Kate Sheppard

Reporter

Kate Sheppard is a staff reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She was previously the political reporter for Grist and a writing fellow at The American Prospect. She can be reached by email at ksheppard (at) motherjones (dot) com.

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Her work has also been featured in the New York Times' Room for Debate blog, the Guardian's Comment Is Free, Foreign Policy, High Country News, The Center for Public Integrity, the Washington Independent, Washington Spectator, Who Runs Gov, In These Times, and Bitch. She was raised on a vegetable farm in southern New Jersey (yes, they do exist), but has adapted well to life in the nation's capital. She misses trees and having a congressional representative with voting power, but thinks DC is pretty great anyway.

This Company Is Kickstarter for Solar Power

Oakland-based Mosaic figured out that pricy solar panels are much more affordable when the crowd chips in.

—By Kate Sheppard

| Wed Mar. 27, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

YEP's solar panels

On a sunny February morning, Michele Clark climbed up to the roof of her office in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, to show off 196 black, gleaming solar panels. The installation, completed last December, is providing 47 kilowatts of power for Youth Empowerment Partnership, a group that provides education and job training for at-risk teens and young adults in Oakland.

Clark, the group's executive director, had dreamed of solar panels on YEP's headquarters but couldn't find a way to pay for them. "We have this big sunny roof," she said, "but we didn't have the expertise, the connections, or even the thought process of how you would put this together."

Then Clark connected with Mosaic, an Oakland-based startup company that connects solar-power-seeking businesses and nonprofits with hundreds of investors. Soon, YEP had brand new solar panels, a $40,000 project paid for by 51 individuals.

Here's how Mosaic works: Investors contribute a minimum of $25 to a project. Over the next 5 to 10 years—depending on the project—the investors will make that money back, plus interest. The return on the investment ranges from 4.5 to 6.4 percent annually, depending on the project. They can support projects in any state, but right now only accredited investors and people in New York and California can invest in the projects, due to regulatory barriers in other states. In order to qualify, projects must be for organizations that are financially stable, have adequate insurance, and benefit the wider community in some way. Recent projects include affordable housing projects, a convention center, several nonprofits, a grocery store, and a Native American reservation.

Mosaic's founders want to do for solar energy what Kickstarter has done for bands and independent films, or what Kiva has done for upstart projects in the developing world. But Mosaic's model goes beyond most other crowdsourcing sites, by not only allowing supporters to invest in the solar project but also make a profit doing so.

Billy Parish, Mosaic's cofounder and president, describes his company's goal as "getting millions of people tangibly invested in building the clean energy future." Before Mosaic, Parish, a wiry 31-year-old, spent years as a youth climate advocate and organizer, and was one of the founders of the Energy Action Coalition.

Parish points to polls showing that 89 percent of Americans support the development and use of solar power. But there are still only 300,000 solar power systems installed around the US, generating 0.1 percent of all electricity. That's because most businesses can't afford solar panels on their own, and major banks have not shown a tremendous amount of interest in funding relatively small solar projects.

"It's substantially at this point a deployment problem," said Parish. "The biggest thing you need is money to make those projects happen."

YEP's power bill, which used to run $1,350 a month, is now down to about $150.

So far Mosaic has raised more than $1 million for 12 different projects—fully funding all of them within just a few days of opening them up to investors. One of the appeals to this kind of investing, as Mosaic pitches it, is that contributors can actually see their money at work—very different from the convoluted financial products offered on Wall Street.

Initially, Mosaic worked on a philanthropic model, where people donated a sum of money to a project that they would eventually be repaid. (YEP's panels were funded this way.) Mosaic moved to this return on investment model in January and lowered the minimum amount of money needed to participate from $100 to $25. They saw an immediate response. It took a year and a half to raise the first $350,000 under the old model, said Lisa Curtis, Mosaic's communications director, but the new profit-minded model yielded $300,000 in investments in one day. "I think there's something to be said for enlightened self-interest," said Curtis.

That enlightened self-interest, they hope, can be harnessed to bring solar energy to community-based organizations like YEP, which will spend the next 10 years paying investors back, but the group is already seeing results. The power bill, which used to run $1,350 a month, is now down to about $150. YEP is also incorporating the panels into its job training program, showing students how the system works and, they hope, inspiring some to seek out jobs in renewable energy.

Curtis hopes that the financial incentive of investing might also inspire people to learn more about climate change and alternative energy. "If we're able to reach those millions more people who normally wouldn't care about environmental causes to put their money to work creating clean energy," said Curtis, "then we will have succeeded."

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"I Can't Even Imagine What Else They Could Think Of. Just Putting Women Behind Bars?"

—By Kate Sheppard

| Tue Mar. 26, 2013 1:29 PM PDT

North Dakota won our Anti-Choice March Madness tourney last week, and for good reason. On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed the country's most restrictive abortion ban into law, making it the clear leader in what Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards recently called a "state-by-state race to the bottom on women's health."

The state now outlaws abortions at as early as six weeks gestation, but it doesn't stop there. Dalrymple also signed measures banning abortions sought because of genetic abnormalities in the fetus, like Down Syndrome, and another measure requiring that doctors who perform abortions at the state's one clinic have admitting privileges at a local hospital. (The admitting privileges rule has been used in other states, like Mississippi, to make it impossible for providers to meet the standard.) And if that wasn't enough, the legislature also approved a bill to include a "personhood" measure on the 2014 ballot, asking voters to decide whether all fertilized eggs should have the same rights as adults.

The state has only one Planned Parenthood office, which focuses on education and outreach and doesn't provide health care at all. But even that has drawn ire from legislators, who have tried to block Planned Parenthood from providing sex education to at-risk teens. It's gotten so bad there that even some Republican women in the legislature have come out and said that the state has gone too far.

I talked to Planned Parenthood's Richards on Monday about what's happening in North Dakota and other the states across the country:

Mother Jones: So, North Dakota. It can't really get any more restrictive than that, can it?

Richards: I can't even imagine what else they could think of. Just putting women behind bars? I don't know. I'm assuming part of the reason they keep doing bills on bills on bills is to leave no stone unturned here. But I have been encouraged to see the numbers of Republicans and members of the medical community who are at least speaking out publicly, which is really an important thing, like this rally by Republicans in the state. So at least there is bipartisan opposition to this, unfortunately just not in the legislature.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Why the GOP Should Love Duck Penises

—By Kate Sheppard

| Tue Mar. 26, 2013 8:24 AM PDT

My colleague Asawin Suebsaeng missed the most important point about Duckpenisgate: right-wingers should like duck sex research, because it almost, kind of, makes Todd Akin look not-so-bonkers.

Unlike humans, female ducks actually do have a way to "shut that whole thing down" when raped by a male duck. As Richard Prum, an evolutionary ornithologist at Yale University, explained to Politifact:

In duck ponds, Prum said, a lot of forced copulation occurs. Forced copulation is what it sounds like—rape in nature. Even gang rape happens among ducks. And Prum found that while 40 to 50 percent of duck sex happens by forced copulation, only 2 to 4 percent of inseminations result from it (meaning times the female duck ends up with a fertilized egg).

"The question is why does that happen? How does a female prevent fertilization by forced copulation?" he said. "The answer has to do with taking advantage of what males have evolved—this corkscrew shaped penis."

Prum said the duck penis is a corkscrew whose direction runs counterclockwise. Female ducks, he said, have evolved a complex vagina also shaped like a corkscrew -- but a clockwise one.

"This is literally an anti-screw anatomy," he said.

It's not just ducks. Other fowl—like the feral chickens studied here—are able to eject sperm from their body after sex. They can eject up to 80 percent of the ejaculate! (Hat tip: University of Rhode Island professor Holly Dunsworth.)

Duck penii and sperm-ejecting chickens aren't some novelty. They actually raise fascinating questions about evolution and procreation. Even if humans can't "shut that whole thing down" (sorry, Todd), it's worth figuring out why our fowl friends can.

Even These Republican Women Lawmakers Think ND Went Too Far

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Mar. 22, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

North Dakota won our Anti-Choice March Madness tournament, but apparently the state's anti-abortion laws have gone too far for even some Republican lawmakers.

Laura Bassett reports at Huffington Post that several Republican women lawmakers plan to attend a rally next week protesting the state's latest abortion law, which will make it the most restrictive state in the country:

"It's to say, hey, this isn't okay. We have stepped over the line," said state Rep. Kathy Hawken (R-Fargo) in a phone interview with The Huffington Post. "One of the key tenets of the Republican Party is personal responsibility. I'm personally pro-life, but I vote pro-choice, because you can't make that decision for anyone else. You just can't."

Now would be a good time to raise that point to fellow Republican lawmakers, who are currently considering two even more restrictive fetal "personhood" measures as well.

Anti-Choice March Madness: The Worst State for Women

Which state will dominate in this tournament of lady-haters?

—By Kate Sheppard, Jaeah Lee, and Tasneem Raja

| Thu Mar. 21, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

Despite being Women's History Month, March has seen relentless attacks on ladies' rights. As soon as one state passes some outrageous woman-restricting bill, another is right behind with something even, well, outrageous-er. The "state-by-state race to the bottom on women's health," as the president of Planned Parenthood put it, inspired us to set up our own March Madness bracket to determine the national champion in the War on Women.

ROUND ONE: THE MEAN SIXTEEN

No doubt about it, these states all brought their A games to this season's War on Women. From imposing onerous new building codes on abortion clinics to threatening to throw doctors in jail for providing life-saving abortions, these contenders made it all but impossible for women to obtain (still constitutionally protected) abortions. The qualifiers:

The Matchups

Louisiana (1) vs. Arkansas (16)

Louisiana barrels into the tournament as top-seed in its region and the expected overall champion, since the anti-choice crusaders Americans United for Life crowned it the "Most Pro-Life State" earlier this year. The state enacted a 20-week ban last June, with fines and prison sentences for doctors who violate it.

Plucky underdog Arkansas passed a new law banning all abortions after 20 weeks earlier this month, shooting over the veto of the state's Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe. But that wasn't enough for legislators, who followed with a 12-week ban days later, also over Beebe's veto.

Oklahoma (8) vs. Texas (9)

Oklahoma brings a middling offense: Women there must undergo state-required anti-abortion counseling, can't use their private health insurance to pay for elective abortions, and can't get an abortion after 20 weeks.

Meanwhile, have you seen what Texas did to Planned Parenthood? That's on top of an ultra-strict ultrasound law and mandatory 24-hour waiting period for an abortion. Gov. Rick Perry kicked off 2013 with a pledge to "continue to pass laws to ensure that [abortions] are as rare as possible." Perry is basically the John Wooden of anti-woman madness.

Utah (5) vs. Idaho (12)

Utah passed a new law last year establishing a 72-hour waiting period for an abortion. The state also bans women from using private health insurance to cover an abortion, unless her life is at risk or if she's the victim of rape or incest.

Back in 2011, Idaho passed a ban on abortions occurring 20 weeks post-conception, which a judge struck down as unconstitutional on March 7. Women here also have to wait 24 hours before they can have an abortion and can't use their private insurance for elective abortions.

Arizona (4) vs. Colorado (13)

Last year, Arizona became the sixth state to pass a 20-week abortion ban. But its law was even more extreme, as it actually cuts off access 18 weeks post-conception. (Basically, they start the shot clock before women even gain possession.) This state also passed a law last year making it legal for doctors to withhold medical information that might encourage a patient to seek an abortion, like fetal abnormalities.

Colorado voters get bad marks (in the logic of the War on Women) for twice rejecting a so-called "personhood" ballot measure that would grant the rights of adult humans to fertilized eggs, in 2008 and 2010. But anti-choice lawmakers have continued trying to ban all abortions with a House bill that stalled in committee, and Garfield County also voted to defund its local Planned Parenthood provider.

Mississippi (3) vs. Tennessee (14)
Mississippi is down to one abortion clinic, and anti-choice crusaders are taking aim. Even though voters rejected a "personhood" ballot measure in 2011, abortion foes and their up-tempo offense are trying to get it on the ballot yet again.

Tennessee is an up-and-comer to watch in future seasons. Right now it has more liberal abortion laws than many Southern states, but in 2014, voters will decide via a ballot measure whether or not women have the right to an abortion. Meanwhile, anti-abortion officials have been active at the county level, defunding the Memphis chapter of Planned Parenthood in 2011.

Virginia (6) vs. Alabama (11)

Under public pressure last year, Virginia lawmakers backpedaled from forcing women to undergo medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds. But the state is moving forward with strict new building codes for clinics that could put a number of providers on the bench—and out of business.

Last month, the Alabama House advanced the Orwellian "Women's Health and Safety Act," which threatens to shut down the state's five remaining clinics. It includes a requirement that doctors have admitting privileges at a local hospital and sets tough new building codes for clinics.

South Dakota (7) vs. Michigan (10)

There is only one abortion clinic in South Dakota, which many women drive hours to reach. To get an abortion, women have to visit a doctor first, wait 72 hours, visit an anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy center," and listen to a mandated script that will tell them false information about abortion risks. Now yet another law, passed on February 28, excludes weekends and holidays from the 72-hour waiting period, meaning some women will have to wait five or six days. This state has one of the toughest defenses in the country: a legal-defense fund wholly devoted to preserving these anti-choice laws.

Michigan got a lot of attention last year when Democratic Rep. Lisa Brown was T-ed up and barred from using the word "vagina" during floor debate over an anti-abortion bill. The state later passed its "abortion mega-bill" requiring abortion providers to meet the same standards as "ambulatory surgical centers," outlawing telemed abortions, and implementing new rules for the disposal of fetal remains that would require them to be treated like the body of a dead person, rather than treating them like other forms of medical waste.

Kansas (2) vs. North Dakota (15)

A perennial favorite in Anti-Woman Madness, abortion foes in second-seeded Kansas have committed to making it the first "abortion-free state." In 2011, the state passed onerous clinic regulations that threatened to close nearly every clinic in the state. They were later were blocked by a judge, but the legal fight continues. Meanwhile, the state House is currently considering a group of measures that would define life as beginning at conception and would require doctors to give patients medically inaccurate information linking abortion to breast cancer. Lawmakers did, however, remove a provision that would ban anyone who works at an abortion clinic from volunteering at their kids' schools.

North Dakota's Legislature only meets every other year, so 2013 has been a rebuilding year. They have managed to make quite a comeback in 2013, banning abortion as early as six weeks. Anti-abortion lawmakers also pitched a fit earlier this year about a sex-ed program for teenagers that Planned Parenthood was going to help lead.

ROUND TWO: THE INFAMOUS EIGHT

Arkansas (16) beats Louisiana (1) (!)
A stunning upset! Louisiana may have been the top seed, but then Gov. Bobby Jindal came out last December in favor of over-the-counter access to oral contraception, knee-capping Louisiana's race to Worst State for Women. Meanwhile, Arkansas' offense has been all over the place, even managing to go backdoor on Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of their 12- and 20-week abortion bans, leading Arkansas to a shocking victory. Nobody saw this coming…but many will pay consequences.

Texas (9) beats Oklahoma (8)
Texas has been chucking up three-pointers from deep all season, which allowed them to cruise to an easy victory over Oklahoma.

Utah (5) beats Idaho (12)
This was a tough match up, as the two states look pretty similar on paper. Utah eked out a win, though, since the court called a technical foul on Idaho's 20-week ban.

Arizona (4) beats Colorado (13)
Colorado looked lackluster next to Arizona, which cruised to an easy victory. I mean, starting the shot clock on abortion before a woman even conceives? That's serious game, Arizona.

Mississippi (3) beats Tennessee (14)
Tennessee didn't seem to even leave the locker room for this one. But then again, Mississippi's rare status as a state with just one abortion clinic spelled victory from the start.

Virginia (6) beats Alabama (11)
Virginia, led by point guard (and attorney general) Ken Cuccinelli, has really been making a name for itself this season. No surprise here.

South Dakota (7) beats Michigan (10)
Michigan has shown some impressive ballhandling in the past year, demonstrating all kinds of new anti-abortion plays, but South Dakota's measure banning women from thinking on the weekend was the kind of gritty performance that wins championships.

North Dakota (15) beats Kansas (2) (!!)
Another jaw-dropping upset! Let's face it, North Dakota wouldn't have even qualified last year. But they've been running a full-court press with their time restrictions on abortion this season, and it lead to a shocking victory over second-seeded Kansas. Hey, it's called Madness for a reason.

ROUND THREE: THE FINAL FOUR

Arkansas (16) vs. Texas (9)

This was a nail-biter. The score was tied with seconds left on the clock, but Arkansas drained two free throws with its 12- and 20-week bans to seal the win.

Arizona (4) vs. Utah (5)

Demonstrating some of their creative plays developed over the past season, Arizona cruised to an easy victory over Utah, which seems to have grown complacent this season with few new abortion restrictions.

Mississippi (3) vs. Virginia (6)
Virginia's transvaginal probes couldn't hold up to Mississippi's run-and-gun offense, which has included "personhood" measures and regulatory attempts to wipe out its sole abortion provider.

North Dakota (15) vs. South Dakota (7)
The Dakotas matchup was sure to be a tough one. While South Dakota took an early lead with its waiting-period law, North Dakota broke out its stingy man-to-man defense with its six-week ban, clinching the Midwest Madness title.

ROUND FOUR: The CHAMPIONSHIP!

Arizona (4) vs. Arkansas (16)
Underdog Arkansas was all over the boards with its now-infamous governor-silencing offense, while Arizona just seemed distracted.

North Dakota (15) vs. Mississippi (3)
Given that both of these states are down to one abortion provider, this was expected to be a tight one. But North Dakota showed some real zeal for hating on women with their most recent legislative ball work banning abortions as early as six weeks, and that's what it took to regress—er, advance—in the march to victory.

THE "WINNER"!

It seems nothing short of an all-out ban on abortion could have topped North Dakota's late-breaking offensive, just passed on March 15: cutting off abortion access as early as six weeks after conception. Many women won't even know they're pregnant within that timeframe, but North Dakota just won't relent: The state is still pushing for that ever-elusive (because, you know, abortion is a constitutional right and all) statewide ban. North Dakota has proven that it's willing to go the extra mile to win the dubious distinction of Worst State for Women.

Thanks for playing along, and remember: whenever these states win, women lose.

An earlier version of this piece incorrectly stated that Arizona, not Arkansas, advanced to the championship.

Assorted icons and graphics courtesy of Shutterstock.