June 21, 2006 -
        
  
        As loyal readers of Facing South know, the Institute has long supported the creation of an independent oversight body to watchdog military contracts, modeled on the highly successful Truman Commission set up during World War II.For the last two years, Congress has had before it bi-partisan legislation to set up such an oversite committee to bring some basic level of accountability to the billions of dollars being shoveled to Bechtel, Halliburton and other war contractors. Each time it has voted it down.
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
          
              
            
            
            
        June 20, 2006 -
        
  
        Over the last two years, one of the issues conservatives have pushed the hardest at the state level (and Democrats have gone along) is "tort reform" -- rolling back the legal penalties and options avai
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
          
              
            
            
            
        June 20, 2006 -
        
  
        Congressional Democrats are refusing to give up on the fight to increase the federal minimum wage, the Wall Street Journal (sub only) reports today:
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
          
              
            
            
            
        June 19, 2006 -
        
  
        South Carolina governor Mark Sanford (R) has signed into a law a bill that allows students to receive credit for bible school. As The State reports,
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
          
              
            
            
            
        June 19, 2006 -
        
  
        The Institute was out in force at the Southeast Social Forum held here in Durham, NC this weekend. The gathering is a run-up to the U.S.
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
        
          
              
            
            
            
        June 16, 2006 -
        
  
        Two radio stations (both in California) covered the Institute's Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch project this week:	
  
      
     
   
  
  
    
          
        
        
          
              
            
            
            
        June 16, 2006 -
        
  
        I've got nothing new for today. Instead, check this out. And this.