Call it municipal disobedience: communities facing environmental threats are defying laws they deem illegitimate. Originally published in The Nation. THE 600 RESIDENTS OF SUGAR HILL, New Hampshire, have done a laudable job of keeping the vulgarities of modern life at bay. There are no fast-food restaurants, no neon signs. Instead, the former iron-mining town has […]
R.I.P. Off
A funeral-industry scandal that’s fleecing thousands of Americans. Originally published in AARP The Magazine. IN 1975 AUDREY AND CARL BREWER PURCHASED what they thought was peace of mind—both for themselves and their family—when they bought two pre-paid funeral plans from Forest Hill South, a mortuary and cemetery in Memphis. Their plans cost them a total of $1,298, […]
When Is a Corporation Like a Freed Slave?
In rural Pennsylvania, township supervisors battling sewage sludge and hog manure stumble up against one of the biggest mysteries in constitutional law. Originally published in Mother Jones. LICKING TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA, IS A ROLLING SWATH of soybean fields and pastures in Clarion County, two hours northeast of Pittsburgh, with 500 residents and quite a few more cattle. Drive […]
The Quiet War on Abortion
After decades of noisy protests and violence, anti-abortion activists are relying on a new ‘stealth strategy’ to shut down clinics. Originally published in Mother Jones. IT WAS COUNSELING DAY LAST SPRING at the Hope Medical Group for Women, a small brick abortion clinic tucked discreetly along a street of upscale shops in Shreveport, Louisiana. In the waiting […]
Subsidies at Sea
A private shipbuilder received millions in ‘location incentives’ to save an abandoned naval yard in South Philadelphia. What did the city get in return? Originally published in Mother Jones. PHIL ROWAN WAS CALLED OFF his construction site one crisp October afternoon and told to get himself down to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. It was an invitation to […]
Steel-Town Lockdown
Corrections Corporation of America is trying to turn Youngstown, Ohio, into the private-prison capital of the world. Originally published in Mother Jones. Reprinted in The Best Business Stories of the Year, edited by Andrew Leckey and Marshall Loeb (Vintage Books, 2001). BOB HAGAN WAS READING HIS E-MAIL one July afternoon when the telephone rang at his home in Youngstown, […]
Burnt Twice
Carolina Solite’s neighbors thought the toxic fumes were bad enough. Then came toxic neglect from the state. Originally published in IndyWeek. THE FARM WHERE JOANN ALMOND grew up looks like a slice of Americana. Children play in a pasture amid goats and horses. Rabbits and doves live in cages, while a handful of chickens run free. The […]
The Real State Takeover
Lobbyists are brandishing a new weapon at local governments: preemption. Originally published in The Nation. WHEN OFFICIALS IN TULSA, OKLAHOMA, were planning the 1996 State Fair, they decided to play it safe and ban concealed weapons. With more than 1 million people drinking beer and getting rowdy over eleven days and nights, they reasoned, allowing guns […]
Statehouses Drop the Other Shoe
Originally published in The Nation. WHEN THE REPUBLICANS TOOK OVER the North Carolina Statehouse last January, Frances Cummings seemed a fitting choice to head the subcommittee on public education. As president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, she had lobbied for higher teacher pay and better funding for rural schools. She also spoke from experience: For […]
Highway Robbery
In 1992, The Independent Weekly (now Indy Week) and the Institute for Southern Studies collaborated on an investigative series called “Highway Robbery,” which examined how campaign contributions influenced North Carolina’s $1.6 billion transportation budget. The series spawned a grassroots reform movement and won two major awards: The Green Eyeshade (the South’s top journalism prize, from the Society for Professional Journalists) and […]
