Activist Judge Blocks WI Union Bill

Judge Maryann Sumi
From jsonline.com - Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.  Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law. Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits. "It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting  law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law)," she said.  More News New Mexico
Share/Bookmark

Schakowsky Introduces “Tax the Rich” Bill

Jan Schakowsky
From gatewaypundit.com -Jan Schakowsky introduced the “Tax the Rich” bill this week. Schakowsky says the bill would force the nation’s wealthy producers to “pay their share” by increasing their taxes significantly. Her socialist colleagues spoke out in favor of the new taxes. From her website: Income inequality in America is the worst we’ve seen it since 1928. Wages have stagnated for middle and lower income families despite enormous gains in productivity. Where has all the money gone? “In the United States today, the richest 1% owns 34 % of our nation’s wealth – that’s more than the entire bottom 90%, who own just 29% of the country’s wealth,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “And the top one-hundredth of 1% now makes an average of $27 million per household per year. The average income for the bottom 90% of Americans? $31,244. It’s time for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, which is why I introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act.  More News New Mexico
Share/Bookmark

Changing the Bible to Make it More "Gender Neutral"

From gatewaypundit.com -Copies of the New International Version Bible is displayed in a book store on Thursday, March 17, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn. It has been criticized by some conservatives who don’t like its use of gender-neutral language. (AP/Mark Humphrey) A group of biblical scholars, the Committee on Bible Translation, has changed the wording in the latest version of the New International Version Bible, or NIV, to make it more gender inclusive. For years the group has been making changes in Bible text mostly in order to avoid using five words with masculine meaning or nuance: father, brother, son, man, and he/him/his. Back in May 2002 over 100 Christian leaders claimed the TNIV version was not trustworthy.  More News New Mexico
Share/Bookmark

Chavez: Leadership from Kasich

Linda Chavez
Townhall - Once in a blue moon, you find a politician willing to do the right thing even if it means his popularity will plummet. Recently elected Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, has announced a new budget for his cash-strapped state, and voters are none too happy. Polls show his approval rating at 40 percent, less than three months after he assumed office. Ohio's budget is more than $8 billion in the red, thanks to a poor economy, overspending by Kasich's predecessor, and an unfriendly business environment that has pushed jobs out of state. Ohio has lost 400,000 jobs in the last four years alone. And, like other states that received money from the 2009 federal stimulus, that money saved mostly public-sector jobs -- and on a temporary basis only. Now, school districts and other state and local agencies propped up by federal dollars will have to make do on their own.
John Kasich
But what is different about Kasich's approach is that he's doing more than cutting spending -- he's out trying to sell his plan to a skeptical public. He could have simply released his budget, held a press conference, and then got down to the work of twisting legislators' arms. Instead, he took his plan on the road, holding a big public forum in which voters could ask questions in person or on Twitter. And he did it in his characteristic hard-charging, upbeat style. He's shown that he's willing to lead on this issue. Kasich's budget includes both cuts in spending and innovative reform that may make those cuts less painful and more effective. On education, for example, he's capping increases in college tuition at 3.5 percent, a modest hike, but he's also insisting college professors teach one extra class every other year to keep costs down.
Read full column here: News New Mexico
Share/Bookmark