Success Story
2010/02/25: WisPolitics: Assembly approves bill on race-based mascots
Submitted by Staff on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 6:48pm 
WisPolitics reports: The Wisconsin Assembly voted 51-42 Thursday, Feb. 25, to approve legislation that could require schools to drop race-based nicknames, logos or mascots if a district resident complained to the state.
Republicans objected Tuesday to a final vote on the bill, forcing today's vote. They also objected to messaging the bill to the Senate to delay further action as GOP members complained over what they said was the oversensitivity of some and allowing a state bureacrat to weigh in on a local issue over a school's mascot.
Vermont Senate votes to shut state's only nuclear plant
Submitted by Staff on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 4:49pm
By an overwhelming 26 to 4 vote, the Vermont Senate voted to deny a request by Entergy Corp., the operator of Vermont's sole nuclear plant, to extend its forty-year lifespan by an additional twenty years, forcing a shutdown of the aging reactor by 2012. The vote marks the first time a state has moved to shut down an operating reactor, and deals a severe blow to the troubled nuclear industry, which had hoped for a revival after President Obama made massive federal loan guarantees to promote construction of new nuclear plants a centerpiece of his proposed energy policy. Pictured: Collapsed cooling tower, 2007
Global movement wins debt cancellation for Haiti
Submitted by Staff on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 6:35pm
In a remarkable victory for the millions of people around the world who have called for cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt, United States Treasury Secretary Geithner and the finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) countries have all publicly stated their support for debt relief for Haiti.
Army relents, discharges single mother
Submitted by Staff on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 12:28pm
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A single-mom soldier who says she refused to deploy to Afghanistan because she had no family able to care for her young son will be discharged from the military instead of facing a court-martial, the Army said Thursday.
Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, an Army cook stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, was arrested in November after skipping her unit's deployment flight.
2010/01/19 State Senate votes 26-7 to OK key campaign finance bill
Submitted by Staff on Tue, 01/19/2010 - 2:49pm
On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the State Senate approved bipartisan legislation strongly supported by Wisconsin Democracy Campaign closing the "issue ad" loophole that enables special interests to skirt longstanding disclosure requirements and campaign contribution limitations in Wisconsin law and secretly spend unlimited sums of money to influence state elections.
2010/01/17 Obama grants Temporary Protected Status to Haitian immigrants
Submitted by Staff on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 11:17am
Haitian immigrants and Immigrant-rights advocates hailed a decision by the Obama administration, in response to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, to halt all deportation proceedings for an estimated 100,000 undocumented Haitian immigrants in the US. "I screamed. I got on my knees. And I cried: Lord, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you," said one woman, a Haitian immigrant living in Takoma Park, MD. "Nine years I have been waiting for this." The order allows undocumented Haitian immigrants to remain in the U.S. for another 18 months, and was advocated for by many immigrant-rights groups, including WNPJ member group Voces de la Frontera.
2010/01/08 Win in Washington encourages Wisconsin voting-rights activists
Submitted by Staff on Fri, 01/08/2010 - 9:22am
Wisconsin voting-rights advocates were encouraged by a Federal Appeals court ruling on Tuesday that struck down a law in Washington state banning incarcerated felons from voting. The court found that the law violated the 1965 voting-rights act against racially discriminatory restrictions on voting because the state's criminal-justice system is "infected" with racial discrimination.
Attorneys arguing against the restrictions on voting rights built their case on the work of University of Washington sociologists who found that blacks are 70 percent more likely — and Latinos and Native Americans 50 percent more likely — than whites to be searched in traffic stops. The research also showed that blacks are nine times more likely to be
WNPJ joins 200 groups opposing US nuclear 'climate' bill
Submitted by Staff on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 1:03pm
Two hundred environmental, peace, consumer, religious organizations and small businesses -- including WNPJ and eight other Wisconsin groups -- have joined together to blast the newly introduced Kerry-Lieberman “climate” bill, called the American Power Act, as a taxpayer bailout of the nuclear power industry and other dirty energy interests that would be ineffective at addressing the climate crisis. The groups pledged to oppose the bill unless substantial changes are made, including removing all support for nuclear power.
