privatization

March 12, 2014 - The Obama administration continues its push to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity for 9 million people in seven Southeastern states without taxpayer subsidy and at prices below the national average.

December 17, 2013 - The Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank founded and bankrolled by N.C. budget director Art Pope, sought funding to portray the Medicaid program as "failed" and to urge funding cuts, according to leaked documents obtained by The Guardian. The effort comes as the McCrory administration wants to privatize management of the public health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

September 20, 2013 - As U.S. incarceration rates fall, private prison companies are taking steps to guarantee profits with contracts requiring states to either meet prison occupancy quotas or pay for empty beds. Louisiana and Virginia are among the states locked into the highest occupancy guarantee requirements.

April 16, 2013 - President Obama's latest budget proposes privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority, which has been criticized as a socialist enterprise, yet Southern Republicans are opposing the plan. What's going on here?

April 10, 2013 - N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory wants to privatize the Department of Commerce and the state's Medicaid program, but the experiences of other states like Louisiana that have carried out similar plans point to serious problems.

March 13, 2013 - A national day of action on March 24 will call on Congress to keep Saturday mail delivery, but postal worker unions have other demands to halt the push toward USPS privatization.

March 5, 2013 - Declining coal production is hurting Appalachia's economy, which was already in rough shape. Scholars are looking at Wales, which lost its coal economy in the 1980s, for examples for how Appalachia might address its economic future.