Montana state Sen. Cora Neuman, a Democrat, speaks at a January news conference in the Minnesota Capitol surrounded by state lawmakers from across the country amid a surge in immigration enforcement there. Democrats say they are increasingly organizing lawmakers across state lines to better compete with the influence of organized conservative groups. (Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer) Progressive activist Gaby Goldstein thinks her opponents are brilliant. Despite her deeply held liberal politics, she admires the work of conservative groups that for decades have built influence in state governments across the country. “We on the left have left a huge amount of power on the table,” said Goldstein, the founder and president of State Futures, a nonprofit launched last year that coordinates hundreds of Democratic lawmakers across the states. Few on the right have been as influential as the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. Founded in 1973, ALEC touts over 2,00...
At least one dorm at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, located in south Alabama, is uncooled. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News) This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News , a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here . ELMORE — Tiffany Montellano can’t sleep. Instead, she lies awake, worried about her husband Andrew, 31, who is incarcerated at Elmore Correctional Facility just north of Montgomery. She worries because a few days ago, she received a call during her lunch break from Andrew, who had missed their usual call the night before. He told her he had become dizzy the previous day because of the overwhelming heat inside the un-air-conditioned, 200-person dorm where he’s housed. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. SUBSCRIBE “He said th...