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In addition to allowing previously negotiated union contracts to be voided, Michigan’s new Emergency Manager law gives appointees the authority to privatize police services and jails. Indeed, voiding labor contracts and outsourcing government services is a key aspect of how they are expected to balance the budgets of financially stressed towns

If you want to understand what kind of outcome the White House would consider worth celebrating on Tuesday night in spite of inevitable GOP gains across the

As American and United Nations forces today began a concerted military effort to neutralize Muammar el-Qaddafi and protect Libyan citizens, U.S. Senator from Colorado Mark Udall issued a statement in support of American military action in Libya.

It seems that every time President Obama gives a major speech -- up to and including his announcement of a troop surge in Afghanistan -- pundits and observers

Robert Reich has a good column onwhy deficit hawks are killing the recovery. Consumer spending is 70 percent of the American economy, so if consumers

President Obama pitched his American Jobs Act before a joint session of Congress Thursday evening, pleading his case with proposals clearly designed to win bipartisan approval and demanding action with tough campaign-style rhetoric. The nature of the talk, a desperate soft and hard sell, underlined the fact that Americans are stuck hoping the most frustratingly partisan government in modern history can summon the wherewithal to finally address the job-killing recession that has plagued the country for years and that shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division today announced its approval of Florida’s two “Fair Districts” amendments — measures approved overwhelmingly by Florida voters last fall that limit state lawmakers’ freedom to gerrymander districts in an effort to ensure one-party control. # The Justice Department’s approval was necessary to implement the amendments because the federal Voting Rights Act requires certain states to submit changes to voting laws to the department so it can ensure the changes will not result in diminished minority voting rights

Today, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate tracked up in 26 states and the District of Columbia between July and August. Maryland and

A week after Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) sent a letter to the GPS company OnStar asking that the company not track or sell customer location data, OnStar has decided to reverse course. “While I’m pleased that OnStar reversed its policy, I still have questions about how that company and others are treating consumers’ location information,” Franken said in a statement Tuesday.

Congressional Republicans who are forcing the National Labor Relations Board’s acting general counsel to testify at a field hearing in South Carolina in connection with ongoing legal proceedings are more concerned with scoring political points than they are with allowing an established process to continue, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and U.S

As he prepares to bang the gavel on his first regular session as Florida Senate President, Mike Haridopolos faces questions about how he’ll juggle his role in the legislature with his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. He said Monday that his success as a candidate will hinge on his performance as a leader now, implementing what could be one of the most challenging legislative agendas in recent memory.

HIV researchers on Wednesday announced that two new studies on the use of anti-retroviral medications as a preventative measure in those not infected with the virus that causes AIDS have proven effective in heterosexuals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made its announcement Wednesday morning following the unexpected release of study data on a Washington University study of the medications use in Africa. The use of anti-retrovirals taken before any exposure to HIV is called Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP

A federal appeals court yesterday struck down an attempt by state utility interests to do away with the EPA’s proposed “numeric nutrient criteria,” which will set limits on pollution in Florida waterways. # The decision to implement the nutrient criteria came about as a result of litigation brought on by environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the St. Johns Riverkeeper, who alleged that Florida was in violation of the Clean Water Act since it did not have appropriate water pollution limits.

In a press release sent out shortly after a District Court Judge rejected a lawsuit challenging Florida’s “Fair Districts” Amendment 6, would-be representative Mike Yost said that the suit was simply another attempt at gerrymandering. Yost, who lost to Democratic incumbent Corrine Brown in 2010 (and has already launched another campaign to unseat her) said that the suit “was clearly another attempt to allow her to continue to force the Legislature to draw districts that would let the representatives choose their voters, not the voters choosing their representatives.” Sixty-three percent of Florida voters voted for Amendment 6, which were created to help end the practice of gerrymandering, or drawing congressional lines to benefit incumbents

The Washington Post reports that there’s been an unannounced deployment of 13,000 support troops to Afghanistan over the last several months in addition to the

Democratic U.S. Reps. Heath Shuler and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina have joined 171 other members of Congress as co-sponsors of H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer

A recently publicized report that touts the construction jobs associated with an increased use of natural gas for electricity fails to consider the ecological downsides of fracking, state environmental groups say. Yesterday Interlochen Public Radio reported on Michigan State University Professor Bill Knudson’s finding that switching from coal to natural gas could produce a boom in construction jobs

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), a former judge, is the latest congressman—and sixth Texas congressman—to co-sponsor Rep. Bill Posey’s (R-Fla.) bill requiring

John Murtagh, whose Manhattan home was fire-bombed by the Weather Underground when he was a child, spoke to reporters in a McCain campaign conference call this

Now that Congress is back in session, so too are calls to revive the DISCLOSE Act, a bill intended to mandate disclosure of the primary donors behind political

The Charleston Daily Mail had a long sit-down interview with Don Blankenship, the head of Virginia-based Massey Energy, which owns the Upper Big Branch Mine