The WonkLine: May 24, 2011

The United Food and Commercial Workers “has embarked on its first broad campaign to unionize Target workers.”

As Elizabeth Warren wins over the banking industry, Democratic Party officials are floating the idea of her challenging Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) in 2012.

The need to find a new IMF director has put “the Obama administration in a sensitive position as the arbiter between Europe and developing nations, which are eager to see one of their own in the top post.”

“They’re not buying it. Most Americans say they don’t believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows.”

The latest Associated Press poll “finds that the percent of Americans who approve of the way Mr. Obama is handling health care has hit a new high. The AP poll, conducted May 5-9, shows that 54 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama’s handling of health care, while 46 percent disapprove.”

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) opened the Senate on Monday with a fierce attack on the House Republican budget, which the upper chamber is scheduled to take up later this week.”

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has spoken out against the proposed initiative for an anti-marriage equality amendment in his home state, and President Obama has also reiterated his opposition to such matters.

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce changed course to oppose the bill rescinding Nashville’s nondiscrimination protections, but not before the damage was done; the governor signed the bill.

Military chaplains are expressing concern about whether they’ll still be able to preach that homosexuality is a sin after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is lifted.

A bipartisan coalition of Colorado officials filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s disastrous Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) on constitutional grounds.

The Supreme Court upheld a court order requiring California to drastically reduce prison overcrowding to alleviate widespread unsafe conditions and lack of medical care for inmates. In dissent, Justice Scalia argued that a prisoner must wait until they are locked in a cage dying in a pool of their own urine before the courts can prevent prisoners from being locked in a cage dying in a pool of their own urine.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli takes his climate denial to federal court.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night at a speech to AIPAC that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists because the Palestinians “refuse to end it.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last night at the AIPAC conference criticized President Obama for using his Middle East speech last week to lay out aspects of a Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

France offered to add ground-attack helicopters in the fight against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces, part of an escalation NATO hopes will break the stalemate in Libya. The British are also considering sending helicopters.

In a public rebuke to Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), Wisconsin state superintendent Tony Evers said yesterday “that it is morally wrong to expand Milwaukee’s voucher school program at the same time funding for public education is slashed.”

“Over a lifetime, the earnings of workers who have majored in engineering, computer science or business are as much as 50 percent higher than the earnings of those who major in the humanities, the arts, education and psychology,” according to a new report.

The Illinois legislature “is poised to pass legislation that would bar students at for-profit colleges in the state from receiving funds from the state’s main need-based grant program.”

“Science is back!” Joe Biden proclaimed as he announced the first winner of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” at the National Renewable Energy Research Laboratory.

“Federal law requires that excessive speculation be reined in,” Jeff Masters and Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets write in Politico, noting that “the recent flood of dollars has overwhelmed the relatively small commodities markets — needlessly driving up food and energy prices.”

Bill McKibben cautions readers not to link any extreme weather to climate pollution, because, “well, you might have to ask other questions,” like whether “we have a bigger problem than $4-a-gallon gasoline.”

A National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) report found 1,538 immigration bills were introduced in 50 states and Puerto Rico — up from 1,180 during the first quarter of 2010.

In a unanimous ruling, federal judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave their approval to procedures used in courts to speed up the processing of undocumented immigrants.

A man who drowned at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront while trying to help two teenagers struggling in the water was an immigrant whose wife is in Mexico.

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