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Indiana Settles Class Action Lawsuit Regarding Compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

From Demos

Indiana to Implement New Procedures for Offering Voter Registration to Public Assistance Recipients in the State

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt approved the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought against Indiana officials to bring the State into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act ("NVRA").  The settlement requires that Indiana implement specific measures to assure that thousands of low-income residents have the opportunity to register to vote at state public assistance offices, as mandated by the NVRA.  The suit was brought by the Indiana State Conference of the NAACP on behalf of all state public assistance clients injured by the State's violation of federal law.  Plaintiff and the class are represented by attorneys from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Project Vote, Demos, the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, the NAACP, and the ACLU of Indiana.

The NVRA requires that state public assistance agencies offer voter registration to their clients when clients apply for benefits, and when they recertify or submit a change of address.  The State already began implementation of the settlement prior to its approval by Judge Pratt, and the number of persons submitting registration applications through state public assistance offices in recent months has increased substantially.  Monthly average registration applications are now approximately 4,800, compared to only about 100 prior to the filing of the lawsuit in July 2009. 

Senators Support Cancer from the Skies While Raking in Big Campaign Cash

New Bill Prevents Regulations on Airborne Toxics for One Year, Helps Polluters

This material was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Daniel J. Weiss, Matthew Kasper 

On September 12, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and 20 of her colleagues introduced theRegulatory Time-Out Act, S. 1538. This bill would establish a one-year moratorium on regulations from the executive branch and independent regulatory agencies. It also would benefit big energy companies by stopping controls on airborne toxic chemicals from major sources. Not surprisingly, these 21 senators received $20 million in campaign contributions from the energy and natural resources sector since 1989.

Sen. Collins said: “Under my bill, no ‘significant’ final rule that would have an adverse impact could go into effect during a 1-year moratorium.” It would apply to rules that cost business more than $100 million annually, which includes most major public health safeguards.

This moratorium would halt the implementation of rules to reduce mercury, dioxin, and other toxic chemicals from coal-fired power plants, industrial boilers, and cement manufacturing. The American Lung Association noted that allowing these sources to continue unchecked will inflict real harm on Americans, particularly children, seniors, and the sick:

These emissions can make breathing difficult and can worsen asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis and other lung diseases. These pollutants can cause heart attacks and strokes, lung cancer and other cancers, birth defects and premature death.

Federal Marriage Grant Funded Anti-LGBT Iowa Group

This material was created by Campus Progress.

by Brian Stewart

A right-wing Iowa group that successfully campaigned for the ousting of three state Supreme Court justices, whose ruling legalized same-sex marriage, used federal funding to support some of its efforts, aninvestigation by the Associated Press reveals.

The FAMiLY Leader, formerly called the Iowa Family Policy Center, collected $2.2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2006-2010 to offer marriage counseling services.

But those taxpayer dollars helped the socially conservative group function while it persuaded voters to kick three Supreme Court justices off the bench—the first time in the state’s history voters have removed a judge. The group also turned away same-sex couples from the counseling services despite the fact that gay marriage was legal in the state.

“During this grant time the group was working to promote an agenda that included their involvement in politics in terms of trying to defeat the retention of three Iowa Supreme Court justices," Randall Wilson, the legal director for Iowa’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter, told the AP. "It becomes concerning, too, when federal money subsidizes or potentially could have been used to subsidize a political effort."

Republicans Are Not Being Truthful When They Blame "Uncertainty" for Lack of Hiring

From Beat the Press at the Center for Economic and Policy Research

The Washington Post has a front page article outlining President Obama's plans for deficit reduction. It then quotes Representative Paul Ryan blaming "uncertainty" for slow growth and high unemployment.

If it were the case that firms would actually be hiring except for uncertainty then we would expect to see firms increasing the average number of hours worked per workers and also turning to temporary workers. The argument here is that firms are seeing demand for labor, but they are scared to take on the commitment of hiring another worker because they think that President Obama would regulate them to death. This means that they would seek to fill this demand through alternative routes.

The data contradict the uncertainty story. Average weekly hours worked is still about 1 percent below its pre-recession level when firms presumably did not suffer from uncertainty.

                           Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

Michigan Failing to Offer Voter Registration to Public Assistance Clients

From Demos

National Voting Rights Groups Put Secretary of State Johnson on Notice of Voting Rights Violations

Detroit, Michigan - Citing clear evidence that the State of Michigan is failing to provide low-income residents with a legally-mandated opportunity to register to vote, attorneys from Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), and the NAACP sent a pre-litigation notice letter on August 19, 2011 to Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, on behalf of the Michigan State Conference of the NAACP.  The letter demands that the Secretary immediately act to bring Michigan into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) or face litigation.

Section 7 of the NVRA requires state public assistance agencies, which provide services such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid, to provide voter registration services to their clients. In the first two years after the NVRA became effective in Michigan in 1995, the State registered more than 79,500 people through public assistance agencies.

However, according to evidence cited in the notice letter, the local offices of the Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) have largely disregarded this law in recent years.  For example, looking at registration data for 2005-2006 and 2007-2008, there was an 82.5% decrease in the number of voter registration applications submitted through public assistance agencies in Michigan - even though 2008 included a historic presidential election for which high voter registration at public assistance agencies would be expected.  Field investigations found that public assistance clients around the state are not being provided with voter registration applications, contrary to the requirements of the NVRA.

Perry and the HPV Vaccine: Selling Women's Health (and Everything Else) to the Highest Bidder

by: Martha Kempner, RH Reality Check | Report via Truthout

In 2007, Governor Rick Perry shocked both public health officials and his conservative base when he signed an executive order mandating that female students in Texas be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) before entering the sixth grade. The order referred to Gardasil, a vaccine that had been approved by the FDA only a few months earlier after having been found to prevent infection with four strains of HPV, including two strains that account for 70 percent of cervical cancer and two that account for 90 percent of genital warts.  The FDA approved the three-shot regimen for young women ages nine to 26 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that this become part of the routine vaccinations of girls at ages 11 or 12 because “it is important for girls to get HPV vaccine before their first sexual contact – because they won’t have been exposed to human papillomavirus.”

Public health advocates argued that because HPV is so easily spread through sexual contact, universal or near-universalvaccinations would be the only the way to eradicate the disease.  They pointed out that, although cervical cancer can be preventedthrough early detection using Pap Smears and other medical tests, approximately 10,000 women in the United State do become infected each year.  As a result of these arguments, anumber of states considered legislation and rules similar to Perry’s order which would make the vaccine a requirement for school attendance.  (It’s worth noting that many public health advocates stopped short of supporting these types of mandates because of the fear that such requirements and the steep price of the vaccine –- about $390 for the series -– would be too much of a burden on the Vaccines for Children program, “a federally-funded program that provides vaccines at no cost to children who might not otherwise be vaccinated because of inability to pay.”)

Eyewitness to Texas Wildfires Watches Austerity Burn Rural Community

by: Dallas Darling, Truthout | Report

I knew the economic and political situation in Texas was dire, but I was completely unprepared for just how appalling conditions have become. As an emergency medical technician (EMT) from a large city, I volunteered to go to rural Bastrop, Texas, to assist the residents who are fleeing from the wildfires raging there; many of them have been injured. I was looking forward to working in a small community for a change. As an urban EMT, I have witnessed too many drug and alcohol overdoses, stabbings, beatings and shootings, along with vehicular fatalities. 

On the drive to Bastrop, I learned that the town was originally a small Spanish fort. It came under Texas' control when Texas fought a secessionist war against Mexico. Overlooking Bastrop is the Lost Pines Forest, which contributed to the local economy by supplying Austin and San Antonio with large supplies of lumber. A fire destroyed Bastrop during the Civil War, but the town was soon rebuilt. Bastrop has only 5,000 residents, while Bastrop County's population is over 70,000. Many people commute to work Austin, making Bastrop a wealthy county. Hollywood filmmakers shoot in Bastrop when they need to create historically accurate footage of the old frontier.

When I arrived in Bastrop, I encountered a second set of wildfires: angry, bitter citizens. At one meeting, residents - who had spent nearly a week wondering if their homes had been destroyed by the fire or remained standing - shouted questions at county officials. While some of the Bastrop homeowners demanded an immediate return to their properties (even making threats to state and federal authorities), others were paying "smugglers" to drive, undetected, into off-limits areas in order to retrieve their valuables and keepsakes. Frustration rose again at the meeting after an announcement that, due to some type of administrative confusion, some of Bastrop's evacuees would have to re-apply for hotel vouchers.

Postal Workers and Allies Rally Across the Country to Save the Postal Service

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

(Wisconsin AFL-CIO)

Save America's Postal Service rallies were held across the country Tuesday, each drawing dozens to hundreds of postal workers and supporters.

Many of the individual rallies were small, but they were everywhere. In Joliet, Illinois, 200 workers rallied and brought 3,000 petition signatures to the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who insists on referring inaccurately to the Postal Service asking for a "bailout." Dozens gathered outside Rep. Dave Reichert's office in Washington state. In Washington, D.C., a suspicious package reported within blocks of the planned rally left dozens marching and chanting on a street that had been blocked to pedestrian and car traffic. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Charleston, West Virginia. Chico, California.

A Political Casualty of 9/11: The Anti-Corporate Globalization Movement

by: Daniel Denvir, Truthout | News Analysis

Nine-eleven's ten-year anniversary is sparking retrospectives ranging from lives lost to a War on Terror launched. But media accounts have omitted an important political casualty: the short-lived "anti-globalization" movement, perhaps the largest American social movement since the civil rights and Vietnam War era.

I watched the massive November 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) from my computer, a high school student with a budding interest in social justice eagerly clicking "refresh" on the brand new Indymedia web site: Teamsters and Turtles, steelworkers and socialists shutting down streets and anarchists smashing Starbucks' windows. The police conducted mass arrests and unleashed tear gas, but a shocked elite was forced to hunker down in hotel rooms: the summit failed and the march of global capitalism stumbled.

We had no idea it would come to such a quick and sudden end. A rapid-fire series of mass demonstrations forced secretive financial institutions, corporations (and political parties) to make their case to the American people for the first time in a very long time, and there was a sense of incredible optimism and power. Older activists were amazed to see people back in the streets and I felt like it was an incredible time to be a young activist. We expected major social change and so did everyone else.

Postal Service Employees Rally to End Manufactured Crisis

by: Rose Aguilar, Truthout | Report

US Postal employees and their supporters held rallies in every Congressional district across the country from 4:00 to 5:30 PM yesterday to urge politicians to save the postal service.

The rallies came just weeks after Postmaster General Patrick Donohoe told Congress that the US Postal Service (USPS) is "on the brink of default."

"Without the enactment of comprehensive legislation by September 30, the Postal Service will default on a mandated $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury to pre-fund retirement retiree health benefits. Our situation is urgent," he said.

The USPS says radical changes must be implemented in order to save the organization up to $3 billion a year. The plan is to eliminate 220,000 full-time jobs and shut down 3,700 post offices and 300 processing centers by 2015, scale back services and cut retirement benefits. Since 2007, the USPS has cut 110,000 jobs. Since January, 280 post offices have closed.

Cliff Guffey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 220,000 employees in the clerk, maintenance and motor vehicle crafts, called the changes a "reckless assault on the Postal Service and its employees. Crushing postal workers and slashing services will not solve the Postal Service's financial crisis."

About Your "Right To Vote"

This material was created by the Institute for America's Future.

By Terrance Heath

Here's something to discuss at the "Voter Suppression and the 2012 Election: The Civil Rights Movement to Take Back the Right to Vote, breakout session at the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington, DC, October 3-4. Think you have a "right to vote"? Think again.

There is nothing in the constitution about a right to vote.

Most Americans believe that the "legal right to vote" in our democracy is explicit (not just implicit) in our Constitution and laws.  However, our Constitution only provides for non-discrimination in voting on the basis of race, sex, and age in the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments respectively.

The U.S. Constitution contains no explicit affirmative individual right to vote!

Last night, while researching my previous post I was reminded of something I learned a while back, when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was set to expire, and people mobilized to demand that Congress and then-president George W. Bush extend its provisions. (They did. The people had to demand that the Bush administration actually enforce it.) As the the above quote, from a position paper presented by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. at the 2003 Center for Voting & Democracy's "Claim Democracy Conference" spells out, the constitution has been amended to prohibit discrimination in voting.

A Perry Tale About the Prince of Privilege

by: Jim Hightower, OtherWords.org | Op-Ed

Prince Rick wouldn't be where he is without the steady "intrusion" of big government into his life.

It's bedtime, children. Get on your jammies, scootch under the covers, and I'll tell you a "Perry Tale."

In this one, Prince Rick is trying to make it to the big White House in Washington. It's a strange quest, because he calls the capital city "a seedy place," and he tells the commoners in the land that he hates — nay, deeply loathes — the very government that he wants to head.

With his tea party hat carefully positioned atop his bounteous crop of perfectly coifed hair, Prince Rick warns the commoners that big government is bad, bad, bad — because it intrudes into their lives, forcing things like Social Security and Medicare on them.

Strangely, this prancing prince of privilege would not be where he is without the steady "intrusion" of big government into his life. From elementary school through college, his education was paid for by local, state, and federal taxpayers. Also, as cotton farmers, he and his family were supported with thousands of dollars in crop subsidies from the pockets of national taxpayers.

Survey: ‘Super Committee’ Has Yet To Earn Americans’ Trust

By Phil Galewitz

 

Americans have little faith the bipartisan congressional “super committee” will reduce the federal deficit, according to a survey released Friday.

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they either trust the super committee “just a little” or “not at all” to make the right recommendations to cut the deficit, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KHN is an editorially-independent program of the foundation).

Just 5 percent of respondents said they had “a great deal” of trust in the committee. More people believe the right recommendations would be made by President Barack Obama (23 percent), Democrats in Congress (13 percent) and Republicans (8 percent).

Forty-one percent of Democrats said they either had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the committee, compared to 31 percent of Republicans.

Members of the super committee have until Nov. 23 to make recommendations and Congress must vote on them by Dec. 23. If Congress doesn’t act, spending cuts totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years would automatically be triggered.

The survey of 1,207 adults was conducted Sept. 7 to Sept. 12 and has a +/-3 percent margin of error.

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Voting Rights Groups Charge TX With Discriminatory Intent Over Voter ID Law

From Demos

Governor Rick Perry Fast Tracked Law To Win Passage

National and local civil rights groups will release a letter today  to the Department of Justice charging that an unnecessary, unfair, restrictive photo voter ID law intentionally discriminates against African American and Latino voters.

Advancement Project, Demos, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Asian American Justice Center, and Southwest Workers Union, a statewide Hispanic organization will submit a letter to Department of Justice in opposition to the preclearance of the Texas Photo Voter Identification law (SB14) citing the State's failure to prove that the law was enacted for a nondiscriminatory purpose and that it will have no discriminatory effect on minorities as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  

"This law is a part of the largest legislative effort to turn back the clock on voting rights in our nation in over a century," states Advancement Project co director Judith Browne Dianis, one of the nation's leading civil rights litigators. "If this bill is allowed to stand it will undermine the basic fabric of our nation's democracy."

Ohio Public Workers Face Health Care Cuts and Safety Concerns if Senate Bill 5 is Not Repealed

by Laura Clawson, Daily Kos Labor

With the vote to repeal Ohio's Senate Bill 5, which eliminates most collective bargaining rights for public employees, coming up in November—it's on the ballot as Issue 2, and a "no" vote is a vote for repeal—Ohio is taking a look at how things would look if the law went into effect. The Dayton Daily News itemizes some of what would happen to state workers. The basic way the law works is this:

Grievance procedures, layoff rules, shift assignments, staffing minimums, health care coverage and scores of other items will be off the table. The union could still bargain on working conditions and wages, but management would have the right to impose its last offer if the two sides reach impasse.

Specific effects could include:

State workers pay 16.9 percent of the health care premium for a single plan and 17.8 percent for family plan coverage, according to the State Employment Relations Board health care survey. However, under SB 5 the union will have no say in what sort of health plans are offered and what kind of co-pays workers face.

[...]