February 4, 2021

Hyde-Smith reintroduces balanced budget amendment resolution

U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today reintroduced a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring the President and Congress to enact annual balanced budgets.

Like the measure Hyde-Smith introduced in the 116th Congress, the joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment outlining requirements for the submission and approval of annual balanced budgets.

“A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution would compel our nation’s leaders and the American people to make difficult choices to get our fiscal house in order,” said Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Our national response to the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated federal spending at a rate that compounds our already serious debt problems. The new deficit spending is a necessary answer to a national health emergency, but it would be completely irresponsible not to establish a strong framework from which to tackle our nation’s long-term fiscal problems—and ultimately the future of this great country,” she said.

Read more: https://yallpolitics.com/2021/02/03/hyde-smith-reintroduces-balanced-budget-amendment-resolution/

So after four years of GOP rule and enriching the wealthiest in our society with trillion dollar tax cuts, Hyde-Smith returns to the GOP talking points about a balanced budget.

February 4, 2021

Gov. Ralph Northam elected co-chair of Appalachian Regional Commission

RICHMOND — Fellow governors have elected Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam the new co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Northam will serve a one-year term and will work closely with the commission’s federally designated co-chair. The commission approves funds for grants for wide-ranging projects in the region every year for things like highway and sewer system improvement projects, technical education, and community health initiatives. For Southwest Virginia, these grants help push it toward diversifying its regional economy hurt by the sharp downtown in coal.

“It’s an honor to be elected to this role, and I look forward to working with leaders across the Appalachian region to advance our shared priorities and support the region’s needs,” Northam said in a statement on Wednesday. “Appalachia is a vital part of Virginia, and America, with a unique history and culture, beautiful landscapes, and resilient people.”

Northam, who is from the Eastern Shore, has been particularly interested in rural Virginia, making numerous trips to western part of the state during his four-year term, which ends the beginning of next year.

Read more: https://roanoke.com/news/local/gov-ralph-northam-elected-co-chair-of-appalachian-regional-commission/article_a4d4a23a-65c0-11eb-a1f5-538eb0e6220f.html

February 4, 2021

Conservative Anchorage School Board candidates abandon plan to run together as one draws scrutiny

Conservative Anchorage School Board candidates abandon plan to run together as one draws scrutiny for her social media posts


Just over a week after a slate of four self-described conservative candidates announced a joint campaign for Anchorage School Board seats, three of the candidates decided to run separate campaigns and one dropped out entirely.

In an announcement largely targeted to a conservative audience, the slate said it would run as a group on Jan. 22. After the announcement, Judy Eledge, candidate for Seat B, quickly drew public scrutiny for social media posts on her personal Facebook page.

Screenshots of the posts, including one that denounces mask-wearing and extols corporal punishment as a parenting tool, began circulating on Twitter and Facebook. Campaign spokeswoman Bee Hanson claimed that several of the screenshots had been altered and that others were taken out of context. Hanson and Eledge did not provide further explanation on how the posts were taken out of context and did not specify which screenshots had been altered and how.

Eledge is a retired longtime Alaska educator and conservative stalwart who supported Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s campaign and has been the president of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club.

Read more: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2021/02/03/conservative-anchorage-school-board-candidates-abandon-plan-to-run-together-as-one-draws-scrutiny-for-her-social-media-posts/
(Anchorage Daily News)

February 4, 2021

The State's Largest Provider of Community Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Services Seeks a

The State’s Largest Provider of Community Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Services Seeks a Bailout


More than 18,000 Oregonians depend on Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare for treatment of serious mental illness and addiction, conditions that for many have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Portland nonprofit employs nearly 1,000 workers and provides services at 75 facilities, ranging from walk-in crisis centers to supportive housing for more than 700 clients, including at its new 52-unit Garlington Center apartments on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Kevin Fitts is executive director of the Oregon Mental Health Consumers Association and a former Cascadia client. He says the state's largest community mental health care provider is "too big to fail."

Records show it's in danger.

In a Jan. 15 letter to the Oregon Health Authority that WW obtained through a public records request, Cascadia CEO Dr. Derald Walker asked state officials for an immediate, $4 million bailout.

Read more: https://www.wweek.com/news/2021/02/03/the-states-largest-provider-of-community-mental-health-and-addiction-treatment-services-seeks-a-bailout/
(Williamette Week)

February 4, 2021

Students Return to School as D.C. Files Restraining Order Against Teachers' Union

After nearly a year of remote learning, DC Public Schools is welcoming students back to campus on Tuesday. About 9,000 students and 1,800 teachers are expected to return to school buildings. It was a gut-wrenching decision for many families who weighed whether to send children back.

Reopening schools has been a source of great stress and conflict from the start, when unions representing teachers, principals, and nurses first accused the mayor’s team of excluding them from decision-making around safety measures. Strife between school officials and teachers continued into the start of in-person instruction on Tuesday.

While DC Public Schools eventually reached an agreement with the Washington Teachers’ Union over reopening schools in December, the teachers’ union has accused school leaders of breaching it. An independent arbitrator ultimately cleared DC Public Schools to reopen schools this week, in response to a formal complaint issued by the union.

Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee applauded the ruling, saying “schools are safe, and we know the best place for students to learn is in the classroom.” He also pointed to a new report from epidemiologists affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says rapid spread isn’t as high in schools as it is in congregate living facilities or high-density worksites.

Read more: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/507550/students-return-to-school-as-d-c-files-restraining-order-against-teachers-union/

February 4, 2021

D.C.-Area Planning Board Slams Hogan Administration Plan for Widening Capital Beltway, I-270

One week after the Maryland Department of Transportation unveiled its plan to add four high-occupancy toll lanes to portions of two Montgomery County highways, top planning officials in the Washington, D.C. region slammed the project in unusually blunt terms.

The leaders of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) said the state’s plan to widen parts of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 failed to divert enough cars off the road through increased transit.

And they said the project would harm waterways and parkland in the path of the two roads.

The planning agency’s sharply-worded statement, released on Wednesday, signaled the project will likely become the subject of litigation, a local expert said.

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/03/d-c-area-planning-board-slams-hogan-administration-plan-for-widening-capital-beltway-i-270/

February 4, 2021

Bill Would Require State Agencies, Local Boards of Elections To Live-Stream Meetings

After a lengthy battle to get the State Board of Elections to broadcast its meetings online, Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery) wants to require all executive branch agencies and local boards of elections to live-stream their meetings.

In addition to the live-streaming requirement, Kagan’s Senate Bill 72 would require those agencies to post all of their meeting materials and agendas online at least 48 hours before each open meeting, and allow public access to archived meeting recordings and minutes.

The bill, which is cross-filed in the House by Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) allows state agencies and local boards of elections leeway in the event of emergencies and other “unanticipated situations,” according to a Department of Legislative Services analysis.

Longtime journalist Tom Sherwood described Maryland as a “backwater” in terms of government transparency in a Maryland Matters article last year. That article found that various state agencies, including the Open Meetings Compliance Board, either rarely or never live-streamed their meetings.

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/02/03/bill-would-require-state-agencies-local-boards-of-elections-to-live-stream-meetings/

February 4, 2021

Wolf calls for income tax increase to close looming state deficit, fund education

Gov. Tom Wolf appealed directly to Pennsylvanians — not just their lawmakers — on Wednesday to rally support for tax increases as the state faces down a multi-billion dollar budget hole this year.

Speaking to House and Senate lawmakers from a virtual bully pulpit, Wolf extorted viewers who agreed with his aims — additional school funding, a $15 minimum wage, and legal recreational cannabis — to call their state representatives and demand action on his proposal.

“If you’ve had enough of being told why your government can’t solve your problems, make it crystal clear that, this time, you don’t want to hear that anymore; that you won’t accept any more excuses,” Wolf said.

The $37.8 billion plan represents an 11 percent increase in state spending over last year. The new state spending will replace $3 billion in one-time federal COVID-19 aid that the state used to close last year’s budget.

Read more: https://www.penncapital-star.com/government-politics/wolf-calls-for-income-tax-increase-to-close-looming-state-deficit-fund-education/

February 4, 2021

State employees return to office despite extended remote work agreement

ALBANY — Although a temporary remote-work agreement was recently extended to April, New York's force unions say the majority of their members have returned to offices.

Both the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation, unions representing over 100,000 state employees across New York, said most of their members have returned to offices — or never left if they were considered essential workers — but labor leaders continue to question bringing employees to offices if they have successfully worked from home.

PEF spokesman Rob Merrill said from the beginning of the pandemic the labor union has thought it was “foolish” to bring any state employee back to a work setting who has successfully worked from home during the height of the health crisis.

“Why the governor doesn't ‘follow the science’ on this issue is baffling,” he said. “All the data proves that anyone spending time around people outside of their household run the risk of spreading and contracting the disease.”

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Capitol-Insider-State-employees-return-to-office-15909016.php
(Albany Times Union)

February 4, 2021

Wisconsin prosecutors seek Rittenhouse arrest, higher bond

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday for a new arrest warrant for an Illinois teen charged with shooting three people, killing two of them, during a protest over police brutality in Wisconsin after he apparently violated his bail conditions.

Kyle Rittenhouse failed to inform the court of his change of address within 48 hours of moving, Kenosha County prosecutors alleged in a motion filed with Judge Bruce Schroeder. The motion asks Schroeder to issue an arrest warrant and increase Rittenhouse’s bail by $200,000.

Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, countered in his own motion Wednesday that death threats have driven Rittenhouse into an “undisclosed Safe House.” Richards said he offered to give prosecutors the new address in November if they would keep it secret but they refused. He said Rittenhouse has stayed in constant contact with him.

Rittenhouse is charged with multiple counts, including homicide, in connection with the protests in August in Kenosha. The demonstrations began after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, in the back during a domestic disturbance, leaving him paralzyed from the waist down.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-seeks-kyle-rittenhouse-arrest-a2d0833fc3307c62d3671d13b2604a57