Economy

May 2, 2017 - The Trump administration is reviewing President Obama's five-year plan that closed the Atlantic and other waters to offshore drilling through 2022. The GOP says Atlantic drilling would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, but it's basing the claims on an industry-funded report that's been debunked for omitting crucial data.

April 14, 2017 - The 35 percent federal corporate income tax rate is a myth, according to a new Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report that studied 258 consistently profitable Fortune 500 firms over an eight-year period. Among the sectors that paid the least were electric utilities and oil, gas and pipeline companies.

April 7, 2017 - GOP lawmakers have introduced legislation to drastically limit damages that agricultural operations pay in civil cases where they've been found to cause harm. The measure disadvantages the communities of color most likely to be located near the state's hog farms but would help a Chinese-owned pork producer currently facing dozens of such lawsuits.

March 31, 2017 - The main contractor for four nuclear reactors under construction in Georgia and South Carolina declared itself broke this week due to massive cost overruns on the projects. Ratepayers have already forked over billions of dollars for the long-delayed reactors, but their future is now uncertain.

March 30, 2017 - At the time of his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis, Tennessee, preparing to march with the city's striking sanitation workers. Labor protests on the anniversary of his death next week will continue the work he was doing during his final days to connect race and class.

March 29, 2017 - Following Congress's failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced he was exploring Medicaid expansion under the law while Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe renewed his expansion quest. They join North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who announced earlier this month that he'd seek to join the four other Southern states that have already expanded the program.

March 24, 2017 - Groups representing some of the most embattled workers and marginalized communities in the South and nation have called a general strike for May 1 to send a message to the Trump administration and its corporate allies. It's the biggest effort of its kind in 70 years.

March 22, 2017 - Congress created the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority to promote economic development in two of the nation's most economically distressed regions, but President Trump has proposed ending the agencies' modest funding altogether.

March 16, 2017 - While the state has seen political battles over promoting renewable energy, voters across the partisan spectrum — including Trump supporters — agree that it should. They're also united in their objection to Duke Energy's coal ash cleanup plans and monopoly status and want to see the state's energy market opened to competition.

March 10, 2017 - President Trump is cheering Exxon Mobil's plans for a $20 billion expansion along the Gulf Coast. But what will that mean for the people who have to live with the pollution given Trump's other plans to gut the EPA and close its environmental justice office?