Politics

June 1, 2021 - It was 32 years ago that Southern Exposure — the print forerunner to Facing South — set out to document conditions in the region's fast-growing poultry industry. Many of the problems it reported on continue today. And as our recent reporting has shown, the pandemic created new challenges for the industry's changing workforce while also presenting opportunities for organizing in an industry that's long resisted unionization.

May 27, 2021 - Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed into law a bill that would bar Georgia's many licensing boards from denying credentials to people on probation or parole for many crimes. That's an important step toward fair chance licensing, says DJ Sims, a reentry organizer in Georgia — but additional reforms are needed to ensure that people who've served their time are able to make a living.  

May 20, 2021 - Following an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by far-right extremists, Republican lawmakers have introduced measures in Southern states and elsewhere across the country that could open the door to partisan election interference and vote manipulation.

May 13, 2021 - Measures under consideration in states including several in the South are being promoted as protecting the privacy of people who donate to nonprofits. But because the bills don't distinguish between charitable nonprofits and those that engage in partisan politics, they could make it harder to know who's trying to influence elections.

May 7, 2021 - While Southern states didn't grow as fast as many expected, more than half of U.S. population gains in the 2020 census were in the South, boosting the region's clout.

April 29, 2021 - Three Democratic members of the evenly divided U.S. Senate have so far refused to sign on to the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, legislation endorsed by President Biden that would provide stronger protections for workers trying to form a union. Among the naysayers is Mark Warner of Virginia, the Senate's second-richest member and a venture capitalist with a nine-figure estimated net worth.

April 28, 2021 - Republican-controlled legislatures are restructuring the judicial branches in three Southern states in ways that could benefit the GOP and threaten judicial diversity. By contrast, legislatures in several other states in the region could expand appellate courts in ways that foster greater diversity on the bench.