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Too often, we hear the simplistic rhetoric that all states have to do
to promote jobs and improve the "business environment" is cut taxes and
gut business regulations. Luckily, we have an alternative: CFED's
annual Development Report Card for the States,
which actually highlights the...
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In President Bush's speech on Tuesday, he made a grand pledge to "help
the states that are coming up with innovative ways to cover the
uninsured." Yet even as he was hailing the innovative role of states in
health care, Bush was proposing new federal laws -- the promotion of so-called...
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An innovative correction reform program is currently underway in Alabama to decrease the number of long prison sentences. The Pew Charitable Trusts' Public Safety Performance Project and the Vera Institute of Justice teamed together to implement a four year project
that supports in-depth research...
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As states look to expand education funding and provide health care for
their citizens-- along with paying for other social needs-- the hardest
challenge is figuring out what taxes need to be raised to accomplish
this.
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Legislators in North Dakota are promoting the radical idea that the candidate who wins the most votes for President should actually be President. The legislature introduced a bill last week to award its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationally. A national...
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Tax cuts for seniors? Helping older voters on fixed incomes seems like
a good idea to many legislators, but a number of states are passing tax
cuts for taxpayers over age 65 regardless of whether the seniors need
the help:
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Yesterday, state legislators from across America joined with U.S.
Senator Ted Kennedy, Progressive States, and our partners at MoveOn,
the Women Legislators' Lobby, and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq
to discuss the power (.wav format) of states to play a key role in preventing President...
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The debate to reform California's health care system is on. This past Monday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a sweeping reform of the state's health care system designed
to achieve universal coverage through a mix of new rules and
requirements targeting employers, insurers, and individuals...
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Here's a simple way for consumers to save nearly $23 billion a year in
energy costs: just shift 7 percent of their electricity usage from a
peak period (when everyone else is tapping the grid) to a less costly
time. Run more washes at night -- when many power plants are currently
idle -- and we can...
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The past thirty years have seen a marked decline in job quality for a substantial portion of the U.S. workforce: stagnant wages, shrinking health benefits and less job security.
While a number of factors explain this decline, there is little
question that the decline in the strength of labor...
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When an impeccably pro-business outfit like Business Week declares victory for the business lobby in shutting the courtroom door to victims of corporate negligence, you know injured consumers and workers have been losing badly. But this week's cover story, How Business Trounced The Trial Lawyers,...
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Last fall, we highlighted how corrupt privatization
of social services management in Texas had handed Accenture a billion
dollars in revenue, even as the company's incompetence led to many
families being unjustifiably denied public services.
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