Since state legislatures around the country have started their sessions in 2012, legislators and governors alike have been recognizing the importance of broadband (or high speed Internet) to growing state economies. Governors in states as diverse as Hawaii, Maryland, Missouri, and Wyoming highlighted broadband initiatives in their state of the state speeches, as more and more of our leaders are realizing that without broadband, the U.S. economy is not going to produce jobs or the highly-skilled workers needed to compete in a global marketplace.
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The Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
(FEC) decision earlier this year gave corporations the same First
Amendment rights as citizens with regard to advocating for or against
political candidates, unleashing
a flood of new corporate cash into state races and a range of new
state policy initiatives that aim to protect the integrity of their
elections. In response, states are pursuing other reforms, such as
requiring shareholder approval for corporations spending election cash,
tighter public disclosure and attribution in ads, public financing of
elections, and calling for a federal constitutional amendment to reverse
the Citizens United decision.
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In a state dominated by the oil and gas industry, it's not surprising
that one of the major bills of the Wyoming 2010 session was a tax on alternative
wind energy, just as it was little surprise that right-wing "states'
rights" bills dominated political debates.
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Despite a budget surplus of $257 million, Wyoming lawmakers failed to act substantively on big issues like health care reform, prison reform, and development of a coordinated energy policy, as WyoFile.com reports in its end of session recap. Still, progressives made important gains in workers' compensation, health insurance regulation, and beat back an anti-gay "defense of marriage act," a voter ID initiative, and an anti-choice measure. However, lawmakers failed to expand health care for kids and, most regrettably, passed laws making it easier for people convicted of domestic violence to regain their gun ownership.
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As we noted in the Dispatch a couple weeks ago, despite a dearth of recent successes and mounting fiscal crises in most states, rightwing voter ID legislation designed to suppress voter turnout continues to be pressed around the country. So far this year at least 17 states have seen bills introduced to institute or enhance ID requirements for voting or registration (AL, CO, GA, IN, MD, MN, MS, MO, NY, OK, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WY). It appears we now know enough to predict the landscape of the voter ID battles in this legislative session.
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In its short session, Wyoming lawmakers largely limited their work to
passing the state budget and promoting policies that legislators hope
will reduce the carbon emissions from the state's coal production.
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In the age of Google, citizens expect to be able to find core
information on the Internet about government operations, but as a major
new report being released today highlights, most states are failing on
public transparency.
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With the US lagging behind most of the developed world with less Internet
access and slower speed connections, it's somewhat outrageous that any state
government would block communities from extending broadband access to their
citizens-- but North Carolina is now debating
HB
1587, which is
being
promoted by the North Carolina Cable Telecommunications Association to
stop local communities from owning and subsidizing access to community-run
telecommunications systems.
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On April 3rd, Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed into law HF 653, which provides
Iowans with the opportunity to register and vote on Election Day. Governor
Culver
stated,
Here in Iowa , we want to make it as easy as possible for Iowans to be
involved in the democratic process. This bill achieves this goal. I strongly
believe getting more people to vote is good for democracy and good for the
future of this state.
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The Millenials are with us. America's youth -- the biggest generation
since the Baby Boom -- are voting more frequently than Generation X and
are voting far more progressively than the Reagan-raised generation
that proceeded them. You have probably already heard one of the most
impressive stats: young voters
went for Democrats by a margin of 60%-38% according to exit polls and 2
million more turned out to the polls than in 2002 -- the last mid-term
election.
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In state elections across the country, how to create quality, affordable child care has become a potent campaign issue.
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The Western Governors Association on Sunday acknowledged an
inconvenient truth. The bipartisan group of Governors from West Coast,
Rocky Mountain, and Great Plains states came together to unanimously
pass a resolution (PDF) that says that global warming is real, at least partially human-caused, and that now is a time for action.
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Wyoming faces an ongoing saga of attemps by ALEC to steer legislation
while pretending that all of their actions are homegrown. Local
businessman Brett Glass became dismayed when a telecom "deregulation"
bill was introduced that would destroy his business but would be a
major help to Qwest.
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