Friday, June 30, 2017

Kurt Alme, Repealing Obamacare, South Korea Trade, Overtime Rule

“Mr. Alme is currently the President and General Counsel of the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch Foundation, which provides mental health services and substance abuse support for children.  From 2003 to 2010, Mr. Alme served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana, and was the First Assistant United States Attorney from 2006 to 2010.  He has previously served as director of the Montana Department of Revenue.”

Missoulian: Trump urges GOP to repeal Obama law now, replace later
Trump Twitter Archive:
“If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!

“We are renegotiating a trade deal right now as we speak with South Korea, and hopefully it will be an equitable deal -- it will be a fair deal to both parties.  It’s been a rough deal for the United States, but I think that it will be much different and it will be good for both parties.  So we’re in the process of doing that.”


“The U.S. Department of Labor has sent a Request for Information related to the overtime rule to the Office of Management and Budget for its review. When published, the RFI offers the opportunity for the public to comment.”
Final Rule: Overtime

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Hate Crimes



ERIC TREENE SPECIAL COUNSEL FOR RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
“The FBI hate crime statistics are useful in identifying trends, but they rely on voluntary reporting by state and local law enforcement agencies, and are only as accurate as the identification and reporting processes that law enforcement agencies put into place and implement with all of their officers. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) polls households each year to try to estimate how many people were victims of crime in the prior year, whether reported to the police or not. Based on this polling, the incidence of hate crimes may be greater than those crimes captured through the UCR data collection process. The BJS polling-based data show some patterns consistent with the FBI data, and some divergences. Both show a decline in hate crimes based on race and sexual orientation. However, the BJS polling data indicate a modest increase in total hate crimes from 2004 to 2012, where the FBI data show a significant decline. The BJS data point to an almost three-fold increase in religion-based hate crimes from 2004 to 2012, compared to a modest decline in the FBI data.”

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Health Care Bill, President's Budget



“An independent analysis commissioned by the Montana Healthcare Foundation projects that if the U.S. Senate’s version of the American Health Care Act is enacted, Montana’s Medicaid program could lose $5.3 billion in federal funding, and more than 75,000 adults enrolled through the recent Medicaid expansion could lose coverage as early as 2021.”