TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLabor-backed ballot measure group takes in more than $620K
New state campaign finance reports show that supporters of a labor-backed ballot measure that would allow unions to charge fees to nonmembers have brought in more than $620,000 since late May.
The report filed Friday shows ballot question committee South Dakotans for Fairness spent nearly all it raised, including nearly $400,000 on advertising. The disclosure period covers May 24 through Oct. 24.
Supporter Jason George is special projects director at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49. He says backers face a challenge because of South Dakota’s history of bashing unions.
The group’s sole reported financier was Illinois-based Americans for Fairness, which didn’t immediately return a telephone message requesting comment from The Associated Press.
Read more: http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/28/labor-backed-ballot-measure-group-takes-more-than-620k/92883534/
Pipe bombs found in Lincoln County; 2 men arrested
Pipe bombs were found Friday at a rural Lincoln County home during a domestic violence investigation, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
A woman had reported that her live-in boyfriend, Michael Jara Sr., 43, had assaulted her and left her with “debilitating injuries,” according to a press release Saturday from the sheriff’s office.
Jara Sr. is also accused of assaulting the woman’s 2-year-old daughter, the sheriff’s office said.
The woman told authorities that Jara recently began threatening to blow up her home and shoot her and her children.
Read more: http://www.nptelegraph.com/news/police_and_courts/pipe-bombs-found-men-arrested/article_705a47b6-9e56-11e6-b855-c7fcfd4cf024.html
Nebraska lawmakers facing nearly $1 billion budget shortfall next year
LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers will face a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall when they return to Lincoln next year.
That was the gap left after a state board met Friday to update the official forecast of state tax revenues through June 30, 2019.
Board members reduced the previous revenue estimates based on the gloomy agricultural economy and on lower than expected tax receipts this year.
The new forecast calls for tax revenues to fall $910 million below projected expenses from now through the end of the next budget period.
Read more: http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/state/nebraska-lawmakers-facing-nearly-billion-budget-shortfall-next-year/article_b02fa448-9d58-11e6-8c06-9bd11ec0380c.html
US Report: Afghanistan's Road System Years From Viability
KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. report says weak capacity, corruption, funding issues, and insecurity are limiting the Afghan Ministry of Public Works' ability to maintain Afghanistan's road infrastructure.
In a new report released Sunday, the U.S. government's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says that without tangible Afghan government action to support needed reforms, the effective management of Afghanistan's road infrastructure will remain an elusive goal.
SIGAR says that since 2002, USAID and the Defense Department have spent approximately $2.8 billion to construct and repair Afghanistan's roads and perform capacity-building activities.
Afghan officials have stated to SIGAR that it would cost $100 million annually to carry out the necessary emergency and routine maintenance on Afghanistan's road infrastructure. However, between 2011 and 2016, the Public Works Ministry received an average of $21.3 million annually.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/10/30/world/asia/ap-as-afghanistan.html?_r=0
Moldovans electing president for 1st time in 20 years
CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldovans began voting Sunday for a president in an election that could move the former Soviet republic closer to Europe or push it back into Russia’s orbit.
It is the first time in 20 years citizens have directly voted for their president in a country where many are angry about high-level corruption.
Both the European Union together with the U.S. and Russia seek to have more influence over the impoverished agricultural landlocked nation of 3.5 million, located between EU member Romania and Ukraine.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m., with first results expected two hours later. After two hours of voting, some 5 percent of the electorate had cast ballots..3
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/moldovans-elect-president-for-1st-time-in-20-years/2016/10/30/e1c5790c-9e6a-11e6-b552-b1f85e484086_story.html
Attorney general offers thoughts on death penalty
With a referendum on the future of capital punishment in Nebraska on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, it is no surprise that the topic has been on the minds of many Nebraskans.
Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson is no exception.
During an interview with the (Norfolk) Daily News on Thursday, Peterson shared some of his opinions, including his belief that a study conducted by Creighton University economist Ernie Goss that said the death penalty costs Nebraskans $14.6 million each year is “absolutely absurd.”
“Anyone in the field who has any understanding of cost would recognize that,” he said.
Read more: http://norfolkdailynews.com/news/attorney-general-offers-thoughts-on-death-penalty/article_4bcd34b0-9d13-11e6-a086-af469e781f75.html
Voters to be final jurors in payday lending fight
It's a fight pitting free-market ideals against perceptions of fairness.
South Dakota's high-stakes battle over payday lending is heading toward a resolution next week, when voters will decide on a pair of conflicting ballot questions that could outlaw high-interest, short-term loans or solidify them in the state's constitution.
The $46 billion a year industry, including at least 138 licensed lenders in South Dakota, says it won't be able to operate in the state if voters approve a 36-percent interest rate cap. Average annual interest rates on payday loans in South Dakota exceed 500 percent, according to a 2014 Pew Charitable Trusts report.
Payday loan defenders argue they serve as an essential financial lifeline for thousands of low-income South Dakotans, and that banning the products will push people toward shadowy online or black market lenders. A Federal Reserve survey this year found 47 percent of Americans couldn't afford an unexpected $400 expense, and many lack the credit or collateral to rely on conventional banks.
Read more: http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/29/voters-final-jurors-payday-lending-fight/92764790/
Iowa is looking like Trump territory, but Clinton has a shot at winning Nebraska’s 2nd District
Iowa has always been tough terrain for Hillary Clinton, and the swing state is proving to be no less difficult in 2016 for the Democratic presidential nominee.
The state that handed Clinton a dismal third-place finish in the 2008 caucuses is one of the few swing states where Republican Donald Trump has consistently led in the polls for the past several months.
The rural state is also one of two battleground states that may return to the Republican fold after two presidential election cycles in the Democratic column.
“Iowa, along with Ohio, may be the best chance Trump has to win in states that Barack Obama carried twice,” said Kyle Kondik, with the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/iowa-is-looking-like-trump-territory-but-clinton-has-a/article_126c2bdf-f787-5ff0-a1fe-68e141af4aae.html
Kansas considers lowering pension system's rate of return
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Officials are considering lowering the expected rate of return for Kansas' public employee pension investments in a move that could further strain the state's budget.
The Kansas Public Employee Retirement System has assumed an annual return on investment of 8 percent for three decades, The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/2eXNdvj) reported. A lower expected return on investments would mean taxpayers and possibly employees would need to chip in more money.
Consultants have been meeting with the pension's board for months to weigh options. A final decision might be made at the Nov. 18 meeting or put off until January.
"They're in the thick of considering it," said Alan Conroy, executive director of KPERS, adding that the investment return appraisal is among the fundamental assumptions reassessed every three years by the board. The system's return averaged slightly above the target during the last quarter century despite swings in the market.
Read more: http://www.salina.com/news/state/kansas-considers-lowering-pension-system-s-rate-of-return/article_4f7cea64-998e-5561-b918-b4251bb43721.html
Push to remake top Kansas court hits backlash over governor
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A push to remake the Kansas Supreme Court in the upcoming election could falter because of a political backlash against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
Five of the court's seven justices are on statewide ballots that ask voters whether each justice should stay on the court for another six years. Four of those justices, each appointed by a Democratic or moderate Republican governor, are being aggressively targeted by GOP conservatives, abortion opponents and critics of rulings that overturned death sentences.
Brownback publicly supported a similar ouster campaign in 2014 that nearly removed the other two justices, amid anger over death penalty rulings. But the conservative Republican governor — who is facing voter discontent over the state's budget problems — has refused to endorse this year's effort, which is likely fine with one group pushing to remove the justices.
"He's caused us a lot of headaches," said Amy James, a spokeswoman for Kansans for Justice, a group of victims' families angered by court rulings that overturned death sentences. "He's actually a hurdle that we continue to have to overcome."
Read more: http://www.salina.com/news/state/push-to-remake-top-kansas-court-hits-backlash-over-governor/article_8d0c1275-24af-56a2-89b3-668ca30f4bcd.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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