virginia

August 15, 2019 - Though the National Rifle Association faces numerous investigations into alleged wrongdoing, one of its lobbyists bragged just weeks before the El Paso massacre that 2019 was a "highly successful" year for it in Texas — and that's not the only state where the gun rights group has continued to flex its political muscle.

June 18, 2019 - The man who gunned down his three Muslim neighbors in Chapel Hill in 2015 has pleaded guilty to their murders, but he couldn't be charged under North Carolina's hate crime law because it doesn't cover felonies. That's just one of many weaknesses in those state laws, which advocates are trying to strengthen.

June 12, 2019 - New evidence from the files of a dead North Carolina gerrymandering expert reveals the Trump administration pushed for the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census to benefit the Republican Party. But the question could lead to an undercount, which would diminish the South's electoral power and cheat it of its fair share of federal funds. 

May 24, 2019 - As the movement for criminal justice reform takes center stage ahead of the 2020 elections, governors and legislators in the South are offering reforms to create a more welcoming reentry process after prison and to restore rights stripped from ex-felons — though progress on that front faces backlash in Florida.

April 12, 2019 - North Carolina is now the third state in the South to order utilities to excavate all of their coal ash pits and move the toxic material to lined landfills. Duke Energy wants to charge its customers for the work, but some state lawmakers are trying to prevent that from happening. Meanwhile, the company is challenging the order.

March 14, 2019 - For the amendment banning sex discrimination by the federal and state governments to be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, one more state needs to ratify it. Most of the states that haven't ratified the ERA are in the South, but ratification bills were introduced in seven Southern states this year.

February 1, 2019 - The movement to oust Confederate symbols from public property has made gains in 2019, even while the continuing uproar over the toppled Confederate statue at UNC-Chapel Hill led to this week's forced resignation of Chancellor Carol Folt.