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Sue Sturgis

Sue Sturgis is the editorial director of the Institute for Southern Studies. 

Recent Articles

Students Declare Nationwide Boycott of Wendy's Over Farmworker Concerns

Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonalds, and Walmart are already party to the worker-protection contract the targeted fast-food chain refuses to sign.

Sue SturgisMar 25, 2015
© Coalition of Immokalee Workers
© Coalition of Immokalee Workers On March 22, students and activists from across the U.S. came together in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the Concert for Fair Food. There the group, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), announced a nationwide student boycott of the Wendy's fast-food chain for its refusal to join in an agreement designed to protect the farmworkers who harvest the produce used by the chain. This article originally appeared at Facing South , the website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. S tudents from colleges and high schools across the U.S. declared a nationwide boycott of the Wendy's fast-food chain over its refusal to join the Fair Food Program created to help eliminate farmworker poverty and abuse. The announcement came at the Parade and Concert for Fair Food held on Saturday, March 21, in St. Petersburg, Florida, by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a Florida-based group that promotes human rights for farmworkers. The boycott is part of a...

Index: The 1 Percent Cleans Up in Florida and the South

Since 2009, Florida's elite captured all of the state's income growth—and then some.

Sue SturgisFeb 09, 2015
Institute for Southern Studies
Institute for Southern Studies In 39 states, the wealthiest 1 percent captured at least half of the income growth between 2009 and 2012. In 17 states of those states, the 1 percent captured it all. This article originally appeared at Facing South , the website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. Percent of U.S. states that have experienced widening income inequality in recent decades: 100 Of the 50 states, number where the wealthiest 1 percent captured at least half of all income growth between 2009 and 2012: 39 Number of states where all of the income growth during that period went to the wealthiest 1 percent: 17 Number of those dramatically unequal states that are in the South: 5 * In Florida, among the most unequal states, percent change in the top 1 percent's income from 2009 to 2012: +39.5 Percent change in income for Florida's bottom 99 percent in that period: -7.1 Percent share of total income growth captured by Florida's wealthiest: 259.9 Income growth captured by...

Mailers Sent By Koch Group Appear Designed to Misdirect Voters in Key U.S. Senate Race

North Carolina election officials are investigating a mailer that the Americans for Prosperity Foundation sent to thousands of would-be voters in the state that contained bad information about registration. 

Sue SturgisOct 07, 2014
(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File) In this Aug. 30, 2013 file photo, Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David Koch speaks in Orlando, Florida. This article originally appeared at Facing South , a website published by the Institute for Southern Studies. T he North Carolina State Board of Elections announced this week that it is investigating a controversial mailer the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) sent to thousands of state residents that contained inaccurate information about voter registration. The board was required to launch an investigation after a formal complaint was filed by Casey Mann, executive director of the N.C. Democratic Party. The complaint noted that the mailer, sent by the AFP Foundation—whose chairman is David Koch—included incorrect information on the registration deadline, where to send voter registration applications, and where to get answers to questions about registration. As Mann wrote in the complaint: The...

The Government Program That's Equipping Police Like an Occupying Military Force

A chilling index from the Institute for Southern Studies.

Sue SturgisAug 18, 2014
(AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.B. Forbes)
(AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, J.B. Forbes) Protesters raise their hands in front of police atop an armored vehicle in Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. This index was originally published by Facing South , a website of the Institute for Southern Studies. ( Click here to subscribe to their newsletter.) Year in which Congress initially authorized the Defense Department to give excess arms and ammunition to law enforcement agencies for counter-drug activities, leading to the creation of what's come to be known as the 1033 program: 1990 Number of law enforcement agencies the program has given equipment to: more than 17,000 Percent of U.S. states with agencies participating in the program: 100 (Photo from the Richland County Sheriff's Department website.) Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, South Carolina and members of his department's Special Response Team with the military vehicle they call "The Peacemaker." Value of military equipment the program has transferred...

How the GOP's Medicaid Politics Are Hurting Rural Southerners: An Index of Harm

Republican governors, empowered by the Supreme Court, have refused federal funds for the expansion of the program that provides health care to low-income people and the poor. Here's the human cost.

Sue SturgisAug 08, 2014
©Jenny Warburg
©Jenny Warburg A protester at a 2013 Moral Monday action in North Carolina. The state's General Assembly rejected federal funds to expand Medicaid—funds that would have given coverage to 500,000 state residents without insurance. This index was originally published by Facing South , a website of the Institute for Southern Studies. Date on which Adam O'Neal, the Republican mayor of Belhaven, North Carolina, arrived in Washington, DC after walking 273 miles from his hometown to draw attention to the recent closure of his community's only hospital and to call for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act to prevent more such closures: 7/28/2014 Date on which Belhaven's hospital, Vidant Pungo, closed after a failed effort by the town to take it over: 7/1/2014 Number of days after the closure that a local resident died when she suffered a heart attack and had to wait an hour for a helicopter to take her to the nearest hospital: 4 Amount in unpaid care Vidant Pungo had provided since...

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