Most of California’s high-profile ballot initiatives — from rolling back the state’s greenhouse gas reduction efforts to legalizing marijuana — failed last week at the ballot box, but at least for marijuana legalization advocates, their spirits remain high and their hopes are already set on 2012. The initiative, called Proposition 19, More…
Lots of states now employ a system of ballot initiatives, but California’s propositions remain the most visible, often inspiring copycat political action and legislation across the country. In 1978 Proposition 13 lowered property taxes and required a two-thirds majority for the state legislature to raise taxes, presaging a tax revolt More…
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) isn’t sponsoring too many ballot initiatives attempting to ban same sex marriage during this election cycle, but the group is plenty busy pouring its money into campaigns on behalf of candidates, like Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who are in favor of a constitutional More…
When Wall Street collapsed in late 2008, donations to charitable groups and religious organizations quickly plummeted alongside it. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, reported that the “turmoil in world financial markets and the resulting worldwide recession” had “significantly impacted” its books. In its fiscal year 2009 annual More…
The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal society founded in New Haven in 1881, does a lot of good work. In a report detailing its charitable giving during 2009, the organization noted that while the “Knights and their families are hardly immune to the economic downturn,” they had once More…
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