Birth Control & Religious Organizations

Missoulian: Final gov't birth control rule for faith groups

Administration issues final rules on contraception coverage and religious organizations

“Today, the Obama administration issued final rules that balance the goal of providing women with coverage for recommended preventive care – including contraceptive services prescribed by a health care provider – with no cost-sharing, with the goal of respecting the concerns of non-profit religious organizations that object to contraceptive coverage.  The final rules reflect public feedback received in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in February 2013.”

Do Not Call Violations/ Regulation of Chemicals/ IRS Targeting

Missoulian: FTC issues $7.5 M fine for Do Not Call violations 

Mortgage Broker Targeting U.S. Servicemembers Will PayRecord $7.5 Million to Settle Alleged Telemarketing Violations 

“Mortgage Investors Corporation, one of the nation’s leading refinancers of veterans’ home loans, will pay a $7.5 million civil penalty, the largest fine the FTC has ever collected for allegedly violating Do Not Call provisions of the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). This case also represents the first action brought by the FTC to enforce the Mortgage Acts and Practices - Advertising Rule (MAP Rule), which allows the FTC to collect civil penalties for deceptive mortgage ads.”

Missoulian: Federal agency finds lax regulation of chemicals
Testimony of Rafael Moure-Eraso, Ph.D. Chairperson, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works June 27, 2013

“The destruction I personally saw in West – the obliteration of homes, schools, and businesses by an ammonium nitrate explosion – was almost beyond imagination.  The loss of life was horrible.

 The CSB has determined that ammonium nitrate fertilizer storage falls under a patchwork of U.S. safety standards and guidance – a patchwork that has many large holes. 

 These holes include: the use of combustible wooden buildings and wooden storage bins, sprinklers generally not required, and no federal, state, or local rules restricting the storage of large amounts of ammonium nitrate near homes, schools and hospitals.”

Missoulian: Investigator: No sign progressives mistreated

Camp Opening Statement: Hearing on the Status of Internal Revenue Service’s Review of Taxpayer Targeting Practices 

“It has been six weeks since the IRS first revealed that they were purposefully targeting conservative-leaning organizations.   This week, additional IRS documents revealed that the term “progressive,” along with others, were also included on the “Be On the Lookout” list – or the BOLO.  I want to make one thing clear, no taxpayer, regardless of political affiliation, should be unfairly targeted.  It is wrong, and this Committee is working to ensure that it will never happen again. ”

Gay Marriage/ IRS/ President's Global Warming/ GDP

Missoulian: Supreme Court clears way for gay marriage in Calif 

Hollingsworth v. Perry

“Petitioners did not have standing to appeal the District Court’s order. Pp. 5–17.

(a) Article III of the Constitution confines the judicial power of federal courts to deciding actual “Cases” or “Controversies.” §2. One essential aspect of this requirement is that any person invoking the power of a federal court must demonstrate standing to do so.”

United States v. Windsor

“DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 13–26.

(a)    By history and tradition the definition and regulation of marriage has been treated as being within the authority and realm of the separate States. Congress has enacted discrete statutes to regulate the meaning of marriage in order to further federal policy, but DOMA, with a directive applicable to over 1,000 federal statues and the whole realm of federal regulations, has a far greater reach. Its operation is also directed to a class of persons that the laws of New York, and of 11 other States, have sought to protect. Assessing the validity of that intervention requires discussing the historical and traditional extent of state power and authority over marriage”

Missoulian: Watchdog: IRS fought oversight in tea party cases  

Charting a Path Forward at the IRS: Initial Assessment and Plan of Action

Missoulian: What's in Obama's plan to combat global warming

President Obama's Plan to Fight Climate Change 

Missoulian: US growth downgrade ignored as stocks marchagain

Gross Domestic Product First Quarter 2013 (Third Estimate). 

Health Insurance/ Indian Child Welfare Act/ Voting Rights Act/ Inflation

Missoulian: Montana's online exchange to offer lower-cost health insurance 

THE BEST MEDICINE: How Can Montanans Take Charge of Changes in Health Care?   

Missoulian: Court: Child isn't required to go to father 

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
“The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which establishes federal standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children, was enacted to address “the consequences . . . of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement, usually in non-Indian homes,” Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, 490 U. S. 30, 32. As relevant here, the ICWA bars involuntary termination of a parent’s rights in the absence of a heightened showing that serious harm to the Indian child is likely to result from the parent’s “continued custody” of the child, 25 U. S. C. §1912(f);conditions involuntary termination of parental rights with respect to an Indian child on a showing that remedial efforts have been made to prevent the “breakup of the Indian family,” §1912(d); and provides placement preferences for the adoption of Indian children to member of the child’s extended family, other members of the Indian child’s tribe, and other Indian families, §1915(a)”

Missoulian: High court voids key part of Voting Rights Act 

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted to address entrenched racial discrimination in voting, “an insidious and pervasive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of our country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution.” South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 309. Section 2 of the Act, which bans any“ standard, practice, or procedure” that “results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen . . . to vote on account of race or color,” 42 U. S. C. §1973(a), applies nationwide, is permanent, and is not at issue in this case. Other sections apply only to some parts of the country. Section 4 of the Act provides the “coverage formula,” defining the “covered jurisdictions” as States or political subdivisions that maintained tests or devices as prerequisites to voting, and had low voter registration or turnout, in the 1960s and early 1970s. §1973b(b). In those covered jurisdictions, §5 of the Act provides that no change in voting procedures can take effect until approved by specified federal authorities in Washington, D. C. §1973c(a). Such approval is known as “preclearance.”

Missoulian: AP Survey: Bernanke comments surprised investors  

Transcript of Chairman Bernanke’s Press Conference

Global Warming/ Rainbow Family/ Health Insurance/ Supreme Court Opinions

Missoulian: Baucus bill orders coordinated response to global warming

Climate Change:  Various Adaptation Efforts Are Under Way at Key Natural Resource Management Agencies

“Since 2007, the Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service have taken steps to establish strategic directions for addressing climate change adaptation. For example, the Forest Service developed a strategic framework document that established climate change adaptation as a central agency priority and another document, known as "the roadmap," which identified actions that national forest managers were taking or could take to implement the direction outlined in the framework, including re-vegetating ecosystems that had been affected by fire with plant species that are better adapted to current and future climates. These four agencies have also developed guidance, training, and other tools for managers to use in adapting to climate change. For example, the National Park Service is developing guidance for park-based climate change adaptation plans that includes steps such as identifying conservation targets and conducting vulnerability assessments. The Bureau of Land Management has not established a strategic direction for addressing climate change impacts but is planning to develop a high-level climate change adaptation strategy by the end of the summer 2013. In addition, GAO visited one field location within each agency and found that managers at four of the five locations have taken steps to address climate change adaptation.”

S.601: Water Resources Development Act of 2013
S.AMDT.847: To modify a provision relating to Northern Rockies headwaters extreme weather mitigation.

Missoulian: Forest Service sets 2 public meetings to discuss Rainbow Family gathering near Jackson 

2013 Rainbow Family of Living Light Gathering

“The Rainbow Family of Living Light is a self-described loose knit group of people without leadership or organization who participate in a national gathering once a year on national forests during a two-week period around the Fourth of July holiday. The event has drawn anywhere from 7,000-20,000 people, with the population generally peaking during the week of July 4.”

Missoulian: Most Montanans know little about new health insurance marketplace
HHS launches Health Insurance Marketplace educational tools

Missoulian: High court sends back Texas race-based plan

Missoulian: 3 blockbusters among Supreme Court's last cases

Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (workplace harassment)