29 December 17 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News WITH MANY SMALL DONATIONS, AND A PRECIOUS FEW LARGER ONES - We are making progress on the year-end funding-drive. A handful of people are keeping RSN going by stepping up with contributions. Don't let them stand alone. We need your help now. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! FOCUS: Why the 2018 Midterms Are So Vulnerable to Hackers Evan Osnos, The New Yorker Osnos writes: "How much of an effect could Russian interference actually have in 2018? The effects could be meaningful, even if they never touch the tallies directly." READ MORE he first primary of the 2018 midterm elections, in Texas, is barely eight weeks away. It’s time to ask: Will the Russian government deploy “active measures” of the kind it used in 2016? Is it possible that a wave of disinformation on Facebook and Twitter could nudge the results of a tight congre...
News Updates from CLG 30 December 2017 http://www.legitgov.org/ All links are here: http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news Previous edition: War drills conducted to prepare U.S. military to seize North Korea's nuclear weapons; WA train derailment My apologies for the gap between the last CLG Newsletter and today's. Thank you to all who contributed to CLG this year! Your generosity helps keep CLG afloat. Please consider donating for 2018. Happy New Year to all! U.S. Military Prepares for Winter War With North Korea, Russia by Buying Thousands of Skis | 29 Dec 2017 | The U.S. military is buying thousands of skis for the U.S. Marine Corps to enhance its preparedness for cold weather operations as tensions grow with Russia and North Korea--countries known for having brutal winters. The Marine Corps is spending 7 million on the winter equipment--a total of 2,648 sets of new skis, bo...
Pilgrim workers violate federal regulations By Christine Legere Posted Feb 27, 2018 NRC: Two technicians took shortcut that caused safety system to shut down PLYMOUTH — When federal regulators come to town for the plant’s annual assessment meeting later this month, operators at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will have one more violation related to poor staff performance to explain. The incident involved two technicians who threw a safety system offline by taking a shortcut in procedure last March. The NRC’s Office of Investigations conducted a review and found the behavior of the workers represented a violation of federal regulations. According to the letter issued Tuesday by the NRC to plant officials, the technicians were heat testing switches on the reactor core isolation cooling system, which required them to dress in protective clothing so they could work inside a radiologically controlled area. The two technicians “deliberately decided” t...
09 December 17 AM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News The Koch brothers. (photo: TIME) GOP Senator Pat Roberts Is Helping the Kochs Get a Tax Break for Pushing Money to 'Dark Money' Groups By David Sirota and Josh Keefe, The International Business Times 08 December 17 ith Republican megadonors like Charles Koch, 82, and his brother David, 77, advancing in age, a top GOP senator from the Kochs’ home state has proposed a special tax break for moguls who bequeath their riches to so-called “dark money” groups that advocate for policies and bankroll lawmakers’ election ads. Though Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts’ proposal did not make it into the Senate-passed version of the tax bill, it could still be added by the conference committee that will write the final $1.4 trillion tax cut legislation. Although dark money groups are entitled to conceal the identities of their donors, reporting has shown the Koch brothe...
MassBudget Information. Participation. Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center Democracy. Tools for Understanding State Budget Proposals Tomorrow the Governor will kick off the state budget season by releasing a detailed Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget proposal. The Governor's proposal begins an important process of determining what we as a Commonwealth hope to do together through our government next year, and detailing how we will pay for those things. The likely schedule for subsequent steps in the budget process is: In April, the House will debate and approve its FY 2019 budget proposal. In May, the Senate does the same. In June, a joint House/Senate conference committee reconciles differences between these two budgets which the Legislature approves. The final budget plan, which requires the Governor's signature, will ideally be completed by July 1st, the beginning of FY 2019. MassBudget works ...
Regrettably, the federal government is closed. Like you, I am frustrated by this turn of events, and I am working hard to reach a principled solution to reopen the government. For months, President Trump and Congressional Republicans have prioritized corporate tax cuts over passing a budget that helps working families. Congress repeatedly passed short-term spending bills over the last several months in order to provide additional time to negotiate a long-term, bipartisan budget agreement. However, no real talks ever occurred and the President has provided contradictory and changing objectives. I am focused on passing a robust budget for our national security and our economic security, improving health care, helping families and businesses recover from last fall's devastating hurricanes, and putting real resources into the opioid crisis. Congress must also boost border security and find a way to protect the young people who were brought to this country...
Democracy Dies in Darkness The truth behind the rhetoric The NRA’s love-hate relationship with a database for background checks After the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch was on TV lamenting that states don’t send all the required criminal and mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Because of these gaps, she said, many people legally barred from buying guns can get them anyway. “It’s not federally mandated,” she said on CNN. “Politicians could change this today; they could change it tomorrow,” she said on ABC News. We did some digging and found that politicians did try to change this, 25 years ago, with a federal mandate. And they were blocked — largely by the NRA. The group funded several lawsuits challenging the Brady gun law, which created the NICS, and filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court arguing that the entire law...
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