This week in progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Let me know via comments or Kosmail if you have a favorite state- or city-based blog you think I should be watching.
Inclusion of a diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
At Eclectablog, LOLGOP writes—All the proof you need that the Republican Party exists to make the richest richer:
Who are Republicans worried about on tax day?
The millions of Americans who haven’t had a raise in 15 years?
Nope. The richest .2 percent of Americans who will leave more than $5.4 million dollars to their kids. They want to cut these taxes on the inheritances of theses extraordinarily rich people—none of whom are family farmers, as much as Republicans like to pretend they are—to ZERO.
And I’d like to thank them for this, since it has zero chance of becoming law.
Republicans like to pretend their priorities are multifaceted but all connected by big themes like “life” and “personal responsibility.” In doing this, they’ve managed to trick many of the Americans who have been most brutalized by their economic failures to vote for them. …
More excerpts from progressive state blogs can be read below the orange gerrymander.
At SC Prog Blog, BECCI writes—Too soon for SC to sell out on Medicaid expansion:
Today, the Close the Gap coalition announced a legislative plan to accept Medicaid expansion. The group had asked members of the SC Progressive Network to turn out for its press conference, but wouldn’t reveal who the sponsors are or details of the bill. [...]
Unfortunately, the original solicitation didn’t mention support for privatizing Medicaid money, pointing to Arkansas as a model to emulate. The coalition didn’t mention that Arkansas is one of a few states that received a waiver to buy private insurance for the extremely poor, rather than simply provide them with Medicaid. The stated goals of the Arkansas Health Care Independence Act are to “reduce state and federal obligations to entitlement spending” and address the “need to achieve personal responsibility” for health care – rhetoric straight from Haley’s opposition to “Obamacare.”
At our Network’s fall conference, we predicted that Gov. Nikki Haley would favor privatization, but we didn’t expect “progressive” allies asking us to support such a plan. Our position then – as now – is that privatization of poverty isn’t about helping the poor but rather about subsidizing the free market.
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Blue Virginia,
Lori Haas writes—
Gun Violence Prevention "the political high ground":
Eight years ago, I got the phone call that no parent in America imagines ever getting. "I've been shot," my daughter told me. Emily was in French class that spring day at Virginia Tech, and had just been shot in the head by a young man who legally bought firearms and ammunition in Virginia despite the fact that seemingly everyone who knew him knew he was dangerously mentally ill.
I was one of the lucky ones that day. My daughter survived. Thirty-two other families had to bury their loved ones, denied even the chance to say goodbye.
Many in the commonwealth wondered if April 16, 2007, would be a turning point. Would this be the moment that our legislators finally rejected the National Rifle Association's fatal prescription and supported common-sense gun reforms?
Sadly, the immediate change we were hoping for did not come. But today, as the legislature weighs in on Gov. Terry McAuliffe's vetoes of three noxious pieces of legislation, it is clear that gun violence prevention has become a winning issue in Virginia.
McAuliffe was one of three statewide candidates who swept to victory in the November 2013 elections while publicly and proudly embracing a platform calling for tougher gun laws (along with Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring). A few years ago, it would have been unfathomable for a Virginia gubernatorial candidate to announce at a televised debate, "I don't care what grade I got from the NRA," but that's exactly what McAuliffe did. And he won.
Now he's backing up the promises he made during his campaign.
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43rd State Blues,
MeAndG writes—
Idaho House panel risks $246 million in funding to needy families because of Sharia law worries:
Idaho made ABC News again!
"Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It's the other way around. They never vote for us." —Dan Quayle
Stranger than fiction. But alas, this is Idaho ...
An Idaho House panel voted 9-8 on Friday to kill legislation to bring the state into compliance with federal child-support collection rules after some lawmakers said they were concerned about Sharia law influencing Idaho's enforcement authority. |
And yet another victory for Idaho's single moms ... (end sarcasm)
Idaho child support program director Kandace Yearsley said the committee's decision has placed Idaho at risk of losing nearly [$246] million in federal child-support funding as well as access to the federal enforcement tools used to collect child-support payments from parents living in other states. |
And of course ...
But some members of the House committee said they were concerned the bill was tied to an international convention regarding cross-border recovery of child-support payments. Rep. Heather Scott and Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, both Republicans, said they feared the bill could force Idaho to enforce child-support rulings made under Islamic law or foreign tribunals. |
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The Orange Juice Blog of California,
Greg Diamond writes—
Sad, Sad, Sad, Incisive Story on Obama Administration’s Trying to Sell the TPP Fast Track Vote:
We’ve covered the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, or “TPP,” literally for years now—ahead of even most non-mainstream-media venues. The arguments against it—that it would be a latter-day NAFTA, undermining labor and environmental regulations, plus also allowing foreign corporations the ability to strike down U.S. laws that they argue undermine competition—are pretty well-known here. The main argument for it is, essentially, that trade is gonna happen—and the TPP excludes China and ensures U.S. economic influence over countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam that would perhaps otherwise fall under China’s economic domination.
The Obama Administration already has likely support from most Congressional Republicans for “Fast-Tracking” approval of the TPP, meaning that the houses of Congress could only offer a yes-or-no vote on the agreement rather than offering amendments. (Even more troubling is that, at the time that the “fast-track” vote is taken, the secret classified terms of the agreement would not yet even have been made known to the public.) His remaining problem is getting the approval of Democrats. [...]
For progressives—or, hey, just this once, let’s call us liberals—this continues a long-standing source of irritation towards the practices of our Democratic Presidents. They are often blocked by Congress from getting things done, except when they are engaging in some practice that serves traditionally Republican ends. (For example: Clinton’s NAFTA and GATT, immigration crackdown, anti-welfare legislation, and deregulating the banking industry; Carter’s draft registration and industrial deregulation efforts; and I’ll guess that you know about the criticisms of Obama.)
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Intelligent Discontent of Montana,
Don Pogreba writes—
In Which the Independent Record Writes Half of an Editorial:
Today, the Independent Record offered up an editorial they felt was so important that they placed it on the top of their front page. The editorial rightly calls out the Montana Legislature for removing the MT FWP’s authority to spend ” $849,000 for the Upland Game Bird Program, $10.6 million for Habitat Montana, $460,000 for bighorn sheep habitat and $345,000 for fishing access site acquisition”—all while continuing to ask hunters and anglers to continue paying for the fees associated with the program.
It’s a terrible bill for a number of reasons. It’s not only wrong to ask sportsmen and sportswomen to pay for programs that would no longer be implemented, but reducing funding for programs that increases access to fishing sites and restores habitat for birds and other animals is critical to maintain those populations. Both hunters and those who simply appreciate Montana’s incredible natural beauty would lose out were these programs to be defunded.
So kudos to the IR for calling out the short-sighted decision. There’s just one little problem. Unfortunately, the IR forgot to write half of the editorial—leaving out the crucial detail about the nature of the vote. Other than mentioning in passing that the sponsor of HB 403, Dave Hagstrom, is a Republican, the editorial ignores the fact that the House vote to end Fish, Wildlife, and Parks authority to spend the money was an almost straight party-line vote, with no Democrats voting to support the bill. In fact, despite the vote, the word “Republican” does not even appear in the piece.
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Blue Hog Report of Arkansas,
Matt Campbell writes—
More on Dexter Suggs’ Academic Dishonesty:
At the conclusion of the last post about Little Rock School District Superintendent Dexter Suggs’ problems with plagiarism, I noted that his blatant lifting of pages of material from a 2005 University of Oklahoma was not the only example of what he had done.
That’s because, if you scroll yet again to the bibliography of his dissertation–say, page 116 in the dissertation—you won’t find “Lemke, Cheryl; Coughlin, Edward C. Technology in American Schools: Seven Dimensions for Gauging Progress. A Policymaker’s Guide.” Which, again, is interesting, because Suggs certainly found that source at some point when he was writing his own dissertation:
I mean, unless we are to believe that Dexter Suggs—he of the “ACT score between 13 and 15“–came up with the exact same verbiage as paid researchers for the Milken Family Foundation. And, honestly, if you believe that, you probably also believe that Dexter Suggs is working in the best interests of the district, so I’m not sure the rest of us can take you seriously, Mr. Hypothetical Person Who Believes Wrong Things.
Wait a second. Milken Family Foundation? As in the same people who gave Suggs an educator of the year award in Indiana in 2007? He ripped off their work?! Man, that is some serious cajones.
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New Hampshire Labor News,
MaryAnn Beaver writes—
Granite State Rumblings: Equal Pay Day:
Today is equal pay day. The day typically comes in early April and represents how far into the current year an average female employee would have to work to earn what her male counterpart brought home in the last calendar year.
Equal Pay Day comes more than a half century after President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which aimed “to prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers.” Despite that legislation and labor laws enacted since, the earnings gap between American men and women remains wide. [...]
To see how the marriage gap and gender gap combine to affect pay for Americans at a local level, the Voter Participation Center (VPC) analyzed pay in all 50 states. The results are startling. In New Hampshire unmarried women on average earn $43,300 a year, or just 75% of what men earn ($58,000) on average. In Maine, unmarried women earn 68% ($33,800) of what men earn ($50,000).
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Scrutiny Hooligans of North Carolina,
Tom Sullivan writes—
But will she fight?f
Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich isn’t worried about Hillary Clinton’s values or ideals. “I’ve known her since she was 19 years old,” he writes, “and have no doubt where her heart is. For her entire career she’s been deeply committed to equal opportunity and upward mobility.” The question Reich poses is: Will she fight?
If she talks about what’s really going on and what must be done about it, she can arouse the Democratic base as well as millions of Independents and even Republicans who have concluded, with reason, that the game is rigged against them.
The question is not her values and ideals. It’s her willingness to be bold and to fight, at a time when average working people need a president who will fight for them more than they’ve needed such a president in living memory.
Hillary Clinton gave a nod to the vocal and enthusiastic “Elizabeth Warren Wing” of the Democratic party in her announcement video, echoing Warren by saying “the deck is still stacked” against ordinary Americans. In 2008, she spoke about “invisible Americans,” but she couldn’t make the sale. There is an “Elizabeth Warren Wing” because Warren is credible, and she’s credible because she’s proven she’s a fighter. The question is will Hillary Clinton come out swinging or will she follow Bill and “triangulate”?
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Blue Oregon,
Chet Sheketoff writes—
What’s Worse Than Earning Oregon’s Inadequate Minimum Wage? Having it Stolen:
Oregon’s minimum wage falls far short of giving working families economic security, so imagine the difficulties workers face when they don’t even get paid the minimum.
A recent U.S Department of Labor study reported that minimum wage violations—a form of wage theft—push families into poverty and create costs for the public. Minimum wage violations, the study found, increased poverty by 11 percent in California and by 32 percent in New York. The report also found a connection between violations of the minimum wage and increased use of certain public assistance, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
We don’t know the comparable figures for Oregon, but we do know that minimum wage violations take place in our state. As a new fact sheet by the Oregon Center for Public Policy shows, of 1,100 wage claims filed with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) over a recent 12-month period, nearly one in four of them regarded violations of minimum wage law. Those complaints, of course, are only the “tip of the iceberg,” because many workers who suffer wage violations do not complain for fear of losing their job.
Which Oregon industries give rise to more minimum wage complaints? Complaints of minimum wage violations filed with BOLI arise more frequently among workers in restaurants and bars and the business services industry — mainly office cleaning and staffing agencies.
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BlueStem Prairie of Minnesota, writes—
Gruenhagen wants sustainable & efficient roads that quit being layabouts & pay for themselves:
Minnesota State Representative Glenn Gruenhagen told the Hutchinson Leader that a New tax won't fix old problems when it comes to repairing potholes and bridges.
Instead, the conservative Republican lawmaker wants those roads to quit lying around the countryside, becoming more efficient and sustainable by getting a job.
As toll roads.
Apparently, we shouldn't be throwing money at roads; rather, they should be throwing in back at us. The Leader's Jeremy Jones reports:
During a visit to the Leader Wednesday, Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, contrasted the differences between Gov. Dayton’s proposal to update Minnesota’s worn-out roads and bridges, and the plan introduced by Minnesota Republicans last week. . . .
While the debate plays out, Gruenhagen said he has a few ideas of his own. He has sponsored a bill that asks to study the idea of toll roads in Minnesota. Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, has introduced a companion bill in the senate. [...]
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Bluestem believes that maintaining and repairing our same old system of roads and bridges is probably a place to pile money before our Focus breaks an axle, but perhaps we're simply selfish that way, just as families fritter away piles money to replace leaky roofs and drafty windows, to borrow an analogy between government and family budgets that's dear to Republican hearts.
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Burnt Orange Report of Texas,
Joe Deshotel writes—
Social Justice: John Legend, The Confederacy & Body Cameras:
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 150 years ago today, but just yesterday witnesses at a House Committee hearing were forced to redebate the entire Civil War. The bill HB 1242 would remove the state holiday “Confederate Heros Day” and replace it with “Civil War Remembrance Day.” Some who opposed it—mostly consisting of Sons of Confederate Veterans members—even questioned whether the term “Civil War” was just Unionist propaganda since, in their minds, the Confederacy was a different country and not a warring faction.
Other members claimed this would be an altering or an erasing our history which it is not —hence the word “remembrance.” Maybe you could make a weak case for that when UT students voted to remove a statue of Jefferson Davis from their campus, but if you really want to see history being rewritten, your most reliable source would be the Texas State Board Of Education. They caught national attention for changing a reference to the ‘slave trade’ to something called the ‘Atlantic triangular trade.’ But the Sons’ point remains, we must remember our history (but that doesn’t mean we have to celebrate it) and not just so we don’t repeat it, but so we can better grasp how it affects our current social and economic inequality.
That’s where John Legend comes in. He will be in Austin this week to kick off his “Free America” campaign to end mass incarceration. He said, “I’m just trying to create some more awareness to this issue and trying to make some real change legislatively.” He will be in good company then on Thursday. A press release from the office of Senator Rodney Ellis stated that, “John Legend will lead a listening and learning tour across the country visiting with incarcerated individuals, law enforcement, legislators, and experts who’ve been thinking critically about America’s prison problem.” Sen. Ellis’ tenure has been a stand out of such criminal justice reforms, and their growing popularity among conservatives only gives more promise.