covid-19

April 17, 2020 - Severe weather devastated communities across the South over Easter weekend. Now they're trying to figure out how to recover from a natural disaster in the middle of a pandemic — and how to prepare for future storms.

April 10, 2020 - The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission was created in 2008 to provide economic development assistance to Black Belt states but has never received its full appropriation from Congress — even while its counterpart covering whiter, richer Northern states has. With Black Belt communities being ravaged by the pandemic, it's past time for action.

April 9, 2020 - The decennial U.S. population count is underway and will be used for everything from drawing new congressional districts to deciding where to allocate federal resources — including any potential coronavirus vaccine. But the pandemic is complicating the process and raising concerns about potential undercounts, which would inflict more pain on suffering communities.

April 9, 2020 - The rural South's health care system was struggling even before the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has brought hospital and health clinic closures as well as worker furloughs. 

April 7, 2020 - Southern states are among those with the nation's highest rates of homelessness. Some places in the region are taking targeted action to protect the unhoused, who are particularly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

April 3, 2020 - The South has the nation's highest rate of unbanked people, a population that's always economically vulnerable. It's especially true in the time of coronavirus.

April 2, 2020 - Many states and local communities in the South have ordered restaurants to move to takeout-only to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, and business is down even in places where they're still open. That means tough times for low-wage food servers, especially given the stingy unemployment benefits offered in some states.