Economy

April 3, 2020 - The South has the nation's highest rate of unbanked people, a population that's always economically vulnerable. It's especially true in the time of coronavirus.

April 2, 2020 - Many states and local communities in the South have ordered restaurants to move to takeout-only to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, and business is down even in places where they're still open. That means tough times for low-wage food servers, especially given the stingy unemployment benefits offered in some states.

March 27, 2020 - With the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic forcing Americans to work and study from home, access to high-speed internet is critical — but in the South far fewer people have access than providers report, and many states have erected barriers to community networks.

March 19, 2020 - The global coronavirus pandemic lays bare the existing problems in health care systems that were already stretched to the breaking point.

February 20, 2020 - Raising Wages NC held a people's hearing about the difficulty of living under North Carolina's $7.25 hourly minimum wage. Workers shared their stories of hardship and called on elected officials and candidates for state office to support a wage hike. 

February 14, 2020 - Now under Democratic control, Virginia's legislature is rushing to pass progressive laws. But the recent failure to repeal a state law that undermines organized labor shows what such policies are up against in Southern states. Meanwhile, Tennessee's GOP-controlled legislature wants to enshrine anti-unionism in the state constitution.

January 28, 2020 - With Southern states' monopoly electric utilities clinging to a business model that's worsening the climate crisis, polluting the environment, and costing consumers dearly, there's growing interest in opening markets to competition. While a ballot initiative to end Florida's electricity monopoly was recently rejected by the state Supreme Court, there are efforts underway to end Virginia's monopoly system and to study the question in the Carolinas.