September 22, 2009

MA Leg. Allows Gov. Patrick to Name Interim Senator

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The Massachusetts State Legislature has cleared the way for Governor Deval Patrick to appoint an interim replacement to fill the US Senate seat held by the late Edward Kennedy, according to a report in the New York Times.

The MA House had previously passed a bill to allow the Democratic Governor to pick someone to serve until a special election is held on January 19th. The state Senate also approved the measure this afternoon.

What seems like a short term, however, could have long lasting consequences, as the US Senate is working on critical pieces of legislation, including health care and a climate bill. With a Democrat in Kennedy’s seat, the party would conceivably have the votes to block a Republican filibuster on both of these contentious issues. It’s possible, that is, if the Democrats can act more like their rivals and maintain party unity for a few weeks.

There’s no official word yet on who the Governor would appoint, but former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis’ name has been mentioned frequently.

According to the story in the Times, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) read a note containing the news from Massachusetts, he reacted with a fist pump, celebrating the momentary victory that brings what Senator Ted Kennedy called “the cause of my life” — affordable health-care coverage for all Americans — a step closer to reality.

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Osha Gray Davidson is a contributing blogger at Mother Jones and publisher of The Phoenix Sun, an online news service reporting on solar energy. He tweets @thephoenixsun.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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