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The Price of Sprawl logo (Pic via priceofsprawl.com) Nearly a year after the so-called “Hometown Democracy” amendment was soundly defeated in the state of Florida, the group that backed it has unveiled a website detailing the negative effects of urban sprawl in various counties throughout the state. The Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 initiative would have required a voter referendum whenever a local government amended its comprehensive land-use plan, giving citizens a role in approving urban development. Lesley Blackner, president of Hometown Democracy, argued that “irresponsible overdevelopment leads to higher taxes and lower quality of life” and Amendment 4 would “give voters the right to decide if a proposed change to the community plan is worthwhile for the community.” Yet voters overwhelmingly rejected the amendment at the ballot box, perhaps due to efforts by the well-funded group that opposed it, Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it deported record numbers of immigrants in fiscal year 2011 on the same day immigrant advocates announced a national day of action called “Obama, Immigration and the Latino Community.” A press release issued by Presente.org and Florida Immigrant Coalition states: Latinos, immigrants and their allies will hold a National Day of Action called “Obama, Immigration and the Latino Community” on Tuesday, October 18 in 10 cities across the nation – Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, and Tucson. In conjunction with Presente.org , Latino community leaders, clergy, and family members devastated by the controversial Secure Communities (SCOMM) racial profiling program and the immigrant detention policies of President Obama will participate in simultaneous screenings of PBS Frontline special, “Lost in Detention,” airing in the evening on October 18

Anti-abortion-rights media group Heroic Media recently launched a new online strategy that violates Google policy. The Texas-based organization -- best known

The Radiance Foundation, the anti-abortion group responsible for a string of controversial billboards across the country, has unveiled its latest campaign: “Fatherhood begins in the womb.” The campaign is less inflammatory than the group’s previous work, which included billboards with such slogans as “Black & Unwanted” and “The 13th Amendment Freed Us. Abortion Enslaves Us.” From a press release detailing the campaign: “A collaborative effort between the Issues4Life Foundation and The Radiance Foundation, this campaign details the culture of abandonment that abortion has created by revealing the statistics of FATHERLESSNESS, single-parent poverty, and the deterioration of two-parent married households.” “When a man has sex with a woman he is consenting to being a FATHER,” said Walter Hoye II, president of Issues4Life, in the release. ”We want to emphasize the biblical requirement and vital need for men to be involved as PROVIDERS and PROTECTORS when ‘LIFE’ happens.” Ryan Bomberger, chief creative officer of the Radiance Foundation, argued that men have been “empowered by Roe v

This morning, the Federal Housing Finance Agency ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that support the housing market, to

Tea party opposition to government spending is no secret. On Tuesday, according to the St. Petersburg Times , protesters took it to the Pinellas County Commission to make their point

A new policy report from RAND takes a comprehensive look at the education scene in New Orleans, comparing the city’s many charter schools to traditional neighborhood schools.

The federal government Monday announced more than $1.89 billion in funding to states to fight the HIV epidemic with access to care and with more cash for the failing AIDS Drug Assistance Program. According to an HHS press release , $813 million of that money will go directly to the ADAP programming.

CNN reports that a jury has convicted five men for conspiring to bomb American soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., but acquitted the men of attempted murder. The men,

Two Michigan state Senators have proposed legislation which would allow counseling students to decline to counsel some clients because doing so would violate their “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” The legislation is a response to the ongoing case of former Eastern Michigan University student Julea Ward. Ward was removed from a counseling program after refusing to counsel a gay student about his relationships.

A new bill sponsored by Sen.

Rep. Joe you lie! Wilson (R-S.C.), on Twitter, Sept. 7: – You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook.

Two Colorado congressional leaders who opposed the Iraq War in the beginning praised today’s announcement by President Barack Obama that American troops will be withdrawn by the end of the year. “Having opposed the original Iraq war authorization in 2002, I am pleased with today’s announcement that U.S. troops will withdraw fully from Iraq by the end of the year,” Democratic Rep

For years, opponents of marriage equality have employed the same arguments to justify against legalizing same-sex marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The bulk

Republicans in the New Mexico Senate have coalesced around a redistricting plan that forces no two incumbents to run against each other , reports Deborah Baker: For GOP purposes, that was resolved by the impending departure of Sen. Kent Cravens, a Republican from northeast Albuquerque. Cravens confirmed to the Journal in a recent interview that he plans to resign after the dust from redistricting has settled, to take a governmental affairs job with the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.

According to reporting by Politico Pro , insurance companies are lobbying GOP-led states, like Florida, to change their mind about not implementing the state health care exchanges from the Affordable Care Act. Florida is currently one of only five states returning grants awarded by the federal government to implement health care exchanges created by the federal health care reform law. While this may be driven by ideology or strategy for GOP legislators, some insurance companies are worried it might be bad for business. Via ThinkProgress : Worried that red-state governors are standing in the way of business opportunities, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is “teaching its member plans how to overcome conservative opposition to the Democrats’ health care law,” Politico’s Kate Nocera reports: At a closed-door meeting Wednesday at D.C.’s Grand Hyatt with member plans from across the country, association officials covered topics like “Moving exchanges forward,” “What motivates conservatives to oppose creating exchanges

Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer is looking to Fox News and Google for answers as to why he is being excluded in the Thursday night debate the organizations are sponsoring. “After proudly gaining my 1 percent in the latest Fox News poll, having started with zero name recognition, I must again ask — why am I being excluded from tomorrow’s debate?” Roemer queried in a circulated statement.

Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters that Congress will likely stick around Washington well into December in order to wrap up

According to the offices of the Senate majority leader and majority whip, Cass Sunstein will get a final confirmation vote sometime shortly after 3:45 p.m.

Via Michael Goldfarb, the respected former South African judge who investigated war crimes in Gaza has sent a letter to Congress highlighting factual errors in

The number of new reported cases of HIV in the U.S. from 2006 through 2009 remained stable, says a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report issued Wednesday. But the data also shows an “alarming increase among young, black gay and bisexual men” that requires “urgent action.” # According to the CDC , evidence from its national HIV incidence surveillance shows that the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States has been relatively stable, with approximately 50,000 new infections each year between 2006 and 2009. The national HIV incidence surveillance is based on data from 16 states, including Florida

As the issue of oil subsidies sows discord within the Republican Party — with most GOP members sticking to the party line by defending subsidies, a growing

State Rep. Larry Ahern, R-St. Petersburg (Pic by Meredith Geddings, via myfloridahouse.gov) State legislators have introduced a new bill that has been popular among anti-abortion advocates for years.

Less than two weeks ago, Attorney General Eric Holder testified that the long-awaited report on the ethics of Bush-era Justice Department lawyers who sanctioned