Barbara Bollier, Criminal Justice Reform, Border Wall Funding: 3 Stories You Should Read 12/20/2018

December 20, 2018 Confluence

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.

In the category of: Keep an eye on the stock market…

Trump torpedoes funding bill over border wall funding

“President Trump just met with Republican Members of the House. Not surprisingly, they all feel strongly about border security — stopping the flow of drugs, stopping human trafficking and stopping terrorism. We protect nations all over the world, but Democrats are unwilling to protect our nation. We urgently need funding for border security and that includes a wall,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said following the White House meeting.

Stocks, already trading lower because of the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday decision to raise its benchmark interest rate, were sharply down as the scramble in Washington appeared to be leading toward a shutdown.

The White House is following Office of Budget and Management guidelines on notifying federal employees whether they’ll be furloughed in case of a government shutdown, a senior administration told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Continue

In the category of: Time will tell.

First Step Is One of the Biggest Criminal Justice Reforms in Decades. But How Great Will Its Effect Be?

The new legislation has been in the works since Barack Obama was in office and has drawn a wide swath of support from liberals and conservatives. Kim Kardashian and Jared Kushner have publicly supported the bill (with Kushner, in particular, being credited with orchestrating Trump’s support), as have the American Civil Liberties Union and a Koch brothers-backed group, Right on Crime.

Because race and America’s penal system are so deeply intertwined, the First Step bill would theoretically have a disproportionate impact on communities of color. The Times noted that one provision of the bill could decrease the sentences of “several thousand drug offenders serving lengthy sentences for crack-cocaine offenses.” During the “War on Drugs” era, black crack dealers were punished far more heavily than white offenders dealing coke.

Even a senator like Ted “bury me under a queso fountain” Cruz wasn’t afraid to put that at the forefront in his comments last night.

However, the bill does have considerable limits. As Vox and other publications note, the majority of those imprisoned in the U.S. are sitting in state prisons, not federal ones.

Continue

In the category of: Rats will jump from a sinking ship every time.

Republican women keep defecting to the Democratic Party

State Sen. Barbara Bollier was the first to announce her exit last week, switching parties after 10 years as a legislator. She was quickly followed by outgoing State Rep. Joy Koesten, who was defeated earlier in the year by a conservative primary challenger. Then, on Wednesday, two more GOP women jumped ship: State Sen. Dinah Sykes and State Rep. Stephanie Clayton.

It’s starting to look like a trend.

On one hand, maybe this isn’t a surprise: A Democratic woman, Laura Kelly, just won the state’s governorship, and last month’s midterm elections turned out to to be the kind of “wave election” for Democrats that often sparks a few elected officials to switch parties to get on the winning side.

Continue

Confluence Daily is the one place where everything comes together. The one-stop for daily news for women.