INBOX today: Organizers are launching a ballot initiative campaign in Mississippi to expand Medicaid through the ballot box in 2022.
An estimated 200,000+ people would become newly eligible for insurance.
This is coming on the heels of 5 states adopting similar referenda in 2018/2020, and while the GOP is blocking it in Missouri right now, that’s also benefited so many people — including 10% (!) of Idaho’s under-65 population:
A Mississippi initiative is hard for a bunch of reasons, though — I wrote about this actually in the context of voting rights in 2019: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
UPDATE: a story in the Mississippi press on this initiative.
"Health care professionals on Tuesday became the first people to sign petitions to put Medicaid expansion on the November 2022 ballot."
So many amazing stories, reporting, & explainers, in recent weeks by the amazing (& now-unionized!) staff of @theappeal.
I'm in awe of the amazing work so many of them do on, so here's a thread to just some of their recent content. (Follow along!)
1️⃣ @jerryiannelli wrote this dive into Lori Lightfoot's long record when it comes to policing in the wake of the police killing of 13-year old Adam Toledo. An essential piece for context on what's up in Chicago: theappeal.org/lori-lightfoot…
2️⃣ I also love this story from @jerryiannelli on the mayoral race in Anchorage, & the GOP candidate running a campaign against homeless people.
The runoff was just 2 days ago. Where else will you learn about these huge stakes of this mayoral election?!
Wow. This may be very close: the first big set of ballots counted (72K votes already) have Dunbar, the Democrat, up by a mere 114 votes (0.16%). Buckle up.
For a change, don’t wait up on my timeline for the result... as more ballots will be slow to come and it’s been a long couple of days. (But in the meantime, you can check out a preliminary recap of what’s brewing in Pennsylvania next week (!) at whatsontheballot.com)
No new ballots have been added to the count since the first set I tweeted about last night. So the wait continues.
And it's time: The Census Bureau is about to announce, months late, how many congressional districts (& electoral votes) each state will have for the next decade.
WOW. Rhode Island will not lose a seat.
New York will "only" lose 1 seat.
Texas will gain two seats rather than the earlier-estimated 3.
Florida will gain one seat instead of the earlier-estimated 2.
Police *& prosecutors* openly lied about this shooting.
It's being exposed in this case. But how many thousands of people have convictions or are in prison because of tainted testimony & lies, and of prosecutors who are complicit or who look away?
Just last week, the Queens district attorney responded to the revelations of misconduct by her staff that led to a wrongful conviction for 24 years by... shrugging this away as isolated, and not ordering a review of other cases by the same people.
When the Westchester County DA received *recorded tapes* of police officers admitting they were framing people, he reacted by... continuing to rely on these same offiers' testimonies to send people to prison!
MS sentences people to life without parole for a 3rd felony. 86 people are in prison for life over a drug conviction.
A bill that'd have retroactively reduced their sentence was *so* close to passing, but died in conference. #SB2795
The bill would have made the maximum sentence for a third felony enhancement 15 years, which is still a staggering number especially for a drug offense, but would have brought relief to many.
CORRECTION: SB2795 is another criminal justice bill. The bill I'm describing above, & which didn't pass, is #HB796.