Institute Index

May 10, 2013 - The automatic federal budget cuts known as the sequester will have a severe effect on programs serving women in general and mothers in particular -- especially those living in the South. With Mother's Day approaching, we take a by-the-numbers look.

May 1, 2013 - The Arkansas-based retail giant aims to become a renewable-energy giant. But can Wal-Mart's business model ever really be considered sustainable?

April 26, 2013 - North Carolina's innovative public financing program for judicial races has dramatically reduced the amount of special-interest money flowing into judges' campaigns and served as a model for other states, but it's now under threat from conservative politicians.

April 19, 2013 - Saturday, April 20, marks the third anniversary of the deadly BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We take a by-the-numbers look at the still-unfolding disaster today.

April 12, 2013 - The U.S. has one of the most regressive tax systems of the developed nations, and now some states including Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina are considering plans to make their own tax systems even more regressive.

April 5, 2013 - With a new study showing that weak gun laws lead to higher levels of gun violence, what does that mean for the South, which has some of the nation's loosest gun regulations?

March 27, 2013 - Should the Supreme Court strike down bans on same-sex marriage, it would bring big changes across the South, where all states limit marriage rights to heterosexual couples -- and it wouldn't be the first time it took a high court ruling to change the region's marriage laws.