Politics

December 5, 2019 - After being blocked for months in the Senate by Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, a new bipartisan agreement moves permanent funding for historically black colleges and universities one step closer to passage.

November 22, 2019 - As the movement to reform the U.S. criminal justice system gains steam, advocates are taking steps to change racist and classist cash bail policies in communities from North Carolina to Kentucky to Texas.

November 21, 2019 - The plaintiffs in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit want a North Carolina court to block judicial elections in districts that were drawn last year by the state legislature. In the racially diverse city of Charlotte, three of the eight districts are more than 70 percent white.

November 20, 2019 - In the U.S. census count set for next year, many states in the South will continue to count prisoners as residents of the district where the prison is located rather than in their home communities — a practice that distorts representative democracy. But efforts are underway in some states to change how prisoners are counted.

November 15, 2019 - Hundreds of teachers and thousands of students left the classroom this week to protest the state Board of Education's refusal to return governance of the district from the state to a locally-elected school board. Critics of the state board say it's motivated by money, not students.

November 8, 2019 - Facing criticism that's hurting stock prices, private prison companies have banded together to create a new industry advocacy group called the Day 1 Alliance. Its spokesperson previously led a Virginia super PAC that targeted career EPA employees who criticized President Trump and NOAA employees who supported progressive Democrats.

November 8, 2019 - Mildred Russell, an 89-year-old African-American woman, wasn't allowed to vote in a special election held earlier this year in Webster County, Georgia. It ended in a tie that her vote would have broken — so officials had to do the election over again this week.