From ND AFL-CIO: Weekly Update: Labor Council Endorsements, Heitkamp Editorial, Fargo-Moorhead Family-Friendly Haven Letter to the Editor, 2018 Labor Kickoff

Know Your Rights: Voting in North Dakota Some things go better if you’re prepared. Get ready to vote now to make your voice heard in the next critical election! The fight for voting rights remains as critical as ever. Politicians across the country continue to engage in voter suppression, efforts that include additional obstacles to registration, cutbacks on early voting, and strict voter identification requirements. Through litigation and advocacy, the ACLU is fighting back against attempts to curtail an essential right in our democracy, the right to vote. JUNE 12 Election Local Labor Council Endorsements: Northern Plains United Labor Council, AFL-CIO Fargo City Commission        Arlette Preston Fargo City Commission        Linda Boyd Missouri Slope Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO Bismarck City Commission        Nancy Guy Mandan City Commission        Amber Larson Mandan City Commission        Dennis Rohr Minot City Council        Stephan Podrygula Minot Park Board        Stephen Henderson Northern Valley Labor Council, AFL-CIO                Grand Forks City Council – Ward 2        Katie Dachtler Grand Forks School Board        Chris Douthit Grand Forks School Board        Jacqueline Hoffarth Grand Forks School Board        Shanon Mikulski Grand Forks School Board        Bill Palmiscno Heitkamp: After 55 years, we're still fighting for equal wages When I was younger, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. That may not sound like a big deal, but at the time, I was laughed at for making such a statement. When I was growing up, there weren't many female lawyers, and there were few women in law school. But the naysayers and preconceived notions about what careers women could or couldn't have didn't deter me. I went to law school and became a lawyer. Editorial: Let's brand Fargo-Moorhead as a family friendly workforce haven Fargo-Moorhead is engaged in a constant competition with other cities to attract a skilled and talented workforce. The metro cities for years have consciously worked to provide amenities to improve quality of life to make the area more welcoming for young people. But other challenges remain. One of the biggest: affordable day care for young families. The issue recently came to the fore at a Chamber of Commerce event, when nonprofit and business leaders gathered to talk about the dire need for affordable, high-quality child care. Nonprofit leaders urged the community to invest in child care, pointing out that families are making decisions about where to work and raise children with child care in mind. We agree that the issue is a top priority—what could be more important than our children?—and throw down a challenge to business, political and civic leaders: Let's work together to brand Fargo-Moorhead as a place that is friendly to workers and their families. Labor 2018 Kickoff - Fargo Join the Northern Plains United Labor Council and the North Dakota AFL-CIO for the kickoff of our Labor 2018 member-to-member political education campaign. June 24, 2018 • 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Fargo- Moorhead Labor Temple (3002 1st Ave North, Fargo, ND 58102) 1:00-1:30 Pizza, Pop, and a Plan - Labor's goals for this election cycle, and how we can work together as North Dakota union members to accomplish those goals and build power for working people. 1:30-2:00 Canvassing Training - Learn how to doorknock and phonebank! 2:00-5:00 Kickoff Canvass - Doorknocking union members in in Fargo for labor-endorsed candidates! Mobile Messaging for North Dakota Workers! We are happy to introduce a new tool in the fight for workers' rights in North Dakota! Text NDLABOR to 235246 to join our new mobile messaging service and stay up-to-date on upcoming actions and events for working people! Unions Begin With You When working people come together, they make things better for everyone. Joining together in unions enables workers to negotiate for higher wages and benefits and improve conditions in the workplace. There are millions of union members in America from all walks of life. These individuals know that by speaking up together, you can accomplish more than you could on your own.

From The Young Turks: Heitkamp, Backing Deregulation Bill, Owns Stock in Financial Firms that Stand to Profit

Heitkamp, Backing Deregulation Bill, Owns Stock in Financial Firms that Stand to Profit (Alex Kotch, TYT)

This week, the U.S. Senate will consider a bipartisan bill to massively roll back regulations put in place to prevent the risky financial practices that led to the 2008 economic crisis. As David Dayen reported at The Intercept, S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, would aid big banks by expanding an exemption from certain Dodd-Frank financial regulations to include many of America’s big banks, among other favorable provisions. 13 Republicans, 12 Democrats and one Independent are sponsoring the legislation.

The provisions led Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to characterize the bill as the #BankLobbyistAct on Twitter.

One of the bill’s chief architects, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and her husband have nearly $1 million invested in two of the bill’s biggest winners, J.P. Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway, according to a 2016 financial disclosure document reviewed by TYT Investigates.

Heitkamp and her spouse collectively own between $100,001 and $250,000 of corporate securities stock in J.P. Morgan, as well as an additional up to $45,000 in a J.P. Morgan fund. Heitkamp alone owns between $215,000 and $550,000 worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock, and including joint investments, she and her husband have up to $600,000 invested in the company. Together, the Heitkamps could have up to $895,000 invested in the two firms.

For the senator, whose net worth was roughly $4.5 million in 2015, according to an estimate by the Center for Responsive Politics, these J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway investments potentially account for a substantial portion of her assets.

Clayton Homes and Vanderbilt Mortgage, the nation’s largest mobile-home empire and its lending operation, both subsidiaries of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, formerly pressured minority borrowers into unfavorable loans with hidden fees, and repossessed the homes of those who couldn’t pay. The Intercept reported that Section 107 of S.2155 would allow manufactured home sellers to push borrowers into bad loans once again.

Several other S.2551 cosponsors have large investments in financial firms. As of 2016, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) owned up to $50,000 and Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) owned up to $100,000 in J. P. Morgan corporate securities stock.

In 2016, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) owned two corporate bonds, each worth up to $15,000, with J. P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway as part of his individual retirement account, and up to $15,000 in Prudential Financial stock, while his spouse owned between $15,000 and $50,000 in U.S. Bancorp stock. As of September 2017, Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) had up to $100,000 invested in Regions Financial Corporation.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth roughly $238 million in 2015, has between $5 million and $25 million invested in J.P. Morgan’s Strategic Income Opports I mutual fund. Primary sponsor Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and his spouse have up to $80,000 invested in J.P. Morgan mutual funds.

“The lobbyists have been fighting these regulations literally since the day the rules were passed,” said Warren in a recent video. “And now Congress is about to give the banks and their lobbyists their fondest wish.”

J.P. Morgan lobbied Congress during the last quarter of 2017 on S.2155 and “issues related to the treatment of custody in capital and liquidity requirements.” The Manufactured Housing Institute, which represents numerous Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries, hired two different firms to lobby Congress on S.2155 as recently as 2017’s final quarter. Reports for early 2018 are not yet available. Over 100 additional companies have reported lobbying specifically on S.2155 in 2017.

Lobbying isn’t the only method that financial and loan companies employ to influence legislators. Heitkamp is the commercial banking industry’s number one recipient of campaign donations in the current election cycle, having reported receipts of $157,000 from banks’ employees and political action committees. Her fellow cosponsors, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) come in second and third, respectively, on that list. JPMorgan’s PAC donated $2,000 to Heitkamp in 2017.

Companies don’t stop at campaign committees, however. The J.P. Morgan PAC also gave $5,000 to Heitkamp’s leadership PAC, the Dakota Prairie PAC.

Citigroup, which will reap huge, targeted gains from the legislation, donated $1,500 to Heitkamp through its political action committee in 2017.

“Our big money campaign finance system not only means that Congressional candidates are dependent on deep-pocketed financial interests to get elected, but that Congress itself is a millionaire’s club where it is not uncommon for members to have six-figure investments in the industries they regulate,” Brendan Fischer, director of the Federal and FEC Reform Program at the Campaign Legal Center, told TYT.

The North Dakotan, a moderate, is facing a tough reelection battle this year in her conservative state, which the Cook Political Report considers a toss-up. She and several other vulnerable red-state Democrats including Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Donnelly and Tester are some of the most likely Democrats to vote with their Republican Senate colleagues. All are S.2155 cosponsors.

Despite what watchdogs might say about the appearance of corruption, Heitkamp is not breaking Senate ethics rules, which are very specific. The Senate Ethics Manual reads, ‘‘No Member, officer, or employee shall knowingly use his official position to introduce or aid the progress or passage of legislation, a principal purpose of which is to further only his pecuniary interest. . . . Both the ‘principal purpose’ and the ‘limited class’ test must be met before the paragraph precludes a Senator’s involvement in a legislative proposal. As noted, the history states that ‘legislation may benefit a Senator significantly, but if it also has a broad, general impact on his state or the nation, the prohibitions of the paragraph would not apply.’ In other words, lawmakers can write and vote on bills that benefit a class of people or a group of companies, but they can’t participate in legislation that directly aids themselves, their family, or one specific company in which they are financially invested.

“In order to even consider running for office, a candidate needs a network of wealthy associates and to be comfortable asking those rich folks for money—which gives an advantage to candidates who are themselves wealthy,” said Fischer. “So it perhaps isn’t surprising that the members of Congress who are leading the charge to deregulate Wall Street are both dependent on Wall Street cash for their reelection and also have six-figure investments in the entities that stand to benefit. We don’t know whether these members are acting in the interest of their donors, or in their self-interest, but it is unfortunate that we even need to be asking these questions.”

Heitkamp’s office, Warren’s office, J.P. Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway did not return requests for comment.

Alex Kotch is an investigative reporter whose work has previously appeared in International Business Times, Vice.com, and Exposed by CMD. Follow him on Twitter.