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TexasTowelie's JournalMedicaid Expansion Slowed by LePage Administration
The LePage administration is telling two key legislative committees that it will not take any steps to implement the expansion of Medicaid that was approved by voters until money is appropriated to pay for it.
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Commissioner Ricker Hamilton outlined the administration's stance in a letter to the co-chairs of the Appropriations and Health and Human Services committees.
The co-chairs of the committees say the Medicaid expansion law requires that the department take several steps before it starts accepting new Medicaid applications July 1. The law requires that the DHHS file a formal Medicaid change plan with federal officials. The feds pay for roughly two-thirds of the cost of the existing program and the state pays the rest. The new law also requires the DHHS to write and adopt the rules to govern the expansion.
“This is the executive branch function, is to carry out the laws,” says Rep. Patty Hymanson from York, who co-chairs the HHS committee. “This is the law. This is their mandate. They need to do it.”
Read more: http://mainepublic.org/post/medicaid-expansion-slowed-lepage-administration
Committee Continues Work on Recreational Marijuana Legislation
A special legislative committee has approved its second bill to create rules for the recreational marijuana market in Maine. The bill contains several concessions designed to win the support of Gov. Paul LePage and other Republicans, who scuttled the initial effort last year.
Reps agree that the bill isn’t perfect. Critics of the measure passed in committee worry that it falls short of creating a viable regulated marijuana market that can compete with, and eventually diminish, a thriving underground cannabis trade.
“I mean there's no question there's a lot to dislike in this bill,” says Rep. Erik Jorgensen, a Portland Democrat. “There's a lot to like in this bill. Have we made progress, have we made progress? I think that's definitely true.”
Among the key provisions is a 10 percent tax rate on retail sales and a 21.5 percent rate on wholesale sales. The state's finance agency says this complex tax scheme will yield a 20 percent effective rate and bring in more than $16 million in tax revenue by fiscal year 2021.
Read more: http://mainepublic.org/post/committee-continues-work-recreational-marijuana-legislation
Ethics Commission Will Not Investigate Whether GOP Worked With Attack Website
The Maine Ethics Commission voted not to investigate whether the Maine Republican Party violated campaign finance laws for an attack website operated in secret by its executive director.
The vote was in response to a complaint by the Maine Democratic Party, which asked the commission to explore whether Savage was operating as an agent of the party, a determination that could trigger a violation of campaign finance and disclosure laws, while operating the Maine Examiner website.
Savage’s involvement with the Maine Examiner had remained a secret until the ethics complaint, which was spurred in part by the discovery of metadata, or digital fingerprints, on photos he posted to the website.
Savage’s attorney argues that the GOP activist operated the site on his own time. The Maine GOP has said it had no knowledge of the website and did not fund it.
Read more: http://mainepublic.org/post/ethics-commission-will-not-investigate-whether-gop-worked-attack-website-0
Selling Out or a Smart Strategy? A Fight Brews Over Democratic Values in Congressional District 21
At a recent Democratic candidate forum in Bandera, congressional hopefuls in south-central Texas’ 21st District were asked about border security. Joseph Kopser, a tech entrepreneur and Iraq War veteran, surprised some attendees with his answer.
“It is not just a wall,” he told members of the Ranchers and Landowners Association of Texas, as The Intercept first reported. “It’s a combination of fence line, it’s a combination of zones, but it’s also new combinations of technology. … I want to secure our borders because when I spent my time in Iraq, when we were fighting al-Qaida, the border between Iraq and Iran was not secure and those fighters came over from Iran and that didn’t do us any good in that fight. Nor do I want to allow anyone across our border without us knowing who they are. Next question?”
A man in the audience replied, “Are you sure you’re on the right ticket?”
“I’m on the American ticket,” Kopser responded.
The question was illustrative of a deep divide that has emerged in the Democratic primary in the 21st Congressional District. On issues such as immigration, health care and education, should candidates in this longtime Republican stronghold — which stretches north of San Antonio through parts of Austin — double down on progressive policies and move further left? Or moderate in an attempt to attract independents and Republicans? The choice is a reflection of the party’s internal battle over its future in the Trump era, and who voters pick in District 21 may hold clues for strategies that could propel Democrats in traditionally red districts.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/selling-smart-strategy-fight-brews-democratic-values-congressional-district-21/
Michael Quinn Sullivan's Latest Stunt Aims to Undermine our Democracy
At a lanky six-foot-four, Michael Quinn Sullivan is hard to miss around the Capitol. And even when he’s not there, it can feel like the specter of him still is. As president and CEO of Empower Texans, he has been an organizational force among the tea party groups of Texas, feeding them misinformation about state politicians. The man is known as Mucus (a play on his initials, MQS) because he engages in yucky deceptive politics, with a win-at-any-cost philosophy. His methods, like those of the Russians who meddled in the 2016 election, foment distrust in government and diminish the desire of citizens to vote, which then primes the pump for abuse.
Sullivan’s latest political stunt is case in point. On January 28, Empower Texans, operating under the assumed name of the Texas Ethics Disclosure Board (there’s no such thing) sent postcards to voters in the Fort Worth district of Representative Charlie Geren. It read: “This notice from the Texas Ethics Disclosure Board is directed to voters in HOUSE DISTRICT 99 concerning a candidate for office who must disclose a relationship with a registered lobbyist pursuant to Tex. Gov’t Code 572.0531.” It then lists the clients of lobbyist Mindy R. Ellmer, who, it just so happens, is Geren’s wife.
The clear intent of this mailer was to mislead voters into believing that Geren had done something wrong, or at least suspect. Because Empower Texans is a 501c4 under federal tax law, it can do “political education” without disclosing its donors—also known as dark money. Sending the mailing under an assumed name was intended to make voters believe they were receiving an official government document.
If the mailing had been sent and paid for by the Empower Texans Political Action Committee, I probably wouldn’t be writing this column. That Geren is married to a lobbyist is fair game in an election. But the method and means of this criticism was characteristically deceptive. It also does not point out that Empower Texans has had a long-running battle with Geren, because he was an ally of House Speaker (and Empower Texans bugaboo) Joe Straus and, in 2013, carried legislation to require the organization to reveal the sources of its dark money.
Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/michael-quinn-sullivans-latest-stunt-aims-undermine-democracy/
Mississippi Town Rejects Gay Pride Parade: Cities Without Walls Are Easily Taken
City leaders in Starkville, Mississippi voted 4-3 on Tuesday. Feb. 20 to deny a permit for the city’s first LGBTQ Pride parade.
The four members of the Board of Aldermen who voted against the request from Starkville Pride did not comment on their decision, with three of leaving the meeting through a back door, according to The Dispatch.
More than a dozen people spoke in favor of the LGBTQ Pride parade, planned for March, during a citizen comment period, while only two spoke against it:
Longtime Starkville resident Dorothy Isaac spoke against the request.
“If anything should be held up and down our streets, it should not be this,” Isaac said. “God made Adam and Eve. I’m not saying what you want to be — everybody can be what they want to be. I said he made Adam and Eve.”
Read more: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2018/02/mississippi-town-rejects-gay-pride-parade-cities-without-walls-are-easily-taken/
Petition Calls for Separating LGBTQ Materials in Iowa Library
ORANGE CITY, Iowa — Residents in northwest Iowa are fighting over a petition that calls on the public library to separate material dealing with LGBTQ issues and to request public input before acquiring such material.
Some expressed support for the Orange City Public Library’s integration of LGBTQ materials at a library board meeting Tuesday, the Sioux City Journal reported.
“There are gay kids, there are (transgender) kids in this town, and seeing their faces and seeing their lives mirrored in some of the books here means everything,” said Mike Goll, a resident.
But others shared reservations.
The petition was started by Terry Chi, an assistant psychology professor at Northwestern College, a liberal arts school in Orange City. The petition, which gathered more than 340 signatures in nine days, calls for labeling and separating materials involving LGBTQ issues within the library and providing a content rating service to help inform patrons’ decisions.
Read more: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2018/02/petition-calls-for-separating-lgbtq-materials-in-iowa-library/
Duluth Curling Club fans stay up late, go wild as U.S. curlers win gold
When John Shuster threw the hammer in the eighth end to score five points, the nearly 100 people in the Duluth Curling Club erupted in cheers and chants of “Shuster!”
It may have been nearly 3 a.m. in Duluth, but sleep was the last thing on anyone’s mind.
Shuster’s shot secured the gold medal for the Duluth-based U.S. men’s curling team as the Americans beat Sweden 10-7 on Saturday in the Winter Olympics final in South Korea.
Because of the time difference, the gold-medal game started at 12:30 a.m. in Duluth. The Duluth Curling Club stayed open late so members and their guests — many of them friends or family members of the Olympic curlers — could watch the game together, supporting the team from their club.
Read more: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/4408702-duluth-curling-club-fans-stay-late-go-wild-us-curlers-win-gold
Legislature restores its $130M budget, concluding legal battle with Dayton
The Minnesota Legislature moved quickly on Thursday to restore its $130 million operating budget, putting the months-long legal battle with Gov. Mark Dayton over his veto of that funding behind to rest as the legislative session gears up.
After months of bickering and a costly legal case that consumed much of the spring, summer and fall of 2017, Thursday’s votes brought the battle between branches of government to an unceremonious close. The approval by the House and the Senate comes just two days into the new legislative session, and Dayton has said he’ll sign it.
“We have a level of understanding that this was going to happen,” House Speaker Kurt Daudt said. “I’m glad that we’re moving forwarded and it will be good to put this behind us.”
The episode began in May, when Dayton signed the bulk of a $46 billion, two-year budget but used his line-item veto pen on the Legislature’s $130 million budget, hoping to bring Republican legislative leaders back to the negotiating table to rework several costly tax breaks and other measures.
Read more: https://www.twincities.com/2018/02/22/legislature-restores-its-130m-budget-concluding-legal-battle-with-dayton/
Each of the DFL candidates for Minnesota governor can make a case
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz bagged another endorsement last week, this one from carpenters, which continues a string of building-trades support that includes the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49 and the Laborers.
His path to the DFL nomination for governor is easy to discern: money, endorsements and organization, all of which propelled him to a caucus straw poll victory earlier this month.
But he's by no means the only candidate with a path. After all, 70 percent of caucusgoers supported someone other than Walz or no one at all.
The campaign of state Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, thinks that as the pool of delegates is winnowed, her position will become stronger despite a third-place showing at the caucus. Her campaign cites DFL data showing that after 34,000 came to caucus night, fewer than 20,000 will participate in Senate district conventions, which are the next round on the way to the state convention. (Think of it as the semifinals.)
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/each-of-the-dfl-candidates-for-minnesota-governor-can-make-a-case/475051763/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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