Pema Levy

After Republicans took back the House in November, I predicted three ways in which the new majority would try to interfere with the District, based largely on what Republican majorities did in the 1990s: prohibiting local funding for abortion services and needle-exchange programs, and bringing back a school-voucher system. This weekend, Republicans were able to […]

Not to be outdone by all the draconian anti-abortion laws being passed in states like South Dakota, the Idaho legislature has jumped on the Fetal Pain bandwagon and passed a law restricting abortion at 20 weeks. But they’ve added a twist of their own: No exceptions for rape or incest. It’s a cheap shot, but […]

Although Republicans, and particularly the Tea Party, preach the virtues of local governance, free from federal overreach, they never seem to be speaking with Washington, D.C., in mind. One of the budget riders currently attached to the House budget would extend the Hyde Amendment to D.C., preventing the District from putting locally raised funds toward […]

At Newsweek, Jesse Ellison has a harrowing story on sexual assault against men in the military. I highly recommend the whole thing, but I found these tidbits particularly interesting: [I]t is the high victimization rate of female soldiers—women in the armed forces are now more likely to be assaulted by a fellow soldier than killed […]

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has a plan to save the state’s cash-strapped Medicaid program: Charge $50 to obese people on the plan who fail to make improvements under a weight-loss regimen, and smokers. The proposal is a nice case study in conservative policy-making. Via The Wall Street Journal: Republican Gov. Jan Brewer proposed the idea […]

Amanda Terkel at the Huffington Post reports that House Republicans in Maine have proposed legislation to loosen protective child labor laws. The proposed bill, LD 1346, would reduce the minimum wage for anyone under the age of 20 from $7.20 per hour to $5.25 per hour for the first 180 days of work while, for […]

Today, the Supreme Court heard the largest gender-discrimination case in history. In Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the Court will decide whether a class-action suit brought by 1.5 million female employees of the retail giant will be allowed to proceed with their action – or whether, as Wal-Mart argues — the class is too big. Victoria Pynchon […]

Maine’s new Tea Party governor, Paul LePage, is going after more than union workers’ pensions and right-to-work legislation. He is going to remove a mural depicting the history of labor in Maine from the state’s Labor Department building. The mural, which depicts local strikes and Rosie the Riveter, is one-sided, LePage claims. The artist has […]

Today, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed his state’s latest anti-abortion bill (the Legislature recently tabled a bill that could classify killing an abortion provider as “justifiable homicide). Anti-abortion laws are generally insulting to women’s intelligence, but this law is especially so: It increases the mandatory waiting period to obtain an abortion from 24 hours […]