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TexasTowelie's JournalGov. Dayton offers rebate plan amid battle over health insurance market
Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled a plan Thursday to blunt soaring health insurance premiums, as politicians in both parties scramble to respond to the crisis in Minnesota’s individual health insurance market.
With just a week and a half until Election Day, Democrats and Republicans are rolling out proposal after proposal to help the roughly 5 percent of Minnesotans who get their insurance on the individual market. They’re also accusing each other of not taking the problem seriously, part of a battle to win the votes of Minnesotans concerned about health care with control of the Legislature up for grabs.
Just one day after Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt said Dayton was “literally playing politics” over health care, Dayton said Republicans “are now trying to maximize their political advantages” by attacking the Affordable Care Act.
The battle matters given the current divided control of the Legislature. Even if one party takes both chambers in the Nov. 8 election, the current body of lawmakers will remain in office for the remainder of the year — and all sides agree a solution can’t wait until January.
Read more: http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/27/mark-dayton-offers-rebate-plan-amid-political-battle-over-health-insurance-market/
250,000 Minnesotans have already voted. Here's what we know
More than a quarter of a million people have already voted in Minnesota and the record-breaking numbers are expected to surge as Election Day approaches.
“We are on track to have about 50,000 people voting prior to Election Day in Ramsey County,” said Joe Mansky, the county’s election manager. If that comes to pass, more than 15 percent of Ramsey County residents will be all done with voting before Nov. 8.
This is the first presidential election year when anyone, regardless of whether they will be absent from their voting precinct on Election Day, is allowed to cast an absentee ballot.
But there’s also something else at play among the thousands who have already cast ballots, Mansky said.
Read more: http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/28/mn-early-voting-ballot-where-to-vote-early/
University of Minnesota leading the Big Ten in voter registration by students
Back in the day — say, 2012 — voter registration drives at the University of Minnesota consisted mainly of some dedicated students sitting at tables or making stops at dorms around campus.
But this year, a change of strategy to an online registration system advertised on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and online student information hubs has prompted a surge in interest from students, who have registered at higher rates than at any other school in the Big Ten Conference.
All 14 universities in the conference are participating this year in the Vote B1G campaign, which uses a nonprofit group's online voter registration software to make signing up students an easier task. By Oct. 19, more than 30,000 students had signed up, including about 9,600 who attend the University of Minnesota. That number dwarfs the count at all of the other schools. The University of Maryland, the second-highest-ranking institution, had about half of Minnesota's total.
Will Dammann, the government and legislative affairs director for Minnesota's undergraduate student organization, said the numbers are particularly striking because many young voters have been turned off by this year's election. He said promoters of the voter registration effort appealed to students to think about politics closer to home, even if they were dissatisfied with the candidates at the top of the ticket.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/u-leading-the-big-ten-in-voter-registration-by-students/399161611/
Texas group: Santa Anna's leg in Illinois should be sent to Mexico
A history professor from Texas believes there’s an appropriate place for Mexican general and president Santa Anna’s artificial leg and it isn’t the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield.
Teresa Van Hoy thinks it should be returned to Mexico, where he headed the Mexican government 11 times.
The state says it is staying right here.
“To us it’s non-negotiable,” said Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, public affairs director for the Illinois Department of Military Affairs. “They say they want to start a conversation. That conversation has been made before. We’re not interested in a conversation. The answer is no. The leg is where it belongs and it’s staying here.”
Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20161028/texas-group-santa-annas-leg-in-illinois-should-be-sent-to-mexico
Pension board votes to suspend Hastert's $28,000 pension
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert will continue to forgo his $28,000 a year pension from his years as an Illinois lawmaker.
The board governing the pension system for members of the General Assembly unanimously voted Friday to suspend the pension until it gets a clearer picture.
The seven-member board said Hastert has filed suit against the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System after it revoked Hastert's pension in late April because of a state law preventing pension collection by anyone with a felony conviction related to his or her time teaching. TRS spokesman Dave Urbanek would not say whether Hastert has sued.
Members of the lawmakers' pension board include Republican state Rep. David Harris of Arlington Heights, Democratic state Reps. Elaine Nekritz of Northbrook and Mike Zalewski of Riverside and Democratic state Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park.
Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20161028/news/161028658/
Big Soda digs in for a fight over proposed Cook County beverage tax
The war on soda, popping up in towns across the country, is escalating in Cook County.
As it has in other locales, the soda industry is digging in to fight a proposed sweetened beverage tax, which would add a penny-per-ounce to the cost of sugar- and artificially sweetened drinks if approved by Cook County commissioners next month.
And as they are in cities like San Francisco and Boulder, Colo., local officials are making the case for public health, pointing to mounting evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverages to obesity, diabetes and other health conditions.
But some 920,000 Cook County residents who receive food stamp benefits wouldn't pay any more than they do now, calling into question how effective the tax will be at reducing consumption in some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods with high rates of obesity and diabetes. Under federal law, purchases made with benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are exempt from state and local taxes.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-soda-tax-impact-1030-biz-20161028-story.html
Cook County approves $13 hourly minimum wage affecting suburbs
Suburban Cook County has joined Chicago in adopting a $13 hourly minimum wage, a move critics say is better left to the state but proponents contend is a response to the state's inaction.
The Cook County Board voted Wednesday to gradually raise the minimum wage to $13 by July 2020, following the legislation's approval Tuesday by the board's Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.
The move, which comes more than a year after Chicago implemented the first phase of a minimum wage increase, adds Cook County to the growing list of government bodies seeking to help lift people out of poverty by raising the wages of the lowest-paid workers.
Legislative Committee Chairman John Daley, D-Chicago, a sponsor of the legislation, said during Tuesday's committee meeting that the ordinance is "the moral and right thing to do" and questioned whether any of the commissioners or their families could live on the state's minimum wage of $8.25 an hour.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-cook-county-minimum-wage-hike-1026-biz-20161025-story.html
Critics rip Rauner for funding cuts after online chat on breast cancer awareness
What was supposed to be an information session about breast cancer awareness turned into an opportunity to bash Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner after women's health advocates accused him of ignoring cuts to screening programs caused by the budget impasse.
Before Rauner even began taking questions in his latest Facebook Live chat Wednesday, critics announced they would have a dueling online event to highlight the damage they say has been caused by a lack of state funding. They even took issue with the way Rauner solicited inquiries, which featured a photo of his dog Stella wearing a pink ribbon and declaring, "Stella is doing her part to raise awareness and we are, too."
"Frankly, I find that insulting. Illinois women need access to lifesaving screening services, not photographs of family pets," said Beulah Brent, board president of Sisters Working It Out, a Chicago-based group focused on outreach in African-American communities where breast cancer mortality rates are high.
The exchange underscores the tricky political position Rauner finds himself in as the state enters a 17th month without a complete budget. While neither the GOP governor nor Democrats who control the General Assembly have budged enough to reach an agreement, Rauner has taken the brunt of the blame from social service groups that rely on tax dollars.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-bruce-rauner-facebook-breast-cancer-met-1027-20161026-story.html
Judge Posner says quality of Supreme Court is 'awful'
He's a famous lover of cats — and of catty put-downs.
But even by his fearsome reputation, U.S. appellate Judge Richard Posner had some harsh criticism for the U.S. Supreme Court during a recent appearance in Hyde Park.
"I don't think the judges are very good," Posner said at the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, at an event captured by C-SPAN's cameras. "I think the Supreme Court is awful. I think it's reached a real nadir. Probably only a couple of the justices, Breyer and Ginsburg, are qualified. They're OK, they're not great."
The 77-year-old Posner, who has been known to reduce lawyers who practice before him in the 7th Circuit in Chicago to a state of gibbering neurosis, placed the blame on politicians who nominate and confirm the judges.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoinc/ct-judge-posner-supreme-court-chicago-inc-20161028-story.html
Tarrant County group claims seniors are being intimidated into not voting
Source: Dallas Morning News
Hispanic leaders in Tarrant County have filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, alleging that senior citizens are being intimidated into not voting.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the complaint from the United Hispanic Council of Tarrant County says a voter-fraud investigation has "left a trail of confused and upset seniors who are now afraid of voting," either in person or by absentee ballot.
Concerns have arisen over mail-in ballots, which some people think can lead to "vote harvesting" — the illegal process of filling out and returning the ballots of valid voters without their consent.
The complaint alleges that political activists are making "vigilante-style" door-to-door visits, claiming to be investigating voter fraud.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections/2016/10/28/tarrant-county-group-claims-seniors-intimidated-voting
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