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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Court Overrules OR County’s Anti-Immigrant Law

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009   

St. Helens, OR – A controversial ballot measure that passed in Columbia County last fall won’t become law after all. This week, Circuit Court Judge Ted Grove ruled the plan to slap employers with mandatory $10,000 fines for hiring undocumented workers oversteps the county’s authority because immigration enforcement is a federal issue.

Marcy Westerling, director of the Rural Organizing Project, a group that fought the anti-immigrant Measure 5-190, says now it’s up to the feds to revise the laws.

"Our challenge is to show how united we are in wanting Congress to do its job in passing safe and sane immigration reform that works, for all of this country."

While the racial tension is not dead in St. Helens, Westerling believes the ballot measure appears to be.

"The only people that can appeal this are the county, and the county is not wanting to see a ridiculous law go into effect. So, the county will not be appealing this."

St. Helens is featured in this week’s issue of Time magazine. It says in 2008, state legislatures passed more than 200 immigration-related laws, mostly to prompt undocumented workers to give up and move back to their home countries by making it more difficult to work in the U.S. Backers of those measures don’t believe the federal government is doing a good enough job at immigration enforcement. Others say it’s not stricter enforcement that’s needed, but laws that allow some workers to remain in the country legally.




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Health and Wellness

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Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

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Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


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Social Issues

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Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

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New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

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Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

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Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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