Richmond Tea Party kicks off 2011 with town hall sessions

Twenty-five Democratic State Legislators Have Switched to GOP
Good thing the New Media is out there, what's the chance you'd see this story on the Nightly News? examiner GOPAC chairman Frank Donatelli just sent out a Press Release crowing that 25 Democratic legislators have now switched parties and become Republican . " We are pleased with the decision of these men and women to leave the Democratic Party and join with us. They are adding to the ranks of Americans who want to put result-oriented ideas into action to get us moving in the right direction. ...

Twenty-five Democratic state legislators have switched to GOP
GOPAC chairman Frank Donatelli just sent out a Press Release crowing that 25 Democratic legislators have now switched parties and become Republican. "We are pleased with the decision of these men and women to leave the Democratic Party and join with us. They are adding to the ranks of Americans who want to put result-oriented ideas into action to get us moving in the right direction. Each of these legislators’ insight, experience, and commitment to common-sense, conservative policies will ...

Hawkins Advice For Cuomo: Tax The Rich
Green Party Candidate for Governor Howie Hawkins is urging Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo not to make steep Budget cuts, and instead increase taxes on the rich or eliminate the stock transfer tax rebate which provides Wall Street firms with billions of dollars each year. Hawkins has sent a letter to the Governor-elect making his case for many of the positions he ran on in the election. Cuomo campaigned with a pledge not to raise taxes, detailed in a series of policy books. But, Public Opinion poll...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Gov.-elect Rick Scott's victory lap brings him to Miami
Rick Scott returned Wednesday to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs: the staunchly Republican Panhandle that played a important role in his winning election as Florida's next Governor. ``This is our time,'' Scott told a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at a popular restaurant in Fort Walton Beach. ``We're going to focus every day on building jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs.'' He told people to hold him accountable for all of his campaign promises, and seemed to anticipate more clearly the bruisi...

East Hartford mayor to take over DMV
East Hartford Mayor Melody A. Currey, Gov.-elect Dan Malloy's choice to head the State Department of Motor Vehicles, said Thursday she is taking over with the goal of making the much-maligned agency more streamlined and efficient. "My marching orders are very direct: Make sure the customer is taken care of and make sure we do it in an efficient and effective manner and as fiscally conservative as possible," Currey said after Malloy announced her appointment. Malloy said he would like Currey to...

Conservative state lawmakers target abortion pills prescribed over Internet
Conservative lawmakers in some states are taking aim at a practice that they say could greatly expand the number of women who choose to terminate their pregnancies: Abortion pills prescribed over the Internet. This Story Conservative state lawmakers target Abortion pills prescribed over Internet Abortion fight at Catholic Hospital pushes ACLU to seek federal help THE CHANGED COURT: Tests of 'Roe' more frequent since justices upheld late-term Abortion ban in '07 US teen Birth Rate still far hi...

Cuomo Breaks Tradition For Inauguration, State Of The State
Assemblyman Jack McEneny has seen his fair share of gubernatorial inaugurations. The Veteran State Legislator is also a historian with a deep knowledge of both the State Capitol and the capital city. He joined Liz Benjamin in studio Friday to discuss the symbolic choices the Governor-elect has made for his first few days in office. Share this post! ...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Legislators caught up in holiday spirit, too
Halloween? Oct. 31. New Year's Day? No sweat: Jan. 1. It's not a celebration you'll find in your desk calendar. But it's an example of one of the Pennsylvania Legislature's biggest exports: so-called "holidays" passed by resolution, the whim of a representative written into the record to commemorate subjects that vary from sickle cell disease to Spanish water dogs. And for your information, Pennsylvania Health Care Information Technology Day happened April 20. In 2010, State Legislators introduc...

Bum Rush: Twenty-five Democratic State Legislators Defect to GOP
(Washington Examiner)- GOPAC chairman Frank Donatelli just sent out a Press Release crowing that 25 Democratic legislators have now switched parties and become Republican. “We are pleased with the decision of these men and women to leave the Democratic Party and join with us. They are adding to the ranks of Americans who want to put result-oriented ideas into action to get us moving in the right direction. Each of these legislators’ insight, experience, and commitment to common-sens...

Cuomo to take governor's oath on NYE at 10 p.m.
ALBANY - Andrew Cuomo is so eager to take office that he'll be sworn-in two hours before actually becoming Governor. Cuomo is set to be given the oath of office privately by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman at 10 p.m. Friday following a family New Year's Eve dinner at the executive mansion. Previous governors have taken the oath just after midnight Jan. 1, when the term officially begins. Cuomo is said to be going early so the young kids attending the dinner can watch. Other onloo...

A Mark Knoller Rundown of President Obama By the Numbers: 29 Rounds of Golf in 2010
CBS News’ Reporter Mark Knoller has a fascinating article that recaps President Obama’s 2010 “By the Numbers.” Knoller has all the numbers on Obama’s activity, including the fact he played 29 rounds of golf in 2010, bringing the total to 57 rounds so far during his Presidency. Here are just a few of Knoller’s numbers: Speeches, statements and remarks: 491 -Since taking office: 883 News conferences and press availabilities: 27 -Formal, solo White House Press ...

Liberal Group Criticizes Christie With Parody Website
Gov. Chris Christie attends a town hall meeting - Parsippany, NJ - Dec 3, 2010 - Photo: Tim Larsen / Governor’s Office TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey’s governor is the target of a new website that criticizes his out-of-state travels, including this week’s trip to Disney World as a blizzard socked the Garden State. The site was launched by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a Washington-based liberal Advocacy Group. Some Democrats criticized Chri...

Obama by the Numbers
Mark Knoller of CBS News is the unofficial keeper of presidential numbers and offers a few highlights from President Obama's year: Speeches, statements and remarks: 491 News conferences : 27 Town hall meetings: 17 Vacation trips: 6, including all or part of 32 days Flights on Air Force One: 172 Flights on Marine One: 196 Rounds of golf: 29 Basketball games: 20 ...

City likely to ask voters for millage increase in 2011
Ferndale is likely to put a millage proposal on the May ballot, City Manager Bob Bruner said Thursday. The city is among several in Oakland County considering property-tax ballot proposals in 2011, including Madison Heights and Royal Oak. In Ferndale, at a town hall meeting Wednesday, a citizens committee recommended a Headlee override proposal. It would let the City Council raise the millage rate for five years -- from the current 14.5448 mills to as ...

Plane, helicopter collide in Virginia, 2 killed
WEYERS CAVE, Va. — Federal aviation officials say a small Aircraft collided with a medical Helicopter in the air Friday afternoon in rural western Virginia, killing two people on the plane. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the collision occurred at about 2:30 p.m., a half-mile north of the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport in Weyers Cave. The airport is about 30 miles northwest of Charlottesville. The two people killed were aboard a Cessna 172 plane. Their n...

Fearful Brains = Conservatives?
If you're like me, you wonder why so many people - election after election - vote against their own self-interest, putting into power right-wing Conservatives who only care about the wealthy and the powerful. Well, neuroscience may have discovered a partial answer to explain that puzzling behavior. Like all premises in science, this one will be rigorously tested by further research. Scientists at University College London found that people with conservative views have brains with larger amygdal...

Dear Andrew: Tax The Rich
Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate Howie Hawkins, whose debate performance and campaign gave him the needed 52,000 votes in order for the party to appear on the ballot next time, is offering Democratic winner Andrew Cuomo some advice. Namely, Hawkins says Cuomo should enact a progressive agenda of taxing the super rich by reintroducing a stock-transfer tax and reforming the Income Tax. In his “Open Letter” to the Governor-elect, Hawkins, a Syracuse resident, said Health Care costs...

GOP presidential hopefuls paying attention to Nevada
Nevada was a political afterthought for Republicans in the 2008 Presidential Election. Caucus votes were nonbinding, meaning delegates could change their minds about whom to support, so Candidates focused on other more influential states rather than risk wasting time and money in Nevada. But that strategy seems to be changing, with the state GOP deciding to make caucus votes binding. Now that Nevada can boast real political juice, Republicans toying with the idea of presidential bids are scoping...

Healthcare reform ups Medicare payments
"Starting Jan. 1, Insurance Companies will have to spend a larger share of premiums on the care of patients and consumers -- not on Chief Executive Officer salaries," Pelosi said in a statement. "Taxpayers will save, as government cracks down on overpayments to insurers. Seniors will gain free access to annual check-ups and screenings, and those in the 'donut hole' will get a 50 percent discount on brand-name Prescription Drugs. "In 2010, we kept our promises by helping small businesses cover th...

Russell Pearce gears up to push birthright-citizenship bill -- while Arizona crumbles
Our favorite neo-Nazi-friendly legislator, Arizona's own Russell Pearce, has been hankering to revoke Latinos' birthright Citizenship for a long time. But now he's actually the president of the Arizona State Senate -- which means he has real power. And with SB1070 under his belt, he's ready to roll -- not just in Arizona, but nationally. With Arizona facing huge shortfalls, this is no time for distractions. It's hard to imagine a worse distraction than trying to write our own rules on citizens...

Alex Pareene Votes: The 2010 Golden Duke Award Winners
Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon. Before that, he did so for Gawker. And before that, he was the youngest editor of Wonkette in history. The man knows his Scandal, although not his appletinis. [Picture via allyzay on Flickr.] Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy Louie Gohmert: Sure, he's not a witch and he never stomped on anyone's head. But a story like "terror babies" comes along so rarely that it must be cherished and its author celebrated. It sounds like the plot to a some awf...

Getting Below the Surface
We of course know that the November 2, 2010, Elections were historical on many different levels. The Republican gains of 63 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate dwarf the Republican Revolution of 1994 and double the historical average gains in the Senate for a party out of power. These gains were made despite a cash-strapped Republican National Committee (RNC), strategic decisions by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) to spend $8 million in the long-shot California Senate race...

Washington Post Misleads Readers on Abortion Availability
Has The Washington Post ever traveled to Iowa? Obviously, yes for presidential caucuses. But on Friday, Post reporter Sandhya Somashekhar accepted the bizarre premise of Abortion advocates that abortions are “virtually impossible” in rural Iowa. No one owns a car? The story centered on a new pro-life cause, protesting the provision of RU-486 Abortion cocktails over the Internet. Liberals can get upset about selling booze on the Internet, or the spreading of Obama slurs on the Interne...