state legislatures
February 27, 2018 -
While the NRA's contributions to Congress members have been in the spotlight since the Florida school massacre, the group also spends big at the state level — and it's not the only pro-gun group doing so. But the gun lobby doesn't always get what it wants, and pro-gun control interests have dramatically stepped up spending in recent years.
December 1, 2017 -
Amid intensifying wealth inequality and extreme poverty, Bishop William Barber of North Carolina's Moral Movement and other clergy and organizers will kick off a nationwide effort on Dec. 4 to carry on the work of the first Poor People's Campaign, launched on the same date 50 years earlier by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
November 17, 2017 -
Democrats, liberal-leaning independents and a growing number of progressives lead two-thirds of the South's 30 largest cities, but their agenda is under attack from the region's conservative legislatures through preemption and other efforts to limit local control.
September 4, 2017 -
As wages stagnate nationally, more Southern states than ever before are embracing anti-union laws and laws to prevent local governments from raising pay and requiring family sick leave.
July 14, 2017 -
A ballot initiative campaign in Florida and a lawsuit against Louisiana seek to restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies after they're released from prison. The efforts are parts of a broader movement to overturn felony disenfranchisement laws rooted in white-supremacist politics.
June 13, 2017 -
Measures for Justice, a nonprofit that gauges the performance of criminal justice systems at the county level, has released data for six states including Florida and North Carolina. The effort shows how criminal justice is being carried out locally and where change is needed.
March 24, 2017 -
Though death sentences and executions have decreased nationally in recent years, the South continues to execute people at a disproportionate rate — but the movement to end the death penalty is picking up momentum there.
