Institute Index
August 29, 2014 -
The total student population in the U.S. is projected to become majority minority this year, but the South hit this milestone six years ago. Demographic changes have been sweeping Southern schools, introducing new racial dynamics in what has traditionally been a black and white story while progress on racial integration slips.
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 15, 2014 -
A federal program to transfer Defense Department gear to local law enforcement has led to police even in small communities looking like an occupying military force. It's now under scrutiny because of shocking scenes of police violence that unfolded this week in Missouri following an officer's deadly shooting of an unarmed black teen -- and it's also caused problems across the South.
August 8, 2014 -
Proponents of voter ID laws say they're needed to prevent fraud, but a study of all reported cases of the kind of fraud they address found just 31 credible incidents over 14 years out of a billion ballots cast. But about 3,000 votes have been rejected for lack of ID in just four states with the nation's strictest voter ID laws, with blacks and the poor most at risk of disenfranchisement.
August 1, 2014 -
Republican governors' and legislatures' refusal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is leading to hospital closures, job losses and even deaths -- especially in rural Southern communities. But some conservative individuals and groups are calling on GOP leaders to reconsider their stance.
July 25, 2014 -
Duke Energy contractors have finished cleaning up as much coal ash as they intend to from the Dan River -- leaving behind about 90 percent of the toxic waste left by the February spill. Meanwhile, state politicians continue to hammer out details of legislation that leaves ratepayers on the hook for addressing the company's coal ash woes.
July 18, 2014 -
The Central American children pouring across the U.S. border are fleeing shocking levels of violence at home -- violence that the U.S. government helped enable. The United Nations believes many of the children merit international protection, but will U.S. politics derail the appropriate humanitarian response?
