Subject: Positive/Negative clips
From: "Palermo, Rachel" <[email-masked]>
To: "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Price, Jenna" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 May 2016 04:35:24 -0700

Positive-- Dems

Overdue change in overtime pay: Our view<http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/19/overtime-pay-labor-department-obama-editorials-debates/84615984/>
USA TODAY // THE EDITORIAL BOARD
For most people, a salaried job paying $25,000 a year is far from exceptional. It corresponds to an hourly wage of roughly $14, which isn’t enough to live on in many pricey metro areas. But, according to existing federal labor rules, a $25,000 job can be classified as managerial or given another designation that exempts it from overtime pay. That's why the Obama administration moved this week to change those rules. As of Dec. 1, the minimum annual salary that can be excluded from overtime will be raised from $23,660 to $47,476, unless opponents manage to block the change in Congress or the courts. The move is long overdue. The percentage of people eligible for overtime has been in a free fall since its high in 1975. Then, 62% of salaried workers were paid overtime for work over 40 hours. Today the number is 7%. And it was even lower before 2004, when the Bush administration made some needed changes.

Negative--Republicans

7 Republicans Flipped Their Vote on LGBT Amendment, Setting Them Up for Attack<http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/democrats-pounce-vulnerable-republicans-suspected-switching-vote-lgbt-protections>
ROLL CALL // SIMONE PATHE
After seven Republicans switched their votes from "yes" to "no" Thursday on a measure that have would have protected LGBT workers from discrimination from federal contractors, Democrats quickly turned the votes into an election issue. “House Republicans are so committed to discriminating against LGBT Americans, that they broke regular order to force their members to reverse their votes and support Republicans’ bigotry," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. [Moral Victory on Confederate Flag, Painful Defeat on LGBT Protection] The identities of the seven vote-switchers were not publicly recorded on the House floor. The amendment failed 212-213. Democrats in the House were in an uproar, shouting "Shame, Shame, Shame," and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer protested because the presiding officer did not require that the members record the changes.

Exclusive: More than 100 lawsuits, disputes, tied to Trump and his companies<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/19/trumps-tax-troubles/84543538/>
USA TODAY // NICK PENZENSTADLER AND DAVID WILSON
While Donald J. Trump refuses to release his federal tax returns, saying his tax rate is “none of your business,” a USA TODAY analysis found Trump’s businesses have been involved in at least 100 lawsuits and other disputes related to unpaid taxes or how much tax his businesses owe. Trump’s companies have been engaged in battles over taxes almost every year from the late 1980s until as recently as March, the analysis of court cases, property records, and other documents across the country shows. At least five Trump companies were issued warrants totaling more than $13,000 for late or unpaid taxes in New York state just since Trump declared his candidacy in June 2015, according to state records. This spring, as Trump flew to campaign rallies around the country aboard his trademark private jet, the state of New York filed a tax warrant to try to collect $8,578 in unpaid taxes from the Trump-owned company that owns the Boeing 757. The company has since paid that tax bill. As recently as last week, Trump said he was “willing to pay more” taxes personally and that “taxes for the rich will go up somewhat” if he becomes president. But the lawsuits and other tax-related disputes show a different reality for his businesses.

Stealing From Ebola to Fight Zika<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/opinion/stealing-from-ebola-to-fight-zika.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
NEW YORK TIMES // THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Nobody should be surprised when the present House of Representatives, dominated by penurious reactionaries, produces a stingy response to a danger that calls for compassionate largess. But for sheer fecklessness it’s hard to top the House’s response this week to the Zika virus. The salient feature is that in providing money to fight one health menace, it steals from other funds meant to fight an even more dangerous threat — the Ebola virus. In February, President Obama asked Congress for $1.9 billion to help fight Zika, a virus that can cause severe birth defects and has been linked to neurological disorders in adults. Transmittable by mosquitoes and through sex, Zika broke out last year in Brazil and has since spread to the United States and other countries. Experts fear there could eventually be hundreds of thousands of infections in Puerto Rico, where nearly half the population lives below the poverty line, with possibly hundreds of babies affected. States in the American South with large mosquito populations are also at particular risk. On Thursday, the Senate voted for $1.1 billion in emergency funds for research, vaccine development, mosquito control efforts and other programs. The bill does not provide as much money as public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they need, but it is a decent start.

Republicans’ stunningly illogical attempt to end the District’s budget autonomy<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-stunningly-illogical-attempt-to-end-the-districts-budget-autonomy/2016/05/19/750d0cc4-1d2f-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html>
WASHINGTON POST // THE EDITORIAL BOARD
IN THEIR push to repeal a measure giving D.C. the right to spend its own tax dollars, House Republicans repeatedly sounded the argument that the Constitution gives Congress “supreme authority” over the District. They are right about that power. But that doesn’t answer why a party that professes to champion local control and abhor government overreach would choose to undermine self-government in an American city that is home to 700,000 people. The illogic, even by Washington standards, is stunning. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines this week to advance a bill that would nullify budget autonomy for the District. D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved budget autonomy in a 2013 referendum. The measure, though subject to differing legal interpretations, has been upheld in court. Moreover, before it went into effect, Congress had an opportunity to overturn it but instead chose not to act.