Newsitem List

WorkWeek radio interviews education lawyer and public education advocate Kathleen Carroll about the recent UTLA strike, the growth of charters and privatization of public education. Carroll talks about the funders of charters and privatization and the role of their foundations who are also funding non-profits run by the AFT and NEA that support "common core" and TURN which supports labor management collaboration....

“When the gas blowout occurred at Aliso Canyon, the health risks and seriousness of the event were downplayed by public officials and SoCalGas, the company responsible for the disaster there," said Alexandra Nagy, Senior Organizer with Food & Water Watch. "Families were not able to make urgent decisions about their health and safety. Once again, residents have not been notified of health risks associated with this week-long emergency in Marina del Rey. Just like the Aliso blowout three years ...

Los Angeles public school teachers are on strike for the first time in three decades. On Monday morning, tens of thousands of teachers braved pouring rain on the picket line for the strike’s first day. Some 20,000 people marched through downtown Los Angeles, demanding smaller class sizes, higher pay, the regulation of charter schools and more nurses, counselors and librarians. Over 31,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles are striking....

The caravan is being harassed with tear gas....

Solidarity Actions for migrant caravan...

On November 25th, members of Refuse Fascism LA traveled to San Ysidro, the town right next to the U.S /Mexico border, where they joined a protest in support of asylum seekers. Photos by Peter Switzer, except where noted....

On Sunday morning [26 November 2018] over 200 people attended a rally in Larsen Field, San Ysidro, on the San Diego-Tijuana Border, to support the migrants in the Central American caravan, who are seeking to claim asylum in the United States. The protest occurred several hours before US Customs and Border Protection shut down the San Ysidro border crossing and fired tear gas at several hundred men, women and children seeking to cross into the United States....

On November 19, representatives Henry Stern and Jesse Gabriel authored a joint letter to Barbara Lee, Director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). In their letter, Senator Stern and Assemblymember Gabriel call for "full transparency" to "ensure the public is fully aware of any public health risks posed by the Woolsey Fire on Santa Susana Field Laboratory." Prior to the first round of data analysis, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control reported ...

The Los Angeles Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility notes that the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site is contaminated in a variety of ways: “Decades of nuclear and rocket-engine testing activity, including nuclear reactor accidents and other toxic spills and releases, have resulted in widespread contamination throughout [the lab’s] 2,850-acre facility.”...

The Woolsey Fire began on the property of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), a former nuclear and rocket engine testing site. SSFL is one of the most contaminated sites in the nation, subject of a promised but long-delayed state and federal cleanup; it is heavily contaminated with well documented nuclear and chemical contamination, from, among other things, a partial nuclear meltdown....