Following issues and politics in St. Louis area from the retired "Steelworker" view. Politics will be the main theme, but news of the group and Steelworkers will also be followed.
Letter from the Department of Justice to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists stating they have opened an investigation. Photograph: US Department of Justice
The inquiry comes after Barack Obama described the revelations from the leaks – which have caused political tumult across the world – “important stuff” and global tax avoidance as a “huge problem”.
Governor Jay Nixon (D) has ordered that state agencies stop asking job applicants about their criminal history on their applications.
Governor Jay Nixon (D)
Nixon issued an executive order telling all departments, agencies, and boards and commissions he has authority over to wait until later in the job application process to ask an applicant about his or her criminal background. The order does not apply to positions for which a criminal history would make an applicant specifically ineligible.
A statement from Nixon’s office explaining the order states, “Approximately 96 percent of the individuals who are sentenced to prison will eventually return to their communities. But formerly incarcerated individuals frequently encounter challenges in obtaining employment, which make it more difficult for them to successfully assimilate back into society.”
It said the unemployment rate for Missourians on parole last year was 44-percent.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation to find out why voters were forced to wait up to five hours to vote in Maricopa County, Arizona’s presidential primary last month, an issue that only existed because the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 2013.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to the largest county in the state on Monday, demanding that it provide information so that the government can determine if the county complied with federal voting rights statutes. This appears to be the first major DOJ investigation into election issues since the presidential primary season began.
Before the Supreme Court eliminated the requirement with its Shelby v. Holderdecision in 2013, Arizona was one of nine states subject to the VRA’s Section 5 preclearance requirement. Any changes to election law in those states had to be approved by the DOJ because of their histories of racial discrimination. Since that requirement was eliminated, those nine states and dozens of others with Republican-controlled legislatures have passed measures like voter ID laws and made cuts to voting hours and polling locations, with the intention of suppressing minority voters.
This year, in an effort to save money, Maricopa County elections officials reduced the number of polling places by 70 percent from 2012. That year, there were 200 places for the county’s voters to cast ballots. Last month, for the heated March 22 presidential primary, there were just 60 — one for every 21,000 voters.
Move over, Judge Judy. There could be a new TV courtroom judge coming to town – and it's none other than former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
The onetime vice presidential candidate has been tapped to preside over a planned reality court show that would premiere next year, if it gets picked up by stations. She signed a deal in February with Montana-based production company Warm Springs, a source close to the process tells PEOPLE.
