November 5, 2014

What's happening

Diane Ravitch - Tom Torlakson was elected state superintendent of education in California with 52% of the vote, despite the accumulation of millions of dollars for his opponent from people like Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, the Walton family, and other billionaires. It was teachers that re-elected Tom... The proposal to enshrine value-added assessment of teachers into the state constitution in Missouri failed, and it wasn’t even close. Amendment 3 would have ended teacher tenure and put teachers on renewable contracts, with everything tied to test scores. It went down by about 75-25%. This vote showed enormous popular support for teachers.

The Senate is going to lose one of the most outspoken advocates for civil liberties and NSA reform.

Riding huge margins from East Side precincts, Democrat Jorge O. Elorza easily won the mayor’s office Tuesday, ending ex-mayor and Providence political legend Vincent A. Buddy Cianci Jr.’s attempt to return to the seat he held at different times for more than 21 years.

Amnesty International has accused the Israeli army of committing "war crimes" by targeting "houses full of families" in Gaza, attacks that killed "scores of Palestinian civilians."
The new report published Wednesday, 'Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes', includes eight examples of family homes being struck by Israeli forces "without warning" during 'Operation Protective Edge', killing more than 100 civilians including 62 children.

The Republican wave that swept over the states left Democrats at their weakest point in state legislatures since the 1920s.

How states voted on election laws

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