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One of the big surprises of Democratic rule -- perhaps it shouldn’t have been such a surprise -- has been the degree to which Republican opposition has ground

In filing suit yesterday against Denver County over its 2011 election plan, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has raised the specter for the second time since he took office in January that he is using his position as head of elections not to expand but to suppress voting in the state. Citing state election law, Gessler contends that the Denver plan to send mail ballots to all registered voters in the county is illegal because the law forbids sending ballots to “inactive voters” — that is, registered voters who failed to cast ballots in the last election. At a heated press conference Wednesday , he explained he was filing the suit in order to bring Denver County in line with the law and to establish a uniform election process in counties across the state.

At the very moment that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was hosting a McCain campaign conference call with reporters to hype Sen. John McCain’s chances

LANSING — A new report from the Washington D.C. based Economic Policy Initiative (EPI) released Thursday casts doubt on the accuracy of claims by Republican lawmakers that the state’s public employees are overpaid compared to the private sector. “State government employees are currently undercompensated,” says Jeffrey Keefe, an associate professor in Labor and Employment Relations at Rutgers University

Republican New York Senator James Alesi told rally-goers at the New York State Capitol that he is committed to passing same-sex marriage into law this session. A bill being pushed by Gov

First came the broke unemployed drummers and poets, then the debt-ridden students, then the retired couples whose pensions and real estate holdings have withered, then the tourists, then, slowly, the journalists.

Controversial anti-gay minister Bradlee Dean and his evangelical band/ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCR) are suing The American Independent News Network’s senior reporter, Andy Birkey, and are threatening to also sue our site The Minnesota Independent. Rachel Maddow, who also reported about Dean on her MSNBC show, is also named in the suit, which seeks $50 million in damages. The lawsuit describes Andy as taking “a ‘special interest’ in Plaintiffs Dean and YCR because he is a secularist and/or atheist and gay activist with a politically left ideology who despises people of faith.” However, Andy’s award-winning coverage of YCR has received wide praise, including the Society of Professional Journalist’s (SPJ) first prize for Best Continuing Coverage . SPJ stated that Andy took “an even-handed approach into a weighty subject sure to provoke controversy from various standpoints.” We read your comments, tweets, Facebook messages, and emails and know you agree that Andy’s coverage, along with the rest of the reporting by The American Independent News Network, is excellent.

Michigan’s Emergency Manager law is part of a nationwide effort to shrink the electorate in a way that disproportionately eliminates blacks and other voters of color, the NAACP said last week as its members passed a resolution condemning such laws. “We think that it attacks the voting rights of minorities and urban populations,“ said NAACP Detroit Branch President Rev. Dr

A national nonprofit that’s drawn criticism for allowing corporations to write legislation directly with state lawmakers can be traced to bills introduced in Minnesota last session, including language that would shield large corporations from consumer lawsuits and undermine greenhouse gas reduction goals. The bills were revealed as Common Cause released a report on the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is financially supported by corporations like Koch Industries and Wal-Mart. At regular conferences, including one going on in New Orleans right now, these corporations draft corporate-friendly legislation that is approved by state legislators on legislative task forces and then introduced at state capitols across the country without disclosure that the business interests wrote them. “The work of ALEC shows how the Minnesota capitol is governed by corporate lobbyists instead of main street voters,” said Mike Dean, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Today Sen. Barack Obama is in Manhattan to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. We will never forget those who died, he said in a solemn

Last month, the Florida Police Benevolent Association, a union that represents prison guards and other corrections officers, filed a lawsuit calling for a judge to strike down budget language that would privatize prisons in 18 South Florida counties. The union’s complaint is embedded below. # The union has long questioned the financial benefits of privatization and the calculus behind the 7 percent savings mandated by Florida statutes.

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

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons ) Republican presidential favorite Newt Gingrich has pledged his support for the controversial anti-abortion movement known as “fetal personhood,” by signing a pledge that has yet to be signed by opponent Mitt Romney. Personhood USA, the group behind “fetal personhood” petitions that have appeared in states across the country, announced yesterday that Gingrich had signed its pledge . In doing so, he opposes ”assisted suicide, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and procedures that intentionally destroy developing human beings” and agrees to “work to advance state and federal laws and amendments that recognize the unalienable right to life of all human beings as persons at every stage of development.” “To the best of my knowledge, I will only appoint federal judges and relevant officials who will uphold and enforce state and federal laws recognizing that all human beings at every stage of development are persons with the unalienable right to life,” Gingrich pledged

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared on controversial preacher Bradlee Dean’s radio show Saturday, stating his support for so-called “sodomy laws” and criticizing supporters of same-sex marriage rights. “This is not about gay marriage, it is about changing what is right and wrong and fundamentally changing what people of faith can say and do in society,” Santorum said on Dean’s radio show

A survey by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) found that there are at least 5,100 new credit union accounts in New Mexico because of Bank Transfer Day . The New Mexico Business Weekly reports: The number of new accounts in the state could be higher because CUNA didn’t survey every credit union, said Credit Union Association of New Mexico spokeswoman Mary Beth King. The amount of deposit transfers to credit unions was not immediately available, King said.

The Congressional recess grinds along -- somehow it doesn’t make Mike Lillis any less busy -- and yet Hill people are starting to get frustrated at the absence

Pic by Oslo in the Summertime, via Flickr On Monday, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski announced changes that would modernize the agency’s Lifeline program to give greater broadband Internet access to low-income Americans. Lifeline has traditionally provided “discounts on one basic monthly telephone service (wireline or wireless) for qualified subscribers.” While announcing a series of Lifeline reforms , Genachowski said, “Which brings us to the final but perhaps most important reform: beginning the process of modernizing Lifeline from telephone service to broadband. Broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity in the 21st century.” He added that “broadband Internet — wired and wireless — is the most transformative new technology since electricity

President Barack Obama (Pic by The White House, via Flickr) President Obama announced today that $50 million in additional funds will be going toward treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. Obama said during “The Beginning of the End of AIDS,” an online conference organized by ONE International , “a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa”: Today, I’m announcing some new commitments. We’re committing an additional $15 million for the Ryan White program that supports care provided by HIV medical clinics across the country

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces in a U.S. Department of Justice press release that President Obama has ordered the department to cease future

The Federal Housing Finance Agency filed suit Friday against 17 national and international banking giants for their roles in the toxic mortgage securities scandal that led to the current housing crisis. The banks include Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide, JP Morgan Chase and others, according to a press release from the agency. The release explained the suits: These complaints were filed in federal or state court in New York or the federal court in Connecticut.

Oh, Daphne. How right you were. How wrong this post was. Julian Barnes at The Los Angeles Times reports: The Obama administration will announce Friday that it

The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) is a non-profit organization that brings corporations together with state lawmakers to create and advocate for model legislation. Minnesota experts on lobbyist disclosure say ALEC’s activity here requires the group to register as a lobbyist under state law. ALEC denies that the organization lobbies state legislators.

In a piece published today, TWI detailed how a recount in the gubernatorial race between Democrat Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer might play out. Dayton