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Alyssa

The Big Jackie Robinson Biopic Will Kick Off Next Baseball Season

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Apr 25, 2012 at 4:38 pm

I wrote about the news that a Jackie Robinson biopic was in the works last year, and expressed some concern that the movie had found its Branch Rickey—initially Robert Redford, now, apparently, Harrison Ford—before its Jackie Robinson, who rightfully should be at the center of the movie. But I am glad to hear that the movie is starting production, and that it’s supposed to reach theaters on April 12, 2013.

It seems like some of the other cast is shaping up nicely. Sensitive hardasses are Christopher Meloni’s wheelhouse, so he should be dandy as Leo Durocher, the manager who laid down a clear line in support of Robinson. T.R. Knight, who knows a thing or two himself about hostile workplaces and coworker solidarity, will play Ralph Branca, the first Dodger player who stood with Robinson in public. And Nicole Beharie, who was just smashing as Michael Fassbender’s coworker and potential girlfriend in Shame will play Rachel Isum, Robinson’s wife. I just am not that familiar with Chadwick Boseman, who is playing Robinson, and I do worry that the movie who will marginalize him in favor of exploring the reactions of white people to a key moment in Civil Rights history. But it is nice for a younger, less-famous black actor to get a shot at stardom through a big sports biopic.

NEWS FLASH

Connecticut Abolishes The Death Penalty For Future Crimes | This afternoon, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D-CT) signed a bill that prevents anyone new from being added to Connecticut’s death row — henceforth, the stiffest sentence in that state will be life without the possibility of parole. The bill does not, however, change the sentences of the eleven men who are currently on Connecticut’s death row. Moreover, unlike most states, the governor of Connecticut does not have the authority to commute these men’s sentences to life in prison.

Security

Spirit Airlines Won’t Refund Dying Veteran’s Ticket

By Ben Armbruster on Apr 25, 2012 at 4:02 pm

Jerry Meekins

Florida resident and 76 year-old Vietnam war veteran Jerry Meekins recently purchased a ticket from Spirit Airlines to visit his daughter in New Jersey. But soon after he bought the ticket, his doctors informed him that he is dying from esophageal cancer and that he shouldn’t fly. Meekins thought he’d ask Spirit if he could get his money back: “I said, ‘What’s the possibility of getting a refund?’ They said, ‘We don’t do that.’” Meekins added that he “offered them all of the confirmation from my oncologist, from hospice, even my pre-paid funeral package. They didn’t want to look at any of it or hear about it. They just wanted to keep the money.”

A spokesperson for the airline told the local NBC affiliate that they won’t be refunding Meekins’ ticket:

“Our reservations are non-refundable, which means we don’t do refunds and we are not going to issue Mr. Meekins a refund. We offer our customers affordable travel insurance to cover a variety of unexpected circumstances that may arise and many of our customers choose to take advantage of this option.

“We receive many requests for refunds every day for similar situations. It wouldn’t be fair to bend policy for one and not all. We will not make customers who follow the rules pay for those who don’t. It’s just not fair.”

Watch the report:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Meekins said that now it’s not about getting his money back. “My primary goal is to have them change their policy of a blanket coverage of no refund,” he said.

Election

GOP Rep. Scott Tipton Takes Campaign Contributions From Oil Companies He Owns Financial Stake In

By Rebecca Leber on Apr 25, 2012 at 4:00 pm

Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) relies on campaign contributions from some of the same oil and gas companies that he has a financial stake in.

During the first three months of 2012, Tipton raised $31,600 a week, relying heavily on large campaign and corporate contributions. Public Campaign reports that one-third of Tipton’s first quarter fundraising comes from corporate PACs and party committees, while only 14 percent comes from small donors of less than $200.

His backers include companies with some of the deepest pockets in the world, such as the oil giants ExxonMobil (which donated $5,000), Chevron ($3,000), Koch Industries ($3,000), and BP ($1,000). He has also taken thousands from coal companies, like Arch Coal ($2,000) and Oxbow Carbon ($1,000).

Tipton’s financial disclosure forms show he owns stakes in Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP.

Just last week, the congressman, who has been a vocal proponent of oil interests on the Hill, sponsored legislation requiring the Interior Department to develop a pro-oil drilling plan for public lands every four years.

Tipton, a freshman flushed into office in 2010 wave, is facing a tough reelection battle this year from state Rep. Sal Pace (D) in a race that is likely to attract national attention.

Climate Progress

Despite Backing Subsidies For Big Oil, Mike Pompeo (R-Koch) Says Wind Energy Doesn’t Deserve Financial Support

By Rebecca Leber on Apr 25, 2012 at 3:56 pm

Koch Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) — who is deeply indebted to Koch Industries for more than $100,000 in donations — is outspoken against clean energy investment. Recently, he celebrated when the Senate failed to extend the wind energy tax credit in a 49-49 vote. However, he is celebrating the threat to 37,000 jobs in the relatively young industry, when the production tax credit is set to expire at the end of the year.

Even as the oil industry enjoys $4 billion in subsidies a year, Pompeo lamented the cost of the production tax credit, claiming the wind industry would be fine on its own:

“The program has been around an awfully long time and it’s time to let that industry stand on its own two feet. And I’m confident that they’ll do it,” he said. “There’s great, creative engineers and innovators in the alternative energy field, and I’m confident they’ll be successful.”

It now costs the government more than $1 billion a year to hand out 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of wind power — and enough is enough, says Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.).

“We’ve been subsidizing some of these industries with tax credits for multiple decades, and every time they get to the end of the line, they get within a year, they say, ‘If you just give me’ — fill in the blank — ‘one more year, four more years, that’s all I want. Just a little more time,’” said Pompeo, who is leading a charge against the PTC and other energy subsidies.

“What history would demonstrate is they would continue to come back to the federal trough and ask for more time yet again at the end,” he added.

History has shown that the three times the production tax credit expired, wind investments dropped. Meanwhile, Big Oil has benefited from 100 years of consistent tax breaks, even though the industry had a record-high year of $137 billion profits. And Pompeo, who benefits from these profits, has made clean energy his punching bag.

Health

GOP Targets Safety Net Programs, Financial Regulations To Avoid Defense Cuts

By Igor Volsky and Pat Garofalo on Apr 25, 2012 at 3:48 pm

Committees in the House are busily marking up legislation to avoid the scheduled cuts that lawmakers approved as part of the 2011 Budget Control Act. Those automatic reductions to domestic and defense spending — agreed to by both parties during the effort to raise the nation’s borrowing limit — will go into effect on January 2, 2013 unless Congress can agree on a proposal to lower the national deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Since the demise of the super committee tasked with identifying the savings, the GOP has relied on the House-passed Budget Resolution to initiate a budget reconciliation process that would eliminate or disperse the $600 billion of proposed reductions to military spending to other federal agencies. Now, in a memo from the Republican leadership to its members, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), spell out how they plan to generate “savings” in mandatory programs that “would first be used to offset the cost (approximately $78 billion) of replacing the automatic across-the-board discretionary spending cuts” and “further reduce the deficit.”

As it turns out, Republicans’ plan to protect the ballooning defense budget will come at a significant cost to lower-income Americans, women, and children, as well as the nation’s financial security. ThinkProgress has compiled a table of just some of the consequences of the GOP’s cuts:

CUT CONSEQUENCE
$11.9 billion from the Prevention & Public Health Fund: Would eliminate a special fund designed to help communities fight chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Chronic conditions are “responsible for 7 of 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending.” Investing in prevention will help reduce national health spending on costly acute care.
$600 million by reducing Medicaid enrollment: Would repeal the Medicaid Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provision, which requires states to maintain their existing enrollment eligibility in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or risk losing federal funding. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that allowing states to kick people off the Medicaid rolls before the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented would cause 400,000 people to lose their Medicaid and CHIP coverage. Two thirds of those dropped from coverage would be children. By 2016, the number of those expected to lose CHIP coverage will climb to 1.7 million people, with 700,000 left uninsured.
$43.9 billion from recapturing exchange subsidies: Families or individuals who are receiving affordability credits through the health care exchanges would have to pay back the government if their incomes fluctuate throughout the year. The change could dissuade people from purchasing insurance, disproportionately impact women (who are more likely to experience income fluctuations), and could even increase costs for the entire population.
$33 billion by cutting food stamps: Via a handful of changes, the GOP would cut about $33 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), i.e. food stamps. The cuts would knock two million people off of food stamps entirely, while reducing benefits for 44 million others. In September, every beneficiary of food stamps would see their benefits cut by $57.
$11.7 billion by restricting “categorical eligibility” in the food stamp program: States would be prevented from automatically enrolling families in food stamps if they qualify for other assistance programs. The bill would knock about 1.8 million low-income people per year off of food aid and end automatic enrollment in free school meals for 280,000 children.
$22 billion by repealing the resolution authority: The authority for the government to dismantle failing financial firms, which was included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, would be eliminated. Without this power, the government would have to resort to the ad hoc bailouts of 2008, as it would be have no process to unwind a failed mega-bank. The savings here are also fabricated, based on a bizarre Congressional Budget Office score that has little basis in reality.
$2.8 billion by eliminating foreclosure prevention: The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), one of the Obama administration’s key foreclosure prevention programs, would be terminated. HAMP has been underwhelming due to design flaws and bank intransigence, but the New York Federal Reserve estimates that 3.6 million foreclosures will occur in the next two years, while billions of dollars are still available for HAMP to actually make a difference.
$5.4 billion by cutting the budget of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: In addition to ending the CFPB’s independent stream of funding, the bill would cut the Bureau’s budget by more than half. The CFPB can craft regulations for any financial product, and is already working on new rules aimed at reining in credit card, mortgage, and student loan abuses.

NEWS FLASH

Most Top Federal Contractors Protect Against LGBT Discrimination | The White House has been roundly criticized for opting not to sign an executive order that would require federal contractors protect LGBT employees from discrimination, but those contractors continue to improve their policies anyway. The Williams Institute reports that of the top 50 companies contracted by the U.S. government, 86 percent prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and 55 percent prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. These are increases from 81 and 44 percent (respectively) just two years ago, and they account for 46.9 percent of all contracting dollars awarded by the federal government — over $249 billion. These companies already understand that non-discrimination protections are good for business — hopefully the Obama administration realizes that soon as well.

Education

‘Romney’s Man In Congress’ Falsely Blames Obamacare For High Student Loan Rates

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Apr 25, 2012 at 3:30 pm

If Congress doesn’t act, the interest rates on government-backed student loan will jump in July, so President Obama has made a big push this week to prevent that from happening. Republicans have thus far held up the extension, though presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney called for preserving the lower rates Monday.

But Romney’s “man in Congress,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), seems to misunderstand the issue. In an interview on MSNBC this afternoon, Blunt blamed high student loan rates on the Affordable Care Act:

BLUNT: Why is that rate as high as it is? Because it was one of the pay-fors in the president’s health care plan. If the health care plan goes away, as the court very well might decide, there is no longer an argument about this loan rate, because it was used to take money from students, and pay for health care. … The wrapping up of that student loan thing into the Obama health care deal is the real problem here.

Watch it:

In fact, the rate was set back in 2007, when President Bush signed a Democratic-backed law to lower the rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. That law expires on July 1 of this year, and the lower rates end along with it. The Affordable Care Act and President Obama are entirely irrelevant.

Blunt is likely thinking of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), a bill that was attached to the Affordable Care Act. And while it did not affect loan rates, it did remove banker middlemen from the student loan process, which will save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Justice

WV Senate Candidate John Raese Defends Ted Nugent’s Threatening Remarks Toward President Obama

By Josh Israel on Apr 25, 2012 at 3:10 pm

John Raese (R-WV) campaigns with Ted Nugent

John Raese (R-WV) campaigns with Ted Nugent (AP Photo/Jon C. Hancock)

In a recent campaign speech, Senate candidate John Raese (R-WV) offered a full-throated defense of Ted Nugent’s recent threatening comments about President Barack Obama and lambasted the Secret Service for taking the comments seriously.

The Huffington Post posted a portion of his speech, in which Raese said:

RAESE: How many of you remember Ted Nugent? I do. Ted Nugent came to West Virginia to help me in 2010. He came along with Sarah Palin and we had a wonderful event. And we had a wonderful event. Now I’m with Josh Sowards. Josh, how are you today? Josh is a former Mountaineer basketball player. He played in a lot of those good [West Virginia Mountaineers basketball coach] Bob Huggins games that we all sat at many Lincoln Day dinners when people said ‘Time out, we gotta listen to the Mountaineers beat Kentucky.’ Remember all that stuff? He was a part of that. Now Josh, if Bob Huggins came in and told you that we’re are in a vicious game against Penn State and we are gonna go right out on that court and we’re gonna kill’em, would the FBI want to investigate Bob Huggins? I don’t think so. That’s called a figure of speech. Controlling the people. Remember that, controlling the people. Ted Nugent is a patriot. Ted Nugent is somebody that’s firm in this country. And when you see scenarios that break down like that scenario, it’s a concern, isn’t it.

Watch the video:

But Nugent didn’t say that Republicans should “kill” Democrats in the general election. He said “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” Virtually all 63,500 Google hits for the phrase “dead or in jail by this time next year” are references to Nugent’s comment, so it is hard to see how that constitutes a “figure of speech.”

Nugent has not been charged with any crime — merely interviewed by the Secret Service so they could be certain he was not a threat to the safety of the president. Forty three men have served as president of the United States. Four have been assassinated and several others — including Obama — have survived assassination attempts. Because America is rooted in the belief that ballots, not bullets, are the way to settle political disagreements, any threats to the safety of the president or others directly in line to be president are a crime and must be taken seriously by the officers tasked with protecting their safety.

It is hard to imagine many West Virginian’s would share Raese’s opinion of what constitutes “controlling the people.”

NEWS FLASH

SURVEY: Gay Men More Likely To Attempt Suicide In Scotland | A new survey finds that gay men in Scotland “are nearly eight times more likely to have attempted suicide in the last year and four times more likely to have taken drugs. Three percent of gay men and 7 percent of bisexual men have attempted to take their own life in last year — compared to 0.4 percent of the general population — while 44 percent gay men had taken drugs in the last year, compared to 11 percent of the general population. Gays and lesbians can serve openly in the armed forces in Scotland, adopt children, and enter into civil partnerships, although same-sex marriages are not recognized.

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