Culture

August 22, 2006 - Hope you got to see parts one and two of Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts on HBO last night. Parts three and four will air tonight at 9 PM. The entire four-part documentary will air again on Tuesday, Aug. 29 at 8 PM.

July 25, 2006 - Several states around the South are offering sales tax holidays for back-to-school purchases this year, including four for the first time:

July 22, 2006 - Taking a cue from the ugly national debate over immigrant, a little-noticed story is the spread of local and state ordinances aimed at immigrants. The Daytona Beach News-Journal sums up the trend in an editorial today:

June 30, 2006 - For a long moment, the Duke Lacrosse case was the national story, bursting from the squalid swamps of Nancy Grace sensationalism to dominate news cycles everywhere. Clearly, the story hit a nerve.

June 26, 2006 - One of the few bright spots in the Defense Authorization Bill passed by the Senate last week (SB 2766) was an amendment including protections for military families from predatory lending abuses. Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FLA) led the way in pushing for the amendment, which was included in the bill that passed the full Senate late Thursday.

May 31, 2006 - Well this should shake up Nashville a bit.

May 23, 2006 - As a nod to Chris, the South's Biggest Idol Fan, there are a couple of interesting sideshows to tonight's part one of the big two-part finale when the world finds out whether Hollywood Pretty and Polished trumps Alabama Grits and Soul, or if voter turnout will exceed turnout in the last presidential election.

May 12, 2006 - Every two to three weeks, the Institute puts out a newsletter -- also called "Facing South" -- that offers a unique roundup of key news and trends from the South, special investigative reports, and interesting commentary.

May 5, 2006 - Our nesting pair of bluebirds has been real busy lately, so I thought maybe I should check the box when they weren't around. We have baby bluebirds!

May 5, 2006 - Readers of Facing South know that we are close followers of