Rouge Forum Dispatch: Class Conscious News
We Say Fight Back!
Chelsea Manning ordered back to jail for contempt
US former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been ordered back to prison after again refusing to testify before an inquiry into Wikileaks.
Manning, 31, was remanded in custody for contempt of court after refusing to give evidence to a grand jury, her legal team said.
She was released from jail last week after serving a two-month sentence for an earlier refusal to testify.
Before Thursday’s hearing she made it clear that she would still not testify.
“I’m not going to comply with this grand jury,” she told reporters outside the court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Once in court she told the judge she would “rather starve to death than to change my opinions in this regard”, the Washington Post reported.
US District Court Judge Anthony Trenga ordered that Manning be remanded in custody and fined $500 (£390) a day after 30 days if she still refuses to testify, rising to $1,000 after 60 days. www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48304792
STOP LAUSD RETALIATION AGAINST STRIKING UTLA MEMBERS! Sign the Petition!
The District is retaliating against three different groups of UTLA Members because and only because we went on Strike:
1. Reduced Workload Leave Teachers
2. Health & Human Services Professionals
3. Substitute Teachers
4. WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO HELP
1. Reduced Workload Leave Teachers (RWL)
In May 2019, the district admiited they rescinded the RWL status of teachers because and only because they went on Strike.
This directly impacts the retirement benefits of these educators for the rest of their lives — resulting in an average reduction of roughly $250 per month in retirement — shrinking their retirement benefits by roughly $3,000 per year — for the rest of their lives.
A loss of $3,000 per year for the rest of their lives because and only because they went on Strike. www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/542/661/874/?fbclid=IwAR3ijfRRDH8RpI6xWpOwBIc2aPilEiMJbv5YR2PkttYPW9HnbfiqBdzfJMM
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Teachers at 3 Chicago charter schools go on strike
Educators at three Chicago charter schools went on strike Thursday in what’s billed as the nation’s first protest against multiple charter operators.
About 80 educators and support staff took to the picket lines, including at the Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy, 2520 S. Western Ave.
“At a time when charters have received the largest distribution of resources from the state of Illinois . . . , what they’ve done is expand the bloat at the administrative level,” said Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. “They have neglected to make sure that those funds trickle down to the classrooms.”
Strikers complain that their starting wages at the charter schools are about 40 percent lower than those of teachers at non-charter Chicago Public Schools — a situation they say is driving teachers to find work elsewhere.
Aurelius Raines, a physics teacher at IHSCA, said he knows of six teachers who have left his school.
“Not because they were let go, but because they could not afford to stay here and teach,” Raines said. “They had to find a job someplace else. They all found jobs paying them much more money. … That means I go into a classroom and I see a bunch of children who are sitting in front of a substitute and they are not getting an education. They just have a worksheet.” chicago.suntimes.com/2019/5/2/18622277/teachers-at-3-chicago-charter-schools-go-on-strike
The Little Red Schoolhouse
USC football coach Clay Helton made $3.2 million for 2017-18 fiscal year
USC football coach Clay Helton was paid about $3.2 million during the school’s fiscal year covering July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, according to USC’s federal tax return released Wednesday in response to a request by the Los Angeles Times.
Helton coached the Trojans to a Pac-12 championship in 2017 and a berth in the Cotton Bowl, ending that season with an 11-3 record. In February 2018, he received a contract extension until 2023, which could account for the pay raise Helton earned after he made a reported $2.6 million the prior fiscal year. As a private institution, USC is not required to divulge the salary information of its employees. www.latimes.com/sports/usc/la-sp-clay-helton-usc-football-salary-20190515-story.html
Southwestern College approves $330,000 salary for HR executive, calls it ‘hard to swallow’
The Southwestern Community College board agreed Tuesday to pay its vice president for human resources a $330,000 salary, an amount that the superintendent said is “hard to swallow” but is a needed investment in the college’s human resources department.
The pay makes the vice president, Rose DelGaudio, one of the highest-salaried employees in the California community college system.
DelGaudio previously worked in a similar capacity at at Long Beach City College, where she was paid $219,000 a year, according to the website Transparent California.
The proposed Southwestern salary for DelGaudio is higher than any California community college employee was paid in 2017, the latest year for which statewide salary data are available. It is also more than what Southwestern’s superintendent makes. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-05-14/southwestern-college-approves-330-000-salary-for-human-resources-executive
Southwestern College President cancels ASO elections (Identity Politics run amok in faculty and students while bosses skate)
President Murillo’s decision comes amid outrage over alleged racism and incendiary Instagram post.
Southwestern College President Kindred Murillo cancelled the Associated Student Organization’s annual election last week after learning about a fake Instagram post that made it appear a slate of black candidates was attempting to incite racial violence against their predominantly Latinx opponents.
The black candidate slate, known as Team Elite, denied any knowledge of the post, which called to “chop the heads off of the euro-centrist white supremacist mexicans of the campus,” and accused the predominantly Latinx slate, known as Team Green, of creating the post in attempt sway the election in their favor.
The election controversy is the latest eruption in a long history of black/Latinx tensions on campus. It bubbled over May 2 during a discipline hearing by the ASO’s election board on accusations of racist comments made by a Team Green member about Team Elite. Black students reacted with outrage after the board imposed a punishment on the Team Green VP of Public Relations candidate Dimitrius Loa that they felt was too lenient.
Black Student Union Faculty Advisor Trishana Norquist then revealed a packet of printed screenshots of the fake Instagram post. The post, which Norquist said “incited” violence, included a video of Team Elite’s protest over what they consider to be the election board’s inadequate handling of their complaints.
Norquist said she was so upset by the post that she stayed up the entire night prior worrying about someone coming to the May 2 hearing with a gun and shooting all black students.
“I requested that a police officer walk around this building because we don’t feel safe that you would promote something to where someone who is crazy with a gun will come in and attack my black students or attack me for representing [the Black Student Union],” she said. “How dare you put our lives in jeopardy. But a public apology is what you all think is necessary.” www.theswcsun.com/president-cancels-aso-elections/
Attorney: Abused clients were Ohio State football players
An attorney preparing a lawsuit against Ohio State University on behalf of more than 50 former athletes who claim they were sexually abused by a team physician told The Associated Press on Saturday that most of those clients were football players from the school’s storied program, including some who went on to play in the NFL.
Dayton attorney Michael Wright said the abuse happened during required physical examinations at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and during treatment for injuries and ailments by Dr. Richard Strauss at his off-campus clinic and at his home, where he insisted they be seen.
Strauss killed himself in 2005 nearly a decade after he was allowed to retire with honors.
A 232-page investigative report released Friday found that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 male students but made only one specific reference to football players while listing how many athletes from each team were abused. That list says three football players were interviewed. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/17/ohio-state-team-doctor-sexual-abuse/39488675/
National Poll on Education Attitudes Finds Majority of Teachers Down on Profession, Lack Trust in Parents
This is the latest article in The 74’s ongoing ‘Big Picture’ series, bringing American education into sharper focus through new research and data. Go Deeper: See our full series.
American teachers are less enthused about their jobs than are local politicians or active-duty military personnel, according to the 2018 EdChoice Schooling in America Survey. After a year that saw educators revolt over low pay and teachers unions seriously weakened by a landmark Supreme Court decision, the survey also found the profession disillusioned with parents and school boards.
This is the sixth edition of the annual poll, which measures public attitudes on schooling options, school quality, and state and federal education policy. EdChoice, an Indianapolis-based research and advocacy group, tends to favor school choice options such as private school vouchers or education savings accounts.
The poll’s 2018 iteration is the first to include the voices of teachers. Survey administrators conducted online interviews with 777 traditional public school teachers (i.e., active instructors working exclusively in district schools, not charters) about their feelings toward the job, this year’s wave of mass walkouts, and their level of trust in key figures in public schooling.
The results were bracing. Overall, teachers were unlikely to recommend teaching as a profession. www.the74million.org/teachers-down-on-profession-lack-trust-in-parents-poll-finds/?utm_source=The+74+Million+Newsletter&utm_campaign=952d6ea4bf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_10_09_37&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_077b986842-952d6ea4bf-176109065
Censored, silenced, forgotten
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
Is Trump Yet Another U.S. President Provoking a War?
The United States has a long history of provoking, instigating, or launching wars based on dubious, flimsy, or manufactured threats. In 1986, the Reagan Administration plotted to use U.S. military maneuvers off Libya’s coast to provoke Muammar Qaddafi into a showdown. The planning for Operation Prairie Fire, which deployed three aircraft carriers and thirty other warships, was months in the making. Before the Navy’s arrival, U.S. warplanes conducted missions skirting Libyan shore and air defenses—“poking them in the ribs” to “keep them on edge,” a U.S. military source told the Los Angeles Times that year. One official involved in the mission explained, “It was provocation, if you want to use that word. While everything we did was perfectly legitimate, we were not going to pass up the opportunity to strike.”
Qaddafi took the bait. Libya fired at least six surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes. Citing the “aggressive and unlawful nature of Colonel Qaddafi’s regime,” the U.S. responded by opening fire at a Libyan patrol boat. “The ship is dead in the water, burning, and appears to be sinking. There are no official survivors,” the White House reported. In the course of two days, the U.S. destroyed two more naval vessels and a missile site in Sirte, Qaddafi’s home town. It also put Libya on general notice. “We now consider all approaching Libyan forces to have hostile intent,” the White House said.
The most egregious case was the U.S. invasion of Iraq, in 2003, which was based on bad intelligence that Baghdad had active weapons-of-mass-destruction programs. The repercussions are still playing out sixteen years (and more than four thousand American deaths) later. The beginning of the Vietnam War was authorized by two now disputed incidents involving U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/is-trump-yet-another-us-president-provoking-a-war?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_brand=tny&mbid=social_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2567nS9K4ZdrJqkC5G8OmhB_pslKIQXXaeSVtQ8Z0ggQTeZ-h7SiGTXPs
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Two more Navy officers censured for Fat Leonard-related infractions
The Navy has censured a pair of commissioned officers for their roles in the Fat Leonard public corruption scandal.
The letters of censure issued to the captains by Navy Secretary Richard Spencer serve as both a public rebuke of their actions and shine more light into the web of kickbacks, payoffs and port contracts spun by the portly Leonard Glenn Francis that cost U.S. taxpayers at least $35 million.
At least 10 captains and admirals have received similar written reprimands in recent years.
Capt. Heedong Choi’s infractions took place from 2008 to 2013, as he served in several leadership positions in the Western Pacific, including as commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer Chafee, according to the April 26 letter.
But Spencer concluded that his relationship with Francis went back to 2001, when Choi was a flag aide to the commander of 7th Fleet. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/16/two-more-navy-officers-censured-for-fat-leonard-related-infractions/
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Navy fires helo squadron’s command master chief
The senior enlisted leader of a California helicopter squadron was relieved of duty on Friday, Navy officials said.
Command Master Chief Brian Todd Morris was removed from his post at Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 4 due to “a loss of confidence in his ability to perform the duties of a command master chief,” according to Naval Air Forces spokesman Cmdr. Ronald Flanders.
Morris, originally from Baxley, Georgia, did not respond to a request for comment submitted through Navy public affairs.
Flanders declined to specify what led to the firing but said Morris faces no further disciplinary action.
Master Chief Aircraft Maintenanceman Dan Poblete has assumed the duties of the squadron’s acting command master chief until the Navy assigns a permanent replacement, Flanders added. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/14/navy-fires-helo-squadrons-command-master-chief/
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Carrier CMC who urged crew to ‘clap like we’re at a strip club’ resigns
Seven days after urging the crew of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman to “clap like we’re at a strip club” to welcome aboard Vice President Mike Pence, Command Master Chief Jonas Doyle Carter stepped down from his post.
His bawdy reference ended up eclipsing the veep’s visit as CNN and other news outlets seized on his gaffe. Pence had come aboard to announce the administration was abandoning cost-cutting efforts to decommission Truman and instead would mark the Nimitz-class carrier for a midlife Refueling Complex Overhaul in Norfolk.
In the wake of his strip club quip, Truman’s spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Laura Stegherr, called Carter’s words “inappropriate” and said the issue was “being addressed by Truman’s leadership.”
Following a brief Tuesday announcement by Pentagon officials that Carter had resigned and was pursuing retirement, Truman’s official Facebook page published prepared statements from both Carter, the flattop’s senior enlisted sailor and his skipper, Capt. Nick Dienna. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/07/carrier-cmc-who-urged-crew-to-clap-like-were-at-a-strip-club-resigns/
F-16 military fighter jet crashes into building in Southern California
An F-16 returning to March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley after a routine training mission crashed after its hydraulics failed and its pilot ejected, base officials said Thursday.
The jet crashed into a building off the base, on Van Buren Boulevard near the 215 Freeway, about 3:45 p.m.
Captured on a dashboard camera by a commuter on the freeway, the jet appeared to be leaning to one side as it dropped to the ground outside the base.
The pilot had reported hydraulics problems and said he was returning to base when he was forced to eject moments before impact, said the base’s deputy fire chief, Timothy Holliday. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-riverside-plane-crash-f-16-story.html
Tomgram: Hartung and Smithberger, A Dollar-by-Dollar Tour of the National Security State
Boondoggle, Inc.
Making Sense of the $1.25 Trillion National Security State Budget
By William D. Hartung and Mandy SmithbergerIn its latest budget request, the Trump administration is asking for a near-record $750 billion for the Pentagon and related defense activities, an astonishing figure by any measure. If passed by Congress, it will, in fact, be one of the largest military budgets in American history, topping peak levels reached during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. And keep one thing in mind: that $750 billion represents only part of the actual annual cost of our national security state.
There are at least 10 separate pots of money dedicated to fighting wars, preparing for yet more wars, and dealing with the consequences of wars already fought. So the next time a president, a general, a secretary of defense, or a hawkish member of Congress insists that the U.S. military is woefully underfunded, think twice. A careful look at U.S. defense expenditures offers a healthy corrective to such wildly inaccurate claims.
Now, let’s take a brief dollar-by-dollar tour of the U.S. national security state of 2019, tallying the sums up as we go, and see just where we finally land (or perhaps the word should be “soar”), financially speaking.
The Pentagon’s “Base” Budget: The Pentagon’s regular, or “base,” budget is slated to be $544.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2020, a healthy sum but only a modest down payment on total military spending.
As you might imagine, that base budget provides basic operating funds for the Department of Defense, much of which will actually be squandered on preparations for ongoing wars never authorized by Congress, overpriced weapons systems that aren’t actually needed, or outright waste, an expansive category that includes everything from cost overruns to unnecessary bureaucracy. That $544.5 billion is the amount publicly reported by the Pentagon for its essential expenses and includes as well $9.6 billion in mandatory spending that goes toward items like military retirement. www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176561/
www.addictedtowar.com/book.html
US Special Forces School Publishes a Book on Overthrowing Foreign Governments
Declares most past US plotting to be successful
US Special Operations Command can now be said to have literally written the book on US-imposed regime change, with the book “Support to Resistance: Strategic Purpose and Effectiveness” released this week by their official school.
The official study covers 47 distinct cases of US special forces trying to intervene in various countries from 1941-2003. It did not include some of the more famous US-backed coups, as the study said they did not involve “legitimate resistance movements.“
This meant a few pages covering each incident, attempts to sort them into various categories, and determinations if they were successful or failures. Overwhelmingly, they determined their own interventions were successful.
Apparently anticipating the problems in years to come, the study also addressed mounting unrest across the Middle East in its early portion, and waved this away by arguing that it was generally the fault of the Soviet Union, and would’ve happened no matter what the US did. news.antiwar.com/2019/05/10/us-special-forces-school-publishes-a-book-on-overthrowing-foreign-governments/
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The Navy’s probe into sky penis (video within)
It prompted viral guffaws from some and online outrage from others.
There are shot glasses commemorating the event and it birthed memes ahead of the annual Army-Navy game.
But the inside story of how an EA-18G Growler jet crew drew a penis across the clear blue skies of Washington state in 2017 has never been told.
Until now.
It was the work of two junior officers with the “Zappers” of Electronic Attack Squadron 130, who had sky time to kill and noticed that the white contrails their jet produced were particularly robust that afternoon.
But they never counted on those contrails lingering long enough for folks on the ground to see their phallic rendering, according to a copy of the military’s sky penis investigation obtained exclusively by Navy Times. www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/05/14/the-navys-probe-into-sky-penis/
Trump may pardon military men accused or convicted of war crimes: New York Times
U.S. President Donald Trump has asked for files to be prepared on pardoning several U.S. military members accused of or convicted of war crimes, including one slated to stand trial on charges of shooting unarmed civilians while in Iraq, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Trump requested the immediate preparation of paperwork needed, indicating he is considering pardons for the men around Memorial Day on May 27, the report said, citing two unnamed U.S. officials. Assembling pardon files normally takes months, but the Justice Department has pressed for the work to be completed before that holiday weekend, one of the officials said.
One request is for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, scheduled to stand trial in coming weeks on charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq. www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-pardons/trump-may-pardon-military-men-accused-or-convicted-of-war-crimes-new-york-times-idUSKCN1SO0QH
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
More layoffs coming at Bailed Out Belvidere Chrysler after ‘C’ shift eliminated
More layoffs are coming at the Belvidere’s Fiat Chrysler plant, a spokesperson for FCA Group tells 23 News on behalf of the plant.
This comes after new scheduling change took effect today, eliminating the ‘C’ shift and slashing 1,371 jobs.
FCA Spokesperson Jodi Tinson released the following statement:
“Following a full review of its operations at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, FCA has determined that additional staffing actions were needed to properly align with the plant’s return to a two shift operating pattern that began today. As a result, the Company notified the state of Illinois, the city of Belvidere and the UAW today that the total number of people who could be potentially impacted is being revised to 1,403.”
Some of the affected Chrysler employees were notified of the layoffs by calls attributed to plant manager Tomasz Gebka. www.wifr.com/content/news/More-layoffs-coming-at-Belvidere-Chrysler-509548421.html
Michigan student loan debt increases 52% since 2007
Going into her junior year at the University of Michigan, Meg Wynne already has $20,000 in debt.
“It’s scary because you’re not always thinking about how it adds up,” said the 20-year-old from Indianapolis. “But it can add up fast.”
The average student loan debt at four-year Michigan colleges and universities increased on average by 52% — more than $10,000 — between 2007 and 2017 to $30,204, according to the first report of its kind from LendEDU, an online student loans marketplace.
That surpasses the average increase of nearly $9,577 across 921 U.S. institutions to $30,043.
With those debt loads following students for years after graduation, it means 18-year-olds are making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, said Kelly Peeler, a former JPMorgan analyst and CEO of Money Mentor, a financial advice platform for Generation Z, the current crop of college students.
“Student loan payments are the crux of the financial identity of Gen Z,” Peeler said. “There are indications that Gen Z might not be able to own homes in the future. They might not be able to have children to the capacity that millennials did because they are paying $350 per month. For the baby boomers, that was going to their mortgages.” www.detroitnews.com/story/news/education/2019/05/14/michigan-college-debt-increases-report/1119336001/
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
President Trump Grants Pardon to Conrad Black
President Trump on Wednesday granted a full pardon to Conrad M. Black, the former press baron and onetime society fixture who was found guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007.
The pardon of Mr. Black, a political ally and longtime associate of Mr. Trump’s, was the latest example of the president using one of the unilateral powers of his office to absolve a high-profile public figure whose case resonates with him personally, bucking the more traditional practice of sifting through thousands of pardon applications awaiting his review.
In 2017, Mr. Trump granted a pardon to Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff and another close political ally whose aggressive efforts to detain undocumented immigrants earned him a criminal contempt conviction.
Last year, the president pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative commentator convicted of campaign finance violations. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/us/politics/conrad-black-pardon.html
Armed police raid US journalist’s home ‘with a sledgehammer’ after he refuses to reveal source
Bryan Carmody, a freelance reporter in San Francisco, awoke on Friday to the sounds of someone trying to break into his house.
About 10 officers from the San Francisco Police Department were bashing the front gate of his Outer-Richmond home with a sledgehammer, he said.
It was just after eight o’clock in the morning.
Mr Carmody called out and said he would let them into the house. The officers showed him a search warrant, and proceeded to go through his home – from “top to bottom” he says – with their guns drawn. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/journalist-refuse-reveal-source-armed-police-san-francisco-bryan-carmody-jeff-adachi-a8910156.html
Woman accused of posting Nazi propaganda at schools in Newport Beach and Fullerton
Vandalism and graffiti charges were filed Monday against a 22-year-old Fullerton woman accused of posting what prosecutors characterized as Nazi propaganda posters at Newport Harbor High School and Fullerton College.
Grace Elisabeth Ziesmer is charged with one count of vandalism and two counts of posting graffiti — all misdemeanors. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-nazi-posters-orange-county-20190513-story.html
Solidarity for Never
Two criminal Servants of the Empire: Obama +Weingarten
Punching In: A Game of Thrones at the AFL-CIO (1)
The Union Won’t Pick Up the Tab | Fast Times at the Wage and Hour Division | House to Hold LGBT Vote
Chris Opfer: The Battle of the $117 Miami Strip Club Bill may be over, but a recent scuffle between two AFL-CIO officials is the latest sign of growing dissension in the ranks of the world’s largest worker organization. Some labor leaders see that as an opportunity to gauge support for a run at the throne.
The AFL-CIO’s executive committee last week agreed to lift the suspension of Tefere Gebre—the federation’s No. 3 official—stemming from his botched attempt to get reimbursed by the organization for a (relatively inexpensive) night at a South Florida adult entertainment establishment. President Richard Trumka informed Gebre a little more than an hour before the committee meeting that the suspension with pay was removed, according to an email obtained by Bloomberg Law.
Gebre said an assistant mistakenly made the reimbursement request, which was revoked after the bill was flagged, according to Splinter News. He also questioned Trumka’s power to put him on administrative leave in the first place.
Trumka still has more than two years left in his third term at the helm, but that’s not stopping some of his possible successors from sniffing out potential support for a run if and when the seat opens. Three names are swirling as likely candidates to eventually replace Trumka, and at least two of them are making calls behind the scenes to try to build a backing, according to sources.
- Liz Shuler: The AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer has long been seen as the heir apparent. She was largely the public face of the federation’s successful effort to kill right-to-work legislation in Missouri last year.
- Randi Weingarten: The American Federation of Teachers president flirted with challenging Trumka in the last AFL-CIO election and has since been a prominent voice in highly publicized school house strikes. Weingarten is taking a page from the Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House playbook: She will publicly say she’s not interested in the job, while remaining open to the option behind the scenes if sufficiently urged to do so by others. news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/punching-in-a-game-of-thrones-at-the-afl-cio
Exclusive: National Education Association May Lose Thousands of Las Vegas Members If City’s Bus Drivers, Food Service Workers & Custodians Shift to Teamsters
Most of the education support employees working for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas may soon find themselves switching state and national unions. A loss for the National Education Association will turn into a gain for the Teamsters.
The Education Support Employees Association is affiliated with the Nevada State Education Association and NEA. It is the exclusive bargaining agent for some 11,000 school district support personnel in Las Vegas. Historically, about half of those employees have been union members. ESEA calls itself the largest local of education support workers in the United States.
For almost 20 years, ESEA has been locked in an organizing and legal battle with Teamsters Local 14 for members and exclusive representative status. In 2006 and 2015, the Teamsters received a majority of votes in representation elections, but Nevada law requires a challenger to receive a majority of the entire bargaining unit, not just of votes cast. That law was ultimately upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court after years of litigation.
While ESEA held on to its negotiating status, it continued to hemorrhage members to the Teamsters. Reliable numbers are rare, but an examination of ESEA’s dues income indicates a range of somewhere between 2,500 and 4,500 active members remaining. Teamsters Local 14 had 2,487 active members as of December 2018, according to its disclosure report to the U.S. Department of Labor. www.the74million.org/article/exclusive-national-education-association-may-lose-thousands-of-las-vegas-members-if-citys-bus-drivers-food-service-workers-custodians-shift-to-teamsters/?utm_source=The+74+Million+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e1ee0439e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_14_09_38&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_077b986842-e1ee0439e4-176109065
Spy versus Spy
Kevin Mallory: Ex-CIA agent jailed for spying for China
A former CIA officer has been jailed for 20 years for disclosing military secrets to a Chinese agent, the US justice department says.
Kevin Mallory, 62, was found guilty of several spying offences following a two-week trial last June.
The fluent Mandarin speaker from Leesburg, Virginia, held top-level security clearance and had access to sensitive documents.
He was convicted of selling secrets to China for $25,000 (£19,600).
Evidence at his trial included a surveillance video which showed him scanning classified documents onto a digital memory card at a post office.
He also travelled to Shanghai to meet with a Chinese agent in March and April 2017, the justice department said. www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48319058
The Magical Mystery Tour
Boy Scout sex abuse scandal’s stunning toll: Over 12,200 reported victims
For decades, the Boy Scouts of America has closely guarded a trove of documents that detail sexual abuse allegations against troop leaders and others.
The most complete public accounting so far came in 2012, when the Los Angeles Times published internal Scout records about accusations against some 5,000 leaders and volunteers named in the organization’s blacklist, known as the “perversion files.”
Now, an even clearer picture of the scope of the alleged sexual abuse is emerging. A researcher hired by the Scouts to analyze a more complete set of records from 1944 to 2016 testified earlier this year that she had identified 7,819 suspected abusers and 12,254 victims, marking the youth group’s first known tallies.
But even those numbers likely understate how many molesters infiltrated the Scouts’ ranks over the years, according to lawyers who have sued the organization on behalf of hundreds of alleged victims. Most of the suspected offenders were accused of abusing multiple boys, they noted, and many instances of abuse were never reported. Several lawyers also said they had signed up hundreds of new clients and that many of their claims accuse men who aren’t on the Scouts’ blacklist. www.latimes.com/local/california/la-na-boy-scouts-child-sex-abuse-20190515-story.html
PUBLICLY ACCUSED SAN DIEGO ABUSIVE PRIESTS WHO ARE NOT INCLUDED ON THE OFFICIAL DIOCESAN ‘ACCUSED’ LIST (5/19)
–Fr. John Patrick Feeney, who was a priest of the Green Bay diocese and stands accused of sexually abusing at least a dozen children during his career, during which he was assigned to 18 parishes. In 2004, he was convicted of child sex crimes and sentenced to 15 years prison.
His name appears on the ‘credibly accused’ lists in three dioceses: Green Bay, Las Vegas and Omaha. He was in the San Diego diocese in 1983 and in the Los Angeles archdiocese from 1990-2002.
www.bishopaccountability.org/assign/Feeney_John_Patrick.htm
–Fr. Bernard Waltos, who was ordained in 1974 and started working in Detroit Michigan. From 1977-1978, he was at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance and from 1978-1979, he was at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Hermosa Beach.
In the late 1970s, Fr. Waltos worked in the Los Angeles archdiocese and spent roughly ten years at Queen of Angels Parish in Riverside. It is believed he also worked at St. Paul’s in San Pablo, CA.
In 2010, a judge ordered the release of documents relating to the sexual abuse of children by priests in the San Diego diocese. Fr. Waltos’ personnel file was released at that time.
www.andersonadvocates.com/Documents/posts/LA_Archdiocese_Report.pdf
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
Colombia’s Peace Deal Promised a New Era. So Why Are These Rebels Rearming?(Pick up the gun? Don’t put it down)
The FARC said this month that 130 of its former fighters had been killed since the signing of the peace deal. The ex-rebels have repeatedly complained that demobilizing has left them defenseless against the paramilitary gangs still roaming the countryside.
This has led to a major setback for peace: Experts estimate that as many as 3,000 militants have taken up arms again — a figure equal to more than 40 percent of those who initially demobilized. It includes new recruits.
Things have also not gone well on the political front. FARC leaders did form a party to participate in elections, but they soon learned that military victories can be easier than political ones. Unpopular for their history of kidnappings and killings, they were attacked with stones on the campaign trail, dropped out of a presidential bid and did not win a single elected seat.
The optimism that peace was around the corner thanks to the deal Mr. Santos signed has faded among people like Andrés Chica, a farmer who lives near Juan José but now fears heading into town.
“What he sold us was a dream,” said Mr. Chica. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/world/americas/colombia-farc-peace-deal.html
Fannie Lou Hamer’s Testimony at the 1964 Democratic Convention (video within)
ANNIE LOU HAMER: Mr. Chairman, and to the Credentials Committee, my name is Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and I live at 626 East Lafayette Street, Ruleville, Mississippi, Sunflower County, the home of Senator James O. Eastland, and Senator Stennis.
It was the 31st of August in 1962 that eighteen of us traveled twenty-six miles to the county courthouse in Indianola to try to register to become first-class citizens.
We was met in Indianola by policemen, Highway Patrolmen, and they only allowed two of us in to take the literacy test at the time. After we had taken this test and started back to Ruleville, we was held up by the City Police and the State Highway Patrolmen and carried back to Indianola where the bus driver was charged that day with driving a bus the wrong color.
After we paid the fine among us, we continued on to Ruleville, and Reverend Jeff Sunny carried me four miles in the rural area where I had worked as a timekeeper and sharecropper for eighteen years. I was met there by my children, who told me that the plantation owner was angry because I had gone down to try to register. www.nbclearn.com/finishing-the-dream/1964-spotlights/cuecard/5752
Robert Moses Speaks on PBS (video within)
Robert Moses was a leader in the voting rights campaign of the 1960s. Raised and educated in the North, Moses put his teaching career on hold and moved to Mississippi, where he became one of the architects of the 1964 Freedom Summer Project and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In this interview, recorded for Eyes on the Prize, Moses talks about his desire to end racial discrimination by helping African Americans participate fully in the nation’s political process. ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/iml04.soc.ush.civil.moses/robert-moses/
So Long
Unita Blackwell
After Charlie Cobb and Ivanhoe Donaldson were chased at gunpoint out of Sharkey County into neighboring Issaquena County, the first Black person they encountered was Unita Blackwell standing outside of a small store she owned in the town of Mayersville, the county seat. She let them use her telephone, and she also introduced the two SNCC workers to Henry Sias, a small farmer and local NAACP leader.
Although Sias was a respected patriarch within the community, Unita Blackwell quickly emerged as the leader of the fledging Movement in Issaquena County, where no Black person was registered to vote.
She was been born into a sharecropping family in the Mississippi Delta during the Great Depression. Blackwell’s childhood was governed by “the plantation.” What that meant, she simply explained, “When the bossman says you go to the fields, everybody went to the fields; schools closed down.”
Resistance, however, was also part of her growing up. Her father refused to send her to the fields. He told the plantation owner, “this is his wife and baby, and wasn’t the plantation owner’s.” Nonetheless, after growing up, Blackwell worked as a farm laborer for most of her life, bouncing from place to place looking for better economic opportunities. She called these the “bleak years of trying to find out what to do.” However, by the 1960s, even sharecropping and tenant farming were in steep decline due to the mechanization of cotton harvesting. snccdigital.org/people/unita-blackwell/