4/2: MS voters to decide on 2011 ballot when life begins

Clarion-Ledger: Mississippi's voters to decide on 2011 ballot when life begins

Petitioners gathered 106,325 signatures to get an initiative on the 2011 ballot for voters to define when life begins. Voters will decide whether a 'person' should be defined as any life 'from the point of fertilization, cloning or equivalent thereof.'

The personhood petition is the second voter-led effort that has secured enough signatures to appear on the November 2011 ballot. The other seeks to require voters to show identification at the polls in Mississippi.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State Senate votes for health care opt out bill

ARKANSAS: Court says undocumented aliens can't bring lawsuits anonymously

FLORIDA: House approves budget; long negotiations likely between the chambers

GEORGIA: State appeals water rights ruling

KENTUCKY: Senate approves charter schools in attempt to get federal education funds

LOUISIANA: Interior secretary says state will be first to benefit from expansion of oil and gas exploration

NORTH CAROLINA: President Obama to visit state today to talk jobs

SOUTH CAROLINA: New state law could make retrofitting homes easier

TENNESSEE: Political discord prompts hundreds to enter Tennessee's federal and state races

VIRGINIA: Gov. McDonnell quits wind energy coalition

If you have a news story about public policy to suggest, send an email to info@bettersouth.org

12/2: States consider permanent cuts following furloughs

Stateline: States consider permanent cuts following furloughs

A look at states with furloughs and layoffs, and how these may be impacted by the development of budgets next year for fiscal 2011.

In preparation of budget development, many states are taking stock of every position in state government to determine what effect job cuts and the possible elimination of whole departments will have on revenues, expenses and the quality of government services.

“I think we’re kind of in a permanent retrenchment,” says Raymond C. Scheppach, long-time director of the National Governors Association. “There are a number of areas where we’ve got to sit back and almost look at new models for delivering services.”

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: Tom Baxter: Bingo bounces back in Bama

ARKANSAS: Old liquor laws thwart sale of alcohol-infused truffles

FLORIDA: Black lawmakers want special session delayed due to national conference

GEORGIA: New group wants to stop tri-state water wars

KENTUCKY: If state budget is cut 6%, layoffs and furloughs likely

LOUISIANA: Panel rejects plan to cut 15,000 government jobs over next three years

MISSISSIPPI: Lt. Gov. Bryant pushes for 'performance budgeting'

NORTH CAROLINA: Progress Energy to shut down 11 coal-burning power plants in state

SOUTH CAROLINA: Employment Security Commission under review

TENNESSEE: State health insurance plans stop enrollment of needy

VIRGINIA: State's congressional delegates react to President Obama's speech

If you have a news story about public policy to suggest, send an email to info@bettersouth.org

9/8: Florida GOP chairman reverses course on Obama's speech

Washington Post: Florida GOP chairman reverses course on Obama's speech

The speech that President Obama will give to school children today at 1 p.m. has generated a lot of news.

After last week's comments from Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer, who accused the president of trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda," the actual reading of the remarks elicited a different response. Greer said he'll now let his children watch. "It's a good speech," Greer said Monday. "It encourages kids to stay in school and the importance of education, and I think that's what a president should do."

Some schools will be showing the speech live, while others will record it and show it at another time -- or not at all.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: Gov. Riley heads to Europe to recruit businesses

ARKANSAS: State lawmakers taking a look at prison after incidents

FLORIDA: New tax on tobacco results in lower sales of cigarettes

GEORGIA: Budget cuts mean cases piling up in state's courts

KENTUCKY: Global Green Cars to build electric vehicle plant in Kentucky

LOUISIANA: Economist says state's shrimpers face 'fight of their lives'

MISSISSIPPI: AG Jim Hood challenges Gov. Barbour on partial vetoes

NORTH CAROLINA: Outer Banks Ocean Energy Corp. wants to build offshore wind farm

SOUTH CAROLINA: State's lawmakers staking out key roles in the health care debate

TENNESSEE: Solar farm project waiting on federal approval

VIRGINIA: Gov. Kaine says state employees must take one furlough day

If you have a news story about public policy to suggest, send an email to info@bettersouth.org

8/20: The new silent majority

Southern Political Report: Opinion: Tom Baxter: The New Silent Majority

"Last month, writing about the first of two health care reform town meetings I’ve attended, I noted that while those who opposed the current version of health care reform from the right were the loudest and rowdiest, the greater number of those lining up at the microphones to complain about the plan opposed it from the left because it didn’t go far enough.

"This turns out not to have been an isolated incident, but an overriding dynamic of the larger debate over health care reform.

"All the red-faced town hall protesters combined have had nothing like the impact of the Obama Administration’s hint over the past weekend that it might be willing to drop the public option alternative to private insurers in order to get the remainder of its health care package passed this fall."

For more, click on this.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State employees to see increase in insurance rates

ARKANSAS: Head of RNC visits state to talk about health care

FLORIDA: Approval rating on Obama drops below 50% in state

GEORGIA: Most of the state's counties are considered 'economically distressed'

KENTUCKY: Grant will allow prescription drug task force to expand statewide

LOUISIANA: Federal study shows mercury in fish is widespread

MISSISSIPPI: State schools hit with H1N1 virus

NORTH CAROLINA: State cuts mental health care; 75 lose jobs

SOUTH CAROLINA: Fish in S.C. have high mercury content

TENNESSEE: GOP courts three possible candidates to unseat Reps. Gordon, Davis

VIRGINIA: Gov. Kaine says he may have to cut education, health care, and public safety

If you have a news story about public policy to suggest, send an email to info@bettersouth.org

Newsweek tackles Obama and the South

Newsweek's Christopher Dickey examines the state of the South in terms of the 2008 presidential election in the latest edition of the magazine.
Dickey writes:

Jobs are disappearing to places that are truly foreign, not mock-strange states like California. New immigrants are introducing brown into a color map that has long been dominated by black and white. There is a sense that a world is ending, maybe not this year but inevitably.
The election, and Obama's candidacy, have focused these anxieties like a lens. I found whites frustrated and indecisive about the campaign, families at odds, generations divided. Many who thought themselves beyond prejudice were surprised by their suspicions of the young black man from up north. Meanwhile, many slave-descended blacks, hugely supportive of the half-Kenyan, half-Kansan, Hawaii-reared Obama, seemed afraid to hope too much, inoculating themselves with pessimism about the chances that any man of color could win the presidency, even this man, even today, or that, if he does, he will survive. As I say, emotions are raw.

See the whole story along with videos and photos here.