In a major victory for the voters of Colorado, the state's legislature passed a bill that would greatly expand voting rights. The Senate has to pass a minor amendment before the legislation goes to Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) for signature. The new law would implement same-day registration, automatically send mail-in ballots to every voter and create a statewide voter database to prevent fraud that would be updated in real-time.

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. 

In his latest piece at Salon, Josh Eidelson talks about a planned walkout by fast-food workers in Chicago. 

The walkout began, the Chicago Tribune reports, at 5:30 a.m. local time with workers from some McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts stores walking off the job. The ultimate goal of the walkout is to support the Fight for $15 campaign, whose goal is to secure a wage of $15 per hour for workers. Also expected to join the walkout were workers from Subway, Macy's, Sears and Victoria's Secret.

Despite a widespread pattern of state legislatures attacking the voting rights of Americans, the Brennan Center for Justice shows, in a new report, that states have actually been much more likely in 2013 to seek to expand voting rights than to limit them.

The West, Texas, fertilizer plant, where a fire and explosion last week claimed at least 14 lives—including 11 firefighters and EMTs—and injured more than 200, was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1985.

The North Dakota AFL-CIO is calling out the hypocrisy of legislative Republicans and asking the state's residents to demand that Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) veto a bill that would deny locked-out workers unemployment benefits. According to an action alert sent out by the state federation, extreme right-wing Republicans in the legislature have voted to both deny locked-out workers unemployment benefits and to give themselves pay raises and more benefits.

On Monday, we brought you the story and photos of the Tax Fairness Rumble in Raleigh, N.C., that pitted masked Mexican luchadoras (female wrestlers) Juicy Buns, wrestling as “The People’s Champion,” against corporate-created and -backed “Champion of the Powerful,” The Scrambler. Here’s the video.

Members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) locals are part of the emergency response team on the scene in West, Texas, following last night’s massive explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed as many as 15 people, injured 160 and left many missing, including a member of Dallas IAFF Local 58, who lives in West. IAFF sends us this report.

Hazmat teams from IAFF Local 478 in Waco, Texas, and IAFF Local 2505 in Killeen, Texas, and other emergency service personnel are responding to the scene of the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, which has killed as many as 15 people, including several firefighters, according to reports.

“Unions are the problem.” These were the words that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie used in response to a question posed by a teacher at a recent town hall meeting. The governor has clearly taken a page out of the union-busting playbook by trying to brand the union as a self-interested third party, but the teacher sensibly corrected the governor, stating that “teachers are the union.”