Reader Supported News | 22 May 16
We Are Doing Everything We Can to Finish the May Fundraiser
Today would be a great day with 50 donations. Overall 250 donations at $30. would finish the drive.
This really should be easy.
Marc Ash
Curator, Reader Supported News
Curator, Reader Supported News
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Reader Supported News
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Andy Borowitz | Obama Alienates Millions With His Incendiary Pro-Knowledge Remarks
Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "President Obama handed the Republican Party a gift for the general election by making a series of offensive pro-knowledge remarks at Rutgers University over the weekend, a leading Republican official said on Monday."
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Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "President Obama handed the Republican Party a gift for the general election by making a series of offensive pro-knowledge remarks at Rutgers University over the weekend, a leading Republican official said on Monday."
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'Urgent' Action Needed to Preserve CIA Torture Documents, Groups Warn
Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News
Isikoff writes: "A coalition of advocacy and transparency groups is asking the National Archives to take immediate steps to ensure the preservation of a Senate torture report in light of the disclosure by Yahoo News that the CIA inspector general's office mistakenly destroyed its copy of the document."
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Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News
Isikoff writes: "A coalition of advocacy and transparency groups is asking the National Archives to take immediate steps to ensure the preservation of a Senate torture report in light of the disclosure by Yahoo News that the CIA inspector general's office mistakenly destroyed its copy of the document."
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The Republicans' Military Budget Could Make Every Homeless Person in America a Millionaire
Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, ThinkProgress
Varkiani writes: "Last year, the United States spent more than $596 billion on the military, a total greater than the next seven countries in the world combined. But the Republican-controlled Congress is looking to increase that number for next year."
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Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, ThinkProgress
Varkiani writes: "Last year, the United States spent more than $596 billion on the military, a total greater than the next seven countries in the world combined. But the Republican-controlled Congress is looking to increase that number for next year."
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Oklahoma's Pro-Life Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Jail Abortion Doctors
Sarah Mimms, VICE
Mimms writes: "In a surprise move on Friday, Oklahoma's Republican Governor Mary Fallin vetoed legislation that would have made abortions punishable by up to three years in prison. Fallin, an anti-abortion conservative who has signed numerous bills restricting the procedure, said in a statement on Friday that she could not sign the measure because it was too 'vague' and 'would not withstand a criminal constitutional legal challenge.'"
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Sarah Mimms, VICE
Mimms writes: "In a surprise move on Friday, Oklahoma's Republican Governor Mary Fallin vetoed legislation that would have made abortions punishable by up to three years in prison. Fallin, an anti-abortion conservative who has signed numerous bills restricting the procedure, said in a statement on Friday that she could not sign the measure because it was too 'vague' and 'would not withstand a criminal constitutional legal challenge.'"
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Vermont on the Cusp of Enacting the Country's First Anti-Shkreli Law
Beth Mole, Ars Technica
Mole writes: "In a matter of weeks, Vermont could be the first state to require drug makers to justify steep price increases for medications. The bill that would set that requirement has already passed through both houses of the state's legislature and now only requires the final sign off from Governor Peter Shumlin, who the AP reports is likely to sign the bill. Shumlin is expected to decide on whether to sign by early next month."
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Beth Mole, Ars Technica
Mole writes: "In a matter of weeks, Vermont could be the first state to require drug makers to justify steep price increases for medications. The bill that would set that requirement has already passed through both houses of the state's legislature and now only requires the final sign off from Governor Peter Shumlin, who the AP reports is likely to sign the bill. Shumlin is expected to decide on whether to sign by early next month."
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US Downplays a New Syrian Massacre
Daniel Lazare, Consortium News
Lazare writes: "The Obama administration claims Syrian rebels in Ahrar al-Sham deserve protection from government attack although they have close ties to Al Qaeda and joined its official Syrian affiliate in a slaughter of Alawites."
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Daniel Lazare, Consortium News
Lazare writes: "The Obama administration claims Syrian rebels in Ahrar al-Sham deserve protection from government attack although they have close ties to Al Qaeda and joined its official Syrian affiliate in a slaughter of Alawites."
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Top Democrats Ally With Oil and Gas Industry to Fight Colorado Anti-Fracking Ballot Measures
Alleen Brown, the Intercept
Brown writes: "Oil and gas companies are spending heavily to crush three Colorado ballot initiatives that would limit fracking. And some of the state's most powerful Democrats are helping them."
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Alleen Brown, the Intercept
Brown writes: "Oil and gas companies are spending heavily to crush three Colorado ballot initiatives that would limit fracking. And some of the state's most powerful Democrats are helping them."
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Democratic governor John Hickenlooper. (photo: Matt McClain/Getty Images)
il and gas companies are spending heavily to crush three Colorado ballot initiatives that would limit fracking. And some of the state’s most powerful Democrats are helping them.
The stakes are particularly high for several Colorado communities that have voted to limit or ban oil and gas development locally. Those limits were nullified in two cities by state Supreme Court decisions earlier this month. So the ballot initiatives may be their last best chance to slow development whose speed has surprised even cities that initially supported oil and gas projects.
“We feel it is a last ditch effort,” said Tricia Olson, director of Coloradans Resisting Extreme Energy Development, or CREED, which is pushing to get two of the measures on the ballot.
One measure would allow cities to pass rules to limit or even ban oil and gas development locally; the other would disallow companies from building oil and gas facilities closer than 2,500 feet from “occupied structures.” A third, supported by a separate group called Coloradans for Community Rights, would empower communities to make all kinds of decisions, including whether to frack. The groups are currently in the process of gathering the 98,000 signatures required to get on the ballot.
Campaign finance filings released this month indicate just how much oil and gas companies are willing to pony up to drill freely.
An industry-backed committee created just to defeat fracking ballot measures in Colorado, called Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy, and Energy Independence, collected more than $6.3 million in the first five months of this year.
Most of the pro-fracking group’s money came from two, $2.5 million donations, one each from Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy. Smaller contributions came from a dozen or so other oil and gas companies and industry groups.
Karen Crummy, who is a spokesperson for the group, said the measures would wreck the economy and strip farmers and ranchers of mineral rights that help them get by in tough times.
By comparison, on the anti-fracking side, CREED’s issues committee raised only $56,000. The total for Coloradans for Community Rights barely surpassed $5,700. The biggest anti-fracking donor, to CREED, was Tricia Olson, a retiree.
The fight for community control took off four years ago in a town named Longmont, when the industry spent more than $500,000 attempting to stop local voters from enacting a citywide ban. But the pro-ballot campaigners, who raised less than $30,000, won.
There was similar voter approval in 2013 in Lafayette, Fort Collins, Broomfield, and the city of Boulder. (Boulder County commissioners had passed a moratorium on fracking in early 2012.)
Ever since, the industry has dedicated itself to defeating the rules in court, an effort that climaxed on May 2, with a pair of Supreme Court decisions against Longmont and Fort Collins.
Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton claim they support locally enacted fracking limits. Sanderswants to ban the technique altogether, while Clinton says she would not support fracking “when any locality or any state is against it.”
But top Democrats in Colorado have warmed to the frackers.
Consider the case of Ted Trimpa, a registered lobbyist for Noble Energy and Encana oil and gas, who sits on the advisory committee of Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development, another front group for Anadarko and Noble that is fighting the proposals.
If anyone knows the power of Colorado cash to swing local politics, it’s Trimpa. He was an architectof Colorado Democrats’ surprise take-back of state politics from Republicans in 2004. The scheme involved aiming the cash of four wealthy donors, known as the “Gang of Four,” at key races, and later evolved into an infrastructure for coordinated Democrat donations through a network of non-profits.
The “Colorado miracle” became a model for Democrats nationwide. Trimpa has since served as a board member of some of the national Democratic Party’s most important funding and policy appendages, including Democracy Alliance and ProgressNow, as well as the American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, which supports the Clinton campaign through a super PAC of the same name.
He’s joined on the Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development advisory committee by Democratic superdelegate and former Gov. Roy Romer. And Trimpa’s old pal Tim Gill, one of the “Gang of Four,” is now chairman of another group, Colorado Concern, that has put money down to halt the initiatives.
Watch the video from the anti-fracking group Protect Colorado:
In 2014, two fracking ballot measures very similar to the ones being pushed now were bankrolled by America’s fifth richest member of Congress (and another of the Democratic Gang of Four), Rep. Jared Polis.
But the measures were apparently too threatening to the political ambitions of too many Democrats. Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper was facing reelection, as was Sen. Mark Udall — and Polis himself happened to be running to become chair of the Democratic Party’s Congressional Campaign Committee.
So at the last minute, Polis made a deal with Hickenlooper and oil and gas representatives to kill the measures before they made it to the ballot, despite the fact that the campaign had already collected 200,000 supporter signatures, more than enough to qualify for a vote. In exchange, oil and gas companies threw out a pair of pro-fracking measures, and Hickenlooper agreed to create a panel to recommend policies to hand more control and protection to communities where fracking was taking place. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who is up for reelection this year, had also pushed for the compromise.
Hickenlooper was reelected—attracting nearly three times more oil and gas cash than his Republican opponent. Polis lost his bid for DCCC chair, and Udall lost, too. As for the promised panel, although Hickenlooper appointed six representatives from the oil and gas companies, he included not a singlegrassroots organizer that had been pushing for more local control. The panel’s recommendations failed to give significant new decision-making powers to communities.
Hickenlooper recently spoke at a luncheon alongside American Petroleum Institute head Jack Gerard, stating that this year’s ballot initiative to increase distances between homes and gas wells could invite lawsuits costing billions. “I don’t think it’s a good idea at all,” he said.
The anti-fracking campaign says it won’t get fooled again. “CREED is very sensitive to the fact that our Democrats had a large hand in the initiatives being pulled last time, because they had so much control,” said Lauren Petrie, a senior organizer for Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit backing the Colorado campaign. This time around, she said, they’re “making sure that this is remaining a grassroots led effort.”
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