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5 episodes with 2023 elections
5 episodes with 2023 elections
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3 episodes with 2023 elections
2 episodes with 2023 elections
3 episodes with 2023 elections
2 episodes with 2023 elections
Today we're sharing the audio from a recent webinar hosted by the Center for Campaign Innovation discussing the 2023 Virginia Post Election Survey they did with the State Government Leadership Foundation. The full survey, including the slides referenced in the discussion are available at the link in our show notes. The webinar was moderated by Eric Wilson and participants were David Kanevsky from 3D Strategic Research and Peter Barnes from the State Government Leadership Foundation, co-sponsor of the survey.Our discussion focuses on three main highlights from the poll: the perception of the abortion debate in voters' minds, the effect of renewed Republican early voting efforts, and the status of social media and digital streaming platforms. Visit CampaignInnovation.org for the slides referenced.
Reporter Lorcan Doherty joins Lucía Benavides to take a look back at this year's top Catalan news. There were local and national elections, a new amnesty law for Catalan pro-independence leaders, the ongoing drought that's left reservoirs at 18 percent full. And there were also big-name celebrity break-ups and cultural heritage celebrations across the territory. The Catalan phrase of the week is: "Fer campana," which translates literally to "Do a bell," and is used when referring to skipping school or work.
Today our President and CEO, Mike Affuso, sits down with David Wildstein, Editor in Chief of the New Jersey Globe, for a discussion of the recent election results in New Jersey and nationally, the impacts of early voting, a look at the 2024 election cycle, and more.
【聊了什么】 虽然总统拜登的支持率低迷，民主党却在刚刚结束的迷你中期选举中取得了比民调药好得多的结果。堕胎权作为焦点议题起到了怎样的作用，又对明年大选会有什么样的影响？我们来讨论一下! 【支持我们】 如果喜欢这期节目并希望支持我们将节目继续做下去： 众筹平台链接：www.patreon.com/americanroulette 合作投稿邮箱：american.roulette.pod@gmail.com 【时间轴】 00:40 什么是迷你中期选举？ 01:20 2023 年迷你中期选举的主要结果 04:04 为什么会有迷你中期选举？ 08:24 俄亥俄堕胎权入宪法公投 12:30 堕胎权之争的前景 25:30 支持大麻合法化的人和支持堕胎权的人并不很重合 26:11 肯塔基州州长连任，堕胎权之争的作用 29:21 堕胎权之争共和党为什么陷入被动？ 31:54 弗吉尼亚州议会选举和文化战争 38:11 选民结构的变化对竞选的影响 44:15 拜登的民调表现为什么这么差? 49:33 拜登的年龄问题被夸大了，还是特朗普的年龄问题被低估了？ 52:43 通涨/经济现状对选举的影响 56:15 今年迷你中期选举和明年大选的关系 【我们是谁】 美轮美换是一档深入探讨当今美国政治的中文播客。 美轮美换的前身是“选·美 iAmElection”，一档由游天龙、talich、林垚、庄巧祎等人于2015年创立的中文播客，选·美聚集了一群关心美国政治的学者、律师、媒体人、观察者和爱好者，在2016年大选前后吸引了大量的听众和读者，成为一档现象级的播客。2020年大选前，talich等人重新推出了“美轮美换”，更新了16集。2023年，新一轮美国大选即将开始，我们决定将选·美和美轮美换的传统延续下去，推出新版的“美轮美换”播客。 我们的主播和嘉宾： Talich：美国政治/文化历史爱好者 王浩岚：美国政治爱好者，岚目公众号主笔兼消息二道贩子 Lokin：美国法学院学生，即将成为一名纽约诉讼律师。 本期节目由Talich制作，封面设计来自欢祺，本期的音频编辑是Talich。 美轮美换是一档由百花传媒出品的播客。 【 What We Talked About】 Yes. 2023 is also an election year. Though Biden is not doing so well in the latest polls, Democrats have exceeded expectations in the past off-year elections. We discuss results of some of the high-profile races. How did abortion rights play into the results? How will the issue affect the general elections next year? 【Support Us】 If you like our show and want to support us, please consider the following: Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/americanroulette Business Inquiries and fan mail: american.roulette.pod@gmail.com 【Timeline】 00:40 What is a mini-midterm election? 01:20 Main outcome of 2023 mini-midterm election 4:04 Why did some states adopt mini-midterm elections? 8:24 Ohio's initiative on abortion rights 12:30 The future of political fights on abortion rights 25:30 Pro-marijuana legalization and pro-abortion rights voters don't exactly overlap 26:11 Kentucky governor's successful re-election and abortion rights in the state 29:21 Why is the Republican party playing defense when it comes to abortion rights 31:54 Virginia state legislature elections and the culture wars 38:11 How voter demographic changes affect elections 44:15 Why is Biden doing so badly in the polls? 49:33 Has Biden's age issue been exaggerated, or has Trump's age issue been underestimated? 52:43 The impact of inflation/economic situations on elections 56:15 What does the mini-midterm say about next year's general election? 【Who We Are】 The American Roulette is a podcast dedicated to helping the Chinese-speaking community understand fast-changing U.S. politics. The American Roulette's predecessor is “iAmElection”, a Chinese-language podcast created by Tianlong You, Talich, Yao Lin, and Qiaoy Zhuangi in 2015. The podcast brought together a group of scholars, lawyers, media veterans, observers and enthusiasts who care about American politics. At the height of its popularity, it was featured in the New York Times, and attracted an estimated 70,000 audience who listened each month. For the 2020 election, Talich and others relaunched the podcast as "美轮美换" with 16 new episodes. In 2023, as the new round of U.S. presidential election is about to begin, we're building on the legacy of “iAmElection” and “美轮美换” to launch a new podcast that we hope will become your go-to American Politics podcast. We introduce: “美轮美换 The American Roulette.” Our Hosts and Guests: Talich: U.S. politics, history, and culture enthusiast 王浩岚 (Haolan Wang): American political enthusiast, chief writer at Lán Mù WeChat Official Account, and peddler of information Lokin: U.S. law school student, incoming NY litigation lawyer This episode is produced by Talich, cover design by Huanqi, our audio editor for this episode is Talich. American Roulette is a part of Baihua Media.
NewsRadio WFLA Market & Air Travel Expert Jay Ratliff discusses Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments from last week and why airlines are poised for the worst year of delays on record. NewsRadio WFLA White House Correspondent Jon Decker has the latest on a potential government shutdown, including Speaker Mike Johnson's two-step CR approach that's being met with skepticism. Senior Editor at FiveThirtyEight Nathaniel Rakich explains what the top takeaways from the 2023 elections could mean for 2024.
In this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Ben Hone, Climate Now's Marketing Manager sit down with Nathaniel Stinnett, Founder & Executive Director of the Environmental Voter Project, to go over last week's US elections and what they mean for climate action. Then, James is joined by Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau to discuss the past week's top climate headlines. They discuss the reality behind headlines claiming that EV adoption is slowing down, a lawsuit against California's new truck emissions law, the opening of a new direct air capture facility in California, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.
[13 NOV 23] The BCP Podcast. Season 3, Episode 156 Run Time: 27:12 In this episode: Voting machines in Texas add checked-in voters...right before our eyes! Dominion news out of Georgia Death by vaccines Shot Dead It's all a Big Pharma campaign MTG holding hearing on COVID-19 vax injuries Ebola is in COVID. Is Ebola the next scamdemic? Beware the Digital ID and the CBDC I GOT MY ORIGINAL TWITTER ACCOUNT BACK! PLEASE FOLLOW: https://twitter.com/Black_C_Patriot PICK UP SOME MERCH TO LOOK COOL AND SUPPORT OUR WORK: https://bcp-merch.creator-spring.com Also, check out Juniorette and Nana's YouTube show, NOTHING BUT THE NEWS! : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3lxLxp3ZuJRga7gF9KIyg
Indiana Cities have made history, for the first time electing Black Mayor in cities all across the state. We look at the election results from across the state including in Indianapolis were Joe Hogsett was re-elected in a landslide 60% to 40% against Jefferson Shreve.
Congrats Knoxville...11% or so of you bothered voting...for those that did good on you, for those that didn't hope your ok with what you've got...Sam and I chat elections and so so so much more. Website Facebook X
10.10.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland hits the road taking 2023elections Virginia's Our Voices, Our Vote Democratic Candidate's Forum #RMU LIVE from Suffolk, Virginia, for another special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered "Our Voices, Our Vote" Town Hall powered by Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. On Monday, we were in Virginia Beach, where we talked to candidates from there. Every seat in the state's General Assembly and the House of Delegates is up for grabs. Roland Martin will talk to candidates running for some of those delegate seats tonight. We'll discuss various topics and the importance of voting in your state elections. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
MSNBC's Ari Melber hosts “The Beat” on Thursday, November 9, and reports on the 2023 election results, Donald Trump's trials and SCOTUS ethics scandals. Maya Wiley and Chai Komanduri join.
[9 NOV 23] The BCP Podcast. Season 3, Episode 155 Run Time: 30:00 In this episode: 2023 Vote Flipping in Pennyslvania 2023 Voter Disenfranchisement in Arizona Vivek Ramaswamy: They keep rigging elections John Solomon & Steve Bannon: RNC sins and Ronna's gotta go! I GOT MY ORIGINAL TWITTER ACCOUNT BACK! PLEASE FOLLOW: https://twitter.com/Black_C_Patriot PICK UP SOME MERCH TO LOOK COOL AND SUPPORT OUR WORK: https://bcp-merch.creator-spring.com Also, check out Juniorette and Nana's YouTube show, NOTHING BUT THE NEWS! : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu3lxLxp3ZuJRga7gF9KIyg
Former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) joins the show to discuss Tuesday's elections, what they portend for 2024, and the future of artificial intelligence. Daniella and Colin also talk about the war in Israel and Gaza, and they speak with Sabrina Talukder from CAP Action about the Supreme Court case United States v. Rahimi.
Mike Viqueira, Washington Bureau Chief, NewsNation, joins John Williams to give us the biggest takeaways from the elections last night in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and more.
Mike Viqueira, Washington Bureau Chief, NewsNation, joins John Williams to give us the biggest takeaways from the elections last night in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and more.
Mike Viqueira, Washington Bureau Chief, NewsNation, joins John Williams to give us the biggest takeaways from the elections last night in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and more.
A look at 2023 election results: Who won, who lost and what the results may tell us about the mood of voters. Then, a look forward to what residents can expect in 2024.
Episode 221-2023 United States Elections- Why did the GOP fare so poorly? Is this a barometer for the 2024 election? What does it mean for next year? Are social issues proving to be a "loser" for Republicans, or not? What happened to Ohio's Abortion Proposal?
Heidi and Joel analyze key election results and discuss how abortion politics led to Democratic victories across VA, KY, and OH. From a major ballot measure passing that will enshrine abortion rights into the Ohio state constitution, to a rebuke of VA Governor Youngkin's attempt to ‘to thread the needle on abortion,' voters turned out at unexpected levels to protect women's rights. Then Heidi and Joel discuss why Democrats aren't polling better with rural Americans (hint: it's interest rates), and how to widen the winning margins for Democrats in key districts. To find out more about the One Country Project, visit our website. We want to hear what you think of The Hot Dish. Share your thoughts at https://onecountryproject.com/feedback!
Wayne Cabot and Paul Murnane have the morning's top local stories from the WCBS newsroom.
In this late-night edition of the 538 Politics podcast, the crew unpacks the results from election night 2023. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won reelection in Kentucky and Ohioans voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. The night was a decent performance for Democrats, despite a spate of recent polling suggesting Americans are pessimistic about Joe Biden's presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
@TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller @SeanDillerCO (Twitter and Post)https://heartlandpod.com/JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/T/F - Josh Hawley Only Introduced This Bill - to allegedly undue the Citizens United Ruling - So He Could Say He Introduced This Bill Because Lucas Kunce Has Him ScaredSean - can you do a quick refresher of what Citizens United is for the class, please - 2010 case about corporate donations and classification as money as speech, allowed for a flood money, largely without accountability, or what' often called “dark money” Open Secrets Spending Summaries: https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/cost-of-election?cycle=2020&display=T&infl=NBrennan Center Summary for Background reading: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/josh-hawley-citizens-united-bill-rcna123031538 polling info: Hawley in leadhttps://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/2024/missouri/Mitch came right at Hawley's throat: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/politics/mitch-mcconnell-josh-hawley-citizens-united/index.html Yeah… no - Christian Nationalism Is a Serious ProblemFrom a group called “Right Wing Watch”Former Trump administration and ardent Christian nationalist William Wolfe warns that "we are getting close" to a point where Christians will have to "heed the call to arms."https://twitter.com/rightwingwatch/status/1719444222028198007?s=46&t=mukZUfs5M_R3E9tAHIu-GAMike Johnson - it's a whole thingYou don't fuckin' sayDaddy's best boy isn't up for the job it seems https://www.ky3.com/2023/11/01/gop-candidate-missouri-governor-implies-hed-have-quit-if-voters-pass-abortion-rights/Best line, Ashcroft actually said this: “We're getting into real hypotheticals,” Ashcroft saidI'd pat him on his widdle squishy head if I didn't want to punt him off a bridge so badly.Yeah… Yeah - Trump orbit legal issues are going well for the good guyshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/31/top-trump-allies-facing-charges-lose-lawyers-after-failing-to-pay-legal-bills?CMP=Share_iOSApp_OtherIvanka wanted to not have to testify during the week becauseLike, judge, we have kids and it's just so hard and I just can't evenhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/03/ivanka-trump-must-testify-trump-organization-fraud?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Buy or Sell - Voters accepting GOP candidates claiming victory for Biden policy? Republicans welcome local benefits of climate law despite voting against itNancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene among those accused of hypocrisy over efforts to gut landmark Inflation Reduction Act https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/01/republicans-climate-change-ira-nancy-mace-marjorie-taylor-greene?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Big One - Social Emotional Learning Is What Businesses Want, But What GOP AttacksTop workforce concern of Missouri's CEOs is finding ‘soft skills'Two-thirds of respondents believe high school grads aren't ‘well-prepared for success'So often hear from GOP “Kids need to learn math and how to read” but the reality is that it doesn't matter how fast you can do arithmetic if you can't deal with other humans https://www.ky3.com/2023/10/27/top-workforce-concern-missouris-ceos-is-finding-soft-skills/
@TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller @SeanDillerCO (Twitter and Post)https://heartlandpod.com/JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/T/F - Josh Hawley Only Introduced This Bill - to allegedly undue the Citizens United Ruling - So He Could Say He Introduced This Bill Because Lucas Kunce Has Him ScaredSean - can you do a quick refresher of what Citizens United is for the class, please - 2010 case about corporate donations and classification as money as speech, allowed for a flood money, largely without accountability, or what' often called “dark money” Open Secrets Spending Summaries: https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/cost-of-election?cycle=2020&display=T&infl=NBrennan Center Summary for Background reading: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/josh-hawley-citizens-united-bill-rcna123031538 polling info: Hawley in leadhttps://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/2024/missouri/Mitch came right at Hawley's throat: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/politics/mitch-mcconnell-josh-hawley-citizens-united/index.html Yeah… no - Christian Nationalism Is a Serious ProblemFrom a group called “Right Wing Watch”Former Trump administration and ardent Christian nationalist William Wolfe warns that "we are getting close" to a point where Christians will have to "heed the call to arms."https://twitter.com/rightwingwatch/status/1719444222028198007?s=46&t=mukZUfs5M_R3E9tAHIu-GAMike Johnson - it's a whole thingYou don't fuckin' sayDaddy's best boy isn't up for the job it seems https://www.ky3.com/2023/11/01/gop-candidate-missouri-governor-implies-hed-have-quit-if-voters-pass-abortion-rights/Best line, Ashcroft actually said this: “We're getting into real hypotheticals,” Ashcroft saidI'd pat him on his widdle squishy head if I didn't want to punt him off a bridge so badly.Yeah… Yeah - Trump orbit legal issues are going well for the good guyshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/31/top-trump-allies-facing-charges-lose-lawyers-after-failing-to-pay-legal-bills?CMP=Share_iOSApp_OtherIvanka wanted to not have to testify during the week becauseLike, judge, we have kids and it's just so hard and I just can't evenhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/03/ivanka-trump-must-testify-trump-organization-fraud?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Buy or Sell - Voters accepting GOP candidates claiming victory for Biden policy? Republicans welcome local benefits of climate law despite voting against itNancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene among those accused of hypocrisy over efforts to gut landmark Inflation Reduction Act https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/01/republicans-climate-change-ira-nancy-mace-marjorie-taylor-greene?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Big One - Social Emotional Learning Is What Businesses Want, But What GOP AttacksTop workforce concern of Missouri's CEOs is finding ‘soft skills'Two-thirds of respondents believe high school grads aren't ‘well-prepared for success'So often hear from GOP “Kids need to learn math and how to read” but the reality is that it doesn't matter how fast you can do arithmetic if you can't deal with other humans https://www.ky3.com/2023/10/27/top-workforce-concern-missouris-ceos-is-finding-soft-skills/
"Few were surprised as, near midnight on August 26, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa's reelection in yet another of Zimbabwe's tendentious contests," writes David B. Moore. "His inauguration on September 4 sanctified his return to power."In this article by Moore, first published in The Conversation Africa, he explains how the country's ruling party has clung to power for 43 years. David B. Moore is research associate in the Department of Anthropology & Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg and fellow in Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. The article was read by Ami Tamakloe, our graduate podcast fellow. We are sharing the article here with the permission of a CC BY-ND 4.0 Deed license.Find the books, links, and articles we mentioned in this episode on our website, ufahamuafrica.com.
Welcome to the Friday News Flyover for November 3, 2023. I'm Sean Diller. This week: Medicaid chaos in red states around the country | Cannabis legalization on the ballot in Ohio | Pennsylvania Democrats have returned triple the mail ballots compared with their Republican neighbors | Colorado voters consider two statewide ballot initiatives, and | It's Britneyhttps://missouriindependent.com/2023/11/02/medicaid-unwinding-breeds-chaos-in-states-as-millions-lose-coverage/Medicaid ‘unwinding' breeds chaos in states as millions lose coverageBY: PHIL GALEWITZ, KATHERYN HOUGHTON, BRETT KELMAN AND SAMANTHA LISS - NOVEMBER 2, 2023 11:34 AM More than two dozen people lined up outside a state public assistance office in Montana before it opened to ensure they didn't get cut off from Medicaid.Callers in Missouri and Florida reported waiting on hold for more than two hours on hotlines to renew their Medicaid coverage.The parents of a disabled man in Tennessee who had been on Medicaid for three decades fought with the state this summer to keep him enrolled as he lay dying from pneumonia in a hospital.Since the expiration of COVID-era protections earlier this year, states have reviewed the eligibility of more than 28 million people and terminated coverage for over 10 million of them. Millions more are expected to lose Medicaid in the coming months.The Medicaid disenrollment rates of people reviewed so far vary dramatically by state, largely along a blue-red political divide, from a low of 10% in Illinois to a high of 65% in Texas.“I feel like Illinois is doing everything in their power to ensure that as few people lose coverage as possible,” said Paula Campbell of the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, which represents dozens of community health centers.Camille Richoux, health policy director for the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families said, “It's not just bad, but worse than people can imagine. This has not been about determining who is eligible using all possible means, but how we can kick people off by all possible means.”The unprecedented enrollment drop comes after federal protections ended this spring that had prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the three pandemic years. Since March 2020, enrollment in Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program had surged by more than 22 million to reach 94 million people in the U.S.The process of reviewing recipients' eligibility has been anything but smooth for many Medicaid enrollees, and some suspect particular states have used the confusing system to discourage enrollment.But gaps in coverage can jeopardize people's access to health services - or their financial security - if they get medical bills for care they cannot postpone.Pam Shaw, a pediatrician in Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' state government affairs committee said, “Any type of care that's put off — whether it's asthma, whether it's autism, whether it's something as simple as an earache — can just get worse if you wait,”Doctors and representatives of community health centers around the country said they have seen an uptick in cancellations and no-shows among patients without coverage — including children. Nationwide, states have already disenrolled at least 1.8 million children in the 20 states that provide the data by age. Children typically qualify more easily than adults, so child advocates believe many kids are being wrongly terminated based on their parents' being deemed no longer eligible. In Texas, 68% of those disenrolled from Medicaid were children, compared with 16% in Massachusetts, according to KFF. In September, President Joe Biden's administration said most states were conducting eligibility checks incorrectly and inappropriately disenrolling eligible children or household members. The administration ordered states to reinstate coverage for some 500,000 people.Idaho, one of a few states that completed the unwind in six months, said it disenrolled 121,000 people of the 153,000 recipients it reviewed as of September because it suspected they were no longer eligible. Of those kicked off, about 13,600 signed up for private coverage on the state's ACA marketplace, according to Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho, the state's exchange. What happened to the rest, state officials say they don't know.Nationwide, about 71% of Medicaid enrollees terminated during the unwinding have been cut because of procedural issues - meaning they could actually still qualify for Medicaid, but lost it anyway. ‘People are not getting through'In many states, enrollees have faced long waits to get help with renewals. The worst phone waits were in Missouri, according to a KFF Health News review of letters the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent to states in August. In the letter to Missouri's Medicaid program, CMS said it was concerned that the average wait time of 48 minutes and the 44% rate of Missourians abandoning those calls in May was “impeding equitable access” to assistance and patients' ability to maintain coverage.Some people are waiting on hold more than three hours, said Sunni Johnson, an enrollment worker at Affinia Healthcare, which runs community health centers in the St. Louis area. That's a significant hurdle for people with inflexible jobs and other barriers.In Florida, which has removed over 730,000 people from the program since April, enrollees earlier this year were waiting almost 2½ hours on a Spanish-language call center, according to a report from UnidosUS, a civil rights advocacy group. The Spanish versions of the Medicaid application, renewal website, and other communications are also confusing, said Jared Nordlund, the Florida director for UnidosUS.Some Medicaid recipients are seeking help through the courts. In a 2020 class-action lawsuit against Tennessee that seeks to pause the Medicaid eligibility review, parents of recipients describe spending hours on the phone or online with the state Medicaid program, trying to ensure their children's insurance coverage is not lost.One of those parents, Donna Guyton, said in a court filing that Tennessee's Medicaid program, called TennCare, sent a June letter revoking the coverage of her 37-year-old son, Patrick, who had been eligible for Medicaid because of disabilities since he was 6. As Guyton made calls and filed appeals to protect her son's insurance, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, then spent weeks there before dying in late July.“While Patrick was fighting for his life, TennCare was threatening to take away his health insurance coverage and the services he relied on,” she said in a court filing. “Though we should have been able to focus on Patrick's care, our family was required to navigate a system that kept denying his eligibility and putting his health coverage at risk.”TennCare said in a court filing Patrick Guyton's Medicaid coverage was never actually revoked — the termination letter was sent to his family because of an “error.”Phil Galewitz in Washington, D.C., wrote this article. Daniel Chang in Hollywood, Florida; Katheryn Houghton in Missoula, Montana; Brett Kelman in Nashville, Tennessee; Samantha Liss and Bram Sable-Smith in St. Louis; and Bernard J. Wolfson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/11/01/marijuana-legalization-would-add-260m-to-ohio-economy-study-predicts/Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Or when you get ‘em anyway.Issue 2, an initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for people over 21 in Ohio, is on the ballot in next Tuesday's election. An economic analysis released last week found that the benefits of legalizing cannabis in Ohio would outweigh the costs by a quarter-billion dollars a year.A study by Columbus-based Scioto Analysis attempts to identify the pluses and minuses that would come with legalization.To do the analysis, the group used studies from states such as Washington and Colorado, where recreational weed has long been the law. To examine how the pros and cons identified in those states might play out in Ohio, the researchers looked at economic and census data, as well as crime statistics.with its 10% excise tax on top of Ohio's normal sales tax, passage of Issue 2 would produce $190 million a year, according to the report. Then there are the jobs the new industry would create.The report predicts that Ohio will add roughly 3,300 new jobs in the first year after legalization. Assuming these jobs are full time and pay matches the average wage across the state of Ohio, this will amount to about $190 million in wage benefits for workers across the state. And if weed is no longer illegal for adults over 21, it stands to reason that there will be fewer arrests.The report said using data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report on the number of cannabis-related arrests in Ohio, they estimate there would be about 4,400 fewer arrests per year if recreational cannabis were legalized. Adding up the cost of those arrests, and assuming that 6% of those people would have been convicted of felonies, this amounts to over $38 million in savings for Ohio.”Overall, study estimated Ohioans would receive $260 million in annual benefits if Issue 2 passes this coming Tuesday. https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/mail-in-ballot-returns-top-half-a-million-2023-election-mailbag/Dems far outpacing Republicans in mail and absentee ballots returnedMail-in ballot returns top half a million | 2023 Election MailbagBY: CASSIE MILLER - NOVEMBER 1, 2023 2:00 PM Here are the numbers: As of Nov. 1, Pennsylvania voters requested a total of 1,026,227 absentee and mail-in ballots.Of that number, 90% requested a mail-in ballot and 10% requested an absentee ballot ahead of the municipal election.Registered Democrats requested 723,746 mail-in and absentee ballots compared to 215,286 Republicans and 87,195 requests from “other” registered voters. So about 3 of every 4Of the 570,000 ballots returned so far statewide, 417,829 - or about 3 of every 4 - were ballots from registered Democrats and 114,149 were from those registered as Republicans. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/01/proposition-hh-proposition-ii/Colorado voters will decide on two statewide measures this election, both of which were referred to the ballot by the state Legislature.First, Proposition HHIf approved, Proposition HH would lower property tax rates over the next 10 years and allow the state to keep more money than it would otherwise be obligated to return to taxpayers. If Proposition HH passes, the residential assessment rate would be reduced to 6.7% from 6.765% until 2032. Proposition HH would also raise the amount of tax revenue the state can keep — set by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — by 1%. The new revenue allowed would be used to backfill property tax revenue that local governments would miss out on, for things like public education. $20MM would also be set aside for a rental assistance program.The proposition is backed by the Democratic lawmakers who voted to put it on the ballot and by Demoratic Gov. Jared Polis, as well as by other liberal groups, unions, AARP and the League of Women Voters. They say the proposal is a responsible solution to rising property taxes while still keeping schools funded. https://variety.com/2023/music/news/britney-spears-memoir-the-woman-in-me-sales-publisher-1235768414/It's BritneyBritney Spears‘ long-awaited memoir “The Woman in Me” — which details her fight for freedom and tumultuous relationships with the men in her life — has sold 1.1 million copies in its first week across print, pre-sales, e-books and audiobooks in the United States.“The Woman in Me” was released on Oct. 24 and has officially been out for just over a week. The memoir is 275 pages long and the audiobook is read by actress Michelle Williams. The book featured a wild assortment of revelations that touched on Spears' career, family, conservatorship and high profile relationships. Among them, Spears revealed that she and her ex-beau Justin Timberlake had gotten an abortion and she also claims Timberlake cheated on her with unnamed celebrities. Spears landed the publishing deal for a tell-all last February, just a few months after her conservatorship was terminated. Simon & Schuster acquired the rights to Spears' book last year after a bidding war that involved multiple publishers, though the financial terms of the transaction have not been revealed. That's it for me, from Denver I'm Sean Diller. Stories featured in today's show were originally reported in the Missouri Independent, Ohio Capital Journal, Pennsylvania Capital Star, Colorado Newsline, and Variety. Thanks for listening, see you next time.
11.2.2023: #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland On The Road Talking 2023 Elections, Ex-Tenn. Cop Pleads Guilty in Tyre Nichols Case LIVE from Richmond, Virginia, for a special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered "Our Voices, Our Vote" Town Hall powered by Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. I'll talk to candidates vying for one of Virginia's General Assembly and House of Delegates seats. A former Memphis, Tennesee, police officer pleads guilty in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, becoming the first of five officers charged to change his plea. We'll hear Tyre's mother describe what she heard from one of the five men charged with killing her son. The Senate confirms the first woman Joint Chiefs of Staff, circumventing that crazy Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to the Friday News Flyover for November 3, 2023. I'm Sean Diller. This week: Medicaid chaos in red states around the country | Cannabis legalization on the ballot in Ohio | Pennsylvania Democrats have returned triple the mail ballots compared with their Republican neighbors | Colorado voters consider two statewide ballot initiatives, and | It's Britneyhttps://missouriindependent.com/2023/11/02/medicaid-unwinding-breeds-chaos-in-states-as-millions-lose-coverage/Medicaid ‘unwinding' breeds chaos in states as millions lose coverageBY: PHIL GALEWITZ, KATHERYN HOUGHTON, BRETT KELMAN AND SAMANTHA LISS - NOVEMBER 2, 2023 11:34 AM More than two dozen people lined up outside a state public assistance office in Montana before it opened to ensure they didn't get cut off from Medicaid.Callers in Missouri and Florida reported waiting on hold for more than two hours on hotlines to renew their Medicaid coverage.The parents of a disabled man in Tennessee who had been on Medicaid for three decades fought with the state this summer to keep him enrolled as he lay dying from pneumonia in a hospital.Since the expiration of COVID-era protections earlier this year, states have reviewed the eligibility of more than 28 million people and terminated coverage for over 10 million of them. Millions more are expected to lose Medicaid in the coming months.The Medicaid disenrollment rates of people reviewed so far vary dramatically by state, largely along a blue-red political divide, from a low of 10% in Illinois to a high of 65% in Texas.“I feel like Illinois is doing everything in their power to ensure that as few people lose coverage as possible,” said Paula Campbell of the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, which represents dozens of community health centers.Camille Richoux, health policy director for the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families said, “It's not just bad, but worse than people can imagine. This has not been about determining who is eligible using all possible means, but how we can kick people off by all possible means.”The unprecedented enrollment drop comes after federal protections ended this spring that had prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the three pandemic years. Since March 2020, enrollment in Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program had surged by more than 22 million to reach 94 million people in the U.S.The process of reviewing recipients' eligibility has been anything but smooth for many Medicaid enrollees, and some suspect particular states have used the confusing system to discourage enrollment.But gaps in coverage can jeopardize people's access to health services - or their financial security - if they get medical bills for care they cannot postpone.Pam Shaw, a pediatrician in Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics' state government affairs committee said, “Any type of care that's put off — whether it's asthma, whether it's autism, whether it's something as simple as an earache — can just get worse if you wait,”Doctors and representatives of community health centers around the country said they have seen an uptick in cancellations and no-shows among patients without coverage — including children. Nationwide, states have already disenrolled at least 1.8 million children in the 20 states that provide the data by age. Children typically qualify more easily than adults, so child advocates believe many kids are being wrongly terminated based on their parents' being deemed no longer eligible. In Texas, 68% of those disenrolled from Medicaid were children, compared with 16% in Massachusetts, according to KFF. In September, President Joe Biden's administration said most states were conducting eligibility checks incorrectly and inappropriately disenrolling eligible children or household members. The administration ordered states to reinstate coverage for some 500,000 people.Idaho, one of a few states that completed the unwind in six months, said it disenrolled 121,000 people of the 153,000 recipients it reviewed as of September because it suspected they were no longer eligible. Of those kicked off, about 13,600 signed up for private coverage on the state's ACA marketplace, according to Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho, the state's exchange. What happened to the rest, state officials say they don't know.Nationwide, about 71% of Medicaid enrollees terminated during the unwinding have been cut because of procedural issues - meaning they could actually still qualify for Medicaid, but lost it anyway. ‘People are not getting through'In many states, enrollees have faced long waits to get help with renewals. The worst phone waits were in Missouri, according to a KFF Health News review of letters the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent to states in August. In the letter to Missouri's Medicaid program, CMS said it was concerned that the average wait time of 48 minutes and the 44% rate of Missourians abandoning those calls in May was “impeding equitable access” to assistance and patients' ability to maintain coverage.Some people are waiting on hold more than three hours, said Sunni Johnson, an enrollment worker at Affinia Healthcare, which runs community health centers in the St. Louis area. That's a significant hurdle for people with inflexible jobs and other barriers.In Florida, which has removed over 730,000 people from the program since April, enrollees earlier this year were waiting almost 2½ hours on a Spanish-language call center, according to a report from UnidosUS, a civil rights advocacy group. The Spanish versions of the Medicaid application, renewal website, and other communications are also confusing, said Jared Nordlund, the Florida director for UnidosUS.Some Medicaid recipients are seeking help through the courts. In a 2020 class-action lawsuit against Tennessee that seeks to pause the Medicaid eligibility review, parents of recipients describe spending hours on the phone or online with the state Medicaid program, trying to ensure their children's insurance coverage is not lost.One of those parents, Donna Guyton, said in a court filing that Tennessee's Medicaid program, called TennCare, sent a June letter revoking the coverage of her 37-year-old son, Patrick, who had been eligible for Medicaid because of disabilities since he was 6. As Guyton made calls and filed appeals to protect her son's insurance, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, then spent weeks there before dying in late July.“While Patrick was fighting for his life, TennCare was threatening to take away his health insurance coverage and the services he relied on,” she said in a court filing. “Though we should have been able to focus on Patrick's care, our family was required to navigate a system that kept denying his eligibility and putting his health coverage at risk.”TennCare said in a court filing Patrick Guyton's Medicaid coverage was never actually revoked — the termination letter was sent to his family because of an “error.”Phil Galewitz in Washington, D.C., wrote this article. Daniel Chang in Hollywood, Florida; Katheryn Houghton in Missoula, Montana; Brett Kelman in Nashville, Tennessee; Samantha Liss and Bram Sable-Smith in St. Louis; and Bernard J. Wolfson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/11/01/marijuana-legalization-would-add-260m-to-ohio-economy-study-predicts/Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Or when you get ‘em anyway.Issue 2, an initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for people over 21 in Ohio, is on the ballot in next Tuesday's election. An economic analysis released last week found that the benefits of legalizing cannabis in Ohio would outweigh the costs by a quarter-billion dollars a year.A study by Columbus-based Scioto Analysis attempts to identify the pluses and minuses that would come with legalization.To do the analysis, the group used studies from states such as Washington and Colorado, where recreational weed has long been the law. To examine how the pros and cons identified in those states might play out in Ohio, the researchers looked at economic and census data, as well as crime statistics.with its 10% excise tax on top of Ohio's normal sales tax, passage of Issue 2 would produce $190 million a year, according to the report. Then there are the jobs the new industry would create.The report predicts that Ohio will add roughly 3,300 new jobs in the first year after legalization. Assuming these jobs are full time and pay matches the average wage across the state of Ohio, this will amount to about $190 million in wage benefits for workers across the state. And if weed is no longer illegal for adults over 21, it stands to reason that there will be fewer arrests.The report said using data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report on the number of cannabis-related arrests in Ohio, they estimate there would be about 4,400 fewer arrests per year if recreational cannabis were legalized. Adding up the cost of those arrests, and assuming that 6% of those people would have been convicted of felonies, this amounts to over $38 million in savings for Ohio.”Overall, study estimated Ohioans would receive $260 million in annual benefits if Issue 2 passes this coming Tuesday. https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/mail-in-ballot-returns-top-half-a-million-2023-election-mailbag/Dems far outpacing Republicans in mail and absentee ballots returnedMail-in ballot returns top half a million | 2023 Election MailbagBY: CASSIE MILLER - NOVEMBER 1, 2023 2:00 PM Here are the numbers: As of Nov. 1, Pennsylvania voters requested a total of 1,026,227 absentee and mail-in ballots.Of that number, 90% requested a mail-in ballot and 10% requested an absentee ballot ahead of the municipal election.Registered Democrats requested 723,746 mail-in and absentee ballots compared to 215,286 Republicans and 87,195 requests from “other” registered voters. So about 3 of every 4Of the 570,000 ballots returned so far statewide, 417,829 - or about 3 of every 4 - were ballots from registered Democrats and 114,149 were from those registered as Republicans. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/01/proposition-hh-proposition-ii/Colorado voters will decide on two statewide measures this election, both of which were referred to the ballot by the state Legislature.First, Proposition HHIf approved, Proposition HH would lower property tax rates over the next 10 years and allow the state to keep more money than it would otherwise be obligated to return to taxpayers. If Proposition HH passes, the residential assessment rate would be reduced to 6.7% from 6.765% until 2032. Proposition HH would also raise the amount of tax revenue the state can keep — set by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights — by 1%. The new revenue allowed would be used to backfill property tax revenue that local governments would miss out on, for things like public education. $20MM would also be set aside for a rental assistance program.The proposition is backed by the Democratic lawmakers who voted to put it on the ballot and by Demoratic Gov. Jared Polis, as well as by other liberal groups, unions, AARP and the League of Women Voters. They say the proposal is a responsible solution to rising property taxes while still keeping schools funded. https://variety.com/2023/music/news/britney-spears-memoir-the-woman-in-me-sales-publisher-1235768414/It's BritneyBritney Spears‘ long-awaited memoir “The Woman in Me” — which details her fight for freedom and tumultuous relationships with the men in her life — has sold 1.1 million copies in its first week across print, pre-sales, e-books and audiobooks in the United States.“The Woman in Me” was released on Oct. 24 and has officially been out for just over a week. The memoir is 275 pages long and the audiobook is read by actress Michelle Williams. The book featured a wild assortment of revelations that touched on Spears' career, family, conservatorship and high profile relationships. Among them, Spears revealed that she and her ex-beau Justin Timberlake had gotten an abortion and she also claims Timberlake cheated on her with unnamed celebrities. Spears landed the publishing deal for a tell-all last February, just a few months after her conservatorship was terminated. Simon & Schuster acquired the rights to Spears' book last year after a bidding war that involved multiple publishers, though the financial terms of the transaction have not been revealed. That's it for me, from Denver I'm Sean Diller. Stories featured in today's show were originally reported in the Missouri Independent, Ohio Capital Journal, Pennsylvania Capital Star, Colorado Newsline, and Variety. Thanks for listening, see you next time.
Erin Ryan and Alyssa Mastromonaco gird their loins and take you on a Tour De Election and break down the important candidates and ballot initiatives in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Mississippi. Then, Jennifer Carroll Foy joins to talk about her run for Virginia State Senator and the high stakes legislature election. Plus, Erin investigates the bad veneers plaguing the conservative party in Sani Petty.Show NotesJennifer Carroll Foy For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET. Brad is first joined by Paul Lisnek, Legal Analyst for WGN-TV in Chicago, to discuss the trials and tribulations of Donald Trump. Then Kimberly Scott, the Publisher of DemList, previews Election Day 2023, which will be held on November 7th. Paul Lisnek is a multi-Emmy, Cablefax, Telly and Beacon Award winning television host and analyst. He's been the political analyst for WGN-TV since 2008, appearing on all the station's newscasts discussing political issues of the day. He is the host of Politics Tonight on CLTV, on which he interviews the leading political figures in the city, state and country, and also serves as a fill-in anchor. Paul has interviewed presidents, governors, senators, congressmen, local representatives and mayors too numerous to count over the last 25 years. His Twitter handle is @PaulLisnek. Kim Scott's 'Demlist' is a free national daily political column, calendar and resource site for Democrats and allies - a unique, central source that connects people to the who, what and where of Democratic events, issues and activism. You can find out more about them at DemList.com and follow them on Twitter @TheDemList. Brad writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Messenger.' He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon. You can watch a livestream of this broadcast at the following links: Twitter - twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1YpJkwRDANmJj Facebook - www.facebook.com/DeadlineDCWithBradBannon/videos/878006267050649/?mibextid=zDhOQc YouTube - youtube.com/live/mTMwmLxaJHo?feature=share
Interviewer: MATTHEW BERKMAN. On the cusp of a crucial election for Virginia, political activist JOSH STANFIELD discusses the stakes in his second AMC podcast appearance in an interview with political scientist Matthew Berkman. With this being the first legislative election for both Congressional chambers under new maps designed after the 2020 census, the status quo has shifted – aligning with a period of significant political turnover. Stanfield emphasizes the lack of faith that Virginia citizens have in elected officials and in large-scale development projects, culminating in underhanded tactics to bring in tourism and development at the risk of popular discontent and environmental harm. He also discusses how he is able to carve out a living while engaging in frequent freedom of information work and the various legal processes which accompany it.
This week, we're looking ahead at Virginia's off-year elections. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R.) is halfway through his first term, and now the entire state legislature is up for election. Republicans currently have a four-vote majority in the House of Delegates, while Democrats have a two-vote majority in the Senate. That's led to very little movement on gun policy since the Democrats lost their trifecta after passing universal background checks, a one-gun-a-month limit, a "red flag" law, local gun-free zones, and other restrictions in 2020. The outcome of the election will either preserve the status quo or potentially lead to the repeal of at least some restrictions. That's why we have Virginia Citizen Defense League (VCDL) president Philip Van Cleave on the show to tell us how his group sees things unfolding. Van Cleave said VCDL is working to build enthusiasm among gun voters and get them out to the polls early. He admitted there was some concern about how motivated gun owners are in this election, in part because the threat of new gun-control laws is limited. Still, he believes gun-rights advocates should be able to pull out a win and pressure Republicans into repealing most or maybe even all of the 2020 restrictions. Plus, Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I discuss the latest updates on the mentally ill mass shooter in Maine. Special Guest: Philip Van Cleave.
October 27, 2023 - UAW strike might be ending | Kansas GOP peddles lies about working poor | Ohioans may legalize cannabis on Issue 2 in November | Dark money floods into Denver school board elections | Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announces $402MM in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to replace lead drinking water service lines | SCOTUS smacks down another racial gerrymander from a GOP state legislature in the South Support what we do by leaving a five star rating and a review wherever you listen and follow us on social media at the heartland pod. Also check out heartlandpod.com and click the patreon link to learn about becoming a podhead today.https://michiganadvance.com/2023/10/26/we-won-things-nobody-thought-possible-uaw-reaches-tentative-deal-with-ford/What started at three plants at midnight on Sept. 15, has become a national movement,” said Fain. “We won things nobody thought possible. Since the strike began, Ford put 50% more on the table than when we walked out. This agreement sets us on a new path to make things right at Ford, at the Big Three, and across the auto industry. Together, we are turning the tide for the working class in this country.”Ford confirmed the deal in a news statement Wednesday night. “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the UAW covering our U.S. operations,” the company said.“Ford is proud to assemble the most vehicles in America and employ the most hourly autoworkers. We are focused on restarting Kentucky Truck Plant, Michigan Assembly Plant and Chicago Assembly Plant, calling 20,000 Ford employees back to work and shipping our full lineup to our customers again,” the automaker said in a statement. “The agreement is subject to ratification by Ford's UAW-represented employees. Consistent with the ratification process, the UAW will share details with its membership.”While Ford did not detail the terms of the tentative agreement, the UAW released some of the terms:It provides more in base wage increases than Ford workers have received in the past 22 years.The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028.It cumulatively raises the top wage by over 30% to more than $40 an hour.It raises the starting wage by 68%, to over $28 an hour.The lowest-paid workers at Ford will see a raise of more than 150% over the life of the agreement.Some workers will receive an immediate 85% increase immediately upon ratification.The agreement reinstates major benefits lost during the Great Recession, including Cost-of-Living Allowances (COLA) and a three-year wage progression, as well as killing wage tiers in the union.It improves retirement for current retirees, those workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans. It also includes a historic right to strike over plant closures, a first for the union.During a Friday livestream, Fain had detailed the latest proposals at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, highlighting the shortcomings of the latter's current offer. The union represents about 150,000 members. The latest picket site on Tuesday at GM's Arlington Assembly plant in Texas brought the total number of UAW members on strike at the Big Three automakers to more than 45,000. The UAW remains on strike against GM and Stellantis, but the Ford deal could become the blueprint to settle those contracts.The strike began on Sept. 15 with a walkout against three assembly plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. It has since grown to include eight assembly plants and 38 parts distribution centers in 22 states. President Joe Biden in September made a historic visit to the picket line alongside Fain at the Willow Run Redistribution Center in Belleville. He said in a statement Wednesday night that he applauds the “UAW and Ford for coming together after a hard fought, good faith negotiation and reaching a historic tentative agreement tonight. “This tentative agreement provides a record raise to auto workers who have sacrificed so much to ensure our iconic Big Three companies can still lead the world in quality and innovation. Ultimately, the final word on this contract will be from the UAW members themselves in the days and weeks to come. I've always believed the middle class built America and unions built the middle class. That is especially the case for UAW workers who built an iconic American industry,” Biden said.https://kansasreflector.com/2023/10/26/legislative-leaders-spread-biased-tropes-about-disabled-kansans-in-crusade-against-medicaid/Recently, Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson were quoted as calling Gov. Laura Kelly's campaign to expand Medicaid a “welfare” tour for “able-bodied adults” who “choose not to work.”This deception is both a wildly inaccurate portrayal of uninsured Kansas who could benefit from Medicaid expansion and also directly harmful in its disability-related stereotypes. Though I should note that we disabled people do not need to work to deserve dignity, decent living situations and have our needs met (as well as a reasonable amount of our wants). We deserve legislators' respect.Hawkins and Masterson are playing into well-rehearsed tropes and biases. I will seek to spread some facts to these dishonest politicians, who are supposed to be representing all their constituents, about disability and employment.Before I get to that, however, I'd like to quickly point out that the Medicaid expansion Hawkins and Masterson are railing against likely would benefit both the Kansas economy and many hardworking Kansans, according to a Wichita Eagle report. Also, despite their claims that Medicaid expansion would be welfare for able-bodied people who do not want to work, according to WIBW, 74% of the non-elderly, uninsured, working-age Kansans these men represent, are, in fact, working.With that aside, let's look under the hood at that comment, which clearly also seems to be a dog whistle for several profoundly harmful stereotypes. These include the idea that flocks of able-bodied people fake disability and that disabled people don't want to work. Both stereotypes ignore the immense barriers and biases that disabled people face while looking for jobs, the numbers of disabled people who are working for substandard wages and the substantial barriers disabled people face to receiving the education necessary to even have a foot in the door for many jobs.To dispel the idea that able-bodied people are pretending to be disabled to receive welfare benefits, numerous reliable sources, including the Social Security Administration itself, find that Social Security fraud is less than 1%.Let's also look at the number of disabled Kansans working for far below minimum wage in sheltered workshops with sub-minimum wage certificates, which some GOP Kansas legislators tried to create tax breaks for and increase.According to Russell, at least 420,000 disabled workers nationwide were working in these sheltered workshops, which paid 25-50% of the minimum wage. Goodwill was listed as one of the largest of these sheltered workspaces, paying disabled people as little as $2 an hour.Not only do these figures indicate clear employment and education-based barriers to work for disabled people, they also show a large number of disabled people would prefer to be working if they could find jobs. Even Forbes Magazine has written about why businesses should focus on hiring disabled people, the benefits in doing so, as well as the significant gifts that disabled people bring to the table, including higher retention rates and significant adaptability.In sum, though disabled people are often prevented from doing the work they would prefer to be doing, the statistics make clear that most, if not all, of those barriers come not from within disabled people but rather from the outside world.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/10/26/passing-issue-2-doesnt-come-with-protections-for-employees-who-use-recreational-marijuana/Issue 2 would legalize and regulate the cultivation, manufacturing, testing and the sale of marijuana to Ohioans 21 and up. It would also create the Division of Cannabis Control within the Department of Commerce. Recent polling shows majority support for Issue 2 is expected to pass in the November election. A total of 54% of lawmakers surveyed in last week's Gongwer-Werth Legislative Opinion Poll think Issue 2 will pass. The poll showed 63% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans believe Issue 2 will pass. The poll had 35 lawmaker respondents. A July Suffolk University/USA Today poll shows 59% of Ohio voters support Ohioans 21 and older buying and possessing marijuana. It showed 77% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 40% of Republicans support the issue. The Suffolk University/USA Today poll surveyed 500 registered Ohio voters and their margin of error is +/- 4.4 percentage points.Ballot LanguageThe ballot's language makes it clear it does not require an employer to “accommodate an employee's use, possession, or distribution of adult use cannabis.”It also doesn't prohibit an employer from “refusing to hire, discharging, disciplining, or otherwise taking an adverse employment action against an individual … because of that individual's use, possession, or distribution of cannabis.” “An individual who is discharged from employment because of that individual's use of cannabis shall be considered to have been discharged for just cause,” according to the ballot language.https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/21/billionaire-dark-money-denver-school-board/Colorado NewslineThe Denver school board race is off and running, and several key groups have announced their endorsements. MIKE DEGUIREThe Denver school board race is off and running, and several key groups have announced their endorsements.The Denver Classroom Teachers Association, the local teacher organization, endorsed Charmaine Lindsay, Scott Baldermann, and Kwame Spearman. Denver Families Action endorsed Kimberlee Sia, John Youngquist, and Marlene Delarosa.Who is Denver Families Action? Chalkbeat says it is the “political arm of a relatively new organization,” Denver Families for Public Schools, formed with the backing of several local charter school networks, and they get funding from The City Fund, a pro-charter education reform national organization.What is City Fund? How much funding did they give to this new group called Denver Families for Public Schools? What Denver Public Schools “families” do they represent?According to Influence Watch, The City Fund is an “education organization that funds initiatives that promote the growth of charter schools and other school choice organizations. It also funds activist organizations that support increasing charter school access and school choice programs.” Chalkbeat reports that City Fund was started in 2018 by two billionaires, Reed Hastings and John Arnold, who donated over $200 million to “expand charter schools or charter-like alternatives in 40 cities across the country.” Reed Hastings has called for the elimination of democratically elected school boards, he serves on the national KIPP charter school board, and he built a training center in Bailey, Colorado, to house the Pahara Institute, an education advocacy and networking group that supports the expansion of charter schools. In December, 2020, he spelled out his vision. “Let's year by year expand the nonprofit school sector … for the low-performing school district public school — let's have a nonprofit public school take it over.” The City Fund set up its own political group, a PAC, called Campaign for Great Public Schools (also called City Fund Action), to give money to organizations that promote charter schools and lobby to privatize education. Since its formation, the Campaign for Great Public Schools has given millions to Education Reform Now, which is the political arm of Democrats for Education Reform. DFER is a “New York-based political action committee which focuses on encouraging the Democratic Party to support public education reform and charter schools.”Campaign for Great Public Schools also gave millions to the American Federation for Children, which is “a conservative 501(c)(4) dark money group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other avenues. It is the 501(c)(4) arm of the 501(c)(3) non-profit group the Alliance for School Choice. The group was organized and is funded by the billionaire DeVos family.”The City Fund Action PAC also funds the National Alliance for Charter Schools, 50 CAN, and numerous other organizations that support the expansion of charter schools.Denver Families for Public Schools received $1.75 million in 2021 from the Campaign for Great Public Schools to promote their three selected candidates in the current Denver school board race. Denver Families for Public Schools functions as a 501(c)(4), which means it can donate unlimited amounts of money in political elections without disclosing its donors. It functions as an “astroturf” group by engaging in the practice of creating the illusion of widespread grassroots support for a candidate, policy, or cause when no such support necessarily exists. It set up a website, Facebook page, hired staff and recruited others to lobby for its cause. It posts videos of parents who say they don't like the current school board candidates if they are opposed to them. It participates in forums to promote its selected candidates.When Denver Families Action announced its school board endorsements in August, the leading fundraiser in the at-large seat at that time, Ulcca Hansen, withdrew from the race since she did not gain its endorsement. Hansen stated she could not win without the significant financial resources that come from “soft side spending.”This money is also referred to as outside spending or “dark money,” because the funders of the outside groups often remain secret. Hansen felt the dark money would outpace campaign spending by a 10 to 1 margin. The $1.75 million that Denver Families for Public Schools received from The City Fund will be a major factor in the DPS school board race.https://wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/evers-dnr-announce-402-million-in-spending-to-improve-drinking-water/Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that more than 100 municipalities across the state will receive $402 million in funding to improve local drinking water by removing lead service lines and addressing contaminants such as PFAS and nitrates. The funds come from the DNR's Safe Drinking Water Loan Program and a number of programs through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Across the state, there are 167,000 known lead service lines — which are the city-owned pipes that connect a home's plumbing to the water system. In his budget proposal earlier this year, Evers had requested $200 million to replace the lines. Through the funding, the city of Milwaukee, which has many of the state's remaining lead pipes, will receive more than $30 million to replace lead service lines.The city of Wausau is set to receive more than $17 million in funds to help pay for a PFAS-removal treatment system at the city's newly constructed water treatment facility. The city will also receive nearly $6 million to replace lead service lines. Many communities around the state are dealing with the harmful effects of PFAS in drinking water. The man-made compounds known as “forever chemicals” have been found to cause cancer and don't break down easily in the environment. The compounds enter the environment through products such as firefighting foams and household goods such as nonstick pans. In rural parts of the state, communities are dealing with increased nitrates in their drinking water, which is often caused by runoff from agricultural operations. As part of the funding announced Monday, the village of Reedsville is set to receive $3 million for additional water treatment to address excess nitrates in its water.What caught your eye?Rachelhttps://www.democracydocket.com/cases/georgia-congressional-redistricting-challenge/Federal judge strikes down Georgia's congressional and legislative maps, ruling they violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters. New, fair districts must be drawn before the 2024 elections.
October 27, 2023 - UAW strike might be ending | Kansas GOP peddles lies about working poor | Ohioans may legalize cannabis on Issue 2 in November | Dark money floods into Denver school board elections | Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announces $402MM in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to replace lead drinking water service lines | SCOTUS smacks down another racial gerrymander from a GOP state legislature in the South Support what we do by leaving a five star rating and a review wherever you listen and follow us on social media at the heartland pod. Also check out heartlandpod.com and click the patreon link to learn about becoming a podhead today.https://michiganadvance.com/2023/10/26/we-won-things-nobody-thought-possible-uaw-reaches-tentative-deal-with-ford/What started at three plants at midnight on Sept. 15, has become a national movement,” said Fain. “We won things nobody thought possible. Since the strike began, Ford put 50% more on the table than when we walked out. This agreement sets us on a new path to make things right at Ford, at the Big Three, and across the auto industry. Together, we are turning the tide for the working class in this country.”Ford confirmed the deal in a news statement Wednesday night. “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the UAW covering our U.S. operations,” the company said.“Ford is proud to assemble the most vehicles in America and employ the most hourly autoworkers. We are focused on restarting Kentucky Truck Plant, Michigan Assembly Plant and Chicago Assembly Plant, calling 20,000 Ford employees back to work and shipping our full lineup to our customers again,” the automaker said in a statement. “The agreement is subject to ratification by Ford's UAW-represented employees. Consistent with the ratification process, the UAW will share details with its membership.”While Ford did not detail the terms of the tentative agreement, the UAW released some of the terms:It provides more in base wage increases than Ford workers have received in the past 22 years.The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028.It cumulatively raises the top wage by over 30% to more than $40 an hour.It raises the starting wage by 68%, to over $28 an hour.The lowest-paid workers at Ford will see a raise of more than 150% over the life of the agreement.Some workers will receive an immediate 85% increase immediately upon ratification.The agreement reinstates major benefits lost during the Great Recession, including Cost-of-Living Allowances (COLA) and a three-year wage progression, as well as killing wage tiers in the union.It improves retirement for current retirees, those workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans. It also includes a historic right to strike over plant closures, a first for the union.During a Friday livestream, Fain had detailed the latest proposals at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, highlighting the shortcomings of the latter's current offer. The union represents about 150,000 members. The latest picket site on Tuesday at GM's Arlington Assembly plant in Texas brought the total number of UAW members on strike at the Big Three automakers to more than 45,000. The UAW remains on strike against GM and Stellantis, but the Ford deal could become the blueprint to settle those contracts.The strike began on Sept. 15 with a walkout against three assembly plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. It has since grown to include eight assembly plants and 38 parts distribution centers in 22 states. President Joe Biden in September made a historic visit to the picket line alongside Fain at the Willow Run Redistribution Center in Belleville. He said in a statement Wednesday night that he applauds the “UAW and Ford for coming together after a hard fought, good faith negotiation and reaching a historic tentative agreement tonight. “This tentative agreement provides a record raise to auto workers who have sacrificed so much to ensure our iconic Big Three companies can still lead the world in quality and innovation. Ultimately, the final word on this contract will be from the UAW members themselves in the days and weeks to come. I've always believed the middle class built America and unions built the middle class. That is especially the case for UAW workers who built an iconic American industry,” Biden said.https://kansasreflector.com/2023/10/26/legislative-leaders-spread-biased-tropes-about-disabled-kansans-in-crusade-against-medicaid/Recently, Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson were quoted as calling Gov. Laura Kelly's campaign to expand Medicaid a “welfare” tour for “able-bodied adults” who “choose not to work.”This deception is both a wildly inaccurate portrayal of uninsured Kansas who could benefit from Medicaid expansion and also directly harmful in its disability-related stereotypes. Though I should note that we disabled people do not need to work to deserve dignity, decent living situations and have our needs met (as well as a reasonable amount of our wants). We deserve legislators' respect.Hawkins and Masterson are playing into well-rehearsed tropes and biases. I will seek to spread some facts to these dishonest politicians, who are supposed to be representing all their constituents, about disability and employment.Before I get to that, however, I'd like to quickly point out that the Medicaid expansion Hawkins and Masterson are railing against likely would benefit both the Kansas economy and many hardworking Kansans, according to a Wichita Eagle report. Also, despite their claims that Medicaid expansion would be welfare for able-bodied people who do not want to work, according to WIBW, 74% of the non-elderly, uninsured, working-age Kansans these men represent, are, in fact, working.With that aside, let's look under the hood at that comment, which clearly also seems to be a dog whistle for several profoundly harmful stereotypes. These include the idea that flocks of able-bodied people fake disability and that disabled people don't want to work. Both stereotypes ignore the immense barriers and biases that disabled people face while looking for jobs, the numbers of disabled people who are working for substandard wages and the substantial barriers disabled people face to receiving the education necessary to even have a foot in the door for many jobs.To dispel the idea that able-bodied people are pretending to be disabled to receive welfare benefits, numerous reliable sources, including the Social Security Administration itself, find that Social Security fraud is less than 1%.Let's also look at the number of disabled Kansans working for far below minimum wage in sheltered workshops with sub-minimum wage certificates, which some GOP Kansas legislators tried to create tax breaks for and increase.According to Russell, at least 420,000 disabled workers nationwide were working in these sheltered workshops, which paid 25-50% of the minimum wage. Goodwill was listed as one of the largest of these sheltered workspaces, paying disabled people as little as $2 an hour.Not only do these figures indicate clear employment and education-based barriers to work for disabled people, they also show a large number of disabled people would prefer to be working if they could find jobs. Even Forbes Magazine has written about why businesses should focus on hiring disabled people, the benefits in doing so, as well as the significant gifts that disabled people bring to the table, including higher retention rates and significant adaptability.In sum, though disabled people are often prevented from doing the work they would prefer to be doing, the statistics make clear that most, if not all, of those barriers come not from within disabled people but rather from the outside world.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/10/26/passing-issue-2-doesnt-come-with-protections-for-employees-who-use-recreational-marijuana/Issue 2 would legalize and regulate the cultivation, manufacturing, testing and the sale of marijuana to Ohioans 21 and up. It would also create the Division of Cannabis Control within the Department of Commerce. Recent polling shows majority support for Issue 2 is expected to pass in the November election. A total of 54% of lawmakers surveyed in last week's Gongwer-Werth Legislative Opinion Poll think Issue 2 will pass. The poll showed 63% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans believe Issue 2 will pass. The poll had 35 lawmaker respondents. A July Suffolk University/USA Today poll shows 59% of Ohio voters support Ohioans 21 and older buying and possessing marijuana. It showed 77% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 40% of Republicans support the issue. The Suffolk University/USA Today poll surveyed 500 registered Ohio voters and their margin of error is +/- 4.4 percentage points.Ballot LanguageThe ballot's language makes it clear it does not require an employer to “accommodate an employee's use, possession, or distribution of adult use cannabis.”It also doesn't prohibit an employer from “refusing to hire, discharging, disciplining, or otherwise taking an adverse employment action against an individual … because of that individual's use, possession, or distribution of cannabis.” “An individual who is discharged from employment because of that individual's use of cannabis shall be considered to have been discharged for just cause,” according to the ballot language.https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/21/billionaire-dark-money-denver-school-board/Colorado NewslineThe Denver school board race is off and running, and several key groups have announced their endorsements. MIKE DEGUIREThe Denver school board race is off and running, and several key groups have announced their endorsements.The Denver Classroom Teachers Association, the local teacher organization, endorsed Charmaine Lindsay, Scott Baldermann, and Kwame Spearman. Denver Families Action endorsed Kimberlee Sia, John Youngquist, and Marlene Delarosa.Who is Denver Families Action? Chalkbeat says it is the “political arm of a relatively new organization,” Denver Families for Public Schools, formed with the backing of several local charter school networks, and they get funding from The City Fund, a pro-charter education reform national organization.What is City Fund? How much funding did they give to this new group called Denver Families for Public Schools? What Denver Public Schools “families” do they represent?According to Influence Watch, The City Fund is an “education organization that funds initiatives that promote the growth of charter schools and other school choice organizations. It also funds activist organizations that support increasing charter school access and school choice programs.” Chalkbeat reports that City Fund was started in 2018 by two billionaires, Reed Hastings and John Arnold, who donated over $200 million to “expand charter schools or charter-like alternatives in 40 cities across the country.” Reed Hastings has called for the elimination of democratically elected school boards, he serves on the national KIPP charter school board, and he built a training center in Bailey, Colorado, to house the Pahara Institute, an education advocacy and networking group that supports the expansion of charter schools. In December, 2020, he spelled out his vision. “Let's year by year expand the nonprofit school sector … for the low-performing school district public school — let's have a nonprofit public school take it over.” The City Fund set up its own political group, a PAC, called Campaign for Great Public Schools (also called City Fund Action), to give money to organizations that promote charter schools and lobby to privatize education. Since its formation, the Campaign for Great Public Schools has given millions to Education Reform Now, which is the political arm of Democrats for Education Reform. DFER is a “New York-based political action committee which focuses on encouraging the Democratic Party to support public education reform and charter schools.”Campaign for Great Public Schools also gave millions to the American Federation for Children, which is “a conservative 501(c)(4) dark money group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other avenues. It is the 501(c)(4) arm of the 501(c)(3) non-profit group the Alliance for School Choice. The group was organized and is funded by the billionaire DeVos family.”The City Fund Action PAC also funds the National Alliance for Charter Schools, 50 CAN, and numerous other organizations that support the expansion of charter schools.Denver Families for Public Schools received $1.75 million in 2021 from the Campaign for Great Public Schools to promote their three selected candidates in the current Denver school board race. Denver Families for Public Schools functions as a 501(c)(4), which means it can donate unlimited amounts of money in political elections without disclosing its donors. It functions as an “astroturf” group by engaging in the practice of creating the illusion of widespread grassroots support for a candidate, policy, or cause when no such support necessarily exists. It set up a website, Facebook page, hired staff and recruited others to lobby for its cause. It posts videos of parents who say they don't like the current school board candidates if they are opposed to them. It participates in forums to promote its selected candidates.When Denver Families Action announced its school board endorsements in August, the leading fundraiser in the at-large seat at that time, Ulcca Hansen, withdrew from the race since she did not gain its endorsement. Hansen stated she could not win without the significant financial resources that come from “soft side spending.”This money is also referred to as outside spending or “dark money,” because the funders of the outside groups often remain secret. Hansen felt the dark money would outpace campaign spending by a 10 to 1 margin. The $1.75 million that Denver Families for Public Schools received from The City Fund will be a major factor in the DPS school board race.https://wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/evers-dnr-announce-402-million-in-spending-to-improve-drinking-water/Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that more than 100 municipalities across the state will receive $402 million in funding to improve local drinking water by removing lead service lines and addressing contaminants such as PFAS and nitrates. The funds come from the DNR's Safe Drinking Water Loan Program and a number of programs through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Across the state, there are 167,000 known lead service lines — which are the city-owned pipes that connect a home's plumbing to the water system. In his budget proposal earlier this year, Evers had requested $200 million to replace the lines. Through the funding, the city of Milwaukee, which has many of the state's remaining lead pipes, will receive more than $30 million to replace lead service lines.The city of Wausau is set to receive more than $17 million in funds to help pay for a PFAS-removal treatment system at the city's newly constructed water treatment facility. The city will also receive nearly $6 million to replace lead service lines. Many communities around the state are dealing with the harmful effects of PFAS in drinking water. The man-made compounds known as “forever chemicals” have been found to cause cancer and don't break down easily in the environment. The compounds enter the environment through products such as firefighting foams and household goods such as nonstick pans. In rural parts of the state, communities are dealing with increased nitrates in their drinking water, which is often caused by runoff from agricultural operations. As part of the funding announced Monday, the village of Reedsville is set to receive $3 million for additional water treatment to address excess nitrates in its water.What caught your eye?Rachelhttps://www.democracydocket.com/cases/georgia-congressional-redistricting-challenge/Federal judge strikes down Georgia's congressional and legislative maps, ruling they violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters. New, fair districts must be drawn before the 2024 elections.
Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio
Comparing the situation of Polish and Slovak public media after 2023 election is ex-Radio Polonia editor Rafal Kiepuszewski who was working in Radio Slovakia International due to the attitude of outgoing Polish government. As part of this week's culture news, stars and filmmakers talk about their presentation at "Hory a mesto", the international festival of mountain cinematography.
10.23.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland On The Road Talking 2023 Elections, VA Voter Restoration Lawsuit We're LIVE from Petersburg, Virginia for a special edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered "Our Voices, Our Vote" Town Hall powered by Virginia House Democrats and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. I'll talk to candidates vying for one of Virginia's General Assembly and House of Delegates seats. Glenn Youngkin's administration changed Virginia's restoration rights system for formerly incarcerated people, and the state's NAACP says this new system is secretive and could discriminate against people of color.We'll talk to the executive director of a grassroots organization fighting to help get everyone to the polls. I'm not the only one sick of folks using their social media platforms to tell people not to vote. We'll show you how one person explained how dangerous that message is and how everyone should research Project 2025. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
AOTR NOLA *Brought to you by Coin Trader Inc*Hosted by Victor DelGiorno "The King Of All Podcasting"Co-hosts Ted SemperOn The Show:-PLO on Canal Street day after Hamas attack on Israel. We talk to Ofer Shahar who was there-Louisiana 2023 election -Baton Rouge Hollydays from Junior LeagueSupport the show (https://www.allovertheroadpod.com/) https://linktr.ee/allovertheroadpodcastCall the 24 hour listener comment line: 504-603-6753 ALL OVER THE ROAD - Originates in New Orleans, LA...ALL OVER THE ROAD - NEW ORLEANS is Sponsored by:Coin Trader Inc. - Visit www.goldpricesnow.comSupport the show
On Tuesday's show: Today is the last day for Texans to register to vote in the November election. We run through what you need to know about your voter registration status, where to register, and how to do so. Also this hour: We continue our series of candidate interviews leading up to the November election by speaking with Orlando Sanchez, who's a candidate for Houston City Controller. Then, Houston writer Bryan Washington talks about his latest novel, Family Meal. And filmmaker John Waters talks with Houston Public Media's Ernie Manouse prior to his one-man stage show in Houston Oct. 13.
On Friday's show: We get an explanation of the ballot measures voters will decide in the November election, including Proposition B, which would decide whether the city stays in a regional body known as the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC). Also this hour: We learn more about a spacecraft built in Houston that will be the first commercial craft to land on the moon and the first soft landing on the lunar surface by an American mission since the days of Apollo. Then, we break down The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the week. And we learn more about the Alley Theatre's production of American Mariachi.
ATA will hold its regularly scheduled elections at the upcoming ATA 64th Annual Conference in Miami, Florida (October 25-28, 2023) to elect a president-elect, secretary, and treasurer for a two-year term, as well as three directors for a three-year term. In this podcast, each candidate gets a chance to introduce themselves. Listen to learn: Where they are based and what kind of translation/interpreting do they do. When they joined ATA and why. Why they are running for ATA office. What is an area of ATA where they feel they can have the most impact if elected? The slate of candidates for the 2023 elections are: President-elect Geoff Koby Meghan McCallum Treasurer Robin Bonthrone Marian S. Greenfield Secretary Eve Bodeux Jaime Russell Director Yasmin Alkashef Analía Bogdan Jessie Liu Daniel Sebesta Robert Sette Chaowei Zhu Show Notes: Candidate Statements: https://www.atanet.org/about-us/board/elections/ Become a Voting Member: https://www.atanet.org/member-center/become-a-voting-member/ Join ATA: https://www.atanet.org/member-center/join-ata/ The ATA Podcast Archive: https://www.atanet.org/news/the-ata-podcast/ ATA Events Calendar: https://www.atanet.org/ata-events/ ATA Socials: https://linkin.bio/americantranslatorsassn ATA's 64th Annual Conference in Miami: https://www.atanet.org/ata64/ Please send comments, questions, or requests about this podcast to podcast@atanet.org. Thank you for listening! Audio Production: Derek Platts | Technical Support: Trenton Morgan
ATA will hold its regularly scheduled elections at the upcoming ATA 64th Annual Conference in Miami, Florida (October 25-28, 2023) to elect a president-elect, secretary, and treasurer for a two-year term, as well as three directors for a three-year term. In this podcast, each candidate gets a chance to introduce themselves. Listen to learn: Where they are based and what kind of translation/interpreting do they do. When they joined ATA and why. Why they are running for ATA office. What is an area of ATA where they feel they can have the most impact if elected? The slate of candidates for the 2023 elections are: President-elect Geoff Koby Meghan McCallum Treasurer Robin Bonthrone Marian S. Greenfield Secretary Eve Bodeux Jaime Russell Director Yasmin Alkashef Analía Bogdan Jessie Liu Daniel Sebesta Robert Sette Chaowei Zhu Show Notes: Candidate Statements: https://www.atanet.org/about-us/board/elections/ Become a Voting Member: https://www.atanet.org/member-center/become-a-voting-member/ Join ATA: https://www.atanet.org/member-center/join-ata/ The ATA Podcast Archive: https://www.atanet.org/news/the-ata-podcast/ ATA Events Calendar: https://www.atanet.org/ata-events/ ATA Socials: https://linkin.bio/americantranslatorsassn ATA's 64th Annual Conference in Miami: https://www.atanet.org/ata64/ Please send comments, questions, or requests about this podcast to podcast@atanet.org. Thank you for listening! Audio Production: Derek Platts | Technical Support: Trenton Morgan
On Tuesday's show: We talk about the slightly lower temperatures this week -- what qualifies as crisp fall weather here. Also this hour: Leading up to the November election, we're interviewing candidates in some of the key races, beginning with Chris Hollins, who's running for Houston City Controller. We welcome your questions for him about running the city budget now at talk@houstonmatters.org. Then, how learning the art of filmmaking is helping some teenagers on probation in Harris County get their lives on track. And we meet some of the people reviving the Q Patrol to protect LGBTQ+ people.
Welcome to a thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating episode of #RawTalks Telugu Podcast! In this episode, we have the immense privilege of hosting a distinguished guest, Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan, the Founder of the Lok Satta Movement & Party, a luminary in the realm of Indian politics. Prepare to embark on a journey of enlightenment and discovery as we delve into a myriad of profound questions that lie at the heart of our democracy and governance. This podcast episode promises to be a true intellectual feast, a feast for the inquisitive mind and the politically aware soul. Throughout this extensive and deeply engaging podcast, we'll tackle a series of Raw and Right Questions. These are not just any questions; they are questions that cut to the very core of our society, our political system, and our collective responsibility. Let's dive into some of the critical topics and questions that will be explored during this podcast: 1. The Importance of Local Governance and the Right to Vote Do we, as citizens, truly comprehend the significance of our Right to Vote and Local Governance? Are we aware of the power that lies within our hands to shape the future of our communities? 2. Understanding the Responsibilities of People's Representatives Do our politicians and leaders truly understand the responsibilities that come with being people's representatives? Are they accountable for their actions, and do they prioritize the welfare of the citizens they serve? 3. The Complex Issue of Bribery Do leaders sometimes succumb to the temptation of bribery, and do citizens sometimes offer bribes? What drives this complex and often clandestine exchange of money and influence? 4. Advocating for 'Vote for Note' and 'Fighting for Betterment' Why should we advocate for the concept of 'Vote for Note,' where votes are sometimes exchanged for monetary gains? Is 'Fighting for Betterment' a necessary consequence of a system where corruption often prevails? 5. The Role of Bribery in Government Offices Why is bribery seen as the fuel to get things done in government offices? Can we envision a system where efficiency and transparency replace this age-old practice? This podcast episode is not just an exploration of questions; it's a journey into the very heart of politics, governance, and the collective responsibility of citizens and leaders alike. Mr. Jaya Prakash Narayan, with his vast experience and profound insights, will guide us through these complex topics, offering clarity, wisdom, and a fresh perspective. The podcast will unfold as a dialogue, a conversation that seeks not just to provide answers but to provoke thought, stimulate discussion, and inspire action. Whether you are deeply involved in politics or a concerned citizen eager to better understand the dynamics of our democracy, this episode is tailor-made for you. We invite you to join us in this enlightening conversation that promises to challenge your preconceptions, stimulate your intellect, and leave you with a deeper understanding of the issues that shape our nation. So, don't miss out on this exceptional opportunity to engage with some of the most critical questions of our time. Set aside some time, make yourself comfortable, and get ready to embark on a journey of enlightenment that promises to be worth every minute of your time. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vamshi-kurapati/message
!!TRIGGER WARNING!! This episode will likely offend you. I talk about politics and religion. If you can't control your emotions it's best you skip this episode. On the other hand, if you have the ability to keep an open mind then I think this will be one of your favoite episodes. Enjoy! Get a 14-Day FREE Trial to The LEVERAGE Coaching Group: https://go.jasonstapleton.com/leverage-offer **== What to do Next ==** Subscribe to the Weekly Alchemy Newsletter https://jasonstapleton.com/alchemy/ Get a FREE Copy of my book “The Nomadic Wealth Formula” - https://bit.ly/3JadOnj **// FOLLOW ME //** Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/jasonstapletonofficial Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/StapletonConsulting/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/Jason_Stapleton Website - https://jasonstapleton.com/
Clement speaks to President of the MDC Douglas Mwonzora, Trust Ndlovu the SA leader of the Citizens Coalition for Change and ZANU PF official Kennedy Mandaza as they discuss the political instabilities in Zimbabwe and what they are promising for their country ahead of the upcoming elections.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mike Johnston wins Denver mayoral election | All 36 CO DMV offices can now issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants and international students who qualify | Colorado Democrats and Gov Jared Polis pass statewide ban on ghost guns | AZ State Senator says she was not aware of her flag's neo-Nazi ties. She is now though, and she's keeping it | Talented field of Arizona Democrats compete in primary for Rep. Ruben Gallego's seat in Congress Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: Looks like we've got a winner! As of recording, it looks like Mike Johnston will be the next Mayor of Denver. After 12 years under the leadership of Mayor Michael Hancock, in which Denver has experienced rapid growth and a booming economy, the growing pains are catching up with us and Denver's new mayor will face crisis-level homelessness, addiction, and gun violence.Mike Johnston is a boyish Ivy League boy who has run for lots of things and served as lots of other, different things. Jokes aside though he seems to have the respect of a lot of people I deeply respect, and I'm excited to see what he can do. COLORADO NEWSLINE:All Colorado DMVs now offer driver's licenses to undocumented residentsBY: SHANNON TYLER - JUNE 6, 2023 3:10 PMEvery driver's license office in Colorado will now offer license and ID card services to undocumented residents and international students, Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday.In 2013, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law the Colorado Road and Community Safety Act, which made obtaining a standard driver's license accessible for undocumented immigrants and international students. At the time, only four offices in the state actually provided the service.Now, on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the bill, the DMV announced all 36 of the state's driver's license office locations will offer appointments for immigrants and international students to get a standard license or ID card. Gov Polis said “Here in Colorado, we know that our immigrants strengthen the fabric of who we are. In the last 10 years over 250,000 Coloradans have been able to get their driver licenses and insurance, making all of us safer on the roads.” The law allows all Coloradans to obtain a standard driver license or ID card regardless of immigration status if the applicant can provide proof of identity and Colorado residency. The DMV works with several volunteer nonprofits around the state as a part of the I Drive Coalition to help provide Road and Community Safety Act services for undocumented immigrants to obtain standard license or identification cards. Organizations help to schedule free appointments for people who come to them. Henry Gomez with Grupo Esperanza de Colorado Springs, one of the organizations that supports and provides resources for immigrants, said the legislation is necessary for immigrants in Colorado to do essential daily tasks like driving to a doctor's appointment or taking their children to school. When the bill first passed, it was difficult for people to actually use the service because they had to travel long distances to the few places that offered it and wait hours to schedule an appointment, Gomez said. 1 of 20 statesColorado is one of 20 states, along with Washington D.C., to offer driver's licenses to undocumented residents. DMV spokesperson Stephany Garza said “Colorado has come a long way since the program launched in originally starting in a handful of locations. We've been able to grow it throughout the state, thanks to strong demand and a dedication to partner with community organizations and leaders.” “The DMV's mission is to provide motor vehicle, driver and identity services that promote public safety, trust and confidence, and having trained and licensed drivers on our roads is critical.” COLORADO NEWSLINE: I ain't ‘fraid of no ghost - guns. Because now they're banned in Colorado. BY: SARA WILSON - JUNE 2, 2023 1:48 PMSenate Bill 23- 279 makes the sale, manufacture and possession of ghost guns a Class 1 misdemeanor on the first offense and a Class 5 felony on subsequent offenses.bill sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, said “Ghost guns are untraceable, unserialized weapons that anyone can make or assemble in their own home – and they're extremely dangerous. We worked hard this session to make Colorado safer and prevent gun violence, and this new law is a big step towards reaching that goal.”The legislation was also sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, Rep. Andrew Boesenecker of Fort Collins and Rep. Junie Joseph of Boulder, all Democrats. Every Republican voted no.Law enforcement say ghost guns are being used more often in crimes across the state. The shooters involved with last year's attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs and the March shooting at Denver's East High School both possessed and showed an interest in ghost guns.Ghost gun kits are easily available online for anyone to assemble or 3D-print at home. Because that process bypasses serialization and necessary background checks, the guns can be nearly impossible to trace when used in a crime. Current ghost gun owners have until Jan. 1, 2024 to get the blank firearm, frame or receiver serialized by a licensed dealer. Serialization includes a background check. Going forward, people can still make their own firearms as long as they get them serialized.Eleven states already regulate ghost guns.The Colorado Legislature passed four other bills regulating firearms during this year's legislative session, which wrapped up in early May. That includes a minimum age restriction and three-day waiting period for gun purchases, expansion of the state's extreme risk protection order law to include groups other than law enforcement and a repeal of the state's legal liability protections for the firearm industry.Hats off to Colorado Democrats. They take so much abuse as well as threats from thousands and thousands of extremely aggressive gun rights activists. These gun groups create extremely dishonest and aggressive attack ads, and they do everything they can to show their strength. It takes real guts to pass gun safety laws in the West, and the Colorado Democratic legislators have some serious guts. Congratulations on a great session everyone. ARIZONA MIRROR:AZ GOP senator proudly flies flag adopted by ‘fringe' far-right extremistsBY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - JUNE 5, 2023 11:20 AMThe desk on the Arizona Senate floor for Republican Sen. Janae Shamp, displays the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which has been adopted by Christian nationalists and other extremists in recent years. Shamp says she displays the flag because of its historical ties to the American Revolution, and says she is unaware of its use by far-right extremist groups. But that, of course, is bullshit. The white flag with a pine tree on it and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” was originally used by George Washington and the Continental Army. It was later adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as its naval and maritime flag until 1971, when the copy was dropped, leaving only the image of the pine tree. In recent years, the flag has been adopted by Christian nationalists, who see the flag as a rallying call. Christian nationalists believe that the United States is Christian nation that should base its laws and practices around the teachings of Christianity.The flag has also been embraced by far-right extremist organizations like the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi groups.Shamp did not respond to questions about whether she embraced the beliefs of Christian nationalism, and said she doesn't know anything about Christian dominionism, a closely related belief system.To investigative journalist, author and researcher David Neiwart, who has written extensively about the far-right, the lines between groups have begun to blur into an entire “universe” of far-right groups from QAnon, militias, white supremacists, and other extremist groups who have gained political influence among conservatives. Most of them share a few things in common, including beliefs in “right-wing authoritarianism” and the alleged supremacy of Christianity.After looking at the various people and causes Shamp has supported over the years, including various extremist and Christian nationalist figures and causes, Neiwart said it's clear to him that Shamp ascribes to those beliefs. “She is definitely a Christian nationalist, she is definitely QAnon, and a fully enraptured Trumpite,” Neiwert said. While a surge in Christian nationalism in recent years has garnered media attention — due in part to high-profile conservatives like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who explicitly declared herself a Christian nationalist, and the backing of influential leaders like white nationalist Nick Fuentes — Christian dominionism has similarly been on the rise, though with much less fanfare. One of the more popular Dominionist beliefs is in the so-called “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which draws from the biblical book of Revelations and requires Christians to invade the “seven spheres” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. In doing so, American life can be reshaped to hew to conservative Christian values. The idea has been embraced and promoted by people like Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and Paula White, the televangelist who served as a “spiritual advisor” to Donald Trump while he was president. According to David Neiwart, the key difference between Christian dominionism and nationalism is that dominionists want everyone under Christian rule, while nationalists think everyone should convert to Christianity.“Christian nationalists take it a step further than Christian Dominionists,” Neiwart said, adding that a dominionist wouldn't care if a Muslim was present, “they just want them under the thumb of Christian leaders.”One of the biggest promoters of Christian nationalism and dominionism has been disgraced Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, who has claimed that he is waging “spiritual warfare” and building an “army of God.” Flynn is also known to associate with other extremist groups. AZ Sen Shamp is a fervent supporter of Flynn's, and has posted praise of Flynn often on social media. The recent COVID-19 special committee she co-chaired was sponsored in part by an organization that Flynn co-founded. “I get goosebumps every time General Flynn talks about our great Nation!” Shamp said in a December 2021 post accompanied by a video of Flynn. At a Trump rally in Florence in January 2022, Shamp told Business Insider that the “No. 1 person standing up for ‘we, the people' is probably Gen. Michael Flynn.” Shamp, a conservative from Surprise, has also been found to have shared a number of QAnon posts on her Facebook linked to Neo-Nazis and antisemites. The flag, which Shamp displays on her desk and in her Twitter banner image, has also been connected to extremist groups and violent events. During the violent events of Jan. 6, the flag was seen being carried by a number of individuals. “I would say Christian nationalism as a phenomenon is one of the real undergirding movements involved in the insurrection,” Neiwart said, adding that the militias and other groups such as the OathKeepers all had underlying Christian nationalist roots or beliefs. “All these Christian patriots that formed these militias are Christian nationalists as well.”ARIZONA MIRROR:Meet the Dems vying for Gallego's seat in the U.S. House of RepresentativesBY: GLORIA REBECCA GOMEZ - JUNE 2, 2023 1:33 PMSo far, four candidates have already launched campaigns to represent Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Laveen, Maryvale and part of Glendale. The district is considered a Democratic stronghold, with left-leaning voters outnumbering Republicans three to one. The winner of the Democratic primary is virtually guaranteed to capture the seat in November.First, Laura Pastor.The most recent entrant into the race is the daughter of Rep. Gallego's predecessor, Ed Pastor, who held the seat from 1991 until his retirement in 2015. The younger Pastor has a long career in elected office herself, with three terms on the Phoenix city council representing areas recently drawn into the 3rd District.Prior to her position on the council, she was a classroom teacher who worked with at-risk students. Ms. Pastor also serves on the governing board for Phoenix Union High School. In a launch video on Wednesday, Pastor invoked her family's political legacy and promised to continue it. “For five generations my family has worked for a better Arizona. From my grandfathers - who organized workers in the copper mines - to my mother - who lived with strength and integrity in a time of discrimination - to my dad. My dad taught me that lots of politicians can talk, but what matters is what you deliver.” “I am running to put my experience to work on behalf of Arizonans – to take care of our veterans, to have someone looking out for family budgets, and to protect all of our access to health care, including reproductive care,” Ylenia AguilarIf elected, Aguilar would be Arizona's first formerly undocumented congresswoman. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was just a toddler, and suffered repeated housing and food insecurity. Aguilar attended as many as 20 different schools. The single mother of two credits her early adversity with inspiring a personal imperative to voice the struggles of others. Aguilar spent more than a decade as a translator before becoming the first Latina elected to the Osborn School District Board, where she's still a member. During the Trump presidency, Aguilar helped author a resolution prohibiting ICE agents from entering schools. She also serves on the state's Central Arizona Water Project Board and as the business development manager for SOURCE Global, a Scottsdale-based renewable energy company that helps tribal and rural communities access clean drinking water via hydropanel technology. Water conservation is among her policy priorities, as well as immigration reform, and access to education and reproductive health care. At the top of her list is representing Arizona's diverse communities where past politicians have failed. “My story is your story,” she said, at her campaign kickoff. “I know what you go through. I know how hard you work, how much you love your children, how difficult it can be to get ahead and how often politicians leave our community behind, or worse — how politicians attack our communities trying to take away our rights. In Congress, I will be your voice, because your voice matters.” Yassamin AnsariPhoenix's Vice-Mayor was one of the first to throw her hat in the ring after Congressman Gallego announced his challenge to U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Ansari's election as the city's youngest council member in 2021 followed a career in climate change advocacy that included a stint as a policy advisor for the United Nations. Her work on the Phoenix council includes helping to draft and pass a citywide resolution that deprioritized abortion-related arrests and spearheading efforts to electrify Phoenix's public transportation. Those concerns would follow her to the federal level, with more ambitious climate change legislation a key part of her priorities. The country's as-yet unfulfilled pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is of particular importance to Ansari, who vowed to lead an effort to remedy that. Also high up on her roster is gun violence prevention, housing affordability and a living wage. A daughter of Iranian immigrants, Ansari's election would be a first for the district, whose population is 51% Hispanic and has supported Hispanic candidates since 1991. But Ansari's council district, which spans from southwest to downtown Phoenix and has a similar population makeup as CD3, resoundingly backed her in 2021. She said, “As a daughter of immigrants, I very much understand the challenges that our community faces. My constituents know that I don't just represent one community, I represent all communities. And whether you're Latino, White, Black or any other background, representation is about listening to the community and making sure that you're surrounding yourself with people in the community so that their experiences and challenges are represented in the legislation you support.” She said “It's time to have leadership that is young and hungry and ready to take on some of these bigger crises.”Hector Jaramillo Jaramillo traces his activism back to two pivotal incidents that happened at very different times in his life. When he was 4, his father was deported, which he said “opened (his) eyes to the injustices of our current system.” Then, in his early twenties while protesting the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a gun was pointed at his head. Jaramillo was disappointed to find not much had changed after the nationwide movement against racial injustice, and realized that things would only improve if more people were allowed at the decision-making table. The 26-year-old Phoenix native, who currently serves on the governing board of the Glendale Elementary School District, would be among the youngest in Congress if elected. He noted that what he lacks in experience he makes up for in community engagement and personal, real-life knowledge. He said “Legislative experience is important, but so is lived experience – being somebody who's experienced the injustices of our system.” His goals include improving education funding, affordable health care for all and a complete overhaul of the current immigration system. That includes a pathway to citizenship, opening up government assistance programs for undocumented Americans, and shielding victims of crimes from having their undocumented status used against them. Jaramillo also wants to abolish ICE and Customs and Border Protection. He says their duties can be effectively carried out by their predecessor, the country's Immigration and Naturalization Service, as was the case before post-9/11 policies created the Department of Homeland Security. Jaramillo, who called himself an anti-establishment candidate, is hoping voters who are tired of the status quo will support his bid. He said “If you're happy with the way things are, keep electing the same people. But if you want real, progressive change, try someone new.” Raquel TeránWith a 17-year-long career in Arizona politics, tenures in both the state Senate and House of Representatives and the title of Democratic Party Chair under her belt, Terán is perhaps one of the most experienced candidates in the race to capture Gallego's seat. Born and raised on the Arizona border in Douglas, she attributes her passion for politics to the anti-immigrant rhetoric she grew up around. That motivation resulted in helping to organize a recall campaign against former state Sen. Russell Pierce, who authored Arizona's notorious 2010 ‘show us your papers' law, and working to defeat Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Teran said, “I have been a fighter at the state legislature, and I'm ready to take on the extremists in Congress. We have a lot of work to do and I intend to bring my ‘si se puede' attitude to Washington DC”.Terán's top priorities include immigration reform, affordable housing, reproductive rights, holding corporate polluters accountable, and requiring wealthy corporations to pay their fair share are key goals for her. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly endorsed Raquel Terán in her bid for Congress. He said “Raquel has spent nearly two decades helping bring together a diverse coalition of voters that turned our state blue.”Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.
Mike Johnston wins Denver mayoral election | All 36 CO DMV offices can now issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants and international students who qualify | Colorado Democrats and Gov Jared Polis pass statewide ban on ghost guns | AZ State Senator says she was not aware of her flag's neo-Nazi ties. She is now though, and she's keeping it | Talented field of Arizona Democrats compete in primary for Rep. Ruben Gallego's seat in Congress Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: Looks like we've got a winner! As of recording, it looks like Mike Johnston will be the next Mayor of Denver. After 12 years under the leadership of Mayor Michael Hancock, in which Denver has experienced rapid growth and a booming economy, the growing pains are catching up with us and Denver's new mayor will face crisis-level homelessness, addiction, and gun violence.Mike Johnston is a boyish Ivy League boy who has run for lots of things and served as lots of other, different things. Jokes aside though he seems to have the respect of a lot of people I deeply respect, and I'm excited to see what he can do. COLORADO NEWSLINE:All Colorado DMVs now offer driver's licenses to undocumented residentsBY: SHANNON TYLER - JUNE 6, 2023 3:10 PMEvery driver's license office in Colorado will now offer license and ID card services to undocumented residents and international students, Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday.In 2013, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law the Colorado Road and Community Safety Act, which made obtaining a standard driver's license accessible for undocumented immigrants and international students. At the time, only four offices in the state actually provided the service.Now, on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the bill, the DMV announced all 36 of the state's driver's license office locations will offer appointments for immigrants and international students to get a standard license or ID card. Gov Polis said “Here in Colorado, we know that our immigrants strengthen the fabric of who we are. In the last 10 years over 250,000 Coloradans have been able to get their driver licenses and insurance, making all of us safer on the roads.” The law allows all Coloradans to obtain a standard driver license or ID card regardless of immigration status if the applicant can provide proof of identity and Colorado residency. The DMV works with several volunteer nonprofits around the state as a part of the I Drive Coalition to help provide Road and Community Safety Act services for undocumented immigrants to obtain standard license or identification cards. Organizations help to schedule free appointments for people who come to them. Henry Gomez with Grupo Esperanza de Colorado Springs, one of the organizations that supports and provides resources for immigrants, said the legislation is necessary for immigrants in Colorado to do essential daily tasks like driving to a doctor's appointment or taking their children to school. When the bill first passed, it was difficult for people to actually use the service because they had to travel long distances to the few places that offered it and wait hours to schedule an appointment, Gomez said. 1 of 20 statesColorado is one of 20 states, along with Washington D.C., to offer driver's licenses to undocumented residents. DMV spokesperson Stephany Garza said “Colorado has come a long way since the program launched in originally starting in a handful of locations. We've been able to grow it throughout the state, thanks to strong demand and a dedication to partner with community organizations and leaders.” “The DMV's mission is to provide motor vehicle, driver and identity services that promote public safety, trust and confidence, and having trained and licensed drivers on our roads is critical.” COLORADO NEWSLINE: I ain't ‘fraid of no ghost - guns. Because now they're banned in Colorado. BY: SARA WILSON - JUNE 2, 2023 1:48 PMSenate Bill 23- 279 makes the sale, manufacture and possession of ghost guns a Class 1 misdemeanor on the first offense and a Class 5 felony on subsequent offenses.bill sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, said “Ghost guns are untraceable, unserialized weapons that anyone can make or assemble in their own home – and they're extremely dangerous. We worked hard this session to make Colorado safer and prevent gun violence, and this new law is a big step towards reaching that goal.”The legislation was also sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, Rep. Andrew Boesenecker of Fort Collins and Rep. Junie Joseph of Boulder, all Democrats. Every Republican voted no.Law enforcement say ghost guns are being used more often in crimes across the state. The shooters involved with last year's attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs and the March shooting at Denver's East High School both possessed and showed an interest in ghost guns.Ghost gun kits are easily available online for anyone to assemble or 3D-print at home. Because that process bypasses serialization and necessary background checks, the guns can be nearly impossible to trace when used in a crime. Current ghost gun owners have until Jan. 1, 2024 to get the blank firearm, frame or receiver serialized by a licensed dealer. Serialization includes a background check. Going forward, people can still make their own firearms as long as they get them serialized.Eleven states already regulate ghost guns.The Colorado Legislature passed four other bills regulating firearms during this year's legislative session, which wrapped up in early May. That includes a minimum age restriction and three-day waiting period for gun purchases, expansion of the state's extreme risk protection order law to include groups other than law enforcement and a repeal of the state's legal liability protections for the firearm industry.Hats off to Colorado Democrats. They take so much abuse as well as threats from thousands and thousands of extremely aggressive gun rights activists. These gun groups create extremely dishonest and aggressive attack ads, and they do everything they can to show their strength. It takes real guts to pass gun safety laws in the West, and the Colorado Democratic legislators have some serious guts. Congratulations on a great session everyone. ARIZONA MIRROR:AZ GOP senator proudly flies flag adopted by ‘fringe' far-right extremistsBY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - JUNE 5, 2023 11:20 AMThe desk on the Arizona Senate floor for Republican Sen. Janae Shamp, displays the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which has been adopted by Christian nationalists and other extremists in recent years. Shamp says she displays the flag because of its historical ties to the American Revolution, and says she is unaware of its use by far-right extremist groups. But that, of course, is bullshit. The white flag with a pine tree on it and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” was originally used by George Washington and the Continental Army. It was later adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as its naval and maritime flag until 1971, when the copy was dropped, leaving only the image of the pine tree. In recent years, the flag has been adopted by Christian nationalists, who see the flag as a rallying call. Christian nationalists believe that the United States is Christian nation that should base its laws and practices around the teachings of Christianity.The flag has also been embraced by far-right extremist organizations like the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi groups.Shamp did not respond to questions about whether she embraced the beliefs of Christian nationalism, and said she doesn't know anything about Christian dominionism, a closely related belief system.To investigative journalist, author and researcher David Neiwart, who has written extensively about the far-right, the lines between groups have begun to blur into an entire “universe” of far-right groups from QAnon, militias, white supremacists, and other extremist groups who have gained political influence among conservatives. Most of them share a few things in common, including beliefs in “right-wing authoritarianism” and the alleged supremacy of Christianity.After looking at the various people and causes Shamp has supported over the years, including various extremist and Christian nationalist figures and causes, Neiwart said it's clear to him that Shamp ascribes to those beliefs. “She is definitely a Christian nationalist, she is definitely QAnon, and a fully enraptured Trumpite,” Neiwert said. While a surge in Christian nationalism in recent years has garnered media attention — due in part to high-profile conservatives like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who explicitly declared herself a Christian nationalist, and the backing of influential leaders like white nationalist Nick Fuentes — Christian dominionism has similarly been on the rise, though with much less fanfare. One of the more popular Dominionist beliefs is in the so-called “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which draws from the biblical book of Revelations and requires Christians to invade the “seven spheres” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. In doing so, American life can be reshaped to hew to conservative Christian values. The idea has been embraced and promoted by people like Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and Paula White, the televangelist who served as a “spiritual advisor” to Donald Trump while he was president. According to David Neiwart, the key difference between Christian dominionism and nationalism is that dominionists want everyone under Christian rule, while nationalists think everyone should convert to Christianity.“Christian nationalists take it a step further than Christian Dominionists,” Neiwart said, adding that a dominionist wouldn't care if a Muslim was present, “they just want them under the thumb of Christian leaders.”One of the biggest promoters of Christian nationalism and dominionism has been disgraced Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, who has claimed that he is waging “spiritual warfare” and building an “army of God.” Flynn is also known to associate with other extremist groups. AZ Sen Shamp is a fervent supporter of Flynn's, and has posted praise of Flynn often on social media. The recent COVID-19 special committee she co-chaired was sponsored in part by an organization that Flynn co-founded. “I get goosebumps every time General Flynn talks about our great Nation!” Shamp said in a December 2021 post accompanied by a video of Flynn. At a Trump rally in Florence in January 2022, Shamp told Business Insider that the “No. 1 person standing up for ‘we, the people' is probably Gen. Michael Flynn.” Shamp, a conservative from Surprise, has also been found to have shared a number of QAnon posts on her Facebook linked to Neo-Nazis and antisemites. The flag, which Shamp displays on her desk and in her Twitter banner image, has also been connected to extremist groups and violent events. During the violent events of Jan. 6, the flag was seen being carried by a number of individuals. “I would say Christian nationalism as a phenomenon is one of the real undergirding movements involved in the insurrection,” Neiwart said, adding that the militias and other groups such as the OathKeepers all had underlying Christian nationalist roots or beliefs. “All these Christian patriots that formed these militias are Christian nationalists as well.”ARIZONA MIRROR:Meet the Dems vying for Gallego's seat in the U.S. House of RepresentativesBY: GLORIA REBECCA GOMEZ - JUNE 2, 2023 1:33 PMSo far, four candidates have already launched campaigns to represent Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Laveen, Maryvale and part of Glendale. The district is considered a Democratic stronghold, with left-leaning voters outnumbering Republicans three to one. The winner of the Democratic primary is virtually guaranteed to capture the seat in November.First, Laura Pastor.The most recent entrant into the race is the daughter of Rep. Gallego's predecessor, Ed Pastor, who held the seat from 1991 until his retirement in 2015. The younger Pastor has a long career in elected office herself, with three terms on the Phoenix city council representing areas recently drawn into the 3rd District.Prior to her position on the council, she was a classroom teacher who worked with at-risk students. Ms. Pastor also serves on the governing board for Phoenix Union High School. In a launch video on Wednesday, Pastor invoked her family's political legacy and promised to continue it. “For five generations my family has worked for a better Arizona. From my grandfathers - who organized workers in the copper mines - to my mother - who lived with strength and integrity in a time of discrimination - to my dad. My dad taught me that lots of politicians can talk, but what matters is what you deliver.” “I am running to put my experience to work on behalf of Arizonans – to take care of our veterans, to have someone looking out for family budgets, and to protect all of our access to health care, including reproductive care,” Ylenia AguilarIf elected, Aguilar would be Arizona's first formerly undocumented congresswoman. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was just a toddler, and suffered repeated housing and food insecurity. Aguilar attended as many as 20 different schools. The single mother of two credits her early adversity with inspiring a personal imperative to voice the struggles of others. Aguilar spent more than a decade as a translator before becoming the first Latina elected to the Osborn School District Board, where she's still a member. During the Trump presidency, Aguilar helped author a resolution prohibiting ICE agents from entering schools. She also serves on the state's Central Arizona Water Project Board and as the business development manager for SOURCE Global, a Scottsdale-based renewable energy company that helps tribal and rural communities access clean drinking water via hydropanel technology. Water conservation is among her policy priorities, as well as immigration reform, and access to education and reproductive health care. At the top of her list is representing Arizona's diverse communities where past politicians have failed. “My story is your story,” she said, at her campaign kickoff. “I know what you go through. I know how hard you work, how much you love your children, how difficult it can be to get ahead and how often politicians leave our community behind, or worse — how politicians attack our communities trying to take away our rights. In Congress, I will be your voice, because your voice matters.” Yassamin AnsariPhoenix's Vice-Mayor was one of the first to throw her hat in the ring after Congressman Gallego announced his challenge to U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Ansari's election as the city's youngest council member in 2021 followed a career in climate change advocacy that included a stint as a policy advisor for the United Nations. Her work on the Phoenix council includes helping to draft and pass a citywide resolution that deprioritized abortion-related arrests and spearheading efforts to electrify Phoenix's public transportation. Those concerns would follow her to the federal level, with more ambitious climate change legislation a key part of her priorities. The country's as-yet unfulfilled pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is of particular importance to Ansari, who vowed to lead an effort to remedy that. Also high up on her roster is gun violence prevention, housing affordability and a living wage. A daughter of Iranian immigrants, Ansari's election would be a first for the district, whose population is 51% Hispanic and has supported Hispanic candidates since 1991. But Ansari's council district, which spans from southwest to downtown Phoenix and has a similar population makeup as CD3, resoundingly backed her in 2021. She said, “As a daughter of immigrants, I very much understand the challenges that our community faces. My constituents know that I don't just represent one community, I represent all communities. And whether you're Latino, White, Black or any other background, representation is about listening to the community and making sure that you're surrounding yourself with people in the community so that their experiences and challenges are represented in the legislation you support.” She said “It's time to have leadership that is young and hungry and ready to take on some of these bigger crises.”Hector Jaramillo Jaramillo traces his activism back to two pivotal incidents that happened at very different times in his life. When he was 4, his father was deported, which he said “opened (his) eyes to the injustices of our current system.” Then, in his early twenties while protesting the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a gun was pointed at his head. Jaramillo was disappointed to find not much had changed after the nationwide movement against racial injustice, and realized that things would only improve if more people were allowed at the decision-making table. The 26-year-old Phoenix native, who currently serves on the governing board of the Glendale Elementary School District, would be among the youngest in Congress if elected. He noted that what he lacks in experience he makes up for in community engagement and personal, real-life knowledge. He said “Legislative experience is important, but so is lived experience – being somebody who's experienced the injustices of our system.” His goals include improving education funding, affordable health care for all and a complete overhaul of the current immigration system. That includes a pathway to citizenship, opening up government assistance programs for undocumented Americans, and shielding victims of crimes from having their undocumented status used against them. Jaramillo also wants to abolish ICE and Customs and Border Protection. He says their duties can be effectively carried out by their predecessor, the country's Immigration and Naturalization Service, as was the case before post-9/11 policies created the Department of Homeland Security. Jaramillo, who called himself an anti-establishment candidate, is hoping voters who are tired of the status quo will support his bid. He said “If you're happy with the way things are, keep electing the same people. But if you want real, progressive change, try someone new.” Raquel TeránWith a 17-year-long career in Arizona politics, tenures in both the state Senate and House of Representatives and the title of Democratic Party Chair under her belt, Terán is perhaps one of the most experienced candidates in the race to capture Gallego's seat. Born and raised on the Arizona border in Douglas, she attributes her passion for politics to the anti-immigrant rhetoric she grew up around. That motivation resulted in helping to organize a recall campaign against former state Sen. Russell Pierce, who authored Arizona's notorious 2010 ‘show us your papers' law, and working to defeat Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Teran said, “I have been a fighter at the state legislature, and I'm ready to take on the extremists in Congress. We have a lot of work to do and I intend to bring my ‘si se puede' attitude to Washington DC”.Terán's top priorities include immigration reform, affordable housing, reproductive rights, holding corporate polluters accountable, and requiring wealthy corporations to pay their fair share are key goals for her. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly endorsed Raquel Terán in her bid for Congress. He said “Raquel has spent nearly two decades helping bring together a diverse coalition of voters that turned our state blue.”Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.
Praying For America: The 2023 Elections Have Begun by Priests for Life
PACs supporting Mike Johnston spend big in final sprint of Denver mayoral election | Susana Cordova will be Colorado's next Education Commissioner | New Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams is off to a rocky start | Kari Lake is running for Senate in Arizona | Ringo Starr on tour in Western U.S. Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: COLORADO NEWSLINE: Denver mayoral candidates Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough sprint to the finish lineBY: CHASE WOODRUFF - MAY 30, 2023 4:00 AM Left: Denver mayor candidate Kelly Brough receives the endorsement of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance at an event on May 12, 2023. Right: Brough's runoff opponent, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, receives the endorsement of progressive former mayoral candidates and Democratic state lawmakers in Civic Center Park on May 10, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)A half-million dollar contribution from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was part of a flood of large donations that has helped former state Sen. Mike Johnston open up a 2-to-1 fundraising lead over opponent Kelly Brough as the Denver mayor's race enters its final week.Advancing Denver, an independent expenditure committee supporting Johnston's run, raised more than $4 million through May 22. The pro-Johnston super PAC has relied on many of the same out-of-state billionaire donors who boosted Johnston's gubernatorial bid in 2018, including Bloomberg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and hedge fund managers Steve Mandel and John Arnold. Kent Thiry, the former CEO of Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita, is the group's largest local donor, while venture capitalist Art Reimers and private equity CEO Eric Resnick have also chipped in with six-figure contributions.About three-quarters of Advancing Denver's haul has been spent on TV advertising in support of Johnston, with the remainder spent on digital ads and mail.Johnston and Brough had raised roughly equal amounts in direct contributions through the end of April, reporting total receipts of $932,060 and $895,612, for their campaign committees, respectively. A Better Denver, the independent expenditure committee supporting Brough, has struggled to raise large sums since the April 4 first-round election, adding just $211,650 to the $1 million it had previously raised in February and March.To date, the group's top donor during the runoff is Pete Coors, former Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and prolific donor to conservative causes. Coors gave $50,000 to A Better Denver on April 24. Other top donors to the pro-Brough PAC have included real estate interests like the National Association of Realtors, Colorado Construction Industry Coalition and developer Lloyd Fulenwider.The Apartment Association of Metro Denver, a landlord group, has made contributions to both candidates. After giving $25,000 to Brough in February, the group followed up with another $10,000 contribution to Brough in late April, and a $10,000 contribution to Johnston a week later.Ballots for the city's runoff election were mailed earlier this month. Voters can return their ballot to a 24-hour drop box or vote in person until 7 p.m. on June 6.COLORADO SUN:Susana Cordova, former superintendent of Denver schools, will be Colorado's next education commissionerErica Breunlin and Jesse Paul9:13 AM MDT on May 30, 2023Denver Public Schools superintendent Susana Cordova at DPS headquarters on April 3, 2020. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post via The Associated Press)The state's Board of Education on Monday named Susana Cordova as the sole finalist among 23 applicants after a unanimous vote. Her appointment is expected to be formalized when the board next meets.State Board Chairwoman Rebecca McClellan told The Colorado Sun “We really appreciated her sharp focus on results for students and outcomes for students with an eye toward equity,” “She's not only talked the talk, she's proven that she's capable of achieving gains for students.”Cordova will take over the position from Katy Anthes, who is stepping down from the role in July after serving as commissioner since December 2016.Cordova began her career as a bilingual language arts teacher and has since worked in education for more than 30 years, including as a teacher, principal, district leader and currently as a superintendent in residence for Transcend, a national nonprofit focused on helping schools make classrooms more equitable for all students.Cordova was also previously a deputy superintendent for the Dallas TX Independent School District.Cordova has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver's School of Education and now serves on the university's board of trustees. Cordova will begin steering the state education department at a particularly consequential time for Colorado schools, as districts continue to help students recover from lost time and learning during the pandemic and as many communities struggle to recruit and retain educators and manage declining student enrollment.Susana Cordova, then superintendent of Denver Public Schools, looks on as students work on laptops in a classroom in Newlon Elementary School early Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. The school was one of 55 Discovery Link sites set up by Denver Public Schools where students could participate in remote learning during the pandemic. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Special to The Colorado Sun)Cordova will begin her tenure just as a state task force is considering changes to how Colorado evaluates its schools, which could potentially affect how much funding schools receive.Gov. Jared Polis celebrated Cordova's selection in a written statement Tuesday, saying “Her prior work boosting academic progress and improving access to high-quality education for learners of all backgrounds as superintendent of Denver Public Schools is sure to benefit students across the state as she brings this passion and experience to this new role,” said Polis, a Democrat. “I look forward to working with Susana as a member of my cabinet as we continue to carry forward our bold education priorities.” COLORADO SUN:Colorado GOP paid no staff in April while fundraising lags under new Chairman Dave WilliamsSandra Fish4:20 AM MDT on May 24, 2023Dave Williams speaks during a Republican state central meeting on March 11, 2023, in Loveland where elections for a chairman, vice chairman and secretary of the Colorado GOP were conducted. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)If the Colorado Republican Party had employees in April, they didn't get paid. It's the first time in at least 20 years the party didn't pay any employees.And the party's bank accounts have less money than the $120,540 a recent filing said the party had on hand, the GOP acknowledged in an addendum filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. The Colorado GOP raised only about $58,000 in the first four months of the year, including less than $15,000 in April. The party spent more than $15,000 last month, with $9,100 going to health and dental benefits. It's unclear if anyone is working for the party; no staff is listed on its website.The lack of a payroll for a state party in Colorado is unusual.“There have been other cycles where the party pays only one or two salaries in the off year,” said Kristi Burton Brown, who chaired the party during the last election cycle. “If they want to run it all-volunteer, they certainly can.”The party raised only a little more than $18,000 in the first two months of the year, before Williams was elected chairman. From January through April, Colorado's GOP spent more than $263,000. That compares with $539,000 spent in the first four months of 2021, another nonelection year when five people were paid for their work in April. Of this year's spending, $73,000 went to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for legal services. “Anybody who gets elected state chair should probably prioritize raising money,” said Dick Wadhams, who ran the state party from 2007 to 2011 and has been critical of Williams. “You can't run an operation without money.”The state Democratic Party raised nearly $92,000 in April, and spent nearly $211,000, including about $26,000 on payroll for a half-dozen employees. That left the party with nearly $196,000 in cash at the end of April.The Democratic Party raised more than $419,000 in the first four months of the year, while spending about $454,000. The party's state-level account had nearly $32,000 at the end of March.And the Colorado GOP has trailed Democrats in political spending in the state in recent years.Campaign accounts or PACS for several of the state's top elected Democrats have donated to the federal party account this year including U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper; U.S. Reps. Diana Degette, of Denver, Yadira Caraveo, of Thornton, Jason Crow, of Centennial, and Joe Neguse, of Lafayette; Gov. Jared Polis; Treasurer Dave Young; and others. Hickenlooper also sent two emails recently asking people to donate to the state party.The Colorado GOP received $12,500 from the terminated 8th Congressional District campaign of state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, in early March. It's the only money the party has received from Republican officeholders or candidates this year.Tagged:Colorado Democratic Party, Colorado Republican Party, Dave WilliamsABC NEWS:Arizona set for unpredictable Senate raceByTal AxelrodMay 23, 2023, 3:06 AM Democrats and Republicans can at least agree on one thing: They have no idea what's going to happen in next year's Arizona Senate race.The election is shaping up to be an unpredictable three-way contest in one of the nation's premier battlegrounds featuring an incumbent who left her party (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema), a polarizing conservative who remains a rock star with her base (Kari Lake), and a Democratic nominee-in-waiting who would represent a shift to the left for the historically moderate-minded state (Rep. Ruben Gallego).Sen. Sinema first set the stage when she switched from being a Democrat to an independent late last year. While she called that choice a "reflection of who [she's] always been," the switch also prevented a primary fight with Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego -- and paved the way for something more unusual.State data shows just under 35% of Arizona voters are registered Republicans and 30% are registered Democrats, while 35% aren't registered with either party.If Sinema retires, the race to succeed her could feature Gallego, a Marine Corps vet and former House colleague of Sinema's who has become vocally critical of her, and Republican Kari Lake, a former TV anchor, election denier and 2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidate.Both Gallego and Lake are more associated with their parties' ideological flanks than the centrists who have historically won statewide.state GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "It's gonna be like nothing we've ever seen before in Arizona. I think what's going to make it nasty is obviously Ruben and Kyrsten don't get along personally. And depending on who the Republican is, if you get a firebrand like a Kari Lake again, we've seen how she's operated before, that's going to take it to another level."Nineteen operatives from both parties who spoke with ABC News for this story mostly thought that Sinema would run again, pointing to her ongoing fundraising and continued involvement in high-profile legislative pushes like on immigration.Senator Kyrsten Sinema questions witnesses during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in the wake of recent of bank failures, on Capitol Hill, May 18, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersSinema, who previously served in the House for three terms, quickly thrust herself into the heart of several of the chamber's most significant and successful legislative efforts, including on infrastructure, same-sex marriage, guns and more.Her style of legislating has generated mixed reviews, with supporters pointing to her scorecard and liberal detractors saying she has been overly eager to water down Democratic priorities, including raising the minimum wage, supporting prescription drug pricing reform and scrapping the Senate filibuster as a way to codify abortion rights.Cesar Chavez, a former Democratic state lawmaker said "Overall, I think the state of Arizona is content with the work that Sen. Sinema done. The issues that Sen. Sinema has advocated for will definitely result in a positive tick in her numbers."Steve Slugocki, a senior adviser to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a former chair of the Maricopa County Democratic Party had the opposite view. He said, "I cannot stress enough how deeply unpopular she is. I traveled the state everywhere last year. The first question was always, 'What are we going to do about Sinema? How can we replace her?'"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema arrives at the Capitol, May 9, 2023. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego speaks at a CHC event. Getty ImagesAll of this will play out in the larger context of the battle for the Senate, with the Democratic caucus holding a slim 51-49 majority, but defending 23 seats in 2024, making operatives eager to avoid a spoiler candidate, but without any agreement on who that would be.A former aide to Sen. Sinema said "She has shown she knows what it takes to win in Arizona. I look at these other candidates, and I do not see proven winners. "So yeah, as a Democrat, I'm nervous because I want to keep Kari Lake out of the Senate.""If she's in the race as an independent, Ruben's already at a disadvantage as a Democrat just because of the lower registration numbers that we have," said one former state lawmaker who is supporting Gallego. "So, it comes down to how many votes is Sen. Sinema going to take? Even if it is a very small percentage, any small percentage at all could tip this."To be sure, Democrats aren't the only ones wringing their hands.Republican strategists told ABC News that a three-way race with a Democrat and an independent with a Democratic background would normally be a boon to the GOP candidate. But failed 2022 candidate Kari Lake is looming in the wings and is coming off a narrow loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, which many observers attributed to her embrace of baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.A source familiar with Lake's thinking told ABC News they're confident she'll run for the Senate, likely launching a campaign in the fall. This person also confirmed that Lake recently met with several senators, including National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines of Montana, and that with her broad name recognition and support from conservative voters, she would enter the race as the overwhelming primary favorite.GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "[T]he Sinema breakup from the Democratic Party looks good for Republicans on paper, theoretically. But I think that the big heartburn is what's going to happen out of a Republican primary, and are we just going to do the same ridiculous mistakes over and over again, and Democrats are just going to continue to win in the state,"Still, virtually every person who spoke to ABC News added the caveat that their analyses could end up being off given the unpredictable nature of a potential race with the incumbent running as the third-party candidate."We've never seen anything like that in Arizona," one Democratic strategist said. "I just think trying to predict anything right now, you might as well shake a Magic 8 Ball and see what it tells you." CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: Sir Richard Starkey MBE, otherwise known as Ringo Starr!! Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band are on a Western U.S. tour with shows this week in San Diego, Eugene and Bend OR, and next week playing Denver's Bellco Theatre and the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs. Tickets and information at ringostarr.comWelp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.
PACs supporting Mike Johnston spend big in final sprint of Denver mayoral election | Susana Cordova will be Colorado's next Education Commissioner | New Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams is off to a rocky start | Kari Lake is running for Senate in Arizona | Ringo Starr on tour in Western U.S. Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: COLORADO NEWSLINE: Denver mayoral candidates Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough sprint to the finish lineBY: CHASE WOODRUFF - MAY 30, 2023 4:00 AM Left: Denver mayor candidate Kelly Brough receives the endorsement of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance at an event on May 12, 2023. Right: Brough's runoff opponent, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, receives the endorsement of progressive former mayoral candidates and Democratic state lawmakers in Civic Center Park on May 10, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)A half-million dollar contribution from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was part of a flood of large donations that has helped former state Sen. Mike Johnston open up a 2-to-1 fundraising lead over opponent Kelly Brough as the Denver mayor's race enters its final week.Advancing Denver, an independent expenditure committee supporting Johnston's run, raised more than $4 million through May 22. The pro-Johnston super PAC has relied on many of the same out-of-state billionaire donors who boosted Johnston's gubernatorial bid in 2018, including Bloomberg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and hedge fund managers Steve Mandel and John Arnold. Kent Thiry, the former CEO of Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita, is the group's largest local donor, while venture capitalist Art Reimers and private equity CEO Eric Resnick have also chipped in with six-figure contributions.About three-quarters of Advancing Denver's haul has been spent on TV advertising in support of Johnston, with the remainder spent on digital ads and mail.Johnston and Brough had raised roughly equal amounts in direct contributions through the end of April, reporting total receipts of $932,060 and $895,612, for their campaign committees, respectively. A Better Denver, the independent expenditure committee supporting Brough, has struggled to raise large sums since the April 4 first-round election, adding just $211,650 to the $1 million it had previously raised in February and March.To date, the group's top donor during the runoff is Pete Coors, former Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and prolific donor to conservative causes. Coors gave $50,000 to A Better Denver on April 24. Other top donors to the pro-Brough PAC have included real estate interests like the National Association of Realtors, Colorado Construction Industry Coalition and developer Lloyd Fulenwider.The Apartment Association of Metro Denver, a landlord group, has made contributions to both candidates. After giving $25,000 to Brough in February, the group followed up with another $10,000 contribution to Brough in late April, and a $10,000 contribution to Johnston a week later.Ballots for the city's runoff election were mailed earlier this month. Voters can return their ballot to a 24-hour drop box or vote in person until 7 p.m. on June 6.COLORADO SUN:Susana Cordova, former superintendent of Denver schools, will be Colorado's next education commissionerErica Breunlin and Jesse Paul9:13 AM MDT on May 30, 2023Denver Public Schools superintendent Susana Cordova at DPS headquarters on April 3, 2020. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post via The Associated Press)The state's Board of Education on Monday named Susana Cordova as the sole finalist among 23 applicants after a unanimous vote. Her appointment is expected to be formalized when the board next meets.State Board Chairwoman Rebecca McClellan told The Colorado Sun “We really appreciated her sharp focus on results for students and outcomes for students with an eye toward equity,” “She's not only talked the talk, she's proven that she's capable of achieving gains for students.”Cordova will take over the position from Katy Anthes, who is stepping down from the role in July after serving as commissioner since December 2016.Cordova began her career as a bilingual language arts teacher and has since worked in education for more than 30 years, including as a teacher, principal, district leader and currently as a superintendent in residence for Transcend, a national nonprofit focused on helping schools make classrooms more equitable for all students.Cordova was also previously a deputy superintendent for the Dallas TX Independent School District.Cordova has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver's School of Education and now serves on the university's board of trustees. Cordova will begin steering the state education department at a particularly consequential time for Colorado schools, as districts continue to help students recover from lost time and learning during the pandemic and as many communities struggle to recruit and retain educators and manage declining student enrollment.Susana Cordova, then superintendent of Denver Public Schools, looks on as students work on laptops in a classroom in Newlon Elementary School early Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. The school was one of 55 Discovery Link sites set up by Denver Public Schools where students could participate in remote learning during the pandemic. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Special to The Colorado Sun)Cordova will begin her tenure just as a state task force is considering changes to how Colorado evaluates its schools, which could potentially affect how much funding schools receive.Gov. Jared Polis celebrated Cordova's selection in a written statement Tuesday, saying “Her prior work boosting academic progress and improving access to high-quality education for learners of all backgrounds as superintendent of Denver Public Schools is sure to benefit students across the state as she brings this passion and experience to this new role,” said Polis, a Democrat. “I look forward to working with Susana as a member of my cabinet as we continue to carry forward our bold education priorities.” COLORADO SUN:Colorado GOP paid no staff in April while fundraising lags under new Chairman Dave WilliamsSandra Fish4:20 AM MDT on May 24, 2023Dave Williams speaks during a Republican state central meeting on March 11, 2023, in Loveland where elections for a chairman, vice chairman and secretary of the Colorado GOP were conducted. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)If the Colorado Republican Party had employees in April, they didn't get paid. It's the first time in at least 20 years the party didn't pay any employees.And the party's bank accounts have less money than the $120,540 a recent filing said the party had on hand, the GOP acknowledged in an addendum filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. The Colorado GOP raised only about $58,000 in the first four months of the year, including less than $15,000 in April. The party spent more than $15,000 last month, with $9,100 going to health and dental benefits. It's unclear if anyone is working for the party; no staff is listed on its website.The lack of a payroll for a state party in Colorado is unusual.“There have been other cycles where the party pays only one or two salaries in the off year,” said Kristi Burton Brown, who chaired the party during the last election cycle. “If they want to run it all-volunteer, they certainly can.”The party raised only a little more than $18,000 in the first two months of the year, before Williams was elected chairman. From January through April, Colorado's GOP spent more than $263,000. That compares with $539,000 spent in the first four months of 2021, another nonelection year when five people were paid for their work in April. Of this year's spending, $73,000 went to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for legal services. “Anybody who gets elected state chair should probably prioritize raising money,” said Dick Wadhams, who ran the state party from 2007 to 2011 and has been critical of Williams. “You can't run an operation without money.”The state Democratic Party raised nearly $92,000 in April, and spent nearly $211,000, including about $26,000 on payroll for a half-dozen employees. That left the party with nearly $196,000 in cash at the end of April.The Democratic Party raised more than $419,000 in the first four months of the year, while spending about $454,000. The party's state-level account had nearly $32,000 at the end of March.And the Colorado GOP has trailed Democrats in political spending in the state in recent years.Campaign accounts or PACS for several of the state's top elected Democrats have donated to the federal party account this year including U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper; U.S. Reps. Diana Degette, of Denver, Yadira Caraveo, of Thornton, Jason Crow, of Centennial, and Joe Neguse, of Lafayette; Gov. Jared Polis; Treasurer Dave Young; and others. Hickenlooper also sent two emails recently asking people to donate to the state party.The Colorado GOP received $12,500 from the terminated 8th Congressional District campaign of state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, in early March. It's the only money the party has received from Republican officeholders or candidates this year.Tagged:Colorado Democratic Party, Colorado Republican Party, Dave WilliamsABC NEWS:Arizona set for unpredictable Senate raceByTal AxelrodMay 23, 2023, 3:06 AM Democrats and Republicans can at least agree on one thing: They have no idea what's going to happen in next year's Arizona Senate race.The election is shaping up to be an unpredictable three-way contest in one of the nation's premier battlegrounds featuring an incumbent who left her party (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema), a polarizing conservative who remains a rock star with her base (Kari Lake), and a Democratic nominee-in-waiting who would represent a shift to the left for the historically moderate-minded state (Rep. Ruben Gallego).Sen. Sinema first set the stage when she switched from being a Democrat to an independent late last year. While she called that choice a "reflection of who [she's] always been," the switch also prevented a primary fight with Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego -- and paved the way for something more unusual.State data shows just under 35% of Arizona voters are registered Republicans and 30% are registered Democrats, while 35% aren't registered with either party.If Sinema retires, the race to succeed her could feature Gallego, a Marine Corps vet and former House colleague of Sinema's who has become vocally critical of her, and Republican Kari Lake, a former TV anchor, election denier and 2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidate.Both Gallego and Lake are more associated with their parties' ideological flanks than the centrists who have historically won statewide.state GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "It's gonna be like nothing we've ever seen before in Arizona. I think what's going to make it nasty is obviously Ruben and Kyrsten don't get along personally. And depending on who the Republican is, if you get a firebrand like a Kari Lake again, we've seen how she's operated before, that's going to take it to another level."Nineteen operatives from both parties who spoke with ABC News for this story mostly thought that Sinema would run again, pointing to her ongoing fundraising and continued involvement in high-profile legislative pushes like on immigration.Senator Kyrsten Sinema questions witnesses during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in the wake of recent of bank failures, on Capitol Hill, May 18, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersSinema, who previously served in the House for three terms, quickly thrust herself into the heart of several of the chamber's most significant and successful legislative efforts, including on infrastructure, same-sex marriage, guns and more.Her style of legislating has generated mixed reviews, with supporters pointing to her scorecard and liberal detractors saying she has been overly eager to water down Democratic priorities, including raising the minimum wage, supporting prescription drug pricing reform and scrapping the Senate filibuster as a way to codify abortion rights.Cesar Chavez, a former Democratic state lawmaker said "Overall, I think the state of Arizona is content with the work that Sen. Sinema done. The issues that Sen. Sinema has advocated for will definitely result in a positive tick in her numbers."Steve Slugocki, a senior adviser to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a former chair of the Maricopa County Democratic Party had the opposite view. He said, "I cannot stress enough how deeply unpopular she is. I traveled the state everywhere last year. The first question was always, 'What are we going to do about Sinema? How can we replace her?'"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema arrives at the Capitol, May 9, 2023. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego speaks at a CHC event. Getty ImagesAll of this will play out in the larger context of the battle for the Senate, with the Democratic caucus holding a slim 51-49 majority, but defending 23 seats in 2024, making operatives eager to avoid a spoiler candidate, but without any agreement on who that would be.A former aide to Sen. Sinema said "She has shown she knows what it takes to win in Arizona. I look at these other candidates, and I do not see proven winners. "So yeah, as a Democrat, I'm nervous because I want to keep Kari Lake out of the Senate.""If she's in the race as an independent, Ruben's already at a disadvantage as a Democrat just because of the lower registration numbers that we have," said one former state lawmaker who is supporting Gallego. "So, it comes down to how many votes is Sen. Sinema going to take? Even if it is a very small percentage, any small percentage at all could tip this."To be sure, Democrats aren't the only ones wringing their hands.Republican strategists told ABC News that a three-way race with a Democrat and an independent with a Democratic background would normally be a boon to the GOP candidate. But failed 2022 candidate Kari Lake is looming in the wings and is coming off a narrow loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, which many observers attributed to her embrace of baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.A source familiar with Lake's thinking told ABC News they're confident she'll run for the Senate, likely launching a campaign in the fall. This person also confirmed that Lake recently met with several senators, including National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines of Montana, and that with her broad name recognition and support from conservative voters, she would enter the race as the overwhelming primary favorite.GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "[T]he Sinema breakup from the Democratic Party looks good for Republicans on paper, theoretically. But I think that the big heartburn is what's going to happen out of a Republican primary, and are we just going to do the same ridiculous mistakes over and over again, and Democrats are just going to continue to win in the state,"Still, virtually every person who spoke to ABC News added the caveat that their analyses could end up being off given the unpredictable nature of a potential race with the incumbent running as the third-party candidate."We've never seen anything like that in Arizona," one Democratic strategist said. "I just think trying to predict anything right now, you might as well shake a Magic 8 Ball and see what it tells you." CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: Sir Richard Starkey MBE, otherwise known as Ringo Starr!! Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band are on a Western U.S. tour with shows this week in San Diego, Eugene and Bend OR, and next week playing Denver's Bellco Theatre and the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs. Tickets and information at ringostarr.comWelp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.
EndAbortionUS: How To Get Involved In The 2023 Elections by Priests for Life
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