Mar 7, 2013
Unpacking the proposed Nevada sex trafficking legislation (Part 1) Why is a 39-page bill that criminalizes a whole lot of normal people being sold as a way to save the child sex slaves? Well, saving the (white female) child sex slaves has proven to be a powerful narrative. After all, who is actually for sex [...]
Mar 7, 2013
What do Michigan House Representatives Peter Pettalia (R-106), Bob Genetski (R-80), Ray Franz (R-101) and Joel Johnson (R-97) have against Michigan farmers? Hint: It’s something about their employees….(seasonal workers). All four of these lawmakers represent out-state districts, and while it’s easy to assume that farming is a strictly rural endeavor, densely populated Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw, Monroe [...]
Feb 4, 2013
(or “Why Nevada is Going to Get Sued for Millions.“) With recent headlines like “Conference attendees say Nevada isn’t doing enough to educate ELL students,” and “GOP lawmaker seeks more state funding for English language learners,” it should come as no surprise that Nevada has an English Language Learner problem in its grade schools. What such [...]
Jan 13, 2013
Crap! We’ve know it was coming, but the shitstorm of rad-right legislation that is only to be expected by a state led by a Duke Energy exec–paytoplaypat, Art Pope, an ALEC-dominated State Legislature – a supermajority in Raleigh. Recently I reposted an article from Mother Jones talking about the Democracy Initiative where they reported that [...]
Dec 26, 2012
From article written by Bob Sloan and published on Policy Mic… Fact: 282 bills were passed in Michigan during the lame duck session. 42% of all the bills passed in the last two years were in this last lame duck session, with 180 votes taken on the last day of the 2012 session alone. Fact: In the session [...]
Dec 18, 2012
So how much money are we saving by having private companies run state and federal prisons? None. In fact, recent investigations by the Arizona Republic, the Associated Press and prison watchdog groups, the American Friends Service Committee and The Sentencing Project, have shown private prisons are actually costing taxpayers more money than if the government ran [...]
Dec 14, 2012
note: this is the third in a series of articles published by the University of Toledo Law Review written by Ellen Dannin PRIVATIZING GOVERNMENT SERVICES IN THE ERA OF ALEC AND THE GREAT RECESSION II. THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC) The American Legislative Exchange Council was, until recently, a little-known but very powerful [...]
Nov 12, 2012
“The Center for Media and Democracy reports several ballot measures backed by the extremist American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) went down to defeat yesterday. Most notable was in Michigan, where voters overturned the state’s emergency manager law. Known as “financial martial law,” it allowed Gov. Rick Snyder (R) to declare a “financial emergency” in a city or [...]
