Florida Speaker Jose Oliva apologizes for using term “host body” for pregnant women – CBS News
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Category: Local Interest,
Wisconsin governor announces proposal to decriminalize marijuana possession, legalize medical use
“People shouldn’t be treated as criminals for accessing a desperately-needed medication that can alleviate their suffering.”
But Evers also made it clear that this proposal is not strictly to respond to health care concerns. He also pointed to the inequities in the arrests of minorities for drug-related crimes.
“Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate in the country for black men, and drug-related crimes account for as many as 75-85 percent of all inmates in our prisons,” Evers said in a press release.
…President Donald Trump paved the way for the trendy oil after he signed a farm bill in December — removing industrial hemp from a list of federally controlled substances. This legislation became a major step in pushing the oil into mainstream use.
Wisconsin governor announces proposal to decriminalize marijuana possession, legalize medical use
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Pay-to-Stay: Families of NH juvenile offenders are forced to pay for costs of care
…When juveniles are incarcerated at the Sununu Youth Services Center or other treatment centers, are enrolled in Children in Need of Services (CHINS), [or] are placed into foster care, an elaborate system kicks in to force parents to contribute to the cost of that care.
Formulas come into play, Social Security benefits can be requisitioned, liens can be put on property, people can be hauled into court. Four thousand cases are currently open, the state says.
…Fees rack up quickly. An overnight stay at a secure or intensive facility can top $700 a day, and the state levies charges for services that range from family counseling ($86 an hour) to transportation ($21 an hour) to foster care ($23 per day). Collections continue four years after services end, meaning a person can be well into adulthood while a parent is still paying for their childhood misbehavior or other services.
…Most services continue to fall under the law requiring parental reimbursement: CHINS, whether voluntary or court-ordered; children judged delinquent and placed in the Sununu Center or other residential programs, whether voluntarily or court-ordered; and court-ordered services in cases of abuse and neglect.
…Parents of a minor who is a mother are responsible for their grandchild, if the child is housed at the facility where the minor mother lives. No mention is made of responsibility for the child’s father or his parents.
…When youth become involved with the juvenile justice system, their parents can be desperate for help, she said. They will sign anything without realizing the implications, she said. Then the bill arrives.
Jeezus….
Oh, and the mother who signed her kid away to the courts only to spend all of her time begging the courts to give the kid back? This is what happens when you think the police and courts are going to help you parent. They’re not. They’re really, really not.
N.C. elections board orders new race in disputed House district
The board voted unanimously to call a new House race after hearing testimony that the November election between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready was tainted by a scheme to collect and mark voters’ absentee ballots.
…The board’s vote came an hour after Harris called for a new election and then declined to finish his own testimony, citing health reasons.
…Harris reversed weeks of GOP resistance to a new North Carolina race, hours after state officials said that Harris’ campaign attorney withheld documents relevant to the investigation.
…In a dramatic twist on Wednesday, Harris’ son took the stand unexpectedly and provided documents showing that he had warned his father about Dowless, the operative at the center of the election fraud scandal.
…Earlier Thursday, state board lawyer John Lawson said Harris’ campaign attorney turned over new documents late Wednesday night, a day before Harris was set to take the stand. The records in question should have been turned over earlier under a subpoena sent to the campaign committee, the board said.
…”I’m here to own that,” Branch said, adding that he did not think to ask Harris’ campaign manager or other campaign employees paid by the consulting firm Red Dome Group to turn over records.
The revelation drew the ire of the election board chairman, Bob Cordle, who called Branch’s actions “unacceptable.”
N.C. elections board orders new race in disputed House district – POLITICO
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Mark Harris calls for new election in North Carolina 9th District
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously for a new race in the state’s 9th District after four days of hearings on whether to certify the result.
…Harris, who previously pushed for the elections board to certify the result, unexpectedly called for a new election during testimony Thursday.
…”I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”
The House did not seat Harris amid the fraud allegations.
…In a tweeted statement Thursday, North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse said “we support” Harris’s decision and “will do everything we can to help the process and system improve in the future.”
Mark Harris calls for new election in North Carolina 9th District
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Republican candidate’s son shakes up North Carolina hearing with surprise testimony
John Harris also said that his father told him that he was going to hire Dowless as a contractor through the Red Dome consulting group in order to add a layer of separation from the campaign.
Harris’ attorneys have attempted to separate Harris from Dowless throughout the hearing, but Wednesday’s testimony damaged that argument.
Choking back tears, John Harris said he thought more about his children than his parents when considering his decision to testify.
“I love my dad, I love my mom, O.K.? I certainly have no vendetta against them, no family scores to settle, O.K.? I think they made mistakes in this process and they certainly did things differently than I would have done,” Harris said while his father looked on wiping back tears.
“We have got to come up with a way to transcend our partisan politics, and the exploitation of processes like this for political gain. That goes for both parties, Democrats and Republicans. And Libertarians,” he said.
“I’m just left thinking that we can all do a lot better than this.
Republican candidate’s son shakes up North Carolina hearing with surprise testimony
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Mark Harris Sought Operative Implicated In North Carolina Election
The disclosure by the Harris campaign frustrated investigators, who were presented with the evidence only on Wednesday, despite a subpoena from the North Carolina State Board of Elections for the relevant documents months ago.
…Harris has said publicly since the investigation began in December that he was unaware of any illegal acts that may have been done on behalf of his campaign. He reiterated that in his testimony Thursday.
…But Harris’ son, John Harris, testified Wednesday that he warned his father that he thought Dowless was likely engaged in illegal practices as part of his operation.
John Harris says he reviewed the absentee ballot results of the 2016 race and concluded Dowless was using illegal tactics to help Johnson.
…The question of what Harris knew about the operation in the eastern part of the 9th District is important for State Board of Elections as it must decide whether any “improprieties” occurred to an extent that would cast doubt on the election’s fairness. If that is determined to be the case, the board has the authority to call a new election in the district.
Email: Mark Harris Sought Operative Implicated In North Carolina Election : NPR
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Trump administration to cancel $929 million in California high-speed rail funding
The two federal grants represent about one-fourth of all the funding for the project to date — money critical to completing the Central Valley portion and finishing environmental reviews for other segments between San Francisco and Los Angeles. If the funds are lost or tied up in a long legal battle, the state would probably have to either make up the money elsewhere or further curtail the project.
…“It’s no coincidence that the Administration’s threat comes 24 hours after California led 16 states in challenging the President’s farcical ‘national emergency,’” Newsom said in a statement, referring to Trump’s emergency declaration to secure funding for his wall on the Mexican border. “The President even tied the two issues together in a tweet this morning. This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won’t sit idly by. This is California’s money, and we are going to fight for it.”
…“But let’s be real,” Newsom said in the speech to lawmakers. “The current project, as planned, would cost too much and respectfully take too long. There’s been too little oversight and not enough transparency.… Right now, there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A. I wish there were. However, we do have the capacity to complete a high-speed rail link between Merced and Bakersfield.”
In the hours that followed Newsom’s speech, Trump demanded that California return $3.5 billion in federal funds, and headlines proclaimed the Democratic governor was abandoning the ambitious project championed by his predecessors — a story line that Newsom denied and one that his team has scrambled to correct.
…Whether the Trump administration can actually cancel the $929-million grant, which in legal terms is called “de-obligating” the funds, remains unclear. The possibility of ordering a refund of the $2.5-billion grant that is already being spent is even a bigger legal uncertainty.
…The federal action to terminate the grant wades into uncharted legal territory.
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Key witness testifies to tampering with absentee ballots in N.C. House race
The board looked into absentee ballot irregularities, the disclosure of early voting results and election security. They found that 595 people failed to return absentee ballots in Bladen County and another 1,493 people failed to do so in Robeson County, a significant number considering the narrow margin separating the two candidates.
…Lisa Britt said that she was paid to collect absentee ballots in the 2018 election by McCrae Dowless, a political operative hired by consultants for Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris.
Britt said some of the ballots she collected were unsealed and uncompleted and testified she filled out the options left blank for Republican candidates — an admission of vote tampering that violates North Carolina law.
…The investigation is centered around a key figure, Dowless, who was hired by the Red Dome Consulting Group for a “get-out-the-vote” operation for the Harris campaign, which paid Red Dome for its services.
Strach revealed that Red Dome paid Dowless $131,375 for the 2018 primary and general election, including $83,693 for the general election.
According to testimony Monday, Dowless had two components to his operation — collecting absentee ballot applications and then collecting the actual ballots. He and those he hired collected at least 788 ballot requests in Bladen County and 231 in neighboring Robeson county, according to investigation findings.
…Britt, a convicted felon on probation who admitted to voting in the 2018 election despite being barred from doing so in North Carolina, is Dowless’ step-daughter. She said they have a very close father-daughter relationship, but she testified against Dowless, saying that she did simply what he directed her to do.
“I didn’t think my father would send me out to do anything illegal,” Britt said.
Key witness testifies to tampering with absentee ballots in N.C. House race
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Man Accused Of Election Fraud In NC-09 Declines To Testify Because He Wasn’t Given Immunity
“The evidence will show that a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially-resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election,” said North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach.
…In terms of actions by the board, to certify Harris would require three votes, meaning at least one Democrat would have to vote in favor. And to hold a new election would require four votes, meaning at least one Republican would have to vote in favor.
…Democrats who now hold the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives have indicated they would not seat Harris if questions remain about the election’s fairness. In that case, the House could deem the seat vacant, which would then give Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, the authority to call a new election.
…Monday’s hearing kicked off with a key witness detailing how the alleged scheme worked and suggesting that the operative who was behind the absentee ballot operation sought to obstruct the state investigation into it.
…A number of voters have come forward to say that Dowless or people paid by Dowless picked up their vote-by-mail ballots, which is illegal in North Carolina.
…Not only did Dowless pay people to pick up ballots, $125 per 50 ballots collected, but that actions taken were meant to “obstruct the investigation and testimony provided at this hearing.”
…Britt described how Dowless gave her specific instructions for how to return ballots so as to not “raise red flags” with the State Board of Elections: using post offices close to the voters, and never mailing more than nine or ten ballot envelopes at a time.
…Election results in Bladen County, where Dowless is based, also indicated something was amiss after results were tabulated.
Harris won 61 percent of the vote-by-mail ballots in Bladen County, despite only 19 percent of the voters who voted by mail being registered Republican. For Harris to have ended up with that 61 percent, he would have had to win every single Republican and unaffiliated voter and some registered Democrats as well, leading to questions about whether ballots were manipulated or tossed out.
Man Accused Of Election Fraud In NC09 Declines To Testify : NPR
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Mississippi suit to cover all who lost voting rights, judge says
The Mississippi Constitution strips the ballot from people convicted of any of 10 felonies, including murder, forgery and bigamy. The attorney general later expanded that list to 22, adding crimes that include timber larceny and carjacking. The plaintiffs argue disenfranchisement violates the U.S. Constitution because it was adopted with the discriminatory intent of keeping African Americans from voting.
…African-Americans make up about 38 percent of Mississippi’s population and 36.5 percent of the state’s registered voters. Youngwood said 59 percent to 60 percent of people convicted of disenfranchising crimes in the state are black.
Some states automatically restore voting rights once someone gets out of prison, while others automatically restore rights once someone completes parole or probation. But Mississippi requires people to go through the arduous process of getting individual bills passed just for them with two-thirds approval by the Legislature, or getting a pardon from the governor.
Mississippi suit to cover all who lost voting rights, judge says
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New California Gov. Gavin Newsom slams brakes on San Francisco-to-Los Angeles bullet train
When state voters approved the massive bullet-train plan in 2008, the project was envisioned to open in 2029 at a cost of $32 billion. But the California High-Speed Rail Authority last year pushed the completion date back by four years and said it would cost at least double.
Newsom on Tuesday blamed oversight failures and a lack of transparency, saying he wasn’t “interested in repeating the same old mistakes.”
He said he would name Lenny Mendonca, his economic development director, as the authority’s next chairman, with a mandate to “hold contractors and consultants accountable to explain how taxpayer dollars are spent” and to put all expenses online “for everybody to see.”
New California Gov. Gavin Newsom slams brakes on San Francisco-to-Los Angeles bullet train
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What sort of presidential campaign would Seth Moulton run?
What sort of presidential campaign would Seth Moulton run? | Boston.com
Based on what we’ve seen so far? A stragetically challenged, short-sighted, not-through-through, and ultimately unsuccessful one.
Siddown and STFU, Seth.
Attacking plastic waste and single-use, throwaway culture
The reality is that much of the plastic tossed into bins ends up in landfills, or it gets shipped overseas to countries that lack infrastructure to deal with it properly.
…Plastic was never recycled at a high level, and it’s even worse since 2018, when China closed its doors to imported mixed plastic waste. U.S. recyclers have shifted exports to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, but those countries lack the capacity to handle the volume we’re sending, which has brought them new environmental problems.
Moreover, despite our willingness to move plastic waste around the world, only about 9% of the plastic ever made has actually been recycled. We just keep making more of the stuff. If your bathtub was overflowing, you wouldn’t immediately reach for a mop — you’d first turn off the tap. That’s what we need to do with single-use plastics.
…It’s not that there isn’t still a role for recycling in efforts to reduce trash. Cans, bottles, paper and cardboard are highly recyclable.
But we need to be more realistic about the kinds of plastic that can be effectively collected, processed and then reused. Single-stream recycling, which co-mingles different materials for collection, is convenient, but it leads to increased contamination and thus lower quality recyclables.
Even with increased investment in sorting, recycling will never be able keep up with all of the new types of plastics on the market or the ever-increasing flow of plastic waste.
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Ohio city to stop observing Columbus Day, make Election Day holiday instead
The new rule, which takes effect this year, will give workers in all municipal offices the day off on Election Day, typically the first Tuesday in November.
…City Manager Eric Wobser told the Sandusky Register that the swap is to encourage city employees to vote, as well as in response to the controversies surrounding Columbus Day.
Ohio city to stop observing Columbus Day, make Election Day holiday instead | TheHill
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Concord Monitor: Shaheen is a solid presence in the Senate
Shaheen has been in Washington for a decade now, and can be counted on to be the adult in the room where others are acting like children. If she is re-elected, as we assume she will be, she will move up the Senate ranks and be in an even stronger position to advocate on behalf of her state.
Shaheen was New Hampshire’s first female governor, its first female senator and the first woman in U.S. history to become both a governor and a senator.
…She’s skilled at finding the common ground that allows her to sponsor bipartisan legislation.
…She is too moderate for our tastes, but she is trusted, respected and effective. She was the prime sponsor of 11 bills that have become law.
…Shaheen already has more seniority than two-thirds of her fellow senators, and seniority matters. She fills some of the most important roles in Congress as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Appropriations and Armed Services Committees and as one of six members of the Senate Ethics Committee. Re-election will allow her to have even more impact.
Editorial: A solid presence in the Senate
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If Rosa Parks rode a bus in Boston today, she’d see nearly the same segregation she fought
If Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Boston today, she wouldn’t see black and white sections; she’d see a dysfunctional system that is disproportionately failing the low-income people — largely people of color and immigrants — whose livelihoods depend on it.
…Even though white and minority riders use the bus system in roughly equal numbers, differences in reliability and frequency of service on routes that serve mostly black and mostly white riders effectively steal more than a week and a half of work [from riders who are not white]— 3 percent of a person’s annual productivity, skimmed right off the top.
…“These studies are replicated around the nation. It’s one of the greatest transportation injustices,” said Julian Agyeman, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University.
…Only 19 of the T’s 176 bus routes offer frequent, all-day service. And 63 percent of area residents are not served by any of those 19 routes, which mostly run along major corridors and feed big job centers like Longwood or Kendall Square.
sigh…
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