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Denver Komen Affiliate Will Continue Providing Grants To Planned Parenthood | While the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced its organization will no longer partner with Planned Parenthood, the group’s local affiliate in Denver is breaking from the rest of the Komen organization. The Denver affiliate announced today that the national organization granted it an exception to continue funding Planned Parenthood. “Now more than ever Komen Denver Metropolitan Affiliate has a responsibility to support the underserved community and we will continue to help ensure that all women have access to quality breast health care,” the local group wrote on its Facebook page. In 2010, the Denver affiliate’s grant to Planned Parenthood funded breast health and cancer education for 2,264 women, 601 clinical breast exams, and referred and paid for 57 mammograms, officials said.

Update

The Connecticut affiliate withdrew its support for the national Susan G. Komen organization, and the group wrote on its Facebook page that it enjoys a great partnership with Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. “We understand, and share, in the frustration around this situation,” the group wrote.

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Feb 1, 2012 at 5:10 pm

Economy

Occupy Detroit Successfully Saves Home For Couple Facing Eviction

By Pat Garofalo on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:45 pm

Photo by flickr user gilsonrome

The Occupy Wall Street movement, as we noted last month, is shifting its focus to helping the 99 percent avoid foreclosures. And for one couple in Detroit, that help resulted in them being able to keep their home of 22 years, when it looked like they could be evicted at any moment:

Two weeks ago the couple got formal notice of an eviction. On Monday, a contractor attempted to place a dumpster on the Garrett property, a step required before an eviction can take place, according to city code.

But also on Monday, members of Moratorium Now, Occupy Detroit and Homes Before Banks rallied at the Detroit office of the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co., the trustee of the Garretts’ mortgage. The family’s supporters also blocked the contractor from placing the dumpster.

On Tuesday morning a representative of Statebridge Co., a servicer for their mortgage, called the family to say the company would accept their offer of $12,000 to buy back their home, said the Garretts’ daughter, Michele Finley.

This is not the only house that Occupy Detroit has tried to keep out of foreclosure, nor is it the only successful instance of the Occupy movement keeping someone in their home. In places as far apart as Atlanta, Rochester, and Cleveland, Occupy members have managed to prevent foreclosures. Bank of America went so far as to warn its field managers to prepare for Occupy actions around soon-to-be foreclosed upon homes.

Detroit is the 18th worst city for foreclosures in the nation, down from its number one ranking in 2008, and already has more than 70,000 unoccupied homes. The mayor has set a goal of demolishing 10,000 empty homes by the end of the year.

Health

Rep. Speier Pulls Support From Breast Cancer Foundation Over Decision To Sever Ties With Planned Parenthood

By Tanya Somanader on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA)

Yesterday, America’s most well-known breast cancer organization Susan G. Komen succumbed to right-wing pressure and ended its partnership with Planned Parenthood, pulling around $600,000 in grants that allow the women’s health organization to provide breast cancer exams for low-income women. Today on the House floor, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) — a “big booster” for the foundation and a participant in its iconic Race for the Cure event — announced that she would no longer support the organization over it’s decision.

Noting that the foundation based their decision to sever ties on anti-choice advocate Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) “spurious congressional investigation” into Planned Parenthood, Speier blasted Komen for falling into the trap of a “political sandbox.” “A hearing has never been held,” she noted. “I guess it means that Susan G. Komen has become a 501(d)(4), because no longer do they want to be providing nonprofits, they want to become a political advocacy group,” she said.

Watch it:

Speier also pointed out the particular irony of another nearly simultaneous statement from the Komen foundation noting that the rate of breast cancer screening for women without insurance is around 38 percent. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood provided 700,000 screenings for low-income and uninsured women last year alone. By bowing to right-wing fear-mongering, Komen is helping to cripple one of its own key efforts.

Komen issued an updated statement on their decision, “Grant making decisions are not about politics—our priority is and always will be the women we serve. Making this issue political or leveraging it for fundraising purposes would be a disservice to women.” Maybe the organization should take its own advice.

Politics

Top Gingrich Adviser: Democrats Abort Black Babies

By Marie Diamond on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Rick Tyler is Gingrich's former communications director who now runs his SuperPAC.

As ThinkProgress has been reporting, GOP contender Newt Gingrich has built up quite the record of making derogatory, racially-charged remarks on the campaign trail. He frequently derides President Obama as a “food stamp president,” and said he would go to the NAACP and tell African-Americans they should “demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.” More than 40 Catholic leaders recently challenged Gingrich to “stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes” with his divisive rhetoric.

Last night, Gingrich’s most prominent surrogate, former Communications Director Rick Tyler, went on the offensive during an MSNBC interview with Rachel Maddow and the Rev. Al Sharpton when asked about his candidate’s racial rhetoric. He accused the anchors of “race-baiting,” and claimed Democrats are hurting African-Americans:

TYLER: It’s baloney. MSNBC ought to get off this race-baiting kick…The Republican Party was founded by Abraham Lincoln…this was started as a civil rights party. If you go back to the 1856 Democratic platform it’s a racist platform…The Democratic Party — you can ask Al Sharpton about that, I think he would agree that the Democrats have failed in the public schools with the African-Americans. They abort their babies. They’ve done nothing to lift them out of poverty.

Watch it:

Sharpton retorted that it was Gingrich who was making race an issue in the campaign by singling out minorities for excoriation in his speeches.

Tyler resigned over Gingrich’s infamous Greek cruise, but has reemerged as the head of his Sheldon Aldelson-funded SuperPAC, Winning Our Future.

Security

Rep. McKeon’s Wife Benefits From Husband’s Deep Pocketed Defense Industry Allies

By Eli Clifton on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Patricia and "Buck" McKeon

Last November, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) earned his keep as the top congressional recipient of defense industry campaign contributions fiercely fighting back against military spending cuts and claiming that defense expenditures are the the only form of government spending that can create jobs. McKeon’s unique pro-defense industry fiscal policy was so appreciated by defense contractors that it appears they are throwing their financial weight behind his wife’s campaign for a seat in the California Assembly.

Lee Fang reports that Patricia McKeon received at least $19,200 in contributions from defense contractors or their registered lobbyists in her first few months of fundraising. McKeon’s run for the California assembly occurs as defense contractors are working to mitigate impending defense budget cuts which could affect their bottom line.

The influx of funding from defense contractors for a California State Assembly campaign doesn’t make much sense from an influence peddling standpoint as Patricia McKeon’s most high profile campaign plank has been to call for an end to plastic bag taxes [PDF]. But the campaign contributions overlap with her husband’s efforts to protect the defense industry from his perch as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Fang writes:

Lockheed Martin, a company locked in a pitched battle to stave off cuts to the lucrative F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet, cut Patricia McKeon’s campaign a $3,000 check.

Rep. Buck McKeon has rigorously defended the jets, despite growing concerns that the planes will run almost $90 million over budget each.

Donors such as Max Valente, a D.C. defense lobbyist who had already maxed out in contributions to McKeon’s congressional campaign, contributed to Patricia McKeon’s campaign in his only campaign contribution to a state politician.

Fang adds that Patricia McKeon has benefited financially from Buck McKeon’s campaign committee — since 2001 she was paid over $547,584 — but she now appears to have tapped her husband’s cash flush supporters in the defense industry for her own foray into elected politics.

Climate Progress

Old Yellow Goes Green: New York School District Will Start Using Electric School Bus

By Tanya Somanader on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:19 pm

As politicians and pundits continue to deny the existence of climate change, one New York school district is not only teaching students about climate science but taking it to the streets. CBS 2 reports that the Plainview-Old Bethpage school district’s yellow buses are going green with a new eco-friendly bus that doesn’t use fuel of any kind but is powered solely by rechargeable batteries. What’s more, they cost the same as the traditional bus but “are quieter, cleaner, and cheaper to maintain”:

The new eco-friendly buses have electric motors, and don’t use fuel of any kind, meaning they don’t produce emissions. Instead they are powered by a network of rechargeable batteries.

The buses cost $100,000, about the same as traditional buses, but they are quieter, cleaner, and cheaper to maintain.

“It doesn’t have a transmission. It has very few moving parts, and the vehicle is charged up overnight when the electric grid is being used the least so it’s off-peak,” said Bart Marksohn of WE Transport Inc.

The district is starting out with a one-bust test run over the next 60 days. If approved, the first electric buses will be on the roads in September 2012. The decision to go green was simple for district officials. As one put it, “In implementing this we’re only echoing what the students are learning — to care about their environment. So we’re just building upon what’s being taught in the classroom on a daily basis.”

LGBT

Veteran With Service-Related Disability Sues For Same-Sex Spousal Benefits

By Zack Ford on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:10 pm

Tracey Cooper Harris, Army Veterinarian

The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed suit on behalf of Iraq War Veteran Tracey Harris, who is fighting to obtain veterans’ disability benefits for her wife Maggie. Tracey continues to receive treatment for PTSD and multiple sclerosis, both of which the VA has determined are service-related, but Title 38 of the United States Code (veterans’ benefits) and the Defense of Marriage Act reject Maggie as a “spouse,” thus depriving them of the same spousal benefits as families with opposite-sex partners.

The inequities Tracey and Maggie face amount to thousands of dollars:

  • As a single veteran rated as 80% disabled, Tracey receives compensation of $1,478 per month. As a married veteran, she should be entitled to $1,602 per month. This deprives her and Maggie of $1,488 every year — a full month’s worth of support.
  • In the event of Tracey’s death, Maggie should be entitled to a minimum survivor’s benefits of $1,195. Because she is a same-sex spouse, she is entitled to no such benefit at all.
  • Maggie would also not be eligible for burial benefits with Tracey, including a government headstone or marker, a burial flag, inscription of their names, burial together, and perpetual care of the burial site.

Tracey explains the importance of this suit:

I dedicated 12 years of my life to serving the country I love. I’m asking only for the same benefits the brave men and women who served beside me enjoy. By refusing to recognize our marriage, the federal government has deprived Maggie and me of the peace of mind that such benefits are meant to provide to veterans and their families.

An interesting twist in the suit involves Title 38, the code that limits benefits to spouses “of the opposite sex.” That language had little to do with the discriminating intent behind 1996′s Defense of Marriage Act, but was in fact the result of SPLC’s 1973 victory in the case, Frontiero v. Richardson. Before then, only wives of veterans could receive benefits — not husbands.

Alyssa

A Big Year For Political TV Shows — With A Twist

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Feb 1, 2012 at 4:06 pm

It’s not exactly surprising that there’d be a lot of interest in politics in a presidential election year, but even given that, the heavy investment by networks in political shows feels unusual. And it’s even more unusual that all the political or Washington shows coming down the pike sound—or are, given what I’ve seen of them—surprisingly smart and fun.

What’s making this an official trend is USA’s announcement that it’s picked up a series called Political Animals. The network’s other Washington show, Covert Affairs, can be a little silly about Washington geography and what kind of shoes Washington women can afford on civil service salaries, but it had a decent sense of the relationship between the press and the administration and of tension over leaks. So I’m not shocked that USA’s first real political drama is doing something intelligent in focusing on a main character who is a not-so-thinly-veiled version of Hillary Rodham Clinton: a former First Lady who is now Secretary of State. The civil service geek in me is pretty excited about this and Kal Penn’s workplace drama set at the UN, both of which are a welcome expansion beyond the White House and spies for subject matter. And I think it’s smart to get out of the legislative process, which by this point is fairly well-worn dramatic territory, and into diplomacy and the press—the main character’s best friend will be a reporter. I don’t exactly count on this to be an accurate depiction of diplomacy any more than I expect Royal Pains to be a penetrating look at the Hamptons, but the concept is savvy, and should provide a couple of good roles for non-twenty-something women.

As does Veep, HBO’s terrific comedy about a female Vice President dealing with needy staffers, a president who ignores her, and a press corps that picks up on her every misstep. The sitcom, which premieres April 22, certainly is heightened and ridiculous, but the pilot nails the rhythms of speech and attitudes in Washington, along with the obnoxious and prickly gatekeepers and the minor screw-ups that become major catastrophes. “I want it to be right. I want it to be accurate,” creator Armando Iannucci, the force behind In the Thick of It and In the Loop, told me at the Television Critics Association press tour. “I want to know the dull stuff. What time do people get in in the morning? Who do they sit next to? If someone calls from a newspaper or a television show, who takes the call? How do they issue a retraction?” He and star Julia Louis-Dreyfus told me that they continue to consult with advisors on both sides of the aisle in the city, and from what I’ve seen of the show, that care and attention pay off. When a prominent and aged Senator dies, the Vice President muses about the last time she saw him: “He was full of bourbon, and he grabbed my left tit.” Later, when Amy (Anna Chlumsky, who appears to be Iannucci’s current muse), her chief of staff signs her own name to a condolence card for the man instead of the Veep’s, she moans of the screwup “it’s going to look like the Veep couldn’t be bothered to sign a condolence card for one of the most celebrated perverts on the senate.” And the show mines a lot of humor out of the Veep’s lame attempts at humor, a perfect example of official Washington squareness. “I have stepped into the president’s shoes this evening and who knew he wore kitten heels,” the Veep says to kick off a speech. ” Just kidding. He’s more of a stilettos guy.” Sometimes, politics is both small, and small-minded (as is also the case with Hulu’s first original scripted series Battleground, about campaign workers in a Wisconsin Senate race).

And then there’s Scandal, which is essentially Revenge for the Washington set. Based on the experiences of Judy Smith, the Washington crisis manager, the show is soapy as hell. The president is sexy and straying! The cases handled by Kerry Washington’s PR firm are totally over the top. The real estate is improbably gorgeous. But if you can appreciate it for what it is, Scandal is a wonderfully entertaining funhouse look at Washington from Hollywood’s perspective—it’s Hollywood for ugly people with the ugly people subbed out. I imagine it’ll drive real politicos nuts, but if you can suspend disbelief and just enjoy it, Scandal is going to be awfully diverting.

Which is good. Even political junkies need a break from what will undoubtedly be a bruising campaign. And if we can only downshift to political shows, rather than to something entirely off-topic and escapist, it’s nice to know that there will be diverting alternatives to dusting off our West Wing DVDs.

Justice

New Hampshire Legislature Takes Another Step Towards Decriminalizing Marijuana

By Adam Peck on Feb 1, 2012 at 3:40 pm

After previous attempts to decriminalize marijuana in New Hampshire were vetoed by Gov. John Lynch (D), the legislature in Concord will again take up two bills that would dramatically lessen the punishment for the possession, use, and cultivation of pot, this time with the hopes of securing a veto-proof majority:

House Bill 1526 would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana punishable only by a fine of up to $100. Pot possession would no longer be considered a misdemeanor offense, as is the case in Massachusetts after voters there passed a ballot measure.
[…]
Another bill to be discussed at the hearing, HB 1527, would go even further, exempting the cultivation of marijuana under the controlled drug act.

Freshman Rep. Kyle Tasker (R) is one of the first bill’s primary backers, and expressed his hope that a compromise would be reached that would allow the House and Senate to secure enough support to override a likely veto from the governor. “This is a bipartisan issue. Everyone agrees there’s a need for change,” Tasker told the Union Leader.

The pro-legalization advocacy organization NORML lists 14 states that have decriminalized pot “to some degree,” though several of the states listed still treat possession as a misdemeanor. In New Hampshire, as with many other states, marijuana convictions are almost always pleaded out, resulting in lesser sentencing while still attaching a criminal record to violators, law enforcement officials say.

Yet liberalizing state marijuana laws will only achieve half of what’s necessary to reform America’s overreaching drug laws. Even if every single state repealed their marijuana laws tomorrow, that would do nothing to change the federal government’s strict prohibition. Despite a study by the Centers for Disease Control which revealed that 15,000 people died in 2008 from overdosing on legal prescription painkillers, the federal government still treats the much less dangerous drug marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance — in the same category as cocaine and heroin. Legal prescription drugs like OxyCotin and Vicodin remain in lower classifications with fewer regulations.

Polling in New Hampshire that was conducted the last time the legislature debated these bills in 2008 indicates that a large majority of voters support reforming the state’s pot laws. That’s similar to a national Gallup poll in 2011 that showed for the first time a majority of voters support legalizing the use of marijuana.

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