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 Dakota Free Press, caheidelberger writes—Board Flip-Flops for Colonialism, Keeps “Harney” on South Dakota’s Highest Peak:
Not everything went well in Pierre yesterday. Across the street from the Capitol, the South Dakota Board on Geographic Names went back on its earlier support for removing the name of Indian-massacring General William S. Harney from South Dakota’s highest mountain and decided to recommend that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names keep the name as is.
The board heard one more blast of the colonialist rancor and ignorance that characterized most of the opposition displayed in the written public comments against the proposed new Lakota name, “Hinhan Kaga (Making of Owls)."
“This issue should never have went this far,” Glen Lockner of Wall said. “We can speak freely and move freely because of men like him.” [...]
It is our county, it is not the Indians’ county,” he said, adding that if the name change was put to a vote in Pennington County, “It would go down like a rock.”
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This land was made for you and me—but we beat you, so buzz off, you loser Indians!
You can read more excerpts from progressive state blogs below the orange gerrymander.
At Blog for Arizona, AZ BlueMeanie writes—SCOTUS appeal to overturn precedent for union ‘agency shop’ rule:
What is most sad about this situation is that these are teachers working for public schools, who benefit greatly from the collective bargaining that teachers unions provide, but these “free riders” want to enjoy those benefits without having to pay for them.
And if these “free riders” win — almost a certainty given that the U.S. Supreme Court invited this appeal in an opinion from last year — unions will be financially strapped to provide the very representation and benefits to their members that these “free riders” take for granted.
Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog explains the New threat to public employee unionism:
Reacting to an undoubted invitation by the Supreme Court to raise the issue, a group of California public school teachers on Tuesday persuaded the Justices to review the constitutionality of requiring government workers to pay fees to support any labor union activity. The case involves a direct request for the Court to overrule a 1977 decision that had upheld such fees under “agency shop” rules.
It has been clear, since the Court’s ruling exactly one year ago in Harris v. Quinn, that a majority of the Court would welcome a plea to undo the first precedent extending “agency shop” rules to the public sector — Abood v. Detroit Education Association. That four-decade-old precedent was roundly criticized in the lead opinion in Harris, but the opinion stopped short of saying that the ruling should be overturned.
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At
The Left Hook of California,
Louise Auerhahn writes—
San Jose Moves to Create Good, Local Jobs in Construction:
Even though the construction industry offers local on-the-job training pathways through the state-registered apprenticeship system, too many developers are bypassing the apprentice system, paying wages well below the area standard and instead bringing in workers from outside the area to labor in often unsafe conditions.
Some Silicon Valley cities are starting to address this issue through public policy. Echoing the Sunnyvale City Council’s recent vote for a local hiring and apprentice utilization program, San Jose Councilmember Ash Kalra last week introduced a proposal to develop a “Good Jobs Ordinance” for the City of San Jose. San Jose’s program would build on Sunnyvale’s model while broadening it to leverage San Jose’s workforce development agency work2future as well as the several billion dollars in public construction and projects on public land anticipated over the next few years.
At Tuesday’s City Council priority setting session, after hearing numerous community members give testimony about the need for better job and apprenticeship opportunities, nine of the 11 City Council members voted to prioritize the good jobs proposal, making it the highest scoring issue of any of the 18 nominated ideas.
The City Council also prioritized a second issue critical to local construction workers: developing policies to combat wage theft. Wage theft is the rampant, although illegal, practice of paying workers less than they are owed or not paying them at all. The Council’s high ranking of this issue will help ensure that cracking down on wage theft violators who steal millions of dollars from workers is a top priority for San Jose.
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My Left Nutmeg of Connecticut,
Jon Pelto writes—
CT's Legislative Democrats set to make a bad budget worse:
Governor Dannel Malloy must have been singing the children's song "Roll Over, Roll Over," because it appears that Democrats in the Connecticut State Senate and House of Representatives will return to Hartford today to "fix" a bad state budget by making it worse. [...]
In an effort to appease big business, the changes to the budget include another $25 million in health care cuts to Connecticut's poorest residents and a $25 million in cuts from an "undisclosed list" of government services and programs. [...]
Under both the "old" and "new" budget plan, the state will continue to implement record budget cuts to a variety of vital state programs and services.
In addition, although the legislature's original tax plan added a minor bump in the income tax rate for the super-rich; both the original and revised versions of the state budget continue Governor Malloy's long-standing commitment to coddle Connecticut's wealthiest taxpayers by refusing to require them to pay their fair share in income taxes.
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Progress Illinois,
Ellyn Fortino writes—
'Moral Monday' Activists Protest Rauner's Proposed Budget Cuts:
As the budget stalemate in Springfield continues, several grassroots activists and clergy with Fair Economy Illinois participated in an act of civil disobedience during a downtown Chicago protest for "fair share" state revenue options. Progress Illinois provides highlights from the "Moral Monday" demonstration, during which seven protesters were taken into police custody.
Seven Illinois activists participated in civil disobedience late Monday afternoon during a Chicago "Moral Monday" protest against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed budget cuts.
As part of the protest, a few hundred clergy and grassroots activists with Fair Economy Illinois marched from the Thompson Center to 131 S. Dearborn St., the downtown office building of Citadel LLC. The hedge fund firm's founder and CEO Ken Griffin has given Rauner millions in campaign donations.
Seven protesters, including five religious leaders, were taken into Chicago police custody after refusing to leave the Citadel building lobby, where they held up a banner reading, "Rauner/Griffin. Fair Budget Now! No Cuts! Tax the Rich!"[...]
During the demonstration, activists chanted, "Love thy neighbor as thyself. Tax the rich and share the wealth."
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Kansas Free Press,
Diane Wahto writes—
Democrats Might Win? Not if the Three G's, A, and O Have Anything To Do With It.:
Some people seem to forget that the current Republican Party, both in Kansas and in the nation has been taken over by extremist right-wingers who cater to the politics of the Koch-backed Tea Party and Americans for Prosperity, Arthur Laffer, and Grover Norquist, among others who seem to think government supported by a equality in taxation is next to pledging one's first-born to the devil.
These groups, while not overtly religious themselves, pander to fundamentalist Christians to join their privatization cause, even when that cause hits them in the pocketbook and elsewhere. What counts for this group is not how much they will have to pay in taxes to support public services, highways, and public schools. No, what these people vote on can be distilled thusly: Three G's A, and O. God, Gays, Guns, Abortion and Obama.
How Kansans, once relative moderates that leaned Republican, and who voted for Democrat Kathleen Sebelius for governor twice, made such a hard right turn may explained by looking at the current occupant of the White House. While most of those people deny they are racists, their complaints against Pres. Barack Obama can be found in their unhappiness that he and his family live in the house that has traditionally been the domain of white males.
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Capital & Main of California,
Judith Lewis Mernit writes—
The Persuaders: Western States Petroleum Association:
Here’s something you probably didn’t know happened in California in the last few years, and maybe it’s something you never imagined could happen: In 2011, two high-ranking state regulators were fired from their posts for pissing off the oil industry. No one really disputes the veracity of that statement; not even Governor Jerry Brown. “They were blocking oil exploration in Kern County,” the Sacramento Bee reported Brown announcing at an event six months later. “I fired them, and oil permits for drilling went up 18 percent.”
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, also celebrated without restraint, unconcerned that the people of California might detect her hand guiding the Governor’s pink-slip pen. After the firings, Reheis-Boyd boasted to the Los Angeles Times that her industry once again had a “clear pathway for people to get permits and proceed with drilling in this state. The communications lines are very open.”
2 regulators demanded safety records of underground injection wells. Gov. Brown fired them.
To be clear, Derek Chernow, then acting director of the Department of Conservation, and his deputy, Elena Miller, who headed up the Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). weren’t actually guilty of poor communication or holding up permits. They’d simply been insisting that the oil industry adhere to certain laws, such as the California Environmental Quality Act and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. They were acting fast, as disaster loomed: In June of 2011, a 54-year-old Chevron employee, Robert David Taylor, had been killed when he fell into a sinkhole that opened up at a well site near the Kern County city of Taft; one month later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned state regulators that drillers weren’t doing enough to protect groundwater at wells where they injected steam and chemicals into the ground to draw out stubborn crude.
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Left in Alabama,
Larry Lee writes—
Accountability Act Really Is A Great Private School Giveaway:
New information from the Department of Revenue shows at least $4 million that should have gone to the Education Trust Fund in 2014 went instead, to pay tuition for students already enrolled in private schools. While the law was intended to help "failing schools" and their students, more than 1,000 students in private schools got scholarships. This is allowable under the Alabama Accountability Act.
Under the accountability act, scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) raise money from both individual and corporate contributors. When donors adhere to certain guidelines, they receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit against their Alabama tax liability. Since the diverted funds would normally go to the state Education Trust Fund, any dollar received by an SGO is a dollar that is unavailable to be used to fund education needs.
Bottom line, in 2014 we took $4 million away from the Education Trust Fund and gave it to private schools to pay tuition and fees for students who attended that school for at least one year prior to getting a scholarship.
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Plunderbund of Ohio,
David DeWitt writes—
State Rep Comes Out With Proposal For Ohio Pastor Protection Act:
Paranoid conservative backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court’s affirmation of equal marriage rights continues in most entertaining fashion, with state Rep. Nino Vitale joining the fun this week with a proposed Ohio Pastor Protection Act.
In his first go at being primary sponsor for any bill, the freshman Republican from Urbana asked colleagues if they’d be interested in co-sponsoring the act in an email Tuesday.
At least his constituents now know the type of issue that blows his skirt up: redundantly re-legislating the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
“I will soon be introducing legislation that will protect Ohio pastors, clergy, and ministers and the property associated with the religious organization,” Vitale wrote, ignoring the fact that such protection already exists and has never been seriously threatened except in the fevered imaginations of conservatives like Vitale.
“This protection will allow these individuals to exercise religious liberty and only perform ceremonies if they are in line with their deeply held religious beliefs.” Which, of course, is already the case.
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Bleeding Heartland of Iowa,
desmoinesdem writes—
Weekend open thread: Hostile environments:
I was planning to compile presidential candidate reactions to this week's two big U.S. Supreme Court decisions for the weekend thread, but this disturbing feature for the Kansas City Star derailed my plans. Jason Hancock and Steve Kraske report on a pervasive hostile work environment for women at the Missouri Capitol. I've posted a few excerpts below, but you need to click through and read the whole piece, which explores the toxic culture fueling the harassment and lack of accountability.
Too many women working at the Iowa statehouse have had similar experiences. I've heard some appalling stories in private communications, and no, it's not a partisan problem. My impression is that over the last 15 to 20 years, the work environment at the Capitol in Des Moines has improved, and sexual harassment is no longer as prevalent for Iowa legislative staffers as it is in Jefferson City, Missouri. That said, if even half of what Kirsten Anderson alleged in court filings is true, the culture at the Iowa statehouse is far from where it needs to be.
For a politically-engaged young person starting a career, there can hardly be a more exciting job than working in a state legislature. I feel physically ill thinking of how many women have had powerful men ruin these potentially enriching experiences. Harassment can cause severe emotional trauma. One former Missouri legislative staffer told the Kansas City Star, "The best thing that ever happened to me was getting another job and leaving that building." Hardly any of the perpetrators faced real consequences for their unethical (and in some cases illegal) conduct toward female interns or legislative employees.
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Scrutiny Hooligans of North Carolina,
Tom Sullivan writes—
Them boys ain’t goin’ gentle into that good Knight:
You knew it was coming as soon as calls to remove Confederate battle flags caught fire across the South starting in Columbia, SC:
The Ku Klux Klan has been approved to hold a protest rally at the Statehouse next month against removing the Confederate battle flag, with the group calling accused mass murderer Dylann Roof a “young warrior.”
The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan applied for the permit last week to hold a rally for 100 to 200 people on July 18 on the north side of the Statehouse.
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If you are holding your breath for Fox News’ Griff Jenkins to cover the Klan rally live just to remind us all that racism is dead and only racists and race baiters say otherwise, don’t. [...]
Violent insurrection ending in what Southerners in other circumstances call an ass whuppin’ (followed by decades of Jim Crow, domestic terrorism, and thousands of lynchings) is the heritage some here are most proud of and remember with Confederate battle flags. Of 400 years of history on these shores, the 4 years of violent treason are the ones by which some Southerners still define themselves. This makes them a very special breed of 1%-er. As John Fugelsang put it in the video I linked to the other day, it is “a heritage of quitting America because you want to start your own country to keep people as pets.”
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Blue Oregon,
Chuck Sheketoff writes—
Will lawmakers disappoint taxpayers with their corporate minimum tax “fix?”:
When you take your cat to the veterinarian to be “fixed” you expect it to be permanent. You’d be disappointed if the vet told you your cat could get pregnant again in six years.
Well, taxpayers ought to be disappointed with how the Oregon legislature is trying to “fix” the corporate minimum tax loophole that allows hundreds of corporations to avoid paying Oregon’s corporate minimum tax.
As you may recall, two years ago the Oregon Supreme Court sanctioned an end-run around the minimum tax by allowing corporations to apply unused tax credits against the minimum tax, sometimes lowering their liability to zero. The case, brought by trucking company Con-way, found an error in the minimum tax statute drafted by the legislature’s lawyers. That error has allowed hundreds of corporations to game the minimum tax to avoid paying anything in state corporate income taxes.
Now lawmakers are claiming to fix the drafting error (see HB 2171A or sections 43 to 45 in the -6 amendment to HB 2171), but they are placing a sunset on the minimum tax fix. That’s right: the legislature is claiming to fix the problem, but only for six years.