pacino wrote:the 2018 budget proposal is pretty bad

Wolf announced this month that applicants for some state government positions will not have to fill out a criminal conviction box on job applications. But, he stressed, the order will not preclude the state from running background checks on prospective employees and asking questions about their pasts during the interview process.

The governor said the move will allow prospective applicants with records to be judged on their skills and not solely on their criminal history.

"We have a robust system of supervision and rehabilitative services that gives reentrants to the community all the tools they need to put their lives back on track, get the skills they need to get a job and get moving again," he said during a recent visit to a drug recovery facility in Philadelphia. "But, too often, one small check mark can jeopardize the future that we all need them to pursue and reach."

Pennsylvania will join 26 states and more than 150 cities and counties across the country that now have ban-the-box laws in place, according to the National Employment Law Project. Reading is one of those cities.

Nine states - Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont - also have removed the conviction history question on job applications for private employers.

Several recent studies found that banning the box actually hurt the chances of those it is intended to help by increasing discrimination against black and Latino job applicants whom employers may assume are more likely to have a criminal record.

In one study, written by Amanda Y. Agan of Princeton University and Sonja B. Starr of the University of Michigan Law School, researchers submitted about 15,000 fictitious online job applications in New York City and New Jersey before and after their ban-the-box laws took effect. They found that a 7 percent gap in callbacks between white and black applicants grew to 45 percent once employers could no longer ask about conviction history on applications.

thephan wrote:

pacino wrote:the 2018 budget proposal is pretty bad

And here is why: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/22/trumps-first-budget-why-attention-must-be-paid-to-it/

So, with two partial exceptions, the President’s budget cannot be viewed as anything other than the standard issue, highly partisan, thoroughly uncompromising budgets we’ve seen from Republicans since the rise of Paul D. Ryan. The purpose of these budgets, which even Ryan himself has characterized as more “visionary” than realistic, is to shrink government outside of defense and give the savings to their wealthy donors in the form of regressive tax cuts. Their ultimate targets are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and with this budget, we can see that strategy evolving.

pacino wrote:Former Benghazi! committee chairman Trey Gowdy is likely going to take over for Chaffetz on the House Oversight Committee

WALLACE: In the time we have left, sir, and this is your first time on "Fox News Sunday", so I’ll introduce you to something which I hope you’ll do with us again -- a lightning round. Quick questions, quick answers, on various on hotspots around the world.

There was an -- excuse me -- an ugly incident in Washington this week where Turkish President Erdogan looked on while his security beat and kicked peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence.

Question, sir -- are you going to do anything about that?

TILLERSON: Well, we did call the ambassador of Turkey into the State Department to discuss what occurred with them and express our view that this is simply unacceptable. There is an ongoing investigation, Chris, and I think we’ll wait and see what the outcome of that investigation is. But we have expressed our dismay at what occurred at the Turkish embassy.

WALLACE: Well, beyond expressing dismay, Senator McCain says that you should expel the Turkish ambassador.

TILLERSON: Chris, I think we need to let the investigation conclude before we come to any decisions such as that.

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:

A caustic contest between the party establishment and “Berniecrat” activists gripped the nation’s largest Democratic party in Sacramento this weekend, underscoring fierce Democratic divisions at the state level that continue to simmer five months into Donald Trump’s presidency. Even as longtime party operative Eric Bauman eked out a razor thin victory over progressive newcomer Kimberly Ellis to win the chairmanship of the California Democratic Party, party leaders warned of turbulence ahead.

After a raucous day of protests, Bauman was declared the victor Saturday night by a razor-thin 62 vote margin out of nearly 3,000 votes cast. His acceptance speech was marred by boos and protests from backers of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign who complained of a rigged election and unsuccessfully demanded a recount in the closing hours of the convention.

RoseAnn DeMoro, the head of the powerful California Nurses Association, whose members turned out in force at the convention — and who backed Sanders in the last election — predicted that a loss for Ellis would create a huge rift for Democrats going forward. “Kimberly is a game changer, and if [her campaign] fails, we’ve got massive, massive problems in the party.”

DeMoro led the convention drive, and hundreds of nurses, in demanding support for SB562, a bill which calls for “Medicare for all." Authored by State Senator Ricardo Lara, the bill will get its first hearing in the California state Senate this week.

Former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, who endorsed Sanders in 2016, was on hand to back Ellis, and said that California contest reflected the same divisions that roiled the party’s chairmanship battle at the national level.

She said Ellis garnered “the same energy that [Minnesota Rep.] Keith Ellison had until the establishment came in and choked the life out of people.’’ While Democratic leaders backed by big money interests “want to talk about Russia and Mr. Trump,’’ she said, they are ignoring “the movement of the people” on bedrock issues like health care.

Slowhand wrote:I love that all the Trump supporters were seething over Obama being a secret Muslim terrorist, but are just overjoyed with Trump now being best friends with a bunch of Muslims in a country that condones barbaric human rights violations in the name of a perverted interpretation of Islam and, oh yeah, churned out terrorists behind the biggest terrorist attack in American history.