A 2008 report by the Better Government Association and National Freedom of Information Coalition graded Alaska’s performance on responding to public record requests as an “F”, only above Alabama and South Dakota.  Out of 16 possible points, Alaska got 0.5.

Source: Excerpted From: National Freedom of Information Council 1/12/2012

A robust middle class and broadly shared prosperity are the foundations of a strong economy. This means access to good American jobs, wages, and benefits for a hard day’s work, and the guarantee of retiring with dignity and some measure of economic security.

But a middle class does not just happen; it is built by deliberate policy choices that restore the American Dream, and through effective government that, in partnership with business, guarantees prosperity for all Americans, not just those at the top.

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From the Partnership for Working Families:

Green Construction Careers Programs: A Model for Workers, Communities, the Environment and a Better Construction Industry. 

It’s no secret that working families are struggling in the current economy.  Nationwide, leaders are searching for solutions to get people back to work and rebuild the American Dream.  The Partnership for Working Families is excited to report that local governments have found success by adopting Green Construction Careers Programs to build greener cities and create high quality jobs for local residents.  Through these programs, cities are promoting a greener way of life by building more energy efficient homes and buildings.  They are using aggressive job quality standards and targeted hiring programs to create high quality construction jobs for local residents. And contractors are benefiting from access to a better trained workforce in the midst of a significant labor shortage in the construction industry.

Our new report proves that these programs work!  This twelve page report highlights several programs which will:

• Create jobs to retrofit 140,000 homes in Massachusetts for energy efficiency,
• Hire local residents to fill 70% of construction jobs renovating, repairing and revitalizing San Diego schools, and
• Put an anticipated 7,500 local residents to work in apprentice-level jobs over the next five years in Los Angeles.

The report can be accessed by clicking here.

The Federal Priorities Database, a new resource unveiled today by the National Priorities Project, is a tool allowing interested parties to compare the social impacts of national spending. The database keeps a pulse on social indicators and federal spending, logging data at the state, county, and school district levels.

The website will continue to expand and will include the American Community Survey poverty-related data after 22nd of September.

You can access the database here.

Written by Cristina Francisco-McGuire:

Conservatives wasted no time in exploiting their numeric advantages following historic gains in state legislatures during the 2010 midterm elections, particularly in the area of voting rights. Of the over 285 election reform bills enacted in 47 states in 2011, the majority  were passed in conservative-dominated legislatures and will serve to restrict access to the polls in time for the 2012 election. In addition to the passage of well-publicized voter ID legislation, successful rollbacks to existing laws, including shortening early voting periods and eliminating same day registration, will mainly serve to benefit conservative candidates at the public’s expense.

Doug Chapin, director of an elections-administration program at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, calls the barrage of attempts to restrict voter access the “battle before the battle,” when parties try to advance what they believe are the fairest — or most advantageous — rules in time for next year’s election. Conservatives have long believed that limiting access to the polls works in their favor. As conservative activist and founder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Paul Weyrich commented to a crowd of evangelical leaders in 1980, “I don’t want everybody to vote. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” The stakes in 2012 are so high that voter ID requirements and other voter suppression bills have been rammed through many statehouses this year, even with legislators’ full knowledge of the high implementation costs that will be incurred to struggling state budgets.

[Read more under the cut.]

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From the Economic Policy Institute:

The pain caused by persistently high unemployment is not limited to workers who are currently unemployed, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) briefing paper finds.  The economic damage extends to the broader workforce and the country in general through lost wages, income and wealth, as well as higher poverty.  The national unemployment rate is currently 9.1%, and it has been at or above 8.8% for the past 28 months.  The underemployment rate has remained between 15.7% and 17.4% since the spring of 2009, and it currently stands at 16.1%.

Sustained, high joblessness causes lasting damage to wages, benefits, income, and wealth by EPI President Lawrence Mishel and economist Heidi Shierholz explains that the monthly unemployment and underemployment rates do not capture the full picture of how many U.S. workers experience labor market distress.  Roughly 31% of U.S. workers experienced unemployment or underemployment at some point in 2009.  The unemployment rate also does not capture how severe the problem of long-term unemployment is—the share of unemployed workers who have been out of work for over six months has hovered around 45% for more than a year.  Finally, the unemployment rate as it is experienced by children is higher than the national average.  In 2010, the unemployment rate averaged 9.6%, but 10.6% of children had at least one unemployed parent.

To read the rest of this article and the twenty-six page briefing paper, click here.

From the National Women’s Law Center:

Fact sheets addressing the needs of families are now available on a state-by-state basis.

These sheets deal directly with the congressional “super-committee” debt reduction plans and build the case for retaining valuable programs for women, men, and children.

All 50 states are represented along with the District of Columbia.

The sheets can be accessed here.