Rouge Forum Dispatch: Monitoring Empire’s End
We Say Fight Back!
www.facebook.com/BrevardFederationofTeachers/videos/445282489353988/?t=7
Above, giant red for ed rally in Oakland
“To my counselor, thank you for letting me fend for myself – you were always unavailable.” www.king5.com/article/news/education/california-valedictorians-graduation-speech-goes-viral/281-573e27fb-d86e-4d11-aa64-6e68387be114
Utopian Delusion: The World Is a Mess. We Need Fully Automated Luxury Communism.
It starts with a burger.
In 2008 a Dutch professor named Mark Post presented the proof of concept for what he called “cultured meat.” Five years later, in a London TV studio, Mr. Post and his colleagues ate a burger they had grown from animal cells in a laboratory. Secretly funded by Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, the journey from petri dish to plate had cost $325,000 — making theirs the most expensive meal in history. Fortunately, the results were promising: Hanni Rützler, a nutrition scientist, concluded that the patty was “close to meat but not as juicy.” The next question was whether this breakthrough could be made cheaper. Much cheaper.
The first “cultured beef” burgers are likely to enter the market next year, at approximately $50 each. But that won’t last long. Within a decade they will probably be more affordable than even the cheapest barbecue staples of today — all for a product that uses fewer resources, produces negligible greenhouse gases and, remarkably, requires no animals to die.
It’s not just barbecues and burgers. Last year Just, a leader in cellular agriculture, cut a deal to start producing one of the world’s tastiest steaks, Wagyu. A company called Endless West, which also makes grapeless wine, has started to produce Glyph, the world’s first “molecular whiskey.” Luxury could be coming to all. www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/opinion/fully-automated-luxury-communism.html
SDS, the 1960s, and Education for Revolution
Alan J. Spector
Purdue University, Calumet
The trial was a joke. Not that we were innocent, but the trial itself was a joke.
It was 1969. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) had split and while the
Weatherman faction had destroyed the membership list in hopes of destroying the organization,
hundreds of student activists tried to keep SDS going. General Electric was on strike. Tens of
thousands of workers. Despite the arrogant nonsense of some leftists that the whole working
class was racist and fascist, these workers went on strike even as the President of the United
States adamantly insisted that the strike would hurt the Vietnam War effort. Still, they went on
strike. What the SDS students from Michigan State University, from Central Michigan
University, from Alma College and from Western Michigan University did was, in a small way,
the very best example of working to build a movement to stop the Vietnam War.
Students went out to support the strikers, not just in Edmore, Michigan, but in many
places, offering support and also discussing, as best as we could, the connections between their
immediate struggle and the struggle against US imperialist war in Vietnam. The common slogan
was: “Warmaker-Strikebreaker: Smash GE”. Many workers were receptive and open to
discussing the issues; the sincerity of the relationships formed was inspiring. Some workers, of
course, resented the students, but overall it was
The Little Red Schoolhouse
Inside the Charter School Empire Prosecutors Say Scammed California for $80M
The indictment against the leaders of A3 Education lays out a complex organizational structure with two top leaders and several lieutenants who led the charge to enroll thousands of summer school students, who did not actually take classes. Several superintendents, knowingly or not, helped fuel the network’s growth. And untold coaches, students and parents were roped in to help boost enrollment.
Sean McManus and Jason Schrock created an online charter school empire that covered more than half the state of California, according to prosecutors and investigators for an outside charter school organization.
From the port of entry at San Ysidro up to Los Angeles, past the cliffs of Big Sur all the way to Santa Cruz; east through Raisin City, past the giant sequoias of Sierra National Forest, and down into the flat and quiet of Death Valley; south again to the Mexican border; and back to the coast – a person could travel unbroken through 20 counties that made up the lower half of their empire. An outpost of 14 counties encompassing Sonoma and Sacramento sits further north.
From this vast swath of territory, McManus and Schrock absorbed mind-blowing profits. Take just some of their 2016 tax returns: Their nonprofit charter management company A3 brought in $14.2 million in revenue. It spent only $3.6 million. Of the money it spent, $855,796 went to McManus and Schrock’s salaries. They appeared to be the only two employees, according to the tax return. (Voice of San Diego, June 12/2019)
In first admissions scandal sentencing, ex-Stanford sailing coach is spared prison
John Vandemoer, a former sailing coach at Stanford University who swapped spots at the elite college for bribes, was spared prison Wednesday, becoming the first person to be sentenced for participating in the widespread college admissions scandal.
In choosing not to incarcerate Vandemoer, U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel came down on the side of the disgraced coach, who had pleaded for leniency because he did not pocket the bribes personally and quickly accepted responsibility for his crimes when he was discovered. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-college-admissions-scandal-stanford-john-vandemoer-sentenced-20190612-story.html
Detroit’s Marygrove College to close in December
Two years after it stopped offering undergraduate classes and embarked on an unprecedented effort to offer only master’s degrees, Marygrove College will close at the end of the fall semester in December, the school announced Wednesday.
“We’ve been working very hard to avoid this day,” Elizabeth Burns, president of Marygrove College, said in an interview on campus. “It is a very sad day for our students, for our alums, for our faculty, for the sisters. The (Immaculate Heart of Mary) sisters brought Marygrove to Detroit in 1927. Their legacy of education will continue.”
Despite the college’s closing, the 53-acre campus will remain open as an education center. The transition will include an early childhood education center and a new K-12 school and a teacher-education training program with partners that include the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the University of Michigan, the Kresge Foundation and Starfish Family Services.
“Marygrove College has been a leader in urban education since the college opened in Detroit more than 90 years ago,” said Marygrove Conservancy chairwoman Sister Jane Herb www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/06/12/marygrove-college-close-december/1433257001/
The Professor and the Adjunct
Can universities fulfill the promises of academia if they depend on contingent labor?
For adjunct teachers, the hope of becoming full-time faculty is the contemporary academic version of the larger American dream, and it feels, at this point, no less dubious.
Illustration by Cathryn Virginia
John Sexton entered Brooklyn Prep, a Jesuit high school, in January, 1956, as a curious and passionate student in search of guidance. He quickly became enchanted with a charismatic young teacher named Charlie Winans, who dotted his freewheeling lectures with fleeting bits of advice on everything from the ideal wife to finding one’s true purpose. Winans encouraged a free and occasionally combative flow of ideas; Sexton, who had been fascinated, as a child, with the soapbox orators who dominated Manhattan’s Union Square, threw himself into competitive debating. He convinced the principal at a Catholic girls’ school to allow him to organize and coach a debate team there, a commitment that eventually took priority over his schoolwork.
But Sexton had helpful, interventionist mentors, first at Brooklyn Prep and later at Fordham University. He went to graduate school, to study religion, and then to Harvard Law School, where he blossomed as a scholar. In 1981, he joined the faculty of the New York University School of Law; he was appointed dean seven years later. In 2001, he became the president of N.Y.U., a position he held until 2016. During his tenure, applications for admission doubled, and the school’s endowment increased; it is currently more than four billion dollars. The faculty expanded, and N.Y.U. opened satellite campuses in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi.
In “Standing for Reason: The University in a Dogmatic Age,” Sexton offers his “accidentally serpentine path” as evidence of the transformative effects of higher education. www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-professor-and-the-adjunct?mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=tny&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2M5HaCdWtU5XJ5B4M1x_uzUalro4YcfYaYVfOexKGzK-a9p94pOm8vlBM
San Diego State window on wealth at the top
The arrival on Montezuma Mesa of San Diego State University’s latest president Adela de la Torre, who officially took control of the school in a flashy April 11 inaugural, has marked the beginning of an institutional housecleaning now sweeping a legion of executives out the door. The presidential purge is creating lucrative openings for highly-paid replacements and isn’t such bad news for some of the departed incumbents, who are picking up fat pensions accompanied by gigs with firms doing business tied to the university.
Topping the list of the well-heeled departed is Mary Ruth Carleton, vice president for university relations and development, and an ex-Oklahoma City TV personality. Carleton was the school’s fundraiser in chief for a decade before leaving at the end of last year for a top job at Marts & Lundy, a multi-national consulting outfit specializing in extracting mega-contributions from super-rich alumni and parents of students in exchange for a healthy split of the action. The company’s website lists San Diego State University and the school’s subsidiary operation in Tbilisi, Georgia, along with SDSU’s Campanile Foundation on its client roster. “At the end of the day, you need to find out what makes a person happy and figure out their motivation to move them to be a philanthropist who will support your institution repeatedly for a long period of time,”https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2019/jun/05/radar-san-diego-state-window-wealth-top/
Rebuilt from Scratch–Lincoln High School’s top administrators were ousted the day after graduation
Lincoln High’s principal and three assistant principals were removed from their positions Wednesday, continuing a leadership churn that has dogged the school for years.
The San Diego Unified School District removed Principal Jose Soto-Ramos and Vice Principals Myeshia Whigham, Devon Phillips and Zarpana Rietman from their posts on Wednesday, the day after Lincoln’s graduation. Soto-Ramos was the principal for two years.
The district would not give details about why the administrators were removed, saying they are entitled to privacy for personnel matters. District officials said Lincoln’s principals are not being fired; they will get a chance to apply for other administrative or teaching positions in the district.
San Diego Unified School Board President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said in an interview Wednesday that the removals are not linked to students.
“This is not at all about the students,” she said, adding that 294 students graduated from Lincoln Tuesday and were awarded a total of $12 million in scholarships. “The children have been doing their best. They’re achieving.”
About 87 percent of Lincoln’s roughly 1,500 students are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-06-12/lincoln-high-administrators-are-ousted-in-leadership-overhaul
The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor
www.facebook.com/DirectFrom/videos/1658593390940712/?t=14
USS Midway Foundation, SDSU Announce New Endowed Modern U.S. Military History Chair (education agenda-war agenda)
Trump sells Qatar $12 billion of U.S. weapons days after accusing it of funding terrorism
While President Trump berates Qatar for sponsoring terrorism at the highest levels, he is simultaneously authorizing the country to purchase over $21 billion of U.S. weapons.
One portion of that deal — $12 billion for 36 F-15QA fighter jets — was inked on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., when Qatar’s Defense Minister met with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis.
“We are pleased to announce today the signing of the letter of offer and acceptance for the purchase of the F-15QA fighter jets, with an initial cost of $12 billion dollars,” read the Qatari Defense Minister’s statement on Wednesday afternoon. “We believe that this agreement will propel Qatar’s ability to provide for its own security while also reducing the burden placed upon the United States military in conducting operations against violent extremism.” www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-sells-qatar-12-billion-arms-days-after-accusing-it-of-funding-terrorism/?fbclid=IwAR26I5Nqapxv0BLAoEdCASHIx5oo4eNZCiSVlJLq2lw0wDcjIVoOHlB3
War in 21st Century Part 1- Steve Miller
“War as cognitively known to most non-combatants, war as battle in a field between men and machinery, war as a massive deciding event in a dispute in international affairs: such war no longer exists.” Sir Rupert Smith, Deputy Commander of NATO during the 1998-999 Kosovo War
“If you treat debt as a weapon, the basic idea is that finance is the new mode of warfare. That’s one of my chapters in the book. In the past, in order to take over a country’s land and its public domain, its basic infrastructure and its mineral
resources, you had to have a military invasion. But that’s very expensive. And politically, almost no modern democracy can afford a military invasion anymore.
“So the objectives of the financial sector – of Wall Street, the City of London or Frankfurt in Germany – is to obtain the land. You can look at what’s happening in Greece. What its creditors, the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) want arethe Greek islands, and they want the gas rights in the Aegean Sea. They want whatever buildings and property there is, including the museums.” Michael Hudson on Parasitic Financial Capitalism, October 5, 2015, transcript of CounterPunch Radio – Episode 19 (originally aired September 21,2015).
“The most radical change is this: Standing armies can be sharply reduced in size, if properly reconfigured and trained to fight in this manner. Instead of continually “surging” large numbers of troops to trouble spots, the basic response of a swarm force would be to go swiftly, in small numbers, and strike the attackers at many points. In the future, it will take a swarm to defeat a swarm…. Such a military would be smaller but quicker to respond, less costl but more lethal. The world system would become far less prone to many of the kinds of violence that have plagued it. Networking and swarming are the organizational and doctrinal keys,
respectively, to the strategic puzzle that has been waiting to be solved in our time.” John Arquilla, “The New Rules of War,” Foreign Policy, February, 2010.
“Terror creates fertile ground for the new forms of social control…. These drastic elements of repression and terror provide the basis for the continuation and intensification of capitalist expansion into Mexico and Central and Latin America. States and transnational capital take recourse in repression through terror in attempt to dispossess people from their communal lands and territoriesthroughout the Americas and the world.” Dawn Paley. Drug War Capitalism, 2014, p 18.
The US learned a hard lesson after the 2003 invasion of Iraq toaredplanet.com/index.php/2019/05/21/war-in-21st-century-part-1-steve-miller/
Japanese Ship Owner Contradicts US Officials on Tanker Attack
Trump Reiterates Pompeo’s Claims, Britain Agrees With US Assessment
The owner of the Japanese tanker that was attacked on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, the Kokuka Outrageous, contradicted the US military’s claims about the attack. Central Command reported that the two tankers were hit with limpet mines, a type of mine that is attached to the hull of a ship below the waterline using magnets. But Yutaka Katada, the owner of the Kokuka Outrageous, said he received reports a projectile hit the ship.
“We received reports that something flew towards the ship,” Katada said at a press conference, “The place where the projectile landed was significantly higher than the water level, so we are absolutely sure that this wasn’t a torpedo. I do not think there was a time bomb or an object attached to the side of the ship.”
US Central Command released a grainy black and white video of a boat alongside a ship, claiming it was an Iranian patrol boat removing a limpet mine from the Kokuka Outrageous, the claim being they were getting rid of the evidence. The video does not conclusively prove anything, as it is hard to tell what the boat is doing. Iranian state media said Iran rescued the crew of both tankers, so the video could have just been a recording of the rescue efforts.
In an interview with Fox and Friends Friday morning, President Trump blamed Iran for the attacks on the tankers. Trump cited the video as proof, “Well Iran did do it, and you know they did it because you saw the boat. I guess one of the mines didn’t explode and it’s probably got essentially Iran written all over it.”
Trump, who has been known to sometimes contradict his more hawkish cabinet members, fell in line with his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, news.antiwar.com/2019/06/14/japanese-ship-owner-contradicts-us-officials-on-tanker-attack/
New York Times: US ramping up cyber attacks on Russia
The US is escalating cyber attacks on Russia’s electric power grid and has placed potentially crippling malware inside the Russian system, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Trump slams NYT report on U.S. cyber attacks against Russia
President Donald Trump lashed out at The New York Times on Saturday for a report that the United States has been increasing its cyber intrusions into Russia, escalating tensions between the two countries.
The Times reported that the United States has increased measures to penetrate Russia’s power grid as a message to Moscow to stay out of American cyber infrastructure. The efforts lay an aggressive groundwork for an attack on the Russian grid on an unprecedented scale if the two countries were to enter into conflict, the Times reported.
The escalation has prompted fears of overheating tensions with Russia, the Times reported. Exactly how deeply the U.S. has penetrated Russian systems remains classified.
Citing administration officials, the Times also reported Trump was not briefed in detail on the program out of fear that he would spill secrets to Russians as he did with classified information to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister during an Oval Office meeting in 2017. That incident, first uncovered by The Washington Post, reportedly put a vital source on ISIS at risk.
Trump flatly rejected the Times’ Saturday story, calling it “a virtual act of Treason by a once great paper so desperate for a story, any story, even if bad for our Country.” www.politico.com/story/2019/06/15/trump-nyt-report-cyber-attacks-russia-1365852
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JDBAAFZBOJDPXDB3XPFFZMSA6U.jpg)
Sexual assaults at military academies could be handled outside the chain of command
House Democrats advanced a plan to partially remove military commanders at service academies from decisions to prosecute sexual assault accusations, instead relying on an independent expert to evaluate the cases.
The move, included as part of the House Armed Services Committee’s annual defense authorization bill, drew significant criticism from House Republicans who said the move will undermine the military justice system and could lead to fewer prosecutions for the crimes.
But Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., head of the committee’s personnel panel and sponsor of the measure, said the changes are needed to restore faith among young service members that their reports of harassment and abuse by classmates will be taken seriously and pursued vigorously. www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/06/13/sexual-assaults-at-military-academies-could-be-handled-outside-the-chain-of-command/
The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor
All Flint water crisis criminal charges dismissed by attorney general’s office — for now
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office has dismissed all pending criminal charges arising from the Flint drinking water crisis,saying the initial investigation was bungled and it is opting to launch a new but expanded probe.
The office announced on Thursday the dismissal of charges against all eight remaining defendants, including involuntary manslaughter charges against Nick Lyon, the former director of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Charges were also dismissed against other officials from the health department, plus two former Flint emergency managers and current or former employees of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Flint.
Seven had earlier pleaded no contest to misdemeanors, with expectations they would cooperate with other pending prosecutions and their records would eventually be wiped clean.
Flint residents reacted with shock and confusion. www.richgibson.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=23492&action=edit&classic-editor
A California desert town sees surge in migrants as border crisis worsens
“Come, come, la migra!” he said.
But the agents weren’t there to round up people who were in the country illegally. They were dropping immigrants off.
The scene that unfolded recently in this desert city about 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border exemplifies how the immigration crisis has spilled over into communities farther north.
With a historic flow of Central American families fleeing poverty and violence, federal officials earlier this spring began releasing migrants on their own recognizance from inundated detention centers in growing numbers. About 175,000 have left custody since Dec. 21.
Nonprofit and faith-based organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are among those that have stepped in to help the asylum seekers. But the mounting costs have raised doubts — among local officials and advocates alike — about how long they can keep doing so. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-immigration-migrants-surge-blythe-20190611-story.html
‘Like nothing we have experienced’: Panhandle kids on verge of mental health crisis
For some children, all it took was the rain.
When thunderstorms passed through the Panhandle this winter, the sound was enough to distress some students just returning to school, reminding them of Hurricane Michael’s raging path last October that left much of the state’s northwest in ruin.
They would run to their teachers in tears, fearing the storm might return, recalled Sharon Michalik, the communications director for the school district in Bay County.
The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement and The War on Reason
Pride fest attendees blast Detroit police handling of Nazis
Attendees of a weekend gay pride festival downtown condemned the police department Tuesday over its handling of an armed extremist group’s efforts to incite fear, claiming police should have informed the public ahead of time.
DeMeeko Williams, a resident and prominent water rights advocate, called for Detroit Police Chief James Craig’s dismissal, claiming he “has failed the city.” Williams claimed that the police “protected” the neo-Nazi group that demonstrated Saturday during the Motor City Pride event at Hart Plaza.
“I am sad and I am angry and I want something done about this ASAP,” he said, ending his argument by chanting “no Nazis, no KKK, no racist USA.”
Williams joined a handful of individuals who spoke out against the department’s handling of the incident during public comment at Detroit City Council’s formal session. They spoke after Craig addressed the panel to detail the department’s efforts to thwart the neo-Nazi group’s plan to spark what he called “Charlottesville 2.0” at the downtown Detroit festivities. www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/06/11/pride-fest-attendees-blast-detroit-police-handling-nazis/1418432001/
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/TE4BQLUNCVAKVB6NRT5VD64LJE.jpg)
Marine veteran Rep. Duncan Hunter’s legal fight tougher as wife pleads guilty in corruption case
Indicted six-term GOP Congressman Duncan Hunter has held steadfast to his contention that a corruption case against him is the result of a political witch hunt.
But that argument got tougher Thursday for the former Marine and close ally of President Donald Trump after his wife, who worked as his campaign manager, pleaded guilty to a single corruption count and acknowledged being a co-conspirator with her husband in spending more than $200,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses.
Margaret Hunter accepted a plea deal that calls for 59 charges to be dismissed in exchange for her testimony, full cooperation with prosecutors and other concessions. The conspiracy charge to which she pleaded includes all the allegations contained in the 60-count indictment.
“The walls were closing in on him before, now this just makes it more claustrophobic,” said Jason Forge, a former federal attorney who prosecuted California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in 2005 for one of the worst bribery scandals to ever bring down a federal lawmaker.
Rep. Hunter “has fewer and fewer options. It’s not just his campaign manager. It’s his campaign manager and his wife,” Forge said. www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/06/14/rep-duncan-hunters-legal-fight-tougher-as-wife-pleads-guilty-in-corruption-case/
Solidarity for Never
Volkswagen Factory Workers in Tennessee Reject Corrupt Union
In the latest defeat for organized labor in the South, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee rejected an effort to form a union this week.
Of the roughly 1,600 workers who voted, 833 opposed the unionization effort, according to results released late Friday. The United Automobile Workers has been trying to organize the factory, in Chattanooga, for years, recording a narrow defeat in 2014.
“Our employees have spoken,” the plant’s chief executive, Frank Fischer, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with elected officials and business leaders in Tennessee.”
Labor leaders have long focused on the South, which they consider important to securing victories for workers around the country. But despite sustained organizing efforts across the region — including at a Nissan plant in Mississippi, a Toyota plant in Kentucky and a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama — the union has repeatedly failed to get a foothold with a foreign car manufacturer there. www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/business/economy/volkswagen-chattanooga-uaw-union.html
Union betrayal ends three-week teacher strike in Hayward-Union City, California
The 14-day strike by nearly 600 teachers in the New Haven Unified School District (NHUSD) in Hayward and Union City, California, has been shut down by the New Haven Teachers Association (NHTA). The union announced late Sunday that 60 percent of teachers voted in favor of the Tentative Agreement (TA), with 302 votes in favor out of a total of 502 cast by educators.
The terms of the agreement include a significant pay cut. Teachers lost roughly 7.7 percent of this year’s pay during their 14 days on strike, which consumes more than the 4 percent raise and 2.5 percent bonus spread out over the two-year contract. One high school teacher calculated that without inflation the average teacher would come out with just $400 more dollars in their pocket when the contract ends, but with inflation a net loss of $6,691 over the two years.
The entire experience of the New Haven strike has exposed the anti-working-class character of the teachers’ unions. Throughout the strike, the World Socialist Web Site Teacher Newsletter called upon teachers to form their own, independent rank-and-file strike committees, to take the conduct of the struggle into their own hands. Coming out of this betrayal, New Haven teachers must draw the necessary conclusions and work to build these committees for the struggles to come.
The NHTA, working under the leadership of the California Teachers Association (CTA), deliberately orchestrated the sellout of New Haven teachers. They timed the strike to take place after the P-2 ADA deadline when school districts report their daily attendance to receive state funding. Thus, the strike financially benefited the district while costing the average teacher over $7,000 of their annual salary. Over the course of the strike, the NHTA continually climbed down from its initial demands, acquiescing to the NHUSD managers at every turn. After first demanding a 20 percent raise over two years, along with a retention bonus and other demands, the union ultimately settled for a 4 percent raise over two years. www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/11/newh-j11.html
Teachers battle for lower
pay doesn’t bode well
Re: “Tentative deal reached in 14-day strike” (Page B1, June 10):
After three weeks, the New Haven Unified School District’s (Union City-South Hayward) teacher strike has finally come to an end.
The result: My colleagues and I “won” a 4% raise over two years (after having been offered no raise at all).
Thus, once again, our salaries will not keep pace with the local inflation rate of 3.4% per year.
Oh, the irony of teachers having to fight to earn even lower pay! This does not bode well for the teaching profession, public schools, our children or our nation.
David Ellison
Teacher, New Haven Unified
Berkeley www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/13/letter-new-haven-teachers-fighting-for-lower-pay-doesnt-bode-well/
A (farcical) pay boost is on the way for Detroit teachers after contentious negotiations make way for tentative pact
Detroit teachers at the top of the pay scale will get a 4% pay increase, while other members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers also would see salary boosts, as part of a tentative agreement between the union and the school district.
The pay boost for teachers at the top would for the first time in a decade put their salaries above what they were making before the days of emergency management — when teachers had their pay cut 10%. More than 60% of the district’s teachers are at th
Here’s how other members of the union would benefit from the agreement:
- Teachers who aren’t at the top of the salary schedule will receive step increases that could mean they’ll bring home between $1,300 and $1,800 more in pay a year. Unlike an across-the-board pay increase, step increases go to lower-paid teachers moving up on the salary schedule based on years of experience and education attainment.
- Those who aren’t on a salary schedule — positions such as attendance agents, substitutes, special instructors, academic interventionists, and education techs — will receive a 3% annual pay increase.
- Ancillary staff such as counselors and social workers will get credit for experience they earned before they were hired by the school district, which will boost their pay. The district honored outside experience for teachers last year, but ancillary staff weren’t included.
- All full-time members of the union will receive a one-time, $1,500 bonus. This does not include substitute teachers. chalkbeat.org/posts/detroit/2019/06/11/a-pay-boost-is-on-the-way-for-detroit-teachers-after-contentious-negotiations-make-way-for-tentative-pact/?fbclid=IwAR0tpOWQ-HKQen95RguYCcTKaLhb1drbtJFPi_zBidHHqclVZtmxrZEh9hg
e top of the salary schedule.
Spy versus Spy
From casino playboy to slain CIA informant: The rise and fall of Kim Jong Un’s half brother
Before the half brother of Kim Jong Un was killed in a brazen nerve agent attack at a Malaysian airport in 2017, he was known as a playboy and a hustler — not a secret CIA informant.
Kim Jong Nam, the exiled firstborn son of the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, lived among the gamblers and gangsters of the Chinese enclave of Macau.
Because he was the only high-profile member of the Kim dynasty living outside the territory and employment of the regime, Japanese and South Korean reporters would flock to him on sight. He was a bon vivant who enjoyed expensive watches, wine and cigars. On Facebook, he posted photos of himself outside various casinos and resorts. “Living Las Vegas in Asia,” he captioned one.
But behind the veneer of a high-rolling North Korean card shark was a man supplementing his income with a job as an informant to the CIA, said two people familiar with his activities. www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/from-casino-playboy-to-slain-cia-informant-the-rise-and-fall-of-kim-jong-uns-half-brother/2019/06/12/f7cd5eb2-3bd3-425a-b8d2-3efebbf64803_story.html?utm_term=.e74527c23fc4
www.facebook.com/yarima.karama.9/videos/1186687278172738/?t=16
Male student poses as girl to catch sexual predators, nabs police officer
A California college student used a Snapchat filter to pose as an underage girl online in an effort to catch sexual predators. The alleged predator he caught was a San Mateo police officer.
Ethan, 20, a San Francisco Bay Area college student, used Snapchat’s gender-switch filter to become Esther and posed on Tinder as a 19-year-old because Tinder does not allow juveniles to open accounts, according to NBC Bay Area.
Esther was contacted by a male Tinder user.
“I believe he messaged me, ‘Are you down to have some fun tonight,'” said Ethan, who did not give his last name for fear of retaliation.
San Mateo Police Officer Robert Davies, 40, began talking with the person he thought was Esther on Tinder on May 11, before the two switched to the Kik messaging app, where Ethan said Esther was 16, which “Davies acknowledged,” according to a release from the San Jose Police Department. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/male-student-poses-girl-catch-sexual-predators-nabs-police-officer-n1016696?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR27vC5y0cCThbZA61e9p8xnG0v0KqspPhttYcavlOn4hyvVntElJv-zIZk
The Magical Mystery Tour
Catholic Church spent $10.6 million to lobby against legislation that would benefit victims of child sex abuse
A new report released Tuesday reveals that, over the past eight years, the Catholic Church has spent $10.6 million in the northeastern United States to fight legislation that would help victims of clergy sexual abuse seek justice.
“At the most basic level, we were inspired by frustration,” says attorney Gerald Williams, a partner at Williams Cedar, one of four law firms that jointly commissioned the report. “We represent hundreds of people, who have truly been victimized by clergymen in the Catholic Church. We’ve heard a lot about the church’s desire to be accountable and turn over a new leaf. But when we turn to the form where we can most help people and where we can get the most justice — the courts of justice — the church has been there blocking their efforts.”
In New York, for example, the Catholic Church spent $2,912,772 lobbying against the Child Victims Act, which Governor Andrew Cuomo ultimately signed into law on February 14, 2019. The act gives survivors more time to seek justice against their abusers, increasing the age at which victims are able to sue from 23 to 55. www.cbsnews.com/news/catholic-church-scandal-spent-10-million-lobbyists-fight-extension-statutes-of-limitations-child-sex-abuse-vicims/?fbclid=IwAR0f1tesku3qodxC6k36meNJoVUsi9EOR2S9OT96ZJm1ljt5J01mR7PrdhU
Federal Ban on Female Genital Mutilation Ruled Unconstitutional by Judge
More than two decades ago, Congress adopted a sweeping law that outlawed female genital mutilation, an ancient practice that 200 million women and girls around the world have undergone. But a federal court considering the first legal challenge to the statute found the law unconstitutional on Tuesday, greatly diminishing the chances of it being used by federal prosecutors around the country.
A federal judge in Michigan issued the ruling in a case that involved two doctors and four parents, among others, who had been criminally charged last year with participating in or enabling the ritual genital cutting of girls. Their families belong to a small Shiite Muslim sect, the Dawoodi Bohra, that is originally from western India.
The case, the first to be brought under the 1996 law that criminalized female genital mutilation, has been closely followed by human rights advocates and communities where cutting is still practiced and whose members have moved in growing numbers to the United States and other western countries.
On Tuesday, Judge Bernard Friedman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled that Congress did not have the authority to pass the law against female genital mutilation and he dismissed key charges filed against the doctors and removed four of the eight defendants from the case. www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/health/fgm-female-genital-mutilation-law.html?fbclid=IwAR06Wf1LJYC9uY2sPqUOV6kHVSZmjXXWjJNY3Z6husmA3rAnKYSFBuYQHwA
Victims’ group wants Catholic Archdiocese to update list of clergy abuse
An advocacy group that monitors abuse by Catholic Church leaders called upon the Archdiocese of Detroit on Tuesday to update its list of priests accused of sexual abuse, saying it needs to do more to alert the public about problems with clergy.
Gathering outside the office of the Archdiocese of Detroit, leaders with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said that the Archdiocese has not done enough to publicly name priests facing credible abuse allegations.
In March, SNAP held a news conference outside the archdiocesan office in Detroit, saying there were 28 additional Catholic priests that should be on the public list. SNAP said the Archdiocese has not moved quickly enough to add more priests to the list, a claim the Archdiocese denies.
“There are more names that should be on the list,” Jeanne Hunton, the new Michigan director for SNAP, told the Free Press. “The longer those people go unnamed, the longer victims will be victimized.” www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/06/11/snap-archdiocese-detroit/1419176001/
The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World
above, San Diego sunset from Sunset Cliffs
So Long
Semyon Rozenfeld, Last Known Survivor of Death Camp Escape, Dies at 96
Semyon Rozenfeld first escaped death in the gas chambers by inventing a trade for himself when he arrived at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, in the fall of 1943. Questioned by a German officer, he said he was a glazier and was taken aside for work detail.
About a month later he was among about 600 prisoners who staged a historic uprising against their captors and tried to escape. Only about 300 made it to the fences, and most of the rest were recaptured in the surrounding countryside. But some managed to make it to freedom, Mr. Rozenfeld among them.
He died at 96 on Monday at a hospital in Rehovot, Israel, near Tel Aviv, and was believed to be the last known survivor of Sobibor. The Jewish Agency for Israel confirmed his death.
He was cited as the last survivor after the death of Selma Wynberg Engel last December in East Haven, Conn., also at 96. She had been one of the first to tell the world of the camp’s existence. www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/obituaries/semion-rosenfeld-sobibor-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR3L64QriLJIebZSA8454JedlwYlG94ryUc0ZrFxO8EBlKG9ucQxeErRfgo