Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, and Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers, have called on President Obama to not certify the Colombia Free Trade Agreement during the sixth Summit of the Americas that will take place this weekend in Cartagena, Colombia.
Popular Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been chosen to deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight. Ideas about how best the government might respond to the limping economy and tackle the enormous federal budget deficit are sure to feature prominently in both speeches. Daniels comes to such a discussion with baggage, however, having head the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003, when the projected budget surplus of $236 billion ran down the sink hole to become a $400 billion deficit.
Protests erupted Tuesday as Tea Party and free market activists clashed with union members, politicians and union supporters who had gathered on the steps of the State Capitol to rally against Wisconsin legislation to eliminate collective bargaining for many of that state’s workforce.
On Tuesday, members of the U.S. Senate plan to vote on a federal extension of unemployment benefits, which has been blocked by Republicans for an unprecedented two months. The swearing-in of Carte Goodwin, the temporary replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), will give Democrats the crucial 60th vote to overcome a GOP filibuster and restore unemployment insurance to 2.5 million Americans.
WASHINGTON– On Monday, with Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promising a final vote on financial regulatory reform in the next few days, rather than weeks, thousands descended on K Street in Washington, D.C., to lobby the lobbyists.
In July Denver Mayor and gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper will host the The Biennial of the Americas (BOA), a month-long international politics and culture fair that will draw leaders from 35 nations to Denver to discuss domestic and foreign affairs, share ideas on how to deepen ties among the countries of the western hemisphere and bring about mutually beneficial policy changes. In the works even before Hickenlooper landed a $2 million grant from the Boettcher Foundation in 2008 to help launch the festival, the Biennial will be a large stage this summer from which Hickenlooper can demonstrate statesmanlike charisma and leadership abilities.
DENVER– A controversial bill that aims to diversify and open up decision-making at Pinnacol Assurance, the impressively profitable quasi-governmental workers compensation insurance provider, passed out of the House Judicial Committee Friday on a mostly partisan vote. The hearing highlighted the tensions that define Pinnacol, an entity designed to serve the public but also required to act as a business.
The Douglas County Board of Education election, it seems, still isn’t over. Early this week, Douglas County informed the Douglas County School District that it would not be able to certify the election in time to swear in the new slate of charter school-friendly, Republican-backed, “reform” candidates for the next board meeting.
What is the union agenda in the Douglas County School race? The answer depends a great deal on whether you believe the hype or look for evidence.
On Monday, Westword posted a fundraising email sent October 22 from John…
In what some might see as a revealing small chapter of contemporary U.S. politics, an ugly school board election in Douglas County has seen the local Republican Party use hard-line ideological arguments to promote preferred “freedom-loving” Republican candidates over teachers’ union-endorsed “liberal” Republican candidates. In a race that sees Republicans eating Republicans, the point seems to be less about the candidates than it is about the kind of school system a right-wing GOP would like to install in Douglas County.
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