Politics

April 17, 2015 - The Welcoming America movement, which has its roots in the South, is being hailed by a White House task force as a model approach for helping communities be more proactive in addressing immigration.

April 10, 2015 - A factor behind the backlash against recent legislative proposals to allow religion-based discrimination against gay people may be the declining clout of white evangelicals -- especially in the South.

March 26, 2015 - This week marked the fifth anniversary of President Obama signing into law the Affordable Care Act, and a "People's Grand Jury" in North Carolina handed down a symbolic indictment of the state's Republican leaders for refusing to expand Medicaid to cover more uninsured low-income people as the law allows.

March 20, 2015 - Passed after the infamous "Bloody Sunday" attack on civil rights protesters in Alabama in 1965, the Voting Rights Act successfully blocked hundreds of potentially discriminatory election changes -- until the Supreme Court struck down a key provision in 2013. There's an effort underway in Congress to fix the hobbled law, but what are its chances of passing?

March 20, 2015 - The Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities' right to vote, also ensures that limited English proficient voters can fully participate in elections. Enforcing those measures will be critical as the South's language minority population grows.

March 20, 2015 - Fifty years after the Voting Rights Act was introduced in Congress with bipartisan support, House lawmakers are trying to restore a key part of the law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Just one Southern Republican is on board so far: Rep. Carlos Curbelo of South Florida.

March 13, 2015 - After a protracted political fight over immigration policy, Congress recently passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The final bill doesn't repeal the president's recent deportation relief programs, but it appropriates billions of dollars for draconian immigration enforcement.