MAGA Embraces Anti-Hero Era | Missouri Marijuana Money Rolls In | Biden is a Union man | Oklahoma teachers get paid but not on purpose | Colorado’s mining, maybe? | Kansas rules for driving children | Iowa state house members grow some spine | Missouri’s speaker losing more staff | Kentucky’s GOP Gets Blue Grass Stains From Falling Down
 

Missouri Marijuana Sales Bring Big Funding For Veterans Care

https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-marijuana-revenue-will-mean-nearly-20-million-to-support-veterans-this-year/

Biden wins endorsement of United Auto Workers

Biden was joined by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) and other Michigan leaders at the UAW union hall in Warren in Macomb County to celebrate the union’s accomplishments in the last year and its endorsement of Biden’s reelection campaign.

Biden told UAW members “Supporting you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. The single biggest reason why we have unions growing, the single biggest reason the economy is growing … because you are the best workers in the world.” 

Michigan is expected to play a key role in the November general election, as Biden looks to win the state again. 

This is the second time in recent months that Biden has come to Michigan to talk with UAW members. He became the first sitting U.S. president in modern history to visit a picket line in September during a historic strike against Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. 

UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union’s endorsement of Biden’s campaign on Jan. 24 and drew a sharp comparison between Biden and GOP frontrunner former President Donald Trump.

“Rarely as a union do you get so clear of a choice between two candidates. It’s not about who you like, it’s not about your party, it’s not about this b—–t about age. It’s not about anything but our best shot at taking back power for the working class.”

In September, Trump also traveled to Michigan during the UAW strike, but he visited a non-union plant in Macomb County where he advised the UAW to endorse him for president.

Trump said, “Shawn, endorse Trump and you can take a nice two-month vacation, come back, and you guys are going to be better than you ever were. The other way, you won’t have a vacation, Shawn. And in a short period of time, you’re not going to have a union. You’re not going to have jobs. You’re not going to have anything.”

“Trump is a scab,” Fain said recently. “Donald Trump stands against everything the UAW stands for. When you go back to our core issues — Wages. Retirement. Health care. Time. That’s what this election is about,” Fain said. “Instead of talking trash about our union, Joe Biden stood with us.”

By November, the UAW ratified new contracts with all three companies that included significant worker raises, an end to the tiered wage system and improvements to the automakers’ retirement benefits. 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Biden is a “jobs president,” 

“Under President Biden, we’ve seen 14 million jobs created, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs, which is more than any president in a single term

Biden wrapped up his time at the union hall calling Whitmer “the best governor in the country” and Dingell a “fighter.” To the UAW Workers in Warren he said, “Thank you and the whole country owes you,” Biden said to the UAW workers in Warren. “You’re not only helping auto workers, you’re helping every worker in the world.”

Oklahoma Teachers Likely To Keep Bonus Money

https://oklahomavoice.com/2024/01/31/oklahoma-teachers-may-not-have-to-return-errant-bonuses-walters-says/

OKLAHOMA CITY — State Superintendent Ryan Walters said Wednesday errant bonuses his administration paid to educators might not have to be clawed back.

In a press conference he called to accuse reporters of lying about the situation, Walters said the Oklahoma State Department of Education is coordinating with the teachers who wrongly received signing bonuses to find another solution. He said that could include longer contractual commitments in exchange for keeping the money.

“There is a path forward that does not require a payback from those teachers,” Walters said.

But at least one affected teacher got no such promise, her attorney, Mark Hammons, said.

Oklahoma County teacher Kristina Stadelman heard from the state agency in the past two days, informing her a Feb. 29 deadline for repayment no longer applied, Hammons said.

But that included no guarantee she would never have to repay the bonus, he said, and that’s why she joined a lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge the demand.

“They extended the time for the deadline and said they were looking into other possibilities,” Hammons said. “We don’t know what that means, and they didn’t explain that to her, but they certainly made no promise that she wouldn’t have to pay back all or any portion of that money.”

Both of Hammons’ clients, Stadelman and Osage County teacher Kay Bojorquez, said they were awarded $50,000 bonuses in the fall from a teacher recruitment program Walters created last year. 

Colorado’s New Coal Mine… Maybe

https://coloradonewsline.com/briefs/environmental-groups-epa-colorado-coal-mine/

Conservation groups are asking EPA to block permit for new coal mine in colorado

Two conservation groups have formally petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene in state air-quality regulators’ decision to issue an operating permit to Colorado’s largest remaining coal mine.

Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division issued the permit to the West Elk Mine in Gunnison County in December, more than six months after a federal judge’s ruling that the agency had illegally delayed its decision on whether to approve or deny the permit, which a subsidiary of mine owner Arch Coal first applied for in 2020.

But two of the groups involved in that litigation, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians, call the permit issued by the APCD a “free pass” that doesn’t do enough to limit emissions of volatile organic compounds, a class of hazardous air pollutants, or methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Iowa Lawmakers Keep Protections for Gender Identity In Law… after considering taking it away

https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/01/31/iowa-house-lawmakers-reject-bill-to-remove-gender-identity-protections-from-iowa-civil-rights-law/

Protection of “gender identity” under the Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in areas like employment, housing, education or public accommodations. Under the proposal, a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria or any condition related to a gender identity disorder” would be classified a disability under Iowa Code – another protected class under the civil rights act.

Aime Wichtendahl, a Hiawatha City Council member, criticized lawmakers for considering legislation that would make Iowa the first state in the country to remove civil rights protections for a group of citizens.

Missouri Speaker Plochs Another One Into The Bowl

https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/embattled-missouri-house-speaker-dean-plocher-dismisses-another-top-staffer/

Embattled Mo House Speaker Dean Plocher has lost another staff member 

https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/embattled-missouri-house-speaker-dean-plocher-dismisses-another-top-staffer/

Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher fired his legislative director Wednesday, the latest in a series of departures from his office as he continues to face an ethics investigation into allegations of unlawful conduct. 

Erica Choinka had worked for the Missouri House since 2016, first as a legislative assistant and then as legislative director for former Speakers Elijah Haahr and Rob Vescovo. She continued to serve under Plocher until Wednesday, when she was fired. 

Choinka declined to comment, and a spokesman for Plocher did not immediately respond to an email about the dismissal. 

The staff shakeup follows the firing of Plocher’s chief of staff in October and the resignation of his chief legal counsel in November. And it comes as an ethics inquiry into his alleged misconduct enters its fourth month. 

The investigation was launched late last year after The Independent reported that Plocher on numerous occasions over the years illegally sought reimbursement from the legislature for airfare, hotels and other travel costs already paid for by his campaign. 

In each instance, Plocher was required to sign a sworn statement declaring that the payments were made with “personal funds, for which I have not been reimbursed.”

Finally… In another story out of Missouri, sorry, that’s Kansas, no wait, my bad from Iowa, oh, nope, that’s Oklahoma… wait, Indiana, or… was this Ohio? Ah, I see now - from Kentucky…

GOP supermajority: Silly, unserious, unconcerned by Kentuckians’ real problems

Author: Teri Carter
https://kentuckylantern.com/2024/02/01/gop-supermajority-silly-unserious-unconcerned-by-kentuckians-real-problems/

On Jan. 31, I began my day reading a story that opened with a stunning sentence. “Some residents of a county in Kentucky are going on two weeks without running water, forcing them to use public toilets and catch rainwater to bathe.”

As I was reading this news, a 7:31 a.m. tweet popped up from Rep. Josh Calloway. “Actually, what it means to be a good parent is to tell your children the truth. The truth is men are men, women are women, and neither can become the other. The truth is, they were not born in the wrong body, they are perfect just the way God made them. It is Evil to lie to children.”

Yes, this is anecdotal, but it is also reflective of a maddening reality. We are one-third through the all-important budget session of our 2024 General Assembly, and the GOP supermajority in Frankfort is wasting their days focused on problems we do not have and, well, sex. Always sex.

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