Courser Still Digging in Michigan; Lawmakers Try Again to Draw Districts in Florida
Michigan House of Representatives Nagel Photography / Shutterstock.com
Connecting state and local government leaders
Also, Topeka Statehouse as firing range, pot bars in Denver and angry school principals in Milwaukee.
LANSING, Michigan: The Detroit Free Press tracks the latest turn in the wild unfolding story of embattled Tea Party state Rep. Todd Courser, who has made national headlines for orchestrating a bizarre cover-up of an affair with fellow lawmaker Rep. Cindy Gamrat that included him sending a phony e-mail about paying for gay sex. Under intense media scrutiny, Courser on Monday sent out a rambling audio message saying the scandal is the result of collusion between his own staffers and members of the “Lansing mafia,” intent on bringing him down. As Zachary Gorchow writes for the Gongwer News Service, the Courser scandal will eat up headlines for weeks while distracted lawmakers complete very little work for the residents of Michigan.
[Detroit Free Press, Gongwer News Service]
TALLAHASSEE, Florida: State lawmakers on Monday launched the special session of the legislature, in which they have been asked by the state Supreme Court to redraw congressional districts and do the work, this time, without the partisan plotting that doomed two previous attempts. The Tallahassee Democrat reports on lawmaker-grumbling over process guidelines put in place by the court:
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, objected to a requirement that legislators make audio recordings of all discussions with staff or fellow members about moving district lines. In court hearings on the rejected congressional maps, there was much testimony about disappearing email messages, unannounced meetings, private consultation with campaign consultants and congressional maps being circulated among political advisers long before they were made public. Negron said such restrictions could violate First Amendment rights of free speech.
TOPEKA, Kansas: The ultra-conservative politics experiment in Kansas continues apace—and continues to make headlines. The state’s budget woes were the subject of a New York Times Magazine cover story this weekend and, as The Lawrence Journal-World reports this week, the statehouse in Topeka is now a full-on carry zone. Everyone can carry a concealed loaded weapon into the building, no background checks or safety training required.
Officials are assuring the public that the building is still a safe place to work and visit. But Capt. Andy Dean, supervisor of the Capitol Police division, admits to worrying about how an “active shooter” scenario might play out at the building. He imagines a lone gunman prompting a wild-west-style shootout, the air thick with lead, gunsmoke and confusion.
When law enforcement officers arrive at that kind of scene… they won't have time to ask questions…Their job will be to take out anybody holding a gun who is not a law enforcement officer. "That’s the unfortunate side of it," Dean said. "As law enforcement, we’re going to have to identify the threat. That's difficult if you have multiple people who are armed. It could be a potential issue you could run into."
[New York Times Magazine, The Lawrence Journal-World]
DENVER, Colorado: Also continuing apace, the great weed experiment in the Centennial State. Residents of Colorado’s capital city are hoping to land a voter initiative on city ballots this November that would allow people to consume pot in public. As The Denver Post reports, if the measure passes, Denver would be the first U.S. city to allow public marijuana consumption:
Bars and clubs would have the final say about whether to allow pot. Patrons would have to bring their own weed and comply with clean-air laws. That means the marijuana would have to be edible or vaporized or, if smoked, consumed on an outside patio shielded from public view.
MADISON, Wisconsin: School principals in the urban-industrial southeastern section of the state stretched between Milwaukee and Chicago wrote an open letter to Gov. Scott Walker, who is one of the 16 Republican presidential candidates trying to survive the Donald Trump primary. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that the principals are not impressed with the “big government” school reform program Walker is directing from the state capital. They point to the latest state budget shaped by Walker that sends more public money to private religious schools. They say the competition Walker says he’s introducing into the system will increase segregation and result in less opportunity. They say the state is creating a system where inequalities will expand, that will pit the haves against the have-nots.
[The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ]
(Photo by Nagel Photography / Shutterstock.com)
John Tomasic is a journalist based in Boulder, Colorado.
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