Senate Democrats’ top Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) watchdog is warning that the agency plans to withhold funds to clean contaminated land and drinking water sources in Seattle, Portland, New York and Washington, D.C., citing a directive from President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump and Biden’s plans would both add to the debt, analysis finds Trump says he will back specific relief measures hours after halting talks Trump lashes out at FDA over vaccine guidelines MORE to withhold federal funds from “anarchist” jurisdictions.
“We have learned that EPA, in its internal meetings related to the policy, has begun to identify funding sources that could be subject to the directive, some of which are vital for the provision of safe drinking water and the remediation of contamination,” Environmental and Public Works Committee ranking member Tom CarperThomas (Tom) Richard CarperOVERNIGHT ENERGY: Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities | Montana asks court to throw out major public lands decisions after ousting BLM director | It’s unknown if fee reductions given to oil producers prevented shutdowns Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities Energy innovation bill can deliver jobs and climate progress MORE (D-Del.) wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew WheelerAndrew WheelerOVERNIGHT ENERGY: Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities | Montana asks court to throw out major public lands decisions after ousting BLM director | It’s unknown if fee reductions given to oil producers prevented shutdowns Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities OVERNIGHT ENERGY: EPA gives Oklahoma authority over many tribal environmental issues | More than 60 Democrats ask feds to reconsider Tongass logging plan | EPA faces decision on chemical linked to brain damage in children MORE.
“Setting aside the legally questionable and abhorrent nature of the President’s directive, EPA’s implementation thereof could endanger human health and the environment,” he continued in the letter, which was signed by six other Democrats. “We strongly urge you not to take any action that could result in the collective loss of more than a billion dollars of funding intended to clean up contamination and drinking water in these American cities.”
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The Sept. 2 directive from Trump said the administration would “not allow federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones” — a nod to protests against racial inequalities taking place in major cities.
EPA has already pushed ahead with the directive in New York.
A late September letter from Wheeler to New York Gov. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoOVERNIGHT ENERGY: Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities | Montana asks court to throw out major public lands decisions after ousting BLM director | It’s unknown if fee reductions given to oil producers prevented shutdowns Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities The Hill’s Morning Report – Sponsored by Facebook – Trump resumes maskless COVID-19 recovery at White House MORE (D) and New York City Mayor Bill de BlasioBill de BlasioOVERNIGHT ENERGY: Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities | Montana asks court to throw out major public lands decisions after ousting BLM director | It’s unknown if fee reductions given to oil producers prevented shutdowns Democrats allege EPA plans to withhold funding from ‘anarchist’ cities The Hill’s Morning Report – Sponsored by Facebook – Trump resumes maskless COVID-19 recovery at White House MORE (D) characterized summer protests in the city as a danger to the EPA’s Manhattan office.
“If you cannot demonstrate that EPA employees will be safe accessing our New York City offices, then I will begin the process of looking for a new location for our regional headquarters outside of New York City that can maintain order. I have an obligation to our employees, and if the city is unwilling or incapable of doing its job, I will do mine and move them to a location that can competently fulfill the basic mission of a local government,” Wheeler wrote.
Carper called the move a “retaliatory threat [that] would waste taxpayer dollars and endanger the jobs of the nearly 600 people who work there.”
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EPA accused Carper and others of “peddling a false narrative to diminish the accomplishments of the Trump Administration.”
“EPA will continue to follow guidance from the White House in accordance with its statutory obligations,” agency spokeswoman Molly Block said in an email.
Carper’s letter outlines millions designated for each city to help with clean water and contaminated areas.
Portland was invited to apply for $554 million in Water Infrastructure and Finance Innovation Act loans to improve its drinking water quality. Seattle got $192.2 million under the same grant program. D.C. got $158,000 in funding to test for lead in drinking water in schools along with roughly $20 million in other drinking water funds.
New York got $300,000 in Brownfields funding to clean up sites with “the intention of redeveloping vacant and abandoned properties and turning them into community assets such as housing, recreation and open space, health facilities, social services and commerce opportunities.”
Carper identified each as “funding that EPA may seek to halt, deny or rescind.”
Facebook will add labels to posts from candidates who prematurely declare victory in the November elections, the social media platform announced Wednesday.
If a candidate or party claims to have won before the race is called by major news outlets, users will be shown a notification explaining that no winner has been determined and that votes are still being counted. The same information will be shown at the top of a user’s news feed.
In the event of a candidate or party contesting the results declared by news outlets, a label will be added showing the winner of the race according to the media.
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Facebook also said it will stop running social issue, electoral and political ads in the U.S. after polls close on Nov. 3, a precaution that Google rolled out last month to preempt risks of misinformation being pushed through ads. Facebook does not fact-check political ads.
Sarah Schiff, product manager at Facebook, told reporters Wednesday that advertisers should expect the ad freeze to last one week but that the length could change based on how the elections go.
The company last month announced it would block new political and issue ads in the final week leading up to the elections.
The platform will also ban posts calling for people to engage in poll watching that use militarized language or include a suggestion that the goal is to intimidate voters.
The new policies come amid rising fears that President TrumpDonald John TrumpFive takeaways from the vice presidential debate Harris accuses Trump of promoting voter suppression Pence targets Biden over ISIS hostages, brings family of executed aid worker to debate MORE and some of his allies may try to cast doubt on the election results if Trump does not win a second term.
The president has already sought to discredit mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it leads to widespread voter fraud.
White House deputy communications director Brian Morgenstern repeatedly declined to answer questions about the date of President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden campaign raises over M on day of VP debate Trump chastises Whitmer for calling him ‘complicit’ in extremism associated with kidnapping scheme Trump says he hopes to hold rally Saturday despite recent COVID-19 diagnosis MORE’s last negative coronavirus test in a contentious interview with MSNBC on Friday.
In an interview with host Hallie Jackson, Morgenstern claimed that the White House has not divulged the date of Trump’s last negative test because it is not valuable public health information.
Morgenstern, who said he did not personally know the date in question, also at one point claimed that Trump’s rights under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevented the White House from releasing the information.
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“The president doesn’t check all of his HIPAA rights at the door just when he becomes president,” Morgenstern said. “The doctors obviously share fulsome information with the president. The president shares a great deal of information with the American public.”
“There is a reason to share certain information. It is to prevent further transmission of the virus, it’s public health purposes, and that’s what we’re doing,” he added.
The White House has indicated that it will share the results of Trump’s next coronavirus test, which he is expected to take on Friday, before he returns to public events. Asked by Jackson what was different between sharing that information and sharing the president’s last negative test, Morgenstern insisted the White House has been “extremely transparent.”
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“It is not something that has the public health value that the other information releasing does,” he later added of details about the president’s last negative test.
Public health experts say that it is important to know Trump’s last negative test in order to determine whether Trump was contagious during his week of travel prior to his coronavirus diagnosis. Trump traveled to the first presidential debate in Cleveland, held a campaign rally in Minnesota and participated in a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., in the days leading up to his announcement a week ago that he had tested positive.
The information could help identify individuals who may have been exposed to the virus before Trump’s positive test.
White House officials and Trump’s physician have repeatedly refused to divulge the date of Trump’s last negative test over the course of the past week, saying only that Trump has been tested regularly for the virus.
Trump is known to have experienced symptoms for COVID-19 beginning last Friday, when he had a high fever and was given supplemental oxygen after a drop in his oxygen level. He was transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that day and received treatment there for 72 hours.
White House physician Sean Conley issued a memo on Thursday evening saying that Trump would be able to make a “safe return” to public events by Saturday.
Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci gets his own action figure Trump health official meets with doctors pushing herd immunity Testing positive: Will Trump’s presidency be a casualty of COVID-19? MORE, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said Tuesday that as many as 400,000 Americans could die from COVID-19 if action isn’t taken in the fall and winter.
Fauci told attendees of a virtual event held by American University that between 300,000 and 400,000 could die from coronavirus in the country.
“The models tell us if we don’t do what we need to in the fall and winter, we could have 300,000-400,000 COVID-19 deaths,” American University quoted the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as saying.
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Fauci’s prediction goes beyond a University of Washington study from August that said as many as 300,000 people could die of COVID-19 by Dec. 1.
As of Wednesday morning, the U.S. has recorded 210,918 deaths and more than 7.5 million confirmed infections of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Fauci also asserted on Tuesday that a vaccine will probably not be available to most Americans until next summer or the fall, aligning with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield’s Senate testimony last month. Fauci said during an event on Monday that this means life may not return to normal until the end of next year.
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At the American University virtual event, Fauci acknowledged the decreasing trust in him as a public official, especially among Republicans and those who believe the country needs to reopen fully.
“Maybe 50 percent of you hate me because you think I’m trying to destroy the country, but listen to me for six weeks or so, and do what I say, and you’ll see the numbers go down,” Fauci pleaded, according to the university.
His comments come after President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump and Biden’s plans would both add to the debt, analysis finds Trump says he will back specific relief measures hours after halting talks Trump lashes out at FDA over vaccine guidelines MORE announced a positive coronavirus test last week and spent three nights in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment. The president returned to the White House on Monday.
Rep. Keith EllisonKeith Maurice EllisonThe Hill’s Coronavirus Report: Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says country needs to rethink what ‘policing’ means; US cases surpass 2 million with no end to pandemic in sight Officer charged in Floyd’s death considered guilty plea before talks fell apart: report Minnesota AG Keith Ellison says racism is a bigger problem than police behavior; 21 states see uptick in cases amid efforts to reopen MORE called on Democrats to rally behind the party’s newly elected chairman Tom PerezThomas Edward PerezClinton’s top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labor’s ‘wasteful spending and mismanagement” at Workers’ Comp MORE on Saturday after Perez appointed the Minnesota congressman, his top rival for the position, as his deputy.
“I am asking you to give everything you’ve got to support chairman Perez,” Ellison told supporters.
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After winning the vote, Perez in his first motion as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) asked to suspend the rules and appoint Ellison as deputy chairman.
The U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday released a landmark new study and map highlighting the location and frequency of earthquakes thought to be caused by human activities such as drilling or hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
In a statement, the USGS said that the sharp increase in earthquake activity in the central and eastern United States since 2009 “is linked to industrial operations that dispose of wastewater by injecting it into deep wells.”
The study is the first comprehensive assessment that includes what the USGS calls “induced” earthquakes into its forecast maps, which detail the likelihood of an earthquake occurring within a 50-year period. The maps are used for building codes, insurance rates, and emergency preparedness plans, among other applications.
“These earthquakes are occurring at a higher rate than ever before and pose a much greater risk to people living nearby,” said Mark Petersen, Chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Modeling Project.
The new map features the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas, with Oklahoma displaying by far the greatest number of man-made earthquakes. All of the areas highlighted on the map “are located near deep fluid injection wells or other industrial activities capable of inducing earthquakes,” according to the study.
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Oklahoma had 585 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in 2014 alone, and is on track to have more than 800 this year, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey. Before 2009, the state averaged only one to three a year whereas now there is an average of 2.5 such quakes each day.
On Tuesday, scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued a statement (pdf) saying it is “very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those in central and north-central Oklahoma are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells.”
The practice of fracking releases gas and oil trapped in deep-rock formations by injecting a combination of water, chemicals, and sand into the bedrock. The toxic byproduct of fracking is later injected deep into the ground via disposal wells, which scientists say are likely causing these quakes.
Also Tuesday, a study published in the journal Nature Communications concluded that a series of small 27 earthquakes that rattled a small Texas town were likely linked to drilling operations at the nearby Barrett Shale natural gas formation.
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Placing the well-being of the Earth above monetary interests, the Lax Kw’alaams First Nations tribe in British Columbia has rejected a $1 billion offer and voted against a proposed liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal.
In the third and definitive vote on the Pacific Northwest (PNW) LNG project last Tuesday, tribal members unanimously opposed the project, which would be located entirely within Lax Kw’alaams traditional territory on Lelu Island and the adjacent Flora Bank and required tribal consent before going forward.
“They’re offering us benefits if we vote Yes. But we already have a lot of benefits around us—we have coho, spring and sockeye salmon. We have halibut, crab and eulachon. Those are our benefits.” —Lianne Spence, Lax Kw’alaams tribal member
“Our elders remind us that money is like so much dust that is quickly blown away in the wind,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip told the Globe and Mail, “but the land is forever.”
In a press statement (pdf) following the vote, the tribe describes the potential threat to fisheries and the refusal by the government and PNW to impose sufficient environmental safeguards on the project, adding that there has been “indifference to the point of negligence or willful blindness, or both.”
In exchange for their approval, PNW had offered the 3,600-member tribe a land swap as well as $1 billion in cash to be delivered over 40 years—which in total would have amounted to a payout of roughly $320,000 for each member. The project is also backed by Malaysia’s state-owned energy giant, Petronas.
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“The traditional way of life of the Lax Kw’alaams people and, most importantly, the delicate marine ecosystem that upholds, and has upheld their culture for thousands of years, is not for sale,” Chief Philip continued. The Skeena River, where Lelu Island is situated, is the second largest salmon producing river in the province.
The Lax Kw’alaams say they are bound by traditional law to protect the traditional fishing grounds for future generations. “This is a first line of defense in respect to the aboriginal food fishery, a fishery which has sustained coastal and upriver first nations through the millennia,” the statement reads.
Aboriginal artist Lianne Spence, who was among those who voted against the deal, agreed that the monetary compensation could not compete with the natural resources. “They’re offering us benefits if we vote Yes,” Spence said. “But we already have a lot of benefits around us—we have coho, spring and sockeye salmon. We have halibut, crab and eulachon. Those are our benefits.”
The tribe says they will still work with PNW to find a solution and says they are “open to development,” just not development in Flora Bank.
Lax Kw’alaams Mayor Gary Reece said that he hopes the community’s rejection of an offer in excess of a billion dollars “sends an unequivocal message this is not a money issue: this is environmental and cultural.”
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Vowing to combat the “converging crises” of racism, militarism, climate change, and “extreme materialism,” Dr. Jill Stein on Tuesday announced this week that she is running for president of the United States as a Green Party candidate.
In a campaign kick-off speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Stein laid out the major planks of her platform, excerpted below:
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Stein, who also ran for president in 2012, talked about her candidacy in an exclusive interview with Democracy Now! on Monday. Among other things, Stein highlighted one major difference between Greens and the mainstream political parties: “We are part of a party that does not accept corporate money and that does not accept money from lobbyists nor from corporate CEOs or surrogates of corporations.”
While Stein admitted to similarities between herself and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running for the presidency as a populist Democrat, she was hard-pressed to find overlaps between her platform and that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“With Hillary, you know, I think, across the board, Hillary is the Wal-Mart candidate,” Stein said. “Though she may change her tune a little bit, you know, she’s been a member of the Wal-Mart board. On jobs, on trade, on healthcare, on banks, on foreign policy, it’s hard to find where we are similar.”
Speaking of her economic priorities, Stein told Democracy Now‘s Goodman: “We are very focused on reforming the financial system, not only breaking up the big banks, but actually establishing public banks at the community, state and national level, so that we actually can democratize our finance. We can nationalize the Fed and ensure that it’s running for public purpose and not simply for private profit.”
Watch the full Democracy Now! interview below:
A press release sent out by the Jill 2016 campaign notes that Stein’s official entry into the 2016 presidential race coincides with the filing of a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) on Monday. That lawsuit, brought by the advocacy group Level the Playing Field and the Green and Libertarian parties, seeks to expand the 2016 general-election presidential debates to independent and third-party candidates.
Stein—who was arrested, along with vice presidential candidate Cheri Honkala, trying to enter a presidential debate sponsored by the CPD in the fall of 2012—was reportedly “deeply involved in negotiations with Level the Playing Field to have the Green Party join as co-plaintiff in this suit.”
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The family of two U.S. drone victims is refusing to keep their pain silent as they seek an official apology by U.S. President Barack Obama for the deaths of their kin.
In a CNN op-ed published on Friday, Faisal bin Ali Jaber, a Yemeni civil engineer, issued a public challenge to the U.S. leader—who recently made public statements about the deaths of two westerners killed by U.S. drone strikes, but has refused to acknowledge Yemeni civilian casualties.
“What is the value of a human life?” Jaber asks.
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In the column, Jaber describes how following the August 2012 strike that killed Waleed and Salem bin Ali Jaber, the family had to identify them “from their clothes and scraps of matted hair.”
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And how in the wake of the strike, while the family awaited an official apology, they were instead presented with “$100,000 in sequentially-marked U.S. dollars in a plastic bag.”
Jaber writes: “A Yemeni security service official was given the unpleasant task of handing this over. I looked him in the eye and asked how this was acceptable, and whether he would admit the money came from America. He shrugged and said: ‘Can’t tell you. Take the money.'”
“The secret payment to my family represents a fraction of the cost of the operation that killed them,” he continues. “This seems to be the Obama administration’s cold calculation: Yemeni lives are cheap. They cost the President no political or moral capital.”
In contrast to the experience of Jaber and other relatives of innocent Yemenis killed by the U.S. drone war, in April, Obama publicly acknowledged that a U.S. counterterrorism operation had killed an American, Warren Weinstein, and an Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto. The lawsuit follows another failed court challenge in Germany in which Jaber’s family sought to prosecute the home of Ramstein Air Base for its role in “facilitating American covert drone strikes in Yemen.”
“Like a lot of Americans, my family and I watched the President’s speech at home,” Jaber writes. “But while many praised him for his forthrightness, we do not share that view. His speech shocked us. No, it was worse: his speech broke our hearts.
“As I watched,” he continues, “I thought of my dead relatives, names that so far as I know have never crossed the President’s lips: Waleed and Salem bin Ali Jaber.”
On Monday, Jaber filed a suit asking a Washington D.C. district court to issue a declaration that the strike that killed Salem and Waleed was unlawful. He is seeking no monetary compensation.
“Imagine that your loved one was wrongly killed by the U.S. government, and the White House would not apologize. Imagine they would not even admit their role in the death of your family members,” Jaber concludes. “We simply want the truth and an apology. We will not rest until it is ours.”
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Fighting to protect dark money. Attacking federal efforts to rein in carbon pollution. Undermining local democracy.
These are just some of the “hot topics” on the agenda this week as conservative lawmakers, corporate lobbyists, and top GOP candidates from around the country gather in San Diego for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)’s annual meeting.
“A dark cloud is headed our way in the form of a shadowy lobbying organization that buys loyalty from state legislatures with untraceable corporate dollars and threatens the very fabric of our democracy.” —Francine Busby, San Diego County Democratic Party
“A dark cloud is headed our way in the form of a shadowy lobbying organization that buys loyalty from state legislatures with untraceable corporate dollars and threatens the very fabric of our democracy,” San Diego County Democratic Party chair Francine Busby wrote in advance of the conference.
ALEC, Busby explained, “is a ‘bill mill’ funded by corporations and billionaires. It creates ‘model legislation’ by and for industries, which right-wing legislators then take back to their statehouses and enact into law.”
Miles Rapoport, president of the grassroots advocacy organization Common Cause, described the meeting as “a festival of closed-door deal-making by politicians, corporate executives and lobbyists,” at which “[t]hey gather to do the public’s business in private, fashioning legislation that undercuts the public interest in things like clean air and water, quality public schools, economic fairness and participatory democracy.”
It was with these charges in mind that more than 1,000 labor, social justice, and environmental advocates rolled out the unwelcome mat for the ALEC legislators and lobbyists on Wednesday, saying they didn’t want the corporate-backed group in their city.
“This is a no ALEC zone. I mean, we don’t want ALEC in our city or, quite frankly, in our state,” Mickey Kasparian, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, said at the rally in downtown San Diego. “This is California. We fight for workers’ rights. We fight for affordable healthcare.”
But as the Center for Media and Democracy’s Brendan Fischer pointed out this week, “[i]n many ways, San Diego is an appropriate setting for ALEC’s conference.”
The city has served as a “petri dish for ALEC’s agenda,” he said, citing a successful and corporate-backed campaign that forced the city council to rescind a popular minimum wage measure.
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Meanwhile, environmentalists warn that the draft conference agenda indicates that ALEC will pursue a familiar course in the coming year. According to Aliya Huq, climate change special projects director for Natural Resources Defense Council, the group is pushing measures to “defend polluters, hinder clean energy development, and obstruct climate solutions.”
Model bills up for discussion this week, Huq wrote, include the “State Power Accountability and Reliability Charter (SPARC),” which seeks to chip away at the EPA’s carbon pollution limits on power plants; the “Act Providing Incentives for Carbon Reduction Investments,” aimed at weakening and delaying existing state renewable energy standards; and the “Resolution Concerning Special Markets for Direct Solar Power Sales.”
“ALEC and its corporate backers are taking the fight directly to the local level, urging city and county officials on the one hand to give up their authority to protect the health and economic well-being of their constituents, and on the other to push policy measures to advance corporate interests.” —Brendan Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy
This final bill, Huq writes, “is a real gem in ALEC’s long-running strategy to subvert solar markets.”
But “[r]ooftop solar gives consumers choice; shouldn’t we be working to make it available to more people not fewer?” Huq asked. “Furthermore, Econ 101 taught us that the hidden costs of fossil pollution is a market failure, and solar incentives level the playing field for clean energy to protect public health and the environment. These attacks are most likely coming from vested polluter interests (including some ALEC members who are actual regulated monopolies) that want to protect their profits.”
In a separate blog post on Monday, CMD’s Fischer noted that ALEC’s new offshoot focused on local government, the American City County Exchange (ACCE), will also meet in San Diego this week.
“Local democracy has led to some significant policy wins in recent years, with cities like Philadelphia guaranteeing workers paid sick days, and places like Denton, Texas banning fracking,” Fischer wrote. “ALEC’s response to cities and counties acting as laboratories of democracy has traditionally been to crush it, through state ‘preemption’ laws that prohibit local governments from raising the minimum wage, or regulating GMOs, or building municipal broadband.”
With ACCE, Fischer charged, “ALEC and its corporate backers are taking the fight directly to the local level, urging city and county officials on the one hand to give up their authority to protect the health and economic well-being of their constituents, and on the other to push policy measures to advance corporate interests.”
According to news reports, two Republican presidential hopefuls—Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee, the ex-Arkansas governor—are scheduled to speak at the conference on Thursday. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) canceled his scheduled Friday appearance.
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