Ice Storm in Houston Delays Creating Change Participants

An ice storm spanning from Pittsburgh to Houston has delayed those in the Northeast planning to attend the annual Creating Change conference. Hundreds of flights were cancelled for Tuesday, an ideal flying day for conference participants.

Creating Change is scheduled to begin on Wednesday and will go through the weekend. Many participants who have not already flown to Houston will be forced to miss workshop sessions for Wednesday. This change in scheduling is an inconvenience for participants, but for those coming from the Northeast, they'll know exactly how to handle the ice and snow that has overwhelmed Houston. 

For those who are not used to the inclement weather that has descended upon Texas, it is advised to look to your friends from colder parts of the country for some tips on how to stay warm. 

Creating Change is an annual conference on organizing and building skills for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community and their allies. The conference is organized by the Gay & Lesbian Task Force and draws in roughly 3,500 people every year from across the United States. 

Ethics: I always find a way to mention Scalia

Hello friends,

For Monday we have been asked to respond to the following prompt:

"For at least a year, reporters on your paper have heard rumors that a retirement home is negligent in its care of the elderly. Your editor asks you to get a job there as a janitor and to report what you find. What would be your response, and why?" 

Okay. So this is quite the theoretical question and feels like taking a major turn from what is normally a political blog. Moderation is key, right?

Alright, so the way I look at this, it makes sense to take the janitorial job in order to try and uncover potential negligence. 

The alternative to uncovering negligence would be the preferable result, and would only result in an awkward exchange where I would have to discontinue my janitorial duties and quit. That doesn't sound like it would be too bad in the scheme of things. 

The ideal situation would be to not have a story to write at all. These ongoing rumors would either be validated, or would be discontinued, and that would benefit the entire community to end speculation. 

If negligence were occurring, the story would benefit those in the retirement community that are being mistreated. 

Taking action by accepting the assignment using the potter box is how that determination could (and should) be made. Combining values, principles, and loyalties to determine judgment result in the right decision for the individual in the situation. Because I am speaking from my position, I can only say that taking action is what I determine to be the right thing. 

I would like to utilize situation ethics to say that this story is very situational and can justify taking action. In this assignment by applying the ethics of final ends, which I feel is appropriate, taking action by accepting the assignment from the editor and posing as a janitor in the retirement home would be the best course of action. 

I reject the idea that an absolutist approach should be taken in this, or any situation. If I learned one thing from constitutional law, it is that there are no absolutes. Not even Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia can pull off trying to be an absolutist, although he will continue to claim that he is despite the facts against him that prove otherwise. 

Senator Langley Leaves ALEC

DISCLAIMER: I worked with Representative Diane Russell on the Protect Maine Voting Rights Coalition in 2011 collecting signatures to preserve same-day voter registration in Maine.

“I am no longer a member of ALEC” said Senator Brian Langley of Ellsworth on Monday when asked about his membership to the conservative organization. When asked about what he got from his membership, Langley said that it was ALEC’s library that made it worth the fifty dollar membership fee. Langley asserted that model legislation from ALEC was not present in Maine due to a spirit of independence. 

Last year, a group calling themselves ALEC Exposed created a website that, for the first time, listed legislators that have been associated with ALEC, since the organization chooses not to make their list of members public. The website also explores instances of model legislation that has made its way into different states and tips on how to spot ALEC bills. Langley withdrew his membership with ALEC after his name and association with the organization became public information. 

“I don’t like to speculate on people’s intentions. Joe Biden says very clearly to judge people’s actions, not their intentions. I know Senator Langley very well, and I know that he is one of the more moderate republican senators and much more pragmatic, so it surprised me when I learned that he was a member at one point” said Democratic Representative Diane Russell of Portland.

“I have seen it firsthand in Maine” said Russell when asked about ALEC’s influence in Maine. She goes on to say “I don’t think it’s a very ethical organization quite frankly, based on the evidence that I’ve seen. When you look at how they circumvent our campaign finance laws and our reporting requirements. When you can go to a conference and meet directly with folks who may make donations to your campaign, but you can do that without them being considered lobbyists, because it shows up just as attending a conference. I think that’s a problem. Furthermore, when you look at the mass amount of bills they’re introducing into state legislatures across the country that reflect a very specific agenda, which is anti-family, anti small business, anti-woman in some cases, anti-environment, all of these bills, and then you factor in that some of these folks that tend to put in ALEC supported bills tend to get donations from the same kind of companies that are supporting those bills.” 

Specifically in Maine, Russell has seen testimony against bills that seems to come directly from talking points in the ALEC handbook. “Whether it’s efforts to undermine clean elections, they have a model resolution which essentially calls public financing welfare for politicians, which is precisely the testimony that we get from folks who oppose clean elections. It may not be a direct bill because that’s a resolution, but the intent is the same, and the messaging is consistent with the work that has been done to undermine the system. When you look at some of the environmental laws, or the proposals, those are negative. When you look at the gun laws that are proposed, those are very consistent with the ALEC agenda.” 

In 2010, model legislation came to Maine and other states to roll back the rights of voters, including a bill that would require photo identification for someone to vote. “Voter id is actually a model bill that they have been putting forth. But then you take that to the next level, most states don’t have election day registration. We happen to have it. They have put forth a variety of bills that will undermine people’s ability to access the ballot box, and the election day registration fight is certainly in line with their plan to remove people from the voting rolls. So I have seen it firsthand in Maine. Workers compensation, the right to work bills, all of those bills that are under a very particular agenda are very consistent, if not model bills from the ALEC agenda.”

Russell worked with a coalition called Protect Maine Voting Rights in 2011 that collected petition signatures for a citizens initiative that would ultimately reinstate same-day voter registration in Maine. “You tend to choose to eliminate voters who may vote a particular way, it allows you to control the government in a much more systematic manner” said Russell. “So there’s just been a lot that’s occurring with ALEC that I don’t think benefits our democracy. It’s had a profound impact on undermining it, certainly does not benefit working people, and it certainly sends our country in the wrong direction. The big battleground right now is in the states, it’s not even in Congress.” Russell along with many legislators from both sides of the aisle have pushed for more comprehensive finance reform. 

I asked Russell what constituents can do to hold their legislators accountable, and she left me with some wise words. “I think the way we hold law-makers accountable under any circumstance happens to be the ballot box, but in order for that to work, people have to know that information. If you have a law-maker that is doing something you disagree with, then absolutely you should hold them accountable. You can write letters to the editor, or reach out to them. Let them know in no uncertain terms, put it on their Facebook page that you disagree with what they’re doing.”

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a national organization comprised of Republican state legislators. ALEC is known for writing model legislation that it provides to its members to introduce within their respective state legislatures. ALEC does not release the names of their members. Russell was recently named the most valuable legislator in the country by the magazine The Nation and has been at the forefront of the progressive movement in Maine and in D.C.

Maine HIV Prevention Program Is Defunded

The Maine Department of Education will not receive funds for HIV Education and Prevention Program this year. 

"As of 2013 this program has been defunded, effectively ending one of Maine's cornerstone HIV prevention and adolescent sexual health promotion programs. Active since 1987 this program provided high quality training in evidence-based sexuality curricula to educators throughout Maine and helped fund youth leadership programs in area schools" says the Down East AIDS Network in a statement to HIV & Sexual Health Advocates last week. 

Representative Jane Pringle [D-Windham] is sponsoring a bill (L.D. 1699) that would provide funding for the Maine Department  of Education to continue running the program. 

The bill will be heard before the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee in Augusta on Monday January 27th at 1pm in room 202 of the Cross State Office Building. Senator Brian Langley [R-Ellsworth] was asked about L.D. 1699 on Monday January 20th and remarked that he had yet to look at the bill and wasn't sure what it was. With a limited budget in Augusta, it's hard to find funds for great bills like this. When asked if he thought L.D. 1699 would receive its necessary funding, Langley said "If you want to kill a bill, you either vote it down, or you send it to the appropriations table to die."

Langley has been a champion on the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee when it comes to LGBTQ rights in Maine. When Langley served as Chair of the committee, he was instrumental in passing a comprehensive anti-bullying bill. Health advocates are hoping that Langley steps up to the plate on Monday to continue being someone they can count on to do the right thing. 

To contact Senator Langley about L.D. 1699, his e-mail address is: SenBrian.Langley@legislature.maine.gov, his home phone number is: (207)667-0625, and he can be contacted in the Senate Minority Office at (207)287-1505. 

Interviewing a COA Student

This weekend, I worked on developing my interviewing skills by sitting down with a fellow COA student. While I have conducted interviews before, being asked to analyze what I learned from the experience was a new goal.

Usually when conducting interviews, there is some sort of goal: a product you expect to achieve by the end of the session through necessary means. Not having that particular goal allowed me to pay more attention to methodology. 

When interviewing session first began, I spent some time talking to Grace S. of Seafox to start the conversation consciously with the reporting notebook present. Often times, the presence of the reporting notebook intimidates the interviewee. Talking prior to going 'on the record' helps to eliminate some of this. 

A bad habit that I noticed in myself during the actual interview was that I tend to try and write everything down. Developing my short-hand is something that I aim to work on while conducting interviews for the remainder of the course and beyond. 

The substance of what I did record from my interview with Grace was quite fascinating to me. Grace grew up in Western Massachusetts, but not the Western Massachusetts that those from outside of the area would think. Grace said this to say about her area: "we have the highest teen suicide rate, the highest teen pregnancy rate, and gang violence." In addition, Grace mentioned that in the last two years, a meth lab exploded in the veterinarian's son's house, and a leader of Hell's Angel murdered seven people in the woods. Grace said that the longer she spent in that area, her opinion of her area being terrible was reinforced. This part of Massachusetts was very rural, more so Grace said, than our town of Bar Harbor. 

Attending COA was a no-brainer for Grace: "I would envision myself coming here," she said. Four years ago, Grace's family visited Acadia for two weeks. Upon passing the COA sign, Grace was prompted to visit the website. In her mid-teens, Grace boldly stated that at the time, she thought if she didn't get into COA, she wasn't going anywhere else. Grace says that while in high school, she read more about COA, and was ready to be out of high school after her freshman year. 

While Grace really loves COA, it was not as perfect as she thought it would be. COA is still school, in a small town, with nothing around. However, Grace said that she feels safe here, and being so close to town is a big advantage. At the end of the day, Grace says that Maine is more of a home to her. Clustered in an older house of twenty-six students, one might have no choice but to feel embraced by the unique offerings of College of the Atlantic. Welcome home, Grace. 

Hancock County Democrats Pack City Hall

Ellsworth City Hall
1 City Hall Ave. Ellsworth, ME 04605

A shining city upon a hill is what you'll find when you visit Ellsworth, Maine. The historic City Hall lights up the downtown region, where locals gather for a wide variety of activities. Every third Thursday of the month from 7-9 P.M., this shining beacon transforms its Auditorium space into the monthly meeting of the Hancock County Democratic Committee (HCDC). 

It was a packed room Thursday night. Democrats from all across Hancock County gathered to conduct their montly duties, but many were drawn in because of the monthly program speaker. This month, the HCDC was joined by the humorous economist, Garrett Martin, Executive Director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MCEP). 

Garrett Martin, Executive Director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy

Martin shared a lot of information with the Democrats, but began with the disclosure that his organization is a non-profit and they do not take positions on elections. However, he followed up by saying that he was committed to the truth, and that the numbers speak for themselves. The information in was shared in a slideshow presentation that took statistics from many reports generated by MCEP, including The State of Working Maine in 2013 Executive Summary and Unprecedented Opportunity: Federal Health Care Funds Will Deliver 4,400 Jobs and $500,000,000 in Annual Economic Activity to Maine by 2016. 

Maine's job recovery from the recession is trailing the progress in both New England and the United States. Maine lost 21,100 jobs and has only recovered 1,900 of them, putting Maine in bottom ten states when it comes to recovery, said Martin. Maine is experiencing a 6.4% unemployment rate, and while that is less than the national average of 7%, that can largely be attributed to people dropping out of the job force. When people drop out of the job force, unemployment gets bumped, and that creates deceiving numbers. 

One out of every three people who are unemployed have been so for six months or more. Martin says that if you've been out of a job for more than six months, you are less likely to get an interview. Those that are out of a job for less than two months are more likely to bounce back. Full unemployment is not the only the only issue, though. Martin said "there are a lot of people that have half-time jobs, but want full-time jobs". 

If you're lucky enough to have a job, there is still more bad news. Wages are seen to be growing at the top in the 90th percentile, but those in the middle and at the bottom are being left behind. Martin said that "workers are more productive than ever, but compensation isn't keeping pace". 

The MCEP has done projections on the change in Maine employment from 2010-2020 and has concluded that the service-providing industry will grow by 8.6%, the goods-producing industry will grow by 4.9%, and government sector jobs will grow by just 0.8%, dismissing the myth that the only jobs out there are government jobs. 

Martin went on to talk about expanding medicaid and what that would do for the state, from the perspective of an economist. Medicaid expansion would cover those who are not eligible under the Affordable Care Act for health care coverage, which means that they do not fall between the 100-138% of the poverty level. Expanding this provision would cover up to 69,500 Mainers and bring in $338 million in federal funds. This could mean $500 million would be generated in economic activity, 4,100-4,400 jobs, and an additional $23 million in state and local revenue. If you'd like to read more about the MCEP and their research on this and other issues, please visit there website here. 

After Martin said "peace out" and completed his presentation, the HCDC returned to their regularly scheduled meeting. David Guarente of Blue Hill was elected as a Member-at-Large to the Committee after attending the required minimum of three consecutive meetings. 

The Committee heard from District Attorney Dee Bassano, County Commissioner Antonio Blasi, and Andrea Perry, one of eight candidates for the five open seats on the Ellsworth School Board. 

In addition, Bethany Reynolds and Dexter Bellows spoke as surrogates for candidate Shenna Bellows who is running for the U.S. Senate against longtime incumbent Susan Collins. 

Shenna has served as the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine for the last eight years and is originally from the town of Hancock. Shenna has two events coming up in Hancock County over the next two days, and that is just one example of her commitment to reaching Mainers everywhere. 

The HCDC voted on two resolutions that were both passed. 

The first resolution states "Be it resolved, that the Hancock County Democratic Committee (1) communicate with every state legislator serving portions of this County calling on them to disapprove the Maine Board of Environmental Protection proposed regulations when the matter comes before them to vote and (2) further publicize this environmental protection action to the media serving this county". 

The second resolution regarded expanding MaineCare and taking that one step further to support universal health care in Maine through a single-payer system. That resolution read "Be it resolved, that the Hancock County Democratic Committee urges its four Democratic legislators to vote for both bills and any needed veto override, and further calls upon the Hancock County's Republican legislators to serve the health care needs of all the residents of Hancock County by helping make these two bills the law of the land in Maine".  

The HCDC wrapped up its January meeting with high hopes and excitement about the upcoming Democratic Caucus on Sunday March 2nd. The next meeting of the HCDC is on February 20th from 7-9 P.M. at the Ellsworth City Hall Auditorium. 

Thumbs Up For Policy Blogs

I am not a big blog follower, but I find myself a loyal reader to Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, Maddow Blog, and the work of Richard Engel, a journalist and works as a NBC New's Chief foreign correspondent. All three works have been acclaimed for their contributions to journalism and have undoubtedly earned my respect as a reader. 

Ezra Klein manages his blog on The Washington Post and submits his own writing with other writers of public policy. Ezra focuses primarily in health care and issues surrounding the federal budget. Not only does he bring a perspective that I can absolutely get behind as a self-identified liberal, but can appreciate his criticisms of the left. Often this viewpoint is lost as it correlates with the lack of bipartisanship in U.S. politics. 

The Maddow Blog is great for me because it allows me to read up on relevant news, and allows me to be more prepared for watching news via podcast for this blog's corresponding show. Having this resource at my fingertips, I am left feeling more informed about what is going on in the world as a global citizen. 

Richard Engel is a foreign correspondent and writes extensively about his work. Most recently, Engel found himself the subject of the news when he was captured in Syria. This perspective is not one that is often at the forefront of the news, and having this first-hand account as a resource is monumentally important. Over the course of the last six years that I've been following Engel's work, I have noticed that he is often sent to places that other correspondents simply cannot. His experience in the field is unlike that of others, and when it comes to reporting, is deemed invaluable. 

Each blog covers policy and politics, all in slightly different ways and to varying depths. Combined, these blogs provide this policy wonk with great information and insight. 

Hundreds of Citizen Lobbyists Take Augusta

AUGUSTA, Maine -

     The first day of session opened with a bang as roughly four-hundred citizen lobbyists showed up at the capital this morning. Representing all sixteen of Maine's counties, these citizens traveled to Augusta to talk with legislators about expanding Medicaid to the 70,000 Mainers who are not qualified under the Affordable Care Act to apply for health coverage. This event was primarily organized by the Maine People's Alliance, (MPA) an organization committed to "bring individuals and organizations together to realize shared goals." In that spirit, this blog is aimed to bring authentic stories of Mainers and their experiences. 

     Last year, the legislature voted overwhelmingly to accept federal funds that would expand Medicaid. Governor LePage vetoed this decision, and the two-thirds majority required to override the governor's veto failed by just two votes. Consequently, this meant that MaineCare would no longer be available to nearly 25,000 Mainers, including 10,000 childless adults and 14,500 parents who make 100%-138% of the federal poverty line. In addition, 45,000 more Mainers would be deemed eligible for MaineCare, offering them insurance for the first time. 

      

     In the Hall of Flags, Mainers told their stories one by one about how the expansion of Medicaid would change their lives, and the lives of the people they know. Each story was followed with the chime of a bell and the audience bellowing "we stand with you" in unison. While the majority of the crowd stood together for Medicaid expansion, there were a few members in the Hall of Flags that stood out. 

     A disproportionately sized contingent calling themselves the Concerned Women For America (CWFA) also made themselves known with their bright orange signs. During the morning press conference, members of the CWFA attempted to project their signs in front of those from MPA, but were largely outnumbered and failed to gain the attention they sought. The CWFA chapter in Maine has made themselves busy with their self-proclaimed mission to "shine forth God's light on public policy" and have recently joined the governor for several events, including a 'Proclamation of Prayer' in early August. 

     Both young and old filled the second floor to catch representatives and senators as they exited their respective chambers to get a few minutes to talk about the importance of Medicaid expansion through the means of personal stories. Pictured above are students of College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor speaking with Senator Patrick Flood (R) of Winthrop. Senator Flood is a rare find, as he was the only Republican Senator to vote against his party, in favor of Medicaid expansion. The MPA is hopeful that Senator Flood will maintain his position on this issue. 

     This writer wishes to bring you stories from the people, for the people, by the people. If citizen involvement today at the capital is any indication of this legislative session, the capital building may need to expand its corridors.

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Photo credit to Andi Parkinson, a News and Political Reporter at The New Maine Times.