National

US: Preserving health coverage for the poor
The poor and disabled people who rely on Medicaid to pay their medical bills could be in grave jeopardy in this sour I've-got-mine political climate. Older Americans, a potent voting bloc, have made clear that they won't stand for serious changes in Medicare. Medicaid, however, provides health insurance for the most vulnerable, who have far less political clout.

Michigan

Pro Right to Work blogpost: Right-to-Work Grassroots Effort Coming to True Blue Union Michigan?
Heritage.org (blog)
It took Nixon to go to China, and now it's taking a coalition of union members to push for right-to-work legislation in big labor's heartland of Michigan. Our friends at The Mackinac Center's Michigan Capitol Confidential report: “A grassroots

Gillman brings 'right-to-work' to board
Traverse City Record Eagle
Howard Walker to support legislation to make Michigan a so-called "right-to-work" state. Gillman, a tea party activist, joined a new organization that has pushed for a state law to prohibit employers from requiring new hires to join a union or pay a

Beware of words meant to trick
Escanaba Daily Press
But be beware of special interests using words like "right to work" to trick us. These laws, now proposed in Michigan, are really right to freeload laws, RTF. We already have a right to work. We can work wherever we chose, assuming someone wants to ...

Ohio

OH: New Ohio election law isn't awful, but the tactics of its passage leave a sour taste
The election-reform bill that Gov. John Kasich signed into law last week does some good things: It moves the state toward using the Internet to register voters and update records. It eliminates the confusing "golden week" when a person could register and vote the same day, and it moves the primary to May -- extra time that will be especially welcome after next year's redistricting.

Collective Bargaining Gets the Axe in Ohio
Mother Jones (blog)
But the Ohio legislature recently passed Senate Bill 5, a Wisconsin-y anti-collective-bargaining law that will render her union effectively powerless. That was the subject of last week's protest. Almost as soon as SB 5 passed, opponents started ...

Illinois

IL: Real cuts needed in state workers' raises
Gov. Pat Quinn is right to try to kill promised pay raises for about 30,000 state employees.

Minnesota

MN: Antitax extremism in Minnesota
How far will Republican lawmakers go to protect millionaires? Those who think a default on the federal government's credit seems implausible should take a sobering look at the "closed" signs dotting Minnesota. The Republican Party there readily shut down the state's government on Friday by refusing to raise taxes on the 7,700 Minnesotans who make more than $1 million a year.

Minn. budget talks resume, but deal remains elusive
KARE
New restrictions on abortions, a ban on cloning research at the University of Minnesota, voter photo ID and constraints on collective bargaining were part of the final GOP offer. After that round Dayton put his tax hike on the wealthy back into his