'Vote Them Out,' Say Students In Walkout
Florida massacre survivors chant 'vote them out' as students nationwide walk out in solidarity. CNN: "From Arizona to Washington, students walked out of schools in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students a week after their classmates were silenced by gunfire. And in Tallahassee, Stoneman Douglas students who survived the Parkland shooting massacre chanted louder than ever: 'Vote them out!' Their words echoed through the hallways of the state Capitol, where they demanded a ban on weapons like the one used to kill their friends and teachers."
Weakened CFPB Gives Payday Lenders A Pass
Is a U.S. Consumer Watchdog Neglecting Payday Loans? Equal Voice For Families: "Over the coming months, the fight to preserve the CFPB will likely intensify. For the estimated 12 million Americans caught in the payday loan trap, and the millions whose poverty and lack of access to traditional credit sources leave them vulnerable to payday lenders in the future, the stakes could hardly be higher. Dismantling the CFPB, warns Helm, 'would be a free ticket for payday lenders. When you’re driving a dangerous road, you don’t need access to the ravine.'"
Women Running in 2018 Doubles from 2016
Number of women running in midterms more than doubles from 2016 to 2018. The Hill: "More than twice as many women are running for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections as were running just two years ago. At least 431 female candidates are running or are likely to run for the House, compared to 212 in February 2016, according to NPR. In Senate races, 50 women are running or are likely to run, compared to 25 in 2016. The wave of female candidates has mostly affected the Democratic party, according to recent data. Out of the 431 women running for the House, 92 are Republicans. The party-line numbers are slightly more even in Senate races, with 21 Republican and 29 Democratic women running. EMILY’s List, an organization dedicated to supporting the candidacies of Democratic women, told NPR that more than 30,000 women have expressed interest in running for office, an overwhelming jump from the 920 who had reached out by this point in the 2016 election cycle. Many female candidates have said they’ve felt galvanized by the election of President Trump, by the 'Me Too' movement and by a resurgence of women’s rights activism."
GOP Wants To Impeach Judges Who Reversed Gerrymander
The GOP is serious about impeaching PA judges for reversing their gerrymander. NYM: "Perhaps the impeachment talk is a negotiating ploy, or even an act of intimidation to encourage the five Supreme Court justices to think twice before applying the principles it used to redraw the congressional map to the legislative maps that have perpetuated GOP control. But Republicans really ought to think about how this will come across in the court of public opinion. Sure, their 'base' voters are always open to efforts to curb the influence of 'activist judges' (so long as the activism in question isn’t of the right-wing variety). But do they really want to go to the mats — and to the electorate —over the claim that they have some sort of divine right to representation in Washington or in Harrisburg that vastly exceeds their share of the statewide vote?"
ID To Allow Health Plans To Discriminate
Idaho’s brazen plan to unravel Obamacare, explained. Vox: "Republicans in Congress failed to repeal Obamacare, but Republicans in Idaho are trying to do it themselves — law of the land be damned. The state has rolled out the most audacious anti-Obamacare proposal yet, one that openly defies the fact that the Affordable Care Act is still in effect and in force. Idaho officials announced last month that they would allow insurance plans to be sold in the state that don’t comply with the health care law’s regulations. This means that plans can discriminate against people with preexisting medical conditions, by charging them higher premiums, and impose caps on the benefits their customers receive. The ploy seems plainly illegal: Federal law, as amended by the ACA, flatly forbids health insurers from selling such plans. But Idaho is planning to permit them anyway — and it is not immediately clear who is going to stop it. The Trump administration doesn’t appear eager to step in — and absent a federal action, it is not at all clear that litigation will actually be able to stop Idaho... If Idaho gets away with this anti-Obamacare scheme, the floodgates could open. Every Republican-led state would have a precedent for undermining the law’s core insurance protections. It could create a situation similar to Medicaid expansion after the Supreme Court ruled states could choose not to accept it. Republican-led states refused to take the expansion, leaving millions of people without health insurance, while Democratic states saw their uninsured rates drop to historic lows."
