The AFL-CIO for the first time on Sunday will open its quadrennial agenda-setting convention to non-labor voices, in a frank acknowledgment by the largest U.S. federation of unions that it needs new partners and new ideas.
The fate of tighter gun control measures and restrictions on oil fracking could hang on a mad dash of political maneuvering and deal-cutting in the Legislature this week, when lawmakers have just four days left to act on about 400 bills.
The biggest question they face is whether the Legislature can muster enough votes to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a contentious bill that would cut state income taxes for the first time in nearly a century.
The Minnesota Legislature will convene in special session today to approve about $4.7 million in disaster relief funds.
By agreement with Gov. Mark Dayton, lawmakers will only be in St. Paul for one-day and will not vote on anything besides state help for communities damaged by recent storms. The House and Senate are expected to begin floor sessions at 10 a.m.
Despite that iron clad agreement that no ancillaries issues will be approved, legislators are expected to use the one-day session in St. Paul to rail against other issues. Chief among them: new business taxes approved this year.
Republican lawmakers, among them Rep. Kurt Zellers and Sen. Dave Thompson who are running for governor, have said that the Legislature should have used the special session to repeal the new taxes. Dayton has said that he approved but does not support the taxes but lawmakers would have to come up with cuts or cash to fill the hole in the budget rescinding the taxes would create.
After several negotiating sessions this summer, Dayton and lawmakers could not agree on repealing any taxes during today's session so those issues are expected to wait until next year.
Gov. Pat Quinn is among several governors taking a taxpayer-funded trip to Japan to participate in a conference aimed at increasing trade between that country and Midwestern states.
West Virginia was the last state to break off from another. Now, 150 years later, a 49-year-old information technology consultant wants to apply the knife to Maryland’s five western counties.
The Louisiana National Guard won't process benefits for same-sex couples because the state Constitution does not recognize gay marriage, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday. The directive directly contradicts a Pentagon policy issued Tuesday requiring the military to honor such benefits requests.
San Antonio's leaders on Thursday approved anti-bias protections for gay and transgender residents, over the disapproval of top Texas Republicans and religious conservatives who packed a City Council hearing and occasionally shamed supporters for comparing the issue to the civil rights movement.
In a week that brought Gov. Pat McCrory stinging defeats, with lawmakers from his own party overriding his first two vetoes, the Republican governor Wednesday responded by criticizing legislators and throwing up roadblocks to the new laws that he had opposed.
As Republicans celebrate Charles D. Baker’s decision to run for governor, Attorney General Martha Coakley is edging closer to joining the Democratic gubernatorial race, turning to the state party’s leading political strategist to help assemble a potential campaign team.
The California Supreme Court indicated Wednesday that federal law appeared to prevent immigrants without green cards from obtaining licenses to practice law.
Albuquerque has become the latest flash point in the abortion wars, with Operation Rescue, the militant group based in Kansas, calling it the “late-term abortion capital of the country.”
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