Minnesota Is Poised to Restore the Voting Rights of Tens of Thousands

[Daily Kos Morning Roundup]( A morning roundup of worthy pundit and news reads, brought to you by Daily Kos. [Click here to read the full web version.]( - [Minnesota Is Poised to Restore the Voting Rights of Tens of Thousands]( Minnesota Is Poised to Restore the Voting Rights of Tens of Thousands, Alex Burness, Bolts ...Minnesota’s legislature on Tuesday adopted House File 28, a bill termed Restore The Vote. It would grant ballot access to Minnesotans on parole or on probation, currently estimated to be roughly 50,000 people—though not to the more than 8,000 people in state prisons over a felony. (...) The legislature’s move on Tuesday sent the bill to Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat who has long supported this change. The bill’s lead sponsor, Bobby Joe Champion, the Democratic president of the Minnesota Senate, told Bolts he is certain Walz will sign it. If and when he does, Minnesota would become the 25th state, plus Washington, D.C., to grant voting rights to anyone who is not presently incarcerated. (Maine, Vermont, and D.C., also allow anyone to vote from prison.) That milestone is the result of a rapid shift in blue-run states, with seven making this same move since 2018; North Carolina joined them last year due a court ruling that the GOP-held state supreme court may soon reverse. - [Conservatives’ war on emotions in the classroom]( Conservatives’ war on emotions in the classroom, Fabiola Cineas,Vox Social-emotional learning has long been accepted as part of curriculums across the country, from pre-K through high school. It’s backed by a large body of research and decades of practice. Recently, though, it has become the latest target in the school culture wars. Anti-SEL campaigns led by conservative parent groups, lawmakers, and political strategists are gaining momentum across the country. Since 2021, there have been disputes over social-emotional learning in at least 25 states, according to NPR — from bills that have tried to remove the concept from school curriculums altogether to heated parent board meetings where parent rights’ advocates vehemently denounced it. Social-emotional learning teaches students what are conventionally known as “soft skills”: the social and emotional tools that help students make good choices, manage their emotions, create positive relationships, and collaborate. It's supporters say these skills are more important than ever in the wake of the pandemic, which ushered in new challenges for kids all across Arizona. State test results released over the last two years show that a majority of third to eighth grade students failed statewide exams in both English language arts and math. Arizona, like most states, showed no improvement in reading scores and showed significant declines in math scores on the 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), which is administered biennially to a sample of fourth and eighth graders in every state. Students in Arizona are missing school more than ever before. A study on the state’s K-8 chronic absenteeism rate — the rate at which students miss 10 percent or more of the school year — rose to 22 percent in the 2021 school year, up from 14 percent in 2019. About 15 percent of children in the state live in high-poverty areas compared with the national average of 9 percent. But Craglow and other advocates and educators who support SEL are in stark opposition to Arizona’s new public schools leader. - [Bad news: Daily Kos revenue is down, and we might not be able to do all we do. Good news: You are a big part of the solution, and small donors have never let us down. Donate $5 TODAY.]( - [The other deadly pandemic]( The other deadly pandemic, Moisés Naím, El Páis According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly one billion people suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, isolation, dementia, drug and alcohol use, schizophrenia and eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia), among other problems. In fact, 14.3% of worldwide deaths each year – some 8 million people – can be attributed to mental disorders. Depression, for example, is the world’s leading cause of disability. And suicide ranks as the fourth leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 29. According to Project Hope, an NGO that specializes on these issues, someone somewhere commits suicide every 40 seconds. Men take their lives twice as often as women. In turn, depression is twice as common in women as in men. Although suicide is a global phenomenon, its highest incidence is in lower-income countries. In 2019, for example, 77% of suicides in the world occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Covid-19 produced a 25% increase in the number of people suffering from anxiety and depression. - [What the War in Ukraine Has Truly Cost Us]( What the War in Ukraine Has Truly Cost Us, Farah Stockman, The New York Times When a country is fighting for its survival, as Ukraine is, the ability to wage war is essential. Indeed, it can feel like the only thing that really counts. But it is also true that our collective prosperity as human beings depends upon the absence of war, which gives people the breathing room they need to farm, to trade, to make scientific breakthroughs and art. The economic rewards reaped by not being at war can be hard to quantify. But researchers report that peace is wildly profitable. The Institute for Economics and Peace, a nonpartisan think tank, scores peacefulness according to factors like “good relations with neighbors,” corruption, free flow of information and representative governance. Its recent report shows that countries that saw improvements in peacefulness between 2009 and 2020 also saw G.D.P. per capita rise by an average of 3.1 percent per year. Countries where peacefulness deteriorated saw an increase of just 0.4 percent per year. Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine makes us all poorer, hungrier and more insecure. Although the world has avoided the mutually assured destruction of nuclear war so far, it has not dodged the slow-moving bullet of mutually assured economic degradation. - [Stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Ukraine: Donate to humanitarian efforts assisting refugees and others suffering during this horrific time.]( - [The West may be more united, but it’s also more isolated]( The West may be more united, but it’s also more isolated, Timothy Ash and Mark Leonard, POLITICO A year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European and American governments have defied critics with an extraordinary display of unity. But has this internal cohesion been achieved at the expense of external influence? This is the main question explored in a new poll commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations and the “Europe in a Changing World” project at Oxford University, which covers public opinion from 10 European countries and five from other parts of the world. [...] 77 percent of those polled in the United Kingdom and 65 percent of those polled in European Union countries — along with 71 percent in the United States — see Russia as an “adversary” or “rival” rather than an “ally” or “partner.” And this majority perception has been reflected in the strong support for reducing dependence on Russian fossil fuels, regardless of the economic consequences. However, the optics of this unity have struck home in both the “the rest” of the world and “the West.” - [Arizona’s top prosecutor concealed records debunking election fraud claims]( Arizona’s top prosecutor concealed records debunking election fraud claims, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Washington Post In April, the attorney general — who was running in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat — released an “Interim Report” claiming that his office had discovered “serious vulnerabilities.” He left out edits from his own investigators refuting his assertions. His office then compiled an “Election Review Summary” in September that systematically refuted accusations of widespread fraud and made clear that none of the complaining parties — from state lawmakers to self-styled “election integrity” groups — had presented any evidence to support their claims. Brnovich left office last month without releasing the summary. That timeline emerges from documents released to The Post this week by Brnovich’s successor, Kris Mayes, a Democrat. She said she considered the taxpayer-funded investigation closed and, earlier this month, notified leaders on Maricopa County’s governing board that they were no longer in the state’s crosshairs. The records show how Brnovich used his office to further claims about voting in Maricopa County that his own staff considered inaccurate. They suggest that his team privately disregarded fact checks provided by state investigators while publicly promoting incomplete accounts of the office’s work. The innuendo and inaccuracies, circulated not just in the far reaches of the internet but with the imprimatur of the state’s attorney general, helped make Arizona an epicenter of distrust in the democratic process, eroding confidence in the 2020 vote as well as in subsequent elections. ICYMI: Popular stories from the past week you won't want to miss: - [President Biden reportedly despises one U.S. senator more than any other. And the winner is]( - [Marjorie Taylor Greene attacks Joe Biden for visiting Ukraine: It doesn't go well]( - [Once again, Trump screws with his own party by endorsing the weaker candidate]( Want even more Daily Kos? Check out our podcasts: - [The Brief: A one-hour weekly political conversation hosted by Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld]( - [The Downballot: Daily Kos' podcast devoted to downballot elections. New episodes every Thursday]( Want to write your own stories? 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