Support independent journalism for just $5 a month and access exclusive content. Your subscription helps keep these vital stories available to all. Cancel anytime. Thank you to our current subscribers for your ongoing support! Join us in bringing light to untold stories.
CHICAGO, IL - The Chicago Teachers Union prides itself as a leader in “bargaining for the common good” – unionspeak for contract demands related to its political agenda rather than teachers’ wages and benefits. This year’s negotiations could reverberate across the nation.
Taxpayers far beyond Chicago should be wary as a new contract is negotiated with the Chicago Teachers Union – it is likely to impact demands and costs as other teachers unions negotiate.
CTU has a long history of going on strike, walking out on students five times in the past 12 years. Former CTU President Jesse Sharkey once said CTU is a “union that fights the boss. That was true for Daley, it’s true for Rahm, it’s true for Lightfoot. It’s going to be true for whoever’s mayor next.”
But with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson heavily indebted to CTU for the massive funding the union gave his campaign as well as his allegiance to his former employer, will CTU once again be a union that “fights the boss” – or will Johnson be the boss the union doesn’t need to fight to get exactly what it demands? Click here for link.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF - On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that “endlessly talking about gender to six-year-olds isn’t just inappropriate, it’s what the law would call entrapment, which means enticing people into doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do. … There’s a certain kind of activist these days who wants to take heterosexuality — old school, old fashioned, boring, minding-its-own business heterosexuality — and lump it in with patriarchy and sexism and racism and tell kids, wouldn’t it be cool if you were anything but that?”
Maher further stated, “I’ve said it before, wokeness is not an extension of liberalism anymore. It’s more often taking something so far that it becomes the opposite. Teaching kids not to hate or judge those who are different, great, proud we got there, all for that. But, at a certain point, inclusion becomes promotion, and contrary to current progressive dogma, children aren’t miniature adults wise beyond their years. Click here to read more.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Older adults in New York City may have missed out on timely COVID-19 vaccinations — and possibly died — due to a misallocation of resources that allowed younger adults in wealthy neighborhoods to jump the line, according to the findings of a new study.
Research led by the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and Columbia University reviewed the effects of eligibility policies in the early rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines on coverage and probable outcomes, with a focus on New York City. Their results were published recently in the Journal of Urban Health. Read more by clicking here:
ALBANY, New York — The decadeslong struggle of local media is getting a lifeline in New York.
The state budget, set to be finalized Saturday, includes the nation’s first payroll tax credit for local news organizations in a bid to encourage new hiring amid the ongoing struggles of journalism outlets to cover their communities.
Lawmakers and independent media companies praised the tax break, which will designate $30 million a year to the program, called the Local Journalism Sustainability Act.
“A thriving local news industry is vital to the health of our democracy,” bill sponsor Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Manhattan Democrat, said in a statement. “It’s our responsibility to help ensure New Yorkers have access to independent and community-focused journalism.”
New York spends more than $8 billion a year on tax incentives and grants to attract and retain businesses in the high-tax state, and advocates of the measure have for years sought to extend the largesse to the newspaper and local TV industry. Click here to read more.
CHICAGO, IL - Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson would rather bankrupt his city for illegal immigrants than admit that being a “sanctuary city” is a mistake.
Johnson is asking the Chicago City Council for an additional $70 million in funding to handle illegal immigrants, on top of the $150 million the city has already budgeted for this year and the $300 million the city has already spent. Chicago is projected to have a budget deficit of $1.5 billion this year and $1.9 billion next year, but Johnson wants to tap surplus funds to spend on illegal immigrants.
The solution to Chicago’s side of the border crisis is pretty simple. Admit that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) was right, rescind your status as a sanctuary city, and call on the federal government not for bailout money but for border security. The only reason Chicago is being overwhelmed by illegal immigrants is that Texas rightfully thinks sanctuary cities that are encouraging illegal immigration (and shaming those that don’t support illegal immigration) must shoulder a share of the burden. All Chicago has to do is admit it was wrong. Click link to read more.
