Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Entering a fight over union rights that could have national implications, Sen. John Kerry warned Thursday that a ballot initiative backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could tip the balance of democracy by muzzling the voice of working people. Proposition 75 would force public employee unions, such as those representing teachers, firefighters and prison guards, to seek written permission from members before using dues for political purposes. Kerry, speaking outside a downtown firehouse, said the initiative would condemn workers to "a completely unfair system." The proposal "represents part of an ongoing effort by the Republican Party to...

Blanco gives cold shoulder to Nagin's hotel casino proposal Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco listens during hearings conducted by the US Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Blanco called on the US government to help pay local cops and other 'critical public safety' workers dealing with widespread hurricane-wrought ruin.(AFP/Luke Frazza) BATON ROUGE, La. Governor Kathleen Blanco delivered a decisive blow today to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's proposal to revitalize his devastated city by placing casinos in large hotels, saying gambling shouldn't be the basis for economic development in New Orleans. Nagin said he hoped the governor would...

Passport proposal a controversial security matter Bush administration reconsiders its plans By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer Traffic lines up on the Rainbow Bridge plaza for entry into the United States from Niagara Falls, Ontario, in Niagara Falls, N.Y. AP Photo/DON HEUPEL NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Millions of Americans like Kathy Currier could soon run into trouble returning home from Canada because they don't have passports. On a recent trip back across the border, Currier, 49, cleared security screening with her driver's license and birth certificate. But if she needs a passport in the future to get back into...

Tehran, 5 August (AKI) - Iran has rejected the nuclear proposal put forward on Friday by the European Union. "The proposal presented by London, Paris and Berlin is not acceptable," said Hossein Mussawian ,the diplomat who heads the Iranian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Speaking to the Mehr agency in Tehran, Mussawian added that "the official response will be sent on Sunday to the European negotiators." “What the European negotiators proposed, is in contradiction not only with the Paris accord of November 2004, but betrays also the principles of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which our country...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said yesterday his chamber will work to produce an immigration bill this year, even as the White House signaled a new emphasis on immigration law enforcement as part of selling President Bush's proposal.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Three civil rights groups and two legislative committees Wednesday jumped into the fight over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to reshuffle how legislative and congressional districts are drawn in California. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the William C. Velasquez Institute and the Congress on Racial Equality Legal Defense Fund filed lawsuits challenging placement of the governor's proposal on the Nov. 8 special election ballot. Meanwhile, the Senate and Assembly elections committees announced they would hold a joint hearing next month on the controversy surrounding signature gathering to qualify the initiative for the ballot. Schwarzenegger's press...

At his press conference last Thursday, President Bush added a new “progressive indexing” proposal to his Social Security reform plan that not only largely resolves the program’s imminent insolvency without raising payroll taxes, but also exposes an almost unconscionable hypocrisy in the Democrats’ position on this issue. At odds for months in this debate has been how future payments to recipients are calculated. Currently, increases are tied to annual wage gains of the workforce. However, it has been argued that if they were indexed to the growth of inflation, or “prices” -- which have typically been much lower than changes...

Gov. Schwarzenegger, who has rejected the idea of increasing state taxes, is pushing legislation that would let cities, counties and other public agencies increase fees and property tax assessments to pay for stormwater cleanup and flood control. Local governments face hundreds of millions -- and maybe billions -- of dollars in costs to reduce pollution in runoff from yards, construction sites and other locations to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. The legislation would put a measure on a future state ballot to weaken Prop. 218, the anti-tax measure approved by 56 percent of voters nearly a decade ago....

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday backed a ballot initiative that would require fewer spending cuts than the reform measure he proposed during his State of the State speech in January - an apparent softening of his views on a key element of his reform agenda. The "California Live Within Our Means Act," drafted by members of a business-backed political committee, would let the state budget increase in line with past revenue growth. Though billed as a solution to California's chronic overspending, the measure's formulas, if enacted a decade ago, would have let lawmakers spend more than they actually...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The state House on Friday voted against affirming the separation of church and state in a resolution brought by a legislator who said he was fed up with a religious undertone at the Capitol. The House voted 44-39 against the proposal. Only two Republicans voted for it, and one of them, Rep. Jim Medley, said he had intended to vote no but didn't get to his machine in time to change his vote. Democratic Rep. Buddy Blair said he offered the measure because he was tired of conservative colleagues "making every issue into a religious...

SACRAMENTO – The goal of the state budget plan proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week is to control what he calls "autopilot" spending, which happens because current laws cause programs to grow faster than tax revenue. But nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Liz Hill, issuing an overview of the proposed $111.7 billion budget, said yesterday that parts of the governor's plan would actually make big increases in "autopilot" spending. Among other things, the governor wants to end the Legislature's ability to suspend the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee and take Proposition 42 gasoline sales tax revenue from transportation. Hill said the governor's...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan for eliminating an $8 billion state deficit relies on substantial borrowing and fund-shifting that is already angering local school and transportation officials. The proposal, to be released Monday, calls for at least $2.5 billion in borrowing, diverting transportation funds to pay for other programs, and loading school districts with $1.1 billion in new pension costs, administration officials said. As details of the spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 began to trickle out Wednesday night and Thursday, they drew scrutiny from fiscal analysts. ``There's an old maxim: If you are faced...

Statewide Hunting Proposal Runs Into Unfriendly Fire Proposal Would Make 16 Minimum Age To Hunt POSTED: 5:22 pm EST December 10, 2004 In North Carolina, you must be 16 years of age to get a driver's license, but there is no age requirement to hunt deer, turkey and other game. There is now a push to change that. VANCE COUNTY, N.C. -- A hunting accident is prompting a call for a minimum hunting age, but the proposal has run into some unfriendly fire. State law allows a child of any age to shoot game as long as a parent or...

TEHRAN - Iran would welcome a proposal by U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (news - web sites)'s running mate for a "great bargain" to solve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday. Vice presidential candidate Senator John Edwards (news - web sites) has said that Kerry, a Democrat, would be willing to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for power generation if Tehran abandons its own fuel-making capability - if Iran did not accept this offer, it would confirm Iran wanted to make an atom bomb. Iran earlier rejected the proposal, saying it would...

No link yet, sorry.

North Korea Turns Down U.S Proposal U.S Presidential Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said during her visit to Seoul that the U.S. would offer “surprising compensation” to North Korea if the North scraps its nuclear weapons program. Han Seong-ryol, the North Korean deputy ambassador to the U.N., turned down the U.S. proposal Monday, saying, “North Korea is not interested in it.” In being asked about the North’s responses to the U.S. suggestion, Deputy Ambassador Han said in a phone interview, “The U.S. nuclear program abandonment first, compensation later proposal is nothing new... Considering the situation in which mutual distrust has built...

A state senator’s proposal to lower California’s voting age to 14 passed its first legislative test Wednesday on a party-line vote of the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee. With Democrats in support and Republicans in opposition, the controversial bill by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, cleared the committee on a 3-2 vote.

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, lounging in Hawaii on spring break with his wife and kids, tells a reporter that state lawmakers should follow his lead and take more time off. The Legislature, he says, "doesn't have enough to do." Their full-time status in Sacramento simply gives them too much time to make mischief.</p>

<p>PORTLAND, Maine -- President Bush may want a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, but Maine's congressional delegation is decidedly cool on the idea.</p> <p>Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe was the only Maine representative in Washington who did not rule out supporting a constitutional ban on gay marriage. But she said an amendment is unnecessary because of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's proposed $2.4 trillion budget includes basically flat funding for California next year, suggesting that the White House has no plans to deliver the $350 million Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had assumed might be available from Washington to help with the state's towering budget mess.</p>