RandySF
RandySF's JournalRI: Legislators propose giving 16- and 17-year-olds right to vote in school committee elections
They can serve as pages in the General Assembly. They can drive a car. They can give blood. They can consent to medical care, or sex. They can work 48 hours in a week and pay taxes on these earnings. They can put that money in a savings account they’ve opened.
These are some things 17-year-olds can do in Rhode Island, and a few apply to 16-year-olds as well. A recent pair of bills brought to the State House would give older teenagers one more privilege: the ability to vote in elections for their local school committees.
“Students go to the meetings, they can talk at the meetings, they can give all the ideas that they want,” said Henry Siravo, 17, a senior at Smithfield High School. “But at the end of the day, how often do they get listened to? We get brushed off as kids.”
A pair of bills sponsored by two Democratic lawmakers — H8046 by Rep. Leonela Felix of Pawtucket and S2895 by Sen. Tiara Mack of Providence — would make it harder to brush off kids.
https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2024/05/01/legislators-propose-giving-16-and-17-year-olds-right-to-vote-in-school-committee-elections/
California politicians face rampant threats. Some want to use campaign cash for protection
Last spring, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan received a letter calling for him to be lynched because of a bill he introduced to change how ballot measures are presented to California voters.
It’s not the only time he’s been subjected to threats or harassment. Bryan said he and fellow Assemblymember Mia Bonta received hundreds of threats when they didn’t vote in a committee on a bill increasing penalties for child trafficking, until it added language that he said would protect victims.
“The one that I’ll probably forever remember is a suggestion that my fiancé and mother should be human trafficked so that I understand how serious this is — which, for a legislator who travels four days out the week and leaves my loved ones at home, you know — that was not taken lightly,” Bryan told CalMatters.
Currently, to use campaign funds, lawmakers have to file a police report. But threats happen “all the time,” Bryan said, and legislators just need “basic security…protection that you need to do this job.”
https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/05/political-violence-california-campaign-security/
Indivisible Arkansas garners 1,800 signatures on ballot initiatives for November election
The Little Rock chapter of activist group Indivisible helped gather more than 1,800 signatures for five Arkansas voter initiatives last month and plans another signing event this weekend.
The ballot initiatives include proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution on abortion, education, the public’s right to information and expanded access to medical marijuana. Two other citizen-initiated proposals would amend the state’s Freedom of Information Act and eliminate the sales tax on feminine hygiene products.
Constitutional amendments need a total of 90,704 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Initiated acts require 72,563 signatures and must be collected from at least 50 of the 75 Arkansas counties according to Act 236. The groups sponsoring the ballot initiatives have until July 5 to collect the requisite signatures. If the measures meet the requirements, they will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Indivisible Little Rock and Central Arkansas board member Alison Guthrie said each proposed measure is about providing access to things people need.
“Whether that’s education or sterile products or essential healthcare, to being able to find out what our government officials and entities are doing,” she said. “These are about access for the public and for people who need it the most.”
https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/05/02/indivisible-arkansas-garners-1800-signatures-on-ballot-initiatives-for-november-election/
Anti-abortion groups say more aggressive approach necessary to stop Missouri amendment
Wednesday’s Midwest March for Life at the Missouri Capitol had a different tone this year. It was about fighting.
Nearly two years ago, the crowd celebrated Missouri becoming the first state to ban abortion after Roe V. Wade was overturned. But on Wednesday, a new worry loomed over the annual event: Abortion could soon be enshrined in the Missouri Constitution.
“If God doesn’t intervene in this process,” Paul Shipman, with the Christian radio program Bott Radio Network, said at a rally on the statehouse steps Wednesday, “it just kind of shows you the direction where the nation is going and the direction where the state of Missouri is going.”
After recent losses in states like Kansas and Ohio, anti-abortion activists say they must take a more aggressive approach in Missouri, using a low-budget grassroots strategy to convince Missourians not to sign the initiative petition that would put a constitutional right to an abortion in the hands of voters.
https://missouriindependent.com/2024/05/02/missouri-abortion-amendment-march-life/
Louisiana Lawmakers Move to Criminalize Possession of Abortion Pills
LOUISIANA LAWMAKERS ARE trying to quietly criminalize possession of the most commonly used abortion pills.
In a move that took the state’s abortion advocates and OB-GYNs by surprise, last-minute amendments that would place mifepristone and misoprostol on the state’s list of controlled substances were added to a bill focused on making “coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud” a crime.
State Sen. Thomas Pressly (R) filed Senate Bill 276 in honor of his sister, whose husband slipped abortion medication in her drink without her consent. The House Criminal Justice Committee heard multiple bills regarding abortion Tuesday, and there was not much buzz surrounding this particular one, until Pressly submitted the set of amendments that would classify the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled substances under Louisiana law.
Abortion is almost completely illegal in Louisiana. Mifepristone and misoprostol both have other uses.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/louisiana-criminalize-possession-abortion-pills-1235013039/
Some North Carolina abortion pill restrictions are unlawful, federal judge says
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Some of North Carolina government’s restrictions on dispensing abortion pills, such as requiring that doctors to prescribe and provide the drug to the patient in person, are unlawful because they frustrate the goal of Congress to use federal regulators to ensure the drug is distributed safely, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles in Greensboro granted a partial victory to a physician who performs abortions and who last year sued state and local prosecutors and state health and medical officials on state medication abortion regulations beyond those addressed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Other restrictions on the drug mifepristone that were challenged, however, such as requiring an in-person consultation 72 hours in advance, an in-person examination and an ultrasound before prescribing, are not preempted and can remain, Eagles wrote. That is because they have not been expressly reviewed and rejected by the FDA, or because they focus more on the practice of medicine or on general patient health, she added.
Yet some “statutory requirements of the state’s Abortion Laws stand as obstacles to Congress’ clear and manifest purpose of providing a comprehensive regulatory framework for safe use and distribution of higher-risk drugs run by the FDA,” wrote Eagles, a court nominee of President Barack Obama. She asked the parties to propose written judgments and injunctions for the case within a few weeks.
https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-abortion-pill-lawsuit-559245aea81889300f897b6a532b16ce
Ohio Republican pitches $15 minimum wage bill to fend off ballot issue
A Republican lawmaker is introducing a bill to raise Ohio's minimum wage to $15 an hour ? an attempt to fend off a November ballot issue.
Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, has proposed raising Ohio's minimum wage to $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2028. But tipped workers would increase to $7.50 an hour, not $15 ? a key difference between his proposal and one from Raise the Wage Ohio, which is collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
Blessing knows voters will almost certainly approve a $15-an-hour minimum wage if it's on the November ballot, but he thinks his approach is better for workers and employers. Blessing called the ballot language "a very blunt instrument to accomplish what they are trying to accomplish."
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said Democrats have been the ones leading the charge on raising the minimum wage, so she's interested in having a conversation about helping struggling workers. Still, everyone should be wary of last-minute efforts from Republicans trying to sidestep ballot issues, she said.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2024/05/01/ohio-republican-pitches-15-minimum-wage-to-fend-off-ballot-issue/73515398007/
IL: House Democrats advance November ballot questions aimed at driving party turnout
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois House Democrats approved legislation Wednesday aimed at boosting turnout by party faithful in the Nov. 5 election by offering voters nonbinding advisory questions on securing in vitro fertilization, protecting election workers and targeting those earning $1 million a year or more with higher taxes to pay for property tax relief.
The comprehensive measure, which now moves to the Senate, also would afford some incumbent protection for legislators in November by preventing political party committees from appointing challengers to fill out legislative ballots if the party didn’t field a candidate in the March primary.
The referenda package was approved without debate on a 67-4 House vote, with nearly 40 Republicans voting “present.”
Ballot propositions to promote voter turnout is a tactic that has been used nationwide, particularly in presidential election years. Around this country, this year’s focus has been on state constitutional amendments securing abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade that returned the issue of legality of the procedure to the individual states.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/01/house-democrats-advance-november-ballot-questions-aimed-at-driving-party-turnout/
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Current location: San Francisco, CA
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 02:53 PM
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