kentucky

May 31, 2013 - Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled a plan this week to automatically restore voting rights to nonviolent felons in a state where one in five African-American adults is disenfranchised due to an unusually harsh law. Civil rights advocates praised the move, but some say the governor should go further.

May 10, 2013 - Activists hauled polluted water from Appalachia to Washington, D.C. this week to draw attention to the plight of communities affected by mountaintop removal coal mining. The action comes as legislation was reintroduced in Congress to protect coalfield waterways.

May 8, 2013 - A bill to end North Carolina's renewable energy program was passed out of a Senate committee last week even though it didn't have the votes it needed. What's happening in the state is part of a broader national effort to revamp renewable energy laws.

April 16, 2013 - President Obama's latest budget proposes privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority, which has been criticized as a socialist enterprise, yet Southern Republicans are opposing the plan. What's going on here?

January 18, 2013 - Southern states with weak gun laws are a major source of weapons used to commit crimes in other states -- but some of the region's political leaders say they plan to resist new federal initiatives to curb gun violence.

December 21, 2012 - Dec. 22 marks four years since a coal ash impoundment collapsed at a TVA power plant in Tennessee, inundating a community and two rivers. As EPA drags its feet over issuing federal coal ash rules, politicians backed by industry interests are maneuvering to block the agency's ability to protect people and the environment -- even though their states have been adversely affected by poor regulation.

December 14, 2012 - The economic downturn is pushing more U.S. children into poverty, and it's no longer a problem limited mostly to Southern states.

November 30, 2012 - In the wake of the latest election, the number of state legislatures under one-party control is at a historic high -- and half have partisan supermajorities. What does this mean for the future of politics nationally?

November 7, 2012 - Republicans won control of the Arkansas Senate and House for the first time since Reconstruction, while strengthening control in many other Southern statehouses. The "Solid South" is increasingly looking solid red.

October 5, 2012 - Though the South is the U.S. region with the greatest concentration of income inequality, its representatives in Washington are doing a poor job of bridging the gap.