This week at 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 blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement or endorsement of its contents.
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At Bleeding Heartland of Iowa, desmoinesdem writes—IA-Sen: Judge playing down, Hogg playing up differences on water quality:
By entering the U.S. Senate race, former Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge ensured that environmental issues would become salient for many Iowa Democrats trying to choose among the four candidates running against Senator Chuck Grassley.
During the past two weeks, Judge has sought to minimize the daylight between herself and State Senator Rob Hogg on the need to address water pollution. [...]
Another side of Judge’s environmentally friendly messaging: she is rumored to be telling potential supporters in private conversations that she and Hogg have the same position on the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit against three northwest Iowa drainage districts.
On its face, the claim sounds preposterous. Hogg is a longtime champion of environmental causes and a past winner of the Sierra Club Iowa chapter’s Public Service Award. Judge is a past winner of the Iowa Farm Bureau’s Distinguished Service to Agriculture award. Soon after the Des Moines Water Works filed its lawsuit last year, she became a board member and media surrogate for the so-called Iowa Partnership for Clean Water, funded by the Farm Bureau and other groups that have opposed various efforts to reduce water pollution.
Nevertheless, Judge’s campaign has managed to insert an equivalency narrative into some accounts of the Senate race.
At Democratic Diva of Arizona, Donna writes—Doug Ducey Joins Scott Walker in Demanding Ability to Drug Test Food Stamp Recipients:
For some reason it has escaped notice here in Arizona, but Governor Doug Ducey put his name on a letter from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who chairs the Agriculture Subcommittee in Congress, about the supposed need to drug test SNAP recipients so as to break their “dependence on government”.
Dear Mr. Aderholt:
As you know, multiple states have recently enacted drug-testing provisions as part of the state-based requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP or food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service administers this program at the federal level, but disagrees with these drug-testing efforts.
We believe that Congress specifically gave states the flexibility to decide whether to implement this common-sense reform in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. This Act provides that “States shall not be prohibited by the Federal Government from testing welfare recipients for use of controlled substances nor from sanctioning welfare recipients who test positive for use of controlled substances.” 21 U.S.C. § 862(b). [...]
As has been repeatedly demonstrated, this type of drug testing is needlessly humiliating and a complete waste of time and money.
At Capital & Main of California, Ana Beatriz Cholo writes—New Accountability Report Cards Flunk Many Democrats:
Last week, the Courage Campaign, which leads a new accountability project whose members include the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action (ACCE), Progressive Kick, Presente.org and ColorOfChange, released the People’s Report Card of California. This scorecard examines every assembly member’s vote on 25 critical bills from the previous year. The report card measures whether legislators voted to prioritize the needs of their constituents over corporations or special interest groups. Its genesis came late last year when Governor Jerry Brown was trying to push through two big climate-change bills, says Eddie Kurtz, the Courage Campaign’s executive director.
“This was the rare policy where the governor was championing progressive legislation that even had the support of President Obama. But this group of Democrats stood up against him and took their talking points from Big Oil,” Kurtz says.
“The bottom line is that with two landmark climate-change bills, California would have led the world in taking on climate change, but these Democrats blocked it,” Kurtz says. “When that happened, none other than theSacramento Bee came out and editorialized that Big Oil owns Sacramento.”
“There is this problem of Democrats who don’t vote like Democrats,” he adds.
At TxSharon’s BlueDaze of Texas, TXsharon writes—"When the Wind Blows”: When Rhyming, Renewable Energy Adventure for Kids:
When the Wind Blows is my favorite book from, at least, the past couple of years. I confess: I cried when I read it but the tears were from relief. This is a gentle, beautiful book that instills hope and left me thinking: Okay, it’s not that hard so let’s get this on.
Children these days have many worries. When the Wind Blows gives them hope and encouragement while teaching how wind energy works. Buy it for your children then let’s all sit down and read it together. It feels so good you hardly realize you’ve learned something new.
I love this page because I love me a coke-bottle-nose dog and because, before I was TXsharon, I was a sailor. I could hike out on my Hobie Cat or chill on my San Juan. [...]
At Blue Oklahoma, DocHoc writes—Conservatives Create Oklahoma Brain Drain:
So another Oklahoma brain drain officially begins.
This is when a lot of teachers and other intellectuals leave the state because they either can’t find jobs here or they’re paid so poorly here they almost have to go elsewhere because other states will pay them much more money.
This brain drain has been brought to you by conservative policies that have led to a current revenue failure and a $1.3 billion budget shortfall for next fiscal year, which begins in July. Teacher and other school positions are getting eliminated in droves and the oil and gas industry layoffs—some of those fired people are highly educated as well—continue. It’s a real disaster.
Here’s how the conservatives created the brain drain:
In recent years, they cut income taxes, cuts that primarily benefited the rich. They also handed out major tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. They encouraged that industry’s reckless production policies through the GOP “drill, baby, drill” mantra, and that has led to a worldwide fossil fuel glut and a decline in gross production tax revenue here. It’s bad times here for a lot of people.
At Miscellany Blue of New Hampshire, William Tucker writes—‘Pedophiles are coming!’ Transgender policy opponents embrace anti-LGBT rhetoric:
As supporters of North Carolina’s harsh anti-LGBT legislation embrace discredited, homophobic rhetoric to defend the new law, a similar scene is playing out in the Granite State.
Last week, the Union Leader reported fliers reading, “Pedophiles are Coming!” had been posted on windshields around Candia urging residents to attend a school board meeting to oppose a proposed policy intended to “ensure the safety, comfort and healthy development of the transgender or gender nonconforming student.”
The fliers warned the policy would allow boys and girls to use the same bathrooms and showers and included the name of Ann Marie Banfield, the education liaison for Cornerstone Action who has been leading the charge against the policy.
Banfield told WMUR that she is not responsible for the flyer and does not know who is. While acknowledging that she is opposed to the proposed policy, she said “she would never condone that type of message.”
It is, however, exactly the type of message Banfield previously voiced to oppose legislation that would have extended anti-discrimination protections to transgender Granite Staters. AP reported Banfield, in a 2009 appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “testified she was angry that lawmakers would consider protecting potential predators from walking into women’s locker rooms or bathrooms.”
At Montana Cowgirl, Cowgirl writes—Gianforte Dumps Fortune On Television Ad Buy:
[Republican] Greg Gianforte (or as Twitter has dubbed him “GiantFortune”) has dumped hundreds of thousands on a television ad buy [for the governor’s race], even though he only has about $300k in the bank.
[Democratic Gov. Steve] Bullock has consistently out-raised Gianforte and has over $1.1 million cash on hand. This means Gianforte has already dipped into his personal fortune in attempt to get his campaign off the ground–and running the risk of alienating voters who don’t want Montana’s chief executive office to be sold off to the richest candidate.
As I’ve mentioned before, Gianforte’s got a real problem here. Not only is Bullock the most popular elected in the state, he’s also got a stellar economic report card across the board.
More Montanans are working than ever before, for starters, and unemployment is a full point below the national average. Plus we’re the top state for entrepreneurial activity and are ranked by JP Morgan as the most fiscally prudent state in the U.S.
At Dakota Free Press, Corey A. Heidelberger writes—A.G. Jackley Suspects Flandreau Indians Didn’t Really Burn the Tribal Marijuana Crop:
Remember how the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe lit their whole stash of marijuana on fire last fall and suspended their plans to open a pot lounge in their bowling alley? Attorney General Marty Jackley thinks the tribe was playing a trick on us:
Attorney General Marty Jackley said he is investigating the reported destruction of the tribe’s marijuana crop in November after it suspended plans to legalize marijuana on its reservation.
“I don’t think for a minute that they destroyed $1 million worth of marijuana. I don’t know where that went and it’s an open case. We never shut that case,” Jackley said in an interview with Argus Leader Media. “We never got an opportunity to check what was destroyed” [Dana Ferguson, “Up in Smoke? State Investigating Tribal Marijuana Crop,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2016.04.11].
A pile of weed burns on TV, and Marty the Skeptic says he doesn’t believe the Indians burned what they said they burned. But a fire-resistant safe goes missing from the scene of a white man’s crime, and the Attorney General says the most likely explanation is that the safe evaporated. Selective skepticism, anyone?
At The Mudflats of Alaska, Shannyn Moore writes— More Guns, Less Budget in Juneau:
Last month a woman took her own life on the steps of the Courthouse in Juneau. The Legislature went on lockdown — after ushering aides and press out of the room. As a result, the Legislature is considering new protocols to keep their own precious souls safe from any gun violence that might befall them while at work. I get it. The Capitol building is a no-gun zone. But what I find truly remarkable is that Sen. Pete Kelly will even go to work in a “gun-free zone.” According to the “logic” in his op-ed on SB 174, the Legislature is really just asking for a bad guy with a gun to come in blazing since Pete is so sure there’s no good guy with a gun to defend them.
Oh, that’s fantasy thinking. The ammosexuals who think they’re going to be cool-handed heroes when the time comes have a better chance of figuring out how to fly should they ever get shot out of a cannon. Sailing through the legal process like a cop-killer bullet hitting a Kevlar vest is the Guns on Campus bill. I guess it’s too much to wish the Common Sense Fairy would visit Juneau and put some sense under the pillows of Alaska lawmakers.
Since all our fiscal woes have been solved, it’s really fantastic that the Republican majority in both houses has seen fit to make sure the governor can’t accept money from the federal government unless they deem it fit for spending. Brilliant move. Oh, and that pesky Daylight Saving Time will save about the same to our treasury … nothing.
This crop of cronies would be comical if they weren’t so dangerous. The majority of Alaskans have testified that our institutions of learning — including dorms — be gun-free. I know, it’s like we remember how passionate and sometimes confrontational the conversations got during our college years.
At Plunderbund of Ohio, John Michael Spinelli writes—The Big Shrink: Receding Voter Rolls Not Going Unnoticed Or Unchallenged:
A key fact in the story of the big shrink is Ohio voters is that there used to be 757,998 more registered voters eight years ago than there are today. The Northwest territory state that once was a growing destination for people looking for unbounded opportunity they couldn’t find elsewhere is today among the slowest growing states.
Census Bureau stats show Ohio’s population in 2013 at 11,570,808, which represents an increase of 34,305 residents or 0.3 percent since 2010. Only three states—Vermont at 0.14 percent, Michigan at 0.12 percent and West Virginia at 0.07 percent—had lower or slower population growth rates.
With a population growth rate this low, it’s hard to explain why it lost hundreds and hundreds of of thousands of voters over a relatively shit time span. [...]
Some are taking note and action on what’s happening.
Reports say that Demos and the ACLU of Ohio have filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) against Ohio’s secretary of state. The two organizations want Ohio to stop illegally removing voters from its voter registration rolls in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
At Blue Oregon, Vanessa Keitges, Robert Packard, and Mark Edlen write—Home About Contact Advertise Contributors Guest Columns BlueOregon Action Search BlueOregon Search Wheeler will help Portland regain green building leadership
After years of global recognition for innovative green policies, from planning to transportation to green buildings, it’s time for the City of Portland to re-prioritize its position in the green tech world?
Portland pioneered some of the first green building projects in the country, delivered the iconic South Waterfront, started eco-districts, and enacted America’s first-ever eco-roof policy, ushering in national growth in sustainable business.
Unfortunately, Portland, once the envy of the world for our green buildings that combined smart style with sustainability, is now seeing other cities not only catch up to our leadership but in some cases exceed our leadership.
In the last two years Portland green roof installations dropped by 90 percent, leading the former President of the U.S. Green Building Council, Roger Platt, to ask last year, “Is Portland losing its appetite for sustainability?” That should sting.
For Portland to compete with cities now outpacing us in green job growth and innovative sustainability, we need strong public leadership.
At Raging Chicken Press of Pennsylvania, Sean Kitchen writes—#VerizonStrike: Workers Gather Outside at Call Center to Show Solidarity with Members Forced to Work Night Shifts:
At 6 am this morning, 40,000 Verizon workers walked off the job, and and just outside of Harrisburg on Union Deposit Road in Lower Paxton Township, roughly 150 Communication Workers of America Local 13000 members picketed outside an overnight call center to show solidarity for members who have been forced to work the overnight shifts.
CWA members have been working without a contract since August, but Verizon has been raking in billions of dollars in profit a month during that time period. According to a pamphlet handed out at the picket, Verizon has made $39 billion in profits over the last three years, and $18 billion in 2015. CEO Lowell McAdam’s salary is 200 times as much as the average Verizon employee, but this hasn’t stopped the telecommunication giant from demanding cuts in health care benefits, salaries and pension obligations.
Another sticking point that hasn’t been talked about as much deals with infrastructure or the company’s lack of commitment to expanding broadband access across the Northeastern United States and the Midstate region. Mark Eisenhauer, Local 13000 Unit 32 President, explains that Verizon has “handpicked areas” where they have installed their high speed fiber optics internet service, VerizonFIOS, so they can get the “quickest return” on their profit. Eisenhauer indicates that most of Harrisburg and Hershey have access to the fiber optics. As do parts of Lebanon County have access, but Lancaster county does not have any access to the high speed internet product.