The Progressive Midwesterner

I'm going to limit myself to not more than two North Dakota-related blog posts on The Progressive Midwesterner this year, but this is a blog post that I would encourage elected officials from across the country to read, as they may be able to learn how to use social media more effectively as an elected official. North Dakota State Representative Karla Rose Hanson (DNPL-Fargo), the Assistant Minority Leader of the North Dakota House of Representatives, has proposed, as of this writing, five bills in the current session of the North Dakota State Legislature. Two of Hanson's bills are proposals to have the North Dakota State Legislature meet annually instead of every two years. One of Hanson's bills would, if it were to become law, implement a pretrial services pilot program in three of North Dakota's judicial districts. Another of Hanson's bills would allow North Dakota taxpayers to voluntarily contribute to a veterans' services fund. Another of Hanson's bil...

Based on recent pre-election opinion polling in the gubernatorial race here in Illinois, Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker has a commanding lead over Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner, with Pritzker close to majority support in Illinois (only a plurality of the vote is needed to win election to the governor's office in Illinois). Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU Carbondale) has a pre-election opinion polling operation that focuses on polling high-profile Illinois electoral races, such as races for governor, and a recent poll that they conducted had Pritzker with a commanding, but not prohibitive, lead in this year's gubernatorial race : The poll was conducted September 24-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage point for the entire sample. The poll covered a sample of 1,001 registered voters. The election analysis presented here is based on 715 likely voters. The margin of error for likely voters is 3.7 percentage points. When asked, “If th...

If there's one thing that's been a constant in the Donald Trump era of American politics, it's that Republicans are willing to associate themselves with disgusting perverts and organizations that enable disgusting perverts. The latest example of this is the incredibly tone-deaf U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN), who bragged on Twitter yesterday about meeting with the head of USA Gymnastics (USAG), Kerry Perry, to discuss "fostering a culture of athlete safety (and) empowerment": Had a great meeting this morning with @USAGym new President/CEO Kerry Perry who shared her focus of fostering a culture of athlete safety & empowerment. Welcome to Indy, Kerry! #IN05 pic.twitter.com/5GYrD3T62g — Susan W. Brooks (@SusanWBrooks) January 15, 2018 In case you've been living in a cave for the last several months, I remind everyone that USAG was the organization that enabled sexual predator Larry Nassar for many years. Nassar, who was the team physician for the U.S....