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 CenLamar of Louisiana, Lamar White, Jr. writes—15 of 16 Members of LSU’s Board of Supervisors Are White Men Who Collectively Donated Nearly $400K To Jindal:
Over the last twelve years, Blake Chatelain and his wife Belle have donated at least $28,000 in cash and an additional $2,000 in-kind to Bobby Jindal. They sent the majority of their donations from their former, relatively modest house on Whitechapel Boulevard in Alexandria, two blocks away from my own childhood home and on a street named after my great-grandfather’s small church in rural Rapides Parish. Less than four years after he launched Red River Bank, Chatelain sent Jindal, then only 33 years old, two different checks on the same day for $5,000, according to records maintained by the Louisiana Ethics Administration.
$5,000, it is worth noting, is the maximum amount allowed under the law from an individual donor, and therefore, Chatelain’s single-day $10,000 contribution, if true, is actually illegal and subject to penalties. Jindal, of course, lost his campaign in 2003, but Chatelain, it turns out, had made a wise investment. [...]
He and his wife continued to pour thousands of dollars into Jindal’s campaign fund. Two years ago, despite the fact that Bobby Jindal is now term-limited from running again for governor, Chatelain donated an additional $2,000 in cash to Jindal’s gubernatorial campaign fund. His superfluous donation to an essentially defunct campaign fund only makes sense if you also consider this: Since 2009, Blake Chatelain has served as one of Bobby Jindal’s appointees on the powerful LSU Board of Supervisors, a role that provides him with oversight and authority over hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts and carries enormous influence. Last year, Chatelain spearheaded the controversial search for a new university president, a process that was shrouded in secrecy and muddied by lawsuits from newspapers seeking access to public records. [...]
There are two things that tend to be true of the people Gov. Bobby Jindal appoints to the dozens of boards and commissions in Louisiana: They agree with the governor’s agenda. And they have contributed, often generously, to his campaign fund. At least 317 appointees, their families and their companies gave the governor’s campaign more than $1.8 million in contributions in a four-year period that ended in 2012, according to a joint examination of campaign finance records [...]
More excerpts from progressive state blogs can be read below the orange gerrymander.
At HorsesAss of Washington, Carl writes—Don’t Hold Your Nose:
I’ve been hearing a lot of people saying they don’t want to vote for Hillary Clinton because she’s sooooooo far to the right, and they’ll only vote for her in a general. And, you know, I’m not here to tell you how to vote in a primary where I haven’t even made up my mind yet, but that has always struck me as off.
I mean of the 3 candidates who got furthest in the last contested Democratic primary, her health care plan probably would have covered the most people. I’d have preferred universal single payer, but it wasn’t on offer. During that primary, other Democrats kept attacking her from the right. Her time in the Senate was pretty liberal, especially on domestic issues, and her tenure as Secretary of State was fairly remarkable. And while it’s early days right now, she has also run a fairly lefty campaign so far. This isn’t someone you have to hold your nose for!
Look, if you prefer some other candidate: great! That’s what primaries are for. If her vote on the Iraq war or how she or her surrogates campaigned 8 years ago is a deal breaker: you’re an adult vote how you want. If you think supporting someone else will push her to the left: go for it! But the idea that she’s some awful compromise doesn’t comport with how she has governed or campaigned.
At
NCPolicyWatch,
Rob Schofield writes—
The slumlord approach to government:
State political leaders held a self-congratulatory press conference on Tuesday at which they took credit for the earlier-than-scheduled payoff of North Carolina’s unemployment insurance debt to the federal government. According to Governor Pat McCrory, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, conservative “reforms” have made it possible for the state to “fix a broken system.”
This is from McCrory’s official statement:
“Getting more North Carolinians jobs and fixing our broken unemployment system was a top priority when I entered office. Thanks to quick action and tough decisions, North Carolina’s unemployment system is more efficient, more customer friendly and the time needed to settle appeals has been dramatically reduced. These steps, along with paying off this debt, are helping get more people back to work.” |
McCrory and legislative leaders went on to claim that the “tough decisions” made in the 2013 law, which imposed some of the biggest cuts to unemployment insurance benefits and eligibility in modern U.S. history, somehow helped the economy rebound and get “North Carolinians back to work.”
All in all, it was a moment of apparent political triumph for conservative leaders.
It was also moment in which the facts were wildly distorted.
At
Blue Mass Group,
thegreenmiles writes—
Grumpy Old Globe Columnist Lectures Climate Activists:
Hey, you kids! Pull up your pants and turn down that loud music! An old lawyer is here to condescendingly tell you how to stop with your popular, effective actions against climate change, and instead take up his unpopular niche solution that won’t at all solve global warming.
The fossil fuel divestment movement has gotten hundreds of colleges, communities, religious institutions and foundations to commit to selling off stocks, bonds or funds that invest in climate-disrupting fuels. But Boston Globe columnist Tom Keane is here to tell you divestment is stupid and all those kids are stupid too:
It’s easy to question the students’ tactics. For one, there’s a whiff of hypocrisy. The same students doubtless drive cars, ride the bus, and fly in airplanes, all powered by petrochemicals. Demanding divestment gives the illusion of clean hands without actually having to wash up. Of course, almost all of us who worry about climate change are hypocrites as well. Fossil fuels are ubiquitous and necessary. Yes, Al Gore would jet from country to country telling folks, basically, not to fly in jets. But how else could he get there? |
If you go anywhere you’re killing the planet! But we have to go places to get anywhere! I have no idea what Keane’s point is here. College kids are ruining the planet by taking public transportation?
At
Plunderbund of Ohio,
Joseph writes—
Whistleblower: For-Profit Charter School Lied About Attendance To Get State Cash:
Another charter school scandal is in the news. And once again, GOP leaders who collect millions in campaign cash from failing charter schools are suspicious of the allegations but eager to go after the unidentified whistleblower who brought the matter to their attention.
In case you missed it, this scandal involves the Ohio Virtual Academy, a chronically poor performing online school.
The top Republican and top Democrat on the House Education Committee received the whistleblower’s tip that the school failed to dis-enroll hundreds of chronically truant students in order to pad its rolls. The amount of state money the school receives depends on the number of students it enrolls.
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The Prairie Blog of North Dakota,
Jim Fuglie writes—
15 Minutes Of Fame For Heimdal, Between Harvey And Hamberg:
A Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad train went off the tracks near the small village of Heimdal, North Dakota, just east of Harvey, about 7:30 this morning. That’s not news any more, since the train was pulling 109 tank cars of oil, and when six of them caught on fire, it made national news pretty quickly, because it’s just the latest in a long string of oil train derailments resulting in big fires.
Since Heimdal is just a hundred miles or so from my house, I decided to go take a look for myself. I mean, I might never get to see an oil train fire close up again, and ever since my newspaper reporter days back in the 1970s, I’ve always chased fire trucks. I’m glad I went.
What I learned was that it was not the spectacular show put on by the derailment at Casselton a year and a half ago, thanks to the fact that the oil was in newer, safer tanker cars. What I saw when I arrived about three hours after the derailment was mostly smoke, sometimes black, sometimes white, as the oil in the six cars that caught fire slowly burned itself out. [...]
A BNSF employee drove up, parked beside me, and we started to visit. He asked me if I was a neighbor, and I nodded and pointed to my camera—“Just came to take a few pictures.” I asked him what had happened. He said the rail “split” about a quarter of a mile east of Heimdal. I asked how that could happen. He said it is not unusual in places like North Dakota, with extreme climate changes. In the winter, the tracks shrink from the cold. In the spring, they begin to expand again from the warm weather. Splits happen.
As we walked over to the tracks, he showed me the track maintenance that was going on. Between where we were, east of Heimdal, and the accident site, the company had been lifting up the track and putting about 12 inches of new rocks and gravel under it, and then setting the track back down and “shaking” it into place in the new bed of rocks. That process ended about half way down the track,where the old rail bed was still in place. He said down where the accident occurred, they had been doing the same thing.
At
Eclectablog of Michigan,
Eclectablog writes—
Former Detroit Emergency Manager Orr billed Atlantic City nearly $1,000/hour for emergency management consulting:
After leaving as Detroit’s Emergency Manager, bankruptcy attorney Kevyn Orr was quickly tapped to do consulting work for a newly-appointed Emergency Manager in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Orr has completed his work there after just over three months and returned to work at his former employer Jones Day last week.
During his brief time in Atlantic City, Orr cashed in handsomely. He billed the city $950 an hour for his expertise for a total pay off of $70,000. [...]
In contrast, the mayor of Atlantic City Don Guardian makes just $103,000 a year and Atlantic City emergency manager Kevin Lavin makes only $135,000 annually.
Kevyn Orr may have had to weather the slings and arrows of adversity during his tenure in Detroit but it’s now paying off for him. Hugely.
At
Blue in the Bluegrass of Kentucky,
Yellow Dog writes—
I Love Smell of Roasting Repug Candidacy:
Hal Heiner was going to beat him anyway, but wow, what a way to go down in flames two weeks before the primary.
The Republican primary for governor turned toxic Monday night as a woman publicly accused James Comer of physical abuse in 1991 and Comer's running mate assailed Hal Heiner's campaign for its contact with a blogger who had been posting about the alleged assault for months.
Comer on Monday night denied the allegation of abuse in an interview with the Herald-Leader, saying he would hold a press conference on Tuesday "to prove this is the worst political dirty trick in Kentucky history."
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Oh, honey, it gets so much better. Seems the woman claims Comer accompanied her on a trip to a Louisville abortion clinic in 1991. When abortion was, as it is now, 100 percent completely legal in Kentucky and throughout the entire United States.
Not that repug primary voters will forgive even a whisper of the A-word coming within 10 miles of a candidate.
Even if it's all a lie, just the accusations are enough to sink him in the primary. If they'd come out after he'd won the primary, repug voters would rally around him to beat the Democrat. But they've got three repug alternatives to the guy who's already labeled - justifiably or not - as the abortion candidate.
Kudos to Comer for apparently avoiding any mention of his invisible sky wizard, although that, too, will be held against him by the freakazoids who turn out in droves for repug primaries.
At
Green Mountain Daily of Vermont,
Sue Prent writes—
Forbes Flips:
In case you missed the bulletin, on May Day, the financial world just tipped a bit on its axis toward clean energy.
Forbes, that bastion of conventional wisdom on Wall Street broke with its tradition of support for nuclear energy when Jeff McMahon posed the following question in a bold headline:
"Did Tesla Just Kill Nuclear Power?"
The gist of the story is that, at a divestiture debate held at Northwestern University in Chicago last Thursday, "famed nuclear critic" (McMahon's characterization, not mine) Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education, stopped Argonne Laboratories director Jordi Roglans-Ribas dead in his tracks when he based his case for nuclear energy on that tired old saw with which we are all so familiar:
Roglans-Ribas had just finished arguing that any future free of fossil fuels would need nuclear power, which provides carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, supplying the reliability lacking in renewables like solar and wind.
Gundersen called that claim a "marketing ploy."
"We all know that the wind doesn't blow consistently and the sun doesn't shine every day," he said, "but the nuclear industry would have you believe that humankind is smart enough to develop techniques to store nuclear waste for a quarter of a million years, but at the same time human kind is so dumb we can't figure out a way to store solar electricity overnight. To me that doesn't make sense."
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I love it.
... And Arnie had the inside story to back-up his position. He broke the news to the assembly of earnest young minds that, at about 10:00 that same evening, they could expect an historic announcement from entrepreneur, Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, that an industrial scale storage battery was about to enter the market, ushering in an era in which the cost of energy storage (and therefore truly clean alternatives) would ultimately be driven down to rock bottom.
At
Nebraska Appleseed,
Jeff Sheldon writes—
Take Action! Stand up for Nebraska’s poorest children:
We need you to take action today to stand up for Nebraska’s poorest families with children.
This week, Governor Ricketts vetoed LB 89, a bill that would use existing funds to slightly increase Nebraska’s Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) benefit for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Take Action!
Contact your State Senator today! Urge them to stand up for our state’s poorest children and families by voting to override the Governor’s veto!
The bill passed with 30 votes last week and is an important step to help Nebraska’s poorest families work their way out of poverty, meet their children’s needs, and get ahead. Only families that make very low incomes qualify to receive ADC. [...]
At a time when two-thirds of Nebraska children who are in the child welfare system enter because their families cannot meet their basic needs, we must act to fight poverty and keep families together!
At
Calitics,
Brian Leubitz writes—
What is Carly Fiorina Running for?
It is never good when an officer in your own party in your home state says this about your candidacy:
California GOP Vice Chairwoman Harmeet Dhillon said Monday she could envision Fiorina's campaign propelling her to a cabinet post or even a vice-presidential nomination.
"But I don't know a single person who thinks she'll be our presidential nominee," Dhillon said. (Josh Richman/BANG)
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Perhaps she is using the campaign as a way to elevate her national profile for a cabinet gig. But that seems an awfully expensive and laborious task just to raise one's profile.
She's failed at HP, though I do give her credit for um, reducing costs while she was there. She's a failed Senate candidate here in California, and now she is looking to also become a failed presidential candidate as well?
You have to admire her tenacity against all the odds in this somewhat quixotic run, but at least I have high hopes for more Demon Sheep videos.
At
ColoradoPols,
Colorado Pols writes—
Republicans In a Panic Over Morgan Carroll:
News yesterday, first reported by the Denver Post, that Colorado Senate Minority Leader Morgan Carroll is considering a run for the congressional seat currently held by Republican Rep. Mike Coffman is spreading quickly–and judging by the reaction today from the National Republican Congressional Committee and its surrogates, she’s got their undivided attention. The mere prospect of a Carroll run in CD-6 elicited this shrill statement in response:
It’s clear that Morgan Carroll’s ultra-liberal reputation precedes her, and no amount of spin will convince 6th District voters otherwise.
NRCC Comment: “After years of championing far-left policies in the Colorado State Senate, it is clear Morgan Carroll’s ultra-liberal positions are out of step with the priorities of everyday Coloradans. From raising taxes on Colorado families to cheerleading Hickenlooper’s disastrous gun grab, Carroll has shown she is more interested in pushing her far-left ideology than helping Colorado families.” – NRCC Spokesman Zach Hunter
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The great irony here—one of them, anyway—is how Mike Coffman was forced to dramatically reinvent his own political image following redistricting in 2011. Long a hard-right conservative in the mold of his immediate predecessor in CD-6 Tom Tancredo, Coffman’s continued survival in his highly competitive new district is largely attributable to his willingness to flip-flop on prior stands in order to present himself as a “moderate,” if not a full-on liberal Republican.