2023 marked 20 years since the Monsanto Chemical Company settled with residents of Anniston, Alabama. 20,000 people in this town northeast of Birmingham blamed chemicals called PCBs, produced a local factory, for medical problems ranging from cancer to birth defects. Twenty years later, Anniston still bears the scars, and this isn’t the only example of industrial chemicals currently harming Alabamians, with the apparent endorsement of government. APR's news series is titled "Bad Chemistry."

Alabama voters head to the polls next month. One ballot item could end slavery in the state. Alabama’s constitution still allows forced labor, one hundred and fifty seven years after the thirteenth amendment abolished the practice. That’s not the only lasting impact of slavery in Alabama. APR spoke with the descendants of some of estimated four hundred thousand people enslaved here around the Civil War. Many say they can’t find the burial sites of their ancestors, due to unmarked graves or bad records kept by their white captors. Alabama Public Radio news spent nine months looking into efforts to find and preserve slave cemeteries in the state. APR’s Pat Duggins has part one of our series we call “No Stone Unturned.”