Tag: legislator

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Legislation proposing the separation of Chicago from Illinois is intended to spark discussion about the overarching influence of the city in state politics, not actually lead to the creation of the 51st state, according to a Central Illinois lawmaker who sponsored the measure. "It's more of a frustration of the policies than the true belief that Chicago and Illinois would be better off as separate states," Davidsmeyer said. "I don't believe that Chicago and the state of Illinois should be separated. Our relationship is mutually beneficial." Chicago needs to recognize how its policies impact rural Illinois, Davidsmeyer added. "The reality is, the city of Chicago is competing with New York City and L.A. and San Francisco, and (downstate is) competing against rural Indiana and rural Missouri," he said. GOP state Rep. Brad Halbrook introduced the proposed measure in February. He co-sponsored a similar proposal last year that failed, and this year's attempt has even less of a chance of succeeding in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Halbrook said the city of 2.7 million people differs ideologically from the rural population downstate on matters such as abortion and gun rights. "We are trying to drive the discussion to get people at the table to say these are not our values down here."

COLUMBIA — When Sam Fogle returned from Iraq after getting hit by a roadside bomb, he suffered from severe brain injuries and severe post-traumatic stress disorder. He said it could do the same for many veterans like him. “I love my state,” Fogle testified Thursday about the Statehouse’s medical marijuana effort. “I don’t want to move out of my state to get the choices others have.” Then there’s Mark Keel, the chief of South Carolina’s Law Enforcement Division. A longtime opponent of legalizing medical marijuana, Keel said he continues to believe that legalizing medical marijuana could lead to a spike in traffic fatalities and other dangerous outcomes, and he said S.C. should maintain its historic independent streak by declining to follow dozens of other states that have legalized medicinal use of the drug. “South Carolina doesn’t have to be like the other 33 states that’s decided to go down that road and conduct social experiments on their citizens,” Keel said. “If you vote yes for this bill... be prepared to open a Pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” The disagreements, reiterated many times in different forms over hours of public testimony Thursday to the Senate’s Medical Affairs Committee, highlighted the ongoing stalemate over whether South Carolina should become the latest state to allow for medical use of cannabis to treat chronic pain, epilepsy and other debilitating conditions. With little to no chance of passing this year, supporters hope the ongoing pressure on the issue can help build momentum heading into the second year of the legislative session in 2020. Many of those who testified have already pleaded with the committee to rule one way or another for years. The committee’s chairman, Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, suggested that a continued “wait and see” approach to the chance of federal Food and Drug Administration approval may no longer be tenable.

Yellow balloons bearing the word “life” and chants opposing abortion rose above the state Capitol Wednesday as lawmakers convened inside to finish the year’s legislative work. A crowd that Capitol Police estimated at 6,500 demonstrators descended on Capitol Square from across the state to protest failed legislation to eliminate some restrictions on late-term abortions and Gov. Ralph Northam's recent comments on that proposal. Wednesday's event, the largest anti-abortion demonstration at the state Capitol in recent memory, was affiliated with the national March for Life, an annual event that has for years drawn thousands of protesters to the national mall in Washington. The Virginia March for Life was the first of its kind, according to its organizers: the Family Foundation, the Virginia Catholic Conference and the Virginia Society for Human Life. A few dozen lawmakers — members of the House and Senate Republican caucuses — made an appearance before the crowd, drawing loud thank yous from demonstrators. “There’s not a more important issue that I’ve deal with in my career in the legislature than life,” House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, told the crowd in brief remarks. “A child that is unborn is off limits to the governor and everyone else,” Newman said. “I hope this becomes an annual event.” Legislators are back in Richmond for the annual one-day session in which they take up the governor's vetoes and proposed amendments to bills. Earlier Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers, abortion patients and reproductive rights advocates held an event titled “Speak Out for Abortion Access.” Catholics for Choice, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and other groups participated in that event, according to organizers, who estimated that 60 people attended.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers want to stop government leaders from manipulating the security clearance process for political purposes. Sens. By codifying those steps, the Integrity in Security Clearance Determinations Act aims to make the system “more fair and transparent,” Collins said in a statement. The bill would forbid government leaders from making decisions based on the person’s exercise of constitutional rights like free speech or other factors like race, gender and nationality. Leaders would also be barred from revoking or approving clearances as an act of “retaliation for political activities or beliefs.” Under the legislation, government employees would have the right to appeal security clearance decisions, and agencies would need to make the results of any appeals public. The bill comes as a thinly veiled rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of security clearances. The New York Times last month reported the president personally intervened to grant his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner a top-secret clearance against the recommendations of the intelligence community. In August, Trump also revoked the clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, who’s been an outspoken critic of the current administration. “Americans should be able to have confidence that the security clearance process is being used only to protect our nation’s greatest secrets,” Warner said in a statement. Today agencies are crushed under a backlog of some 551,000 pending background checks, roughly double what security professionals consider to be a baseline “steady state” of 220,000 to 250,000 investigations in process at any given time.

But when it comes to legalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania, they are miles apart. “If you get arrested for that one lousy joint in Lackawanna County, you got a good chance you’re gonna do time,” said Witzgall, who used to be a correctional officer. None of those include states that border Pennsylvania, but New York and New Jersey seem poised to make it happen. I will do whatever I can as a leader to not allow it to happen this session,” said Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre. Like Corman, they say as long as marijuana remains illegal under federal law, Pennsylvania should stay on the sidelines. House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, does not support Wheatley’s bill. On his 67 county tour, Fetterman says he’s hearing from many residents who want the state to act now. So far, Fetterman says he’s seeing support at levels even higher than polls suggest. “And then see our population run across the border and spend their hard-earned dollars in other states,” Wheatley said. And so, for now, even as Fetterman gathers support from the Delaware to the Monongahela, the debate in Pennsylvania remains in this catch-22.

Sixty Days — A prime-time look at the 2019 Legislative Session The Last 24 Good Thursday evening. Legislators wound down another committee week in advance of the 2019 Legislative Session, but the executive branch again dominated the headlines. Quote of the Day “There’s nothing I can say.” — Former Secretary of State Mike Ertel, who resigned Thursday after 14-year-old photos surfaced of him in blackface portraying a Hurricane Katrina victim. Rob Bradley and Rep. Travis Cummings fielded questions from media Thursday, offering an early glimpse of how they’ll work through potential budget problems during the 2019 Legislative Session. There are some areas of DOC that I think we can clear. We’re interested to see what Sen. [Jeff] Brandes does and I know I spoke to Chair Renner the other day on some things he’s pursuing. And I think some of the efforts that the Triumph funds were looking to address dovetail very nicely to some of the concerns that were raised for economic development and infrastructure issues that were hurt by virtue of Hurricane Michael. Bradley: I’m interested what the details of the bill are. I think it probably depends on the community whether it’s a good idea for that community or not. If the Florida Off-Road Foundation gets its way, drivers will have a 125th option next time they snag a plate.

House Bill 2002 would direct the State Board of Education to devise a code of ethics for educators that would include provisions forbidding the spread of political and religious messages in public district and charter schools. The ethics code would explicitly ban teachers from endorsing political candidates, legislation or judicial action in the classroom. It could also increase law enforcement and military recruiter access to students, and it would restrict teachers from teaching "controversial issues" or blaming one racial group of students for the "suffering or inequities" of another racial group. Introducing "controversial issues" in class not related to the course being taught. Advocating for one side of a controversial issue. The bill states that the ethics code would apply to all "certificated" teachers in the state. Not all public school teachers in Arizona are certified: State law doesn't require charter school teachers to be certified. A ban on politics in the classroom is hardly unprecedented. Earlier this year, some Arizona districts, with that law in mind, warned teachers about wearing #RedForEd shirts in the classroom. This part of the bill seems to be a callback to the state's so-called ethnic studies ban, a controversial law banning classes that "promote the overthrow of the United States government; promote resentment toward a race or class of people; are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

In 2008, when Gov. Bobby Jindal took office, he proclaimed his goal for Louisiana to be the “gold standard” for government ethics. It’s in the legislative process, where legislators become lobbyists, but also in the rush of lawmakers into full-time jobs in the executive branch. The system erodes the belief of the people in their government. “There’s a whole flock of them,” said state Sen. Conrad Appel, a Metairie Republican who has often battled with the influential nursing home industry, but his comments fully apply to representatives of other well-heeled industries. “Do they have any extra authority because they were a legislator? “But they do have a leg up because they’re friends with people there, and they know how the system works, and they have contacts.” That is almost a textbook definition of what people don’t like about government, and why there is so much cynicism about how decisions are made in the State Capitol, but also elsewhere. The old “revolving door” of politicians using their experience — and, yes, their knowledge of complex subjects — for personal advancement is probably as old as the pharaohs of Egypt. It is certainly the case in Washington, where senior members of committees learn a lot about the bills related to energy or finance or other subjects, and then become lobbyists for the interests they served in office. As the report from The Advocate and Pro Publica shows, the revolving doors in the State Capitol continue, despite ethics laws — and Jindal’s 2008 push did dramatically improve law on legislators disclosing their interests — the “gold standard” isn’t enough.