3/12: LRA to close in four months with millions unspent

NOLA: Louisiana Recovery Authority to close in four months with millions unspent

The Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state agency set up after Hurricane Katrina to oversee billions in rebuilding aid to parishes and individuals, will shut down in four months.

While staffers don't know how much of the $13.7 billion the state received is left, it is clear that it's likely to be several hundred million dollars. The LRA board will outline how the money will be spent; however, the legislature will have the final say.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State senate approves $1 billion road and bridge program

ARKANSAS: Report says Arkansas students are eating healthier at schools

FLORIDA: Foreclosure filings go up again in Florida

GEORGIA: Revised budget proposal includes heavy fees on hospitals, smaller education cuts

KENTUCKY: Senate panel backs domestic violence bill

MISSISSIPPI: State officials deny needless institutionalization of children

NORTH CAROLINA: Charge of re-segregation at Wayne County high school

SOUTH CAROLINA: State waits on $200 million in federal stimulus funds

TENNESSEE: Officials from Georgia to help with threatened TN hemlocks

VIRGINIA: Car title lending reform passed by legislators

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3/4: SC legislators may cut all services for disabled

Times & Democrat: S.C. legislators consider cutting all services to those with disabilities

The nearly 26,000 people in South Carolina with disabilities may soon no longer have access to state services, as legislators struggle over the budget. Parents say the proposed cuts to day care programs and other services would force them to give up much-needed jobs to stay home and care for their young and adult children.

Andrew J. Imparato, chief executive of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said he is hearing horror stories about budget cuts around the country, but South Carolina is the most extreme example. Shutting down everything but federally required residential care is “the most draconian kind of thing I’ve heard,” he said.

Other states have raised taxes to deal with similar problems, but that’s unlikely in South Carolina.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State Senate won't allow state vote on e-bingo

ARKANSAS: Thousands of FEMA trailers to head out of state despite legislators' protests

FLORIDA: Another tomato crisis looms for the state, nation

GEORGIA: State's jobless rate is at all-time high of 10.7%

KENTUCKY: Gov. Beshear wants workers' compensation insurer to cut its rate

LOUISIANA: Pre-K program in the state is safe from budget cuts for now

MISSISSIPPI: Michelle Obama's visit to nation's fattest state (transcript)

NORTH CAROLINA: Think tank releases list of 10 worst stimulus projects in the state

TENNESSEE: State ranked 5th for economic development performance

VIRGINIA: One-gun-a-month law to be considered by Senate

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2/25: Florida considered a 'growing gang capital'

FLORIDA: State is considered a 'growing gang capital'

There are an estimated 49,000 gang members living in Florida, making up 1,100 gangs.

South Florida has the most gang members at 19,685, with Palm Beach County considered a hotbed of gang activity.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Jerry Bailey says data sharing among different agencies and departments is helping bust more bad guys, but adds there is room for improvement.

"We're going to have to be able to talk better, to share more of the information, but the big thing is getting it all into a centralized database so that gang that's working today in Palm Beach County and tomorrow in Leon County, that we can better track their movements and their activities," says Bailey.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State has spent only 7% of $71.8 million stimulus package

ARKANSAS: Legislators prepare to cast final votes on spending plan today

GEORGIA: Pew Center study shows state's children need better dental care

KENTUCKY: Cockfighting supporters want the practice legalized

LOUISIANA: Gov. Jindal proposes bill to give colleges control over tuition

MISSISSIPPI: Budget battle enhanced by $14 million federal funds windfall

NORTH CAROLINA: Editorial: Governor's order might help create jobs

SOUTH CAROLINA: State House committee passes tobacco tax increase

TENNESSEE: State is ranked #2 in credit card debt

VIRGINIA: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers to see double-digit rate increases

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2/16: Urban, rural areas battle over prison population count

NPR: Urban, rural areas battle over who gets to count prison population in census

Prison inmates are counted as residents of the prisons where they are locked up, which can inflate the population of mostly white, rural towns with prisons. Activists say counting the prisoners in the census unfairly shifts political and economic power away from the poor, innercity areas where most inmates came from.

As reported last week in The New York Times, a number of states, including Florida, are considering legislation requiring that prisoners be counted at their last known address — for purposes of reapportionment, a change that would likely favor larger and mostly Democratic cities.

However, Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Missouri), who is chairman of the census subcommittee, said the 2010 census “will again be counting incarcerated people as residents of the rural, predominantly white communities that contain prisons.”

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State Senate enters bingo battle -- to legalize or not

ARKANSAS: Gov. Beebe reports more than $1 million raised in January for campaign

FLORIDA: Editorial: Oil drilling could change Florida for the worse

GEORGIA: Gov. Perdue's plan to use lottery funds may be unconstitutional

KENTUCKY: New report shows Kentucky, Tennessee rank low in quality of life

LOUISIANA: Mardi Gras 2010 kicks off

MISSISSIPPI: State sees transition in farming from crops to tree farms

NORTH CAROLINA: Analysts say it'll be a tough election year for state Democrats

SOUTH CAROLINA: Naturalists worried about boom in feral hog population

TENNESSEE: Stimulus funds to pay for health information technology improvements

VIRGINIA: Lawmakers look to loosen firearm restrictions in state

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

1/7: Schools in the South show two majorities

New York Times: Schools in the South show two majorities

The South is the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report by the Southern Education Foundation.

The shift is due to an influx of Latinos and other minorities, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families.

The report says the new numbers mark a milestone for the South -- "the only section of the United States where racial slavery, white supremacy and racial segregation of schools were enforced through law and social custom."

The South will face an enormous challenge in tackling on such a broad scale the lower achievement rates among poor and minority students, who score lower than average on tests and drop out more frequently than whites.

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: Bill pre-filed to ban driver text-messaging

ARKANSAS: State unveils universal scholarship application, replacing 20+ separate forms

FLORIDA: State emergency management division allegations continue

GEORGIA: GA, SC to meet for talks on water

KENTUCKY: State's food prices dropped 5.6% in 2009

LOUISIANA: Undeveloped business sectors to be focus for 2010 in state

MISSISSIPPI: Gov. Barbour issues state of emergency covering entire state

NORTH CAROLINA: Foreclosure filings up by 17% in 2009

SOUTH CAROLINA: More than $1 billion in stimulus funds have come to state agencies

TENNESSEE: Budget trimming 'devastating' to state's TennCare Medicaid program

VIRGINIA: More than $4 billion to be cut when legislators return to Capitol next week

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11/10: SPR: 21st Century agenda in works for South

Southern Political Report: Tom Baxter: Group attempts to forge 21st Century agenda for region

"What kind of place do you want the South to be in 2020? That thought-provoking question was the subject which brought together more than 30 planners, politicians, academics and journalists – your humble scribe included – for a conference at Davidson College this past weekend by the Center for a Better South.

"The Center for a Better South is the grandchild of the LQC Lamar Society, which was founded in 1969 by a group of young Southern leaders, including former Mississippi Gov. William Winter, former North Carolina Sen. Terry Sanford, Alabama publisher H. Brandt Ayers and Mississippi writer Willie Morris, to forge a vision for a post-segregation South that would, as Sanford once put it, 'avoid making Northern mistakes in a Southern setting.'

"Proposing an agenda for the region took more courage 40 years ago took more courage than it does today, but arguably it has never been harder, in what the center’s president, Andy Brack, described as 'increasingly partisan and media-saturated world of small soundbites for big problems.'"

(Read more.)

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: Editorial: Alabama needs a tougher ethics law and it needs to be enforced

ARKANSAS: Pedestrians in state face more danger than many

FLORIDA: Gov. Crist moves away from previous support of stimulus package

GEORGIA: Smoking ban in state extended to prisons

KENTUCKY: State Chamber says state workers should pay more for health insurance

LOUISIANA: State turns to 'career diplomas' to cut high school dropout rate

MISSISSIPPI: State considers textbook rental system at public universities

NORTH CAROLINA: State pays millions to for state vehicles to sit parked

SOUTH CAROLINA: Wind turbines could be 8 miles offshore in SC

TENNESSEE: Nashville the site of today's Tennessee Solar Symposium

VIRGINIA: Rep. Perriello defends 'yes' vote on health bill

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9/28: Arkansas finally sells a scratch-off

SPR: Tom Baxter: Arkansas finally sells a scratch-off

"They've waited longer than four of their neighbors, voted on it and argued over how it will be administered. But at 12:01 a.m. Monday at the Murphy USA gas station in West Little Rock, the first scratch-off ticket was purchased a ceremony to begin the Arkansas lottery.

"Arkansas gamblers won't get Powerball until Oct. 31, but as of today they will be able to purchase instant games at 1,500 locations around the state. Arkansas is playing catch-up with four of its neighboring states, but lottery director Ernie Passailaigue -- a former South Carolina state senator who ran that state's lottery before being hired away by Arkansas -- has predicted the state will raise $400,000 million a year for college scholarships."

Also in the South:

ALABAMA: State's GOP, Democratic congressmen cautious about health care reforms

ARKANSAS: Gov. Beebe plans trade mission to Europe

FLORIDA: Weekend crash total at 131 vehicles

GEORGIA: Homeless sex offenders directed to woods as last resort in Marietta

KENTUCKY: EPA sets up plan for surface coal mining study

LOUISIANA: Population shift could alter congressional districts

MISSISSIPPI: Too early to tell if state will raise tuition for universities

NORTH CAROLINA: Gov. Perdue's administration has fewer women in Cabinet than any other governor

SOUTH CAROLINA: State comptroller says stimulus is growing government, not economy

TENNESSEE: State Rep. Kelsey resigns to run for state senate seat

VIRGINIA: Candidates for governor debate tactics for state's economic stimulus

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