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This past week, the Connecticut Legislature took a solid step towards fiscal stability by approving a $40.1 billion budget that includes progressive measures. Despite several elected officials across the states opting to rely predominantly on cuts and failing to either invest in communities or...
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As voter ID legislation continues to be rammed through state legislatures across the country, conservatives are celebrating passage of these bills, intended to suppress turnout among traditionally progressive constituencies, as a victory. However, no one is actually winning – not minority,...
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The conservative wing of the U.S. Supreme Court has again preempted state laws designed to protect American consumers. In yet another ruling that favors large corporations at the expense of working-class families, the Supreme Court held last week that state laws cannot override “unfair...
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Faced with the lasting effects of the Great Recession on state revenues, governors and legislators across the country have spent much of the 2011 legislative session proposing unpopular and economically destructive cuts to education, health care, and other critical services in state budgets. In...
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As the Nevada legislative session draws to a close, two bills protecting transgender individuals passed the Senate and now head to a favorable vote in the Assembly. Senate Bills 368 and 331 passed 13-8 and 11-10 respectively, both outlawing transgender discrimination in housing and public...
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This session, right-wing officials have been peddling costly, inefficient, and socially damaging prison privatization schemes. Several states, including Louisiana, Florida, and Ohio, have considered proposals to hand over the operation and management of prisons to private entities.
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As political battles over budgets and deficits continue to rage in D.C. and statehouses across the nation, the dominant rhetoric continues to be that the vast majority of the nation must bear the burden of “shared sacrifices” – fewer teachers, hospitals, and other social...
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This past week, 154 legislators from 26 states joined together to send a message to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals now considering a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act: that the framers of the Constitution themselves would have supported the law, and that they will not sit idle while the...
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At the end of March, the New York Times published an explosive story finding that General Electric (G.E.), the nation's largest company which reported $5.1 billion in profit last year from operations in the U.S., would not pay a dime in federal taxes. Similarly, ExxonMobil posted profits...
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In recent weeks, state legislatures and voters alike have continued to push back against last year's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, which took away the power of government to limit independent spending in elections and effectively overturned laws in 24 states that banned...
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Public education and child advocates in Texas have found an uncommon ally in this year’s budget debates: the Texas Association of Business (TAB), the largest business advocate in the state. A budget bill passed by the Texas House of Representatives on April 4 included dramatic cuts to...
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As the prospect of a federal government shutdown looms in Washington D.C., states are nervously preparing for the impact it could have on their already strapped budgets and their fragile economic recoveries.
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