Feb 21
After ICE federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota, the divide between states on either side of the immigration enforcement deba
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After ICE federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota, the divide between states on either side of the immigration enforcement deba
Abortion has been heavily restricted in many states post-Roe — and abortion training has all but disappeared, too. Inside one doctor’s journ
How the Mormon church unlocked medical pot for deep red states
How the Mormon church unlocked medical pot for deep red states
“They did everything that they could to fight this until the people had spoken,” a former state lawmaker said of the church. SALT LAKE CITY — On a Thursday in October 2018, a handful of Utah’s top lawmakers, representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and medical marijuana advocates filed into the Gold Room, an ornate space in the state Capitol. They were joined by the…
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SEATTLE | Teacher strikes, unrest hit West Coast as unions flex muscle
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SEATTLE | Teacher strikes, unrest hit West Coast as unions flex muscle
SEATTLE — Fights over teacher salaries and working conditions are escalating along the West Coast, emboldened in part by the momentum from widespread teacher strikes in more conservative states.
The teachers in these blue states — with robust teachers’ unions, the right to strike and legislatures that are generally more supportive of education funding — are tapping into a shift in public sentiment that supports better wages for teachers that came as a result of the “Red4Ed” protest movement that began earlier this year.
The latest disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. With students returning to school in the last few weeks, teachers in at least 18 public school districts so far have voted to authorize a strike, gone on strike or settled their strikes in order to get pay raises.
“We saw everywhere from Arizona to West Virginia standing up for fair wages. Now that it’s coming to Washington state, we don’t feel isolated. We know we have the support of our local community,” said Connie Vernon, an elementary teacher in the Washougal School District in southwest Washington, where a nine-day walkout ended Thursday.
Rich Wood, spokesman for the state teachers’ union, said local bargaining units at two-thirds of the state’s 295 school systems have sought to renegotiate salaries.
In California, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District also voted last week to authorize a strike, although a walkout isn’t imminent. The union and district in the nation’s second-largest school system have failed to reach an agreement on pay raises, smaller class sizes and other issues. Both sides have filed charges against the other and a state mediation session is scheduled Sept. 27.
The momentum earlier from teacher protests in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona has also carried into other kinds of actions, including an organized teacher hunger strike in Georgia and a major rally in North Carolina.
Except for Colorado, all of those states have “right to work” laws, which limits the ability for teachers to strike. Teachers there instead scheduled widespread protest “walkouts.” In West Virginia, teachers won a 5-percent raise even though they lacked collective bargaining rights and had no legal right to strike.
The Washington teachers’ union said it has been fighting for schools funding for more than a decade, and that the timing of their latest contract and strike discussions was coincidental to the national teacher uprising.
Michael Hansen, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said the teachers’ cause is undoubtedly helped by the political dynamics shifting in the national conversation about teacher value.
As the protest movement moves from fiscally-conservative red states without much labor power, Hansen said momentum has shifted to more union-friendly blue states where pay and cost of living are substantially higher. The red-state fights thrived as state-wide actions, while the blue-state disputes are at the district level.
“They sort of feel like a tipping point has been crossed,” Hansen said. “Strategically, if you’re going to advance and advocate for more teacher pay, this is the time.”
More state money toward teacher salaries was funded by the Washington Legislature after a court ruling that stemmed from a 2007 lawsuit. The ruling said the state was violating its own Constitution by inadequately funding K-12 schools.
This year, many of the teachers urged their school districts to reopen bargaining talks in the middle of their contract period in order to settle the pay disparity.
Teachers at Seattle Public Schools, the state’s largest district, had authorized a strike but reached a one-year deal giving them 10.5 percent raises.
In some smaller communities, school district officials have pushed back by suing the unions to get them to work.
The state union is backing all teachers with a new political tactic, ordering for the first time “bargaining season” television, radio and Facebook ads to both put pressure on the districts and urge community members to stand with the teachers. One ad highlights the state’s teacher shortage while saying salaries aren’t competitive in a region flush with tech money.
That’s also a show of force for the unions after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in late June that declared government workers can’t be required to contribute money to labor groups. As the state teachers union flexed its political muscle by spending in such an unprecedented but high-stakes way, local leaders say their membership numbers have not been affected by the ruling even though it has the potential to significantly weaken the revenue base for all labor unions.
Washougal’s superintendent Mary Templeton said the state union relationship with the locals has been affected by these broader elements and that it’s evident by the rush of political activity being carried out by the larger labor group.
She said the district also wants to support teachers with a new salary pay scale.
“We gave a lot because we know how important they are,” Templeton said.
By SALLY HO ,Associated Press
Republican-Led States Fuck With Body Cam Laws To Aid Police Corruption
Republican-Led States Fuck With Body Cam Laws To Aid Police Corruption
(The Inquisitr) – In light of killing of two innocent black civilians by police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and St. Anthony, Minnesota; both incidents captured on video by smart phones, the Republican governor of North Carolina made another controversial move and signed a bill into law which prevents the public from gaining access to footage captured on police body cams, in order to defend…
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Why Is Obama Flooding Small Towns In The Most Conservative Parts Of America With Refugees?
Why Is Obama Flooding Small Towns In The Most Conservative Parts Of America With Refugees?
By Michael Snyder – The Economic Collapse Blog
Why are small towns in conservative states being specifically targeted for refugee resettlement? Of course the Obama administration will never publicly admit that this is happening, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on. Just look at the uproar that refugee resettlement is now causing in small communities in Idaho, Montana,…
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Conservative states balk at gay marriage action
WICHITA, Kun. (AP) — Officials n' sum conservatif' states, whar Supreme Court acshun could clar t'way fer same-sex weddings, say thay won’t issue marriage lisenses ta gay couples until thar han's air fercet. Gay rights advocates air fixin an' fileeun' new fedral lawsuits ta do jes at. Un M...
The Conservative States of America
If you are a conservative, you likely are: Religious Un-educated Non-diverse Blue Collar Poor Ironically: Conservatism, at least at the state level, appears to be growing stronger. Ironically, this trend is most pronounced in America's least well-off, least educated, most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states. Conservatism, more and more, is the ideology of the economically left behind. The current economic crisis only appears to have deepened conservatism's hold on America's states. This trend stands in sharp contrast to the Great Depression, when America embraced FDR and the New Deal.
Amplify’d from www.theatlantic.com
America is an increasingly conservative nation, by ideology and by political affiliation, according to polling results from the Gallup Organization. While conservatives have long outnumbered liberals and moderates across the U.S., the study sheds new light on state-by-state patterns. The map below shows the pattern for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Mississippi is the first state with more than 50% conservative identification, with Idaho, Alabama, Wyoming, and Utah approaching that level, and Arkansas, South Carolina, North Dakota, Louisiana, and South Dakota (the rest of the top-ten conservative states) 45% or higher. Conservatives outnumber liberals in even the most liberal-leaning states (excluding the District of Columbia): Vermont, (30.7% conservative to 30.5% liberal), Rhode Island (29.9% to 29.3%), and Massachusetts (29.9% to 28.0%).
Political commentators have long pointed to underlying social and economic sorting that underpins this growing conservative/ liberal divide. But what factors account for the growing conservatism of Americans and American states?
With the help of my colleague Charlotta Mellander, I decided to take a look. We ran a simple correlation analysis on the Gallup poll numbers, comparing conservative identification to a variety of key economic, demographic, and cultural factors by state. As always, our analysis only points to associations between variables; we do not make any claims about causation and note that other factors that we have not looked at might come into play. Still, a number of intriguing findings cropped up.
Not surprisingly, states with more conservatives are considerably more religious than liberal-leaning states. The correlation between conservative political affiliation and religion (the share of state population for which religion is an important part of daily life) is considerable (.63).
Conservative states are also less well-educated than liberal ones. The correlation between conservative affiliation and human capital (that is, the percent of adults who have graduated college) is substantially negative (-.53).
States with more conservatives are less diverse. Conservative political affiliation is highly negatively correlated with the percent of the population that are immigrants (-.59) or gay and lesbian (-.66).
Conservative states are more blue-collar. Conservative political affiliation is strongly positively correlated with the percentage of the workforce in blue-collar occupations (.73) and highly negatively correlated with the proportion of the workforce engaged in knowledge-based professional and creative work (-.61).
States with more conservatives are considerably poorer than those with more liberals. Conservative political affiliation is highly negatively correlated with income ( -.65) and even more so with hourly earnings (-.79). Columbia University's Andrew Gelman's influential book Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State sheds light on this phenomenon. While rich voters trend Republican, Gelman and his colleagues found, rich states trend Democratic.
Conservatism, at least at the state level, appears to be growing stronger. Ironically, this trend is most pronounced in America's least well-off, least educated, most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states. Conservatism, more and more, is the ideology of the economically left behind. The current economic crisis only appears to have deepened conservatism's hold on America's states. This trend stands in sharp contrast to the Great Depression, when America embraced FDR and the New Deal.
Liberalism, which is stronger in richer, better-educated, more-diverse, and, especially, more prosperous places, is shrinking across the board and has fallen behind conservatism even in its biggest strongholds. This obviously poses big challenges for liberals, the Obama administration, and the Democratic Party moving forward.
But the much bigger, long-term danger is economic rather than political. This ideological state of affairs advantages the policy preferences of poorer, less innovative states over wealthier, more innovative, and productive ones. American politics is increasingly disconnected from its economic engine. And this deepening political divide has become perhaps the biggest bottleneck on the road to long-run prosperity.
Read more at www.theatlantic.com
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