For the past several months, teachers in Detroit have been organizing to protest their unsafe and underfunded public schools. These working conditions, the teachers argue, negatively impact both their ability to teach and students’ ability to learn. And students are indeed struggling: Detroit public school students consistently earn the lowest reading and math test scores […]
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Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
West Virginia Supreme Court Ruling Paves Way for Right-to-Work
A complicated political brawl in West Virginia came to a head Friday when the state’s highest court issued a ruling that all but ensures the passage of so-called right-to-work legislation there. The bill would ban unions in the private sector from requiring membership or dues as a condition of employment. In its ruling Friday, the […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Democratic Senators Up Pressure on SEC Disclosure
A handful of Democratic senators who sit on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee have stepped up pressure on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require corporations to comprehensively disclose their political spending, even though Congress limited the agency’s ability to do so in last year’s spending bill. Senators Elizabeth Warren of […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
On Citizens United Anniversary, John Sarbanes Speaks
Since the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United v. FEC ruling exactly six years ago, the massive influx of outside groups propped up by billionaire donors has sparked a national conversation about the growing influence of money in the American political system. And as the conversation advances, a whole host of solutions have been proposed for […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Obama ‘Seriously Considering’ Contractor Executive Order
The New York Times reported Wednesday that President Obama is “seriously considering” an executive order that would require federal contractors to more fully disclose their political spending, a move that campaign reform advocates say would be a symbolic first step toward shining a light on undisclosed “dark” money. The Times report follows increased pressure from […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
GOP House Member Wants to Ban Fundraising
House Republican David Jolly, of Florida, is so sick of dialing for dollars every day that he introduced legislation Tuesday that would forbid members of Congress from personally asking for money. “Our nation is under siege by ISIS, and yet … I’m expected to be fighting for your safety from a fundraising call suite at […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Sanders College Tour Spotlights Black Student Power
Independent senator and Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders has launched a tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), in an apparent bid to reach out to young black voters who so far favor Hillary Clinton in the polls. In visiting HBCUs, Sanders is casting the spotlight on institutions that have given black students, who have […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
LGBT Coalition Joins Calls to Stop Immigration Raids
The Obama administration faces mounting pressure from increasingly diverse quarters to halt the practice of controversial raids to deport undocumented immigrants. The latest group to join the chorus of those demanding an end to the recent raids is a coalition of three-dozen lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups, which sent a letter Thursday to Homeland […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Report: The Roberts Court’s Five Campaign Finance Reversals
By now, everyone knows about Citizens United and the flood of unlimited outside spending ushered in by that infamous Supreme Court decision. But that ruling is just one of five major Roberts Court decisions that have completely reshaped the campaign-finance landscape over the past decade, concludes a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Bernie Trolls Hillary in Response to Single-Payer Attacks
As Senator Bernie Sanders’s polling numbers surge in Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is going on the offensive. Clinton is attempting to spin Sanders’s longtime support for a single-payer health-care system as a radical idea that would harm the middle class-and one that has no realistic funding source. And it’s quickly turning into […]
