Economy

July 22, 2014 - A new report looks at the well-being of children by state and finds that those living in Appalachia and the South are facing especially difficult conditions, including growing poverty and economic inequality. It calls for smart investments to ensure all children have the chance to live up to their full potential.

July 15, 2014 - Eighty workers and activists gathered at Charleston's Avery Research Center on July 8 to celebrate recent union victories in South Carolina and to discuss their plans to "Organize the South." Thelma Frasier, who has helped lead the campaign to demand a $15 an hour minimum wage and a union for fast food workers, was among the featured panelists and reports on the event.

July 8, 2014 - A new Census Bureau report finds a dramatic surge in the past decade in the number of Americans living in communities with concentrated poverty, with the greatest increase in North Carolina. Other states that experienced big jumps include Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina.

June 20, 2014 - Income inequality in the U.S. began growing dramatically around the time unionization rates began plummeting. Can the current push to organize the South reverse the trend?

June 17, 2014 - The action against JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the latest in a wave of lawsuits filed against big banks for discriminatory lending practices that have hurt cities and minority borrowers.

June 13, 2014 - A recent study looked at the costs associated with corrupt government, showing that corruption is taking a heavy toll on taxpayers in Southern states -- an average of $1,308 annually per capita in the most corrupt states, which are concentrated in the region.

June 13, 2014 - We tend to think that promoting anger at big business is a theme of the Left, but conservative libertarians such as David Brat, who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor this week in Virginia's GOP primary, have their own version of this critique.