Politics

February 16, 2023 - In a collaborative report highlighting bipartisan policy proposals for North Carolina to combat current threats to democracy, leading state and national voting rights advocates call for legislative action to ensure that elections are free, fair, accessible, and secure.

February 10, 2023 - While public support for labor unions in the U.S. is at its highest level in a half-century, the portion of Southern workers in unions did not grow last year, even though unions added new members. But strikes and other workplace protests in the region jumped by over 20%, showing growing labor activism.

February 10, 2023 - A growing number of states have adopted policies promoted by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council punishing financial companies that halt investments in oil, gas, and coal. But they also punish taxpayers by reducing competition among municipal bond underwriters, thus raising interest rates.

February 8, 2023 - After making gains in the recent midterms, Republican lawmakers in states across the South are altering legislative rules to sidestep the usual process for passing bills. Pro-democracy advocates say the changes are an abuse of power that would harm marginalized communities and undermine the people's will. 

January 27, 2023 - The North Carolina Utilities Commission's newly adopted plan to limit Duke Energy's climate-disrupting pollution calls for new gas-burning plants — even though they leak methane, a greenhouse gas that in the short term is even more potent than carbon. Forty-five scientists recently called Duke's planned gas expansion "entirely indefensible from a climate and public health perspective," and advocates vowed to fight the proposed plants.

January 27, 2023 - Republican state lawmakers across the South are creating harsh new penalties for even minor voting infractions — an effort that advocates worry could curb the surge in electoral participation the region has experienced in recent years.

January 26, 2023 - MacArthur "genius award" winner Loretta Ross helped launch the reproductive justice movement and co-founded SisterSong, a Georgia-based nonprofit that works to improve systems impacting the reproductive lives of marginalized communities. Facing South spoke with the professor and public intellectual about conditions post-Roe — and how Southern legislatures that oppose abortion can make parenting easier.