• Exclusive reports by our teams in Iowa and Colorado, documenting how extremist talk show hosts have been stoking fears of terrorism and religious intolerance against Muslim Americans. In Iowa, radio host Steve Deace argued that the Fort Hood killings “may have done America a favor” because the shooting rampage shows how the United States has “sold out our religious traditions for a secular enlightenment.”  In Colorado, radio host Peter Boyles told listeners that reports of retaliatory threats around the country against Muslim Americans in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings are a myth, a product of a politically correct culture that aimed to silence hawkish members of the right and that made the U.S. vulnerable to attacks.
• In Michigan, reporter Todd Heywood examined the case of an HIV-positive man from Macomb County who is being charged under Michigan’s 2004 terrorism laws for biting his neighbor during a fight (the neighbor, in turn, had allegedly been “gay bashing” the man for several years). The case, which is being appealed in state courts, is alarming to many in the LGBT community because of the legal precedent it could set for the state’s terrorism laws and its ability to deepen the stigmatization of the virus.
• In Washington D.C., reporter Mike Lillis was the first to notice a major glitch in the unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress. The legislation was intended to extend benefits by 20 weeks in states with high unemployment, but due to an oversight the deadline to apply for the last six weeks of the extension was earlier than participants could legally apply. Lillis’ reporting caught the attention of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office, which acknowledged the error and promised that Reid would work to extend the program.

More details on our breaking news stories below.

Best,

David

Mike Lillis reported on a major glitch in the unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress. The legislation was intended to extend benefits by 20 weeks in states with high unemployment, but due to an oversight the deadline to apply for the last six weeks of the extension was earlier than participants could legally apply. Lillis’ reporting caught the attention of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office, which acknowledged the error and promised that Reid would work to extend the program.

National security reporter Spencer Ackerman broke news when he reported that a pair of admirals with a background in special operations and close ties to Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been working quietly behind the scenes as President Obama weighs his options on a new Afghanistan strategy. Ackerman reported that Vice Adm. William H. McRaven and Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward are pushing for a smaller special-ops force to pursue counterterrorism operations throughout the country, in conjunction with the larger infusion of troops to carry out counterinsurgency operations in large population centers. Ackerman’s article was discussed by Time’s Joe Klein, Matthew Yglesias of Think Progress, and Foreign Policy magazine.

While Democratic leaders in Congress and the Obama administration downplayed the significance of controversial new breast cancer screening guidelines for women from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, TWI congressional reporter Mike Lillis reported that the Democrats’ health care reform bills in both houses would require health insurance plans to adopt the guidelines as part of a minimum swath of services. The bills would mandate insurers cover recommendations offered by the preventive services task force that are rated “A” and “B” as part of their minimum coverage. The new mammogram guidelines are rated “B.” Lillis also pointed out another overlooked fact — even if the language were not included in the bills, the task force’s recommendations have influenced government health policy as recently as May of this year. Lillis’ reporting provided much-needed context for the very real consequences the task force’s recommendations can have, as Democrats rushed to squelch the uproar over the new guidelines.

Using new data obtained from the U.S. Army, TWI national security reporter Spencer Ackerman reported that if President Obama deploys an additional 30,000 to 40,000 troops to Afghanistan in the coming weeks, the Army will be left with virtually no available brigades to handle emergencies that may arise. The Army figures, which Ackerman illustrated with detailed brigade-by-brigade data charts, show just over 50,000 active-duty soldiers available for deployment, meaning that a flare-up in Iran or North Korea would be met with dangerously limited military resources. Ackerman discussed this situation with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who called his discovery “one giant game-changing brand-new fact … that should change the whole way the country talks about and thinks about this war.”

Joseph Boven watched the fallout from statements made by outspoken Republican State Sen. Dave Schultheis, who said stridently via Twitter: “Don’t for a second think Obama wants what is best for U.S. He is flying the U.S. … right into the ground at full speed. Let’s Roll.” The “Let’s Roll” line was a reference to what passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 were thought to have said before overthrowing terrorist hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. Schultheis, no stranger to controversial statements, said he did not mean any harm with his Tweet. Later, Schultheis told radio talk show host Peter Boyles that the president is surrounding himself with Marxists, communists and fascists.

With Xcel Energy on pace to disconnect power to some 70,000 Coloradans this year for nonpayment, David O. Williams asked some tough questions about why ratepayers should be picking up the tab for lavish executive board dinners, hotel and spa retreats and luxury box tickets to professional sports games, all details that came to light on the last day of rate-hike hearings by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Xcel Energy is seeking a $180 million rate hike. A spokesman for the utility said that the board members’ expenses were part of “a reasonable cost of doing business” but said it would consider withdrawing them from the rate hike. Williams’ reporting drove top traffic, with thousands of hits coming from Raw Story and Huffington Post.

Conservative talk-radio host Peter Boyles told listeners recently that reports of retaliatory threats around the country against Muslim Americans in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings are a myth, a product of a politically correct culture that aimed to silence hawkish members of the right and that made the U.S. vulnerable to attacks. The conservative KHOW-AM host was reacting to reporting by The Colorado Independent’s Joseph Boven, who fact checked Boyles’ incendiary comments immediately following the Fort Hood shootings. While Boyles failed to address points Boven brought up in his fact checking, the talk show host continued with his claims, saying that Muslim-Americans have not been in any danger in the U.S.: “Threats? What threats? Name the threat.” Boven outlined a number of cases, including a Greek Orthodox priest who was beaten with a tire iron by a Marine reservist in Florida because he was thought to be a Muslim.

As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have been waging war over national health care reform legislation, TCI’s Katie Redding has been looking at one specific impact of the realities of gender disparities in the insurance market: women pay more for coverage. As Colorado lawmakers eye legislative solutions to create gender parity by mandating maternity coverage for women, the insurance lobby has been gearing up for a fight. “We’ll always lobby against maternity mandates,” one lobbyist told TCI. “They just drive up the cost.” According to a recent study by the National Women’s Law Center, women in Colorado who purchase insurance on the individual market currently pay up to 59 percent more than men. That’s for coverage that doesn’t include maternity care, since it is virtually impossible to find a plan that includes maternity care on the state’s individual market. Two Democratic state legislators have vowed to bring gender parity to Colorado’s individual insurance market through legislation which the state’s insurance lobby has pledged to fight. By dissecting the issue prior to the start of the session next year, Redding has laid out the issues clearly and shown how determined the insurance industry is to keep the status quo that puts Colorado women at a distinct health care disadvantage.

Lynda Waddington’s traffic-driving interview with Sen. Tom Harkin noted the lawmaker’s views on the Stupak-Pitts amendment’s ban on federal funding for abortion services which he said could lead down a slippery slope that prevents women from accessing services with their own money as well. ”Every health insurance company in America could now lose some of its tax benefits that it gets for providing health insurance if it provides abortion services,” Harkin said. ”You could just say that anybody that got a federal loan for housing could not get an abortion. You can take this and just keep going on and on and on with no end in sight.” Waddington’s interview served to the get the influential HELP chair’s opinions on the record early, driving hundreds of readers to the site.

Jason Hancock carefully monitored the comments of outspoken right-wing radio host Steve Deace of WHO-AM in Des Moines, who said that Army Major Nadil Hasan, the Muslim man accused of shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, “may have done America a favor” because the shooting rampage shows how the United States has “sold out our religious traditions for a secular enlightenment.” That, he said, would serve as a wake-up a call to American Christians to note that “[w]e are at war with an ideology that has an aberrant view of God and what he demands of his people” who can’t expect their “politicians to know the truth if the people in the pews who vote for them aren’t hearing it from the pulpit.”

As the debate over housing terrorism detainees from Guantanamo Bay on U.S. soil was reignited, Jason Hancock and Lynda Waddington carefully documented how Iowa politicians used the contentious issue to weaken each other. The issue hit close to home because of a new proposal to house detainees in a prison across the Mississippi River in Illinois. Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn said the detainee proposal constitutes “a clear and present danger” and called on Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, whose eastern Iowa district sits across the river from the prison, to denounce the plan. Braley, meanwhile, said he was “not going to engage in political fear mongering about something that is very serious to the safety and security to the people I represent.” U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, weighed in as well, saying that he is opposed to not only housing the detainees in Illinois but to bringing them to U.S. soil to begin with. The senator was also critical of having accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried in federal court in New York City, saying it would turn the trial into a courtroom spectacle not seen since the O.J. Simpson trial. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan in turn, accused Grassley of using “Karl Rove-style fear-mongering tactics” on using the terrorism issue as a tool of division.

Jason Hancock took note of how the Iowa Democratic Party is taking advantage of fractures within the state Republican Party in advance of next year’s gubernatorial race. Democrats pounced on a tax policy schism between State Rep. Chris Rants and former Gov. Terry Branstad, two Republicans vying for their party’s gubernatorial nomination, that began when Rants claimed that Branstad will raise the state’s gas tax. Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan, in a Web video, said it was “deeply troubling, in that it would seem Terry Branstad has not learned his lessons about tax increases on Iowans and intends to be a repeat offender.” Democrats have focused on GOP intra-party divisions before, trying to weaken the Republican Party field as Democratic Gov. Chet Culver looks to strengthen his position.

Todd A. Heywood examined the case of an HIV-positive man from Macomb County who is being charged under Michigan’s 2004 terrorism laws for biting his neighbor during a fight. The case, which is being appealed in state courts, is alarming to many HIV/AIDS activists because of the legal precedent it could set for the state’s terrorism laws and its ability to deepen the stigmatization of the virus. Heywood fact-checked the medical science in the case, noting that it’s essentially impossible to infect a person with HIV through a bite, something Detroit media failed to mention. A number of state lawmakers, including the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, have called the prosecution overzealous, saying it may be time to revisit the state’s HIV transmission laws as well. HIV activists, acting on Heywood’s reporting on the case, are now targeting the county prosecutor’s use of the 2004 terrorism laws. In an act of symbolic protest, they have asked anyone with HIV to “voluntarily turn themselves in” to be charged as terrorists.

If the city of Detroit didn’t have enough problems to tackle, it is also in an AIDS “crisis.” That’s how Charles Pugh, the incoming Detroit City Council president, describes the situation. Statistics from the state of Michigan show many ZIP codes in Detroit have HIV prevalence rates between 3 and 5 percent, Todd A. Heywood reports. One ZIP code has a prevalence rate of 6 percent for HIV, on par with high-rate African counties and U.S. urban areas, like the District of Columbia and New York City’s Bronx borough. Both D.C. and the Bronx have been elevated to targeted sites for new intervention plans by the Obama administration, including a new, aggressive testing program to identify and treat early HIV infection in those areas. Pugh said Detroit needs to be a “squeaky wheel” to marshal forces and keep the HIV/AIDS emergency in check, including the church community. Pugh, who is openly gay, said he will be able to get Mayor Dave Bing to pay attention to the problem that is eating away at Detroit.

Although some state lawmakers say that a proposed ballot initiative to create standards for uranium mining in the Upper Peninsula in unnecessary because they claim none of the radioactive material has been found there, Eartha Jane Melzer noted how one Canadian company has already pinpointed future mining development in the state. A coalition of Upper Peninsula lawmakers have come out in opposition to the uranium mining ballot proposal that would set mining standards where none currently exist. Environmental groups have decried the opposition as the acceptance of pro-mining propaganda. But the risk is very real: Several residential drinking wells have recorded uranium levels, prompting health advisories in parts of the western Upper Peninsula.

Minehaha Forman noted an important speech by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder where the nation’s top law enforcement official sounded the alarm about Michigan’s woefully underfunded and under-resourced public defender system. As Michigan Messenger has previously reported, recent studies of public defense have said Michigan is in a “constitutional crisis.” Holder, during a speech to the Brennan Center for Justice in Washington, D.C., stressed how bad things are for those accused of crimes in the Great Lakes State where there are counties “where defendants are charged and plead guilty to crimes that carry jail time without ever speaking to a lawyer.”

Andy Birkey attended and covered a fundraiser held in Bloomington for You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, a controversial ministry that says it preaches in public schools. Rep. Michele Bachmann headlined the event with a four-minute videotaped introductory address. “We can’t overlook the outright rejection of God in the public school classroom, and the outright scorn of Christianity in our public square,” she said.

Birkey also secured some of the top traffic with his reporting on the U.S. House version of the health care reform bill. While abortion politics dominated conservative opposition to the package that passed, several measures in the bill that are beneficial to LGBT Americans largely went unnoticed — especially by conservatives. The Human Rights Campaign reports it successfully lobbied to get five provisions important to the LGBT community included in the final bill, including provisions to track health disparities based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and tax equity for same-sex health plan beneficiaries. The Minnesota Family Council was among those who drove traffic to the stories, its blog crediting Birkey for “correctly concluding” that conservatives had focused their obstructionist efforts on abortion.

Chris Steller noted that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann may have violated House rules by using her taxpayer-funded congressional website to urge people to attend her Nov. 5 “Super Bowl of Freedom” rally at the U.S. Capitol. In an official complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Bachmann and other House members are said to have violated rules by failing to get a permit for the demonstration, which they described as a “press conference.” CREW officials told Steller that House members aren’t supposed to use their congressional websites to urge public action on behlaf or against pending legislation.

With the winter holidays fast approaching, Andy Birkey has been keeping an eye on conservative groups who say there is an active “War on Christmas” by retailers and other groups, claiming that using the term “holiday” in marketing efforts demeans the sanctity of the birth of Jesus. The American Family Association has named Eden Prairie-based SUPERVALU as a “retailer against Christmas” because the company “refers to Christmas decorations as ‘holiday’ on website and weekly ads.” Bloomington-based Best Buy, which capitulated to AFA pressure on the subject in 2006, only makes out slightly better making the list under “Companies marginalizing ‘Christmas.’”

Dozens of state decision-makers logged on for NMI’s liveblog of a legislative hearing on the relatively obscure issue of combined reporting, which pertains to large, multi-state companies that don’t pay taxes on income they make in the state. According to NMI polls of participants taken during the event, the vast majority of decision-makers said they supported “combined reporting” reform, but in a separate poll only about a fifth said that they understood what that meant. Matt Reichbach also liveblogged and webcast Gov. Bill Richardson’s press conference in which he ordered nearly 20,000 state workers to take five furlough days and further pledged to cut 1,000 vacant state jobs and make cuts at the agencies under his control.

Trip Jennings plumbed public records to reveal which specific political appointees of Gov. Richardson are double-dippers: state workers who retire and then return to work, collecting both a salary and a pension. Although Richardson has vowed to stop the practice, he has not taken any action that would affect his own appointees, such as Deputy Secretary of General Services Marilyn Hill, who earns $99,424 in her current role while also drawing a $68,000 pension from the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA); or Jeffrey Riggs, who takes in $96,928 as Deputy Director of the state Educational Retirement Board along with a $61,656 yearly PERA pension.

The State Investment Council decided to release four documents, including two federal grand jury subpoenas tied to a criminal investigation of an investment scandal. The public disclosure of the documents is being hailed as a victory for government transparency after the SIC refused to honor requests by The New Mexico Independent and groups like the Foundation for Open Government, which had insisted for months that the documents were public and should be released under New Mexico’s open records laws, Trip Jennings reported. In a separate investigation, Gov. Bill Richardson may be asked to testify under oath about anything he may know regarding a scandal in the state’s housing authority system, which culminated in 2006 with the default of $5 million in bonds owed to the SIC.

GOOD NEWS

N.M. approves four new medical marijuana producers

After months during which New Mexico’s single non-profit producer of medical marijuana was unable to keep a consistent supply of medical cannabis, Department of Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil announced Monday that the state is licensing an additional four producers, enough, the department hopes, to supply the state’s nearly 800 active medical cannabis patients.

• TWI’s Dave Weigel traveled to upstate New York to cover the controversial House race in NY-23. As one of the few national reporters providing up-to-the-minute reports, Weigel was interviewed on the Rachel Maddow Show and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation.”  His analysis of the failure of the right wing anti-tax movement on Election Day is important reading.

• A string of reports on important events affecting the LGBT community in Michigan: an anti-discrimination ordinance in Kalamazoo passed, the election of Detroit’s first openly gay city council president, and the Michigan House Speaker’s announcement that she’s introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in state.

• And a victory for freedom from religion: Gwyneth Doland reported that Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris publicly apologized for attempting to use his opponent’s religion against him in a piece of campaign mail, saying he had “learned a great deal,” from the experience. It was Doland who had first reported on Harris’ mailer in which he labeled opponent Don Barbour as an atheist and attempted to paint him as too radical for office. Doland’s coverage of the tactic was picked up by several national Atheist blogs, whose readers sent a flurry of e-mails to Harris. “I will not bring up Atheism in any future endeavor, as I have learned a great deal from this experience,” Harris said. “I was reminded that the decisions that one makes when running for office and being in office are not simple ones, and they can have unexpected consequences.”

Much more below.

Best,
David

Congressional reporter Mike Lillis reframed the debate over financial safeguards up for debate in the House. Early reports from mainstream papers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times painted Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s proposal as a favor to taxpayers. Lillis, meanwhile, spoke to someone no other outlet did: Rep. Brad Sherman. The liberal California Democrat was an early critic of the lack of oversight in executive pay packages of TARP recipients. Sherman, an accountant, told Lillis that the new safeguards were an incredible expansion of executive power and amounted to “TARP on steroids.” The Huffington Post linked to Lillis’ story twice in a top-billed package on its politics page. The next day, Politico, which had run a story similar to the rest of the mainstream media, ran a new take on the safeguards with a headline quoting Sherman.

Lillis also continued to hammer a scandalously undercovered story: GOP stalling of a bill that would extend unemployment insurance benefits by 13 weeks. As Lillis reported in numerous posts, Senate Republicans sought to lard up the bill with amendments unrelated to unemployment benefits — on ACORN, illegal immigration and TARP — while at least 125,000 Americans lost their benefits since the gridlock began. As a testament to the importance of Lillis’ reporting, TWI’s traffic from Google News spiked each time he published an article on unemployment benefits, presumably due to the volume of people searching the Internet for information about when the bill might pass.

David Weigel traveled to upstate New York to report on the dramatic final days of the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, where a Tea Party activist-backed conservative became the favorite after forcing a moderate Republican to withdraw. On Election Day, Weigel reported from Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman’s campaign headquarters, providing up-to-the-minute accounts as the returns came in. As one of very few national reporters on the ground in NY-23, the media sought out Weigel. He was interviewed by phone on election night by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and was a guest on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” later in the week. Politico cited Weigel’s reporting via Twitter in an article about how the social media platform had supplanted cable news as a source for election night news.

Mike Lillis dove deep into an important story that largely flew under the media radar this week: a Democratic measure in the House health care reform bill that would eliminate the Children’s Health Insurance Plan in 2013, shifting kids to private plans. While the debate raged over whether the bill would allow federal funds to finance abortions, the CHIP provision went untouched and passed in the final bill. As Lillis reported, health advocates warn that the measure will result in many children losing their health insurance.

Katie Redding got Congressman Doug Lamborn on the record as to why he’s the only member of Colorado’s U.S. congressional delegation who doesn’t support legislation to end gender discrimination in the health care insurance marketplace. Currently, 185,000 Colorado women seeking insurance pay 59 percent more than men and are often denied maternity coverage. Although women’s advocates say that gender bias is a critical flaw in the current system, Republican Lamborn told Redding that “the free market, not the federal government, should dictate how private insurance companies determine their policies.”

Joe Boven drove top traffic with his report on Initiative 25, a state ballot measure that if passed would move the initial marker for the beginning of life from “fertilization” to “the beginning of the biological development of a human being.” As Boven reported, the new amendment would freeze the scientific research community in Colorado. Scientists said the measure would essentially halt research into fertility and congenital diseases, while activists pointed out that it would put women at risk. Boven’s story was picked up by The Huffington Post and Jezebel, among many other sites, netting nearly 7,000 readers.

In the wake of the horrific shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas, right-wing talk radio almost immediately stirred anti-Muslim sentiment. As Joseph Boven reported, KHOW host Peter Boyles proclaimed Islam is at war with America and said that the suspect in the Fort Hood shooting, a U.S. Army officer, had benefited from “political correctness” in his military career and should have been the subject of suspicion for writing that he was of Palestinian descent at his mosque. Abed Ayoub, legal adviser to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told Boven that Hasan listed his ethnicity with his mosque the same way that millions of practicing Muslims do in this country. “I list my background as Syrian or Lebanese. It’s like Christians in America attending an Irish Catholic church [because of their Irish heritage],” he said.

Katie Redding tracked internal discontent within the Douglas County Republican Party following the internecine warfare that broke out in advance of the November 3 school board elections. A conservative slate of candidates won office and plan to vote on a GOP-backed charter school plan, but the process has burned other Republicans who did not agree with robocalls and e-mail campaigns tying some GOP candidates to ACORN, President Obama, and organized labor. One GOP district captain told Redding that he would no longer work with the present leadership of the county partly “due to their gross disrespect for all legitimate Republican candidates for office.” Furthermore, a GOP candidate said she’s leaving the party, telling Redding, “I don’t want to be associated with the foul type of behavior that the Douglas County Republicans have displayed.” 

Soon after U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) raised eyebrows when he suggested that he would join a Republican-led filibuster of health care reform legislation, Lynda Waddington reported that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, a Democrat who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that Lieberman may want to reconsider that idea. In a conference call with reporters, Harkin made subtle reference that Lieberman could be ousted from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee if he steps out of line. Waddington’s coverage was picked up by Talking Points Memo and ABC’s The Note, among other publications.

Waddington also continued to look at how lackluster health care access is affecting Iowans. In a conference call with reporters, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina stressed that larger national health care reform is vital for the health of rural areas, where self-employed farmers often have few options when trying to secure private insurance in the open market. Waddington additionally explored how the lack of health care access can have major local economic impacts in Iowa. When health care providers leave a rural area — either by choice or by retirement — the surrounding community loses a significant portion of its tax base, experts told Waddington.

Jason Hancock interviewed Des Moines anti-abortion activist Dave Leach about his disagreement with eBay after the online auction service pulled questionable anti-abortion materials meant to raise money for the defense of Scott Roeder, the man accused of killing Kansas doctor George Tiller. Leach — whose publication fostered Roeder and professes “justifiable homicide” in the killing of abortion doctors —argued with eBay’s assertion that his postings “glorified violence.” He added that he was undeterred by the negative publicity, noting “the ‘bad press’ Jesus got from the Pharisees.” 

In the run-up to the U.S. House vote on health care reform, Hancock reported that Rep. Steve King not only helped organize the anti-reform protests at the Capitol but also continued to spread mistruths about how the bill would encourage suicide. Hancock noted that in a video of the Republican congressman walking away from a protest on Saturday, King cherry-picked a section of the bill for the cameras, citing language in the bill that “encourage(s) the promotion of suicide or assisted suicide.” What King failed to include was the preceding sentence, which reads:  “Nothing in this section shall …” before listing several provisions that are prohibited, including the “promotion of suicide.” Hancock also noted that King has not ruled out a 2012 presidential bid, saying recently that he wants “to refurbish the pillars of American exceptionalism.”

A week before the November 3 elections, David Alire Garcia pointed out that the forces fighting an Kalamazoo anti-discrimination ordinance on the ballot had been using myths about transgender individuals to generate fear in advance of the vote — saying that the ordinance would open the door to “cross dressing men” attacking women in bathrooms — a tactic that’s been used in similar fights elsewhere. Garcia spoke to a number of transgender individuals who said such misinformation doesn’t define who they are. “If you know me, you can’t demonize me,” one person said. 

One Kalamazoo and other gay rights activists got their message across. Voters in Kalamazoo approved the anti-discrimination ordinance that had been targeted by religious conservatives because of employment and housing protections given to the LGBT community. David Alire Garcia reported. At the same time, Detroiters voted for an openly gay African-American man, former Fox 2 journalist Charles Pugh, to be city council president. Todd A. Heywood reported that following those two votes State House Speaker Pro Tem Pam Byrnes introduced legislation aimed at overturning the 2004 state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage. In June, Byrnes announced she was planning such legislation and said she was optimistic that the environment in the state was becoming friendlier to such an initiative. 

While urban agriculture has been previously proven to be a good way to help urban areas like Detroit get fresh produce to residents in need of more health food options, issues of race may be preventing the movement from realizing its true potential. As Minehaha Forman reported, some African-American residents are wary of embracing newcomers, often white, to the city to set up farming collectives inside the city limits. As a result, the urban agricultural community largely segregates itself, although some organizations are in place to reach out to black communities. 

Eartha Jane Melzer reported that the state gives some of its biggest polluters generous tax breaks to ease the burden of compliance. Cash-strapped Michigan has lost millions in the process. Since 1999, state tax breaks have subsidized $211 million in pollution control equipment at a nuclear power plant near Benton Harbor and have steered $21 million in pollution control technology to an Alpena cement company that was named the state’s second-worst mercury polluter in 2007.

Following up on an exclusive about a racist and anti-gay campaign flier circulating in Maplewood, Andy Birkey solicited responses to the incident from mayoral candidate Ken Smart and council candidates Dave Hafner and DelRay Rokke, whose campaign materials were sometimes found attached to the fliers. The three candidates denied any involvement, but only Smart said he didn’t condone the action. Rokke, meanwhile, told his supporters not to distribute unauthorized fliers on his behalf, but he went on to speculate that the flier’s target, Jim Llanas, only stood to benefit from the hate speech. “I guess [Llanas] figures if he can get the vast majority of members of those groups [gays and Hispanics] in a municipal election which will have only about 30 percent of the voters turn out, he has a good chance to win,” he said.

On the media beat, Paul Schmelzer noticed that shortly after the Star Tribune reported that the faith-based Riverview Community Bank had been shut down by the state, the paper’s online version of the story deleted a reference to Mary Kiffmeyer, the former secretary of state and current state representative who has close ties to the bank. Schmelzer asked Strib business reporter Chris Serres to explain the deletion, and Serres said he trimmed out the 18 words referring to Kiffmeyer because the story had to be cut to match the shortened print version — and few people knew about Kiffmeyer’s association with the bank.

The Iowa Independent’s Jason Hancock teamed up with The Minnesota Independent’s Chris Steller to cover the Des Moines appearance last weekend of Gov. Tim Pawlenty. After endorsing the Conservative Party candidate over the Republican in New York’s 23^rd Congressional District and then calling Sen. Olympia Snowe “more liberal than most Republicans would like,” Pawlenty struck the unlikely note of party unity, Hancock reported. “We’re going to have our primaries and caucuses … and it should be hard fought,” he said. “But when those decisions are made, as a team we have to come around and support each other.”

The Minnesota team also blanketed the area during the election, in which incumbents held fast in Minneapolis, and Maplewood brought back a previous mayor and elected two new council members, including James Llanas, who had been the target of fliers that attempted to raise questions about his sexuality and ethnicity.

Gwyneth Doland reported that Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris publicly apologized for attempting to use his opponent’s religion against him in a piece of campaign mail, saying he had “learned a great deal,” from the experience. It was Doland who had first reported on Harris’ mailer in which he labeled opponent Don Barbour as an Atheist and attempted to paint him as too radical for office. Doland’s coverage of the tactic was picked up by several national Atheist blogs, whose readers sent a flurry of e-mails to Harris. “I will not bring up Atheism in any future endeavor, as I have learned a great deal from this experience,” Harris said. “I was reminded that the decisions that one makes when running for office and being in office are not simple ones, and they can have unexpected consequences.”

Heath Haussamen scored key developments in the growing scandal surrounding a pro-business Las Cruces PAC that raised more than $20,000 for the city council election but now says it wants to spend the money on state and other races. The PAC’s treasurer, who is also executive director of the Building Industry Association of Southern New Mexico, had acknowledged this change of tactics to the press, but Haussamen got him to be candid about its strategy. ”Did we use the city election as a gathering ground? Oh hell yes… We used it as a rallying point,” he said. “You do whatever you have to do to raise funds… This is a call for the business community to get up.”

Election season wrapped up with a vote in Las Cruces in which progressives handed a defeat to incumbents and swept all three city council races. Heath Haussamen reported on the significance of the shift, noting that progressive-backed policymakers now hold the mayor’s office and five of six seats on the council. NMI was the first outlet in the state to declare the winners, having obtained polling numbers directly from the precincts. NMI additionally live blogged the night’s developments, where Doña Ana County Commissioner Scott Krahling took part and observed that while the progressive movement is clearly well organized, the reason for its success is its focus on sustainable growth policies.

Heath Haussamen fact-checked a report published by the libertarian New Mexico Watchdog, which claimed “serious questions” surrounded Lt. Gov. Diane Denish’s spending of federal funds in 2003, charging she spent it on items such as chauffeurs, Christmas cards, and undefined polling. Haussamen obtained Denish’s records and found that she spent much of the money on a poll related to children’s issues — one of the primary focuses of her work as lieutenant governor — as well as hiring public relations contractors and a 2004 Holiday Open House for members of the public, including homeless children from La Comunidad De Los Ninos in Santa Fe. When Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh held a news conference about Watchdog’s article, Haussamen asked Weh if he’d read the 2003 act authorizing the funds. He had not. When further asked what specific questions Denish’s spending raised, Weh’s spokesman could not provide an answer.

GOOD NEWS:

Commissioner Jones seeks support for state’s Race to the Top application

Dwight Jones, Colorado’s Commissioner of Education, is on a 14-city race to seek support from local school districts for the state’s Race to the Top application. The $4.3 billion competition, which has been billed as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s greatest tool for reform, will grant stimulus funds to states. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also announced that it will open up its offer of financial help with the Race to the Top application to all states. That’s good news for Colorado, which will likely apply for the funds.

Granholm touts ‘blockbuster’ partnership with Kellogg Foundation

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced that “millions of dollars going to hundreds of fellowships” would soon bolster the ranks of Michigan’s public school math and science teachers courtesy of a $16.7 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

• Arlen Specter’s about-face on Dawn Johnsen’s nomination for U.S. Office of Legal Counsel;

• Minnesota conservatives’ assault on Jim Llanas who, if elected, would be the first Latino and first openly gay candidate of the Maplewood city council, and

•   Kalamazoo, Michigan’s ballot initiative fight over the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance. Anti- ordinance door hangers, flyers, and robocalls have claimed that if the ordinance is adopted, women would be put “at risk” of sharing public restrooms with transgender individuals. One pro-ordinance city commissioner said he’s hopeful the ordinance will be approved, but he added he realizes anti-gay rights forces are determined to draw a line in the sand in Kalamazoo. 

These recent stories and others from the Center’s five state sites and The Washington Independent are detailed below.

Best,

David

The Washington Independent’s David Weigel profiled a new conservative documentary taking aim at former Vice President Al Gore and the environmental movement. Weigel reported that the film, “Not Evil Just Wrong,” is noteworthy for its slick production and Michael Moore-style tactics — including interviewing workers at a coal power plant and filming the delivery of a letter to Gore’s house — to turn the tables on the left. Additionally, Weigel outlined the film’s nontraditional, conservative-friendly marketing model: Rather than being released in theaters, it is being offered for sale over the Internet, with “Cinematic Tea Parties” being organized around the country to screen the documentary. Weigel’s piece was picked up at both Daily Kos and National Review.

Spencer Ackerman published a forward-looking piece that anticipated this weekend’s push by the Pakistani military into Taliban-controlled Waziristan. While other news outlets reported that the Pakistani army was moving large numbers of troops into the area, Ackerman was ready to go with an in-depth look at the coming incursion’s political and tactical implications for the Obama administration and the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Hie report probed the possible influx of Taliban militants fleeing the Pakistani military and the opportunity to collect better intelligence on the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Ackerman’s piece outlined how, as President Obama weighs his options in the region, the situation grows more complex by the day.

Daphne Eviatar, who has been watchdogging the White House’s legal stances on national security issues, spotted growing evidence that the Obama Justice Department may try the suspected 9/11 masterminds in federal court rather than in military tribunals. That potential move is prompting fervent opposition from Republicans who say the 9/11 terrorists should never be allowed anywhere on U.S. soil, let alone in a civilian U.S. court. Eviatar’s work was picked up by important bloggers: The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan, who wrote that most media missed the important, related decision in the Senate to allow Guantanamo detainees to be tried in federal courts, declared that Eviatar was “all over the story” when others weren’t.

Eviatar also demonstrated that she can hound a politician until she gets results. In the course of investigating why President Obama’s nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel has still not gone up for a vote, Eviatar dogged Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) to find out if his position on Johnsen had evolved since her confirmation hearing in Pennsylvania — when Specter was still a Republican. As Eviatar reported in February during the confirmation hearing, Specter was one of Johnsen’s fiercest critics, expressing concern over her views on executive power and abortion. More recently, Eviatar called Specter’s office daily for nearly a week to get clarification on his current stance on the nomination, until Specter’s press secretary responded with a statement that Specter was now reconsidering his position. Eviatar pointed out that the move is consistent with Specter’s dramatic leftward drift since Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) announced that he plans to challenge Specter in the 2010 Democratic primary. Eviatar’s relentless pursuit of the Johnsen story has been praised by Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, and her post was cited by The American Prospect.

Joe Boven and John Tomasic scrutinized the efforts to pass municipal initiatives that target illegal immigrants living in Colorado. The so-called impound initiatives, which require police to seize the vehicles of anyone found driving without a current license, have been introduced in Denver, Aurora, and Lakewood by Daniel Hayes, a resident of Jefferson County. While pushing earlier initiatives, Hayes said that without such laws on the books “we’ll have more of these Hernandezes driving off the road” and killing people. Hayes told Tomasic that it is the people who oppose his initiatives who are the racists. He said Colorado Ethics Watch, which filed lawsuits this summer against the Aurora and Lakewood initiatives, has a pro-illegal immigrant agenda and pointed as evidence to the fact that Ethics Watch attorney Luis Toro is Latino.

David O. Williams was present for a somewhat tense screening of the new anti-gas-drilling documentary, “Split Estate,” for the commissioners of Garfield County. The film details the conflicts between surface property owners and mineral-rights holders allowed to extract natural gas from their land, and was screened at the request of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance (GVCA) with hopes of a resolution from the board supporting greater federal oversight. Democratic County Commissioner Trési Houpt thanked the GVCA for presenting the film and drafting a resolution for the board’s consideration. Republican John Martin has said he thinks federal oversight is unnecessary, while Republican Mike Samson seems still undecided on the issue.

Joseph Boven fact-checked claims made by Republican gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry that Gov. Bill Ritter (D) has released “hardened criminals” and sex offenders earlier than parole boards advised, picking up a well-worn GOP tack on Democrats as “soft on crime.” The governor’s office told Boven that Penry’s statements were “just flat wrong.” Penry seemed to be talking about Ritter’s years-long push to reduce prisoner recidivism by funding education, job training, and substance abuse prevention programs, which have met with success and have not overridden any parole board decisions.

Katie Redding continued to follow the Republican Party’s internecine warfare in Douglas County, where hard-line conservative activists are skewering union-endorsed GOP candidates in upcoming school board elections. In a race where Republicans are eating Republicans, the point seems to be less about the candidates than it is about the kind of school system. A right-wing GOP would like to install an all-charter school district with no teacher contracts and former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer as superintendent in Douglas County. The fight has already attracted a complaint by Colorado Ethics Watch, which accuses one Republican candidate of violating the Hatch Act by engaging in partisan activities while employed by the Defense Department.

During a carefully scripted press conference, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad resigned the presidency of Des Moines University to “fully explore” the possibility of running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Chase Martyn carefully examined what Branstad said and, more importantly what he avoided talking about: abortion and same-sex marriage. Martyn parsed Branstad’s move to merely ”explore” the GOP race, which is sure to anger Republican activists. It was one of Branstad’s state Supreme Court appointees who wrote the deciding opinion that legalized same-sex marriage in the state earlier this year. 

After weeks in the spotlight following his now-famous “pull the plug on grandma” quote (first reported by The Iowa Independent’s Jason Hancock in August), it came as no surprise that U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley ended up voting “no” on proposed health care reform legislation when it was under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee. But as Hancock confirmed, the Republican lawmaker’s justification for his opposition pointed to debunked myths that the bills would provide federal coverage for abortions and illegal immigrants as reasons to block reform.  

Jason Hancock noted that local conservative bloggers are butting heads in an online debate over how much influence social conservatives exert in Iowa’s presidential caucus process. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder fired up the discussion in a recent column, concluding that “unless you’re beloved by conservative Christians don’t bother campaigning in Iowa.” But this comment drew the ire of conservative blogger and former Republican Party of Iowa Political Director Craig Robinson, who said the argument that  “social conservatives dominate Iowa” just doesn’t carry water historically. GOP strategists have long been warning that the rising dominance of social conservatives in Iowa could result in presidential candidates abandoning the state. Meanwhile, controversial Christian radio host Steve Deace said social conservatives need not apologize for feeling that their first responsibility as voters is to God. “Is there a better basis from which to choose a candidate to support?” he asked.

Hancock also noted an important development in U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s planned re-election bid next year: Democrat Roxanne Conlin, a well-known civil rights attorney who says she could likely raise $10 million, states that “more likely than not” she will jump into the race for the Democratic nomination to challenge Grassley. Conlin, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1982, has an interesting political profile, personal wealth, and national connections that could make the 2010 race competitive. However, Hancock notes, other Democrats say a Conlin candidacy would do little to energize the grassroots.

Todd A. Heywood examined the case of Veronica Piochette, a Haslett Public Schools teacher searching for justice following a 2007 incident in which she was allegedly “drunk shamed” at an off-campus party by fellow teachers. The story has rocked the Haslett community and raised serious questions about whether the school took any meaningful action to discipline the teachers who drew lewd words and images on Piochette’s unconscious body at the party. No charges were ever filed by prosecutors in the case, and Haslett school officials didn’t take any action until The Michigan Messenger began its inquiry, more than two years after the incident. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights is now investigating the situation. 

David Alire Garcia, who recently transferred from The New Mexico Independent to The Michigan Messenger, reported from Kalamazoo, on a ballot initiative fight over the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance that is set to go before voters in November. Conservative activists are trying to block Kalamazoo’s ordinance, which outlines specific housing and employment protections for gay and transgender citizens. Anti-ordinance door hangers, flyers, and robocalls have claimed that if the ordinance is adopted, women would be put “at risk” of sharing public restrooms with transgender individuals. One pro-ordinance city commissioner, David Anderson, said he was hopeful the ordinance would be approved, but said he realizes that anti-gay rights forces are determined to draw a line in the sand in Kalamazoo. 

U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak has backed down from legislation he introduced that would have transferred ownership of U.S. Coast Guard land in Cheboygan to a Christian school free of charge, a deal first uncovered by The Michigan Messenger’s Ed Brayton in August. Following Brayton’s report, Stupak, a pro-life Democrat who lives in the now-infamous “C Street” Christian fellowship house near the U.S. Capitol, was informed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State that arranging a gift of federal land to a religious group was unconstitutional. Stupak wrote the group to say he was changing his legislation to offer the land for sale at fair market value. 

Eartha Jane Melzer reported that a University of Michigan study of dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed was paid for by Dow Chemical and carried out by a researcher who has a history of studies conducted for industry interests such as asbestos. Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have said the research, conducted by Dr. David Garabrant, was biased. Nevertheless, the study has been published, raising fears that the university is being used to craft science meant to buffer Dow from looming liability connected to contamination claims.

Chris Steller was among top traffic earners with his follow up on a claim Rep. Michele Bachmann made to Fox News’ Glenn Beck. The federal government owns or controls 30 percent of private wealth in America, Bachmann said, citing as her source an unnamed Arizona State University professor. Steller tracked down the professor, who said the math behind the claim is an “approximation” and could not be attributed to any published research. Sources also pointed out that the claim is only plausible if you count payments, such as Social Security checks, that the government transfers among citizens but doesn’t actually spend.

Paul Demko was first to get conservative former lawmaker Allen Quist on the record that the Republican hasn’t ruled out a bid to unseat Rep. Tim Walz (DFL) in CD-1 (First Congressional District). Quist served three terms in the state House and made two runs for governor before signing on to work with EdWatch, a conservative advocacy group that champions home schooling and criticizes public school curricula. Historically, the southern Minnesota district has leaned Republican, but Walz won his second term last year by a 30-point margin.

Andy Birkey was first to report that a round of racist, anti-gay election fliers was circulating in Maplewood, targeting city council candidate Jim Llanas. If elected, Llanas would be both the first Latino and first openly gay council member. The flier, which chastises Llanas for his support of gay rights and human rights, has often been found attached to campaign brochures promoting conservative write-in council candidates Dave Hafner and DelRay Rokke, as well as mayoral candidate Ken Smart. Only Smart had acknowledged the flier as of press time, saying he had no knowledge of the its origins, but neither he nor any other candidate denounced it.

Birkey also continued to investigate You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, the controversial punk-rock ministry whose chief supporters include Rep. Michele Bachmann. Birkey looked into the stated beliefs and public positions taken by the ministry’s leader, Bradlee Dean, and found them to be politically problematic. Among Dean’s recent affirmations: President Obama is “not American” and “unpatriotic to the max”; gay men can live no longer than 42 years: alleged Ponzi schemer Tom Petters is being “crucified” like Jesus Christ, and the 1969 NASA moon landing was a hoax. Bachmann’s office hasn’t responded to The Minnesota Independent’s inquiries about Dean’s statements or her involvement in the ministry’s fundraiser, which she is keynoting next month.

The New Mexico Independent (NMI) team provided full, real-time coverage of a special session of the legislature, which was called to resolve the $660 million budget deficit. Staffers live-blogged the proceedings at the Roundhouse, and Trip Jennings followed up immediately with a report on the reactions of key lawmakers, who uniformly balked at Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson’s requirement that the shortfall be fixed without raising taxes. Some lawmakers proposed updating New Mexico’s corporate tax, Jennings reported, while others introduced plans to track how much money the state loses on tax breaks. Richardson responded with a proposal to cut eduction funding, a measure NMI’s  Matthew Reichbach quickly reported was opposed by more than 80 percent of New Mexicans.

Marjorie Childress interviewed Bernalillo County Sheriff – and former GOP congressional candidate — Darren White, whom Mayor-Elect Richard “R.J.” Berry tapped to be Albuquerque’s new chief public safety officer. Childress noted that the appointment was significant in that Berry used it to make good on his campaign promise to use police officers as de facto immigration agents. Berry had long praised White’s use of such a policy with his deputies, allowing them to use their own discretion in questioning individuals about their residency status. “We need to get these people off our streets,” White told Childress. “I see this as the responsibility of any public safety officer.”

The emergency legislative session continued to dominate the news, and NMI continued to dominate its coverage. Staffers live blogged each day’s key proceedings, earning praise from legislators and competing media, while also creating the only record — public or otherwise — of the session’s events.  

Trip Jennings and Heath Haussamen largely led the coverage of the session’s many budget battles, especially those among Democrats over Gov. Bill Richardson’s demand that the budget not include new taxes. But the team also shed light on a key problem: NMI posted a list of so-called exempt employees whose salaries are often overinflated and account for millions of dollars in the state budget. Soon after posting the list, NMI staffers were inundated with tips indicating that many exempt employees are “double-dippers” — state workers who retired, began drawing their state pensions, and then were rehired – a practice that is legal in New Mexico. Jennings and Marjorie Childress were quick to determine that at least four employees on the list were double-dipping, all senior staffers in the attorney general’s office.

GOOD NEWS: 

Prisoners pick apples for Detroit 

Inmates from the Pugsley Correctional Facility near Kingsley picked apples in northern Michigan this week as part of an effort to ensure that this year’s bountiful apple crop is put to good use. 

Lansing priest to receive international peace award

Father Peter Dougherty of Lansing’s Michigan Peace Team is on his way to India to pick up an international award for his lifetime of efforts in the cause of peace. Dougherty, who was featured in the recent Michael Moore film “Capitalism: A Love Story,” leaves next week to receive the International Award for Contributions to the Promotion of Ghandian Values from the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation.

As we put our third quarter report to bed, some fantastic new news to report:

The Center for Independent Media’s national site, The Washington Independent (TWI), just took the highest U.S. political news site slot on Technorati’s “Top 100” list—widely considered the “definitive list” of the Internet’s most influential news sites and blogs, according to the Washington Post. 

By Technorati’s measure of which sites are driving the online discussion—determined by an “authority” number “based on a site’s linking behavior, categorization, and other associated data over a short, finite period of time”—TWI has the most authority in the politics news site category, putting us ahead of Commentary Magazine, TPM LiveWire, Raw Story, Reason, The Hill, WhiteHouse.gov, and CNN, to name a few. 

It’s no wonder in a recent broadcast MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called TWI’s reporting “totally invaluable.”

Congratulations also go to four of our state-based sites, which also made the “Top 100” political news sites: Colorado Independent at #16, Minnesota Independent at #34, the New Mexico Independent at #91, Iowa Independent at #98.

Details on our quarterly traffic can be found in our Key Performance Indicator report, which tracks these statistics.

What’s driving our growth and influence? Reporting like the stories detailed in our quarterly report, below.

Best,

David

Agents of Intolerance

Gun Show Story Spurs Homeland Security Report on Right-Wing Extremist Threat

A controversial and widely discussed Department of Homeland Security report warning of a rise in “right-wing extremism”-related violence was based in part on the work of David Weigel, The Washington Independent’s politics reporter. In April, Weigel traveled to the twice-yearly Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot in Kentucky, the biggest high-power gun show in the country, where he reported on the panic among gun enthusiasts over the recent inauguration of President Obama.

The DHS report, which sent shockwaves through the conservative movement, was issued a week after Weigel’s story ran, citing his work as one of the sources of the agency’s concern. Shortly before the release of the report, a man in Pittsburgh who posted to the white supremacist Web site Stormfront.org shot and killed three police officers. In June, James Von Brunn—whose writings contained anti-Semitic views and doubts about President Obama’s citizenship—killed a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

The Washington Independent learned of its impact on the DHS report in August, after Virginia-based Americans for Limited Government obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act from the Department of Homeland Security detailing how it was put together. Among the sources (pdf): The New York Times, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and The Washington Independent story on the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot.

“At Gun Show, Conservatives Panic About Obama” (4/7/09)

“James Von Brunn – Birther, Racist, Alleged Killer” (6/10/09)

“TWI Cited in DHS ‘Rightwing Extremism’ Report” (8/18/09)

Civil Rights

Michigan Messenger Impacts HIV Privacy Laws Probe in Lansing

A series of reports by Todd A. Heywood on a controversial May 22 sex sting operation in a Lansing nature center not only resulted in the Lansing Police Department pledging to stop such undercover operations aimed at the gay community but also prompted Mayor Virgil Bernero to ask Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to investigate whether Lansing City Attorney Brigham Smith violated a state HIV disclosure law when he released the HIV-positive status of a man arrested during a sting.

In the course of Heywood’s investigation into the sting, he discovered that documents released by the city attorney as part of his open-records request disclosed the HIV-positive status of one of the men arrested. Michigan has a stringent, but untested, law prohibiting the release of such information except under extreme circumstances. The arrested man’s HIV-positive status was initially included in the police report, which was released as part of Heywood’s FOIA request. Heywood would later find out that WKAR in East Lansing had done a similar FOIA request on the matter but from the Ingham County prosecutor instead of the city of Lansing. The HIV information had been redacted by the county prosecutor. The city attorney, Brigham Smith, said the lack of redaction was lawful.

But Jay Kaplan of the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said that he could not find any lawful reason for the Lansing city attorney to put the man’s HIV-positive status in the incident report from May 22. The incident report also confirmed that the men arrested were entrapped, lured to a nearby apartment building by the undercover police officers.

Lansing City Council members discussed having Cox investigate the Lansing city attorney to see if the city attorney’s actions violated Michigan’s HIV disclosure law. Ultimately, the council was split on whether to act. But a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health added to the pressure for a formal investigation, telling Heywood that the disclosure of such private medical information warranted such an inquiry by the attorney general. Finally, acting on the pressure brought about by Heywood’s reporting, Bernero sent Cox a formal request to investigate his city attorney’s actions. Heywood’s reporting was followed up by reporting from the Lansing State Journal.

Cox’s office investigated the situation and determined there was no law broken in the matter, which prompted State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, who is running for attorney general in 2010, to slam the ruling. “This is just scary. Attorney general opinions are supposed to give us clarity. This does not do that. This impacts all of our rights. . . .We need to take action to make sure we can’t impinge on those rights,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Lansing City Council member Carol Wood demanded that city attorney Smith draft new FOIA rules and practices for the city to prevent future release of private medical information.

“Release of Lansing sex sting police reports raises concerns about disclosure of HIV status” (7/6/09)

“Lansing City Council split on whether to press for AG investigation in HIV release case” (7/21/09)

“MDCH: Mich. attorney general should investigate release of man’s HIV status” (7/21/09)

“Man at center of HIV-status release controversy changes plea in court” (7/23/09)

“Bernero considering request for AG investigation into release of man’s HIV status”(7/22/09)

“Bernero challengers say investigation into HIV disclosure necessary” (7/24/09)

“Man at center of HIV disclosure controversy in Lansing can’t get police agencies to take criminal complaint” (7/31/09)

“Bernero formally requests attorney general investigation of HIV disclosure case” (7/31/09)

“Attorney general’s ruling on HIV disclosure case prompts medical privacy worries” (9/9/09)

“Bernero challenger gives Lansing city attorney 2 weeks to have new FOIA rules” (9/3/09)

Economy

TWI Uncovers Tavis Smiley’s Role in Wells Fargo Subprime Marketing Scheme

The Washington Independent’s financial reporter, Mary Kane, created a wave of pressure within African-American media that eventually led to PBS star Tavis Smiley to publicly break with Wells Fargo after his role in the lenders’ subprime marketing scheme was revealed. At the height of subprime boom, Wells Fargo devised a plan to increase its share of what it called the “alternative loan” market by luring African-American borrowers, otherwise wary of big banks, to “wealth building” seminars with the help of trusted black figures such as Smiley. For at least two years, Smiley headlined standing-room-only events that were heavily marketed in black media. In exchange for urging the crowd to take out loans with Wells Fargo, Wells sponsored Smiley’s PBS show and his annual “State of the Black Union” event televised on C-Span. According to a predatory lending lawsuit filed in Illinois by Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Smiley and other African-American figures such as financial author Kelvin Boston were key to Wells Fargo’s success in the subprime market.

After Kane reported on Smiley’s relationship with the lender, African-American media, including The Root and Jack and Jill Politics, turned up the heat on Smiley. Posts across the Web demanded answers. Two days after the piece first appeared, Smiley told Maynard Institute’s Journal-isms columnist Richard Prince that he had decided to “cut ties” with Wells Fargo, even though such a move would “cost him a lot of money.” Smiley said he would not be affiliated with Wells Fargo until charges that the bank targeted minority borrowers for higher-cost loans were resolved.

“Suit Alleges Trusted Blacks Drew Minorities to High-Rate Loans” (9/17/09)

“Tavis Smiley Says He’s Cutting Ties to Wells Fargo” (9/20/09)

TWI Finds “Making Home Affordable” Financing Still Unfair

In another high-impact, subprime mortgage story, which she first reported in January, Mary Kane revealed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were forcing mortgage holders to sign legal waivers before getting their loans modified. When Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) learned of the waivers as a result of Kane’s reporting, he promised to make sure that practice came to an end. Thanks to Frank’s efforts, Obama’s anti-foreclosure centerpiece, the Making Home Affordable program, specifically ensured that such requirements would be banned.

Kane continued monitoring the story and learned this summer that some servicers taking part in the program, which offers cash incentives to participants, were still requiring borrowers to waive their legal rights.

Kane disclosed that some of the biggest players participating in the taxpayer-funded plan —including Ocwen, Bank of America, and Aurora—were still using the waivers. During the course of her reporting, Ocwen looked into the accusations and admitted that it was still using old paperwork in some instances. Ocwen confirmed that the forms would be revoked, consumers affected would be notified, and the waivers would not be enforced.

“Freddie, Fannie Force Borrowers to Waive Legal Rights” (1/15/09)

“Frank Vows to Put an End to Fannie and Freddie Waivers” (1/21/09)

“Loan Servicers Work the Fine Print in Obama Foreclosure Plan” (7/30/09)

Health Care

Iowa Independent Pulls the Plug on Grassley’s “Death Panels”

A combination of quick reporting and fact-checking by The Iowa Independent’s Jason Hancock led major national political figures, including President Obama, to ridicule town hall comments made by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley about so-called health care “death panels.” Hancock’s reporting also led third-party organizations to call on the lawmaker to remove himself from his position as the lead Senate Republican negotiator on health care reform.

Grassley has since stepped back from his comments on proposed health care reform legislation and how it would lead to “death panels” that would evaluate whether the elderly and infirm should be euthanized. Nonetheless, his stature as a level-headed lawmaker interested in a legislative compromise has been significantly diminished.

The story  began to unfold on August 12 when Grassley embarked on a series of town hall forums across Iowa that were covered by local press and some national media, including Roll Call. At the first stop in Winterset, Grassley gave voice to the “death panel” meme, which had been gaining traction in conservative circles for weeks. “You have every right to fear,” he said. “You shouldn’t have . . . a government-run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.” Hancock was the only reporter to report the now infamous quote and also challenge it, noting that the “death panels” had been debunked by numerous credible and non-partisan sources.

Following Hancock’s first story, The Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis blogged about Grassley’s comments, linking to The Iowa Independent. Soon after that, The Huffington Post linked directly to Hancock’s initial report and published a follow-up story later in the afternoon diving into the implications of Grassley’s comments and crediting The Iowa Independent with having first reported the remarks. Other national media outlets picked up on the story and credited The Iowa Independent with breaking it, including CBS News and The Baltimore Sun.

With the continued help of The Washington Independent’s blog, Hancock’s follow-up reporting later that day gained additional traction nationally. Grassley’s quote was not just a gaffe, Hancock reported: The senator repeated the “death panel” meme later that day at other town hall gatherings.

The comment boiled the blood of health care reform advocates nationwide. At the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the Republican-turned-Democrat who at the time was embroiled in a tough primary campaign, tried to endear himself to the progressive, net-savvy audience and, as The Washington Independent noted, said he would call Grassley to discuss his “death panel” comments to set the record straight. This would later spark a spat between Specter and Grassley on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington were wondering whether Grassley still stood as a willing partner to hammer out a health care reform compromise, as detailed by The New York Times: “The White House, carefully following Mr. Grassley’s activities, presumed he was no longer interested in negotiating with Democrats after he initially made no effort to debunk misinformation that the legislation could lead to ‘death panels’ empowered to judge who would receive care.”

On August 15, President Obama, during his own town hall event in Grand Junction, Colorado, cited the “pull the plug on grandma” quote as harmful and distorting to the debate over national health care. “We can have an honest disagreement,” the president said. “What you can’t do—or you can, but you shouldn’t do—is start saying things like we want to set up death panels to pull the plug on grandma.”

In the meantime, progressive health care reform advocates mobilized to apply pressure on Grassley. One group, Progressive Future, started a letter-writing campaign, saying that Grassley was unfit to remain the Senate Republicans’ lead negotiator on health care reform.

“Grassley Repeats ‘Death Panels’ Comments” (8/13/09)

“Grassley: Government shouldn’t ‘decide when to pull the plug on grandma’” (8/12/09)

“Grassley: Government Plan Threatens to ‘Pull the Plug on Grandma’” (8/12/09)

“Specter: ‘I’ll Call Chuck Grassley Today’” (8/14/09)

“Grassley repeats euthanasia claim” (8/12/09)

“Specter Calls Grassley, Doesn’t Get Through” (8/14/09)

“Grassley Launches Twitter War With Specter” (8/14/09)

Minnesota Independent Breaks Bachmann’s Call for “Prayer and Fasting”

The Minnesota Independent’s Paul Demko attended a  “teletownhall” sponsored by the anti-abortion group the Susan B. Anthony List at which Rep. Michele Bachmann repeated the “death panels” myth. The congressional representative also attacked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and called on participants to get down on their knees and pray that health care reform fails. “That’s really where this battle will be won—on our knees in prayer and fasting,” she told the listeners. Demko’s coverage was picked up by The Huffington Post, Time, and a host of social networks to bring nearly 50,000 readers to the site. Demko also covered a health care town hall that Bachmann held in Lake Elmo, where Bachmann entreated, “Let’s not destroy the greatest health care system the world has ever known.”

“Bachmann: Prayer and fasting will help defeat health care reform” (8/24/09)

“Lake Elmo Fire: Bachmann draws overflow crowd for health care scrum” (8/27/09)

Colorado Independent Captures Bachmann’s “Slit Our Wrists” Cry

Three days after the Lake Elmo event covered by The Minnesota Independent, Ernest Luning of The Colorado Independent caught up with Rep. Michele Bachmann in Denver. There, before a gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute, she again railed against the dangers of health care reform. “This cannot pass,” she said. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing.” Luning’s report, which also ran on The Minnesota Independent and was relayed by The Washington Independent, quickly dominated the news cycle, with sites such as The Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo, and cable news shows picking up on Bachmann’s “slit our wrists” statements. Ed Schultz of MSNBC devoted his entire “Psycho Talk” segment to her remarks. One Minnesota newspaper, the West Central Tribune, editorialized that Bachmann’s comment in Colorado “shows how extreme extremists on the issue have become.”

“Bachmann: ‘Slit our wrists, be blood brothers’ to beat health care reform” (8/31/09)

Iowa’s Reporting Impacts Senate Move to Fund Rural Mental Health Network

The Iowa Independent’s Lynda Waddington reported on a startling increase in suicides among American farmers and pointed out a lack of rural mental health programs, which resulted in lawmakers and their staffs on Capitol Hill looking for news ways to fund a national rural mental health network. Her coverage identified one very simple, low-cost program that seemed to mitigate the impact of the crisis: In states where suicide hotlines geared toward rural patients exist, farmer suicides were less common.

Waddington learned that the 2008 Farm Bill passed by Congress had authorized a Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network to create a national crisis hotline for rural workers. It also mandated additional behavioral health services in rural regions. But funding had not been appropriated by lawmakers in either the U.S. House or Senate. Waddington learned from AgriWellness, an Iowa-based rural mental health care organization, that when the hotline funding was up for discussion, her reporting had been widely distributed to decision makers on Capitol Hill.

Representatives from AgriWellness also told Waddington that her consistent reporting on the issue was instrumental in securing a meeting with top Senate Appropriations Committee staffers to explore ways to fund the national hotline. A key Appropriations aide quoted directly from Waddington’s reporting during meetings on the matter, using it as evidence as to why the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network should be funded. There is now a possibility that the funding could be included when agricultural appropriations go into a House-Senate conference committee. Had it not been for her compelling examination of the situation, the Senate Appropriations staffers would not have revisited the hotline funding after House and Senate lawmakers did not include funding in a recent round of agricultural appropriations.

“Farmer suicides spotlight lack of mental health care in rural America” (7/23/09)

“Congress fails to fund rural crisis hotline in agricultural appropriations” (8/7/09)

“States struggle to meet rural behavior health needs without federal funds” (9/11/09)

“USDA seeks nominations for dairy advisory committee” (8/28/09)

Energy

Mining Professor Finds His Job Threatened for Raising Concerns About “Fracking”

A Colorado School of Mines professor, Geoffrey Thyne, told David O. Williams in July that he was threatened with termination for expressing concerns about hydraulic fracturing, a process used to free up gas trapped in rock formations. Fracking, as it’s called, sends a solution of water, sand and chemicals into wells. It is the subject of pending federal legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, legislation that the oil and gas industry wants killed. DeGette’s bill has been a major topic of conversation in Garfield County, where energy industry money flooded the 2008 county commission race to defeat Democratic candidates who weren’t as friendly to drilling interests. Opponents of fracking say the process can contaminate local water sources, something Thyne has investigated.

“Colo. School of Mines professor says he was threatened with firing over hydraulic fracturing comments” (7/9/09)

Environment

Iowa Independent’s Dogged Coverage Results in Action on Coal Ash Dumps

Jason Hancock’s ongoing coverage of Iowa’s lax regulations on the disposal of coal ash resulted in state regulators and student leaders taking direct action. 

In July, in response to questions Hancock raised in his reporting, the chairman of the state’s Environmental Protection Commission called on the state legislature to reassess Iowa’s coal ash disposal rules. State Sen. Dennis Black (D-Grinnell), who chairs the Environment and Energy Independence Committee, said changes would be considered during next year’s legislative session.

After Hancock reported that Iowa’s three state universities were dumping their coal ash in an unlined, unmonitored disposal site in Waterloo, university administrators and students took notice of the problem. Prompted by questions from The Iowa Independent, university officials met with the owners of the Waterloo disposal site in August to find out whether the facility posed a threat to public health.

At first they concluded that the site was safe, and no changes were needed. That decision drew criticism from Plains Justice, an environmental group that has followed The Iowa Independent’s coverage of coal ash disposal closely. The decision also galvanized student groups, which pledged to take action to pressure the institutions to change their practices. Iowa State University students held a protest at the beginning of the school year to demand a meeting with the university president to discuss coal ash disposal procedures, and their efforts continued until they got their way. Finally, after The Iowa Independent reported on the protests, Iowa State University’s president agreed to meet with the student protesters in October.

In light of this mounting pressure, the universities did an about-face and announced they would begin groundwater testing at the coal ash disposal site they jointly use. 

Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with The Iowa Independent, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver acknowledged that regulations regarding coal ash disposal need to be strengthened, and he pledged to bring it up with U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in an upcoming meeting with her.

“EPC chair calls on legislature to look into coal ash rules” (7/7/09)

“Iowa universities will not alter coal ash disposal practices” (8/6/09)

“Students vow to press Iowa universities on coal ash disposal” (8/18/09)

“Students demand meeting with ISU president about coal ash disposal” (8/24/09)

“Students to meet with ISU president about coal ash” (9/21/09)

“Culver: Safe disposal of toxic coal ash must be addressed” (9/17/09)

“Public universities to monitor groundwater at coal ash dump site” (9/25/09)

Transparency in Government

TWI’s Insider Trading Coverage Leads to Congressional Hearing

The Washington Independent’s congressional reporter Mike Lillis used the financial disclosure statements of top U. S. Senators to reveal that 10 had dumped their personal financial stock the day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson informed them privately last fall about the true state of the economy.

In his July 6 story, Lillis linked his discovery to a bill that has been floundering since 2006; it aims to close the loophole that allows members of Congress to use inside information for personal gain (or pass it on to family members).

The day after Lillis’ story ran, the office of the bill’s author, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) contacted him, saying that Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kans.), who heads the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, had announced he would hold a hearing on the issue on July 13.

Before the hearing was announced, CIM’s metrics indicate that Lillis’ story was closely read by at least 12 people in House offices. House readers spent longer (an average of 4:13) reading the piece than nearly any other story viewed on the network.

“Bill Threatens Congress’ Shield From Insider Trading Laws” (7/6/09)

“More Scrutiny Coming on Government Insider Trading” (7/7/09)

The New Mexico Independent Uncovers Truth, Lies, and Database Bungling

In June, The New Mexico Independent’s Heath Haussamen and Trip Jennings discovered that all of the public information systems of the secretary of state (SoS) had broken down. The breakdown made doing business with the state—from accessing campaign and lobbyist information to registering trademarks and farm loans—impossible for citizens and lawmakers. But officials did not disclose the malfunction and, when exposed, misrepresented its causes. As a result, legislators held two meetings in which they discussed the secretary of state’s practices and deemed the office not competent enough to be entrusted with the state’s crucial online database project.

The crash reported by Haussamen and Jennings was only the latest chapter in the efforts of the SoS—which has consumed several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars—to give the public a searchable database of reports filed by political candidates, elected officials, lobbyists, and other public entities.

Hoping to defuse the story of the crash, the SoS posted a message online claiming that the office’s computer systems and Web site were down due to “upgrades,” a falsehood that Haussamen quickly caught and reported. The story led key lawmakers, including State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, to begin questioning the secretary of state’s fitness in The New Mexico Independent and other statewide news outlets. “You can’t be nice, you can’t be polite about this anymore,” Jones said to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The furor caused Secretary of State Mary Herrera to acknowledge the problem finally, telling Haussamen that the systems were down but would soon be operational and that the long-awaited database was still in development.

Then the system crashed again, and again the failure was not disclosed. State Rep. Brian Egolf, beyond frustration, said he and other lawmakers would call on Herrera’s staff to account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been allocated to her office for the project. “I want to know what it was spent on. We’re going to be looking at that,” he said.

As a result of NMI’s coverage, state lawmakers at two hearings in July asked SoS staffers to explain their bungling of the project. Ultimately, the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) deemed that the office was incapable of managing the public database and recommended that it and other SoS projects no longer be handled in-house. Lawmakers went on to conclude that officials had no disaster plan in place for public data and could not even communicate effectively with each other.

“N.M. Secretary of State’s computer systems knocked out” (6/26/09)

“N.M. secretary of state’s Web site now says it’s ‘down for upgrades’” (6/29/09)

“N.M. SOS Mary Herrera: All systems should be online Thursday” (7/2/09)

“Parts of N.M. secretary of state’s Web site down again” (7/9/09)

“Legislative review: N.M. Secretary of State’s Office lacks technical ability to manage IT projects” (7/21/09)

Public Funding of  Minnesota Teen Challenge Raises Constitutional Questions

The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey broke big news when his investigation into the funding of an evangelical treatment program in Minneapolis revealed that it had received $2.4 million from the state since 2007. Minnesota Teen Challenge acknowledged the religious nature of its chemical-dependency treatment programs but said state money is kept separate from its evangelical program. Testimony from program graduates, however, suggests that evangelism—and perhaps even conversion—are key to the group’s mission. First Amendment groups told Birkey that Teen Challenge’s activity appears to run afoul of the constitutional principle of church-state separation.

“Evangelical treatment program gets $2.4 million from state” (9/22/09)

TCI Takes the Ethics Commission to Court on Transparency Issues—and Wins

The Colorado Independent (TCI) scored a series of legal victories this summer in the fight to make the state’s Independent Ethics Commission more transparent. Earlier in the year,TCI’s Ernest Luning reported that the IEC conducted 85 percent of its business behind closed doors, which raised serious questions about the commission’s transparency and compliance with Colorado’s strict Open Meetings Act. The Colorado Independent sued the commission in the spring to force the release of a series of audio recordings of the closed-door meetings where major decisions were made, including the case of an ethics complaint against U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman when he served as Colorado secretary of state. IEC members had dismissed the Coffman complaint.

In late August, a Denver District Court judge ruled that the commission violated the state’s Open Meetings Law when it improperly convened a dozen closed-door meetings. Because the ethics panel didn’t follow the law, the court ordered the state’s top ethics panel to immediately release all records of any improperly closed meeting, even those the commission claims are protected by attorney-client privilege. In late July, the IEC agreed to release unedited audio recordings of two of the secret meetings to The Colorado Independent and planned to turn over redacted recordings of five additional closed-door meetings conducted earlier in the year.

In the late spring, six weeks after the lawsuit was filed, the IEC changed a variety of its practices to be more transparent, including the posting of public notices listing specific lawsuits filed against the commission which commissioners plan to discuss with their attorneys behind closed doors; public discussions of ethical questions under consideration by the panel; and recorded votes of commissioners when the IEC goes into executive session, as required by state law.

While the merits of lawsuit have been settled, questions of the state covering The Colorado Independent’s legal expenses still have to be resolved.

“State’s top ethics panel moves toward more open, transparent procedures” (6/19/09)

“Ethics panel agrees to release recordings of secret meetings” (8/3/09)

“Judge: Colorado’s top ethics panel broke open meetings law” (9/2/09)

Michigan Messenger’s Investigation of Secret Trade Pact Triggers State Lawmakers‘ Campaign

Dozens of state lawmakers, attorneys general, and other officials around the country acted en masse after The Michigan Messenger’s Ed Brayton revealed that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) under the Bush administration struck a secret deal with the European Union that could allow foreign ownership of liquefied natural gas terminals and other dangerous chemical and energy facilities in the United States, a move that would trump any local or state laws regulating such facilities.

Seeking details of the trade agreement, Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2008 with the USTR. The request was denied by the Bush administration on the grounds that it might compromise national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958.

Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch took up the matter of Brayton’s inquiry, alleging that the Bush administration was “illegally withholding the details of its offer accepted by the European Union to bind more sectors of the U.S. economy to World Trade Organization jurisdiction.” Public Citizen filed a lawsuit on Michigan Messenger’s behalf to force the White House to release the details.

As a federal judge was considering the case, USTR declassified the document the week before the November 2008 elections. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, assisted Brayton in analyzing the released information, which resulted in Brayton’s article. His reporting revealed that the deal could not only permit foreign ownership of energy plants, but it might also allow federal, state, and local regulations affecting those facilities to be challenged as barriers to international trade.

“It was important to get this document because it shows that the Bush administration was using the [World Trade Organization] process to sell out U.S. public safety and give foreign firms new rights and privileges here even as state authorities were trying to regulate these dangerous … facilities,” Wallach said.

Global Trade Watch used Brayton’s report and the information revealed through his FOIA request to organize local officials to press the White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative through a letter-writing campaign. The campaign began in the spring and continued through the summer. The lawmakers who took action include California State Sens. Joseph Simitian, Loni Hancock, Alan Lowenthal;California Assembly members Pedro Nava and Nancy Skinner;Massachusetts Rep. David Sullivan and Attorney General Martha Coakley;Oregon Sen. Diane Rosenbaum and Reps. Peter Buckley and Carolyn Tomei, and Reps. Marilyn Chase, Steve Conway and Geoff Simpson of Washington State.

The California lawmakers, in their letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, said that the pact revealed by the reporting “has generated a great deal of government concern, public protest and press in coastal states because of serious concerns regarding potential damage to air and water quality, seismic safety issues [and] the catastrophic explosive hazards posed by … facilities or tankers located near population centers presenting a target for terrorism.”

The information released by Brayton’s information request, as Global Trade Watch has noted, could cause congressional lawmakers and the Obama White House to reconsider the secret deal.

“Secret trade pact between U.S., Europe could void local laws on chemical, gas storage” (4/2/09)

Our feisty team has made the The New Mexico Independent a top destination with its tough, behind-the-scenes investigations of  Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration, suspect real estate and energy deals, questionable lobbying schemes, and elections like this month’s Albuquerque mayoral upset complete with charges of—surprise!—misuse of campaign funds.

And last night our Washington DC reporter, David Weigel, had his second appearance in one week on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, here.

More details follow, along with CIM’s other state-based and national reporting.

Best,

David

The Washington Independent’s political reporter, David Weigel, was the only national reporter to attend the “How to Take Back America” conference in St. Louis, Minn., which featured workshops such as “How to Recognize Living Under Nazis and Communists” and “How to Activate Your Church.” Six elected officials attended the event, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who dove into a limousine when Weigel asked her about the death of a U.S. Census Bureau worker. Bachmann had led the anti-census charge in the weeks before the incident. Weigel appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” where he described his interaction with Bachmann and explained why she should respond to questions about the death. MSNBC also quoted heavily from Weigel’s overview piece and aired a video interview that Weigel had conducted with Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) about why Franks thinks President Obama should release his long-form birth certificate. Though Obama was certainly born in the United States, Franks said, “There’s some other issue, I don’t know what it is, that he doesn’t want people to see the birth certificate on.” The video was widely circulated online, including on Politico and The Huffington Post. 

Weigel followed up on the St. Louis event the next week when he joined some 2,000 Tea Party activists at the Americans for Prosperity “Defending the American Dream” summit in Washington, DC. His careful read of the scene revealed an important turning point in the movement: many of the Beltway groups are pointing the one-time ideological movement toward 2010, aiming to drum up support for the Republican Party. When producers for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show read Weigel’s piece on the topic, they invited him on the program that night to explain the significance of the transition.

Economy reporter Mary Kane probed the relationships of the country’s largest financial literacy organization, JumpStart, a nonprofit that partners with federal agencies and private companies to provide schools with materials for students. Though widely considered a reputable group, Kane discovered that one of its partners is CompuCredit, a subprime lender that recently settled a $114 million lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) over deceptive practices. In addition, one of JumpStart’s regional directors, Bill Cheeks, does business with CompuCredit. Kane’s impact reporting led to an agreement by JumpStart to reevaluate its relationship with CompuCredit.

Spencer Ackerman, who closely tracks U.S. national security and foreign policy, broke from the rest of the mainstream press by questioning whether there is a divide between the White House and the Pentagon on Afghanistan strategy. Ackerman traced the story back to The New York Times coverage that portrayed Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recent defense of stabilizing Afghanistan as a public rebuke of Vice President Joe Biden. Ackerman’s reporting fueled online debate on Matthew Yglesias’ blog, among others.

David O. Williams reported from Montrose in Southwest Colorado, where county commissioners approved a plan to ramp up uranium milling operations in the Paradox Valley, which is already pockmarked with defunct mills from the area’s Cold War past. One commissioner referenced the September 11, 2001, terror attacks as a reason he voted for the uranium plan. “To me that’s a sign that we need to go ahead and stand strong, move forward and be firm and not allow all of our money to go to people that don’t like us,” said Republican Commissioner Ron Henderson, underscoring the need to boost the domestic energy industry. Local environmentalists, including Daryl Hannah, have decried the plan and accused officials of not considering the risks to the area.

John Tomasic revealed that, according to Twitter, state Sen. Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) gets his news from WorldNetDaily, the debunked meme generator of the right-wing blogosphere. Schultheis, who made national headlines this spring when he said HIV-infected babies would cause families to “see the negative consequences of promiscuity,” recently tweeted, “Liberals seek health-care [sic] access for illegals” and “Community Organizers pray to Obama,” thereby circulating conservative myths posing as news.

Katie Redding drove top traffic with her report on how many Latino groups in Colorado are resisting an evangelist-led boycott of the 2010 census by Latino citizens. The boycott is the brainchild of the Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the conservative evangelical National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, in a supposed attempt to pressure lawmakers to address immigration reform. Opponents pointed out to Redding that such a boycott would intentionally undercount Latinos, thereby playing into the hands of anti-immigrant pundits such as Michelle Malkin. The conservative Colorado Springs blogger argues that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be included in the census.

Redding also reported that many activists in Colorado are angry about a federal plan to expand a for-profit, private immigration detention facility in Aurora—even though a recent Obama administration report was highly critical of the current immigration detention system. Observers told Redding they are concerned that the expansion will cost taxpayers a fortune while doing untold damage to families and communities.

Jason Hancock reported that U.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) took several trips recently— including a golf outing to West Virginia and a weekend getaway to Atlantic City, N.J.— paid for by the Republicans’ political action committee (PAC) and touted as fundraising events, according to campaign finance watchdogs. Hancock did more digging and found that Latham took similar trips to prestigious golf resorts around the country throughout 2008, all paid for with PAC money. The practice is legal, Hancock reported, but government reform advocates contend this activity turns the PAC into little more than a slush fund designed to skirt campaign finance law.

With the trial of Solomon Rubashkin, the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant executive accused of a variety of immigration- and fraud-related charges, scheduled to begin Oct. 10, Lynda Waddington reported that a federal judge was angered when a pro-Rubashkin newspaper ad appeared in the Des Moines Register last week. Rubashkin’s trial was moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., in order to find a jury that hasn’t been exposed to details of the notorious June 2008 federal immigration raid at the Agripricessors plant in Postville, Iowa. The court has warned prosecutors and defense attorneys against manipulating the Sioux Falls media prior to the trial; Waddington has been in touch with the local press there and has found no such manipulation.

Jason Hancock noted that controversial Christian radio personality Steve Deace slammed Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for a speech he gave at an Iowa Christian Alliance banquet, which Deace called “a long, rambling, incoherent embarrassment.” In particular, he took issue with one of Grassley’s proposals to clarify “reporting requirements for tax-exempt organizations.” Deace fears this would open the door to discrimination against churches that refuse to hire homosexual or female applicants for pastoral positions. Hancock pointed out that Deace’s radio program has been the platform for several calls for a social conservative to challenge Grassley in 2010.

While Sen.Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) both believe that a final health care reform bill will include some sort of public option, Lynda Waddington reports that the two Iowa Democrats are also examining a new idea that could lead to a compromise: an opt-out provision. The proviso may win over some Republicans, allowing states to opt out of a public option that may defeat the purpose of reform, but consumers would be left out in states that have little health care competition without “meaningful choice.” Harkin noted that an opt-out provision may be a possibility, but said that the final health care bill will include a strong public option.

The Michigan Messenger team offered the most comprehensive coverage of any media outlet on the state’s down-to-the-wire budget showdown that nearly shut down state government. Todd A. Heywood, reporting from the state capitol, and Ed Brayton offered detailed updates (more than 35 articles and blog posts over the course of three days) and analysis of what led to the impasse—counterproductive Republican legislative tactics minutes before the deadline. The Michigan Republican Party inflamed the situation when it issued a press release falsely accusing the top two Democratic leaders of being at a party fundraiser during the negotiations. Heywood’s fact check revealed that the two were actually at the state capitol trying to hammer out a budget agreement. 

Eartha Jane Melzer examined how state mental health services are going to take a huge hit. Minehaha Forman looked at how cuts to local revenue sharing will hit the state’s largest city and its public schools, where the average class size will increase to 45 students. With a temporary deal in place, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said that there is still much work to be done to settle on a permanent budget and that she’s not afraid to use her line-item veto authority ”to shape this budget.” 

Melzer also reported that state environmental enforcement, having been hit with funding cuts, will be further hobbled by budget cuts. “There is no money for cleanup at thousands of sites known to be imminent and substantial dangers,” said an official for the state Department of Environmental Quality. The department is also set to merge with the Department of Natural Resources, a move that environmental organizations have endorsed while warning the governor that it will be no panacea to the state’s deep budget cuts.  

Plans by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to slash the size of the municipal government are not sitting well with organized labor and some elected officials in the city. As Minehaha Forman reported, members of Bing’s Transition Turnaround Team have suggested that a large swath of city government be privatized. Privatization could include outsourcing operations of the city-owned Coleman A. Young International Airport and the city’s payroll and accounts receivable departments, as well as closing the city-owned Mistersky Power Plant and replacing it with energy purchased from DTE Energy. One union official from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) questioned the cost-saving claims, saying Bing “wants to reward his corporate backers with lucrative contracts.”

Andy Birkey drew high traffic with his report that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will be headlining a fundraiser for a controversial Christian punk ministry. The group, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, has made a name for itself by organizing student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. However, parents and school administrators in the Midwest have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself by not being not transparent about its Christian mission. Birkey’s story drove nearly 8,000 readers to the site through The Huffington Post, Raw Story and social networking sites.

On the heels of Andy Birkey’s report about the controversial Christian punk ministry, civil liberties groups charged that the group You Can Run But You Cannot Hide is causing schools to run afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state. Officials from the Freedom From Religion Foundation told Birkey that the ministry, in its effort to evangelize in public schools, was using “assembly subterfuges to gain access to a captive audience of school children.” The observers added that it is incumbent on schools to research such groups before booking them for school activities.

Birkey also broke the news that the Pawlenty administration recently recommended that federal stimulus funds dedicated to mapping the state’s broadband service go to a nonprofit group funded by the telecom industry itself. Beyond the apparent conflict of interest, the choice also contradicted the input of the Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force, whose members Pawlenty appointed. One disgruntled task force member said it was like “ask[ing] the Minnesota Vikings to create a nonprofit to study whether a new football stadium is a good idea or not.”

Contributor Jon Collins profiled Lila Rose, a marquee media figure of the anti-abortion right, whose tactics raise serious questions about journalistic ethics. Rose readily admitted that her aim is dramatic effect and shrugged off criticism that her highly edited undercover videos can land her in ethically murky waters. She also suggested that she may conduct one of her “reports” in Minnesota this year.

With the Albuquerque election looming, Trip Jennings reported that one of the state’s largest developers had targeted its most vocal opponent on the City Council with an attack mailer. Development giant Westland has been lobbying hard for its plan to build on the West Side—using bonds based on future tax proceeds—a plan long opposed by City Councilor Michael Cadigan. Jennings revealed that a political committee funded largely by Westland issued the mailer, which painted Cadigan as anti-growth. 

Marjorie Childress investigated competing claims that two mayoral candidates were misusing campaign funds to rent their campaign headquarters. Incumbent mayor Martin Chavez pointed out that opponent Richard “R.J.”  Berry was paying himself rent using public campaign funds and running his office from the real estate holding company of which he is managing partner. Berry countered that Chavez was renting campaign office space from a law firm—which could be an illegitimate in-kind donation—although the Chavez camp responded that it was renting from an individual lawyer, not the firm itself. City Attorney Bob White was unable to shed much light on the dispute because, he said, no one had filed a formal complaint with him.

On election day, staffers issued live reports from the campaign headquarters of mayor candidates Chavez and Berry, along with city councilors Michael Cadigan, Isaac Benton and their challengers. 

More than 2,300 readers turned to Trip Jennings’ report and analysis of Berry’s come-from-behind victory over three-term incumbent Chavez. Marjorie Childress, meanwhile, provided experts’ views on the “grim” local economy that Berry is inheriting and recommendations for the new mayor. “You don’t want to add problems to the economy by cutting government spending, which would have ripple effects,” one University of New Mexico analyst advised.

GOOD NEWS

Salazar, Markey, Bennet secure cash to clean up water wells 

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and representatives John Salazar and Betsy Markey announced that they had finally secured $5 million in federal funding to begin work on the Arkansas Valley Conduit—a supply line to carry water from the Pueblo Dam to the city of Lamar. 

More medical marijuana nonprofits are imminent for New Mexico 

New Mexico has been struggling with a shortage of medical marijuana, in part because only one supplier has been licensed to produce the drug. That may change soon, as seven of the 25 current applications for licensure will be referred to Department of Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil for review this month.

Some fantastic news: September saw The Washington Independent breach the one million reader mark for the first time– 1.1 million unique visitors to be exact.

In May, TWI logged only 302,000 unique visitors– a 400% increase in four months!

What’s driving this phenomenal growth?  Outstanding reporting by our DC team on the issues at the forefront of public debate.  In a recent broadcast, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called our reporting “totally invaluable.”  Thank you, Rachel.

Details on our national and state-based coverage appear below.

Best regards,

David S. Bennahum

The Washington Independent’s financial reporter Mary Kane broke big news about Wells Fargo’s lending practices. At the height of the subprime boom, Wells Fargo devised a plan to increase its share of what it called the “alternative loan” market: to lure black borrowers otherwise wary of big banks to “wealth building” seminars with the help of trusted black figures such as PBS star Tavis Smiley. For at least two years, Smiley headlined standing-room-only events that were marketed heavily in African American media. In exchange for Smiley’s urging of the crowds to take out loans with Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo sponsored Smiley’s PBS show and his annual “State of the Black Union” event televised on C-SPAN. According to a predatory lending lawsuit filed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan in Illinois, Smiley and other black figures such as financial author Kelvin Boston were key to Wells Fargo’s success in the subprime market.   

When Kane first reported the news, Smiley had only posted a limp response on his Web site. After Kane’s story ran, black media, including The Root (which ran a headline, “Tavis: You’ve Got Some ‘Splaining to Do”) and Jack and Jill Politics, turned up the heat on Smiley. Posts across the Web demanded answers. Two days after the piece first appeared on TWI, Smiley told Richard Prince that he had decided to “sever ties” with Wells Fargo, even though such a move will “cost him a lot of money.” Smiley said he would not be affiliated with Wells Fargo until the bank resolved charges that it targeted minority borrowers for higher-cost loans.

David Weigel tapped his sources in the conservative movement to deliver a behind-the-scenes report on the media strategy underlying the recent conservative-fanned ACORN scandal. Weigel spoke with Andrew Breitbart, cofounder of The Huffington Post and Matt Drudge’s former right-hand man, who recently launched BigGovernment.com, the site that released the videos of ACORN employees giving advice to two undercover conservative activists on how to evade taxes on a fictitious prostitution and child-trafficking scheme. Breitbart explained that the videos were released slowly, without identifying the people behind them, to withhold any information that ACORN’s defenders could use to discredit the attackers. “It was strategized,” Breitbart told Weigel, so “that [the liberal infrastructure] would be deprived of the type of information that a defense attorney would try to gather in order to create a defense.” As a result, the videos were able to permeate the media unchallenged. Weigel’s story drew a lot of attention around the blogosphere, with pickup from BigGovernment, Andrew Sullivan, and Politico, among others.

Congressional reporter Mike Lillis took a look at a question that has largely been ignored during the debate over health care reform: What good is insurance coverage if local doctors don’t accept it? While Democratic proposals for expanding Medicaid may guarantee coverage for millions of Americans currently going without, the legislation may do little to ensure they actually get care unless more doctors start participating in the program. Just 40 percent of physicians currently accept all new Medicaid patients, while only 27 percent of dentists accept Medicaid. Lillis’s reporting outlined how enacting true reform may be more complicated than the already hairy fight over the “public option.”

To help our growing online community of readers track the debate over the public option, TWI just launched an exciting new feature—the “Senate Public Option Scoreboard.” Exhaustively researched and updated daily, it contains the latest position of every senator on a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers as part of a health care reform package. Marketwatch highlighted the TWI scoreboard, and OpenLeft’s Chris Bowers used a scoreboard analysis to argue that Democrats do indeed have enough votes to pass a triggerless public option through reconciliation.

 

 

 

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis recently introduced legislation that would repeal the controversial Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and he quickly came under criticism by Republicans, including Colorado Springs Rep. Doug Lamborn. The Colorado Independent’s Joseph Boven fact-checked the basis of Lamborn’s opposition—that all states would be forced to recognize same-sex marriages—and found the congressman’s reading of the bill to be “as politically easy to sell as it is factually slippery.” The DOMA repeal would apply only federal recognition to same-sex marriage, leaving state laws to govern locally, Boven explained.

The debate over proposed federal legislation that would more stringently regulate the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in oil and gas drilling continues. In Garfield County, commissioners decided to delay consideration of a local resolution on the bill to learn more about the process, which some say has led to groundwater contamination, as David O. Williams reported. A Democratic county commissioner voiced her support for the fracking bill, but there is opposition from some Republicans. The legislation would require the disclosure of the ingredients that go into the chemical cocktail that helps loosen up additional oil or gas in a well. 

As officials in Montrose County consider a plan to jump-start uranium milling near the Utah border, David O. Williams reported that trucks carrying the uranium ore and the processed uranium concentrate called “yellowcake” to make fuel rods for nuclear reactors would face almost no restrictions on where they can go and what highways they can use. Such materials, he found, are considered mere hazardous materials and therefore are not limited to transportation along the state’s designated nuclear materials routes.

In recent years, a unique partnership between state government and nonprofit groups has made significant strides to clean up acid mine drainage in the Sugarloaf Mine District in Lake County. But as Katie Redding explained, such “Good Samaritan” cleanup efforts could be subject to lawsuits under the Clean Water Act if they do not meet federal standards. That has put the scare into a number of volunteer cleanup efforts across Colorado, something U.S. Sen. Mark Udall hopes to change with a Clean Water Act amendment later this year.

 

 

The Iowa Independent’s Jason Hancock tracked statements that U.S. Rep. Steve King recently made on a conservative radio talk show. The western Iowa lawmaker declared that Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling that approved same-sex marriage is laying the foundation for socialism to take root in the state. King, who also made inaccurate analogies related to the Soviet Union, said same-sex marriage is a “purely socialist concept,” and for a socialist state to form, traditional marriage must be undermined. 

Lynda Waddington continued her examination of Iowa’s HIV transmission law, which one observer described as “a sledgehammer looking for a thumbtack.” In some cases, like that of 34-year-old Nick Rhoades, even if the virus is not transmitted those with HIV can face tougher prosecution and stiffer criminal penalties. Waddington profiled Rhoades’s case, in which Rhoades was sentenced four months ago to serve 25 years behind bars for violating the state’s transmission law, even though his partner did not contract the virus and the sexual contact was consensual.. During a recent recrimination hearing, a judge let Rhoades leave prison to serve five years probation instead. 

After months of meticulous, award-winning reporting by Jason Hancock, Iowa’s public universities decided to test the groundwater near the unlined, unmonitored coal ash dump they jointly use near Waterloo. This move comes several weeks after the universities said such testing would be unnecessary. Students, acting on Hancock’s reporting, called on their university administrations to take action. In an interview with Iowa’s Democratic governor, Chet Culver, Hancock learned Culver expects there will be changes to the way the state regulates disposal of toxic coal ash, given consensus due in large part to Hancock’s reporting. But, the governor said, the state will have to wait until federal regulators rewrite guidelines. That’s expected by the end of the year. 

 

 

The Michigan Messenger’s Eartha Jane Melzer focused her attention on the storage of nuclear waste at power facilities in Michigan. At the Fermi power station downriver from Detroit, local activists have voiced concerns that the storage of fuel rods in concrete casks on plant property leaves the radioactive materials vulnerable to attack or accident. Melzer also noted new concerns over the long-term storage of such nuclear materials at the former Big Rock plant near Charlevoix among other sites across the country. Although the plant closed in 1997, eight casks of high-level nuclear waste remain at the property. 

After assuring LGBT activists and leaders for two years that a controversial Web site would be removed from its computer servers, Michigan State University said last week it will continue to host the Web site of the “ex-gay” ministry known as Corduroy Stone, Todd A. Heywood reported. The university said the man who controls the site is a retired university employee who is entitled to the server space and isn’t violating the school’s usage policy. Although MSU officials called the “ex-gay” ministry content offensive, it is protected by the First Amendment.

As a round of closed-door negotiations conclude between Dow Chemical and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the Midland-based company’s contamination of toxic dioxin into the local watershed, Eartha Jane Melzer asked: Will local residents be relocated from cleaned-up areas that will be recontaminated during seasonal flooding? So far, the EPA has said relocation is unlikely, which is unsettling to some observers because past cleanups by the company had to be redone by federal authorities. 

The Michigan Department of Corrections justified its policy that prevents HIV-positive inmates from working for prison food services, which provide the highest-paying jobs in jail. As Todd A. Heywood pointed out this spring, the department’s rationale was based on the unscientific belief that HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through tainted food, which prompted the Michigan Department of Civil Rights to investigate. But this month corrections officials shifted their rationale to one based on security: Some prisoners may think HIV-positive inmates are intentionally trying to poison them through food, which could make those HIV-positive inmates the object of jailhouse reprisals.

 

 

The Minnesota Independent’s Chris Steller fact-checked a highly publicized letter that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty sent to state officials ordering a freeze on all state payments to ACORN in the wake of the group’s recent scandal. But as Steller pointed out, ACORN doesn’t receive any state funds. What’s more, local ACORN officials told Steller that the governor actually trumpeted his ACORN-related work as recently as two years ago, when he signed into law an anti-predatory lending bill that ACORN helped develop. ACORN’s state political director said the letter was “clearly political opportunism on the governor’s part.”

Meanwhile, the MnIndy team maintained its focus on the Minneapolis City Council races. Chris Steller interviewed the key players in Ward Two, the ward that launched the careers of Democratic-Farmer-Laborer titans such as Hubert Humphrey and Don Fraser. For the first time in memory, no Democrat is on the ballot in that ward. Instead, Green Party incumbent Cam Gordon is squaring off against Republican- and Independence Party-endorsed Allen Aigbogun, a recent law school grad. Paul Demko profiled the race in South Minneapolis’s diverse Ward Six, where Democrat Robert Lilligren faces five challengers, more than any other city council incumbent.

Andy Birkey broke big news when his investigation revealed that an evangelical treatment program in Minneapolis has received $2.4 million from the state since 2007. Minnesota Teen Challenge acknowledged the religious nature of its chemical-dependency treatment programs but said state money is kept separate from its evangelical program. Testimony from program graduates, however, suggests that evangelism—and perhaps even conversion—are key to the group’s mission. First Amendment groups told Birkey that Teen Challenge’s activity appears to run afoul of the constitutional principle of church-state separation, but it’s difficult to prove whether the organization is misusing state funds.

As crucial elections draw near in Minneapolis, Chris Steller scrutinized Hennepin County’s online records and found that financial reports for at least a dozen Minneapolis campaign committees and a dozen more political action committees are missing. A change in pre-primary filing rules, along with a technical snafu, explained some of the missing data. But of 26 PACs registered with the county as current in Minneapolis, pre-primary reports for only 14 are posted online; meanwhile, two third-party candidates flatly refused to release their personal financials.

 

 

New Mexico Independent (NMI) reporter Heath Haussamen earned top traffic with his coverage of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s announcement, made in Las Cruces, that the Obama administration is laying the groundwork for immigration reform, including a proposal similar to the “DREAM Act”—the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act that would grant certain undocumented immigrants, such as those who arrive as children and graduate from high school, the opportunity to earn permanent residency. The news was picked up by issue blogs on both the right and the left around the country.

Marjorie Childress investigated the active role that the state Republican Party is playing in Albuquerque’s mayoral race, which by law is nonpartisan. The party has helped Republican State Rep. Richard Berry with canvassing and volunteer labor, and Berry has used telephone lines and a copy machine at state party headquarters, Childress reported. In addition, the party funded a poll late in 2008 that included questions about the mayoral race. The city clerk said such support is legal, but his office is looking into how Republican funds have been spent in this and other local races.

In addition, Childress revealed that the construction company Berry describes as his “family-owned business” is actually owned by his wife. The firm has secured almost $50 million in federal no-bid contracts due to its status as a woman- and minority-owned business. Berry did not respond to Childress’s inquiries for clarification, but NMI is at work securing details about Berry’s five reported sources of income while the candidate continues to resist releasing his tax returns. 

Childress also fact-checked a mailer sent to voters by the Berry campaign that linked the city’s crime rate to a police policy regarding immigrants. The mailer inaccurately described Albuquerque as a “sanctuary city” that “attracts criminals.” Officials with the Albuquerque Police Department told NMI that Berry mischaracterized the department’s policy on immigration and noted that such distortions threaten to weaken the trust the department has worked to gain among the city’s immigrant community.

 

GOOD NEWS:

Democratic State Rep. Fred Durhal announced a free college tuition plan for Michigan high school graduates. He says his plan will be accomplished without raising taxes.

As Cedar Rapids, Iowa, continues to recover from last year’s devastating floods, the new director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, promised $5 million in funding to repair the city’s devastated Central Fire Station.

 

 

 

As part of two investigative series earlier this year, The Colorado Independent (TCI) sued Colorado State University to get records pertaining to their controversial chancellor search, and won.  TCI also sued the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission to get all their records of every ethical determination they’ve done, and won. The Circuit Court ruling was just handed down with the additional good news that the state is paying our attorneys’ fees—about $30,000.

Both suits are victories for open government and accountability. They also are part of a test we conducted to see whether we could add litigation to our reporters’ investigative tool-kit in the long-standing tradition of news organizations watchdogging public institutions. So far the tests are all coming back positive.  

This finding coincides with the sad fact that the downsizing of newspapers has not only killed off reporters, it’s also killed off this kind of public interest litigation. Coincidentally, earlier this month, at the same time we won the Ethics Commission suit, The New York Times ran an item about diminishing newsroom litigation and the social consequences of that trend. 

I welcome your feedback on strategic litigation and the breaking stories below.

Best,

David Bennahum

National security reporter Spencer Ackerman took the dubious world of war-contracting head on, breaking two major stories. First, Ackerman reported on how Blackwater (now known as Xe) was up for a potential security contract in Afghanistan with the State Department. The contract would be the same as the one the company had been working under in Iraq when its employees opened fire on civilians, killing 17 Iraqis. The State Department declined to respond to Ackerman’s questions before the story ran. After Ackerman appeared on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show to talk about his story and the recently released photos of ArmorGroup contractors engaged in bizarre and abusive practices, he was inundated with additional information from a variety of sources. Ackerman followed his story with a second contracting scoop, revealing that ArmorGroup was hired to replace a company fired when its subcontractors did not speak English well enough to take orders from officials at the embassy in Kabul. According to two senior officials, ArmorGroup quickly had the same problem with its own low-paid subcontractors. Ackerman showed the company had been under scrutiny until 2007.  

Ackerman went on to break additional allegations from former employees, including charges of defrauding the State Department when bidding on the contract; providing workers with insufficient equipment; and allegations that some employees solicited prostitutes and perhaps even ran their own prostitution services. Ackerman’s work was some of TWI’s top content, cited and linked widely.

Conservative-movement reporter David Weigel picked apart the genesis of the burgeoning movement to oust “green jobs czar” Van Jones, tracing the attacks of Fox TV’s Glenn Beck back to a widely read—and widely discredited—fringe right-wing conspiracy site, WorldNetDaily. Weigel explained how rumors start on the site, and then get spread into the wider conservative media, giving them legitimacy. WorldNetDaily was the originator of the “birther” movement. Weigel also uncovered how the site boasts 6 million unique visitors per month, an unrivaled position on the conservative media spectrum. With that comes an e-mail list of 335,000—which the RNC has bought. Weigel’s story helped readers understand how an off-the-wall smear starts and then gains traction.

While most of the coverage following the resignation of Van Jones focused on Glenn Beck’s crusade, David Weigel dug deeper and reported on the original attacks by climate change skeptics that put Jones on Beck’s radar screen. Weigel called attention to the obscure concept of “watermelon environmentalism” —green on the outside, red on the inside—that has long been used to try to taint environmentalism by describing it as a cover for communism. Before Jones, this attack had never taken hold. Since Jones’ downfall, the  climate change deniers may now have a roadmap for bringing down more green activists in positions of power. Weigel’s piece was linked by publications across the political spectrum, including The Atlantic and National Review.  

Ernest Luning covered U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s fiery speech before a Denver gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute, where the Minnesota Republican railed against the dangers of health care reform. “This cannot pass,” she said. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing.” Luning’s report, which also ran on The Minnesota Independent and was relayed by The Washington Independent, quickly dominated the news cycle, with sites such as The Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo, and cable news shows picking up on Bachmann’s “slit our wrists” statements. Ed Schultz of MSNBC devoted his entire “Psycho Talk” segment to her remarks. One Minnesota newspaper, the West Central Tribune, editorialized that Bachmann’s comment in Colorado “shows how extreme extremists on the issue have become.” 

Joseph Boven took note of conservative KHOW radio show host Peter Boyles’ new effort to promote the “birther” movement in the Denver area by teaming up with a Wheat Ridge billboard owner to put up “Where is the birth certificate?” signs before 300,000 daily commuters along I-70. Boyles said that he is not attacking President Obama, just discussing the role of a birth certificate in the constitutional eligibility for president. Said Boyles: “It’ll rock ‘n’ roll when this happens… Maybe other radio talk show hosts will do the same and see what their audiences do.”

Fact-checking Denver right-wing radio host Peter Boyles’ claims that Democratic health care reform would fund abortions and provide coverage for illegal immigrants. Boven found Boyles using such Orwellian euphemisms as “pregnancy reversals” and “undocumented visitors” to mask the true intent of the legislation. Boven noted that those phrases are nowhere to be found in the proposed bill, adding, “Boyles was either making that up. . . [or] was led astray by an unreliable source, just as he was leading his own listeners astray.” 

Katie Redding reported that federal legislation to clean the contaminated Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel, sponsored by Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, appears to have been killed in a partisan fight on Capitol Hill. The battle began when Lamborn led a charge against an earlier bill to create a national heritage area in Arizona’s Santa Cruz Valley, championed by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. Lamborn spoke vehemently against the measure, arguing that it threatened private property rights and would allow drug cartels to “run rampant” among Border Patrol agents “hamstrung by draconian rules.” Democrats responded by derailing Lamborn’s Leadville bill, saying they took issue with the procedure by which the bill came up for a vote. The bill may be brought back up in the coming weeks.

Iowa Republicans are assessing their failed efforts to capture a Democratic State House seat during a special election. As Jason Hancock reported, Democrats comfortably held onto the seat in southeastern Iowa and continue to hold Republicans at bay at the state capitol, controlling both chambers. National conservative organizations spent heavily to make a statement—the National Association for Marriage spent upwards of $86,000 on an ad buy—and came up short, running into the Democrats’ 100,000-plus voter registration advantage in the state. 

Although there was little drama when the state created a task force to decide which of Iowa’s four mental health facilities should be closed to consolidate services now that the panel is up and running, local communities that would be affected by a closure are paying attention. As Lynda Waddington reported, the task force has a tough mission—analyzing the services offered at the different locations, figuring out what resources are available to sustain them, and finding a way to offer the same level of service, all with reduced funding.

Jason Hancock continued to watch moves by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, as the battle over health care reform heated up. Grassley has been fighting back against his critics who questioned his commitment to reach a compromise on a health care bill. But at the same time, Hancock noted, Grassley continued to push the false rumor that the White House’s reform efforts would force the aged and infirm to go before so-called “death panels,” a scenario he raised most recently at a South Florida fundraiser.

As economic stresses mount on the nation’s rural sector, Lynda Waddington reported that many states are turning to Iowa for advice on how to effectively provide mental health care services to underserved rural populations. According to Iowa-based AgriWellness, at least 28 states have been looking to Iowa’s experience with Sowing the Seeds of Hope, a mental health care hotline supported by AgriWellness and the Iowa State University Extension. The big question is about funding: Although Congress has authorized the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, it has not yet found funding for it.

After shocking photos of private security guards at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, were released to the public—and as Spencer Ackierman pursued the story for TWI (see above)—Eartha Jane Melzer looked into the growing concerns about private security at Michigan’s nuclear power plants. The private security firm at the American embassy, ArmorGroup, is a subsidiary of Wackenhut, which protects Michigan’s Palisades Power Plant near South Haven. In recent years, congressional lawmakers have raised serious questions about whether Wackenhut should be protecting nuclear facilities. 

As part of budget-tightening efforts, Michigan Republicans have put forth a cost-cutting proposal that would privatize the state’s juvenile justice system. But as Minehaha Forman reported, a good chunk of the troubled system is already privatized, and the true cost savings in the GOP plan comes only if the most seriously troubled juveniles, who are too dangerous for private corrections services, are factored out. Juvenile justice advocates are urging that Republicans do thorough research before putting forth further plans. 

A recent decision by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who ruled  that Lansing’s city attorney did nothing unlawful when he disclosed the HIV status of an arrested man earlier this summer, took some by surprise, Todd A. Heywood reported.  Republican Cox’s decision raised concerns about the protection of such sensitive information. Democratic State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, who is eyeing a run for attorney general next year, said the “scary” opinion clearly violates the “legislative intent” of state laws, specifically a stringent regulation that makes it a misdemeanor to disclose a person’s HIV status —positive or negative —except under very narrow conditions.

Eartha Jane Melzer also monitored congressional hearings where U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. testified in favor of the reconsideration of a provision known as “cramdown,” by which bankruptcy judges can take decisive action to set new mortgage terms and sidestep lenders.The Democrat said that voluntary loan modification programs were not saving people from losing their homes to foreclosure, and the problem is acute in the Detroit area where 195 Wayne County homes are entering foreclosure each month. The cramdown legislation may come up for consideration later this year.

Chris Steller won more than 18,000 readers with his post on recent remarks by U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (DFL-Minn.) about Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). At a meeting last week with union leaders in Duluth, an official asked Oberstar if he’d heard about Bachmann’s comments—first reported by The Colorado Independent’s Ernest Luning—that her supporters should “make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers” in fighting health care reform. “I don’t think God’s talking to her anymore,” Oberstar said in response. “I think she’s hearing other voices.” 

Video of Sen. Al Franken’s health care forum at the Minnesota State Fair became a social networking hit, with thousands clicking through to watch Democrat Franken, confronted by reform opponents, engaging in civil and substantive discussion of the issues. He told a Tea Partier that he would vote using his “independent judgment” and not according to polls or party directives.

Andy Birkey broke the news that the city of Elk River, under pressure from the religious-right legal group Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), removed an ordinance that banned religious groups from holding worship services in the city’s library. The council voted on August 17 to remove the restriction, the latest step in an effort by city leadership to bring the “Kingdom of God” to Elk River. The mayor, pastors, and local business leaders continue to hold weekly worship services so “every person in the greater Elk River area [may] be prayed for by name.”

The Independent team provided comprehensive, insightful, multimedia coverage of President Obama’s recent visit to Target Center to promote health care reform. Paul Demko reported from the scene of Obama’s speech, where he “fired up the faithful” in the name of reform, while photojournalist Kathy Easthagen captured events inside and outside the venue, including the appearances of local and national officials. Demko also profiled an effort by a local “birther” to discredit the president and fact-checked some of her claims.

Trip Jennings broke the news that key documents in the criminal case against former New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron are missing. While investigating the $6.3 million contract that is central to money-laundering allegations against Vigil Giron, Jennings found that the secretary of state’s office has no record of who bid on the contract. It is not clear if the agency under Vigil-Giron’s successor, Mary Herrera, ever had the documents and, if it did, what happened to them. Jennings continues to investigate.

Marjorie Childress took top traffic with her report that the state’s nascent medical marijuana program has been driven to a near halt because the lone nonprofit licensed to dispense the marijuana is out of its supply. According to patients who use the service, the Santa Fe Institute for Natural Medicine has run out of its product and won’t have more available until October. The shortfall, which has patients considering obtaining the drug on the black market, raises important questions about the state’s ability to meet demand and serve the needs of the nonprofit’s patients. 

In her followup coverage, she spoke to national drug-policy reform advocates who said the state’s program will need to be revisited if patients can’t be guaranteed access to the medicine. The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) told Childress the law should be revised to allow the state to produce and distribute the marijuana itself or at least allow caregivers to grow it for patients. “The intent of the law isn’t for [patients] to have to rely on the black market,” DPA’s chief attorney said.

Trip Jennings’ coverage of issues surrounding Gov. Bill Richardson’s houseboat accident on Elephant Butte Lake has been driving traffic ever since a police report detailed the Labor Day weekend crash in which a boat carrying Richardson and his entourage collided with two other boats. Jennings called one of the victims in the crash and learned that Richardson’s party left within three minutes after docking and that Chief of Staff Brian Condit, who had been driving the boat, didn’t wait to speak to authorities at the scene. Jennings later cornered Richardson at the New Mexico State Fair and asked about the incident; Richardson replied that he and his party stayed 30 minutes at the scene. But the eyewitness Jennings interviewed stood firm on his version of their events—and the two officers who responded to the accident said that they did not see the governor or Condit when they arrived on the scene 20 minutes after the crash. Jennings’ coverage has delivered thousands of visitors to the site from TalkingPointsMemo, Wonkette, and Stateline, among many other sites.

GOOD NEWS:

Boulder gym receives one of 12 first-round new energy stimulus grants

A new climbing gym in Boulder that receives 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources received one of 12 grants awarded in the first round of a stimulus program that provides cash instead of earned tax credits to renewable energy projects.

State, businesses work to foster green-sector growth

Michigan is spending about $6 million aimed at not only retraining workers for green jobs but also playing matchmaker between companies that need certain skills and the retrained workers who have them.

• Iowa’s Jason Hancock, Chase Martyn, and Lynda Waddington walked away with first place in online beat reporting for their coverage of the Iowa Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling. Martyn also took third place for columns/commentary/news analysis on the issue. Hancock won third place for in-depth reporting for his investigation of the state’s toxic coal ash regulations.  And for The New Mexico Independent, Trip Jennings captured first place/single report for his work investigating an Albuquerque auditing firm with deep ties to Gov. Bill Richardson.

• TWI’s jump in the numbers was a team effort: Spencer Ackerman and Daphne Eviatar produced traffic-driving posts on the CIA inspector general’s report on torture; Ackerman discovered the previously unacknowledged torture technique of prolonged “diapering” of detainees, while besting the rest of the media in publishing declassified files that former Vice President Dick Cheney claims justify his argument that torture is an effective interrogation technique. David Weigel took on a prominent conservative blogger over followers of Lyndon LaRouche who have been showing up at town hall meetings comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler. And Mike Lillis delved into the record of  “bipartisan” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), unmasking the vitriolic health care reform opponent as a partisan and deeply conservative figure. Lillis’s story, picked up by Think Progress, helps explain the uphill battle Congress faces in passing a bipartisan health care bill.

Best regards,

David Bennahum

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has spent years cultivating his image as a moderate conservative who reaches across the aisle on important legislation. So as the health care debate heated up, observers were taken by surprise when the powerful Republican launched vicious— and false— attacks against Democratic health care reform proposals during a campaign swing through his home state. Mike Lillis reported that Grassley’s fiercely partisan stance should not have come as a shock. A look at his record, rather than his reputation in the Senate, reveals a partisan and deeply conservative figure. The story, picked up by Think Progress, helped explain the uphill battle Congress faces in passing a bipartisan health care bill.

David Weigel took on a prominent conservative blogger over the followers of Lyndon LaRouche who have been showing up at town hall meetings comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler. Weigel was the first to post a video of a woman at a town hall confronting Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., about Obama’s “Nazi” health care policies. Weigel identified the woman, who held a sign that depicted Obama with a Hitler mustache, as a LaRouche supporter. This prompted John McCormack of Weekly Standard to chortle that Democrats are smearing Obama as a Nazi, because LaRouche ran for president as a Democrat. Weigel dismantled this argument by pointing out that LaRouche and his supporters have been thoroughly rejected by the Democratic Party, and the arguments LaRouchies made on the issues of health care and global warming are squarely in line with those being made by mainstream conservatives.

Spencer Ackerman and Daphne Eviatar tag-teamed the report and produced numerous posts in the hours and days following the release.the CIA inspector general’s report on torture. Of note, Ackerman uncovered a previously unacknowledged torture technique: prolonged “diapering” of detainees. As Ackerman reported, the innocuous-sounding technique forced detainees to wear the same soiled diaper for up to three days, a practice found to be not only humiliating but also harmful to one’s health.

Ackerman also obtained documents that former Vice President Dick Cheney asked to declassify because he said they supported his claims that torture produced valuable intelligence that prevented terrorist attacks. TWI was the first to publishthese files, and Ackerman found that the declassified versions of the documents provided little evidence to support Cheney’s claims and, in fact, suggested the opposite—that non-abusive methods produced the most valuable intelligence. Ackerman’s takedown of Cheney was the No. 1 story on The Daily Beast’s “Cheat Sheet.”  It was cited widely across the Web, with links from The New York Times’ “Opinionator” blog, Andrew Sullivan’s “The Daily Dish,” TPM, and many others.

David O. Williams covered U.S. Rep. Jared Polis’ town hall meeting in the conservative mountain town of Edwards to discuss health care reform.The Democrat was greeted at times with boos and condemnation, but he pointed out that he’s bucked his own party on matters important to the district. For instance, Polis said he balked at an earlier plan to fund health care reform with a surcharge on the wealthiest Americans, something that would have affected some local constituents. Polis said he supports a public option but doesn’t want to force people to get rid of their private insurance.

Williams also reported that citizen activists in the Garfield County community of Battlement Mesa are pressing county officials to increase the setback distance separating drilling operations from a residential neighborhood there.  Although the state’s oil and gas conservation commission has jurisdiction over such matters, state regulations are running up against local drilling rules, Williams pointed out, meaning the battle over how close oil and gas drilling operations can get to homes may end up being decided by Colorado’s attorney general.

The legal battle over Amendment 54, a controversial “clean government” ballot initiative approved last year, was fast-tracked to the Colorado Supreme Court, John Tomasic reported. Billed as a measure to prevent pay-to-play schemes in state government, the amendment would prevent campaign contributions from anyone working under a state contract, likely including some union members and their families. “This [amendment] was designed to prevent the political expression of anyone with a state contract,” a lawyer for the plaintiffs told Tomasic. The state Supreme Court may hear the case this fall.

Ernest Luning responded swiftly to shifts in the state’s political landscape late last week, reporting that former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is readying for a primary challenge to Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. He also noted that Ken Buck, the Weld County district attorney who successfully prosecuted the murderer of transgender woman Angie Zapata in Greeley, withdrew from the Senate race on the Republican side just days after word emerged that the National Republican Senatorial Committee  was in favor of former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, who is expected to enter the race in September.

Jason Hancock’s ongoing examination of coal ash dumping in Iowa continues. He reported that students at three state universities vowed to press their respective administrations to change policies about how and where they dump the coal ash they generate. In response to Hancock’s original reporting on coal ash, the universities said they would not change their ways. But now students at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa have formed a statewide student environmental alliance, and coal ash is at the top of their agenda.

Chase Martyn tracked developments in the special election for a state House seat that has attracted not only a lot of attention from conservative organizations inside and outside the state but also a lot of money. While groups such as the Iowa Family Council and Iowans for Tax Relief have been pushing for Republican Stephen Burgmeier, the most notable development has been an $86,060 ad buy for Burgmeier by the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay-marriage group. Thata’s a sizable amount for a rural state legislative race.

Minority homeowners in Des Moines were three times more likely to receive high-cost subprime mortgage loans from Wells Fargo & Co. than white homeowners, according to research reported by Jason Hancock. The Des Moines-based Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and Chicago-based National People’s Action compiled data showing 46 percent of African-American and 35 percent of Latino homeowners in the Des Moines area that received a mortgage from Wells Fargo were given high-cost, subprime loans. Only 20 percent of white borrowers were given these loans.

As the national debate on health care reform stewed over the past few weeks, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley has been in the spotlight for comments he made at a town hall gathering in Winterset where he repeated the myth that the reform efforts would result in “death panels” where the elderly and infirm would be evaluated for euthanasia. After The Iowa Independent initially reported the comments, the Republican lawmaker seemed to retreat from them slightly. But as Jason Hancock reported, during a recent town hall forum in Pocahontas, Grassley danced the line between killing the rumor and continuing to spread it. Grassley said anyone who claimed the bill would allow the government to make end-of-life decisions for older Americans is not being truthful. But he added that his constituents have every right to be concerned about the end-of-life provision because of fear of health care rationing.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is working on its massive dioxin cleanup in the Saginaw River watershed, said it wants to include in the effort a cross-section of those affected by the contamination downstream from Dow Chemical’s Midland plant. But as Eartha Jane Melzer reported, minority communities that are most likely to feel the impact from the dioxin are not represented on the EPA’s Community Advisory Group. Melzer reported on a Michigan Department of Community Health study that noted African-American and Latino communities are less likely to be aware of local fish consumption advisories and more likely to eat local catfish and carp that are generally more toxic. 

Todd A. Heywood reported that the Michigan House Judiciary Committee voted to give itself subpoena power, something it currently lacks. The move could signal that House lawmakers want to take more aggressive action to compel Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to answer questions first raised by Heywood in his examination of mortgage fraud cases that were forwarded to the attorney general’s office. Cox has refused to answer what action his office has taken on the cases.

Ed Brayton took top traffic with his post on the withering criticism that former national security officials and military officers have leveled at Rep. Pete Hoekstra, accusing him of politicizing the debate over a possible plan to transfer Guantanamo detainees to a maximum-security prison in Standish, Mich. The Republican congressman had told a crowd in Standish they had “much to fear” if the detainees came to Michigan. The officials who have worked on the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals responded in an open letter  that said Hoekstra “spread fear in order to score political points, and perpetuate the Bush/Cheney era strategy of seeking political victories instead of doing what’s right to protect the country.”

A Republican state lawmaker has proposed a plan to save the state’s wetland program from threatened budget cuts, but as Eartha Jane Melzer reported, it could involve some important tradeoffs, including weakening of current state regulations. The lawmaker, state Sen. Patty Birkholz, said her plan keeps wetland regulations intact, which will make the permitting process more efficient. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm had put the program on the chopping block to save the state money, and the state has been preparing to layoff its wetlands-management staff.

Andy Birkey covered developments in Minneapolis as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted to eliminate its ban on openly gay and lesbian clergy. Social conservatives immediately condemned the move, and one Minneapolis pastor said that a small tornado that ripped through south Minneapolis as the ELCA was meeting was a warning from God to keep the ban in place. During the convention, 95 Lutherans came out of the closet, Birkey reported. The sentiment, first expressed by Minneapolis pastor John Piper, blossomed among theologians and members of the religious right. Matt Kaufman, a blogger for Focus on the Family, said, “God may have chosen an unusually dramatic means to convey” his displeasure. A Georgia preacher, likewise, said he had “no trouble at all ascribing responsibility for the storm to God.”

The same tornado caused a stir around Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Chris Steller, who is keeping a close eye on Pawlenty’s growing national profile, reported Pawlenty was on FOX News talking about health care reform, among other issues, when the tornado tore through town. The governor was criticized for not cutting his appearance short to deal with the disaster unfolding outside. Steller noted that an hour after his appearance on Neil Cavuto’s show, Pawlenty sent out his first Twitter dispatch since June — not about the tornado, but about his appearance on FOX.

Paul Demko attended a “teletownhall” sponsored by the anti-abortion group the Susan B. Anthony List at which Rep. Michele Bachmann repeated the “death panels” myth, attacked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and called on participants to get down on their knees and pray that health care reform fails. “That’s really where this battle will be won — on our knees in prayer and fasting,” she told the listeners. Demko’s coverage was picked up by The Huffington Post, Time, and a host of social networks to bring nearly 50,000 readers to the site. Demko also covered the health care town hall Bachmann held last week in Lake Elmo, where Bachmann entreated, “Let’s not destroy the greatest health care system the world has ever known.”

Last week, the NMI team offered complete coverage of the 50-count indictment against former New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and three others for allegedly mismanaging millions of dollars in public funds. Trip Jennings and Heath Haussamen drove traffic with their analysis of the indictments, which centered on the charge that Vigil-Giron fabricated a letter to help cover up a vast money laundering and embezzlement scheme. 

Marjorie Childress, meanwhile, set the record straight by reporting that two lobbyists named in the scandal were not, in fact, currently contracted to lobby for the City of Albuquerque, as the mainstream media and the indictments themselves have noted. Childress reported that the misinformation stemmed from the faulty public-disclosure database currently being maintained by incumbent Secretary of State Mary Herrera. The Santa Fe New Mexican credited NMI with the important fact-check.

Marjorie Childress captured the attention of national media as the only reporter at Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s town hall last week to note that the Democrat expressed willingness to push through health care reform by using the budget reconciliation bill. Only 51 votes are needed to pass a budget reconciliation bill, whereas others are susceptible to a filibuster, which requires 60 votes to override. Bingaman was the first of the so-called Gang of Six senators to express an appetite for this strategy, and Childress’ coverage was quickly picked up by The Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo. Childress went on to confirm with Bingaman’s staffers that the senator’s remarks were “very much in line with what he thinks,” although he had “no clear head count” on how many Democratic senators would support such a move.

Following the news that Gov. Bill Richardson won’t be charged in the federal investigation into allegations of pay-to-play deals involving a California financial services firm, Heath Haussamen talked to local experts who pointed out that Richardson isn’t in the clear yet. Federal and state investigators are still looking into allegations surrounding an investment scandal that began in New York and involves prominent Richardson friends and donors, an analyst told Haussamen.

GOOD NEWS:

For now, federal stimulus funds are stabilizing Colorado schools as they prop up current programs and lay the groundwork for more ambitious future change.

Leaders in the Colorado Senate finally came to an agreement to fund live broadcasting of their chamber’s proceedings after dickering over the summer whether the deal was going to happen at all. As John Tomasic reported, there were a few lingering issues over general Web access for legislative staffers, but a deal was hammered out and funding secured for this important transparency project.