WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: New and Old, US Groups Forge Broad Alliances

With civil society gearing up for the 2010 World Social Forum, and later this summer, the 2010 U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan, activists here say new alliances created at the first USSF in 2007 are going strong.

U.S.: Democrats Get a Push from the Left

National progressive groups are gearing up for the 2010 Congressional elections by targeting centrist Democrats in the U.S. Congress and supporting their more left-leaning opponents.

U.S.: Poorest Families Face Widening Housing Gap

The number of housing units affordable to extremely low-income (ELI) families in the U.S. has declined over the last year, even as the number of families needing those units has increased, according to a new report by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).

U.S.: Katrina Lawsuit Raises Broader Questions About Levee Safety

Since a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the devastating 2005 levee breach at the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, some legal scholars believe that millions – or even billions - could be owed to additional Hurricane Katrina victims.

EDUCATION-US: Social Justice Schools Shape New Wave of Activists

While most U.S. public schools are responding to new high-stakes testing requirements by teaching more math and English to the neglect of social studies and civics, a very small minority of schools are pushing forward a different agenda.

US-COLOMBIA: Activists Target “World of Coca-Cola”

Activists from the U.S. and Colombia are targeting the World of Coca-Cola museum, located near its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, accusing the company of "union busting", paying its workers "poverty wages", and engaging in environmentally destructive practices.

ENVIRONMENT: Rethinking Jobs for a Sustainable Economy

The possibility of environmental catastrophe has led many leaders, scholars and average citizens to reconsider an economy based on constant growth. It is becoming clear that people, especially in the United States, will need to consume less in the way of natural resources to avoid planetary peril.

RIGHTS-US: Gay Bar Raids Draw Community Outrage

Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have sparked mass protests in the two cities and led activists to question whether equality for persons of all sexual orientations in the U.S. has come as far as some would like to believe.

U.S.: Cities Use Inclusionary Zoning as Housing Costs Climb

With most U.S. cities facing a severe shortage of affordable housing, more and more are beginning to turn to so-called inclusionary zoning (IZ).

ENVIRONMENT-US: Advocates Fight Mountaintop Removal

Environmental groups across the southeast United States, from Georgia to the Appalachia region, are stepping up their opposition to a controversial but widespread practice by coal companies of removing the tops of mountains with explosives.

POLITICS-US: Nukes Agency Pushes New Bomb Production

Despite statements by U.S. President Barack Obama that he wants to see the world reduce, and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration continues to push forward on a programme called Complex Modernisation, which would expand two existing nuclear plants to allow them to produce new plutonium pits and new bomb parts out of enriched uranium for use in a possible new generation of nuclear bombs.

U.S.: Homeless Shelters Fighting Push from Downtowns

The largest homeless shelter in the southeast U.S., the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta claiming officials have undertaken a complex campaign to sabotage the shelter with the ultimate goal of driving homeless, mostly African American men off the streets of downtown.

DEVELOPMENT-US: Gentrification Fears Dog Sustainable Transport

As U.S. cities consider the urgent need for sustainable public transportation options, advocates are looking for ways to achieve the environmental benefits of such projects without displacing residents through gentrification of surrounding areas.

POLITICS-US: Case Challenges E-Voting’s Constitutionality

A case brought by election integrity advocates in Georgia claiming that unverifiable electronic voting, or E-voting, is unconstitutional could spell trouble for the controversial practice, as it heads to the Georgia Supreme Court for a ruling.

RIGHTS-US: Teenage Terror Plot or Wild Imagination?

Following a seven-day trial, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was convicted in a U.S. federal court earlier this month on several counts of providing material support to terrorists and the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

U.S.: Coal Power Hitting Roadblocks

As more and more states are turning against coal power facilities in the U.S., advocates have been using the legal system to halt new pending plants.

U.S.: Levee Uncertainty Weighs on Katrina’s Displaced

Today, the population of New Orleans is still about 175,000 people fewer than it was before Hurricane Katrina hit four years ago next month. Along with concerns about jobs and housing costs, the city's vulnerability to flooding has weighed heavily on the minds of many evacuees, many of whom have not returned.

U.S.: Four Years Post-Katrina, Levee Protection Still Elusive

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, there have been some significant improvements to the levees of New Orleans. However, even with work scheduled to be completed in 2011, advocates say the U.S. government has left the standard of protection at dangerously low levels.

ECONOMY-US: Congress Pushing for Federal Reserve Audit

A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives is now in support of a historic bill by Republican lawmaker Ron Paul to audit the Federal Reserve (the Fed), the privately run central bank that sets monetary policy for the United States.

DEVELOPMENT: Local Currencies Really Can Buy Happiness

In the face of an economic system which seems to be premised on environmental harm and profit-driven growth, a handful of communities across the U.S. and the globe have begun experimenting with alternative forms of local currency as a pathway to sustainability.

ECONOMY-US: Taxpayer Rage Builds Over Credit Card Abuses

With the U.S. economy in dire straits, Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama are turning their attention to stopping credit card abuses, including high interest rates, fees, and other practices that are affecting millions of U.S. households.