Today the New America Foundation is honored to be hosting former Egyptian First Lady, Jehan Sadat. Dr. Sadat, who spends half her year as a scholar in residence at the University of Maryland, will be discussing the ideas she outlines in her latest book, My Hope for Peace.

While I was asleep in Switzerland, peace broke out Thursday in Colorado's multi-measure labor vs. business war. As part of a deal negotiated just before the deadline for sponsors to pull their support for an initiative, business groups agreed to fund a campaign against three ballot initiatives targeting labor prerogatives, including Amendment 47, the initiative to make Colorado a right-to-work state. In return, labor agreed to drop four initiatives that it had qualified to challenge business prerogatives. More details here.

The four labor initiatives being withdrawn are Amendments 53 (making executive wrongdoing a state crime), 55 (requiring employers to show cause before firing a worker), 56 (requiring most employers to provide health insurance for workers), and 57 (permitting workers to sue employers in workers comp cases). The measures still appear on the ballots, which have been printed, but votes won't be counted.

Now business and labor will team up to defeat not only Amendment 47 but also Amendment 49, a so-called "paycheck protection" member limiting the political use of dues by public employee unions, and Amendment 54. This last is an interesting case, since it's not targeted solely at labor unions. It's an attempt to end "pay to play" politics by banning political donations from anyone -- including unions -- who has an exclusive contract with government agencies.