Monthly Archives: June 2010
Pacific Standard: Prison-Based Gerrymandering Dilutes Blacks’ Voting Power
A new report concludes some majority-black legislative districts are penalized because of the way the census bureau counts their imprisoned residents.
-By Emily Badger
June 3, 2010- Sixty-six percent of the inmates in the state of New York come from New York City. But 91 percent of them are incarcerated upstate, in communities where they have long been counted by the U.S. census.
On paper, this means prisoners belong not to the communities from which they’ve come (and to which they eventually will return), but to places where they can neither vote, check out a library book or attend a local school.
NYT: Don’t Let Corporations Gut DISCLOSE Act
A NYT editorial blasted big business and the US Chamber of Commerce for attempting to gut the DISCLOSE Act with a host of amendments. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/opinion/06sun3.html It urged Congress to reject these amendments and pass the strongest bill possible. We concur that the only amendments that should be allowed are those that make the bill stronger.