December 15, 2021 -
A hurricane-harried African American town lives with the specter of future disaster.
December 10, 2021 -
In its first lawsuit to come out of the latest round of redistricting, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken aim at Texas, arguing that the GOP legislature's new election district maps violate the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against voters by race or color. We look at some of the numbers cited in the lawsuit, which faces an uphill fight in the new legal landscape created by the Supreme Court's 2013 decision gutting the landmark civil rights-era law.
December 6, 2021 -
Prisons inflate the political representation of the communities that host them — without any say from prisoners themselves.
December 3, 2021 -
If the U.S. Supreme Court rolls back Roe v. Wade in deciding the Mississippi case it heard this week, the only states in the South where abortion would remain broadly accessible are Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Reproductive rights advocates there are girding for political battle to protect abortion access.
December 2, 2021 -
Voting rights groups have filed multiple lawsuits against North Carolina lawmakers over their new legislative and congressional district maps, which advantage the GOP. The state Supreme Court could have the final say on the cases, as well as another lawsuit challenging a gerrymandered legislature's authority. But before the court weighs in, it must deal with conflicts of interest.
December 1, 2021 -
Born of the New Deal's anti-poverty initiatives, rural electric cooperatives today serve 42 million Americans, most in the South, Midwest, and Great Plains. They still depend heavily on coal, but the $1.8 trillion spending bill passed by the House has a provision giving billions of dollars to speed their transition to renewables. Will it survive corporate Democrats' obstructionism in the Senate?
December 1, 2021 -
Voting rights activists are growing impatient as Senate Republicans' use of the filibuster continues to obstruct popular pro-democracy legislation. They warn that the window for meaningful legislative action is closing as international observers sound the alarm about rising U.S. authoritarianism.
