Connecticut’s Paid Sick Days Law Goes Into Effect This Week
| Back in June, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to mandate paid sick leave for service workers, joining cities like Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Seattle in requiring businesses provide workers with paid time off when they are ill. This week, that law finally went into effect, which, as Family Values at Work [...] |
Iran Pushes Law To Bar Foreign Warships From The Persian Gulf
| After a threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil transit point, was more or less exposed as a bluff, Iran is now turning its focus to foreign warships in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Navy dismissed a threat against its aircraft carrier as more bluster, but a newly proposed law in [...] |
Media Coverage Of Climate Change Drops In 2011
| In a year filled with climate disasters — from the Texas wildfires and drought to massive flooding in the Midwest and Northeast — news coverage of climate change plummeted in 2011, dropping 20 percent compared to 2010 and 42 percent from 2009′s record high. According to DailyClimate.org, at least 7,140 journalists and opinion writers published [...] |
Connecticut Archdiocese To Counsel Gays Against Having Sex
| The Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut has announced it is launching a local chapter of Courage, the Catholic ministry that promotes the idea that only through a life of chastity can gays live “in accordance with Church teachings.” Robert Pallotti, Office of Diaconate director, and Rev. Paul Check, the director of the new chapter of the [...] |  |
BREAKING: Obama To Make Recess Appointments To National Labor Relations Board
| President Obama is planning to announce today that, in addition to his recess appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he will also use his recess appointment powers to place Department of Labor Attorney Sharon Block, labor lawyer Richard Griffin, and NLRB counsel Terence [...] |  |
How Much Piracy Is Intentional?
| One of the arguments that Stop Online Piracy Act advocates have made fairly repeatedly is that consumers don’t know which downloads are legitimate and which aren’t, especially when sites offering material outside of legal channels charge fees. On an instinctive level, I’ve gone back and forth about how I’ve felt about that claim. There’s just [...] |  |
European Union Agrees To Ban Iranian Oil Imports
| European Union governments today agreed in principle to ban imports of Iranian oil. “A lot of progress has been made,” one E.U. diplomat told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The principle of an oil embargo is agreed. It is not being debated any more.” The E.U. is the second largest market for Iranian oil [...] |
Washington Governor Elated After Introducing Marriage Equality Bill: ‘I Feel So Much Better Today!’
| Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) announced that she will be introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage during a press conference this morning, saying, “now it’s our time, it’s this generation’s call to end discrimination.” Linking the fight for marriage equality to racial justice, Greogire debunked common arguments against gay and lesbian unions and described domestic [...] |  |
New Obama Administration Rules Require Airlines To Disclose Full Ticket Prices Upfront
| Starting in late January, the Obama administration will force airlines to be more transparent about the full cost of tickets they often disguise in ads touting cheap fares. Low-price airlines Southwest, Spirit, and Allegiant are going to court to stop the rules, arguing that they violate corporate free speech rights. But consumer advocates say the [...] |  |
Texas Judge Forced Off Capital Case After Declaring State Death Penalty Law Unconstitutional
| Late last month, Texas trial judge Teresa Hawthorne held that Texas’ death penalty statue violates the Constitution because it grants too much arbitrary discretion to prosecutors. As a result of this decision, Hawthorne has now been deemed unfit to hear a capital case: Teresa Hawthorne, the Dallas County judge who ruled that the state’s death [...] |  |
Tennessee Conservatives Seek Protections For Religious Bullies
| The Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) is using the suicide of Jacob Rogers — who was bullied relentlessly for being gay — to promote state legislation that would protect bullies who harass other students for their sexual orientation. The “license to bully” bill, HB 1153, was actually introduced last year, but FACT is hoping it [...] |  |
Social Conservatives Huddle To Prevent Romney Victory
| Conservative leaders James Dobson, Don Wildmon, and Gary Bauer are meeting again in Texas next weekend to build “consensus” and possibly rally around a presidential candidate who is not Mitt Romney, Politico reports. “You and your spouse are cordially invited to a private meeting with national conservative leaders of faith at the ranch of Paul [...] |
Mitt Romney Debates Mitt Romney on Climate Change
| Mitt Romney certainly isn’t sitting on his lead. After a virtual tie in Iowa last night — winning the state’s Republican caucus by eight votes — he’s moving to New Hampshire to sharpen his talking points and debating skills. And he’s got a lot of different material to choose from over his career, particularly on [...] |
Huntsman Would ‘Assess Reinstating Certain Provisions’ Of Obamacare
| Jon Huntsman walked back his support for repealing the Affordable Care Act during a campaign event in Lebanon, New Hampshire yesterday, promising a more “careful assessed approach,” the Union Leader reports: When asked about Obamacare, Huntsman said he has not promised to repeal the health care law like many of his primary contenders, but said [...] |  |
What Michele Bachmann’s Exit From The Race Says About The Push To Repeal Obamacare
| Despite the talk about the public’s supposed enthusiasm for repealing Obamacare, Michele Bachmann — a candidate who led the charge against health care reform and made repeal the cornerstone of her bid for the White House — has dropped out of the presidential the race after finishing dead last (among the contesting candidates) and winning [...] |  |
New Hampshire GOP Bill Mandates That New Laws Find Their Origin In 1215 English Magna Carta
| New Hampshire Republicans are taking textual originalism to a whole new level: three lawmakers have proposed a bill that requires that all legislation find its origin not in the U.S. constitution, but an English document crafted in 1215. When the legislature reconvenes this month, Republicans want their colleagues to justify many new bills with a [...] |  |
How the White House Does Messaging on Issues It Cares About, Unlike, Say, Climate Change
| The Obama White House had a major tactical victory last month in getting a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. Yes, it came with the Keystone XL rider, but that mainly gives them an easy out on the pipeline decision — see “House GOP Cave on Tax Cut Extension Paves Way [...] |  |
New Mexico Republicans Push Voter ID Requirement In The New Year
| New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran (R) is opening the new year with a push for a voter ID bill requiring citizens to provide photo identification in order to vote. Duran, the first Republican to become New Mexico’s secretary of state in 80 years, secured Gov. Susana Martinez’s (R) agreement to allow the measure [...] |
Romney Campaign Surrogate Highlights Candidate’s Opposition To Marriage Equality
| This afternoon, during a rally in New Hampshire, former governor and Mitt Romney supporter John Sununu (R) highlighted the candidate’s opposition to marriage equality in a state where an overwhelming majority of residents support same-sex marriage. “Mitt Romney fought for traditional marriage with the groups down there [in Massachusetts] that felt so strongly about it. [...] |
Gloria Steinem, Linda Lovelace, And ‘The Playboy Club’
| I don’t really think that the Linda Lovelace biopic starring Amanda Seyfriend (there are several, one has to keep track) is going to do what The Playboy Club should have and didn’t do: capture the benefits and pitfalls that the sexual revolution offered women, including the freedom to have more sex without fear of pregnancy, [...] |  |
