State Legislators taking direction from RNC on right to discriminate laws

I Believe in Equal RightsLast week, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed an extreme new law that blocks local governments from expanding protections for members of the LGBT community. Unfortunately, North Carolina isn’t the only state where “Right to Discriminate” laws are being enacted. While these discriminatory measures against members of the LGBT community are being passed in legislatures across the country, it is important to remember that they are officially supported and furthered by the national Republican Party.

Just a month ago, a resolution was passed and approved by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus condemning “government overreach” of the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination against transgender students. It said:

“The Republican National Committee calls on the Department of Education to rescind its interpretation of Title IX that wrongly includes facility use issues by transgender students. Continue reading “State Legislators taking direction from RNC on right to discriminate laws”

Speaker Daudt’s Sweetheart Deal

Kurt DaudtThis morning, DFL State Chair Ken Martin, held a press conference on House Speaker Kurt Daudt’s debt situation.  Here’s his remarks:

Thank you for joining us here today.

Last week we learned that debt collectors have sued Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Daudt three times in the past year over thousands of dollars in credit card charges, and that he also was late paying taxes for land he owns.

First, before I begin, let me tell you what this press conference is NOT about.  It is not about someone dealing with credit card debt or financial difficulties, many Minnesotans face similar challenges. This is also not about someone facing legal challenges, which again too many Minnesotans coming out of the Great Recession have to endure. 

This is about a powerful person using their powerful friends and influence to get out of their trouble.  While ordinary Minnesotans deal with issue like these daily without help from powerful friends, Speaker of the House Kurt Daudt used his connections and influence to get out of his financial difficulties.  If only other Minnesotans had the same opportunity. 

Real Minnesotans don’t have a lobbying firm in their corner to get them out of trouble. Real Minnesotans pay their bills or face the consequences. Real Minnesotans facing financial troubles are focused on feeding their families and keeping the lights on, not taking trips around the world, or driving a fancy Lexus like Kurt Daudt.  Continue reading “Speaker Daudt’s Sweetheart Deal”

Republican Islamophobia Is Creating Tens Of Thousands Of New Muslim Voters

The following article by Rory Mondshein appeared on the National Memo’s website March 13, 2016:

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Muslim Student Association (MSA) West President Bashar Subeh (R), 20, a student at Cal Poly Pomona, watches the Republican presidential debate with other students at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) office in Anaheim, California December 15, 2015.  REUTERS/Jason Redmond

Over the past few months, we’ve seen nearly the entire Republican Party coalesce around the rhetoric that Donald Trump pioneered just a few months ago: one massive hyperventilation over immigration, trade, and above all, Islam. No matter how much they’ve disavowed Mr. Trump’s language — some of them haven’t at all — nearly every Republican governor and every candidate for president echoed Trump’s language on monitoring or excluding Syrian refugeesafter the Paris terrorist attacks. Most followed suit when it came to a religious test on domestic surveillance.

Since announcing his candidacy in June, Mr. Trump has claimed that Muslims celebrated 9/11 by the thousands in New York and New Jersey and that “Islam hates us.” Trump has used Islamophobic rhetoric to justify his policy proposals, which include a Muslim travel ban, a national registry to identify Muslim-­Americans, and greater governmental surveillance on Muslims, including on mosques, in the style of the NYPD. Continue reading “Republican Islamophobia Is Creating Tens Of Thousands Of New Muslim Voters”

No, raising the local minimum wage doesn’t hurt local businesses

The following article by Jared Bernstein and Ben Spielberg appeared on the Washington Post website on February 26, 2016:

Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the author of “The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity.” Ben Spielberg works on issues related to inequality, economic opportunity and full employment at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Money in EnvelopeIn 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the nation’s first minimum-wage law. It set the wage at $0.25 an hour and covered only a fifth of the workforce. Speaking to the country the night before he signed the bill, Roosevelt told listeners to “not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day” tell them “that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry.”

Last August, almost 80 years later, the city council of Birmingham, Ala., voted 7 to 0 (with one abstention) to become the first city in the Deep South to enact a minimum wage above today’s federal level of $7.25. The ordinance planned an increase to $8.50 per hour by July 2016, with a second increase to $10.10 set for July 2017.

In response, state lawmakers leapt from “calamity-howling” to obstructionism. The Alabama legislature this past week passed a bill designed to block Birmingham and other cities not just from raising the local wage floor but also from mandating benefits such as paid sick leave. Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard (R) insists that the bill isn’t about the policies themselves but about preventing “all sorts of problems” that arise when cities are allowed to set their own minimum wages, presumably because there’s nothing preventing local businesses from relocating to avoid the higher labor costs engendered by an increase. Continue reading “No, raising the local minimum wage doesn’t hurt local businesses”

Congresswoman Asks Why Drug Tests Are Only Being Considered For Food Stamp Recipients, Not Farmers

The following article by Bryce Covert was posted on the ThinkProgress.org website February 25, 2016:

imagesUnder current law, states aren’t allowed to require drug screening and testing for low-income people to enroll in the food stamps program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). That’s something Wisconsin, which is fighting the issue in court, and Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who chairs the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee that administers SNAP, want to change. Aderholt has has unveiled a measure that would pave the way for states that want to add a drug testing requirement.

That didn’t fly with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). At a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday,she questioned why drug testing would be limited to the SNAP program and not all others subsidized through the Department of Agriculture, such as farmers who get federal crop insurance and other federal subsidies. “If we’re going to look at drug testing for SNAP, we should take the entire Department of Agriculture and all those programs that provide federal subsidy to folks, and they ought to be drug tested as well,” she said. Continue reading “Congresswoman Asks Why Drug Tests Are Only Being Considered For Food Stamp Recipients, Not Farmers”

Scientists Are More Confident Than Ever In Troubling Sea Level Rise Projections

The following article by Aleandro Davila Fragoso appeared on the ThinkProgress.org website Februar 23, 2016:

Charles Warsinske has a daunting and unusual task for a city planner: move a town out of the way of climate change.

“If you think about it too long it’s somewhat overwhelming,” said Warsinske, manager of the Quinault Indian Nation Community Development Planning Department. “It seems like the climate change thing is certainly on everybody’s minds right now and it’s a very, very complicated thing.”

For the Quinault Nation, which has lived next to the Quinault River and the Pacific coast just west of Seattle for generations, climate change raises more issues than for most communities. Their culture and economy depend on the bounty of the land, forests, rivers, and oceans that are behaving as differently as any tribal elder can remember. The glaciers that feed the rivers and support the salmon population — so integral to their livelihood — are disappearing. Forests on tribal lands are changing, too, as invasive species threaten critical resources. Continue reading “Scientists Are More Confident Than Ever In Troubling Sea Level Rise Projections”