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Independent voters will have a lot of power during the midterm election. They outnumber Republicans and Democrats.

"Even though a Republican can say and promise A, B, C, a Democrat can promise D, E, and F, but I might like A and a little bit of E so its not just red and blue anymore," said Esmeralda Villeda, one of the millions of independent voters in the U.S.

Villeda is like many Americans who are frustrated with politics.

I dont watch the news because, at this point, all it is, is 'this candidate said this, this candidate that, let me find something else to talk bad about this person,'" she said. "That's not what politics is about."

Villeda, a Las Vegas native and first-generation Mexican-American, was the first in her family to graduate from high school.

She used to be politically active, even helping national and local political campaigns

Its a little heartbreaking," Villeda said, "because right out of high school, I was full-on Democrat and voting Democrat all the way.

After the 2020 election, Villeda said she was fed up with party politics.

It got very messy. It got very, 'Youre with me or against me,'" Villeda said

According to Gallup, as of March, 40% of voters say they are independent, more than the 28% who say they are Republican and 30% say they are Democrat.

In 2004, 27% of voters identified as independent, while Republicans made up 38% of voters and Democrats made up 35%.

I think thats one of the things you see nationally is this sort of swinging from Democrat to Republican control, youre seeing voters say no to both parties not saying yes to either one here," said University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) political science professor David Damore.

Damore has taught politics at UNLV for 22 years. Non-partisan and minor party voters, like Libertarians, now make up the largest group of voters in Nevada, which has one of the fastest-growing populations in the country.

Damore said Nevada has seen a non-partisan voter boost because of the state's automatic voter registration. New residents are registered to vote when they get a driver's license and non-partisan is the default option.

Damore contends non-partisan voters have a lot of power.

You look back in '16, Trump carried them narrowly here, they shifted to Biden two years ago, so its a real uncertainty here," Damore said.

This November, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, could be voted out. Independents could be the group tips the scales in favor of a Republican challenger.

A lot of them are new to the state, so the question is how much are they going to spend learning about these candidates or are they just going to go with the national flow," Damore contemplated.

Independents might have even more power if people like Jeremy Gruber get their way.

His nonpartisan, nonprofit group, Open Primaries Education Fund, is pushing for all states to open their primary elections to independent voters.

This year, 12 states are not allowing independents to vote in primaries. They will only be allowed to participate in general elections.

Theyre taxpayer-funded. We pay millions of dollars every year to fund primaries," Gruber said. "They are for all intents and purposes public elections, but we let the parties decide which members of the public can participate."

This fall, Villeda will vote in her first election as a non-partisan and she is OK with it. She will be voting for the person, not the party.

"This what America is," she said. "We have a right to our own voice."

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The power of the independent voter - Denver 7 Colorado News

Age: 68

Occupation: Nebraska Lieutenant Governor since 2013

Political party: Republican

Mike Foley was the state auditor for two terms then ran for governor in 2014, lost to Pete Ricketts, and was appointed by Ricketts as his running mate to become the current lieutenant governor. Foley couldve run for governor again, but he said he decided to run for auditor because of his skills and interests.

"I enjoyed my work as state auditor when I previously held that position. I was a very aggressive state auditor, worked very hard to expose waste, fraud inefficiency in government operations and root that out of the system," he said.

Foley intends to focus on the largest agency in state government, the Department of Health and Human Services, if elected. He said hes in the best position to be state auditor because he understands the complexities of state government and has worked there for 22 years, including six years in the Legislature.

"I look forward to returning to that [auditor's] office where I can do some more good work for the people of Nebraska, to protect their hard earned tax dollars from being wasted," he said.

Optometrist Katrina Tomsen of Upland is also running for the seat unopposed with the libertarian party.

Link:
Meet the Republican Candidates for State Auditor and Treasurer - Nebraska Public Media | News

Andrew Adams| State Journal-Register

Fifty-one years ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect. Since 1989, the day has been commemorated byAmerican labor unions as Workers Memorial Day.

On Thursday morning,the AFL-CIO hosted its annual memorial service to honor the day, the first time its been held in-person since the start of the pandemic.

This year's service was dedicated to Deidre Silas, a Springfield resident and Department of Children and Family Services worker who was killed on the job earlier this year.

Silas' family attended the ceremony. Herfather,Roy Graham, placed a rose on a replica of the Illinois Workers Memorial statue in Silas' memory as part of the ceremony.

Past coverage: Family, friends, co-workers remember Silas during services at Union Baptist Church

Graham was joined by other relatives of workers who died on the job as well as their "union brothers and sisters," who placed 75 roses to honor the dead.

The 75 workers all died since the Workers Memorial Day tradition began in the 10-county area covered by the local AFL-CIO's Springfield and Central Illinois Trades and Labor Council. About half of Illinois' 22 AFL-CIO councils held similar events around the state.

Silas' death motivated several lawmakers to push for new standards for DCFS this spring, resulting in the legislature passing several new laws, including one granting DCFS workers the option to carry pepper spray or mace if they've been trained and one granting the family of those killed on the job ancillary benefits, such as health insurance.

"It's not a political issue, it's a workplace safety issue," said state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, who co-sponsored both of those bills.

Despite multiple attempts, Turner was unsuccessful at passing the Knight-Silas Legacy Act, a proposal first introduced by Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, after the death of Pamela Knight, another DCFS worker who died on the job. Turner said she is looking to bring that bill back up for consideration in this fall's legislative veto session.

"The only way way we can continue to put workplace safety on the front burner is to have days like thisto honor our brothers and sisters for the sacrifice they made and at the same time, advocate for laws that will protect workers, so we can eliminate workplace death and injuries,"said Tim Drea, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO.

In Illinois, 135 people died on the job in 2020,according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's just over one workplace fatality every three days.

Nationwide, there were 4,764 fatal work injuries, meaning somewhere in the country, a worker died every 111 minutes.

2020 saw the fewest workplace fatalities of any year since 2013 nationwide and the fewest workplace fatalities in Illinois since 1996, the first year for which statistics are available.

Though the numbers have been decreasing, labor advocates and officials within workplace safety agencies around the country believe that more must be done to reduce the number of workplace deaths.

"We have to keep fighting until every worker is able to go home to their familyat the end of the day, safe and healthy," said Natalicia Tracy, senior policy adviser at OSHA during the Department of Labor's Workers Memorial Day service.

Illinoisans are preparing to make a decision about the future of organized labor later this year, when a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights of workers to "organize and to bargain collectively" will be put to voters on the ballot at the Nov. 8 election.

"Workplace safety is why we're advocating for the passage of the Illinois Workers Rights Amendment," said Drea in a speech at the memorial.

The amendment was approved by the General Assembly in 2021, with the language that will appear on the ballot approved this year on April 9.

Read the language of the amendment.

"They normally vote for Democrats, Republicans, independents or Libertarians," said Drea. "This time, the first question on the ballot, they can vote for themselves."

Drea added that the amendment will help workers ensure their workplaces are safe in addition to protecting collective bargaining in Illinois.

The amendment gained bipartisan support in both chambers of the Illinois legislature, passing on a 49-7 vote in the Senate and 80-30-3 vote in the House. All of those who voted against the amendment are Republicans.

But others have already started to fight the measure in the courts.

Last week, lawyers from the conservative Liberty Justice Center and the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank,filed a lawsuit against the state board of elections arguing that the language of the amendment is too broad.

"If Illinois were seeking solely to make right-to-work unconstitutional in Illinois, the phrasing would have reflected that, as it did in a previous version of this amendment filed in 2019," said Mailee Smith,director of labor policy and staff attorney at the Illinois Policy Institute in a statement."Instead, the current phrasing creates a litany of problems, could lead to unparalleled power by a special interest group and most importantly, is unconstitutional.

Smith and lawyers from the Liberty Justice Center argue in the lawsuitthat because the amendment regulates private sector unions, it conflicts with the federal National Labor Relations Act. They say because the federal constitution says federal law takes precedence over state laws,the amendment is unconstitutional.

This is the first time the two conservative organizations have partnered since they argued the U.S. Supreme Court caseJanus v. AFSCME, in which the Supreme Court found that government employees cannot be required to pay union fees as part of their employment.

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As Illinois gears up to vote on workers' rights, unions remember those killed on the job - The State Journal-Register

A bipartisan effort is underway, with Morgan County Democrats joining in, petitioning Georgias State Election Board to provide emergency paper ballots ahead of the upcoming 2022 elections.

Georgia Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians have joined forces to advocate for the use of paper ballots to enhance election security and post-election audits.

So far, more than 50 federal and state candidates, along with political party committees across the state, have signed on to the petition, including familiar local candidates Brett Mauldin, a Republican running for State Senate District 17, Kacy Morgan, a Democrat running for State Senate District 17, Charles Baldwin, a Democrat running for Morgan County Commissioner District 2, Claudia Crenshaw, a Democrat running for Morgan County School Board District 5, and Tabitha Johnson-Green, a Democrat running for Georgias 10th Congressional District. Even gubernatorial candidates have signed on to the petition, including Republicans David Perdue and Kandiss Taylor.

The Morgan County Democrats committee also signed on to the petition with second vice chair Jeanne Dufort leading the recruitment effort of various political candidates and committees to join the effort.

Trust in elections must be earned. Working with Republican and Libertarian leaders to call on the State Election Board to act swiftly to protect our elections gives me hope that we can find common ground when the stakes are high, said Dufort.

Getting ahead of this, by using the EPB system designed for quick response when elections cant proceed as planned will go a long way towards protecting our vote.

The bipartisan petition comes on the heels of the Federal DHSs Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) conducting a review of serious vulnerabilities found in Georgias Dominion electronic touch-screen voting system. CISAs ongoing investigation was prompted by a study conducted by Dr. Alex Halderman.

According to ABC News, Halderman said in sworn declarations filed publicly with the court that he examined the Dominion Voting Systems machines for 12 weeks and identified multiple severe security flaws that would allow bad actors to install malicious software.

Advocates are also concerned about the recent warning from U.S. officials that Vladimir Putin could interfere with American election infrastructure as revenge for aiding Ukraine in the ongoing war.

Dufort joined the effort in hopes the bipartisan nature of the initiative would persuade state election board officials to act.

The Secretary of State [Brad Raffensperger] is refusing to act. We are calling on the State Election Board to use their authority to protect our elections by temporarily replacing the touchscreens with standard paper ballots for scanning, and expanding audits, said Dufort.

Its how most states use their Dominion voting system to ensure auditability. Our goal is to address the significantly increased risk level in the use of Georgias electronic touchscreen system. Georgia is at higher risk than most states, because we require vulnerable electronic tablets and printers to mark ballots for in-person voting, and we use outside contractors to configure elections centrally while most states configure machines locally.

The bipartisan petition also advocated for paper ballots in the event of an audit after an election.

We also ask that you also require extensive post-election audits of the scanner tabulations of hand marked ballots to verify the outcomes of races, said the petition to the State Election Board. Together these steps will rebuild Georgias voter confidence by providing assurance that Georgias election outcomes reflect the will of the people.

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Morgan County Democrats and local candidates join bipartisan effort demanding paper ballots ahead of the 2022 Midterm elections - Morgan County...

In an April 16 interview with New York City billionaire and budding media mogul John Catsimatidis, Governor Kathy Hochul affirmed that she would not shut down the state to deal with the spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the BA.2 variant. Not that anyone expected her to. No, at this point, New Yorkand apparently the rest of the countryis functionally done with COVID mitigation.

Of course, this virus isnt done with us. No matter how many wartime metaphors are thrown at it, a substantial chunk of the population seems unwilling to acknowledge a simple truth: a pandemic is not over until its over, and what endemic means is definitely up for debate.

Once again, the Northeast is leading a rise in US cases. In New York, the 7-day positivity rate as of April 21 is over 5 percent and climbing (in neighboring Vermont, the rate is double that.) A lack of testing may obscure the real amount of spread at present. But the difference this timeseemingly more than ever before, and particularly notable in the blue statesis the unwillingness to do pretty much anything about it.

In fact, unwillingness puts it charitably; it implies there is a choice to be had. Truthfully, Hochuls comments were redundant precisely because the possibility of choice has been forfeitedmaybe long ago, certainly after the first Omicron wave. We cannot wait any longer, we must get back to normal!

Vaccination, accordingly, has become the only mitigation method. While crucial in reducing severity of illness and likelihood of death, vaccines are only one method of mitigationand a method with serious limitations. Vaccines fail in many cases to significantly protect the 3 percent of the population who are immunocompromised from so-called mild Omicron; it also does a dubious amount to reduce transmission.

Last winter, I spent a few months reporting in The River on the anti-vax group Do We Need This?, a Columbia County-based coalition opposed not only to vaccination, but to virtually all efforts at pandemic mitigation. What struck me in my communication with members of this groupmore than their deeply unscientific approach to the coronaviruswas the devaluing of human life implicit in their approach to the pandemic. They would deny it, of course, but the enactment of their worldview in America in 2022 would produce a coldly libertarian reality in which lives are simply unprotectedeven when we have the meansand we accept consigning weak, elderly, immunocompromised, and otherwise vulnerable people to serious illness and death. (It is the exact same belief, parroted in cruder and more aggressive form, by the MAGA movement and the far rightof which the left-libertarian anti-vaxxers are fast becoming a part.)

In New York, about 75 percent of the population is fully vaccinatedwhich is good, if likely not good enough. But to note this only obscures a darker sentiment that I cannot shake: the anti-vax argument has won the day. The COVID-skeptics view of the pandemic and its supposed mildness, their arguments about costs versus benefits, their fundamental privilege and unwillingness to care for othersthis is the ethos that predominates.

This view isnt exactly new. Even at the beginning of the crisis, the willingness of the privileged to abscond to areas like the Hudson Valley was plenty evident, while those sheltering in the city and suburbs cheered from their balconies as essential workers (who were functionally deemed expendable) were made to stay out and continue stocking shelves and delivering groceries.

But there was at least some sense of collective sacrifice and a perceived need to mitigate; now the willingness to accept total uncontained spread is as pervasive as its ever been. Liberal pundits like Leana Wen or David Leonhardt make careers insisting as much in the papers of record, laundering the guilt of those who have, in many cases, never been deeply threatened by this pandemic and now simply dont want to be inconvenienced.

What could be done now? In theory, re-imposing indoor mask mandates (as Philadelphia has done), permanently expanded testing and tracing, full coverage for the poorly insured and uninsured for COVID testing and treatmentand if necessary, targeted closures or shutdownsare all within the capacity of even a society as broken as this one. Above all, perhaps, should be clear messaging that the pandemic is not yet over.

But, as Hochul insisted, none of thats going to be done. The state and country will ride through this wave, just like they did all the other ones, and manycertainly more than necessarymay die or become seriously ill, including with long COVID, because we have collectively agreed to do nothing.

The pandemic might have been an opportunity to have a discussion about priorities, particularly the chronic health inequalities evident in the state and country. Instead, the most terrible disparities of this society have been reaffirmed; a persistent selfishness and unwillingness to suffer the most mild inconveniences for the sake of protecting vulnerable neighbors has won the day; a grotesque American libertarianism is strengthened. And too many people are okay with it.

The Riveris a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinion of columnists and editorial writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the newsroom.

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The Anti-Vaxxers Won. This Is Pandemic Country. - The River - The River Newsroom

TOPEKA Rep. Tatum Lee and Sen. Mark Steffen heartily embraced anti-vax activists Monday at the Capitol ahead of the Legislatures consideration of limited-government policy tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and potential overrides of a cluster of vetoes issued by Gov. Laura Kelly.

The plan was for the House and Senate to devote the day to weighing bills left unfinished when lawmakers adjourned for a three-week break. The list includes bills on K-12 education budget, the final state budget package, reform of the states 6.5% sales tax on groceries, legalization of sports wagering and a sweeping bill approved by the Senate but not the House that would tackle libertarians objections to COVID-19 directives.

On Tuesday, legislative leadership wants to dive into override votes on a transgender sports ban on girls and women athletes, a parental bill of rights for public education, a ban on municipal government limits on single-use plastic, expansion of short-term health plans and new limits on access to food stamps.

Lee, a Ness City Republican not averse to criticizing GOP leadership, lauded the group affiliated with Kansans for Health Freedom who pressed their case for a trio of bills that havent cleared the Legislature. She demanded House Speaker Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, allow each to be adopted by the House.

Ron Ryckman, you better get these bills passed, said Lee, who alleged backroom deals were being hatched as she spoke to the protesters. Thank you so much for caring, standing and participating. None of this is worth it unless were standing together.

The anti-vax coalition demanded passage of House Bill 2280 opening the door to treatments not fully endorsed by federal regulators, Senate Bill 489 inhibiting ability of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and local government health directors to issue pandemic orders and Senate Bill 541 prohibiting directives on vaccination passports, facial coverings, contract tracing, church attendance and student vaccinations.

Steffen, a Republican from the Hutchinson area who has been under scrutiny by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, said House Bill 2280 wasnt dead but was on life support.

Is the light growing dim? Well, yes, but it is on everything, he said. That doesnt mean its time to give up. Its time to try harder.

Steffen said the board regulating physicians in Kansas, such as himself, had to be changed to prevent the heavy corporate doctor influence on the board. The KBHA should be more respectful of physicians such as himself who advocate off-label drug treatments for COVID-19 not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Kansas Board of Healing Arts has to be reorganized. It has to be, Steffen said. the associations Kansas Medical Society, chiropractic society, osteopathic society they are the ones that are picking the board members. They dont pick a group of doctors to represent true Kansans. They pick corporate doctors. Theyre not picking the average Joe doctor like myself. That has to change.

He said the regulatory scrutiny of doctors not in the medical mainstream blunted early treatment of COVID-19 and created suffering and death for people with cancers.

So, lets keep our head down. Lets keep charging forward. Lets hold people accountable. Lets stand for the truth. Lets make this state better. Lets make this country better, Steffen said.

The crowd created funnels of protesters outside the House and Senate chambers that legislators had to walk through. They hoisted signs that read: We the people want health freedom, Let doctors save lives and Do whats right for Kansans. They chanted pass the House freedom bills and stop medical tyranny.

At the request of Mike Brown, a GOP candidate for secretary of state, said he lost his seat on the Johnson County Commission in 2020 because he was such an intense champion for people who didnt want to bend a knee to government during the pandemic. At his urging, the anti-vax activists chanted U! S! A! U! S! A! loud enough to satisfy his sense that they had been heard through the five-floor statehouse.

Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said he was focused on Senate Bill 541, which was approved by the Senate 24-14 but not taken up by the House. Apparently, House negotiators wont agree to meet for discussion of the Senates work on the bill.

The board bill would limit cities responding to infectious diseases to issuance of 30-day ordinances that limited the size of gatherings, restricted operation of businesses or controlled movement of people. Anyone harmed by such local government orders to file a lawsuit that would be heard by a judge within 72 hours. No school or educational institution could issue vaccination documents or separate students based on vaccination status. Violation of provisions in the bill would be a misdemeanor crime.

In addition, the bill would forbid mask mandates, restrictions on religious liberty and would declare children enrolling in daycare facilities or schools would be exempt from immunizations if required by the KDHE secretary based on a written statement signed by a parent or guardian outlining a sincerely held religious belief.

Continued here:
Kansas activists opposed to COVID-19 mandates greet legislators with rally at Capitol - Kansas Reflector

He was repeating a point already made in 2002 to the Scottish Socialist Voice (a publication with which Musk and Bezos are potentially unfamiliar). Nothing and nobody is exploited, and the opportunities for fun are pretty much unrestricted, Banks said of the Culture. I like to think of it as a society that anybody could be happy in.

Those in charge of his legacy may have felt similarly. In 2018, plans for an Amazon adaptation of Consider Phlebas were suddenly shelved. The timing wasnt quite right, said the authors representatives. In the end, I just think the estate didnt want to go through with it, said Dennis Kelly, the Utopia writer who was working on the script for Amazon. They hadnt seen anything [Kelly had written], it was just because I think they werent ready to do it, for whatever reason. Im a little mystified, to be honest.

For Banks, the Culture was a best-case scenario for mankind provided that we could overcome our most toxic instincts. The Culture, he told Roberts, represents the place we might hope to get to after weve dealt with all our stupidities. Maybe.

I have said before, and will doubtless say again, that maybe we that is, homo sapiens are just too determinedly stupid and aggressive to have any hope of becoming like the Culture, unless we somehow find and isolate/destroy the genes that code for xenophobia, should they exist.

As he prepares to bend Twitter to his will, Musk will no doubt see himself, like the Culture, as being on the side of the cyber-angels. His detractors, however, fear that hes about to turn the platform into a libertarian cesspit and a crucible of hate speech. However this online drama plays out, it seems obvious Bankss idea of a peaceful future in which technology and humanity live in harmony is still some way off.

What would Iain M Banks have thought? Most likely that Musks social media empire-building has nothing to do with his vision of an egalitarian future and may in fact militate against it.

Read more here:
Does Elon Musk really understand the books he claims inspired him? - The Telegraph