Not everything is OK in Oklahoma and as far as Sooner State working families are concerned, that includes the extremist and corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  This afternoon hundreds of union and community activists will join the Fire Fighters (IAFF) for a rally and march in Oklahoma City to ALEC’s annual meeting at the city’s Cox Convention Center.

A live stream of the rally, which will include IAFF President Harold Schaitberger, will begin at 4 p.m. (CDT).  

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that two Missouri paycheck deception bills are not necessary to protect workers and they would limit the free speech and political spending of unions and organized workers, while allowing unlimited corporate spending on political causes. 

Despite testimony overwhelmingly opposing the bill and universal opposition from the committee's Democrats, the Missouri legislature's House Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee passed S.B. 29, a paycheck deception bill, which is now headed to the House floor. Missouri working families went door to door last week to tell their neighbors about the problems with the bill, held numerous public rallies in opposition and flooded the Capitol with thousands of emails, letters and phone calls telling legislators to oppose the bill, which shut state workers out of the political conversation in Missouri.

Last week we told you that paycheck deception and other anti-worker legislation formulated in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC's) corporate-backed laboratories were moving in the Missouri legislature. Now paycheck deception is close to a Senate vote, and the Missouri AFL-CIO is urging Show-Me State voters to call their state senators—1-888-907-9711—and urge them to oppose S.B. 29.

It was no charming third time for former New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R) as the state House of Representatives decisively defeated (212-141) a "right to work" for less bill sponsored by O’Brien who no longer holds the speaker’s post.  

New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie called today’s vote “a strong rebuttal of ex-Speaker O'Brien's attacks on the middle class.” O’Brien championed the anti-worker measure in the past two sessions only to see it die both times.

The American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC's) long history of influencing state legislators—sometimes even writing legislation for them—to pass laws and promote policies that advance a corporate profit agenda, and at times an extreme conservative agenda, is well documented.

Now a new report shows another group—led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—is following the ALEC blueprint in pushing state education policy backed by for-profit education corporations.

A new study of proposals from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) shows that policies the organization promotes do more to harm the economy than help it, despite the claims of the group's lead researcher and author, Arthur Laffer. States that are highly rated in ALEC's annual Rich States, Poor States report actually do worse economically than states ALEC rates poorly, according to Selling Snake Oil to the States, by Good Jobs First.

Here’s a look at a number of other key working-family races and ballot issues from yesterday’s elections.

In several U.S. Senate races where Republican, corporate and super PAC cash looked like it would make the difference, union members’ get-out-the-vote activism and votes helped push working-family candidates to victory. Democrats now have 55 senate seats. Elizabeth Warren defeated Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Tim Kaine beat George Allen in Virginia. Rep. Tammy Baldwin overcame Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, Sen. Jon Tester defeated challenger Rep. Denny Rehberg in Montana and Sen. Sherrod Brown won over Josh Mandel in Ohio. Other Senate wins include Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). 

Starting this weekend on PBS stations across the country, Moyers and Company will air “United States of ALEC.” (Find the date and airtime in your area.) The American Legislative Exchange Council describes itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership.” But “United States of ALEC” finds that:

Behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

We’ve traced the fingerprints of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to the growing voter suppression efforts in more than a dozen states under Republican control in recent election season blog posts. But don’t forget that the extremist, corporate-backed ALEC is attacking working families on many fronts. A new report from In the Public Interest tracks ALEC’s footprints down the path of privatization.