2/12: Home heating aid shifts to the South

ABC News: Home heating aid shifts to the South

The recent cold snap in the Deep South has sucked federal emergency home heating dollars away from traditional cold-weather states, causing heating aid to dry up faster than usual in many northern states.

Last month, $490 million in emergency heating funds were released by the Obama administration once a formula that took into account colder-than-normal temperatures and, for the first time, unemployment levels. Both of these factors favored the South.

Emergency funding more than tripled for Florida and Georgia, and more than doubled in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: Bill to create charter schools in state is tabled indefinitely

ARKANSAS: Fiscal session's first week ends with no-raise expense bill in place

FLORIDA: State sees decline in illegal immigrants

GEORGIA: Details on CRCT cheating at public schools released

KENTUCKY: Hundreds take part in rRally against mountaintop removal held in Frankfort

LOUISIANA: Gov. Jindal's $24 billion budget spares higher education

MISSISSIPPI: Gov. Barbour signs bill to restrict over-the-counter medicines used in meth making

NORTH CAROLINA: Editorial: Pressing for justice

SOUTH CAROLINA: Report shows state needs tougher jobless laws

TENNESSEE: State to resume enrollment in CoverKids, the uninsured children's program

VIRGINIA: State budget continues to be a mystery

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