This week, U.S. Sen. Al Franken was sworn in on Capitol Hill, concluding a long, drawn-out recount battle that’s stretched on since the November 2008 elections. The Center’s team at The Minnesota Independent delivered comprehensive coverage on the Coleman-Franken drama following last week’s Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in favor of Franken, including Coleman’s concession speech and news from a Texas company that says that Coleman did nothing wrong in a case of an alleged money-funneling scheme to benefit the former senator, a case that has loomed over the Coleman camp.
In Iowa, CIM fellow Lynda Waddington’s examination of the state’s HIV criminal transmission law opened eyes to the implications and application of a little-known law that some say is archaic and may be in need of reform. While HIV and AIDS only effects a small percentage of Iowa residents, the impacts of the law can be huge on an individual who is HIV positive: In some cases, you can be convicted under provisions of the law even if the virus is not transmitted, even for low-risk activities like kissing.
In Michigan and New Mexico, the Center’s fellows have been diving into hot-button municipal politics, showing the benefit for having our eyes and ears tuned to local matters that might escape notice by traditional media. In New Mexico, Marjorie Childress examined an internal union conflict over an early endorsement for Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez. Meanwhile in Lansing, Mich., Todd A. Heywood’s pursuit to find out more information about what led to a May 22 gay sex sting in a local park has led to questions of whether some local officials may have abused their power to target members of the gay community locally.
Best regards,
David S. Bennahum
Following an administration official’s claim that civil liberties groups had encouraged President Obama to issue an executive order establishing a system of preventive detention for terror suspects, Spencer Ackerman spoke with leading civil libertarians and found widespread disapproval of any such executive order. Law reporter Daphne Eviatar further investigated the claim and obtained a not-yet-public letter from prominent military and criminal defense lawyers and academics to Obama, and she discovered that despite the conventional wisdom, some left-leaning advocates hope that an executive order would define the limits of indefinite detention and prevent Congress from expanding the practice.
Congress may have passed a credit-card reform bill, but economy reporter Mary Kane reported that Citigroup took advantage of the bill’s delayed onset to hike rates for 15 million of its cardholders. Democrats in the Senate have lamented this delay and the resulting damage done to cardholders, but Congress reporter Mike Lillis took them to task, pointing out that it was the Democrats in the House and Senate who inserted the delay into the legislation.
Congress reporter Mike Lillis reported how a federal law called the Tiahrt Amendment has blocked local law enforcement’s ability to fight arms trafficking. Lillis reported that, in New Jersey and California, the ability to combat trafficking was squelched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ refusal to share information that was once publicly available. The author of the law that stopped the sharing of such data, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kansas, was quoted in The Washington Post in 2003 as saying he “wanted to make sure I was fulfilling the needs of my friends who are firearms dealers.” The National Rifle Association, he added, was “helpful in making sure I had my bases covered.”
David Weigel followed up on Tiahrt, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas. When Tiahrt released a new campaign ad criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama, Weigel noticed that the ad cited a claim that Obama has lost 2.19 million jobs. That statistic was attributed to WordPress.com, but anyone familiar with WordPress knows that it is not, in fact, a news organization, but rather a blogging software program. Weigel’s post drove a spike in traffic, with a link from Andrew Sullivan and highlights from numerous Twitter users.
John Tomasic took top CO traffic with his prescient post about a recent Pew Research Center survey on the “favorability of leading Republicans.” The survey showed Sarah Palin remained “a divisive figure” among the general population, even before her sudden resignation, but that the GOP faithful still strongly favors her. Close on the heels of that post’s traffic was Tomasic’s coverage of Palin’s resignation speech and the reactions it generated in the blogosphere.
David O. Williams reported that a Garfield County commissioner is calling for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to ban gas drilling where a large, but little-known, underground nuclear explosion was carried out near Rulison in the 1960s. The DOE just released a draft plan that allows drilling by private companies near such sites until the drilling either produces radioactive material or reaches the blast site. In Rio Blanco County, where another such blast took place, there’s less political pressure to limit drilling, because, as a commissioner there told Williams, “it’s out in the middle of nowhere.”
John Tomasic reported that advocates of Referendum O, a recently failed measure to reform the state’s famously loose procedures for changing the state constitution, are returning for another shot in 2010. Their new proposal calls for supermajority support that’s dispersed through every district in the state. Also, a judge issued an injunction on the recently approved Amendment 54, which seeks to restrict campaign contributions by government contractors and their relatives as a way to weaken the influence of organized labor. The judge agreed with plaintiffs who said the vague and often confusing language of the amendment created laws that were overly broad and clearly violated the right to free speech.
Ernest Luning attended the Independence Institute’s annual Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Party where Samuel Joe Wurzelbacher -aka Joe the Plumber- warned attendees to beware of the encroaching “nanny state.” Later in the week, Wurzelbacher spoke at a conservative gathering in Wisconsin and wondered why U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut hasn’t been lynched. The Huffington Post also cited a Michigan Messenger story about Wurzelbacher, who said, at a Tea Party event in Lansing, that uttering the words “In God We Trust” will get you shot in some parts of the country.
Lynda Waddington kicked off a series of reports that examine the realities and implications of Iowa’s HIV transmission law. While Iowa has few residents living with HIV and AIDS, some cases involving the criminal transmission of the HIV virus are pushing the state into the spotlight and lawmakers are considering reforming some criminal transmission laws. Under the current law, a person could be convicted for low-risk activities such as kissing. Some lawmakers and observers say it may be time to revisit the law, Waddington reported.
Jason Hancock reported from a state Republican Party fundraiser in Des Moines, where Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told fellow party members that the GOP must broaden its range and end its quest for ideological purity: “[T]here are tens of millions of pro-choice Republicans that are just as good Republicans as I am.” Barbour, who took over as chairman of the Republican Governors Association following the resignation of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, also said Sanford should not resign his post as governor. Sanford resigned as chairman after admitting he went “missing” to visit his mistress in Argentina.
Lynda Waddington took top IA traffic with her report on Republican Sen. Charles Grassley’s introduction of an amendment that would require any entity that enters into a contract with the federal government to participate in the controversial work-authorization database known as E-Verify. The Obama administration has postponed the program’s implementation to allow further review. One of the primary criticisms of the program is that it cannot ascertain if documents presented by workers are legitimate. In fact, Swift & Co. was using the program prior to the massive 2006 raids at their meatpacking plants, including its Marshalltown facility, Waddington reported.
In an investigation into Lansing city government, Todd A. Heywood has dissected the origins of a May 22 gay sex sting that’s raised questions about whether a member of the Board of Police Commissioners inappropriately requested the undercover operation near her house. The director of the Michigan Association of Police Chiefs called the commissioner’s request “disruptive” and “absolutely” dangerous for officers, while an ethics expert said it raises concerns of “councilmanic interference.”
Ed Brayton wrote about a lawsuit involving Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan’s Ave Maria Law School that has managed to elude mainstream media attention: In a wrongful termination lawsuit in Washtenaw County Circuit Court involving an Ave Maria law-school professor, Monaghan argues the court has no jurisdiction over the law school’s employment practices because of “ministerial exception,” meaning that the law school is purely a religious institution.
Eartha Jane Melzer attended an “Open Carry” family picnic in Traverse City, where participants were encouraged to carry loaded handguns in support of gun rights. Melzer noted that for the first five months of the year, the Michigan State Police processed 243,000 concealed weapons permits from Michigan residents. One organizer told Melzer, “People who don’t like guns are like sheep … and people who carry guns are like sheep dogs.”
Eartha Jane Melzer took a look at the tasks in front of Lt. Gov. John Cherry, the as-yet-undeclared gubernatorial candidate and presumed Democratic nominee to replace Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2010. Granholm put Cherry in charge of streamlining state government, including the controversial drive to consolidate the state Department of Natural Resources with the Department of Environmental Quality. But Cherry has been short on details and is not commenting on the streamlining efforts underway. Meanwhile, the chairman of the state Natural Resources Commission told Melzer that the proposed changes would save the state less than one tenth of 1 percent of the total budget.
The Minnesota Independent team offered immediate and comprehensive coverage of the long-awaited ruling by the state Supreme Court in favor of Al Franken in the U.S. Senate contest. In addition to the ruling, the concession made by Norm Coleman and the first address by Franken as Senator-elect, the team covered issues behind these events. Chris Steller, for example, reported that the video journalists of The Uptake were barred from Coleman’s concession address. Paul Demko, meanwhile, noted that a day after the ruling, a Texas company involved in lawsuits alleging a money-funneling scheme to then-Sen. Norm Coleman announced that its internal investigation found the charges to be baseless. The firm’s CEO told Demko the timing of the announcement was entirely coincidental.
Andy Birkey investigated how communities around the state are struggling to deal with the $2.7 billion in cuts imposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty’s cuts slash local government aid, human services grants, higher education and medical assistance for the poor. Now, Birkey found, northern Minnesota community colleges are preparing for a hit of 26 percent, while in Freeborn County, the Deptartment of Human Services isconsidering creating waiting lists for citizens in need of help. Rep. Tom Bakk, a Democratic-Farmer-Laborer gubernatorial hopeful, said thousands of jobs will be lost in the wake of the cuts.
Andy Birkey’s reporting played a key role in a complaint filed this week to the U.S. Department of Justice against the faith-based group Teen Challenge Minnesota. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed the complaint with Attorney General Eric Holder on June 24, arguing that $235,000 in federal earmarks set aside for Teen Challenge, a Christian chemical-dependency program, should be revoked. The group cited Birkey’s December 2008 report, which was first to call the earmarks into question and noted that Teen Challenge’s programming was explicitly evangelical. Birkey’s reporting was the only third-party source cited in the complaint.
Paul Schmelzer netted heavy traffic with his post on Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s recent declaration oo Fox News that the U.S. Census collects too much personal information about citizens, “and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps.” It’s not the first time Bachmann raised the specter of such detentions: In April, she said she feared the Obama administration was planning “re-education camps for young people,” a reference to the AmeriCorps service program.
Heath Haussamen profiled Jim Spiri, a blogger and conservative activist who is openly supporting President Barack Obama’s attempt to reform the nation’s health-care system. Spiri traveled extensively last year in support of John McCain’s presidential campaign and successfully lobbied Congress in 2001 to reform military health-care policies, after his son, a Marine officer, died due to lack of coverage. Now Spiri is advocating a government-run insurance system to compete with private insurance and is criticizing Republicans for “not getting behind Obama and trying to fix this,” as he put it, “because that one issue would strengthen the entire country.”
Some Albuquerque union leaders told Marjorie Childress that the city’s blue-collar workers weren’t asked who they wanted to endorse for mayor before their parent union gave the endorsement to incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez. Noting that Chavez has not even announced a re-election bid, the vice president of AFSCME Local 624 denounced the endorsement and scheduled an election to determine the members’ preference. AFSCME’s political director, meanwhile, said the endorsement was the result of a telephone poll of union members who had been deemed “certain … or very likely to vote in the municipal elections.”
Heath Haussamen and Trip Jennings together broke the story about the epic tech failure this week at the secretary of state’s office. A week after the office quietly launched its new campaign finance and disclosure database on its Web site, Haussamen and Jennings uncovered that unspecified “issues” knocked out all of the office’s systems, including those necessary for the public to do any business with the state, including accessing campaign and lobbyist information, and registering trademarks. The meltdown is the latest chapter in the state’s long-delayed efforts to give the public a searchable database of reports on public officials.
Marjorie Childress reported on right-wing comments that followed a brutal robbery and murder at a restaurant in Albuquerque, the suspects of which are undocumented immigrants. Both Albuquerque mayoral candidate Richard “R.J.” Berry and the state Republican Party that attributed the crime to police policies regarding immigrants. At a press conference Wednesday, Berry complained that officers are only permitted to inquire about an individual’s immigration status when it’s pertinent to a criminal investigation. Meanwhile, Republican Party of New Mexico Director Ryan Cangiolosi said in a statement that the murder was the “inadvertent fruit” of the policies Berry cited. Mayor Martin Chavez’s office responded that the statements are tantamount to endorsing racial profiling, a charge GOP officials refute.
Department Of Good News
A group of Iowa women who have lost children due to miscarriages and other complications with their pregnancies have banded together to form an organization called Count the Kicks, which aims to get expectant mothers to count the number of fetal kicks coming from a child in the womb. Unusual activity can indicate a potential complication, like an umbilical cord wrapped around the child’s neck, restricting oxygen flow.
The Iowa Association of School Boards gave a presentation at a large conference in Chicago last week to discuss its successful disaster planning “toolkit.”
