January 9, 2012 - The amount of toxic coal ash that's being dumped at power plants in the region and nationwide is growing -- at the same time some members of Congress are trying to block strict regulation of such disposal.

January 6, 2012 - The Truth and Hope Tour will focus attention on poverty in the Tar Heel State.

January 5, 2012 - The Alabama Department of Environmental Management faces charges of race discrimination for permitting a landfill in an African-American community to take the toxic waste spilled in the 2008 Kingston coal ash disaster.

January 5, 2012 - Tea Party activists and conservatives are putting their hopes in the South Carolina primary to push the 2012 presidential race to the right. But the state may also be a symbol of the Tea Party's waning power.

January 4, 2012 - A new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service documents the growing gap between rich and poor -- and how U.S. tax policy is deepening the divide.

January 3, 2012 - While BP is running ads touting its Gulf cleanup, the major media and politicians are ignoring the voices of residents who have a different story to tell. Will this be the year they're finally heard?

January 2, 2012 - As 2012 dawns, the protest that began in September against the "captains of finance" who nearly destroyed the nation's economy promises to shape the political dialogue in a crucial election year and steal some of the thunder from the corporate-sponsored Tea Party movement.

December 31, 2011 - In our final look at Facing South's top stories of 2011, a look at how we helped push North Carolina's secretive but influential conservative benefactor Art Pope into the national spotlight -- offering not only a revealing look at Pope's influence in N.C. but the role of Big Money influence in today's political landscape.

December 28, 2011 - Though the oil stopped gushing from the site of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster last year, Gulf Coast residents are facing an ongoing environmental health crisis from exposure to toxins in the crude and the dispersants used to break up the slick -- one of Facing South's top stories of 2011.

December 27, 2011 - On September 21, 2011, Troy Davis was executed in Georgia by lethal injection, capping a 20-year legal battle. In our countdown of Facing South's top stories of 2011, we look at the case that galvanized a national movement and forced questions about race, the death penalty and criminal justice into the national debate.