It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, May 03, 2021
#ENDCUBAEMBARGO
Pandemic and economic crisis dampen May Day in Cuba
Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta
Sat., May 1, 2021
May Day in Havana
By Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta
HAVANA (Reuters) - For a second consecutive year Communist-run Cuba canceled its emblematic May Day march though Havana's Plaza de la Revolution Square on Saturday as it battles a surge in COVID-19 cases and a scarcity of basic goods.
Across the island, small groups of dignitaries gathered at abandoned squares that would usually be filled by crowds of banner-waving citizens marking International Workers Day, the country's most important holiday after Jan. 1, victory day of former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
"Congratulations workers! It is monumental what has been done to survive the pandemic under a reinforced blockade and still move forward," President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is also first secretary of the Communist party, wrote on Twitter.
Cuba's economy shrunk 11% last year under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, harsh U.S. sanctions and its Soviet-style system.
The country has recorded more COVID-19 cases and deaths this year than in all of 2020, though the mortality rate remains among the best in the world and two homegrown vaccines are in final trials.
Ulises Guilarte de Nascimiento, head of the official and only trade union federation, said on state-run television on Friday that workers faced layoffs and inflation and some struggled to "meet their basic needs". He blamed U.S. sanctions and said hard work and greater efficiency would lead to better days.
Speaking on Saturday morning to a small group of national leaders gathered in front of the monument to independence hero Jose Marti in Revolution Square, he was defiant.
"We workers are aware that we are going through a complex and challenging scenario, but we also carry the conviction that Fidel taught us, that only those who fight, resist and do not give up have the right to succeed," he said.
State-run media urged citizens to turn their homes into squares and share their celebrations on social media. Small groups of workers rallied at some workplaces. People hung flags from balconies and played the national anthem.
"Today is a special day, a sad day, because in all this time of the pandemic we have lost valuable workers," Havana resident Enrique Tondique DomÃnguez said early Saturday at a small rally in front of the Mining and Energy Ministry.
"It is a happy day because it is May Day, but it is also a sad day because many workers are no longer with us," he said.
(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
CBC Sat., May 1, 2021,
A hobby farmer in Haida Gwaii is offering a new way to kick the COVID-19 blues and is welcoming guests to her farm to spend some time with her new baby goats.
Harmonie Rose said seven baby goats were all born within a span of one week and she felt it was too selfish to be enjoying them all to herself, especially during a time when everyone could use some extra joy.
"It always made me feel good watching them play, watching them nuzzle around, picking them up, holding them, and listening to their little noises," Rose said on the CBC's Daybreak North.
"I thought this is too good to hoard to myself."
She said she made a post on the Haida Gwaii Communities Facebook page and invited "all fellow Islanders" to come see, hold and cuddle her baby goats — with safety measures like social distancing in place.
"I said hey, you know, if you want some goat lovin,' I've got seven babies so just drop by and I'll keep my distance and you can have some goat time," Rose said.
Rose said she immediately got three or four messages and she's already had a few families come for a visit.
"A couple of families came up and spent a bit of time last weekend and it was great," she said. "I also had a little boy [visit]. He was two and he really loved the farm. He was really, really upset about having to leave."
She said there's no end date to her invitation and anyone needing some time with the goats is welcome to visit her hobby farm.
LISTEN | Harmonie Rose talks about offering goat therapy to the community on Daybreak North:
Watch | Harmonie's baby goats parade around a Haida Gwaii boardwalk:
Subscribe to Daybreak North on CBC Listen or your favourite podcast app, and connect with CBC Northern British Columbia on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Haida Gwaii - Wikipedia
- Overview
Haida Gwaii is an archipelago located between 55–125 km (34–78 mi) off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecate Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound lies to the south, with Vancouver Island beyond. To the north, the disputed Dixon Entrance separates Haida Gwaii from the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island (Kiis Gwaay) in the north and Moresby Island(T'…Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license
The math doesn't matter too much to O'Shea. He was happy to have meat to feed his family through the winter and a good story to tell. He plans to have a taxidermist create a full-body mount.
Sun., May 2, 2021
Shawn O'Shea poses with the elk that would soon earn him a world record. (Submitted by Shawn O'Shea - image credit)
An Alberta farmer who waited three years for a clean shot at an elusive elk now holds a world record for bowhunting.
Last month, the U.S-based Pope and Young Club confirmed Shawn O'Shea's trophy is the largest bow-harvested non-typical American elk ever in North America.
It scored 449 4/8 inches, beating the previous record by 7 4/8 inches.
O'Shea, a 55-year-old former oilfield worker, killed the animal last fall, not far from his farm near Vegreville, 100 kilometres east of Edmonton.
"In 2017 I got some trail cam pictures of it just passing through the area that I hunt," he said. "No idea that it would ever be a record of any kind; just knew that it was huge and something we wanted to pursue."
The bull made a few more trail-cam cameos but continued to elude O'Shea and his sons Tyson, Keefe, Ryan and Timothy.
Shawn O'Shea first learned of the big bull when his trail camera snapped a photo of the animal rubbing a tree that draws elk.(Submitted by Shawn O'Shea)
Last September, Tyson and Keefe spotted the elk. They got close, but not close enough. O'Shea caught up with it a week later.
"When I first saw him, my heart was just beating like crazy out of my chest, and I'm like 'Holy, I've got to calm down,'" he said.
"He just stood there for probably the better part of three or four minutes and I was able to regain my composure and think about the shot I had to make."
He was hidden in a blind, with the elk at 35 yards and closing.
It was dusk; the light was fading.
"He couldn't see me and I had his wind perfect so I didn't have to worry about him smelling me. He had to walk just to get past me before I could draw with the bow, otherwise he'd sense movement."
O'Shea had his elk call at the ready.
"I just let out a little chirp and he stopped, and as soon as he stopped I was drawn and ready to shoot."
'Amazing is the only word I can think of'
"He was at 18 yards which is pretty much even a chip shot for me," O'Shea said. "Everything can go wrong. You've still got to get him perfect with the bow but I hit him good."
Tyson and Keefe, hunting nearby, joined their father at the site.
"Lots of guys hoot, holler and whatever but we walked up to it as a group, the three of us, and everybody just kind of looked at it and we just looked at each other," O'Shea said. "Amazing is the only word I can think of."
They field-dressed the elk and got it to Tyson's home after midnight. A closer look at the antlers told them they had something special.
A neighbour asked O'Shea if he was interested in getting it officially scored.
That's how he learned he had beaten the previous world record.
Official measurers with the Pope and Young Club pose with O'Shea's trophy antlers.(Pope and Young Club)
In an email, Pope and Young record chair Roy Grace explained how trophy elk are measured.
"All qualified points that are grown on an elk's antler structure are measured to the nearest ⅛-inch," Grace wrote.
"First the typical frame (normal points) is measured and deductions occur for side-to-side symmetry. Once that is completed, the abnormal, or 'non-typical' points are added to the net typical score for the final net non-typical score."
The math doesn't matter too much to O'Shea. He was happy to have meat to feed his family through the winter and a good story to tell. He plans to have a taxidermist create a full-body mount.
The trick will be finding room for it in his home.
Fri., April 30, 2021
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The National Park Service is opening a rare opportunity for skilled shooters to help reduce the number of bison roaming the far reaches of northern Arizona.
Come Monday, potential volunteers will have 48 hours to submit an application to kill the massive animals at Grand Canyon National Park this fall. Thousands of people from across the country are expected to apply. Only 12 will be chosen through a lottery system and notified in mid-May.
“It's a unique experience and you can walk a long ways before you see one, then you gotta get a shot,” said Dave Arnold, a Sun City resident and hunter who harvested a bison in 2002 in South Dakota. “That's where the fun ends. ...It's going to be a lot of work if they get a good-size animal."
The non-physically fit need not apply. Much of the work will be done on foot in elevations of 8,000 feet (2,438 metres ) or higher at the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Volunteers can't use motorized transportation or stock animals to retrieve the bison that can weigh up to 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms).
Each volunteer can choose a support crew and will have to prove firearms proficiency.
Officials at the Grand Canyon say the bison increasingly have been trampling archaeological resources, creating deep ruts and wallows in meadows, and spoiling ponds. They can be hunted on the adjacent national forest, which has pushed them to make their homes almost exclusively within the Grand Canyon.
“They are very skilled climbers. They can get down in places humans can’t,” Grand Canyon spokeswoman Kaitlyn Thomas said.
The park service released a plan in September 2017 that called for a mix of corralling the animals near the highway that leads to the North Rim and relocating them, and for skilled volunteers to shoot.
Hunting is prohibited within national parks. But the agency has authority to kill animals that harm resources, using park staff or volunteers.
Other national parks have turned to volunteer shooters to reduce the number of wildlife, including mountain goats at Olympic National Park in Washington, and elk at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.
Between 300 and 500 bison are on the Grand Canyon's North Rim. The park wants to reduce the number to 200, and it has made progress with corralling and relocating the animals.
Grand Canyon Superintendent Ed Keable revived talks over the lethal option after they had stalled. An agreement reached last year between the park and the Arizona Game and Fish Department lets each volunteer shooter keep up to one full bison. The work will happen in September and October.
Native American tribes will have a separate opportunity to become volunteer shooters, but those agreements aren't finalized, Thomas said.
The state wildlife office will select and vet 25 applicants and forward those to the park service, which will choose 12 in a lottery. Employees of the Arizona Department of Game and Fish and the park service aren't eligible.
Unlike hunting, volunteers won't have to pay for a bison tag that can top $5,400 for non-Arizona residents. Shooting a bison at the Grand Canyon also won't count against the one bison lifetime limit for hunters.
“None of the things that a person has to think about when they're getting drawn for a regular bison hunt through the Arizona Game and Fish Department apply,” said Larry Phoenix, a regional supervisor for the department.
Environmental groups have said lethal removal appeases the state wildlife agency and is far less efficient than other methods. They also contend the sound of gunshots will affect other wildlife that aren’t the targets.
“It’s not the appropriate way to go about this in our eyes,” said Alicyn Gitlin of the Sierra Club.
Volunteer shooters must bring their own equipment and use non-lead ammunition to avoid the risk of poisoning the endangered California condor that scavenges on gut piles. The park service will provide cold storage for the work week.
Wildlife officials say shooting bison within the park should pressure the animals to move back to the Kaibab National Forest. The bison are descendants of those introduced to northern Arizona in the early 1900s as part of a ranching operation to crossbreed them with cattle and are owned by the state.
Arnold, the Sun City resident, said a few people in his sportsmen's group have said they are interested in applying for the volunteer effort. But at 78, he won't be a contender.
“It’s going to be very appealing to some people,” Arnold said. “If I was 20 years younger, I would be right there in line.”
Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press
FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators march to protest against the military coup, in Dawei
(Reuters) - Protesters against military rule marched in Myanmar on Saturday three months after a coup ended a democratic transition, with several small blasts compounding a sense of crisis that a U.N. envoy warned could bring state administration to a halt.
The military has tried to end dissent and impose its authority on a people largely opposed to the return of rule by the generals after 10 years of democratic reforms that included a government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
Despite a relentless crackdown in which at least 759 protesters have been killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, crowds come out day after day to reject the junta.
"Our cause, democracy, our cause, a federal union. Free arrested leaders," protesters chanted at one of two rallies in the main city of Yangon.
Suu Kyi, 75, has been detained since the coup the along with many other members of her party. The AAPP says more than 3,400 people have been detained for opposing the military.
People also rallied in the second city of Mandalay and the southern town of Dawei, media reported.
There were no immediate reports of violence.
Media reported several small blasts in different places including Yangon late on Friday and on Saturday. There were no immediate reports of casualties and no claims of responsibility.
A spokesman for the junta did not answer calls seeking comment. The military has accused pro-democracy activists of planting bombs.
The U.N. special envoy on Myanmar told the Security Council on Friday that in the absence of a collective international response to the coup, violence was worsening and the running of the state risked coming to a standstill, according to diplomats who attended the private meeting.
Christine Schraner Burgener briefed the 15-member council from Thailand, where she has been meeting regional leaders. She hopes to travel to Myanmar but the military has yet to approve a visit.
"The general administration of the state could risk coming to a standstill as the pro-democracy movement continues in spite of the ongoing use of lethal force, arbitrary arrests and torture as part of the military's repression," Schraner Burgener said, according to diplomats.
She told diplomats that reports of a continuing crackdown risked undermining momentum toward ending the crisis following a meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on April 25 with the junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Schraner Burgener, expressing concern about rising violence, cited reports of bomb attacks and of civilians, mostly students from the urban areas, getting weapons training from ethnic minority insurgents.
U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said Min Aung Hlaing had used the summit as a "propaganda ploy".
"Indeed, he tried to appear to be what he is not - a legitimate leader," Andrews said in a post on Twitter.
"The good news: Those who ARE legitimate are ready to engage: the National Unity Government."
Ousted members of parliament from Suu Kyi's party, politicians representing ethnic minorities and democracy activists set up the unity government but it has yet to win the international recognition it says it is due.
The U.N. Security Council reiterated its "deep concern" at the situation and its support for Myanmar's democratic transition. The council has issued several statements since the coup but diplomats say Russia and China are likely to prevent any stronger council action against Myanmar.
., April 30, 2021
While the federal Liberal government’s special envoy to the Prairies spent Thursday morning touting Ottawa’s 2021-22 budget, Winnipeg MP Jim Carr Thursday afternoon said the feds are in talks with the Canadian Football League about a possible funding arrangement this year.
“(Conversations are) ongoing and the relationships are good and the line of communication is fluid. There are a lot of variables out there,” Carr said in an interview.
On Thursday morning, the Saskatchewan, Regina and Saskatoon chambers of commerce hosted Carr in a virtual videoconference in which he touted pieces of the federal budget and fielded attendees’ questions.
Among the items he highlighted was Ottawa’s $1 billion for Canada’s tourism sector.
In an interview, Carr refuted the suggestion the CFL is an important part of the country’s tourism sector and any money for the league to operate would not come from those dollars. “They’re different issues and different discussions,” he said, referencing the league's funding request to Ottawa last year.
But he hinted there could be, under the tourism file, federal money earmarked for festival activities in the week leading up to the championship Grey Cup game.
“I'm giving you the view from a Prairie guy who understands the importance of that league to our identity and the Grey Cup itself — speaking of festivals — is a major national event that has meaning for a lot of Canadians,” he said.
Part of this year’s tourism funding pot sets aside “$200 million for large festivals,” Carr said.
The CFL did not respond to the Leader-Post's request for comment before deadline.
The nine-team football league asked the feds last year for financial support to help with economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic but was denied. The CFL, which cancelled its 2020 season due to the pandemic, had proposed Ottawa give it either $30 million in the event of a truncated season, or top up that amount to $150 million upon its full 2020 cancellation.
Last week the league said it is delaying the start of its 2021 season to Aug. 5, almost two months from the original June 10 start. It also plans to delay this year’s Grey Cup, to be played in Hamilton, to Dec. 12.
Carr also addressed how the pandemic has killed airport budgets, as consumer airline travel has remained more or less grounded.
He mentioned his government’s bailout loans for Air Canada and Transat — $5.9 billion and $700 million, respectively — while teasing more potential airline support.
“Conversations continue with other airlines,” he said, declining to comment if a deal will happen for Calgary-based carrier WestJet.
“That's being handled by the Ministry of Finance. These are complex negotiations and I’m pleased with where we landed on Air Canada discussions and now Transat.”
eradford@postmedia.com
— with files from Murray McCormick, Regina Leader-Post
Evan Radford, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Regina Leader-Post, The Leader-Post
Fri., April 30, 2021
FILE PHOTO: Vials labeled "COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine"
(Reuters) -Canada's drug regulator said on Friday that doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine recently delivered to the country were produced at a Baltimore plant where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halted production.
Health Canada said in a statement that it will hold the vaccine doses until it is satisfied they meet its standards, and is consulting with J&J and the FDA. The first shipment of 300,000 J&J vaccine doses arrived in Canada earlier this week.
The FDA halted production of the vaccines at a U.S. manufacturing plant owned by Emergent BioSolutions earlier this month as it investigates an error that led to millions of doses being ruined in March.
Late on Friday, Health Canada said it had learned that the active ingredient in the vaccine had been made at the Emergent site, and the final vaccines were manufactured at a different site outside the United States.
J&J was not available for immediate comment.
Many COVID-19 vaccines are made at one site and packaged into vials at another site.
(Reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru and Allison Martell ; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Cynthia Osterman)
Fri., April 30, 2021
An aerial view of the Ekati mine, 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife. One new case was confirmed at the site on Friday. The infected person and 25 others are self-isolating on site. (Dominion Diamond Corporation - image credit)
A case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in a worker at the Ekati Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories.
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola said in a news release Friday evening that an investigation and contact tracing show no risk to the public.
The person did not get infected at the mine, the release says, and all screening measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were in place.
The infected person and 25 other people identified as contacts are self-isolating at the mine site.
"The OCPHO [Office of the Chief Public Health Officer] is working closely with the Ekati mine to gather information, ensure measures that mitigate risk of transmission are in place, and, monitor the situation," the release says.
In a news release issued Wednesday evening, Kandola said she is now treating all new infections in the territory as variants of concern until confirmed otherwise.
The case won't be included in the territory's COVID-19 statistics as the individual is not an N.W.T. resident.
As of Friday evening, there are nine active cases in the territory, six of which are N.W.T. residents.
So far, 25,857 people in the territory have received one dose of the vaccine and 20,943 people have received the second dose.
James Bartlett - Los Angeles
Sat., May 1, 2021
Shasta Pomeroy
Alaska, the Last Frontier state, now has its first and only crime scene investigator. What drew the native Alaskan to the forensic sciences?
Two years into her justice degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Shasta Pomeroy went on a ride-along with the local police and was allowed to observe an outdoor crime scene.
At the time, she was unsure of her future. She was taking law classes, but knew she didn't want a career as an attorney.
That night changed everything for her.
"I knew that I wanted to be on scene. I was never more sure of anything in my life. My family were surprised, but they were super supportive," she says.
Pomeroy completed the law classes, but it was a five-week study trip one summer to University of California Riverside, some 55 miles (88km) east of downtown Los Angeles, that was her leap of faith.
"The crime scene investigation certification was expensive, and it meant travelling into the Lower 48," she says. "I was really seeing if this was what I wanted."
She learned about crime scene photography, bloodstain pattern recognition, collecting DNA, entomology (insect) samples and more, and it quickly confirmed she had made the right choice.
"I'm not emotion-driven, and I can't explain it, but I just knew."
She was born in Oregon but raised from infancy in North Pole, a small Alaska town about 15 miles south of Fairbanks, where it always feels like Christmas, with year-round decorations and a Santa Claus House.
A road sign for the North Pole Chamber of Commerce, Alaska.
In 2016, Pomeroy joined the Fairbanks Police Department [FPD] as a data clerk but would study in her down time and read forensic science books "for fun".
She then became an evidence technician, preserving and packaging evidence for later analysis by scientific investigators, and while she worked "tagging and bagging", she completed her Masters in Administration of Justice. Her final project reviewed the use of forensic science in law enforcement, and how it could apply within Alaska.
She had one goal in mind.
Over the next few years, she undertook further forensic science training through the state's medical examiner's office, the state crime lab, in Las Vegas, and online, and finally this March she was named as the first ever CSI (crime scene investigator) at the FPD.
"I respect and care about the people here, and I wanted to go where I was needed," she says.
Shasta Pomeroy
Her accomplishment wasn't just limited to the "Golden Heart" city - population 31,500 - as her appointment also meant she was the first ever CSI in the entire state of Alaska.
Just back from a "fantastic" week's training at the Death Investigation Academy in Missouri, Pomeroy, 30, spoke enthusiastically about her journey.
"Prior to me, detectives and others would get specialised training, and the State Troopers had a technician who would attend scenes."
She frequently mentions the encouragement she has received.
"This position literally didn't exist. [FPD] Chief Ron Dupee and Deputy Chief Rick Sweet created it for me," she says.
Writing reports is a constant in her duties, though on any random day she could be in the department dusting for fingerprints, processing footwear impressions, collecting DNA samples, or being called out to multiple crime scenes.
"Homicides, suspicious deaths, burglaries - we have lots of burglaries - sexual assaults, aggravated assaults. We deal with everything."
Working in Alaska has some extra challenges.
Black Spruce Trees, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States,
Heightened privacy laws mean a greater need for search warrants for example - and then there's the famous frigid weather.
"The coldest scene I have worked was -33 degrees, outdoors," Pomeroy says.
"You have to warm up your camera, your batteries, and then your hands, before you can work. If there's a drive-by shooting, the bullet casings will be hot when ejected from the weapon, and then freeze into the snow. You can't get them out wearing thick gloves."
'Sherlockian Principles of close observation'
The "CSI Effect", a television-inspired assumption among the public that crimes can be quickly solved using modern technology, does have some basis in truth, admits Pomeroy.
"We have a 3D, 360-degree imaging technology called Faro, which I'm waiting to be trained on, and handheld alternative light source (ALS), which I use to look for biological samples like body fluids such as semen and saliva at a sexual assault scene."
Shasta Pomeroy
Like all technology, Faro has some limitations, including the fact it cannot pick up "fungible" evidence like smoke, perfume or flashes of light.
"A lot of my work is on my hands and knees, using the Sherlockian Principles of close observation," says Pomeroy, who carries a Nikon camera and a pocket magnifying glass with LED and UV features with her on every call.
She has found herself on rooftops, or alone in remote, forested areas, of which Fairbanks has many. None of this dulls her passion, though she does admit to relying on coffee, often iced coffee, despite the weather.
'Human nature wants answers'
"I can go a call-out with just an hour of sleep, and no coffee, but it doesn't matter. I'm just excited to get to work. This really is my calling."
Like many other people working in law enforcement, Pomeroy is very physically active when she's off-duty. She says it's "a physical and artistic way of decompressing and expressing myself".
"I've been a ballerina and dancer for years, and I'm an aerialist on the silks and trapeze. I also enjoy singing, and I'm trying to pick up the piano."
Pomeroy admits that she does feel pressure as the first CSI - though not as the first female CSI.
Law enforcement is a notably male-dominated profession, but she's found nothing but support, and she says everyone understands how useful her work can be.
CSIs are usually expected to specialise, and now she's in the field, Pomeroy is looking to obtain certifications in areas such as death investigations and bloodstain pattern recognition and analysis.
She also assists the state medical examiner's office in Anchorage with post-mortem biological sample collection, something that allows the bodies of victims to be released to the family in timely manner.
"Human nature wants answers," she says.
"As one piece of the crime-solving puzzle, I can help give answers to victims, and to the community."
Sat., May 1, 2021,
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers recently shut down attempts to pay for Medicaid expansion, in what is the latest example of a statehouse fighting to undo voter-enacted polices.
Critics argued during a contentious debate in the state Senate on Thursday that voters didn’t understand the potential cost of the federal health insurance program. Supporters, including Democrats and some Republicans, said lawmakers were going against the will of voters who amended the Missouri Constitution last year to make thousands more low-income adults eligible for government health insurance.
“The people voted for this. We put it in the Missouri Constitution. That’s what they voted to do,” Democratic Sen. Jill Schupp said. “Now we have people who took an oath to uphold the constitutions of the United States and the state of Missouri, and here we are with people turning their backs.”
It’s unclear how the decision will impact access to Medicaid once new eligibility rules take effect in July. Republican Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday tweeted that his administration will assess its options once the budget is finalized. Lawmakers expect a court battle.
Missouri is among 16 states that allow voters to enact policies by putting them on the ballot, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Arizona and Florida are all states where lawmakers recently sought to undermine voter-approved measures.
In voting against funding Missouri's Medicaid expansion, the Senate’s top budgeter, Republican Dan Hegeman, said: “If the voters had all the information we do, I think they would have made a different decision.”
Craig Burnett, a political scientist and direct democracy expert at Hofstra University, said gaps between lawmaker and voter priorities can occur when there’s an oversaturation of Democrats in urban areas or due to gerrymandering — when legislative districts are drawn to give one party an oversized advantage in elections. He said the conflict is particularly acute when it comes to social issues.
“You only get this kind of mismatch when the legislature is pretty significantly out of step with the average voter,” Burnett said.
South Dakota was the first state to adopt direct democracy in 1898. There’s been pushback from lawmakers since then.
Recently, voters there legalized medical marijuana, raised the minimum wage and expanded casino gambling. The GOP-led Legislature responded by trying to make it harder to put initiative petitions on the ballot.
In Montana, voters last year approved a recreational marijuana program that sends a significant portion of tax revenues to conservation purposes. But a Republican-backed legislative plan seeks instead to put up to $6 million toward an addiction treatment program before directing a third of what's left to wildlife habitat, parks and recreational facilities.
After Utah voters passed Medicaid expansion in 2018, conservative lawmakers delayed its full implementation before adding work requirements. In Arizona, Republicans are looking to eliminate about a third of the revenue from a voter-approved tax increase on the wealthy to fund education.
While Florida voters in 2018 overwhelmingly approved a measure allowing most felons to vote once they complete their sentences, the Republican-led Legislature undercut that by requiring them to pay off fines and court costs first.
Missouri's fight over Medicaid expansion isn’t the first time the Legislature and voters have bumped heads over ballot measures in recent years.
Voters in 2018 repealed a law that ended mandatory union dues for non-union members, a longtime goal for Republicans.
That same year — as Republican Josh Hawley defeated Democratic former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and the GOP kept overwhelming control of the Legislature — voters legalized medical marijuana, raised the minimum wage and adopted a redistricting measure opposed by top Republicans.
After the success of primarily Democratic-backed policies at the polls, Republicans have sought to undo them and make it harder for voters to put issues on the ballot.
Several pending bills would increase the cost to file initiative petitions, require petitioners to go to greater lengths to gather signatures, and raise the vote threshold needed to amend the Missouri Constitution.
Burnett said that while recent tensions have primarily involved Republican statehouses and more liberal voters, it's also happened with Democratic-led legislatures. He cited California voters’ 2008 decision to ban same-sex marriage, which was later overturned in court.
"It’s very frustrating for all of those voters who voted for this,” he said. “The whole point of the initiative petition is actually supposed to be to get around the legislature and enact policies that they’re unwilling to do, or maybe they’re too politically toxic.”
___
Associated Press writers Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Mont., and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
Summer Ballentine, The Associated Press