Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder has signed into law two highly controversial anti-union bills, officially making the historic union stronghold the 24th so-called "right-to-work" state in the country. On Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators flooded the state Capitol in Lansing to denounce the bill as an organized attack against labor that will lower wages and diminish collective bargaining rights.
Nermeen Shaikh and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! are joined by two people who attended the demonstrations: Katie Oppenheim, a registered nurse and president of the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council, and Andy Potter, state vice president of the Michigan Corrections Organization and the chair of SEIU’s National Republican Member Advisory Committee. We also speak with Lee Fang, a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, about how the bills were pushed through by powerful corporate interests and secretive billionaires.
Michigan lawmakers are also using the lame-duck session to significantly restrict women’s reproductive rights with three bills that would ban abortion coverage in many insurance plans, and another bill that would allow employers and medical professionals to refuse to cover or provide health treatment on moral grounds.
Occupy Peeps Street
The Occupy Wall Street movement can't be stopped - not even in Peepville!
Protesters Re-Occupy Minneapolis: At least a dozen Occupy Minnesota protesters were arrested as their return to Minneapolis became heated overnight.
Much more here, including a lot of video footage and photographs.
This just in: A newly uploaded video from Occupy Minneapolis last night. This one shows Minneapolis police police attacking journalists and flipping a commercial news videographer and his camera at about 1:22 and another independent journalist arrested:
And then this video shows that videographer being actually flipped over by a police officer in slow motion:
Occupy Salt Lake activists who maintained a round-the-clock presence in Salt Lake City’s Gallivan Center this past winter on Friday packed up their tents and moved a few blocks south to Library Square, a grass-and-gravel area east of the Salt Lake City Library at 210 E. 400 South.
Since Oct. 6, the Salt Lake contingency has stood in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, a grass-roots movement decrying corporate greed and its influence on society and the political process.
'Wall Street' merger: DC's 2 Occupy groups to merge at McPherson Square: Washington's two ongoing Occupy protests plan to merge with one group moving out of Freedom Plaza and joining protesters at McPherson Square. On Friday evening, the Freedom Plaza protesters voted unanimously to approve the move.
Afghan youth in U.S. protest war: Some 150 people from Fremont and Occupy Oakland demonstrated outside a U.S. military recruiting center in Fremont on March 30 at a protest organized by Afghan youth. They were also joined by a number of San Francisco Bay Area Iraq Veterans Against the War activists. Fremont has the highest concentration of Afghans in the U.S.
And via Treehugger, the coal industry mocks Occupy Wall Street. The message?
It's time to put aside silly things like idealism, or discontentment with pollution, and get back to reality. Hard, dirty, coal-stained reality. So listen up, Americans:
The coal lobby thinks “reality” is a world dependent on their dangerous product. Coal-fired power plants kill at least 13,000 people a year by spewing over 386,000 tons of pollutants, including mercury, into the air. Coal is also the most significant driver of carbon emissions, making the industry responsible for global warming that will cause more extreme weather, droughts, famine, crop failures, mass extinction of various species, as well as flooding. Coal is hardly even a source of middle class jobs given efforts by major coal companies to bust their respective unions.
Last but not least, from Open Secrets: Let there be no doubt where Wall Street's political loyalties lie: Of all the money the securities and investment industry has poured into the 2012 presidential contest so far -- to the candidates and the super PACs behind them -- an unambiguous 92 percent has gone to the GOP, according to a new Center for Responsive Politics analysis.
There are so many wonderful images and perspectives from today's General Assembly meeting on the UC Davis campus that it seems easier to put them together in one place and let you explore them. Lee Fang and Twitter user Silvermaneman were tweeting live from the event with pictures and video.
Chancellor Katehi made an appearance and spoke briefly to students. In a somewhat backhanded way, she apologized for Friday's events, but it was by no means direct.
O ne of the things I love about college students is their fresh creativity. That photo at the top asks students to make tents from wire as a way of honoring the "occupiers." I love it.
Their tweets are below, in chronological order. Be sure to click through to the media.
Update: Lee Fang has a post with all the details here.
