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Flickr / BKLYN guy (CC-BY)
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Attorneys general from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington have all come out in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit to block AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile.
Posted on Sep 17, 2011
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Flickr / stuartpilbrow (CC-BY-SA)
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The Obama administration on Monday gave states a break from the ailing No Child Left Behind law, allowing them to file waivers that grant flexibility in meeting science and math proficiency standards.
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By David Sirota — States are indeed the “laboratories of democracy.” The problem is that today, those laboratories are increasingly run by mad scientists.
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AP / Cliff Owen
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By Bill Boyarsky — Republicans have their biggest statehouse majority in more than 80 years, and they’re taking orders from a man who wants to take government and “drown it in the bathtub.”
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Flickr / frozenchipmunk (CC-BY)
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With a relative drop in the bailout bucket, the president thinks he can save 300,000 teachers who would otherwise be kept by economic calamity from annoying America’s children. The money would go to state and local governments struggling to make ends meet.
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Flickr / LakelandChamber
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A national small-business lobbying group has tossed in with 20 states in their legal challenge to the Obama administration’s health care reform law. The mostly Republican push claims the health care overhaul violates states’ rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
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By Chris Hedges — The difference between the tea party and the secessionist movement bubbling up in some two dozen states is that the tea party believes America can be fixed.
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ProPublica
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ProPublica reports that after paying out unemployment benefits to a record 20 million people, 25 states ran out of funds and now must borrow, tax and slash to keep the checks in the mail. Find out how your state is doing with this handy tool.
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Flickr / ThisParticularGreg
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Executing people is expensive. A new report by the Death Penalty Information Center says California is spending more than 10 times as much on capital punishment—$137 million a year—as it would on an alternative life-without-parole system. New York and New Jersey repealed ...
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Flickr / publik15
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State agencies across the country are reporting a rise in child abuse and neglect as the economy deteriorates. Also, law enforcement officials, looking at past recessions, are predicting an increase in abuse. As parents with dwindling resources fall prey to their demons, state safety nets simply can’t stand up to the increased strain.
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By David Sirota — For most of us, Benjamin Franklin’s words in 1789 still apply: “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” However, millionaires, by definition, are not most of us.
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By David Sirota — It is state legislators—not those celebrities of Capitol Hill—who are the innovators in seeking remedies to problems such as the health care mess.
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secureidnews.com
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The Real ID Act of 2005 requires all states to meet a national standard for identification cards and participate in a shared database, but some have objected, citing privacy and budget concerns. Maine has led the charge of about a dozen states that may pass laws objecting to and opting out of the federal mandate.
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By Ron Kovic — In this satirical short story from the new anthology “A Fictional History of the United States,” the author of “Born on the Fourth of July” tells of a pair of U.S. Marines giving a presentation at an auditorium full of high school students in 1968.
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un.int
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The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions against North Korea in light of its recent nuclear test. Though financial and military aid is restricted, the sanctions do not allow for military action, and skeptics question how effectively the rules will be enforced.
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North Korea’s No. 2 leader, Kim Yong-nam, threatened a second nuclear test if the U.S. refuses to back down: “If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that.”
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World Economic Forum
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The World Economic Forum has demoted the United States in its ranking of economic competitiveness, explaining that spiraling debt and persistent budget shortfalls forced the downgrade. Switzerland now holds the top spot, followed by much of Scandinavia.
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The U.S. Embassy has told India that it has information suggesting that terror attacks might occur in the political and economic capitals—Delhi and Mumbai. The Indian government has yet to receive any specific information. The warning comes only a month after more than 180 people were killed when a series of bombs exploded on a commuter train in Mumbai.
Posted on Aug 11, 2006
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In the face of stagnant federal policy, more and more localities have adopted their own measures to address the environment, stem-cell research and immigration. Impatient for action from deadlocked Washington, cities and states have increasingly crafted their own policies regarding the major issues of the day, even reaching out to foreign leaders.
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U.S. roads and bridges paid for by American taxpayers are being sold to companies abroad. Selling roads and bridges to private companies provides states with extra cash in the short term, but as Indiana’s House Democratic leader has argued, these deals are shortsighted taxpayer rip-offs that funnel long-term profits to foreign coffers. (h/t AmericaBlog)
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Despite recent polling showing red states turning blue, true color-blending will require “electoral reform that changes the way votes are counted, districts are proportioned and views are represented,” argues the editor of The Nation.
Posted on Apr 18, 2006
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Three Questions Left Unanswered by Obama’s Counterterrorism Speech
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