How to Move Issues, Demilitarization of Police, Hurricane Harvey and More

Posted on August 30, 2017

Demilitarization of Police Act: A few days ago, Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions announced that they have reversed an Obama rule that limited the types of surplus military equipment available to local police forces. Trump is allowing police to acquire armored vehicles, machine guns, night-vision scopes, camouflage fatigues and flash-bang grenades. State and local governments can and should stop this with the Demilitarization of Police Act.

Hurricane Harvey illustrates the need for government: Anti-government extremists, who now control both our federal government and most states, believe in a Ronald Reagan quote—taken completely out of context—that “government is the problem.” And yet, Hurricane Harvey illustrates that government is, quite often, the solution. Read more in the latest IdeaLog, our blog intended to raise eyebrows and engage minds.

How to move your issue(s) to center stage in 2018: Wednesday, September 6 @ 3pm Eastern, 2pm Central, 1pm Mountain, Noon Pacific. Whether you’re a policymaker or an advocate, now is the time to frame issues for the 2018 legislative sessions and election seasons. We will discuss what kind of policies galvanize the left and wedge the right, and how to promote them throughout the year with imaginative and relentless issue campaigns. To sign up for this webinar, click here.

SiX End-of-Session Report: The State Innovation Exchange just published a report on state legislation in 2017 covering immigrant rights, health care, climate change, worker protections, voting rights, criminal justice, and more.

Harvey, the Storm that Humans Helped Cause: Hurricane Harvey requires us to understand climate change a little better. This short column in the New York Times explains how warmer water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico greatly increased the storm’s rainfall. Unless we address climate change, increasingly severe weather is just going to get worse and worse.

Proactive abortion rights measures in 2017: This brief report from PLI summarizes proactive abortion rights victories in 2017 and highlights a 64 percent increase in the introduction of proactive abortion rights measures this year compared to 2016.

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