(To circulate petitions, go to ohfairdistricts.com.)

Ohioans are set to finish the job. In 2015, Ohio voters resoundingly passed an issue to slay statehouse gerrymanders. Now many are signing petitions for a ballot issue to slay Congressional gerrymanders.

Gerrymanders are irregular legislative districts drawn to favor one political party. The 2015 statehouse anti-gerrymander redistricting issue passed with 71% of the vote. It establishes a bi-partisan commission that must have at least two votes from representatives of each of the two biggest parties to adopt a district map.

The new Congressional redistricting issue uses the same commission and follows nearly the same procedures and map-drawing criteria as the statehouse redistricting law. Its map-drawing criteria are:

• compliance with law,
• contiguousness,
• no party favoritism,
• avoidance of splitting counties, cities and townships,
• representational fairness (based on statewide partisan preferences of voters), and
• compactness.

Hello Everyone,

I am a first time user, long time reader. I’m reaching out to this great community for some advice.

A good friend of mine is struggling with health and financial problems. What I’d like are some links I can send her for help.

Sydney currently resides in Ohio. She works a full time job, attends classes, supports her disabled mother and devotes the rest of her free time to a nonprofit veteran’s organization. She’s also battling Ductal Carcinoma. The trip to her treatment facility is 140mi round trip and it’s taking a toll on her vehicle. She doesn’t qualify for food stamps and her health insurance deductible is insane. Times are tough and I’m concerned she’ll stop furthering her education and take food out of her mouth to make sure she can keep a rough over her head and transportation.

Please comment below any organizations or links that may be able to help.

If you need additional information please let me know.

THANK YOU!

-Julianne

The New York Times highlights the story of Jesus Lara, an undocumented dad of four U.S. citizens who stands to get ripped away from his family and the small Ohio town he’s called home for nearly two decades.

Because farming towns like Willard depend heavily on immigrant labor—“we pray and hope the workers show up,” said one local—Donald Trump’s mass deportation dragnet could devastate communities and local economies by casting out immigrants like Lara, who want nothing more than to work hard so they can see their kids succeed.

The dad had been checking in regularly with ICE since getting arrested in 2011, and had even been given a work permit so he could support his family:

In 2008, Mr. Lara was pulled over on his way to the dentist. Unable to produce a driver’s license, which is not issued to undocumented residents in Ohio, he was jailed. A sheriff’s deputy contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Deportation proceedings followed, culminating in a removal order in 2011.

The government granted Mr. Lara a deportation reprieve because he was otherwise law-abiding, and he was placed under an order of supervision with a work permit, requiring that he check in with ICE annually and renew it.

Then came his check-in under the Trump administration:

In January, after the Trump administration announced that no one in the country illegally was exempt from deportation, immigrants like Mr. Lara became vulnerable.

On March 28, when he arrived for his check-in with ICE in Cleveland, officials tethered an electronic tracking monitor to his ankle over objections from his lawyer, who argued that he was no flight risk.

When Mr. Lara raised his trousers to reveal the black, clunky device — he charges it every 12 hours — Elsiy blurted out: “That’s a thing the police put. My Daddy isn’t a criminal!”

Now Lara stands to get ripped away from his family for driving without a license, something the state won’t allow him to apply for in the first place.

Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D. OH) re-election campaign:

Received this e-mail today from Connie Pillich’s (D. OH) gubernatorial campaign:

 I believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. And I’m tired of insurance company lobbyists and giant corporations trying to convince us otherwise.

 That’s why, earlier this morning, I unveiled a new health care proposal as part of my campaign for governor that would allow all Ohioans to opt-into Medicaid.

 That means finally bringing affordable and accessible healthcare to every Ohioan.

Add your name to stand with me and say that healthcare is a right not a privilege.

 Insurance companies are currently fleeing the Ohio exchange, meaning people in Appalachia and rural communities might not be able to get insurance. And rather than address the problem, Washington D.C. Republicans are planning to cut the Affordable Care Act and force millions of Americans off their health care.

That’s just wrong.

 Ohioans deserve bold leadership that protects patients -- not insurance company profits. My plan grants all Ohio families access to Medicaid and let's them buy into the same health insurance plan that state employees and state lawmakers currently enjoy.

Will you sign your name to say every Ohioan deserves access to affordable health care?

Thanks for standing with me,

 Connie

Click here to add your name.

Coward:

Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) told a local radio station on Tuesday that he doesn’t intend to hold any town halls because “just having a town hall setting where people are screaming doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Renacci said that if his constituents have concerns, he’s happy to meet with them one on one.

“What I’ve tried to do is offer individual meetings — I’ve got time in the office, what I call office time, that people can come and meet, and talk with me on an individual basis,” Renacci told host Jasen Sokol. “Sad thing is, Jason, a lot of people say to me, ‘I’m not coming unless you do a town hall with 150 people.’ Well if you have a concern, you can come to my office and we can talk about it.”

Renacci also said that a lot of the requests for town halls have been coming from out of state.

“A lot of times I see the people and they hit my Facebook account saying you won’t do a town hall, and we have staff that look at those, some of those are from California, some of them are from out of the country, out of state,” he said, adding that some requests from his constituents are people that he has met with before. “It just seems to be a tendency to say, ‘he’s not willing to confront,’ and the interesting thing is, I actually like confrontation, I like the idea, as long as it’s not 100 people screaming.”

When Renacci was running for congress, however, he sang a very different tune.

During his first campaign in 2010, Renacci attacked incumbent Rep. John Boccieri (D), for failing to show up to several town hall-style meetings set up by Renacci’s campaign.

“It is deeply troubling to see that our current Congressman is so ashamed of his record that he refuses to face his own constituents in an open forum and listen to their mounting questions and concerns about his policies,” Renacci said in a press release.

In case you were wondering, in the crowded GOP field, this clown is the Trump backed candidate:

Vying for the Trump vote in the contest for Ohio governor next year, Republican candidate Jim Renacci today claimed the endorsement of two groups said to represent the swing constituency that supported Donald Trump for President.

Mr. Renacci, a wealthy businessman and now a U.S. representative from the Akron area, announced he was endorsed by Citizens for Trump and Bikers for Trump.

The motorcycle-based political action group rallied with Mr. Renacci on Saturday in Sandusky.

“I could not be more honored to receive this endorsement from Bikers for Trump and Citizens for Trump — not simply because we share a common patriotism and passion for motorcycles, but because they represent the power of what’s possible when fearless, hardworking Americans mobilize to take their government back,” Mr. Renacci said.

Mr. Renacci is one of four people competing for the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. John Kasich when his second term ends in January, 2019.

Also in the running - and also hoping to win a share of the Trump vote in the 2018 primary - are Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, Secretary of State Jon Husted, and Attorney General Mike DeWine.

And being the Trump loyalist could help or hurt him in the primary:

Renacci has the lowest statewide name-recognition of the four likely GOP gubernatorial hopefuls. Secretary of State Jon Husted and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor already have declared their candidacies, and Attorney General Mike DeWine is expected to announce his bid soon.

But Renacci is the only one who enthusiastically campaigned for Trump last fall. When he jumped into the race in March, with a video featuring him riding a motorcycle, Renacci brought an “Ohio First” slogan and website that echoed Trump’s “America First” message.

Like Trump, Renacci — an accountant by trade and one of the wealthiest members of Congress — emphasizes his background in business and presents himself as a political outsider, though he’s in his fourth term in the House and was mayor of Wadsworth, near Akron.

Trump has not indicated a preference, but Renacci has attracted support from other allies of the president. One of his senior campaign advisers, Rob Scott, helped run Trump’s Ohio operation. And in a not-so-subtle move Friday, Renacci tweeted a photo of himself standing between Jane Timken and Ronna Romney McDaniel, Trump’s handpicked chairwomen of the Ohio GOP and Republican National Committee, respectively. (Timken has pledged to remain neutral in the primary.)

Renacci’s strategy has merit: Trump won Ohio by 8 points. But the Republican Party in the state is fractured, split between those loyal to the president and those loyal to term-limited Gov. John Kasich, who lost to Trump in the 2016 primaries and refused to endorse him. Kasich has said he intends to support Taylor, and some of his allies are expected to back DeWine.

While the GOP primary is crowded, we have a pretty big bench of candidates on our end. Click below to get involved and donate to any of the Democrats running for Governor of Ohio:

Connie Pillich

Betty Sutton

Nan Whaley

I just happened to catch Tim Ryan’s interview with CNN’s Don Lemon last night and...even more so than his comments about Nancy Pelosi, the particular comment in the headline pissed me the fuck off.

First of all, Ryan is from Ohio and I’m from Michigan...’Nuff said on that...but let’s get to the comment in question.

His comment here valorizing blue-collar workers ticked me off.

First of all, I was raised, in part, by my (now deceased) uncle who worked for the Chrysler plant on Lynch near Mound Road in Detroit for decades...and retired from there.

Uncle E. used to bring his football betting slips home for me to fill out.

I have a number of other family members that worked blue-collar jobs; usually for Ford.

I have other family members that did clerical jobs, professional jobs, were managers...even entrepreneurs...and other things.

They all worked damn hard. They all had to come home from work and, as Mr. Ryan said, “take a shower” (shoot, if you didn’t, folks in my family will talk about you).

As an adult, I have pretty much the same economic mix of friends. They all (well, most of them, anyway) work damn hard and most of them are good at what they do.

I’ve done my share of blue-collar work (which I’m pretty useless at, actually, but if it pays the bills...). Most of my working life, I’ve worked in administrative support of various professionals.

These people work hard. If the entrance requirements for their position required a college degree, they worked damn hard for that.

I still remember the time that an old boss of mine had to pull me in and give me a stack of financial paperwork and a laptop to take home so that I could help her reach a crushing deadline.

Just because you’re a “white-collar worker” doesn’t mean that you have it easy or that your job is less stressful or that you don’t have trouble paying bills or that you didn’t deserve to be in that position or that, for some reason, you’re less morally virtuous (which is what Mr. Ryan seemed to be getting at) than a “blue-collar” worker.

Of all the things that Mr. Ryan said in this interview with Don Lemon that had me side-eyeing, I think that part was the worst.

And I’m a working-class (usually poor) college educated African American gay male who has seen all sides of this issue.

I wouldn’t even mention it if I didn’t read it on this site all the damn time.

I thought that all work was valuable.

I thought that all work was stressful.

I’ll tell you this.

I’ve never had a job where I didn’t have to take a shower when I got home, whether I wore a hardhat (did that a couple of times) or an apron, or I had to wear a shirt and tie (and even, occasionally, a suit).

Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I. VT) and MoveOn.org:

Dear MoveOn member,

This weekend, I am partnering with MoveOn and going back on the road to visit states where there are Republican senators who can and should vote against the effort by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to throw 23 million people off of health insurance and, in the same bill, give huge tax breaks to multinational corporations and the rich.

They call it a health care bill, but how can it be a health care bill when it throws 23 million people off of insurance, cuts $834 billion from Medicaid, and defunds Planned Parenthood? God knows what the implication of this legislation will be on our children, the elderly, and those of us with chronic illnesses.

It is literally insane. I have a hard time understanding what kind of world these guys are living in sometimes.

This is a bill that impacts a sixth of the American economy and touches every single American family. Yet until this morning, they kept the bill secret, kept it hidden. And now, in the last possible second, they are going to rush it before the U.S. Senate to get a vote.

We're going to be visiting Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia on Saturday and Sunday. If you can, please show up. But we cannot pull off this tour alone. We need your help.

Chip in $3 to MoveOn today to help them fund our tour to stop Republicans from kicking 23 million Americans off of health insurance in order to give a tax cut to the richest among us.

Time is running out. No one can sit on the sidelines. Not now. It is up to all of us to act in an unprecedented way. We have to think big and do everything humanly possible to make sure that this horrendous piece of legislation does not become law.

On this tour I will ask why it is that the United States is the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all of its people as a right. I will ask why we pay far more per capita than any other nation for health care—with worse outcomes—and the highest prices for prescription drugs. And I will discuss the Medicare for all, single payer legislation that I will soon be introducing in the United States Senate.

But first, we must stop Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Thank you for joining me and MoveOn in that effort.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back towards sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

Click here to donate to MoveOn.org and Bernie’s campaign.

Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D. OH) re-election campaign:

Middletown, Ohio is facing the same epidemic opioid problems much of Ohio faces. Sadly, many people are overdosing and the Emergency Medical Services in Middletown are being stretched thin. While Republicans play pretend theater with Medicaid and opioid treatment funding, millions of people are affected by excruciating devastation wrought by addiction. The Journal-News reports that Middletown City Council member Dan Picard is really “thinking outside the box.” 

Saying the city needs to think outside the box, Middletown City Council member Dan Picard asked if it was possible for EMS to not respond to overdose calls.

Noting people with cancer don’t get free chemotherapy from medics nor do people having heart attacks get a free heart bypass in an EMS run, Picard asked if there was a law that requires the city to respond to overdose calls.

Last week, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman was in Cincinnati for a press conference about the heroin crisis in Ohio. 

Portman said this about recent deaths due to Fentanyl-spiked drugs: 

You're playing Russian roulette with your life every time you use a  street drug, because you don't know what's in it

Meanwhile, behind closed doors in the Senate, a small group of Republicans worked with industry lobbyists to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that currently covers 2.8 million people with substance abuse disorders, including 220,000 Ohioans. The Senate bill was released Thursday and it too will make the heroin crisis worse.  

MoveOn.org hosted a rally against Trumpcare 2.0 at a concert venue today in Columbus, Ohio. I’d estimate maybe a thousand people attended, many from Sanders 2016 organizations and Democrats generally. Yes, it was preaching to the choir to some extent, but the main thrust was motivate people to take action this week to pressure Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) to vote no. The argument is that if Portman is a no the bill is dead, while if he is a yes the bill may pass.

Here’s the group of people behind the main podium, including several white coats:

Ben Wikler and Karine Jean-Pierre of MoveOn.org:

former Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy is at the left next to the flag above. Mary Jo delivered a crucial vote for the ACA and lost her seat in the Tea Party wave election in 2010.

Pastor Jason Ridley of the Hilltop Community Worship Center:

Here’s some of of Pastor Rodley’s speech. Unfortunately I lost the focus, but it shows his cadence:

Guest of honor:

A bit of Bernie’s speech:

…and the closing:

Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Al Franken (D. MN) in support of U.S. Senators Bob Casey, Jr. (D. PA), Bill Nelson (D. FL) & Sherrod Brown’s (D. OH) re-election campaign:

 

I want you to remember these three B's: Bob, Bill, and Brown.

They're important. Bob Casey (PA), Bill Nelson (FL), and Sherrod Brown (OH) are all my colleagues in the Senate. They're all up for reelection in 2018. And they'll all face tough opponents and millions of dollars in special interest spending.

We need these three B's in the Senate. If they lose, we all lose. And I am in no mood to lose.
 

 

Bob, Bill, and Brown are up against a huge FEC deadline in 4 days. Rush in a contribution to help them reach their goals.

Look around Washington D.C. right now. Go ahead, look. The partisan turmoil is so thick, you could cut it with a knife and serve it with some butter.

Republicans are losing it. They've just released their super-secret, terrifically great plan to cut off access to affordable health care for millions of Americans.
 

 

Winning back the Senate is the single best way we can bring some sanity back to Washington. At least then we could cut off some of the Trump Administration's worst ideas.

But we can't win back the Senate without keeping the Democrats we already have. That's why the three B's are so important.
 

Let's help keep Bob, Bill, and Brown in the Senate. Give $5, $10, or more to help me help them build their campaigns.

Thanks.
 

Al

P.S.: I know I kept using Sherrod's last name. But if I hadn't, the whole "Three B's" thing wouldn't have worked. I did my best. Now I need you to do your best to help Bob, Bill, and (Sherrod) Brown win their incredibly important races -- give $5 or more.

Click here to donate to Bob, Bill & Brown’s campaigns.

Received this e-mail today from former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold’s (D. WI) group, Legit PAC, in support of U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) & Sherrod Brown’s (D. OH) re-election bids:

Friend,

Their elections may be almost a year and a half away, but dark money attack groups are already targeting even more of our champions in the Senate.

One super PAC just started running ads attacking Senator Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, and the groups that spent $64 million trying to defeat Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio last time have announced they’re planning to surpass that figure this time.

If Warren and Brown file financial disclosures showing high levels of grassroots support, they can make a strong claim to voters that they’re the legitimate options in the race. But the end-of-quarter disclosure deadline is coming up in just a few days.

Contribute $3 to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown now, before the end-of-quarter financial deadline on Friday.

Elizabeth Warren has become a prominent figure in the fight against corruption and dark money. She’s been a vocal supporter of the Fair Elections Now Act, DISCLOSE Act, and Shareholder Protection Act, and she’s been a leader on investigating conflicts of interest with the Trump transition and taxpayer money.

Sherrod Brown is not only a strong progressive, but has been a leader in the fight for campaign finance reform and voter protection. He introduced the Foreclosure Fraud and Homeowner Abuse Prevention Act to hold too-big-to-fail banks accountable, and he co-sponsored the DISCLOSE Act to tighten protections against illegal campaign contributions.

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the billionaires that back them on Wall Street and elsewhere will do anything to defeat these two champions. They don’t care if it’s legitimate or not.

The next elections will be some of the most important for our democratic legitimacy in decades. With only four days until the reporting deadline at the end of the quarter, we can make the biggest early impact on these elections by stepping up now.

Step up now. Contribute $3 to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown now, before the end-of-quarter financial deadline on Friday.

These dark money attack groups don’t care if their attacks delegitimize our elections. We can bolster our democratic legitimacy by fighting back.

Thank you for standing up for democratic legitimacy today,

LegitPAC Team

Click here to donate to Warren and Brown’s re-election campaigns.

Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D. MA) in support of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D. OH) re-election campaign:

I could rattle off a list of why working families in Ohio, Massachusetts, and across the country need Senator Sherrod Brown to win his race in 2018. But we don’t have much time before his campaign’s FEC deadline -- so I’ll settle for the most urgent of reasons.
 

Sherrod will protect our health care. He is a big defender of the Affordable Care Act, and he is trying to stop prescription drug companies from drastically raising the price of life-saving medications.

And it goes without saying, Sherrod will hold Trump accountable. He’s going to put up a fight to maintain net neutrality, keep Wall Street in check, and stop our tax code from being re-written to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
 

But Ohio is a battleground state. Sherrod is going to face a massive amount of outside spending his path to reelection in 2018. A pro-Trump dark money group and the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity have already launched ad campaigns against Sherrod.

In 2012, Sherrod was nicknamed the “Hunted Democrat” because $40 million was spent by outside groups trying to defeat him. But Sherrod won because he had a tough grassroots team supporting him.
 

Help his team get ready for 2018. They only have 72 hours before their deadline. Rush in $5 or $10 now.

Thank you,

Ed

Click here to donate Brown’s re-election campaign.

Hells yeah:

x

This year, the White House broke with an 8 year tradition and did not issue a presidential proclamation acknowledging June as Pride Month.

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) June 28, 2017

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) wants the Senate to formally recognize June as LGBT Pride month after President Trump never did.

Brown on Wednesday tweeted a Senate resolution to declare June LGBTQ Pride month, and criticized Trump for not issuing a White House proclamation.

“This year, the White House broke with an 8 year tradition and did not issue a presidential proclamation acknowledging June as Pride Month,” he wrote on Twitter. “So I'm proud to lead the first-ever Senate Resolution recognizing June as LGBTQ Pride Month.”

Here’s the resolution Brown Tweeted:

23 other U.S. Senators have also co-sponsored the Resolution. Let’s take a minute to thank Senator Brown for standing up for the LGBTQ. Click here to donate and get involved with Brown’s re-election campaign.

Getting ready to head out of town today so playing catch up today with diaries. Received this e-mail yesterday from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) in support of U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D. WI), Sherrod Brown (D. OH) & Bill Nelson’s (D. FL) re-election campaigns:

 

All 46 Democrats and two Independents in the Senate are fighting to stop the Republicans from ripping away Americans’ health care.

That Democratic firewall has never been more important for the health and opportunity of hard-working American families. But I’ll just be honest: It’s going to be tough to keep that firewall in 2018. The billionaire Koch brothers alone have pledged $400 million to beat Democrats in the midterm elections.  

25 members of the Democratic caucus are up for reelection in 2018 (myself included). Ten in states that Donald Trump won last year. We need your help to hold the line.

Tomorrow night is the big quarterly fundraising deadline for Senate candidates like me. I’m sure your inbox is full of people asking you to chip in $3 or $27.

I wanted to recommend three Senators who need your help by midnight:

• Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin): I was heartbroken last year when Russ Feingold lost his Senate race in Wisconsin. The right-wing smear machine dumped money into Wisconsin at the last minute, and we couldn’t recover. We can’t let that happen to my friend Tammy Baldwin. She’s one of the toughest fighters we’ve got for working families, and we need to keep her.  
• Sherrod Brown (Ohio): My good friend Sherrod Brown is the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, so we work closely together to hold Wall Street accountable and level the playing field for working families. Sherrod works for the people, not the powerful interests – so it’s no wonder why Republican outside groups spent $40 million against him in 2012. We need to help Sherrod be ready to fight back again in 2018.  
• Bill Nelson (Florida): When I need someone to help fight for our service members, veterans, and seniors struggling to make it on Social Security, I know I can count on my friend Bill Nelson. But Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have their sights set on Florida, and they’re personally recruiting Governor Rick Scott – the guy who committed the largest Medicare fraud in history – to run against Bill. We could have a big, ugly fight in Florida – and Bill needs your help.

Deadlines like the one tomorrow are important for giving our candidates the early resources they need to fight the right-wing attacks – and to show that the momentum is on our side.

We cannot lose Wisconsin, Ohio, or Florida in 2018. Donate to Tammy, Sherrod, and Bill’s campaigns to help the Senate Democrats keep fighting back.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

Click here to donate to Baldwin, Brown and Nelson’s re-election campaigns.

State election officials are not rushing out to bow down to the massive information demand from Donald Trump’s voter suppression commission, a commission that just got another member whose life’s mission is to keep people from voting. In fact, the rush is in the opposite direction—a constantly growing number of states have said they won’t hand over part or all of the information that the commission’s vice chair, the notorious Kris Kobach, wants.

A few states, like Virginia, California, New York, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Massachusetts are just saying no. “NY refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election. We will not comply with this request,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted, with similar statements coming from officials in other states.

Many other states—a rapidly growing number—are saying they will not give Kobach any information that is not already publicly available, like the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers, for instance. Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin are on that list. Vermont’s secretary of state, slammed the commission itself: “While it gives me pause to enable the work of this Commission in any way, I am bound by law to provide our publicly available voter file.” But you may notice that this is not a list of blue states. It turns out that even some secretaries of state who are themselves major voter suppression fanatics are not eager to turn over people’s personal information. Some are particularly surprising:

The list of states saying no to everything or no to everything that’s not already public continues to grow. But nothing is going to dent Kobach’s determination to disenfranchise as many Americans as he can.

As lawmakers try to figure out what to do about America’s increasing opioid epidemic, there is one group largely left out of the discussion—children. Children of drug addicts are often left to fend for themselves since their parents are unable to manage an addiction and be responsible caregivers at the same time. In many ways, Ohio has served as ground zero. It has one of the nation’s highest overdose rates and the amount of children who are now in court custody has jumped from 69 to 274 in the last three years. The number of children in foster care also increased nationally by 30,000 between 2012 and 2015 and this is due to, in great part, to the worsening of opioid abuse. This puts tremendous strain on a system which is already under resourced and underfunded. And, sadly, funds to child welfare programs are steadily decreasing. 

In 14 states, from New Hampshire to North Dakota, the number of foster kids rose by more than a quarter between 2011 and 2015, according to data amassed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In Texas, Florida, Oregon, and elsewhere, kids have been forced to sleep in state buildings because there were no foster homes available, says advocacy group Children’s Rights. Federal child welfare money has been dwindling for years, leaving state and local funding to fill in the gaps. [Ashtabula County] is one of the poorest counties in Ohio, and despite a recent boost in funding, the state contributes the lowest share toward children’s services of any state in the country.

This is maddening but not surprising. As a country, we’ve failed to properly address drug abuse in any meaningful way other than to lock people up for it (and we know that while drug use is not limited to any one race, it’s black and brown people who suffer the most harsh legal punishment from selling and using drugs). But our efforts (or lack thereof) are making the problem much worse. Overdose rates are up, effective treatment and care are still difficult for addicts to obtain, and now, children impacted by their parents drug problems are flooding the foster care system. But instead of lawmakers coming up with sensible policies to help mitigate the problem, they want to slash funding that might actually save lives.

Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D. OH) re-election campaign:

I’m open to a lot of different ideas on how to fix the Affordable Care Act -- but I will not sacrifice millions of people’s access to health care so the wealthy can get a huge tax break.

I think most Ohioans agree with me on that. And like most Ohioans, I recognize that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect. But that’s no reason to pretend that it hasn’t done a lot of good.

The Affordable Care Act should be fixed, not repealed. Sign our petition and help send that message to Washington Republicans.

The current GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act amounts to a massive tax cut for the rich, financed by cutting off services for the poor. It really is that simple.

America’s wealthiest are doing just fine, and another tax cut will do nothing more than add a couple more zeroes to their savings accounts and investment portfolios.

But for tens of millions of people who have health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act, this law is a literal lifeline. I’m not going to vote to tear up that lifeline so the rich can get a little bit richer.

Like every other piece of major legislation in American history, the Affordable Care Act needs some tweaks, and Democrats are eager to offer our ideas. But our ideas won’t matter so long as Republicans are intent on scoring political points.

Sign our petition and tell Republicans to put aside the politics and get to work on real health care reforms.

Thank you,

Sherrod

Click here to add your name.