Haley Barbour

April 30, 2015 - Five years after the BP disaster, a group of governors led by North Carolina's Pat McCrory is pushing for drilling in the Atlantic. The group has close ties to a secret-money nonprofit and energy lobbyists, a relationship that raises questions about transparency, ethics and the blurring of public and private interests.

January 15, 2015 - The Bible instructs us to "love the stranger," but migrants probably won't be feeling much love this year in Mississippi. Gov. Phil Bryant is up for re-election, and he has built his political career in part on demonizing undocumented migrant workers.

July 24, 2014 - State Senator Chris McDaniel's still-contested narrow loss to incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi's Republican runoff last month exposed a divide with the Republican Party possibly as wide as the divide that ultimately split the one-party Democratic South in the 1890s between the "Bourbon" establishment and the rebellious "Populists."

July 6, 2012 - Mississippi's revised workers' compensation law went into effect this month, putting the burden on workers to prove injuries are job-related. The Republican governor says it shows corporations that the state is the "most job-friendly environment in America."

January 13, 2012 - At the request of the state's attorney general, a judge in Mississippi this week blocked outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour's release of 21 prisoners over concerns that proper public notice was not given.

November 28, 2011 - With this month's Republican takeover of the Mississippi House, the GOP now controls the state's legislature and governorship. Expect "personhood" by statute, an Alabama-like immigration bill, drug-testing for welfare recipients and cuts to social spending.

October 27, 2011 - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour recently called for ending limits on campaign contributions -- part of a broader effort to boost the political power of big money at the expense of ordinary people.