Feb 28, 2013
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, [...]
Feb 25, 2013
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 [...]
Feb 24, 2013
By David Streifford, Preserve Carolina (www.preservecarolina.org), with the Researchers at the Voters Legislative Transparency Project (www.vltp.net) North Carolinians need to understand our state Senate’s most recent attempt to circumvent controversial legislation. Legislation that some legislators approved only because it would give them the opportunity to responsibly review a set of regulations before permitting any hydraulic [...]
Feb 5, 2013
Over the past couple weeks, fossil fuel interests and their allies have ramped up attacks on clean energy on the state level. As the Washington Post reported in November, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a fossil fuel-funded advocacy group, has made it a priority to eliminate clean energy standards across the country. From the East Coast [...]
Feb 4, 2013
A Virginia Senate committee voted Tuesday to permanently kill a bill that would have aligned the state’s electoral votes with its House districts, a move critics say would have swung the 2012 presidential election for the Republican candidate despite President Barack Obama’s overwhelming victory in the popular vote. The Virginia Senate’s Privileges and Elections Committee [...]
Jan 24, 2013
by Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity Now with a new governor working with the Legislature, here are the three key reforms to watch in the coming legislative session: First, the Legislature needs to bring the benefits of fiscal responsibility home to each taxpayer through permanent tax reform. While the details have yet to [...]
Jan 23, 2013
VA Senate Forces Through New District Maps editor’s note: It takes two articles to explain what happened in the Virginia Senate today. In all of 40 minutes, GOP Senators took advantage of the absence of a Democratic Senator to gerrymander the Commonwealth’s districts to make it impossible for Democrats to win in VA–both in State [...]
Jan 16, 2013
Proposed legislation would harm environment and, opponents say, constitutes a confession that Dominion has accepted $77 million from ratepayers without properly fulfilling intent of current law RICHMOND—Dominion Virginia Power has informed environmental groups that the company has reached a tentative agreement with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to support legislation that would effectively repeal the [...]
Dec 9, 2012
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, [...]
