February 12, 2016

Live stream grassroots forum in Nevada

I've been looking around to get a better idea of how things are going in Nevada and found this info about an upcoming grass roots forum in Nevada.
Looks like it will be live streamed and should be interesting to see grassroots response.

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2016/02/10/sanders-clinton-surrogate-appear-reno-forum/80200018/


A group of grassroots organizations are holding a presidential forum Saturday in Reno featuring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

Sanders will represent himself while New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will appear on behalf of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Acting in Community Together in Organizing Northern Nevada, the Center for Community Change and KXNV 89.1 FM are hosting the Real Solutions for Real People Summit beginning at 11:45 a.m. Saturday at the University of Nevada, Reno Jot Travis Building on 900 N. Virginia St.

The event is already at maximum capacity, but a livestream of the event will be available at http://putfamiliesfirst.org/

February 10, 2016

Latino leaders rally as a show of political force

http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2016/01/29/latino-leaders-rally-political-force/79350072/

To kick start those efforts, progressive Latino leaders from across Southern California and their supporters gathered Thursday night in Colton for a discussion about their national potential in 2016, as well as a debate over which Democratic presidential candidate deserves support.

~~~
The next 30 minutes were punctuated by sporadic "Feel the Bern" chants, as the audience was then asked to approach the mic and take a side, the vast majority of whom spoke on behalf of Sanders. Alejandra Zamora, a student at College of the Desert, asked rhetorically of Clinton supporters: "Do we really want a president owned by corporations?"

However, the straw vote at the end of the evening was much closer: Clinton 50, Sanders 51.



Starting to look like a grassroots change from what the mainstream media is reporting. And the shift is toward Sanders.

February 3, 2016

"The Effort To Turn Out Latino Voters In Iowa Worked"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/the-effort-to-turn-out-latino-voters-in-iowa-worked#.yp9A3aBgN

The initiative by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) aimed to get 10,000 out of 50,000 registered Latino voters to caucus sites by repeatedly contacting them through phone calls and door knocks. NBC News exit poll shows that 4% of Democratic caucus-goers were Hispanic and 2% were on the Republican side. With both sides seeing huge turnout (171,000 for the Democrats and more than 180,000 for the GOP) that comes out to close to 10,500 Latinos.
Only 1,000 Latinos caucused in 2012. In 2008, when the race was competitive for both Democrats and Republicans, that number was 3,500.
LULAC, drawing from responses campaign field staff received from phone calls, door-knocking, and “Commit to Caucus” returns from mailers, believes the number is closer to 13,000.
“We did our part, Latinos played our part,” said LULAC Iowa political director Christian Ucles. “We knew when LULAC put together this program in Iowa, that they were ready to come out with a show of force for any candidate that supports the Latino community.”
~~~
Though exit polls show Hillary Clinton winning 58% of the minority vote, Ucles said he is going to further analyze county returns, because Sen. Bernie Sanders won 15 of the largest 20 counties where Latinos live, suggesting they may have played a role in the razor-thin Clinton victory, which because of delegate allocation, Sanders billed as a virtual tie.



http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/01/3744644/latino-voters-iowa-caucuses/

Henry [LULAC’s vice president for the midwest] says he has good reason to expect at least 10,000 voters on Monday.
For one, there are just more Latino voters overall in the state. In 2008, he said, his group had identified only 23,000 potential voters. In 2012, they were up to 35,000. This year, LULAC has identified more than 50,000 Latino voters across Iowa, and all of them have received either direct mailings, robocalls, or live calls imploring them to go out and caucus.

The second reason is that Iowa’s growing Latino population is overwhelmingly young and politically engaged. Over 60 percent of Iowa’s registered Latino voters are under the age of 40, Henry said, and the median age is only 22.
~~~
Not only were many Latinos at Sunday’s mock caucus first-time voters, the vast majority were Bernie Sanders supporters. The room was a sea of Sanders shirts and signs, speckled by with only sporadic stickers for Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. There was no visible support for any Republican presidential candidate.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), a Latino congressman who travelled to Iowa to support Bernie Sanders, told ThinkProgress that he believed Sanders would be the main beneficiary of increased Latino turnout. He said Sanders’ wide-ranging messaging on issues like climate change, income inequality, and healthcare — not just immigration — would be what drives Latinos to caucus for him on Monday.




Very interested to see what the analysis by Ucles shows, especially given the young age of Iowa Latino voters and the stumping done by Grijalva and Garcia for Sanders there.

January 29, 2016

Malheur Standoff Puts Science in the Crosshairs

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/malheur-standoff-puts-science-in-the-crosshairs/

Before it became a flashpoint in an antigovernment protest, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was a place where dozens of scientists conducted research projects aimed at studying the plants, animals and ancient cultures who lived in eastern Oregon’s high desert. Despite some indication that the ordeal might soon be over, with only four militants still occupying the refuge at press time as the standoff continues into its fourth week, concern that the militia’s activities could have long-term effects on the refuge’s ecosystem and archaeological sites is growing.
~~~
The archaeology work at the refuge became one of the occupiers’ complaints against the government on January 20 when the militia released a video showing one of their leaders, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, and others inspecting cardboard boxes of stone artifacts that had been recovered from the refuge. Finicum, who was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement officers on Tuesday, expressed dismay over the treatment of the artifacts and asked for a liaison with the Burns Paiute Tribe to discuss returning the artifacts to them. The tribe has responded by enacting a resolution calling on the U.S. Department of the Interior to prosecute the militants to the fullest extent of the law citing federal government’s treaty obligations. “We have a long standing relationship with the tribe,” says Malheur archaeologist Carla Burnside of the Native Americans who are descendants of the land’s original inhabitants, “they are involved in every aspect of the work we do out there.”
~~~
One of the sites that has, until now, been left intact happens to be the headquarters buildings the militants are occupying. They have been using a bulldozer in the area around those structures. The headquarters buildings and prehistoric sites near them are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “If soil is being disturbed out there, it is highly likely that they have impacted prehistoric resources,” Burnside says. Damaging a site listed on the Register is a violation of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 and could add to the list of charges facing the militants.


Bold added by me.
I hope they are prosecuted to the full extent for the damage they have caused.

January 28, 2016

WA state Rep/Cruz Chair/Bundy fan has military service questioned

Supports Bundy gang, supports Cruz and lied about military service. Now even his fellow Republicans are ditching him.


http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/01/25/23474798/icymi-the-state-rep-behind-the-transgender-bathroom-bill-faces-questions-about-his-military-record

In case you didn't catch this story from Jim Brunner in the Seattle Times over the weekend: State Rep. Graham Hunt—a Republican from Orting who's behind a couple of terrible bills this session—is facing questions about whether he has exaggerated his record of military service. The issues include a doctored photo, the list of medals Hunt claims he received, and a question of whether Hunt was really "wounded in combat"—and where.
~~~
If Hunt's name sounds familiar, it may be because he's the lead proponent of a bullshit bill currently circulating in Olympia that would require transgender people to use public bathrooms and locker rooms associated with their birth sex instead of their gender identity, as the state's Human Rights Commission has said they have the right to do. Hunt is also one of the sponsors of the troubling bill I wrote about last week that would restrict poor women's access to abortions in Washington state, even in cases of rape and incest.
A self-described “conservative constitutionalist,” Hunt is the Washington state chairman for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign. He was one of two Washington state lawmakers who recently visited armed protesters who have seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.


http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/hunt-needs-to-clear-up-military-questions-or-resign-lawmaker-says/

In an interview Wednesday, House Minority Leader Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, said he has told Hunt, R-Orting, to produce proof he did not knowingly exaggerate his military service.
~~~
Hunt is up for re-election this fall. But as of Wednesday, his name and photo had been stricken from the website of the House Republican Organizational Committee — the campaign arm of the state House GOP.
Kristiansen said he ordered Hunt’s photo and bio removed because of the military-service questions.



http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/combat-veteran-records-fail-to-back-state-lawmakers-claims/

A doctored war photo and discrepancies about medals have raised questions about state Rep. Graham Hunt’s military background. He served in the Middle East and says he was “wounded in combat,” but has been vague about the details.

Much more info in the linked article.