Institute Index

December 4, 2015 - This week the N.C. NAACP, voting rights advocates and faith leaders kicked off an 80-day mass voter engagement campaign in the run-up to the March primary — a nonpartisan effort to resist recent efforts by state leaders to make voting harder.

November 25, 2015 - Outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) signed an executive order this week to automatically restore voting rights to certain felons. The state is among several in the South with harsh felony disenfranchisement laws that disproportionately deprive African-American citizens of access to the ballot.

November 20, 2015 - Dirty-energy interests including Duke Energy and Koch Industries' owners are spending aggressively to kill policies that aim to speed the transition to a more environmentally sustainable energy future in states including North Carolina and Florida.

November 13, 2015 - President Obama rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline last week, citing climate concerns. But Canadian tar sands oil is already flowing to refineries in the South, putting vulnerable communities at even greater risk for pollution-related health problems.

November 6, 2015 - A nationwide strike of fast-food workers is planned in hundreds of U.S. cities on Nov. 10, along with a protest at that night's Republican presidential debate. Low-wage workers are demanding a $15 hourly minimum wage and union organizing rights, and they're putting politicians on notice.

October 30, 2015 - A shocking incident of police brutality that occurred this week in a classroom in Columbia, South Carolina has raised concerns about the treatment of female African-American students in public schools — a problem that goes far beyond this one case.

October 21, 2015 - Since Republicans took control of the Senate in January, they have delayed and obstructed highly qualified judicial nominees at every step of the confirmation process, leading to scores of vacancies on the bench and dozens of judicial emergencies.