Highlights:

First, the Good News…

1) National: In a nationally significant blow to the road privatization industry, Transurban has pulled out of the widely-criticized $9 billion, taxpayer subsidized, Maryland private toll lane expansion project, the largest ‘public-private partnership’ in the U.S. ‘Gov. Wes Moore (D) has made it clear since last year that he sought a change of direction in the plan. (…) The state remains committed to continuing progress and will move forward in a manner that ensures social equity, environmental protection, and engagement with local partners while always acting in the best interest of taxpayers.’ Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) greeted the news with a measure of optimism. ‘P3s are an executive driven process. If this is where the P3 is, we need to work together and see what’s next,’ said Korman. ‘I trust we will now have a more honest and cooperative process.’ Ben Ross, founder of the Maryland Transportation Opportunities Coalition and a leading critic of the toll lanes plan, expressed hope for an updated plan in the region. ‘It’s fantastic news. It means that we can start building a really balanced transportation system in Maryland, where it’s as easy to get around by transit as it is by driving,’ Ross said.”

This represents a huge victory for public interest advocates and Maryland residents, who struggled hard to block the ill-conceived project. The Bond Buyer reports that “in October, four environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit to block the plan, and litigation from the losing bidder remains pending. In August, after the Federal Highway Administration briefly delayed issuing the so-called record of decision, Hogan blasted administration officials and complained that the price tag has already gone up by 20% after ‘two years of unwarranted federal delays.’” [Sub required]

From an opponent of the project: “So many people contributed to this miracle.  For many, the five-year battle began with Tom Hucker’s building-bursting Town Hall that drew upwards of 700 residents.  (That may have been the official count, but we know it was way more)…  Marc Elrich’s steadfastness throughout, and that of strongly supportive Council members and elected officials in Annapolis…  1500 [Citizens Against Beltway Expansion (CABE)] members who did all that they could to stand in determined opposition to a horrible prospect, and the Sierra Club, which provided the clout.  The leadership of CABE, and that of our supportive sibling group, Don’t Widen 270….  And our new governor, and …. countless others, too many to recount here. Because of them, we have been spared a lot of destruction, a lot of loss, with likely no measurable benefit whatsoever. Yes, Virginia, there is a Democracy.”

2) National: Senate Democrats have introduced legislation “that could encourage more union membership and make it more costly for employers to crack down on organizing efforts. The legislation rolled out by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) would use tax law to accomplish those goals. One bill, which has 40 cosponsors, would restore a tax break that union members enjoyed until Republicans overhauled the tax code under former President Donald Trump. The other bill, which has 27 cosponsors, would bar employers from deducting the cost of anti-union campaigns as a business expense.”

The No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act would end taxpayer subsidization of anti-union activities by “preventing corporations from deducting their union-busting expenses from their taxes. Too often, workers’ attempts to organize for better pay and conditions are opposed by million-dollar, taxpayer-funded anti-union campaigns, and employers that spend at least $340 million per year hiring anti-union firms. Even after courts rule that they illegally violated their workers’ rights, the current tax code rewards corporations with tax write-offs.”

3) Colorado: The state has expanded unemployment insurance, setting an example for other states. “Colorado closed that gap during the pandemic thanks to the launch of the Left Behind Workers Fund by the Colorado nonprofit, Impact Charitable. That fund ultimately distributed $38 million to undocumented Coloradans from a mix of private and public funds. Recognizing that many eligible workers might be wary about giving out their information because of their threatened status, Impact Charitable partnered with community organizations to screen applicants and sign eligible workers up to receive assistance. The entire sign-up process can be completed on a mobile device in less than 30 minutes.”

4) Michigan: The Michigan House, moving quickly to realize its new majority’s policy priorities and neutralize previous right wing attacks on labor rights, has repealed right-to-work legislation and restored prevailing wage policies. Watch last Wednesday’s powerful testimony in favor of the legislation. [Video, about an hour and a half]

5) Michigan: Detroit’s got a budget surplus, and it’s going to invest it in needed services and infrastructure. “A surplus of $86 million will support neighborhood-level capital upgrades such as park improvements, blight remediation, dangerous tree removal, and sidewalk replacement. Another $60 million will be put into the risk management fund to protect basic city services.”

6) New York: A rigorous bill (S5590) sponsored by Queens Senator Leroy Comrie (D) has been introduced in the State Senate to require “all public authorities owning, leasing, and controlling critical infrastructure to study the potential consequences of privatization.” And, the state law would have a deadline:

“All public authorities who are currently in the process of issuing concessions or selling or otherwise transferring, or issuing notices of inquiry (‘NOIs’) or requests for proposal (‘RFPs’) for leasing, or selling or otherwise transferring control of any critical transportation infrastructure, or who have done so in the past ten years, shall issue a study reporting on the effects of privatization of critical transportation infrastructure. 2. (a) Each public authority shall issue its individual privatization report to the assembly committees on corporations, authorities and commissions, economic development, transportation, and ways and means, and to the senate committees on commerce, economic development and small business, corporations, authorities and commissions, and transportation. (b) Each public authority’s privatization report shall evaluate in detail the following: (i) the impact that sale or transfer of control of its critical infrastructure would have upon the authority’s ability to pay any and all debt it has issued, or succeeded to, that is guaranteed or secured by any revenues arising from the authority’s critical infrastructure, or by the ownership of such critical infrastructure; (ii) whether the critical infrastructure involved any existing privatization initiatives in the United States are comparable in scope, scale and value to the critical infrastructure controlled by the public authority; (iii) the progress to date of any comparable projects and whether any such projects have experienced cost overruns or delays, or otherwise have failed, or succeeded, in meeting the deadlines and costs put forth by the private entity. 3. (a) The privatization report shall be due on or within 14 days of December 1, 2024.”

7) International: The Association for Women in Development (AWID) says International Women’s Day needs to return to its radical roots. “Research by feminist and women’s rights organisations has demonstrated the ways in which gender biases affects the choices parents make when they need to pay for education, and have to choose which children to send to school. It’s in this light that one must view with great concern the increasing trend of handing over the education sector to the private sector.”

8) International: Due to its publicly-supported national screening program, Australia is on track to be the first country to eliminate cervical cancer. “Australia is a world leader in cervical cancer prevention. Our national screening program, introduced in 1991, led to a reduction in cancer rates by around 50% in its first 10 years. The program was further strengthened in 2017 when Australia became one of the earliest countries to switch from Pap testing to HPV testing. Australia was also the first country in the world to introduce a nationally publicly-funded HPV vaccination program in 2007 and to introduce a gender-neutral vaccination program in 2013. The most recent data shows that 72% of people were up to date with their screening. However, this means that almost 30% of the eligible population have not screened in the recommended timeframe or have never screened at all.”

Education

9) National: A new report by Public Funds Public Schools—a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Education Law Center (ELC)—documents a massive increase in public spending on private education voucher programsin the decade following the Great Recession. “The report, The Fiscal Consequences of Private School Vouchers, examines the growth in voucher programs and spending in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2019. For comparison, the report provides data for per-pupil expenditures on public education in inflation-adjusted dollars for these seven states, as well as the nation’s 43 other states, over this same period.”

10) National: Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider appeared on the Future Hindsight podcast to discuss how the defend public education. “One of the original visions of public education was about building individual democratic citizens for a polis, an American society.  Schools are at the forefront of expanding civil rights, whereas private schools can discriminate on all kinds of grounds. The current intense push to dismantle public education is part of a larger effort to roll back the gains of the civil rights revolution from the 1960s.” [Audio, about 50 minutes].

11) Arkansas: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), Trump’s former press secretary, has signed an education bill “that creates a new school voucher program, raises minimum teacher salaries, and places restrictions on classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.” Meanwhile, when she wasn’t undermining public education, Sanders was busy rolling back child labor protections.

12) Arkansas: “Look at that diverse group of students!”

13) Georgia: The Rome News-Tribune reports that a measure to protect teachers’ preparation time received strong support among lawmakers “while private-school vouchers have drawn fierce opposition.” Nevertheless, “the bill passed 33-23 along party lines. ‘It’s a hard “No,”’ said John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association and a former school superintendent, about his group’s position on the proposal. ‘It appears to me that they’re beginning the process of funding two different school systems … with differing accountability systems for the same public money,’ Zauner said, noting that the bill includes no mechanism to track what happens to the funds or to ensure that private schools eligible for the vouchers are providing high-quality education. The bill also drew criticism from Senate Democrats for diverting funds from the public school system and because it lacked a fiscal note, the analysis that is typically required for bills that would impact state finances.”

14) Illinois: The Chicago Tribune reports that “mayoral candidates Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson differed on taxes, schools, and the privatization of public resources during a robust forum Saturday largely dedicated to women’s issues. Perhaps the most spirited exchanges between the two were over how to raise money to fund programs and the fallout over governments privatizing services. (…) Johnson followed that up by blaming Vallas for the proliferation of charter schools in New Orleans that began under his tenure leading the schools district following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. ‘You were there,’ Johnson said as the audience gasped. ‘You actually did that.’ Johnson also dug into Vallas for his record leading the Philadelphia school business and derided privatization as ‘one of the greatest failures’ for female employees. Vallas argued that charter schools, including those in New Orleans, are public schools and touted how test scores rose under his leadership.”

15) Minnesota: School food service workers in Hastings “are heading into their fourth week of a strike, demanding a fair contract that respects these essential workers who keep students nourished every day. The 35 school cafeteria workers, members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 284, join a wave of workers around the nation bringing attention to unfair wages and understaffing issues. A statement from the union noted that workers ‘have been clear that any settlement needs to include a fair wage increase to combat the impact of historic inflation and maintain stability through regular hours and health insurance benefits.’ Despite repeated attempts by Local 284 to settle a contract with Independent School District 200, several conservative school board members stonewalled negotiations for months, forcing workers to vote with 92% support to authorize a strike on Jan. 6 and hit the picket line a month later.”

16) Nevada: Is scarce public school funding now going to be diverted to standing up charter school bus systems? “The topic jumped back into headlines last week after Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo called on state lawmakers to provide transportation funding for charter schools using a portion of $70 million that recently came into the State Education Fund as part of a bill he signed that shifted payment due dates for mining taxes. When announcing the bill signing, Lombardo specifically nodded to the recommendation by the state’s Commission on School Funding as well as his pledge on the campaign trail to expand school choice.”

“I can say that I would have concerns on any proposal that diverts money out of the education funding formula,” Dondero Loop, a retired teacher, said in a statement. ‘Without a real plan for how this would work, there’s a significant risk that millions of dollars that should be used for classroom instruction would end up disappearing into private contractors’ pockets. Should the Governor submit legislation, I am open to reviewing the proposal.’ (…) But Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno (D-North Las Vegas), who was recently elected as chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, said charter school transportation is not an education priority for the party.”

17) New Jersey: Another public sector bailout of privatized education comes to Newark. “Newark Public Schools is seeking to reopen a building that used to house a charter school that was shut down by the state nearly nine months ago. University Heights Charter School, a network of three charter schools, closed last June after struggling to improve student test scores, increase enrollment, and retain its leadership team across its schools, according to a letter from the state’s department of education. The district now plans to use the facility for an elementary school. In February, the Newark Board of Education approved a resolution to acquire the four-story property at 66-78 Morris Avenue in the city’s Central Ward. The building is the location of the former charter network’s elementary school, which had a troubled history before the state revoked its charter, a move that created disruptions for its students and families.”

18) Ohio: Ohio Republicans are hellbent on turning the state’s public education system into a political rubber stamp, veteran journalist Marilou Johanek writes in The Ohio Capital Journal. “Huffman wants tight partisan management of all education matters in the state with compliant leadership in the executive branch subject to confirmation and coercion by Senate Republicans. Then Katy bar the door for the beginning of the end of Ohio’s constitutional system of common schools. Senate Bill 1 is a blatant power grab to privatize public education in Ohio to such a degree that public schools cease to exist. (…) Sufficiently providing all public school students with opportunities to thrive is not the objective of Senate Bill 1. ‘It has nothing to do with improving educational opportunities or expanding career tech opportunities and everything to do with control,’ [public school advocate Bill Phillis] bemoaned. ‘It has everything to do with privatizing the public system.’”

19) Oklahoma: In a letter to the editor of Tulsa World, Randy Bradley of Tulsa denounces the proposed funding of a virtual Catholic school using public taxpayer dollars. “Gov. Kevin Stitt should leave the Oklahoma attorney general alone. Spending tax money to support Catholicism or any religion would be both a legal and an ethical mistake. Legally it would violate the Oklahoma Constitution, which has very specific language forbidding religious arrogation of public funds. It also would violate the spirit of our secular U.S. Constitution. Ethically, it would result in Oklahoma’s children being taught contrafactual material at school at taxpayer expense…. Even more ethically disturbing is that the tax dollars of Native American Oklahomans would be used to support a church that once ran mission schools. Those schools worked to eradicate Indigenous religion, language, and culture. It angers me that Gov. Kevin Stitt or the Legislature would even consider using my tax dollars in this way.”

20) Rhode Island: The Rhode Island Department of Education is moving ahead with a rigorous and inclusive set of standards, frustrating right wingers determined to whitewash social studies curricula in schools. Revised Rhode Island Social Studies Standards were endorsed by the Council for Elementary and Secondary Education. [Here are the full standards, 367-pages].

21) Texas: Behind closed doors, the debate over school vouchers is getting ugly, reports Texas AFT. “In the past several weeks, a flurry of stories have surfaced with leaked private statements from politicians, voucher proponents, and the odd Texas Education Agency official. In each case, the recorded parties have been caught confirming the worst fears of public education advocates vehemently opposing school privatization. (…) As Texas Signal reports, Patrick’s remarks included a promise to “pass a parental rights bill,” as well as comments on the topic of classroom safety, after which he noted a need to “get the thugs out the classroom.” Patrick did not elaborate on exactly who the “thugs” in question were, but there is no context in which the use of a coded racial slur is appropriate in referring to students or educators.”

22) Upcoming: On March 21 at 7:00 pm ET, Kevin Welner of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) and Diane Ravitch “will speak with two Nebraskans, University of Nebraska Professor Edmund T. Hamann and Lincoln High School principal Mark Larson, about the extraordinary things that public high schools can accomplish when they are dedicated to becoming a school of opportunity. They will also discuss the threats to public education that are happening right now in a state that presently does not have vouchers or charter schools.” [To attend via Zoom click here]

Infrastructure

23) National: In the Public Interest’s Donald Cohen, using Norfolk Southern as an example, takes aim at deceitful corporate uses of the concept of efficiency. “So, I’ve come up with a new term. When efficiency means cutting corners for increased profits, we should call it: ‘Extractive Efficiency.’ That’s what happened in East Palestine and could happen again if the underlying extractive efficiency isn’t dealt with. In fact, over the last few years, all the railroad companies have focused on efficiency to increase profits, cheering Wall Street, but not the residents of East Palestine. Less than two weeks before the derailment, it was reported that Norfolk Southern, the train operator, had improved the average speed of its trains from 17.5 miles per hour to 20.7 between the second and fourth quarter of 2022, and by January was at 22.2 miles per hour. Here are a few of Norfolk Southern’s ‘efficiencies.”

On Thursday, David Sirota of The Lever, which has been publishing exceptional reporting on the causes and consequences of the East Palestine train wreck, joined Briahna Joy Gray for a discussion of what can be done going forward and of the politics of rail safety reform in both parties. [Video, about an hour].

24) National: Transit projects would get more than $4 billion under President Biden’s budget proposal. “We are recommending federal funding for 18 major transit projects in 11 states. When these projects are complete, the result will be that more Americans will be able to take safe, reliable, and efficient transit to wherever they need to be,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters. “Each one is a game-changing project in the region where it will be built or will be continued.”

The budget proposal also contains provisions for improving road safety and supply chains. “The main highlight of the President’s FY 2024 budget request, according to analysis by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, is that funding levels authorized under the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA–enacted in November 2021–continue unimpeded, with $80.3 billion provided via contract authority for trust fund programs and $36.8 billion in advance appropriations.”

25) Hawaii: Gov. Josh Green (D) is now proposing that the new Aloha Stadium be built by private capital. It is unclear whether a privatized procurement model would be consistent with existing plans or if the process would have to start all over again.

26) Illinois: In a letter to the editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, Erica Salem, senior director of strategy, programs. and policy of the Respiratory Health Association, says Chicagoans must reclaim all public parks. “Now that the public use of Grant Park has been drastically curtailed by various private intrusions—NASCAR, the many festivals that charge admission—the opposition to privatization of public land may be reaching critical mass. Here in Lawndale, the community around Douglass Park has been fighting for seven years to reclaim our park from the private for-profit mega-festivals that take it over each summer and fall. All the complaints being made regarding the closing off of Grant Park to the public are equally if not more poignant in Lawndale. This is an issue that should unite the worlds of the haves and the have-nots in a common complaint and goal: Healthy, sane city life requires adequate natural space as well as space for outdoor recreation, no matter which neighborhood you live in.”

27) Washington: The Biden administration’s budget proposal would “would give Sound Transit’s expansion projects a major boost by accelerating funding for the Lynnwood Link extension and providing for the opportunity to secure early funding for projects that are currently in development. Included in the president’s proposed FY 2024 budget is $250.7 million for the Lynnwood Link Extension. The accelerated funding, coupled with last year’s funding for the Federal Way Link Extension, would create more than $40 million in borrowing savings for regional taxpayers that can be applied to other voter-approved extensions to places like Tacoma, Everett, West Seattle, Ballard, South Kirkland, and Issaquah.”

28) International: Bloomberg reports that India’s budget woes cannot be cured by privatizing public assets. “Lunging for bigger budget deficits when investors expect fiscal consolidation won’t fly. Nor is it realistic to hope New Delhi will raise resources by stepping up privatization in a pre-election year. The $130 billion stock-market scandal involving the infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani—even though the businessman claims to have derived no undue benefits from his proximity to Modi—has put the government’s commercial decisions under additional scrutiny. It has also left a big buyer of state assets out in the cold.” [Sub required]

29) International: The British government’s case against outsourcer G4S for allegedly defrauding the British government over a prisoner-tagging contract has collapsed because prosecutors failed to disclose evidence to the company’s lawyers. “The failed prosecution of G4S comes after the company agreed a deferred prosecution agreement with the SFO. The company’s care and justice unit paid £44mn in 2020 to settle three counts of fraud, for lying to the Ministry of Justice about the true extent of profits it earned on a prisoner tagging contract. The deal related only to the company, and did not address the potential criminal liability of any individuals.” [Sub required].

30) International: Writing in Jacobin, Matthaios Tsimitakis and Mihalis Panayiotakis report that Greece’s tragic rail accident was caused by austerity and privatization. “Railway privatization, a bailout obligation imposed by the infamous troika of lenders more than ten years ago, led to a split between railway infrastructure companies and rail service providers. Contrary to the expansion of the railway network across Europe and the introduction there of upgraded safety measures, the Greek railway network actually shrunk. (…) In a frenzy to privatize public assets and outsource services through public-private partnerships and contractors, the conservative government refused to hire enough railway workers to balance the number of workers retiring in the OSE workforce. This resulted in a railway system bereft of basic safety mechanisms. According to the stationmaster of Larissa, a telecommanding center that guaranteed the safety of trains operated until 2019 when the left government of Syriza lost the elections.”

Public Services

31) National: Artie Vierkant and Beatrice Adler-Bolton, co-hosts of the Death Panel podcast, criticize the Biden administration’s privatization of the Covid response. “In effect, the Biden administration is throwing Covid to the maw of the U.S. private insurance market, shifting both the payer and the responsibility to our predatory and extractive for-profit healthcare system. Costs will rise, the uninsured and underinsured will face tough economic choices, and pandemic-related resources will be stratified and rationed by a person’s ability to pay (like all other U.S. healthcare). As these first 1,200 days of the pandemic come to a close, the federal government is relieving itself of responsibility for the ongoing death, disability, and debility wrought by Covid at a time when continued intervention is critical.”

32) National: Writing in The Nation, Michelle Chen looks at how prisoners are exploited for cheap labor. “When he was released years later, Perez discovered that the sheets he had stitched for pennies an hour back in the late 2000s were being sold on the market for hundreds of times more. The bedding was part of a huge inventory of furniture, uniforms, and other products sold under the brand Corcraft, which markets prison-made goods to state agencies, schools, and other public institutions. A dozen Corcraft sheets currently goes for $73. Perez, who was in his 20s when he worked in the upstate factory, thought about the market value of his daily production quota of about 360 sheets: ‘You do the math, and you’re like, I made these people millions of dollars,’ he said. ‘Not only me. I was one of many who reached that quota. And when you peel back those layers, it really becomes insidious. You’re like, “Wow, well, wait a minute—this is really wrong.”’”

33) California: BI, a GEO Group subsidiary, has been awarded a five-year contract for use of its BI VeriWatch wrist-worn GPS tracker by Santa Clara County.

34) Missouri: Tony Messenger, the indefatigable investigative reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who exposed many of the shenanigans behind failed efforts to privatize Lambert Airport, has an interesting column about efforts to find out why a police foundation was paying part of the new police chief’s compensation.  “It’s unusual for private interests to pay the salary of a police chief, and [citizen activist John Chasnoff] wanted to see the records that outlined the deal. He filed multiple Sunshine Law requests with the city and was told there were no records. He filed similar requests with the Police Foundation. While it is a nonprofit, it serves mostly a public, governmental organization—the police department—and state laws suggest it’s a quasi-public entity subject to the Sunshine Law. The Police Foundation didn’t take too kindly to Chasnoff’s request.”

35) Washington: The GEO Group’s appeal of a jury’s order for it to pay $23 million to detainees and the state for paying only $1-a-day in violation of minimum wage laws has been referred to Washington’s top state court. “A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said it was unclear whether the detainees counted as GEO’s employees under Washington wage law and that the Washington Supreme Court should decide the novel question. GEO is appealing a jury verdict that resulted in a $17.3 million award for hundreds of people who were paid $1 a day to clean, do laundry, wash dishes, and staff a barber shop and library at a Tacoma, Washington detention center. The appeal also challenges a separate verdict awarding $6 million to the state, which had sued GEO for unjust enrichment for not paying detainees the minimum wage. The 9th Circuit also asked the Washington Supreme Court to decide whether state wage law applies to detainees at privately run state, rather than federal, facilities and whether the state was entitled to the $6 million award once the detainees were awarded relief.”

36) International: Britain’s National Health Service is “slowly dying of privatization,” reports Tony O’Sullivan. On Saturday SOS NHS staged a demonstration along with fifty-five supporting unions and campaigns, demanding that all NHS workers get the pay rise they deserve, a commitment to end privatization in the NHS (including from Labour), and that our NHS receives the funding it needs. And “opposing the new laws attacking the right of health care workers to go on strike too.”

Everything Else

37) National/International: A House resolution honoring the life of Dr. Paul Farmer, a pioneer advocate for “novel community-based strategies for the delivery of high-quality health care in impoverished settings,” has been introduced. Among the factors harming global healthcare delivery, the resolution notes, is “promoting privatization of health services, thereby undermining public system strengthening, health care access, health equity, and financial risk protection” and “the imposition of structural adjustment programs by international financial institutions controlled by high-income countries, which forced austerity, privatization, and liberalization on developing countries, resulting in an estimated loss of $480,000,000,000 per year in potential GDP during the 1980s and 1990s, nearly 5 times more than aid provided during the same period.”

38) National: In a must-read report in ProPublica, Andy Kroll and Andrea Bernstein of ProPublica and Nick Surgey of Documented spell out how right wing strategic planners under the direction of The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo have expanded their influence across wide areas of policy and politics, including turning back corporate responsibility initiatives.

“A recent Teneo fundraising email laid out how the group can bring its members’ influence together in service of a cause. To ‘confront’ what he dubbed ‘woke capitalism,’ Jonathan Bunch, a longtime Leo deputy and now Teneo board member, wrote that the group had brought together a coalition of Teneans ‘working with (or serving as) state attorneys general, state financial officers, state legislators, journalists, media executives, and best-in-class public affairs professionals’ to launch investigations, hold hearings, pull state investment funds, and publish op-eds and news stories in response to so-called environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, policies at the corporate level. ‘Our members were in the rooms where it happened,’ Bunch wrote. Another project underway, Baehr explained in a 2020 presentation, was a ‘surreptitious and exciting’ effort to map key institutions in major cities—private schools, country clubs, newspapers, Rotary and so on—and find ways to get Teneo members inside those institutions and help members connect with each other. The initiative has begun by mapping Atlanta and several cities in Texas.”

39) Ohio/Think Tanks: Progressive nonprofits are hiring. Policy Matters Ohio is looking for a Senior Policy Researcherand a Communications Associate. “Come join us and make Ohio a more equitable and inclusive place to live!” [By email]. The Northeast Ohio Worker Center is hiring a community outreach manager. Based out of Cleveland.

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