November 18, 2019 -
The Trump administration is taking comments on proposals to ease coal ash regulations that the EPA adopted after the catastrophic 2008 spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in East Tennessee. Critics say the proposed rules would take a toll on public health by allowing more pollution, and on the public purse by letting utilities shift costs.
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.
November 7, 2019 -
As the 2020 election approaches, Southern states are pursuing purges of voting rolls that can disrupt the electoral process — but voting rights advocates are pushing back.
November 6, 2019 -
In Texas, which has long debated changes to its system of partisan judicial elections, Republican leaders began pushing an appointment system just a few months after last year's Democratic sweep in Houston's judicial elections. One proposed bill would put an end to elected judges in urban counties.
November 6, 2019 -
Four decades have passed since police in Greensboro, North Carolina, stood aside while Klansmen and Nazis gunned down marchers at an anti-Klan protest organized by the Communist Workers' Party. Survivors of the massacre, their families, and the broader community are still asking for an official apology that acknowledges the police department's role.
