Shades of Blue

Monday, May 22, 2006

Missouri suing Feds over senior's Rx costs

Fifteen states want the U.S. Supreme Court to block the federal government’s plan to bill them for a portion of costs for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit passed by Congress.

The case tests Congress’ power to bill states directly for the costs of a federal program. States not only object to chipping in for the drug benefit for seniors, but they also worry it will set a precedent that Congress could use to force states to pay for federal initiatives in the future.

Five states -- Texas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri and New Jersey -- used a special constitutional provision to go straight to the nation’s highest court to sue the Bush administration in March. They argue Congress is imposing an illegal tax on states.
Ten states have filed papers supporting the challenge to the 2003 Medicare law, calling it an “unprecedented intrusion into each state’s sovereignty.”


click here for the full story

Friday, May 19, 2006

Go Blue, Go!

Hope this trend holds true until August....

10 Primaries oust 25 Legislators From stateline.org:

Pennsylvania's primary results are likely to add to the jitters of political officeholders facing voters in November's mid-term elections.

Seventeen legislators, including the top two Senate leaders, were ousted Tuesday (May 16) in the biggest upheaval in a Keystone State primary in more than a quarter century.

Pennsylvania’s was the latest in a string of early primaries this year in which a total of 25 incumbent legislators, including six high-ranking leaders, have been tossed out – a rare occurrence for sitting state lawmakers who rarely face tough primary competition. In the 10 primaries held so far, powerful legislative leaders also were given the boot in Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.

The election returns are the latest sign that an anti-incumbent mood may be spreading through the electorate. Recent national polls have shown a growing disenchantment among voters with their elected representatives in the Republican-led Congress. While the polls focused on congressional races, the primary elections serve as the first indication that officeholders at the state level also may have reason to worry about re-election.


For the full text, click here

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Funding of state effort at issue (TABOR)

And the plot thickens...

By STEVE ROCK
The Kansas City Star

The group calls itself Missourians in Charge and is hoping to shape the state’s constitution, particularly as it pertains to government spending and eminent domain.

As it turns out, the group is bankrolled not by Missourians but by a wealthy New York developer named Howard Rich, a man who is not even sure how often he has been to Missouri.

“Oh, many times” he said.

The group he is supporting is led locally by Patrick Tuohey of Kansas City.

Tuohey, 34, recently turned in thousands of signatures to the Missouri secretary of state’s office. He hopes to get a pair of constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

One would prohibit eminent domain in most private development projects, and the other would require statewide voter approval for legislators to exceed certain spending limits.

Reports filed last month with the Missouri Ethics Commission showed that Tuohey’s group received $295,810.08 in donations between January and March. Just more than $810 came from the Institute for Justice, a Libertarian public interest group based in Virginia. The rest — a total of $295,000 — came from a New York group called Fund for Democracy. That group is headed by Rich.

“These are issues that are both very close to my heart,” Rich said. “I’ve been supporting them, not just in Missouri but … in other states.”

What that shows, according to Tom Kruckemeyer, is that Rich’s organization is not focusing specifically on Missouri’s situation.

“This is their standard anti-tax, anti-government agenda,” said Kruckemeyer, chief economist for the Missouri Budget Project, a St. Louis organization that analyzes budget issues and staunchly opposes the restraints on state spending. “These are people who don’t live in Missouri, aren’t familiar with our budget and aren’t familiar with the obstacles we’ve had.”

Tuohey, who has never met Rich, said the source of his organization’s seed money was immaterial. Tuohey sought assistance from a Chicago-based organization called Americans for Limited Government, which helped facilitate the financial arrangement with Rich.

All told, Tuohey’s group turned in more than 208,000 signatures for the eminent domain petition and 195,000 for the government spending amendment. On Tuesday, the secretary of state’s office turned down an attempt by Missourians in Charge to turn in more than 8,000 additional signatures for the two ballot initiatives, saying the law requires that signatures be turned in all at once.

“It’s great if people from other states want to support this discussion,” Tuohey said. “But the discussion itself, the debate itself, ultimately has to be conducted among Missourians.”

Besides, he said, an estimated “couple thousand” dollars in donations now are trickling in from Missourians.

For information on the two proposed amendments, go to .gov/elections/2006petitions/06init_pet.asp.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Power blogging debuts in Utah capitol

Now HERE'S a trend I'd like to start!! Wouldn't this be interesting? Hmmmm - bringing the people's voices directly to their legislators and vice versa. Might be illuminating for both ends...

Utah's state Senate this year became the first legislative body to make online "blogging" a vital tool in lawmaking.


A semi-official Web site launched this year by the Senate Republican majority gave pols and citizens alike a computer screen-size soapbox to rant, rave and wrangle over the session’s hottest topic: how to spend a record $1 billion surplus.

Joining the nation's growing proliferation of political Web logs, or blogs, the Utah site was the first of its kind to strike up a digital dialogue that included entries not just from state Senate Republicans but also from minority Democrats and lawmakers in the opposite chamber. Unfolding comment by comment, the unofficial daily log often paralleled official debate taking place under the dome -- with the added bonus of anonymity.

"This bill makes about as much sense as a screen door in a submarine," wrote a frequent blog commenter identified only as "western liberal warrior" last month in response to a senator's blog entry in favor of a flat income tax. Tax reform was the biggest sticking point of Utah's 2006 legislative session, which ended March 1, and House and Senate leaders still are wrangling over whether to hold a special legislative session in June to cut taxes by an additional $70 million.

With only $150 in start-up costs, the blog billed as the "unofficial voice of the Senate majority" registered about 90,000 hits -- or visits -- in February when the Legislature was in session and more than 400,000 hits since it was launched in September, said Senate aide Ric Cantrell, who maintains the site.

Dan Harrie, political editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah's largest newspaper, said much of the blog reads like a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, which controls the Senate 21-8, the House 56-19 and also the governor's office.

But Cantrell insists the blog is changing the traditional media's role by giving senators a venue to go around the Statehouse press corps and dish up their own version of events for daily readers.

"This has been hailed in Utah as the year that new media broke the tradition of old media getting the story out," Cantrell said.


Here's the site: The Senate Site

Lawsuit against voter identification in AZ

Should we take a stand here in the "show-me" state? Just insert your preferred minority interest group - elderly, disabled, low-income, etc - and a trend could be started...

Lawsuit questions legality of ID rules for elections
Law hurts Latinos,groups say

Matthew Benson and Robbie Sherwood The Arizona Republic May. 10, 2006 12:00 AM

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court asks that voter-identification and registration requirements imposed under the 2004 election law known as Proposition 200 be declared unconstitutional.

Several Latino advocacy groups brought the suit on behalf of a handful of Arizona residents. The lawsuit says that Proposition 200, approved by voters, should be stricken down because of its dampening effect on minority voting. It's unclear when the court will decide the issue, but the plaintiffs are seeking a temporary restraining order against Proposition 200, potentially putting the measure on ice for next week's local elections.

Longer term, the suit asks for a court injunction against the measure. Critics say the measure's requirements for proof of citizenship when registering to vote and proper identification when voting have a disproportionate impact on minority voters, who are less likely to meet the requirements.

"By requiring people to have to purchase forms of identification, whether it's a birth certificate or a driver's license, whether it's to register to vote or also to appear and vote in person on Election Day, is a modern-day poll tax," attorney Nina Perales said Tuesday at a news conference.



Here's the MO counterpart: SB1014 - currently in conference

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Senate Passes Bill to Overhaul Emissions Testing

State Sen. John Griesheiemer was all smiles Friday morning. Thursday evening, the Senate gave final approval to legislation sponsored by the Washington Republican overhauling the auto emissions inspection program in Franklin County and the St. Louis area. A few weeks earlier the bill appeared to be dead in the water because of an amendment that was tacked on which would have done away with safety inspections statewide.

Griesheiemer called that amendment a "poison pill" designed to scuttle the bill. But after the House restored the original language of the bill by retaining the safety inspections, the Senate passed the bill in a bipartisan 29-4 vote.Griesheimer said the governor would sign the bill -- possibly in a ceremony in Franklin County -- later this year but that it would not go into effect until Sept. 1, 2007.

"For me this (bill) is the culmination of fighting this program since it first came into existence in 1993. I've fought it ever since," Griesheimer said Friday. "Anyone who has had to get their vehicle's emissions tested knows the nightmare the process can be, so I am grateful to my fellow lawmakers for having recognized the need to make emissions inspections less cumbersome for my constituents."

The bill changes the required emissions testing process by doing away with centralized testing and allowing more shops to do the test if they meet certain requirements. The bill also gives most owners of new vehicles a break from the emissions inspection for the first four years.Under the legislation, the inspection fee is capped at $24.Cars and light-duty pickup trucks and vans with diesel-powered engines will now be subject to the inspection.

To cut down on the number of unnecessary inspections, the legislation includes the following exemptions:New cars for four years after their model year, provided that at the two-year safety inspection, the vehicle has fewer than 40,000 miles on the odometer.Vehicles that are driven fewer than 12,000 miles between biennial safety inspections.Vehicles manufactured before 1996; but they still must undergo a gas-cap pressure test, which would be included in the vehicle safety inspection.Heavy-duty trucks with gross vehicle weight ratings of more than 8,500 pounds.

Griesheimer said that he hoped the legislation would create an opportunity for car dealerships, garages and auto-repair shops that currently offer safety inspections to also provide emissions testing."Illinois has already passed similar legislation making it more convenient for consumers to obtain emissions testing so I'm glad we were able to help Missouri residents. This (bill) is justification that the previous program was bad and needed to be changed," Griesheimer added.Griesheimer said that he did not know what would happen to the present state contractors who offer emissions testing but he said that there is a possibility that they might begin to offer safety inspections as well.

The Big Six - Initiatives on the November Ballot

Stem cell protections: The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures - a group made up of universities, research institutions and patient groups - turned in 288,991 signatures for its proposed constitutional amendment to protect all forms of embryonic stem cell research allowed under federal law.The petition drive was conducted, in part, in response to the almost annual efforts in the state Legislature by social conservatives to ban certain types of stem cell research. The stem cell backers already have spent more than $4 million and are expected to raise and spend far more than the other ballot proposals. Opponents also have formed a campaign committee, Missourians Against Human Cloning.

Tobacco tax increase: The Committee for a Healthy Future, a group that includes hospitals, health care and patient groups, turned in 238,000 signatures for its proposed constitutional amendment to increase Missouri's tobacco tax by 80 cents a pack on cigarettes. The tax would be tripled on other tobacco products. The money would be used to raise money for anti-tobacco and health care programs.

Medicaid: A group based in central Missouri called Grass Roots Organizing collected just under 100,000 signatures for its proposed change in state law to restore Medicaid coverage to more than 90,000 Missourians removed from the rolls last year.

Eminent domain: A Kansas City-based group called Missourians in Charge submitted roughly 200,000 signatures for its proposed constitutional amendment to bar governments or public agencies from using eminent domain to take private property for private development, unless the property is condemned or earmarked for certain public uses.

State spending restriction: The same group submitted a similar number of signatures for its proposed constitutional amendment to limit state spending increases to hikes in population and inflation. Any larger increases would require the support of two-thirds of the Legislature and a statewide vote.

Minimum wage: A coalition of labor, religious and community-activist groups called Give Missourians a Raise submitted about 200,000 signatures for its proposed change in state law to increase the state minimum wage to $6.50 an hour, with future increases pegged to inflation.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Wow, "we're" going to be busy

So many issues, so many comments..... where does one begin?

New initiatives and key players taken directly from Mayor Slay's April 28, 2006 State of the City address to the Board of Aldermen:
  • I will ask you to appropriate money to fund three new positions in the police department’s crime analysis unit.
  • I propose beefing up the already successful “Most Violent Offenders” program with the addition of 20 police officers.
  • Circuit Attorney’s Office will create a “Career Criminal Unit” to prosecute repeat and violent offenders.
  • The U.S. Attorney’s Office will expand its efforts to prosecute career criminals and will use federal resources to target high crime areas for priority federal prosecutions.
  • the State Division of Probation and Parole will work closely with St. Louis Police to identify repeat offenders who pose risks to our neighborhoods.
  • The City’s Department of Human Services is developing a comprehensive prisoner re-entry program to provide neighborhood and faith based drug and alcohol treatment, access to job training and jobs, housing and social services. I am asking the Missouri General Assembly for one million dollars to test the effectiveness of this approach.
  • I am asking you to appropriate additional funding to expand our very successful Drug Court.
  • I propose we add three investigators to the Sex Crimes Unit so that all sex crimes are channeled to the unit. The Police Department will add an additional advocate for victims of sexual assault and sexual abuse. And, they will add a criminologist to the lab so rape kits can be processed faster.
  • I am going to seek your support to add 24 officers to neighborhood patrols.
  • I also propose that you fund an expansion of the Problem Properties and Nuisance Crimes Task Force to more effectively prosecute these new cases and fight problem properties.
  • My office is working with the Missouri Department of Revenue on a pilot project to make it much harder to steal the tags.
  • I am going to ask George Cotton, a well known community activist who organized the Vashon Men’s Initiative a year ago, to work with my Neighborhood Executive, Charles Bryson, to develop a plan to use every resource of our community to keep kids in school and off the streets. The heart of the plan will be zero tolerance to loitering, curfew violations, and truancy.
  • I am also proposing we expand the successful Night Watch program. Police officers will check juvenile offenders who are under court supervision to make sure they are home at night as they should be.
  • I am seeking state legislation that will require the Department of Family Services to intervene when a student misses more than 30 days of school in any semester.
  • That’s why I have set a goal that by 2010, every child in the City of St. Louis — regardless of income — will have access to an after-school program. A strategic plan for a coordinated system of after-school programs will be completed this summer. I have asked ARCHS and St. Louis for Kids to take the lead to implement the plan.
  • I am also proposing that we work together on a funding package to submit to voters this November to build two new recreation centers -- one in North St. Louis and one in South St. Louis.
  • I am seeking authority from the Missouri General Assembly to submit a sales tax increase to voters this November to do more crime fighting.
  • I am going to work with Dr. Williams and the School Board to create new career academies and schools focused on life sciences, information technologies, health care, and other New Century disciplines that will lead to great jobs.
  • I propose that we add additional staff to SLATE and set a goal of doubling the number of City residents who get placed in jobs.
  • I am going to create a special task force to focus on workforce development in demand-driven fields like health care and information technology.
  • I will ask that you pass legislation this year to allow Project Labor Agreements; to increase the number of minority and women apprentices; and to give preference to City businesses in City government contracting.

And the final decisive quote" There are no divisive issues, or people, that should keep us from our agenda for fighting crime and poverty"

Game on...

Pending Missouri Legislation

from Citizens for Missouri's Children (CMC)

Budget & Income SecurityBudget Conference: CMC has learned from the Department of Social Services (DSS) that there may be a shortfall in funding for Foster Care ($2 million) and Performance Based Case Management Contracts ($10 million). We understand that DSS will ask for a supplemental for Foster Care funding if needed. During the Budget Conference so far, it looks like Foster Care will get $31 million and Performance Based Case Management Contracts will get roughly $20 million. We believe the Budget Conference Committee has allocated $850,000 for 7.5 full-time employees for Accreditation efforts.
The Budget Conference has approved the Senate’s recommendation to allocate $300,000 for a new premium relief plan. This additional allocation will mostly help families earning between 186% and 225% of FPL who participate in the Child Health Insurance Plan. The Partnership for Children, CMC and other child advocates worked hard to make this happen.
Normally by this time the Budget Conference work is completed but they are running behind this year. We hope to have more finalized budget information next week.

HB 1905: CMC’s Cathi Martarella attended the Senate Aging, Families, Public & Mental Health Committee’s hearing on HB 1905, which authorizes the Family Support Division within the Department of Social Services to assist elderly individuals who qualify for the Federal Food Stamp Program in obtaining supplemental food stamps. This bill has wide bipartisan support. The Missouri Association of Social Welfare (MASW) and the Missouri Association of Community Action Agencies testified in support of the bill. If HB 1905 passes, it will help a lot of low-income Missourians. MASW has put together a fact sheet on the issue, and here a few interesting points:
- According to the US Department of Agriculture, an estimated 23,000 households in Missouri lived with hunger or the threat of hunger in 2005.
- 54% of food pantry clients in Mid-Missouri have children and 2% of these households include both adults over the age of 65 and children.
- Because federal food stamp benefits are 100 percent federally funded, HB 1905 would have the additional benefit of bringing more federal resources into Missouri. These federal dollars generate economic benefits for state and local economies. USDA indicates that every $5 in Food Stamps generates $9.20 in economic activity.

TABOR: Ballot Signatures are due in Missouri on May 7, 2006. We have learned that TABOR signature gatherers are having difficulty collecting the necessary signatures in Congressional District 2. Missouri advocates can effectively prevent TABOR from reaching the ballot by ensuring that they are unable to get the needed signatures in Congressional District 2 before the May 7th Deadline.
Partners to Protect Missouri’s Future are launching The Decline to Sign Campaign; it will start this Saturday, April 29, 2006 with a training from 12-5 pm for all volunteers who are able to attend. It will take place at:
AFSCME Office9415 Dielman Rock Island Rd.St. Louis, Missouri 63132(314) 995-9707
The office that is used for the training will be "home base" for the week. We assume that individuals will meet at this location to determine where they should locate themselves for the day, and will report back to this location.
We need volunteers all week through Friday May 5th. Volunteers will be sent in a coordinated fashion to locations throughout the 2nd Congressional District where petitioners are located. Volunteers will prevent people from signing the TABOR petitions by distributing information before people sign and talking to members of the public about TABOR.
The following towns are in Congressional District 2: Ballwin, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Des Peres, Ellisville, Eureka, Florissant, Hazelwood, Kirkwood, Manchester, Maryland Heights, Olivette, St. Charles, St. Peters, Town & Country and Wildwood. If you live in any of these communities and want to become more involved, please contact Jeff Mazur at jeffreymazur@hotmail.com or Amy Blouin at cell 314-518-8867. We need your help to spread the word!

Early Care & EducationSB 1230: The Senate Aging, Families, Public & Mental Health Committee held a hearing on SB 1230 which would raise the eligibility for the child care subsidy program to 185% of FPL. CMC testified in support of SB 1230.

HB 1141: It is still on the perfection calendar but with 10 days remaining in the session we think its passage is doubtful.

HealthProposals to Improve the Affordability Test: CMC’s Cathi Martarella and Pam Rich have devised some alternative tests with Ruth Ehresman of The Missouri Budget Project. The variations focus on bringing the test in line with what Missouri employees pay or basing it on a % of family income.
We are currently presenting these ideas to key leaders in the House and Senate. The Governor’s office and Senator Shields have expressed interest in working with us on revising the test. We and Senator Dougherty will work with members of the Governor’s staff and Senator Shields to find a solution.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Wal-Mart--That warm feeling might be the blood running off your mugged head

For everyone who thinks Wal-Mart is a great friend to their family, consider this-- Wal-Mart has one of the worst crime records of all department stores. I don't mean Wal-Mart perpetrates the crimes, they just make it so darn easy for criminals to attack their patrons in the parking lots.

You know all those cameras you see mounted on poles in the lots? Turns out that the vast majority of them are fake. I'm not giving anything away, the criminals already know the cameras are fake. That and that Wal-Mart doesn't patrol their lots because oh, that would cost too much.

If you want to check out the statistics nationally or locally jump on over to the Wal-Mart Crime Report.