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 The Prairie Blog of North Dakota, Jim Fuglie writes—The Answer:
So here’s a memo to North Dakota Democrats: It doesn’t matter what the question is, or who asks it. Here is THE ANSWER.
“North Dakota’s oil industry is regulated by a three-member commission called the North Dakota Industrial Commission. The three members, all Republicans, are the Governor, the Agriculture Commissioner and the Attorney General. The oil industry owns the first two, but the Attorney General, not so much. He is, though, a member of the team and generally acquiesces. The oil industry owns the Governor and the Agriculture Commissioner by virtue of having paid for their election campaigns.”
“Ironically, the campaigns were against the same man, a cowboy-rancher named Ryan Taylor, who was defeated for Governor by Jack Dalrymple in 2012 and for Agriculture Commissioner by Douglas Goehring in 2014. In both cases, the oil industry paid most of the Republicans’ campaign bills—more than half a million worth in 2012, something less than that in 2014—even though Taylor was probably going to lose anyway. But the industry knew he was going to be a thorn in their side, and they wanted an insurance policy that guaranteed the two men who had kept the doors open to their greedy march across the prairie, unchecked by onerous regulations, were going to remain In office. So they opened their fat wallets and paid for a couple of campaigns. Now they own two of the three most important politicians in North Dakota.” […]
“That’s the record of the Republicans in North Dakota. When the industry owns the regulators, nobody gets regulated.”
That, North Dakota Democrats, is THE ANSWER.
It doesn’t matter what the question is. It’s called using your talking points, staying on message.
You can find more excerpts from progressive state blogs below the orange gerrymander.
At Delaware Liberal, Jason330 writes—Delaware’s “Charles Darwin Day” the first in the US:
Kudos to Jack Markell. This is exactly the kind of crumb Markell is a master of tossing out to starving liberals. Nice work Gov! Now get back to the real work of governing and privatize public education, reduce the minimum wage, or figure out how to exempt millionaires from paying taxes.
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) has declared Feb. 12 as “Charles Darwin Day” in the state.
Praising Darwin’s theory of evolution as “the foundation of modern biology, an essential tool in understanding the development of life on earth,” Markell’s proclamation says Feb. 12 — Darwin’s birthday — “is a time to reflect and celebrate the importance of his scientific achievements.” […]
Darwin Day has been celebrated by groups in the U.S., Europe and Canada on the British naturalist’s birthday since 1980. In 2013 and 2014, then-Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) introduced legislation to designate a national Darwin Day. Despite support from some House Democrats, the proposal never got off the ground. Former Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) made a similar attempt in 2011.
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Capital & Main of California,
David Cohen writes—
Catching the Devil in the Details of Public-Private Deals:
By now you’ve probably already heard the numbers. Conservatives control an overwhelming 68 of the 98 state legislative chambers in the U.S. In 23 states, conservative governors lead the executive branch and conservatives have the majority in both chambers of the legislature.
We also know that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is pushing bills to expand school privatization while cities across the country are worried about failing infrastructure, how to afford overdue repairs, and wondering if a public-private partnership is the answer to strapped budgets and deteriorating public assets.
So if you’re like most Americans, you’re currently facing the threat of privatization in your community. However, unlike most Americans, you have access to the resources and tools from In the Public Interest that we’ve developed that can help strengthen your campaigns to keep public services and assets under public control.
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Progress Illinois,
Ellyn Fortino writes—
Study: Top 1 Percent Of Earners In Illinois Captured 97% Of Post-Recession Income Gains:
The top 1 percent in Illinois took home nearly all of the state's income gains in the first few years of the U.S. economy's recovery from the Great Recession.
That's one of the findings of a new study on income inequality published by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. […]
Overall, the study showed that the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers in 39 states, including Illinois, captured at least half of all the post-recession income gains in their respective states between 2009 to 2012. Over this time period, 17 states saw their top 1 percent of earners gain 100 percent of the income growth, according to the researchers, who examined state-level tax data from the Internal Revenue Service.
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Calitics,
Jason Rabinowitz writes—
New Economic Policy Institute Report Details Economic Challenges Facing UC Workers:
More than 80 percent of University of California (UC) support staff employees are paid wages too low to provide the basic necessities of life in the areas where they live and work, according to preliminary findings of a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute.
As Governor Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano meet to discuss the financial future of the UC, it's imperative that they recognize the dire financial situation of many UC employees. The UC is the third largest employer in California, employing nearly 200,000 workers, directly creating 1 in 46 jobs in the state, and generating $46.3 billion in economic activity annually. The 14,000 administrative and essential support services workers in the UC system are 81% female and over 50% people of color, and include administrative assistants, collection representatives, childcare assistants, and 911 dispatchers.
Between 2007 and 2011 these essential support workers received no pay increases, while student tuition skyrocketed. The workers have also fallen behind due to substantial increases in costs for retirement and healthcare, parking fees, and inflation. During the same period, the state slashed funding to UC, and currently contributes $460 million less per year in funding than it did in 2007. On a per-student basis, state funding for UC has decreased by more than half since 1991.
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Bleeding Heartland of Iowa,
desmoinesdem writes—
Someone should investigate state's role in Iowa's health insurance coop failure:
What has seemed likely since Christmas Eve was confirmed on Friday: Iowa's non-profit health insurance coop is liquidating. At the end of this post, I've enclosed the e-mail CoOportunity Health members received on January 23. Members are strongly encouraged to enroll in other health insurance before February 15, the end of 2015 Open Enrollment under the federal health care reform law. In Iowa, only Coventry now sells policies through the exchange, allowing eligible people to receive federal tax subsidies to help cover the cost of insurance.
CoOportunity Health was created to sell individual, family, and small-business health insurance policies in Iowa and Nebraska. Its membership greatly exceeded projections, but so did the costs of insuring a population that had largely been uninsured before the 2010 Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014.
Some politicians, like Senator Joni Ernst, have nothing to say about CoOportunity's collapse beyond empty talking points about Obamacare. Others, like Senator Chuck Grassley and Representative Dave Loebsack (IA-02), are digging for answers on why federal officials didn't do more to help the health insurance coop survive. Those are important questions.
As far as I can tell, no one in a position of power is examining how decisions by Iowa officials stacked the deck against CoOportunity ever becoming solvent.
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Indy Democrat Blog of Indiana,
Jon Easter writes—
Pence to Create State-Run Media Arm:
Tom LoBianco of the Indy Star writes that Governor Mike Pence's Administration is creating a state-run media service called Just IN. You and I will be footing the bill for this taxpayer-run news service that the Governor's Administration says will "break news" and offer stories to news organizations across the state.
At first blush, this is a horrible waste of tax dollars. To create a news organization that's simply a front for a PR wing of the Governor's Office is really scary to me. While the right wing often rails against the "mainstream media" for being "leftist", I guess we should just note that Pence is not making any bones about what he's doing. When you say the media is state-run in Indiana, it's really state-run in Just IN's case.
I don't expect large city media outlets falling for this Just IN lure, but small town papers up against the budget might certainly be consumers of this new service. As you know, there are tons of small town newspapers out there and many local radio stations too across Indiana that might run with Just IN's content.
Since we own it, I think Indiana taxpayers should get notice of all the editorial content meetings that Just IN will hold and show up. After all, we should all determine the content as owners, right? RIGHT!
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Blue in the Bluegrass of Kentucky,
Yellow Dog writes—
Office Sex Is The Most Pathetic:
Seriously. The only way new Kentucky House Majority Whip Johnny Bell could figure out how to bone his latest victim was to hire her? Somebody tell him there's this amazing new invention called the motel.
From the Herald's Jack Brammer, who is either having the time of his life covering this story or shopping his resume all over the planet.
A legislative staffer fired last week by state House Majority Whip Johnny Bell alleged in court documents Monday that Bell's decision was motivated in part "by his desire to have an intimate sexual relationship" with another woman he wants to hire.
Yolanda Costner, one of three legislative staffers who alleged sexual harassment in 2013 by a former state lawmaker from Western Kentucky, also said Bell, D-Glasgow, had illegally obtained a controlled substance—Xanax—from the other woman when she worked for him previously.
Costner also alleged that Bell, a lawyer, kept moonshine in his office and was seen in possession of a marijuana cigarette in front of the Capitol Annex. […]
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Also, never smoke pot in front of people you may want to fire someday.
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Democratic Diva.com of Arizona,
Donna writes—
Huckabee's Vapors Over Women Cussing Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Conservatives:
Shockingly, GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckable continues to be a gross, embarrassing buffoon. In his latest bid for attention, he expressed his shock(!) over those New York City hoydens he worked with at Fox and their unladylike profanity. Of course such a blatant invitation to mockery has earned Huck many scathing responses in the liberal blogosphere but, honestly, my favorite reaction to it is this hilariously sincere one by the right wing site World Net Daily. It reads like a breathless Dateline exposé.
While promoting his book, “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy,” Huckabee told Des Moines radio host Jan Mickelson last Friday he personally experienced severe culture shock listening to “trashy” female women spew frequent obscenities. […]
“It’s one those things where in a business meeting that you might have in the South, or in the Midwest there in Iowa, you would not have people who would just throw the F-bomb and use gratuitous profanity in a professional setting,” Huckabee explained.
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I don’t know what he and Huck are going to do when they learn that women also belch and fart.
Huckabee’s theatrics since the release of his book and announcement of his Presidential candidacy reveal much about the true motives of conservatives where women are concerned. For all their bleating about how much they love and care about women (the excuse given for every single one of those bullshit TRAP laws) it often doesn’t take much to set off the misogynistic rage that seethes barely below the surface toward women who can’t or won’t conform to their exacting standards of proper femininity.
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The Mudflats of Alaska,
Jeanne Devon writes—
American Sniper—What We Criticize:
I quickly grew tired of reading passionate reviews about American Sniper that contained a sentence midpoint which read, “I haven’t seen the movie.” And so it was that I decided to go see the movie myself.
I’ll start by saying that the most common complaint I’ve heard—that “it glorifies war”— falls flat. The theater was full, and as several hundred people sat through the credits in silence, and got up in silence, and walked out of the theater in silence, I’m pretty sure they weren’t all fired up to get out there and go to war. My guess is that like me, they were thinking that war is awful, and horrific, and if it doesn’t kill you it likely breaks something inside you.
My second problem with criticism of the movie is the notion, shared by Michael Moore, that snipers by virtue of what they do are “evil,” and the idea that somehow they engage in dirty pool by shooting at someone who isn’t shooting back.
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Burnt Orange Report of Texas,
Emily Cadik writes—
Texas has the Third Most Regressive Tax System in the U.S.:
Nationwide, the poorest 20 percent of Americans will pay an average of 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes in 2015, while the top 1 percent will pay an average of 5.4 percent. That means the share of income that the wealthiest are paying towards state and local taxes is roughly half the share of the lowest-income earners.
In Texas, the inequality is even worse. The top 1 percent only pay, on average, 2.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes—one of the lowest rates in the nation. Meanwhile, the lowest 20 percent of earners pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in state and local taxes—one of the highest rates in the nation. That comes out to a tax burden for low-income earners that’s roughly 4.3 times as high as for the top 1 percent.
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Plunderbund of Ohio,
Abe writes—
Auditor Report Reveals Ohio Is Paying Millions For Empty Charter School Seats:
Doug Livingston’s piece on charter schools in Friday’s Beacon Journal blew another hole into Ohio’s billion-dollar cash cow. There have been frequent reports about how this system of privately operated charter schools is failing in its academic mission at taxpayers’ and public education’s expense. But now, as Livingston wrote, David Yost, the Republican state auditor, has just issued his investigative report that much money is being spent on kids who are represented in charter classrooms by empty seats.
And once again the river of money has been channeled into the accounts where it will do the most good for the supportive lawmakers, particularly by White Hat Management, the outfit identified by the wide-brimmed crown worn by its founder, Akron businessman David Brennan. More later.
“In a school in Youngstown they found zero students, though the school had received enough state aid to educate 152,” Livingston wrote. “Dropout recovery schools operated by Akron -based White Hat Management are among the worst.”
Yost, who had called for the investigation, said he was shocked that “50 pct attendance seems to be the average.”