A federal appeals court has ruled that the insurance carrier for CACI International of Virginia is not obligated to defend the company, which is facing lawsuits alleging torture of prisoners in Iraq. Perhaps it could finance any payouts with the hundreds of millions of dollars in new contracts it got from the U.S. government this year alone? More...

New Orleans journalist Jordan Flaherty reports on the culture of Bounce, a style of New Orleans Hip-Hop sometimes called "project music," and a community of gay rappers self-identified as sissy bounce artists. More...

In a matter of days, thousands in the Gulf Coast will face eviction from their FEMA trailers. Advocates are now calling on the federal government to intervene and extend the deadline, and uphold its promise to rebuild the Gulf Coast. More...

An Institute friend has just offered to match all contributions to the Institute by this weekend, dollar-for-dollar. You can DOUBLE your donation -- but the clock is ticking. Act now! More...

Jim Stephenson, who as the N.C. Coastal Federation's policy director played a critical role in protecting the state's environment, died unexpectedly today. He was 57. More...

There's speculation that the Mississippi governor and former Republican National Committee chair may be considering a run for the White House. Do we really want the United States to be run like the most impoverished state in the nation? More...

In the "new" New Orleans, housing is being built in a manner inaccessible to people with disabilities. James Perry discusses the first audit study on disability discrimination in New Orleans housing since Hurricane Katrina. More...

A new report finds nearly one in six children in the United States live on the brink of hunger, and that number is growing. And as a region, the South is leading the nation in child hunger. More...

If the federal government is serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable energy, why is it giving such generous exemptions to a federally owned company? More...

Kiplinger rankings are the latest to give Southern cities props -- and millions are flocking to Southern states. So why do the pundits keep calling the South 'marginal' and 'irrelevant?' More...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has established a record as a defender of expanding voting rights -- putting her squarely at odds with the GOP's ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Alabama Sen. Jefferson Sessions. More...

For 50 years North Carolina state law has denied collective bargaining rights to the state's 650,000 public employees. Over the last several years, labor rights' groups have come together in a growing movement demanding a repeal to a law civil rights advocates say is a vestige of the Jim Crow era. More...

A Massey Energy subsidiary plans to begin blasting for coal just 100 feet away from a dam holding back 7 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge. Should the dam break, the company itself expects that as many as 988 people would die. Is this really the best way to power America? More...

In case you missed them ... this week's biggest stories at Facing South. More...

A state body has approved plans to study uranium mining in south-central Virginia near the North Carolina border. Opponents of the proposal include officials in cities downstream of the site, who worry about its impact on drinking water. More...

A new Institute study finds that nearly half of U.S.-based troops that have been killed in Iraq came from base towns in the South. More...

The ongoing controversy surrounding military contractor KBR took another turn this week. The latest development relates to a story Facing South helped break involving the deaths of several U.S. military personnel from faulty electrical work. More...

Texas has both the highest rate and the greatest number of uninsured children of any state. Addressing this problem, Texas lawmakers are poised to take a large and bi-partisan bite out of the number of uninsured children. More...

In a sense, filmmaker John Ford's mythic Old West has a lot in common with the Old South. Both share a colorful but chequered history, much of which is shrouded by hearsay and seemed-like-that. More...

Since we reported on claims of possible corruption surrounding an effort to build a new coal-fired power plant in Georgia, four utilities have announced they are withdrawing from the project, casting doubt on the likelihood of its construction. More...

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans public schools struggle to serve students and the educational waters are still muddy. More...

South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford is taking the state legislature to court after lawmakers required him to accept $700 million in disputed federal stimulus money by overriding his budget vetoes. More...

A new report found that employer opposition to workers' efforts to form unions has intensified and become more punitive in the last decade. Labor advocates say this shows why Congress should enact legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize. More...

I've been able to write stories for Facing South that other media would be afraid to publish -- and it's made a difference in people's lives. That's why I'm asking you to support our work and contribute to the Institute Investigative Fund today. More...

Opposed to letting active-duty troops help citizens in a disaster zone, the former Defense Secretary refused to deploy the military after Hurricane Katrina until he was ordered by President Bush five days after landfall -- but he didn't show similar resistance to the use of private mercenaries. More...

Climate justice activists should learn the lesson of the civil rights movement that getting powerful institutions to change requires behavior that isn't necessarily "nice," Ted Glick argues. More...

This week, the secretive federal court that approves wiretapping and other surveillance of suspected terrorists appointed a new chair and two new members. What does it mean for the future of civil liberties -- and is the government finding new ways to spy on its people? More...

Donate to our non-profit Investigative Fund today -- our award-winning investigative reporting and voice for change is needed more than ever. More...

The dangerous PCB pollution that General Electric is dredging up from the Hudson River is going to a Lone Star State landfill that's currently embroiled in a controversy over radioactive waste. Does it really make sense to dump such dangerous stuff atop a drinking-water supply? More...

Across the country today, and internationally, events are being held calling for a new trial for Georgia death row prisoner Troy Davis. More...

A growing number of prisons, jails and sheriffs departments are charging inmates for their own incarceration, a move authorities say is necessary to counter rising costs and budget cutbacks during the recession. But civil liberties groups say these policies are creating debtors' prisons. More...

A study released by the National Cancer Institute strengthens the link between exposure to formaldehyde and several forms of cancer, including leukemia. More...

For service workers in West Virginia, union jobs mean higher pay. More...

The toxic waste, which is now being sent to landfills in impoverished communities in Alabama and Georgia, did not meet the state's standards for dumping into abandoned mines. But are the facilities accepting the waste really that safe? More...

As coal companies intensify their assault on Appalachia, the White House sends mixed signals about mountaintop removal. Will the Obama administration take action to halt the destruction? More...

The Orlando Sentinel reported this week that Democrats were turning against the Employee Free Choice Act. But they didn't mention that their main source works for business front groups lobbying against the EFCA. More...

All things seen are real, said Walt Whitman, and in that spirit three decades ago, the Academy of American Poets presented the annual Walt Whitman Award to a Georgia writer of a book-length collection of poems, Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump. More...

The campaign for educational benefits for undocumented college students has been heating up all over the country the past few months both at the grassroots level and in the halls of Congress. More...

Facing South isn't just the #1 online magazine in the South -- it's also a growing community of people working for a better future. Here are some easy ways to get involved and build a powerful voice for change. More...

Advocates from Florida and beyond call on Washington to stop deporting Haitian immigrants as the small island nation recovers from devastating hurricanes and years of social turmoil. More...

Georgia has passed a law requiring that all residents prove their citizenship before they can register to vote, a policy that is far more restrictive than the other photo ID requirements that have been passed across the country. More...

The CEO of an Atlanta-area electric utility is under grand-jury investigation for theft from the customer-owned company through a for-profit spinoff he created. Will investigators also look into his role in promoting -- and profiting from -- a controversial new coal-fired power plant? More...

Across the nation, citizens and lawmakers support the choice of a public health insurance option that will help ensure that all Americans have access to quality and affordable health coverage, the Progressive States Network reports. More...

Georgia, South Carolina and Texas are all moving forward with bills that erect new obstacles for voters -- and a looming Supreme Court decision may impact the ability to use the Voting Rights Act to challenge the new laws. More...

The Tennessee Valley Authority has come up with a preliminary plan for the toxic coal ash it spilled on eastern Tennessee that raises questions of environmental justice. Will the Obama administration -- which just took charge of of the cleanup -- approve? More...

By the end of the month, the thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors still living in FEMA trailers will face final evictions. But many have nowhere else to go. More...

Geithner and Bernanke's "don't worry, be happy" approach seems designed to lull the financial markets while making the case for additional use of taxpayer funds to prop up some of the banks. It also serves to blunt any calls for nationalization, Phil Mattera reports. More...

Tell us what you like about Facing South (and what we could do better). It'll only take 2 minutes, we swear ... More...

The latest version of key legislation to curb greenhouse gas pollution reportedly offers huge giveaways to utilities, including a North Carolina company building a new coal-fired power plant that will dump 6 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Why is Congress rewarding polluters? More...

Millions celebrate Mother's Day, but few know how it started -- the work of a West Virginia woman and daughter of a social activist who came to resent the holiday's commercialization. More...

Newly released data shows five or more high-risk sites in 21 states -- including nine states across the South. Is your community in danger? More...

Blue Dog Democrats are the favorite punching bag of the progressive blogosphere -- but are these conservatives really to blame for stalling the Democratic agenda? The results of a new survey may surprise you. More...

After years of grassroots activist pressure, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has disavowed a flawed report claiming little cancer risk for Camp Lejeune residents who drank water contaminated with dozens of cancer-causing chemicals. Have other Americans also been misled by ATSDR's shoddy science? More...

Last week, researchers at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Southern California released a study that confirms what many people are all too familiar with: toxic pollution falls disproportionately on lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. More...

As the summer movie season approaches and the studios begin to roll out their blockbusters, complete with explosions, special effects and car chases, Samuel Goldwyn Films presents "American Violet," an eye-opening, thought provoking film featuring Alfre Woodard and starring newcomer Nicole Beharie. More...

The anti-labor lobby has been warning of union coercion should Congress approve the Employee Free Choice Act, but hundreds of thousands of workers have taken advantage of similar state laws with no significant evidence of problems. More...

Coming almost four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a bipartisan bill was introduced this week in Congress to create more jobs and support sustainable rebuilding efforts in the region. More...

The land where the blues was born still suffers from them disproportionately. More...

These past few weeks have ushered in heated battles in state legislatures as lawmakers in Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and Texas moved to go around their governors and accept federal stimulus unemployment aid. This month we're waiting for several of these fights to come to a head. More...

More than 2,000 juvenile offenders in the U.S. are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. This week the Supreme Court agreed to hear two Florida cases that will decide whether life sentences for juveniles in non-homicides are unconstitutional. More...

Pundits still call Republicans a "regional party based in the South." But the Republican Party isn't doing so well in the South -- and it's doing better in other places. What gives? More...

A populist movement is growing in Louisiana as residents join together to push for post-Katrina recovery -- but as Monteic A. Sizer observes, this is not your grandfather's populist movement. More...

Like what we're doing here at Facing South? Here are a few simple ways YOU can be part of the biggest online magazine by and for the South. More...

When a virus related to the H1N1 strain behind the current outbreak was discovered at a Sampson County, N.C. hog farm in 1998, health experts didn't believe it posed a threat to humans. Are factory farms breeding grounds for potential public health disasters? More...

Democratic lobbyists at The Podesta Group have seen their fortunes rise faster than almost any firm on K Street. It's also joined business groups to fight the Employee Free Choice Act and labor unions. More...

Three banks failed on Friday with the FDIC closing institutions in Georgia, New Jersey, and Utah. The total number of bank failures for the year is now at 32. More...

We drill into reports about a mysterious group targeting critical legislation to cut greenhouse gas pollution -- and strike oil money. More...

A senate bill aimed at helping 1.7 million homeowners facing foreclosure was defeated yesterday with the help of 12 Democrats. Most haven't received big campaign gifts from banks and only four face re-election in 2010. So why did they do it? More...

In cities throughout the South and elsewhere, labor and immigrant rights advocates are marching this May Day to urge President Barack Obama to make good on promises of reform. More...

A spirited national campaign to oust Bank of America chief Kenneth Lewis results in a split decision, Phil Mattera reports. More...

The emerging epidemic shines a light on a big problem with the United States' employment system, where most workers do not receive paid sick days and where many face losing wages or their jobs if they get sick and have to stay home. More...

Durham, N.C.-born Ernie Barnes, a one-time professional football player who became one of the nation's foremost African American artists, died this week at age 70. More...