Iowa

4/27 Daily Report on Activities, Legislation and Initiatives of the ALEC/Koch Cabal

4/27 Daily Report on Activities, Legislation and Initiatives of the ALEC/Koch Cabal

Daily reports on articles and material related to the American Legislative Exchange Council.  Below are links to important stories covering 4/26 and 4/27… Report by Progress Missouri Highlights ALEC Infiltration in MO More than forty bills introduced in the Missouri state legislature echo American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model legislation, and at least 60 legislators [...]

Where Each State Stands on Medicaid Expansion

Where Each State Stands on Medicaid Expansion

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to opt out of the law’s Medicaid expansion, leaving each state’s decision to participate in the hands of the nation’s governors and state leaders. A roundup of what each state’s leadership has said about their Medicaid plans February 27, 2013 Text last updated on Feb. 26, [...]

Media campaign against windfarms funded by anonymous conservatives

Secretive funding network channeled millions to stop state governments moving towards renewable energy The trusts, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, served as the bankers of the conservative movement over the past decade, have funded a campaign against windfarms. Photograph: Alex Garcia/Getty Images (editor’s note:  this article is describing the activities of groups involved in [...]

ALEC Right to Work (for Less) Battle in Missouri Heats Up

More disturbing news from the midwest.  Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri? First of all – let’s start with a recap of information from a report that was issued a few months ago – about the effect of implementing ALEC policies in your state. (my emphasis) ALEC/Laffer claim that wage suppression policies (anti-union “right-to- work” laws and the [...]

Privatizing Government Services in the Era of ALEC and The Great Recession – Section 1, Introduction

PRIVATIZING GOVERNMENT SERVICES IN THE ERA OF ALEC AND THE GREAT RECESSION by Ellen Dannin 1 I. INTRODUCTION In Max Barry’s 2003 novel, Jennifer Government,2 there is no public sector:  The world is run by American corporations; there are no taxes; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and [...]

The (F)Law of the Land — Why RTW Laws are Bad for State Economies

Michigan leaders, like moths, are mindlessly being drawn to the destructive Right-to-work flame, soon making them the 24th state to enact a bad law which every qualified economist who has seriously studied the subject finds to be destructive to a state’s economy and workforce, while being little more than a short-term political lever at best. The state will join the ranks of: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, [...]

New ID Laws, More Voter Suppression. Will Obama Campaign Engage?

http://youtu.be/YnjJBTkXEIc  (click on this link to watch this video on the VLTPVideoChannel) This is a composite of successive segments of the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC 8/10/12 (1)  New ID laws, Purges, Reduced Access Advance GOP War on Voting Rachel Maddow reports on new Republican-set obstacles to voting around the country, from Voter ID laws [...]

Which Constituency Do they Represent?

Unfortunately, the government and democratic process in Iowa doesn’t work that way any more. Many of our legislators no longer represent Iowans, and instead are under the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council, usually referred to as ALEC. Here’s how it works: corporations fund ALEC, and receive direct access to state legislators at private [...]

GOP Front Group Suing States To Force Voter Purges

A Tea Party group is suing states to try to purge their voter rolls before November’s election. True the Vote, an arm of the King Street Patriots, has filed a suit against the state of Indiana, alleging that the state has poor “list maintenance” of its voters. [nice of them to do the dirty work [...]

11 More Democratic Legislators Leave ALEC

- 8 Pennsylvannia legislators: Sen. Lisa Boscola, Sen. Leanna Washington, Sen. Anthony Williams, Rep. Nick Kotik, Rep. Ted Harhai, Rep. William Keller, Rep. Joseph Markosek, Rep. Joseph Petrarca – 2 Illinois legislators: Rep. Mary Flowers, Rep. Brendan Phelps – 1 Iowa legislator: Rep. Brian Quirk To read more about this, please click here: