Progressive Media Advocates
Jonathan Simon: While bullying has long been a noted feature and minor concern of childhood and schooling, the emergence of a distinctive government-rationality around crime in recent decades, has led to laws that compel schools to treat bullying more like a real crime and law that make it a crime.
John Peeler: We need a capitalism in which no firm is too big to fail, in which corporations serve the public interest, and in which every person has a solid foundation for living a productive life..
Elizabeth Walters: I believe that the education that can be received in public schools is the heart of the American dream.I believe that instead of starving those schools, we should work to improve them.
James Clark: Out of more than 900 men and women sentenced to die in California only 13 have ever been executed. Victims’ family members are dragged through decades of appeals and hearings while they wait for an execution that rarely comes.
Andrea Nill-Sanchez: In Arizona, 30 of the 36 legislators who co-sponsored the state’s controversial immigration law that would undoubtedly put more immigrants behind bars received campaign contributions from private prison lobbyists or companies.
Seth Hoy: The legislative graveyard got a little bit bigger this week as lawmakers in Mississippi pronounced a series of restrictive immigration measures dead.
Seth Hoy: Perhaps if state lawmakers listened to their constituents and considered the economic consequences, they might realize that playing with enforcement-only immigration is a surefire way to burn down your state’s economy.
Seth Hoy: A group of state legislators, State Legislators for Legal Immigration, presented two measures intended to prevent the American-born children of undocumented immigrants from automatically becoming citizens
Seth Hoy: As local lawmakers begin to lay the groundwork for next year’s legislative agenda, some conservative legislators are attempting to prioritize immigration enforcement ahead of efforts to jump-start flagging economies.
Paul Hogarth: California voters are already filling out their absentee ballots. While they vote to pass Prop 19 and “no” on Prop 23, it’s important for them to also vote “yes” on Prop 24 and 25 – but most importantly, “no” on Prop 26. If we don’t get the word out, it could pass.
Rev. Irene Monroe: Anti-gay bullying is not to be endured or tolerated. And it must be stopped by us all — and at all levels, from our legislators to our educators.
Seth Hoy: Bipartisan opposition to Florida’s proposed anti-immigrant legislation is a rare example of those who actually prioritize policy over politics.
Marian Wang: More revelations in the city of Bell overpaid officials controversy. On top of it all, the state has found that Bell illegally raised property taxes. Legislators are considering plans to refund some $2.9 million to residents.
Midnight came and went and for the 23rd time in the past 24 years, California State Legislature once again missed another budget deadline, underscoring the need for voters to say “Yes” to the Majority Vote Budget Initiative, which would lead to California’s budget being approved by a majority vote.
Randy Shaw: Activists can use mass action to pressure legislators and the Governor to redirect excessive spending on prisons and other wasteful programs to education, but there is no chance this year of getting enough Republicans to win the necessary two-thirds legislative votes.
the campaign to repeal two-thirds has to be about the status quo, and whether California can afford to continue its budgets the way it’s been done. Talk about public health clinics shutting down, more teachers getting laid off, and more unemployed people.
I’ve poked around Washington today, talking with friends on the Hill who confirm the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging health care bill. You know why, of course. They don’t want a public option that would compete with private insurers and [...]
The New York Times reported Saturday morning that a major split between Senator Ted Kennedy – back on the Hill as he fights brain cancer – and Senator Max Baucus over the shape and form of universal health care. Kennedy, long a proponent of a single-payer system, is teeing up against Baucus who is negotiating [...]
On Monday, April 6, the final regional White House meeting on healthcare reform took place in Los Angeles. Like the meetings held in Dearborn, Michigan; Burlington, Vermont; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Des Moines, Iowa, single-payer advocates were shut out of the discussion and gathered outside the event in order to make their voices heard. The [...]
There is a consensus that, in terms of health care reform, we are at a watershed moment that comes around only ever decade or so. It is imperative that some form of inclusive, affordable, and quality health care be legislated now or we will all suffer the consequences of delay. This article is intended to [...]
With the final White House Forum on healthcare scheduled Monday, April 6, in downtown Los Angeles, advocates of single payer/guaranteed healthcare have one more opportunity to shake up what has become a dreary conventional wisdom about the presumed acceptable parameters of the debate. Hundreds of nurses, doctors, healthcare and labor activists will rally at 9 [...]
The California budget process is broken due to the requirement for a two-thirds vote to pass the budget. I would like to suggest a different procedure that preserves the minority protections of the two-thirds requirement while encouraging negotiation and ensuring that there definitely will be a budget passed. Proposal: If no budget passes by the [...]
I was at the Governor’s press conference yesterday afternoon to see and hear directly his announcement that he would veto any bills sent to him before a state budget is passed. You can read his remarks in their entirety as dutifully transcribed by the Governor’s press office and published on these pages yesterday.
Randy Shaw: Now that cities offer walkable, bicycle-friendly, public transit-available neighborhoods with desirable restaurants and a high quality of life, the poor are being shunted to car-dependent suburban areas in economic decline.
Julie Driscoll: Call me crazy, but I believe firmly that the statutory laws are in place for a reason – to prevent the exploitation of young men and women who don’t have the ability to make informed decisions, who don’t have the ability to “consent.”
Lauren Steiner: Please help us spread the word across Los Angeles! Come with signs that say “Bruce Karsh, please don’t sell the LA Times to the Kochs” and “Bruce Karsh, our democracy is not for sale” We are gathering Thursday, May 23 for a rally and march.
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