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ALEC News

Reagan vs. Cities: The Battle Over South African Apartheid and Lessons for the Trump Era With the Trump administration threatening to withhold federal funds from cities and states offering protections to undocumented immigrants, a new report details similar tactics used by the Reagan administration to pressure cities and states to abandon anti-apartheid sanctions and divestment legislation. The report "Reagan vs. Cities: The 20th Century Battle Over South African Apartheid & Lessons For The Trump Era" provides historical examples of how cities and states can wield power in the face of threats of retaliation for local policies that defy a president's political agenda. Read the rest of this item here. Koch Convention to Rewrite Constitution Runs Into Roadblocks This year's legislative season saw a strong push in the states from right-wing groups, bankrolled by the Koch brothers and other ultra-conservative billionaires, hoping to convene a national constitutional convention in order to inject rigid fiscal constraints into our country's founding document. Advocates of a federal "balanced budget amendment" (BBA) picked up two more states, Wyoming and Arizona, in their drive to win the 34 resolutions needed to bypass Congress and convene a convention to propose changes to the U.S. Constitution. That momentum, however, was blunted by surprisingly successful campaigns to rescind convention calls in three states, New Mexico, Maryland, and Nevada. Two steps forward and three steps back. Read the rest of this item here. Weaponized Philanthropy: Documents Detail Bradley Foundation's Right-Wing "Infrastructure" Documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) expose a national effort funded by the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to assess and expand right-wing "infrastructure" to influence policies and politicians in statehouses nationwide. The documents were made public in October 2016 on two Twitter accounts that cyber security analysts have linked to one of the Russian hackers alleged to have breached the Democratic National Committee. The Bradley Foundation confirmed in a statement that the hack had taken place and was reported to the FBI. The documents open a window to the behind-the-scenes workings of one of America's largest right-wing foundations. Read the rest of this item here.