt's remarks about her life and work delivered at her memorial service.
July 22, 2021 -
A new drama inspired by a true story, now streaming on NBC's Peacock, takes a disturbing look at the life of an incompetent Texas neurosurgeon and the patients he maimed and killed. It's an indictment of a rigged legal system that fails to protect the most vulnerable.
July 21, 2021 -
As conservative lawmakers across the South further limit access to abortion, leaders of reproductive justice organizations in Texas that help people in marginalized communities end unwanted pregnancies fear for the future of their groups — and the well-being of those they serve — under a new anti-abortion law with a litigious agenda.
July 21, 2021 -
A grassroots movement in the Asheville, North Carolina, area is protesting a package of what our first-of-its-kind tally puts at nearly $100 million in local subsidies and handouts to defense contractor and Raytheon division Pratt & Whitney — and calling instead for investment in renewable energy.
July 20, 2021 -
Nguyen, the co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, helped craft Virginia's Voting Rights Act, the first such state law in the South and the nation's most far-reaching one. She talked with Facing South about the historical significance of the law, the need for federal voting rights legislation, and her hopes for the future of voting rights.
July 16, 2021 -
Long before journalist Hannah-Jones' tenure fight with the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, the influential conservative policy network built and funded by millionaire businessman and GOP power broker Art Pope had turned its attention to her reporting on racism with attacks and distortions reminiscent of its dishonest treatment of climate science. Pope denied direct involvement in the tenure controversy, but his organizations' messaging carries weight in a UNC system where he's a major donor and serves on the powerful Board of Governors thanks to the Republican legislature he helped elect.
