California's stringent new rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions were scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1 2012. But on Thursday Dec. 29, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence O’Neill ruled that California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves regulation of commerce to the federal government and is interpreted as meaning that states cannot interfere in interstate commerce.

As a full-time managing editor for the Independent Voter Network (IVN.us), 2010 YAL media intern Wes Messamore is recruiting young writers for a part -time journalism internship writing weekly articles now through November with relevant and critical analysis of news and politics.

joshsternberg:

As we close the books on 2011, here, in totality, are five underreported stories (as put together by me) for Current.com:

Even as the Democratic Party continues to enjoy the Hispanic community’s support heading into the 2012 election year, the Pew Hispanic Center finds that only 45% of Hispanic voters identified the Democratic Party as the more concerned party (for their interests), while 12% picked the Republican Party.

Pesticide use in California rose in 2010 after four consecutive years of declines, according to a recent report from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).

“We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share,” Ronald Reagan said in 1985.  “In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary, and that's crazy. It's time we stopped it….”

In an era when data is steadily moving to the Internet and the cloud, the sad truth is that State of California websites are too often inadequate and archaic. Information should be easy to find on state websites. It’s not. Californians should be able to fill out forms online to be processed by the state. Too often, they can’t. Given that California is the most populous state and the home of Silicon Valley, you might think that state websites would be state-of-the-art, filled with easily accessible information, and easy to use. But the opposite is mostly true.

Press Secretaries in Washington, DC have an interesting job. They have their finger on the pulse of the media, the American people, and must speak on behalf of powerful individuals. Enter, Michael Steel, Speaker of the House John Boehner’s Press Secretary.

shortformblog: