Today's Teamster News 07.08.15

Teamsters
Teamsters warn Frontier Airlines over stalled contract talks  The Denver Post  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division has asked the National Mediation Board to arbitrate its ongoing contract dispute with Denver-based Frontier Airlines. And, if that doesn't work, Frontier's union-represented aircraft technicians, ground service technicians and tool-room attendants could exercise their right to strike — a move that essentially could cripple Frontier's operations...
Labor union brings back food drive to feed the hungry in Maine  Bangor Daily News   ...For several years before 2014, the Teamsters Local 340 labor union used the annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival as a vehicle to feed the hungry throughout Aroostook County. But the organization lost major donors in the last couple of years and wasn’t able to sponsor the drive last year. The organization is back this year with the food drive and a float in the Maine Potato Blossom parade...
Biddeford City Council meeting ends abruptly  WMTV  ...Disputes over contracts between Biddeford officials and three employee unions shut down the City Council meeting after just a few minutes Tuesday night. Tensions were already high when union members poured into council chambers. Members of Biddeford’s police, public works and firefighters’ unions said councilors were trying to avoid talking about the contracts. City officials said they plan to meet with the Teamsters Local 340 in mediation...
1934 Teamsters’ strike turned Minneapolis from ‘scab’ town to union supporter  MinnPost  ...“No trucks shall be moved! By nobody!” was the rallying cry of Minneapolis Teamsters Local 574 as they struck in the summer of 1934. Their demands were clear: a fair wage, union recognition, and the trucking firms’ recognition of inside workers as part of the union. Despite the violent reaction of the authorities, the 574 won on all these points...

Global Labor & Trade
TPP ministers to gather in Hawaii July 28-29  Japan Times  ...Pacific Rim countries pursuing a free trade initiative are set to hold ministerial talks on July 28 and 29 in Hawaii to wind up their marathon negotiations, a source said Monday. The United States, Japan and 10 other countries came up with the plan as hopes for an early signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Pacific Trade Deal Negotiators See a Wrap in Late July  New York Times  ...With a final accord in sight, the 12 nations negotiating a trans-Pacific trade agreement linking 40 percent of the global economy have set a last round of talks for late July on the remaining issues on the most ambitious trade deal in a generation...
TPP Still Has A Long Way To Go  Forbes  ...Congress’s having given President Obama fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t assure that the agreement will enjoy smooth sailing the rest of the way. There are still any number of rocks in the water that could sink it. There are enough unresolved issues in the text to keep the negotiators at the table for a long time...
Obama working to make Vietnam an ally in dealing with China’s rise  Washington Post  ...Administration officials said Hanoi has been signaling interest in forging deeper economic and military ties with the United States, and Obama has extended a hand to Vietnam, which is among the 12 nations involved in an expansive Pacific Rim trade pact...
U.S. reports progress on human rights after Obama meeting with Vietnamese leader  NOLA  ...The United States and Vietnam Tuesday (July 7) committed in a joint statement to "support for the promotion and protection of human rights." On Monday, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., organized a letter from seven Republican senators [which] said that human rights should be a priority as the United States moves forward with negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement with Vietnam and other Pacific nations...
Canada Pledges Support for ‘Powerhouse’ Pacific Trade Pact  Bloomberg  ...The Canadian government is reiterating its support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, with Finance Minister Joe Oliver saying increased trade and investment will benefit the economy. Canada is under pressure to open up its dairy and poultry sectors, where production is controlled through quotas and imports are restricted with high tariffs. Dismantling that system, known as supply management, may become an issue in rural districts...
9 Ways the TPP Is Bad for Developing Countries  Foreign Policy   ...If enacted, the TPP could block these countries from successfully industrializing and joining the developed world. What would this mean in practice? Blocking industrialization would mean locking these countries into low-end agricultural and extractive industries, preventing tens of millions from accessing higher-paying jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors...
Britain slashes spending in new austerity drive  Business Insider  ...Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne unveiled fresh austerity measures Wednesday to slash the country's debt, evoking the plight of crisis-hit Greece in presenting the first purely Conservative budget for nearly 20 years. Osborne slashed welfare spending to honour campaign promises...
Greece Submits New Loan Request, as Tsipras Takes Defiant Stance  New York Times  ... Greece, running out of money and under a tight deadline from European leaders, on Wednesday requested a three-year loan from the eurozone’s bailout fund. But other than alluding to plans to begin overhauling its tax and pension systems next week, Greece did not detail what economic changes it would make in exchange for the loan...

State & Living Wage Battles
Prevailing Wage Repeal, Reform Stripped from WI Budget; Extraordinary Session Called to Address  We Party Patriots  ...Wisconsin Republicans have reached an agreement which will allow them to pass a budget for 2015-2017 after a week of contentious infighting over prevailing wage reforms and funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena. As part of the deal, Republicans agreed to eliminate these issues from the budget itself and instead take up an extraordinary session to tackle the outstanding questions...
Wisconsin's budget bill a Pandora's Box of attacks against workers  Daily Kos  ...Wisconsin's GOP lawmakers have packed a lot of punch into a provision in the state's budget bill, with most of it undercutting labor unions and workers along with reducing oversight of law enforcement. The measure, known as Motion 999, gained notoriety when one initiative that would have quashed the state's open record laws came to light. It was so deeply unpopular that lawmakers led by Gov. Scott Walker shelved it...
Wisconsin Is Trying to Take Away the Right to a Weekend  Gawker  ...In Wisconsin, Republicans led by Scott Walker has done an amazing job of destroying public unions and handing all power over the workplace back to business interests. Now, with little fanfare, they want to take away the right for workers to have a single day off. Wisconsin state legislators are preparing to vote on a budget. One additional measure is worth gaping at, perhaps above all others: section 56, which would take away workers’ right to a weekend—even a one day weekend...
Scott Walker's Office Was Part of a Sneaky Effort to Keep His Records Private  Mother Jones  ...Gov. Scott Walker's office has confirmed in a statement that it was involved with the measure to change Wisconsin's open-records law to block access to many currently available government documents. The statement was released after Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) acknowledged that Walker's office took part in discussions to slip the changes into a last-minute budget bill...
Wisconsin Senate passes budget, votes to scale back prevailing wage law  Chicago Sun-Times  ...The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate passed the $73 billion state budget just before midnight Tuesday, sending it to the Assembly after voting to repeal a prevailing wage law for local government projects, a move Democrats called an affront to the middle class...
Sherrod Brown pushes for charter school accountability and transparency  Daily Kos  ...A lack of accountability and transparency are a key problem of charter schools in many states across the country, allowing them to made into centers of corporate profit above their mission as centers of education. That lack, and that profit drive, is what leads to abuses like charter schools that pay above-market rents to real estate companies connected to school executives. Sen. Sherrod Brown has a bill that would change that and other abuses...
Missouri voter ID measure from GOP candidate OK to circulate  Springfield News-Leader  ...A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state now can gather signatures for an initiative petition to allow lawmakers to require voter identification. Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander on Tuesday announced the proposed constitutional amendment can begin circulating...
Martin O’Malley Has the Right Solution for Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis  The Nation  ...Puerto Rico is not Greece. But the United States commonwealth is confronted with a debt crisis. It faces the threat of a brutal round of austerity cuts, which could make a bad circumstance dramatically worse. If ever there was a moment that called for enlightened leadership that recognizes both the economic and social challenges facing the Puerto Rico, this is it...

U.S. Labor 
Hospital, nurses union reach tentative contract deal  News OK  ...Negotiators for Eastern Maine Medical Center and a union representing nurses at the hospital have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract. The deal announced early Wednesday could avert a threatened two-day strike by the nurses next week. It must be ratified by the union membership and the hospital's board...
US: a look back at the UAW-Detroit three talks of 2011  InAutoNews  ...The United Automotive Workers union is set to renegotiate the labor agreements for the represented workers at the three largest US automakers – General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. The summer negotiations for the contracts for the upcoming four years are going to kick off next week...
Nurse ratio bill advances to D.C. Council's health committee  Washington Business Journal  ...A bill that would require minimum staffing for nurses in D.C. hospitals was approved by the D.C. Council's business committee Tuesday and will now advance to the health committee for consideration. National Nurses United, the nursing union representing many of the local nurses pushing for ratios, called the vote an "important step"...
Union Is the New Black: Labor Organizing in Orange Is the New Black, And What It Means For You  Union Plus  ...In its third season with Netflix, Orange Is the New Black has had a significant effect on America's consciousness regarding: race, women and incarceration, and transgender issues. This season highlighted many character backstories, but personally, the most interesting plot-line was that of the security guards and their efforts to organize a potential union...
Company Raises Its Minimum Wage To $15 So Employees Won’t ‘Worry About Making Ends Meet’  Think Progress  ...Internet Truckstop Group, an Idaho-based company that owns a number of internet trucking logistic websites, is raising base pay for its employees to $15 an hour. The company has 250 full- and part-time employees, about 110 of whom will get a raise because of the increase. Most average $11 to $12 hours currently. CEO Scott Moscrip said the company, whose revenues have grown between 10 and 30 percent a year, was due for a pay increase...

Miscellaneous
After 6-Year Tenure Not Prosecuting Banks, Eric Holder Returns 'Home' to Defend Them  Common Dreams  ...Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's return this week to a high-level position at Covington & Burling, a corporate law firm that represents big banks, has some calling it a dramatic and troubling example of the Washington-to-Wall-Street revolving door. That's because Holder's six years of service under the administration of President Barack Obama were defined by his refusal to criminally prosecute any of the financial institutions...
Donald Trump’s Empire Was (Probably) Built On Immigrant Labor  Think Progress  ...As a real estate tycoon, Donald Trump built up and has given his name to clothing lines, hotels, resorts, golf courses, a winery, and apartment buildings. And for a man who has unapologetically characterized Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, and has said that infectious diseases are spilling across the border, Trump has decided to work in industries where it’s impossible to avoid the Latino immigrants he is maligning...
The End of Encryption? NSA & FBI Seek New Backdoors Against Advice from Leading Security Experts  Democracy Now  ...Encryption refers to the scrambling of communications so they cannot be read without the correct key or password. The FBI and GCHQ have said they need access to encrypted communications to track criminals and terrorists. Fourteen of the world’s pre-eminent cryptographers, computer scientists and security specialists have issued a paper arguing there is no way to allow the government such access without endangering all confidential data...
Waiting to Die in Prison—for Selling a Couple of Bags of Pot  Mother Jones  ...How many prisoners are serving life sentences for pot? At least 69, based on data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations. But that figure probably is low, particularly if you count older inmates serving lengthy sentences who will likely die in prison. Federal judges have sentenced 54 people to life without parole for marijuana crimes since 1996...
Popular Protests Are Spreading Across Central America, and Washington Is Getting Nervous  The Nation   ...In both Guatemala and Honduras, credible accusations of corruption are spurring mass mobilization truly popular in their class composition. In response, Washington is reacting in its usual manner to such threats: more militarization...

Today's Teamster News 07.01.11

Broken deals, bitter words and a state shuts down  Minneapolis Star-Tribune   ...Talks imploded Thursday between DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders in the final hours before a midnight deadline, and Minnesota began a historic government shutdown...
Group pushes for Michigan right-to-work proposal  Associated Press   ...A group is forming to try and advance right-to-work legislation in Michigan, a state with deep union roots...
Lawsuit, Teacher Layoffs Follow Wisconsin Budget Signing  Huffington Post   ...Just days after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the state's budget with massive cuts to education funding, Wisconsin's teachers are on the chopping block and making their way to court...
Gov. Kasich signs 'new day' budget for Ohio  Columbus Dispatch   ...The budget, which did not receive a single Democratic vote..., includes major changes and cuts to Ohio's schools, local governments, nursing homes, prisons, and development departments...
Governor to try again to exclude some state workers from unions  Galesburg.com   ...Nearly 2,000 state employees could be ejected from unions representing them and another 1,700 would be prevented from joining collective bargaining units under a bill that could be called in the Illinois Senate next week...
Unions file lawsuit over pension plan  Concord Monitor   ...a coalition of the state's biggest unions filed a lawsuit yesterday contesting the constitutionality of an increase in employee contributions to the state's retirement system...

Today's Teamster News 06.29.11

After heated debate, Wis. union law takes effect  Wisconsin State Journal   ...The changes amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. The bill also strips them of almost all their collective bargaining rights, allowing them to negotiate only on wages...
Protesters, and rats, greet Scott Walker in New York  Capitol Confidential   ...“Say it loud! Say it clear! Scott Walker is not welcome here!” chanted a gaggle of union members and supporters...
State Senate passes budget that will change Ohio  Columbus Dispatch   ...Local governments, nursing homes, schools and universities must make do with less...
Christie signs bill reining in employee benefits  Associated Press   ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday signed landmark employee benefits legislation that increases pension and health contributions paid by a half-million teachers, police and other public workers and removes the issue from collective bargaining for four years...
Malloy: With union deal dead, legislature may have to force change  The Connecticut Mirror   ...Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said today he will explore legislative options to curtail what he called state government's unsustainable, long-term health and pension costs, but he refused to say if he will seek a curb on collective-bargaining rights for state employees...
Calif. bill would ease farmworker unionization  Associated Press   ...Gov. Jerry Brown has until midnight Tuesday to act on a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize farmworkers in California, but growers characterize the legislation as a union power-grab...

Today's Teamster News 06.28.11

Updated: Sheriff investigating Wis. Supreme Court argument  Associated Press   ...A fight between Wisconsin's divided Supreme Court justices led today to a criminal investigation and calls from the governor and others to resolve longstanding differences and restore public confidence in the institution...
Wisconsin Teachers React To Gov. Scott Walker's Newly Signed Budget Huffington Post   ...This weekend, Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) signed into law a budget that scrapped $800 million in education funding following an earlier law that reduced collective bargaining rights to almost nothing...
GOP wants to keep the riffraff out of Ohio's polls: Thomas Suddes  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...Southern segregationists used the poll tax to keep black Americans and poor Americans from voting. Today, Republicans want to require a photo ID from an Ohioan before he or she may vote...
Indiana's bumpy road to privatization  Los Angeles Times   ...After the private sector took over the state's public assistance program, services were disrupted while politically connected firms benefited...
Legislature to hammer out final details of state budget this week  Associated Press  ...Stark differences in party policy and ideology will be fully exposed this week as Republicans and Democrats hammer out the details of New Jersey’s state budget for the fiscal year that starts Friday...
Republicans doing harm to N.H. residents  seacoastonline.com   ...On June 22, the Republican supermajorities in the N.H. House and Senate launched an all-out attack on the people they were elected to serve...

Today's Teamster News 06.27.11

Union contracts will come to an end on Wednesday  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Tens of thousands of teachers and government workers will be without union contracts for the first time in decades on Wednesday...
State PBA Filing Suit Over Pension Changes  Belleville Patch   ...The ongoing debate over the landmark pension and health benefits reform package expected to be signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie on Monday will soon be heading to New Jersey's courts...
Follow the exit signs  Columbus Dispatch   ...Amid a push by Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly to reduce public workers' take-home pay, benefits and collective-bargaining rights, state and local governments are seeing the biggest exodus of experienced workers in recent history, perhaps ever...
'Most Restrictive' Voter ID Law In The Country Loses Support Of Republican Secretary Of State  Talking Points Memo   ...Ohio's measure is so restrictive -- it requires the photo IDs to be issued by the state, so voters couldn't identify themselves with their full Social Security numbers -- that it lost the support of Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted...
FACT CHECK: McKenna campaigns with faulty data  Associated Press   ...(Washington State Attorney General) Rob McKenna launched his campaign for governor recently with a vow to curb the costs of personnel in state government, citing statistics that drew gasps from his audience of supporters...
The Selling of the World: Privatization Schemes Proliferate  firedoglake   ... Greece essentially must sell the family silver – their ports, their state-run water supply systems, their utility company, their telephone company – to get out of the mess created largely by the financial crisis and the Great Recession...

WI gets its protest on today

Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker managed to sign his budget to destroy the middle class at a company NOT owned by a convicted tax felon today. He didn't manage to avoid the protesters though. jessarp24 has the story from the Badger State.

Today's Teamster News 06.26.11

John Nichols: Walker’s pay-to-play state budget  The Cap Times   ...Walker’s budget, the most fiscally and economically irresponsible in Wisconsin history, cheats Wisconsin taxpayers, families and communities in order to pay off his political benefactors...
Kasich’s $55.5 Billion Ohio Budget Will Sell Prisons  Bloomberg News   ...Kasich said there will be efforts apart from the budget to have companies take over state assets or services, including the lottery and the 241-mile (388-kilometer) Ohio Turnpike...
Financial Martial Law (P.A. 4) repeal gets a jump start in Ann Arbor  Eclectablog   ...nearly 100 local activists, concerned citizens and organizers got together for an informational townhall meeting...
Banner year for companies, not consumers  Palm Beach Post   ...The insurance bill Crist vetoed last year got passed and signed under Scott. It allows insurance companies to jack up rates 15 percent without getting approval from the Office of Insurance Regulation...
Workers target LePage at rally  Kennebec Journal   ...Workers rallied at the State House on Saturday to criticize Gov. Paul LePage for rejecting an offer to extend state worker contracts with no pay raises and for his decision to hire a (union-busting) New York lawyer to conduct negotiations...
Even for Cashiers, College Pays Off  New York Times   ...The educated American masses helped create the American century, as the economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz have written...

Walker cancels budget-signing ceremony at tax felon's company

We thought Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was completely and utterly shameless, but we were wrong. The mouth-breathing guv has a tiny shred of awareness that it looks bad to sign a budget that raises taxes on the poor and cuts them on millionaires at a business owned by someone who spent three months in prison for felony tax evasion.

After ThinkProgress, broke the story of the tax-cheating business owner, the Milwauke Journal-Sentinel reports,

Gov. Scott Walker has called off plans to sign the 2011-'13 budget bill at a private Green Bay-area company run by an executive with six felony convictions, a spokesman announced today.

The announcement came less than an hour after the Journal Sentinel contacted the governor's office to ask about the executive's criminal history.

Walker aide Cullen Werwie said his office would be announcing a new location soon for the budget ceremony on Sunday. 

Werwie acknowledged that Walker's advance team had erred by not conducting a thorough background check on Gregory A. DeCaster, chief executive officer of Badger Sheet Metal Works in Ashwaubenon.

 Duh-oh.

Walker tops Scott in budget-signing scandal

(Above: Video of a  protest against Wisconsin's savage budget, with thanks to Blue Cheddar)

Wow. You didn't think it could get any worse than Florida Gov. Predator Rick Scott's budget-signing ceremony. You know, the one where he signed a budget for public spending at a private event and used publicly funded sheriff's deputies to kick out elderly Democrats?

Leave it to Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker to outsleaze Scott. This Sunday Walker will sign the Wisconin budget, which raises taxes on the poor and cuts them for corporations and the wealthy, at a business owned by a tax felon.

Walker's host for the signing of the shameful budget will be Greg DeCoster, owner of Badger Metal Works. DeCaster was sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion back in 1995. Writes Think Progress,

While none of this should cast aspersion on Mr. DeCaster, who served his time in jail dutifully and has paid his debt to society, it is fitting that Walker would choose to sign a budget that absolves the rich from paying their fair share at a business owned by someone who was once convicted of the felony of tax evasion.

You just can't make this up.

Today's Teamster News 06.24.11

N.J. Assembly passes landmark employee benefits overhaul  NJ.com   ...New Jersey lawmakers tonight voted to enact a sweeping plan to cut public worker benefits after a long day of high-pitched political drama in the streets of Trenton and behind closed doors...
Effects of the Biennial Budget and Budget Repair Bills for Working Families  Wisconsin Council on Children and Families   ...Earned Income Tax Credit -- $56 Million Tax Increase for 152,000 Working Families...
Unemployment up in most Wisconsin cities  LaCrosse Tribune   ...A report from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development released today shows that unemployment rates increased in 25 cities with a population of 25,000 people or more...
Husted says Kasich's divide and conquer is a no go  Columbus Dispatch   ...Secretary of State Jon Husted's office issued a statement this morning that the Ohio Ballot Board could not split a referendum into multiple issues - which could throw a wrench into Gov. John Kasich and his allies' plans to defend Senate Bill 5...
The Indiana Exception? Yes, but...  New York Times   ...Hundreds of thousands of Indiana residents are unemployed and underemployed...a striking number of people here...have simply left the work force altogether since the dawn of the recession...
Bills Would Cap Public Employer Health Insurance Contributions  WILX.com   ...Font Size: The Republican-led Michigan Legislature continued its efforts Thursday toward requiring many public employees to pay more of their own health insurance costs...Critics consider it an attack on collective bargaining rights...
Union fights freeze on longevity pay for R.I. state workers  projo.com   ...Flyers popping up all over the State House urge workers to call their local legislators and "ask them to oppose proposals that take away our ability to negotiate longevity and retiree medical benefits.''...

Today's Teamster News 06.19.11

His own budget proposes some increases, according to nonpartisan fiscal bureau  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker"s core theme on the campaign trail in 2010 was a firm stance against any tax increases...
Columbus’ priorities  Toledo Blade   ...It’s a budget whose idea of “shared sacrifice” is slashing support of essential public services on which middle and working-class and low-income Ohio families rely, while giving preferential tax treatment to the state’s wealthiest individuals and to corporations...
MSU to raise tuition 6.9% in response to state budget cuts  Detroit Free Press   ...Michigan State University became the latest public university in the state to increase its tuition in response to budget cuts from Lansing...
Plans to put Florida's Medicaid recipients into managed care programs get hearing  St. Petersburg Times   ... the refrain has generally been the same at meetings from the Panhandle to Fort Lauderdale: Managed-care programs, which pay companies per patient rather than fees for specific services, mean health care will be limited in the interest of turning a profit... 
Legislature throws state troopers under the bus (Opinion)  Bangor Daily News   ...The budget now being considered by the Legislature undoes those promises, taking away benefits from troopers and other state employees....
Gov. Christie touts bipartisan effort leading to public worker pension overhaul bill  NJ.com   ...While thousands of state workers protested outside the Statehouse in Trenton this morning, Gov. Chris Christie was in Atlantic City touting the new deal between Republicans and Democrats on pension and health benefits ...

WI protesters create tent city in Madison

Walkerville officially opened at 7 pm CST tonight.

Here's a photo of the latest big protest in Wisconsin: Walkerville. People from across Wisconsin are setting up dozens of tents around the Capitol to begin a 17-day protest of Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker's budget priorities. He wants to cut state funding for education, health care and Wisconsin families.

The idea behind the tents is to show how Walker's austerity budget will make Wisconsinites poorer, just as Herbert Hoover's policies made Americans so poor that many moved to tent cities called "Hoovervilles."

Channel 3000 reports the protesters have gotten permits from the city for Walkerville.

What's unique about this protest compared to other demonstrations that have erupted at the Capitol in the last few months is that this is a 24/7 event. Protesters will be camping on the sidewalks around parts of the Capitol Square. For 17 days, the protesters will set up the camp overnight with portable toilets, food tents, hand-washing stations and other amenities, WISC-TV reported.

The camping will be allowed along Carroll and Mifflin streets under specific guidelines. For example, tents must be 20 feet away from buildings, and must come down in the morning. City officials are allowing three, small full-time camping spots along the Square where tents can remain up.

Tweeted @nicknicemadison: You can really feel the energy returning to the Capitol now. The pressure's being raised! 

Today's Teamster News 06.03.11

Will Lynch to Eric Cantor: Come visit Joplin  (opinion) PoliticM   ...Nothing can convey the heartache and loss felt by those affected by this devastating tornado. That’s why I think it would be beneficial for Congressman Cantor to see Joplin with his own eyes...
Amid protests, panel votes to expand school choice, cut aid to local governments  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...The Legislature's budget committee - disrupted repeatedly by protesters opposed to Gov. Scott Walker - voted late Thursday to expand the state's school choice program to much of Racine County...
New budget deficit projection requires independent review  (opinion) Youngstown Vindicator   ...word that the shortfall between revenue and expenditures could be significantly lower demands a nonpartisan, transparent evaluation of the projection...
Hundreds of Maine Workers Protest "Right to Work" Bill  Maine Public Broadcasting Network   ...Hundreds of union workers from the public and private sector jammed the halls of the State House today to oppose a Republican-backed bill that would eliminate the so-called fair share requirement for state workers during collective bargaining negotiations...
Teachers, others protest Snyder policies at Mackinac  Detroit News   ...A group of teachers and other public sector workers came to Mackinac Island today to protest Gov. Rick Snyder's education cuts and tax policies...
NH Senate passes $10B budget package  Associated Press   ...The Senate removed a several changes proposed by the House, including one that labor unions said would weaken their collective bargaining rights...