Senate Bill 5, which will limit most collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, bar all strikes under penalty of law, and ban binding arbitration, just passed the Ohio State Senate by one vote, 17-16. Republicans have a 23-10 hold on the State Senate, and six of them dropped off this anti-union bill. But they were just able to get enough support for passage.

In order to make it work, Ohio Republicans had to shuffle two committees to ensure they had the votes to pass the bill out. They had to take Bill Zeitz off the Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee to get the bill out of there. Then, they had to yank Scott Oelslager off the Rules Committee to avoid a deadlock there. The bill, which is close to 100 pages long, passed both committees and the State Senate in a single day, just one day after a new set of amendments were publicly released.

Needless to say, the tactics used to pass this bill out of the Senate show how divisive it has become. Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga released this statement:

Today is a sad day for Ohio's middle class. With the passage of Senate Bill 5, Ohio Senators have shown they would rather push a partisan agenda to punish the middle class than work on solutions to our jobs crisis.

The amended version of the original bill is only smoke and mirrors. This bill remains an assault on the middle class because the foundation of this bill is still rooted in a broader anti-worker agenda. You can't fix something that was already broken from the start.

The bill now moves to the Ohio House, which is also strongly Republican, but where the bill may also run into some trouble.

Lemme get this straight...you can drink a pint of vodka every night and be a longshoreman...but if you failed a drug test in 1992 you're blacklisted?  That makes a whole lotta sense...not.

Some stats:

-Women are marrying later and have fewer children than in the past.  A greater proportion of both women and men have never married, and women are giving birth to their first child at older ages.

-Although more adult women live in married-couple families than in any other living arrangement, an ever-growing number of women are raising children without a spouse.

-More women are remaining childless, although eight out of ten adult women have children.

-As the baby boom generation ages, a growing share of women - and men - are older. Because women live longer, women continue to outnumber men at older ages.

-Women are more likely to live in poverty than are adult men.  Single-mother families face particularly high poverty rates, often because of the lower wages earned by women in these families.

and this

-The participation of women in the workforce rose dramatically through the mid-1990s, but has been relatively constant since then.

-Workforce participation among men has declined, but women are still less likely to work in the paid labor force than are men.  When women do work, they are much more likely than men to work part-time.

-Women continue to spend more of their time in household activities or caring for other family members; they also do more unpaid volunteer work than men.

-Despite their gains in labor market experience and in education, women still earn less than men.  

-In part, this is because women and men work in different occupations, with women still concentrated in lower-paying and traditionally female occupations.  

-Because women earn less and because two-earner households have higher earnings, families headed by women have far less income than do married-couple families.

 1. Pittsburgh-22    
 2. Iowa-18    
 2. Arkansas-18    
 4. Boise State-16    
 4. Penn State-16    
 6. Va Tech-13    
 7. Wisconsin-9    
 7. Oklahoma-9    
 7. FSU-9    
 10. Miami-8    
 11. Ohio State-7    
 11. Florida-7    
 11. Oregon-7    
 11. USC-7    
 15. Alabama-5    
 15. N Carolina-5    
 15. Cincinnati-5    
 15. Utah-5    
 19. Nebraska-4    
 19. Ga Tech-4    
 19. Oregon St-4    
 22. LSU-3    
 23. Texas-2    
 24. Stanford-1    
 25. TCU-0    

Q:  What is the most plausible story you've read about the circumstances in which JFK ended up with LBJ on the 1960 ticket?  There are several competing versions in the literature, with the LBJ-camp version, a more benign account, being a little more dominant than the RFK oral history version, which features quite a few dramatic moments.  The basic versions:

a)  LBJ camp:  JFK came up to Lyndon's hotel room, made a solid offer for the VPcy, and Johnson reluctantly accepted.  RFK then came up later to try to talk him out of it, to Johnson's great annoyance.  JFK later calls Lyndon to tell him Bobby has been out of the loop and was acting on his own.  Johnson believes this, and never forgives RFK thereafter.

b)  RFK version:  JFK only intended to sound out LBJ about his possible interest in the #2 slot and never actually made a real, valid offer, which (per Clark Clifford) the day before had been offered to Sen Stu Symington and accepted.  LBJ acted though as if an offer had been made and accepted.  JFK returns to his room, stunned, and tells Bobby, "You won't believe it -- he wants it.  What do we do now?"  RFK is sent back to Lyndon's room on his brother's instruction to tell Johnson he can't be on the ticket, causing too much discord w/n the party, and (on Bobby's 2d visit) Johnson would be given head of the DNC instead.  But LBJ puts up tremendous resistance, begins "crying" and making a scene, and Bobby has no choice but to say okay, it's yours.

c) alternative author version:  LBJ for a long time, perhaps as early as 1959, knowing a Southerner back then could never be elected prez in a straight election, sought always to maneuver himself onto the ticket but in the #2 slot.  Then, through accident or design, with the president removed from office, he would become president.  Re "accident" or related:  LBJ is on record as telling Claire Booth Luce around the time of his swearing in as VP, when asked why he was taking the job:  "Because I've studied it, and found out 1 in 4 presidents dies in office -- and darlin', I'm a gamblin' man."

-- Here's a Better Looking, Less Awkward SegwaySegways are nerdy and awkward, there's no way around it. This solowheel, a "self balancing electric unicycle" is just as nerdy as a Segway but slightly less awkward. The Solowheel only weighs 20 pounds and comes in a relatively small package and is definitely no where near as unwieldy as a Segway. Plus, it doesn't come with the reputation of mall cops and weirdos. It's supposed to come out in March for $1,500.

Well, at least 2012 is only a year away, and in Akaka's favor I don't recall him doing what the other fellow did wrt protecting Reagan and Poppy from being held politically accountable during the Iran-Contra hearings.

Unfortunately, we have to wait until 2016 for the other guy, who apparently was re-elected (massively) in 2010.

April Cover Revealed - Saints Row: The Third

While the original Saints Row felt familiar to fans of the open-world crime genre, its sequel separated itself from the pack with almost cartoonish over-the-top action. Whether you were chainsawing elderly people in half or spraying a pool party down with a poop truck, the franchise was clearly heading in its own direction. Saints Row: The Third takes things a step forward as the most insane installment yet, and it's our April cover.

the best comment I saw:

Ahhhh, the trailer trash of gaming.

RUBBER is the story of Robert, an inanimate tire that has been abandoned in the desert, and suddenly and inexplicably comes to life. As Robert roams the bleak landscape, he discovers that he possesses terrifying telepathic powers that give him the ability to destroy anything he wishes without having to move. At first content to prey on small desert creatures and various discarded objects, his attention soon turns to humans, especially a beautiful and mysterious woman who crosses his path. Leaving a swath of destruction across the desert landscape, Robert becomes a chaotic force to be reckoned with, and truly a movie villain for the ages. Directed by legendary electro musician Quentin Dupieux (Steak, Nonfilm), aka Mr. Oizo, RUBBER is a smart, funny and wholly original tribute to the cinematic concept of "no reason."

Do health insurers go bankrupt?  Will they lose money?  Can they continue to operate with such strict regulations?

No, no, yes.  The sky is not falling.

Link

"The three biggest health insurers in Massachusetts posted financial gains last year"

""I anticipate that we will be living in an environment of scrutiny and close [insurance] rate oversight into the future,'' said Jim Ducharme, chief financial officer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, based in Wellesley. "That is something that won't be going away.''"