Each Saturday, this feature links and excerpts commentary and reporting from a dozen progressive state blogs in the past seven days around the nation. The idea is not only to spotlight specific issues but to give readers who may not know their state has a progressive blog or two a place to become regularly informed about doings in their back yard. Just as states with progressive lawmakers and activists have themselves initiated innovative programs over a wide range of issues, state-based progressive blogs have helped provide us with a point of view and inside information we don't get from the traditional media. Those blogs deserve a larger audience. Let me know in the comments or by Kosmail if you have a favorite you think I should add. Standard disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of its contents. |
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Blue Oregon T.A. Barnhart writes
Single-payer: Dembrow presents a road forward:
Single-payer didn’t do much in the 2011 Oregon Legislature: a noon rally on the Capitol steps followed by a hearing in the afternoon, and then HB 3510 was shelved for the session. No one expected anything different, not even sponsors. After all, the Leg’s real business with health care that year was to set up the exchange that would be the first in the nation under Obamacare. Single-payer got a courtesy hearing and no more.
2013 is a different story. Not because anyone expect the Leg to pass single-payer, not even it’s #1 champion, Rep Michael Dembrow. But while 2011 was one-and-done, 2013 is going to be one-and-just-begun.
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Appalachian Voices,
brian writes
Stop Brushing Off The Bad Stuff:
Over the years, [West Virginia University professor and public health researcher Michael] Hendryx has repeatedly cited air pollution near blasting zones as a culprit. Due to the destructive nature of mountaintop removal, exposure to coal-related pollution is significantly higher in communities near these mines than in those where traditional underground mining occurs. Sounds reasonable enough, right?
“I don’t believe that stuff for a minute,” Kentucky Speaker of the House of Delegates Greg Stumbo is reported as saying in Ashland, Ky., newspaper The Independent. “I’ve lived there all my life. There are no pollutants in the air. When you blow up something, it’s just dust for a little while and that’s the end of it. It’s not like the sky is blackened every day.”
We’re led to believe that, “I don’t believe that stuff for a minute,” is the entirety of his position on the research incriminating mountaintop removal.
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DemoOkie,
Mary Harris explains
Why I Am Thinking About Running for Congress:
So—why am I thinking about running against a popular Republican congressman when I don’t have any money and I don’t have the ghost of a chance of winning? Well, that’s what I have been telling my friends who ask me to run.
And then I started thinking: what could a person accomplish when he knew that he would probably lose the election?
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Blue Jersey,
vmars laments
Buried Under a Mountain of Rice—$637M State Deficit:
Buried in all the news about the homophobic, misogynist former Rutgers basketball coach is the news that the State of New Jersey is projected to run $637 million in the red over this and the next fiscal year.
Somehow Christie gets all the luck, with every media outlet—even us—going wall to wall Rice today when there's further evidence of the Governor's terrible record as a manager of the state and its finances.
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Miscellany: Blue,
William Tucker writes
Rule it out, Scott. Say die already.:
Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown ignited a firestorm last night when he refused to rule out a race against the senior senator from New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen.
David Bernstein, who covered politics for the Boston Phoenix until its untimely demise, thinks a Brown campaign in the Granite State would be plausible:
He’s a good fit up there — he can smooth over the intra-GOP divide, and then really appeal to the general electorate. The amount of money he can raise now … would give him a huge edge in New Hampshire. And, this is a retail politician with an amazing will and ability to drive himself around and charm voters one by one in every nook and cranny of whatever area he’s running in.
But citing Brown’s commitments to his new law and lobby firm, Bernstein concludes it’s a big tease. ”It’s realistic enough to get him some additional buzz and public interest,” he writes, “so he’s using that to keep his market value up.”
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Dirigo Blue in Maine,
Gerald Weinand complains
In weekly address, LePage tries to mislead the public (again) on hydropower:
In his radio address this week, Gov. Paul LePage continues to mislead the people of Maine regarding the sale of hydro-electricity. LePage states:
“Under Governors King and Baldacci, legislators enacted RPS — the Renewable Portfolio Standard — which restricts us to using only 100 megawatts of hydropower.”
This is an outright lie. The Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires that a certain percentage of electricity consumed in Maine come from renewable sources, currently 36% (it will increase in steps to 40% by 2017 – see 35-A MRSA §3210.). The RPS limits the size of power plants that can be counted as “renewable” at 100MW, excepting wind farms.
But there are NO restrictions on the sale of power from plants larger than 100MW in the non-RPS market.
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El Grito de Nuevo México,
Adrianna Sanchez writes
Gov. Martinez signs corporate tax cut package, others call the measure “far fetched”:
A massive corporate tax package that was rammed through the New Mexico Legislature in the final hour of the 2013 session was signed into law yesterday by Gov. Susana Martinez, who called the package a “game changer” for creating jobs. The two biggest provisions in the bill slash the top corporate income tax rate and eliminate taxes on manufacturers who don’t sell goods within the state. Other provisions in the bill designed to increase state revenue aren’t able to offset the impact of those tax cuts, with the fiscal impact report showing a major hit to the state budget beginning in 2016. [...]
fter the governor signed the bill, Voices for Children [a research and policy institution that specializes in tax policy] said in a statement that when combined with the governor’s veto of a minimum wage increase, the message is that the state prioritizes corporations over working families and children.
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OaklandNorth,
Madeleine Thomas remembers
After the raid: One year after federal agents raided Oaksterdam, what’s changed?:
Agents from the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Agency and the Internal Revenue Service raided Oaksterdam on April 2, 2012. Hundreds of protestors immediately took to the streets of downtown Oakland, many openly smoking weed as agents stripped the university of most of its property. Five locations affiliated with Oaksterdam were targeted, including Lee’s own home, Coffeeshop Blue Sky, the museum, and a storage unit.
“It was one of the most damaging things that could happen to a business,” said Dale Sky Jones, then Oaksterdam’s executive chancellor, who later took over as head of the university. “Almost like a fire or a flood. Except this was an act of the federal government, not an act of God or of nature.”
A year later, the school is still running, although as a much smaller operation. It’s still unclear what motivated the raid or whether the agencies plan to file any charges related to it [...]
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Blue Virginia,
kindler writes
Train Wreck in the Commonwealth:
It turns out that Mr. Cuccinelli does in fact have a transportation plan. It's called the train wreck. Or that at least appears to be his campaign strategy.
Even as stalwart a Cuccinelli critic as myself did not foresee what a disaster this man would be as a candidate for governor. I figured that he might have learned a lesson from the political successes of Gov. McDonnell and at least make some moves to the center—I mean, at least throw political moderates and independents an occasional bone. But it seems that he is way too busy throwing raw meat to the radicals in his party to make any concessions to the actual electorate.
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43rd State Blues,
Sisyphus wrote
The Idaho Senate's New Right Wing:
The Idaho State Senate changed control last election. The change did not manifest itself overtly or immediately. The change evolved with the session, with a couple self serving factions coming together for mutual gain in tapping majority power. The change happened recently by way of a a turf battle championed by Senator John Goedde, Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and joined by Idaho's extreme wing of the Republican Party. And to celebrate the event, many of them gathered at a downtown Boise bar on the eve of a delayed sine die.
When the secretary took the roll, Senators Hagedorn, Bayer, Goedde, and Nuxoll were in attendance plus Rep. Anderson from Priest Lake. Each of these senators voted nay on the education budget forcing the extended session. The connection between Goedde and Anderson is well known, but Goedde and Hagedorn don't often hang, yet shared a private conversation at the arrival of Goedde and Anderson. Like Anderson, Goedde is reviewed typically as a moderate but no stranger to ideological extremism, especially when education is concerned. Of major interest was Taliban Barbie who dominated the center of the group. Yet the ring leader appeared to be Phil Hardy, who once famously said that "regressive is the new progressive".
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of Iowa,
desmoinesdem writes
Uncounted casualties of war: Children left behind:
April is designated the "Month of the Military Child," with many events and activities scheduled to honor the occasion.
A new study from the University of Iowa indicates that children whose parents are deployed have higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse--another reminder of the massive hidden costs associated with U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Plunderbund of Ohio,
Joseph writes
Mike DeWine’s growing list of legal mistakes:
We’re honestly not sure if Attorney General Mike DeWine has a problem understanding the law or if he simply chooses to ignore it in favor of expediency and political and religious fervor.
Either way, it’s scary knowing Ohio’s top attorney is so often wrong when it comes to interpreting the law.
Yesterday we wrote about DeWine’s anti-contraception letter and how the legal foundation for his argument holds little water. This follows on the heals of the contraception-related lawsuit DeWine joined last year which also faces serious constitutional issues.