Occupy Wall Street Weathers the Storm

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Occupy Harlem! No One Has Suffered More Than Us From Plutocracy (Glen Ford, Executive Editor of BlackAgendaReport.com)
• #OccupyWallSt Roundup, Day 42 (By JILLIAN DUNHAM, NY Times/ City Room) with links to main stream media including a piece from NY Observer called "A POPS Up Gallery: Aritsts to Occupy Midtown Plaza Sunday"
• WFP lauds David Soares on Occupy Albany (Posted by Jimmy Vielkind, Capitol bureau, Albany Times Union/ Capitol Confidential) Demonstrators at Occupy Albany have also shared praise with Albany Police officials for resisting the eviction edict, and, it seems, rightfully so. But Soares is perfectly positioned to pick up the endearment of the left-leaning supporters of Occupy Albany, including the WFP, which is composed of labor unions and progressive groups.

Can Albany Be Reformed? Also, New Yorkers Don't Care for Spitzer as Mayor in 2013

NEW YORK

• New York awaits more reform (by Jim McGrath, Albany Times Union/The Observation Deck) The portion of the budget that funds legislative operations specifically includes $1.5 million for LATFOR. Yet this would have been the ideal time to instead put that money toward the independent redistricting commission that so many legislators profess to support.
• Andrew Cuomo, the press and the war on partisan redistricting (BY JOSH BENSON, Capital) The danger, for anyone interested in putting an end to a process that protects unresponsive officials, is not that Cuomo will fail to get the legislature to go along with him; it is that he will cut a deal, in exchange for something else he wants, that would allow the legislature to keep a firmer hand in the process of drawing electoral lines than the reform proposal currently calls for.
• New Yorkers prefer Spitzer not run for mayor: poll (Reuters) Almost two-thirds of New Yorkers do not want disgraced former New York state governor Eliot Spitzer to run for mayor of their city in 2013, a new poll found on Friday.

Partisan Legislatures Challenged by Independent Movement

Charter review in Tiffin Ohio brings nonpartisan elections into relief in a partisan city council culture... New York's partisan ever-lasting ever-failing Reform Albany quest (a high-priority partisan campaign issue of any state-wide election) is failing again... Independents attempt to intervene in South Carolina Repub lawsuit to exclude voters...

OHIO

• Elections last step in review of charter (By Nick Dutro, Tiffin Advertiser Tribune) Commission members decided candidates could not declare themselves as "independent," but had to either choose party affiliation or run non-partisan.

NEW YORK

• Redistricting bill quickly bottled up (By Erik Engquist and Jeremy Smerd, Crain's New York) A rule change made by Senate Democrats when they controlled the chamber makes it possible for the minority party to bring bills up without the leadership's consent. But that does not apply to legislation assigned directly to the Rules Committee, which is where Senate Republicans have sent Mr. Cuomo's independent redistricting bill.

SOUTH CAROLINA

• Independent Voting Asks to Intervene in South Carolina Republican Party Lawsuit to Close Primaries (Ballot Access News) On February 4, IndependentVoting.org filed a request with a U.S. District Court in South Carolina, asking that it be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit called Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee, and South Carolina Republican Party, et al., v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-01407.

Independents couldn't care less about red-blue fights -- want problems solved.

Independent redistricting is high on the list of reforms that independent voters want. Apparently the Texas state legislature has missed that boat -- and we'll see what Gov-elect Cuomo stirs up in Albany....

REDISTRICTING

• Editorial: Bush draws a point Texas GOP, Obama should heed (Dallas Morning News) As they start this chore, legislators should recall that the country just finished an upheaval of an election, where voters stated clearly that they're tired of politics as usual. Independents, in particular, signaled that they couldn't care less about red-blue fights and want problems solved.

NEW YORK

• Public Advocate hires Maloney Challenger (By Azi Paybarah, WNYC/The Empire) De Blasio – whose ties to the Working Families Party and labor movement – make him a contender for the 2013 mayor’s race, now, conceivably, has a bit more access to the Wall Street crowd...
• Nation's worst Legislature must mend its evil ways and follow Cuomo's reforms (EDITORIAL NY Daily News) Those same brief weeks must also bring dramatic reforms in Albany itself - to ensure that lawmakers stop shilling for special interests, stop grubbing for perks and protecting privileges and start putting the public first.
  

EDUCATION REFORM

• School reform: A chance for bipartisan governing (Arne Duncan, Washington Post) This common-sense agenda also reflects the quiet bipartisan revolution underway at the state and local level. With the incentive of the Race to the Top program, governors, states and districts across America are implementing comprehensive plans to reform education systems and boost student achievement.

Hankster Top 5 Cities

Top Hankster cities for today: London, Albany, Westport, Augusta, Ann Arbor