Highlights

• Chicago charter teachers authorize strike
• What we talk about when we talk about the government
• Privatization makes rocky road for Meals on Wheels

First the good news…

1) National: The Biden administration has announced “the first regulations to limit greenhouse pollution from existing power plants, capping an unparalleled string of climate policies that, taken together, could substantially reduce the nation’s contribution to global warming. The proposals are designed to effectively eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s electricity sector by 2040. (…) Michael Regan, administrator of the EPA, announced the proposed regulations in a speech on the campus of the University of Maryland on Thursday. EPA officials chose the university setting to appeal to youth climate activists who they hope will help turn out the vote for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. (…) Many youth climate activists have been irate with Biden after he approved an enormous oil drilling project on pristine federal land in Alaska, known as Willow. They view the president’s actions as a betrayal of his 2020 campaign promise to halt new oil and gas drilling on public land. The White House argues that the collective impact of Biden’s climate regulations and legislation, in terms of reduced emissions, outweighs any environmental damage that would be caused by the Willow project.”

2) National: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has “stopped a pair of student loan debt relief schemes that it says bilked students out of approximately $12 million by using deceptive claims about repayment programs and loan forgiveness that did not exist. The agency also says the companies falsely claimed to be or be affiliated with the Department of Education and told students that the illegal payments the companies collected would count towards their loans.”

3) National: It looks as if the Office of Science and Technology Policy (part of the Executive Office of the President) may be preparing to move against automated worker surveillance and management. They just released a Request for Information on the subject. “Employers are increasingly using automated systems to monitor, manage, and evaluate their workers. These systems may allow employers to manage supply chains, improve health and safety, or make other informed business decisions. At the same time, applications of surveillance and monitoring systems can also pose risks to workers, including to their health and safety, equal employment opportunities, privacy, ability to meet critical needs, access to workplace accommodations, and exercise of workplace and labor rights, including their rights to form or join a labor union. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) seeks comments from the public to better understand automated surveillance and management of workers, including its prevalence, purposes, deployment, and impacts, as well as opportunities for Federal agencies to work with employers, workers, and other stakeholders to ensure that these systems do not undermine workers’ rights, opportunities, access, health, or safety.” [Comments due on or before June 15, this Wednesday].

4) National: Educators in rural areas are mobilizing against school vouchers, The NEA reports. “In previous years, educators and their unions in Iowa helped defeat voucher proposals, thanks in part to steadfast opposition from enough rural lawmakers who understood the devastating impact these schemes would have on area public schools. The political terrain has since shifted quite dramatically, says Samuel E. Abrams, director of the ‌National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.  ‘Vouchers so far have had little impact in rural areas of the country,’ he explains. ‘But there’s no question about their new momentum—and the impact on rural schools and their communities could be grim. As the mayor of Woodbine, Iowa, told me several years ago, ‘If you lose your school, you lose your town.’”

5) Georgia: A labor victory in the South was pushed along by conditions attached to federal funding legislation. “The three bills making up that investment include a $1 trillion infrastructure package, a $280 billion measure to rekindle a domestic semiconductor industry and the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $370 billion for clean energy to combat climate change. Each of the bills included language to help unions expand their membership, and Blue Bird’s management, which opposed the union drive, had to contend with the Democrats’ subtle assistance to the Steelworkers.”

6) New York/National: New York State, as part of its new budget, has passed legislation that will “require the state’s public power provider to generate all of its electricity from clean energy by 2030. It also allows the public utility to build and own renewables while phasing out fossil fuels. ‘It’s a historic win for the climate and for clean jobs,’ said Lee Ziesche, organizer with Public Power New York, a coalition that has been fighting to pass the legislation for the past four years. ‘It’ll create a model of public power for the whole country, and it’s really showing that our energy should be a public good.’”

Writing in The Nation, Ashley Dawson, a member of the Public Power NY movement, a professor at the City University of New York, and the author of People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons, says “New York just became the first US state to pass a major Green New Deal policy. After four years of organizing, the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA) is now in the New York state budget. Passage of the act is a massive challenge to fossil fuel hegemony and a major victory for public power.”

It is also a step toward more accountability of public utility regulators and providers. “The BPRA establishes a strategic planning process through which the NYPA is directed to determine where, when, and how it builds renewable power. Although we did not win all our demands for democratization of the NYPA, this strategic planning process is a site for substantial community input since the authority is required to consult with climate and resiliency experts, labor organizations, residential and small-business ratepayer advocates, and environmental justice communities, among others, as it draws up its strategic plans. The first of these plans must be published by 2025.”

7) Vermont: The state legislature has approved a bill providing for universal school meals. ““About a year ago, when I heard about universal school meals, I remember thinking to myself, ‘That sounds nice, it makes sense, and let’s make sure kids are fed,’” Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, said on the floor Friday. ‘And then I visited a local high school in my district and sat with a group of students and staff to hear about the program,’ he said. ‘And when I heard the stories from the kids, and the world of difference that the teachers and staff noticed, I walked away recognizing that universal school meals was going to be one of my top priorities in the Legislature.’”

Education

8) National: Jeff Bryant of Our Schools says community schools can fix growing absentee rates. “‘The relationship building is the most essential component,’ Hedy Chang said in the ABC News article. ‘The question is, how do you organize schools so they ensure meaningful relationship-building between school staff or… community partners and other folks who can support that relationship-building?’ Fortunately, schools are answering Chang’s question by implementing an approach commonly called community schools. ‘Community Schools are public schools that provide services and support that fit each neighborhood’s needs,’ according to the National Education Association. The approach relies on creating partnerships with community organizations and local businesses, which broadens the educational experiences and family and student services available from the school. The approach lends itself to the kind of relationship-building Chang says is essential to addressing the problem of high absentee rates.”

9) Florida: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that requires school districts to share local property tax revenues with charter schools. “One of several educational pieces signed into law Thursday will provide charter schools a new avenue of “capital outlay” funding to purchase land and facilities (HB 1259). House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, touted the bill last month as putting charters on “equal footing” with traditional public schools. (…) Charter schools have largely received capital-outlay funding through the state budget. Starting July 1, districts will be required to share portions of tax revenues using a formula factoring in charter-school enrollment against overall district enrollment.”

10) Illinois: Teachers at Chicago’s Acero charter schools have voted to authorize a strike, the Chicago Tribune reports. “The CTU, which represents the Acero employees, has not independently confirmed to the Tribune that a strike vote has been taken but has been engaged in contract negotiations with Acero officials for weeks. The nonprofit network of 15 schools serves more than 6,500 kindergarten through 12th grade students who are predominantly Latino, Spanish-speaking and economically disadvantaged. The union rallied in April to demand better pay, on par with Chicago Public Schools educators in district-managed schools, and also was seeking more bilingual and special education resources and social supports for students. Melina Perayri, a mother of two students at Acero’s Sandra Cisneros Elementary School in Brighton Park, said at the CTU rally that parents have petitioned Acero leaders for a full-time, in-person school nurse. ‘We have a virtual nurse—really?’”

11) Massachusetts: Workers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Advancement Division are in danger of losing their public benefits because of privatization. They have now reached out to Democratic Gov. Healey (D). “Representatives this week from both the University Staff Association and the Professional Staff Union have been passing out leaflets titled, ‘Mass. Education, Not Mass Layoffs’ that argue the school is planning to terminate 124 employees. While protests have been occurring for months now and many local and state politicians are behind these union workers, this time around they’re looking for the Governor’s help. ‘We have had tremendous support from our legislators they have demanded that UMass stop this privatization effort and UMass isn’t listening so at this point we’re appealing to governor Healey and asking her to step in,’ said Kim Fill, Assistant Director of Library Annual Giving and Donor Relations at UMass.” [Watch video, about two minutes]

12) New York: Confrontation over a charter school leads to charges of vandalism. But “Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz was unaware of any vandalism and called it a ruse while councilman Eric Dinowitz was aware but considered them to be ‘rumors.’ Also, Palma Repole, an educator at Ethical Culture Fieldston School who is also heavily involved with the ‘Stop the Charter School’ campaign, was unaware. Jackson said, ‘don’t believe the hype.’ The anti-charter school petition has a goal of 1,000 signatures and currently has 758 supporters, with 616 from the Bronx.”

13) New York: A charter school bank is touting the growth of its deposit base and its ties to “the business side of students, teachers and administrators at Charter Schools throughout New York City. (…) The Bank also offers financial services for Charter Schools through its association with the New York City Charter School Center vendor program. (…) For nearly 20 years, the New York City Charter School Center has served as the leading expert and proponent of New York City’s charter school movement. The Charter Center helps new charter schools get started, supports existing schools and builds community and political support so that high-quality charters can flourish.”

The bank “has built solid relationships with 20 Charter Schools in New York State.”

14) Ohio: Cleveland.com reports that “forty-three urban Ohio school districts, including Cleveland Metropolitan School District, sent a letter to Ohio lawmakers asking them to prioritize funding public over private schools, and to fully fund now an education overhaul plan that the lawmakers are phasing in over six years. (…) ‘There is ample empirical evidence to prove that the way to address the poverty achievement gap is by robustly funding public schools to institute best practices: early childhood education; a well-rounded school experience including culture, sports, and the arts; extra-curricular activities that give students a sense of purpose; community-minded and community-building schools; and cooperative learning,’ the letter states. ‘As a state, we must prioritize the places where this is happening—the public schools.’”

15) Pennsylvania: Tomorrow from 7 am to 8 pm, Philadelphia voters will go to the primary polls and vote for the likely next mayor of the city. The race is very tight in a three way split with Helen Gym leading at the moment. Gym, In These Times reports, “co-founded of The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, which became a trusted outlet for education news in the city (it later became Chalkbeat Philadelphia). The publication produced some of the most trenchant and important reporting on public education in the city, like their tireless reporting on charterization and the mass closures of 2013-14. She was also on the editorial board of the influential education publication and organization, Rethinking Schools.”

16) Tennessee: Writing in The Tennessean, Joni Hersch says we need to pay attention to charter school expansion in Tennessee. “The role of charter schools in public education is increasingly relevant in elections such as in the mayoral race in Chicago. By researching political candidates and school board candidates’ positions on charter schools and attending open public school board meetings, we can effectively mobilize to support educational policies and resources that better serve the public interest.”

17) Tennessee: KIPP Memphis Academy Middle charter school will close in June, and more than 200 students to be “moved,” reports the Commercial Appeal. “The closure will leave KIPP Memphis with three schools operating in Memphis — KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary, KIPP Memphis Collegiate Middle and KIPP Memphis Collegiate High—and 40 staffers without jobs. The network began 2020 with seven schools. (…) KIPP faced two closures in early 2022, including that of Memphis Academy Middle, with Memphis Shelby County Schools recommending not to renew the charter contracts due to academic performances. In a presentation to the MSCS board, Burt said 227 students would attend new schools and 27 teachers would be affected if the middle school were to close.”

18) Think Tanks/Ohio: Policy Matters Ohio, testifying before the Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee, comes out against a proposed massive expansion of Ohio’s school vouchers scheme. “Voucher eligibility and state aid to vouchers continue to threaten our ability to equitably fund our schools. (…) In FY 24, voucher programs are expected to redirect $783 million of public resources away from public schools. In FY 25, that figure reaches $852 million. The bill also increases the income tax credit for homeschooling families without proposing any additional regulations, despite troubling revelations about what is considered an acceptable homeschool curriculum.”

Infrastructure

19) International: Over the past few weeks a debate has broken out in the pages of the Financial Times, Britain’s leading business and finance paper, over infrastructure privatization and/or long term private infrastructure investment. The return of debate over privatization was kicked off by an op-ed by Brett Christophers, a professor in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University and author of Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World. Christophers focuses in on the downsides of short term investment in long term infrastructure. But “what happens when such investors invest in infrastructure not directly, but indirectly, via asset managers such as MIRA? This, it is worth noting, is the norm: some three-quarters of infrastructure investment by pension plans in terms of investment value is channeled through asset managers’ unlisted funds.” [Sub required]

Yesterday, Martin Wolf, the FT’s leading columnist, joined the fray by basically agreeing and disagreeing with both sides, arguing that the benefits claims of the advocates of privatization and public infrastructure are exaggerated. For the privatizers, he points to the disastrous record of water privatization in Britain (one of Thatcher’s original initiatives); for the public advocates, he points to the government’s lousy record of investing in and regulating infrastructure over decades. “Privatisation has not delivered on its promises,” he says, “but it is not clear that the state would be a more reliable custodian.” [Sub required]. He basically suggests that both sides need to get their act together and that we need new models for blending their roles that do not boil down to PR campaigns built on empty concepts like “public-private partnerships.”

20) National: It looks as if Wall Street is going to attempt another crusade against public ownership of public airports. Bloomberg’s editors are leading the PR charge (the actual project proposals will surely follow) with an editorial that claims, as usual, that the chronically underfunded and disrespected airports and FAA are not performing up to snuff and that this is an immediate safety risk. Perhaps someone could talk about the safety record of the private, for-profit Boeing Company. The good news is, as the people of St. Louis proved a couple of years ago, that these initiatives can be beaten.

21) Hawaii: Public Works Financing reports that a proposed project to build a new stadium and entertainment complex in the Aloha State is in trouble. “The precise reason that the Governor opted to abandon the P3 procurement hasn’t been made clear since the announcement, or at least not to local news reporters. Governor Green told KHON2 that ‘…one of the plans was too expensive, it would’ve put another 450 million dollar burden on the people of Hawaii and I really have to keep the costs down, I don’t want to have a situation where we get cost overruns like we did with rail.” [Public Works Financing, April 2023; Sub required]

22) Colorado: A package of energy, environment, and infrastructure-related bills has been signed into law by Democratic Governor Jared Polis. “The Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Measures bill, SB23-016, for example, creates a 30% point-of-sale discount for new electric lawn equipment and snowblowers, while also giving state regulators authority over a class of injection wells. The latter provision sets the stage for state involvement in carbon capture. ‘It’s going to take every tool in the toolkit for us to reach our climate goals,’ state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and sponsor on several of the climate bills, said. ‘We need to decarbonize every part of our economy and every part of our state.’”

23) Tennessee: Hawaii (see above) is not the only place going through turmoil over a stadium deal involving private financing. In Nashville, a group has come together to fight a stadium deal in that city, Stand Up Nashville. Their petition reads, “Nashville needs affordable housing, quality public education, living wage jobs, a sustainable transit system, and other vital infrastructure to thrive as a city. We do not need a new domed stadium; nor are we obligated to build one. While we all want the Titans to succeed, this success cannot come at the expense of our communities’ basic needs. SIGN THE PETITION. That is why we are calling on the Metro Council to get a full accounting of the public costs of renovating the current stadium versus building a new one before a vote on stadium legislation takes place. This analysis must include Metro Nashville’s minimum legal obligation to be paid under the current lease. Only then will we actually know whether the proposed new stadium is a better deal for Nashville or not. Billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake.”

Even further afield, in fact on the other side of the world, a similar battle over public vs. private interests has broken out in the Australian state of Tasmania, where basic questions about how much benefit a stadium deal really brings as opposed to its booster’s claims; and whether the whole idea of building stadiums at huge cost even makes sense for middle sized towns and cities (and this question is relevant in the U.S. too). Writing in Counterpunch, Binoy Kampmark details the issues. “What is being proposed in Tasmania, a state suffering from chronic homelessness, chronic indigence and desperation on the health front, is a carbuncle stadium on a waterfront at Macquarie Point, a project that promises to cost $715 million.  Those attending it will not be doing so for an aesthetic appreciation of the view: they will be in the enclosed stadium itself, watching the gladiatorial performance.  All of this is deemed necessary for Tasmania’s imminent welcome into the fold of the Australian Football League (AFL).”

24) Tennessee: We Decide Tennessee has a new report on state interference in local laws—and democracy. “Our report tracks trends in corporate-backed state interference across numerous policy areas in Tennessee over the last decade. Those policy areas include municipal broadband, employment, local zoning and land use, housing, municipal contracts, anti-discrimination, and public health authority. Our report will inform and empower local elected officials and their communities as they seek to confront an increasingly preemptive policy landscape across urban, suburban, and rural Tennessee.” Get a copy.

Public Services

25) National: Donald Cohen, In the Public Interest’s executive director, gets down to the nitty gritty on the subject of government. “A little skepticism goes a long way, but cynicism goes nowhere. (…) I would also argue that some of the criticism of government—from the left and right–makes it harder for it to do the things that can only be accomplished if we do them together– through public action. In my book, The Privatization of Everything, I argue that, while people are understandably skeptical of “government,” many of the things Americans don’t like about government actually stem from too much corporate influence in politics. It’s important we continue to make that distinction clear. Of course, many of the hot takes on government, particularly from the right, are lazy cheap shots… But government is behind nearly every major innovation and discovery our nation has experienced, from the Internet to the covid-19 vaccine, from the Moon landing to the cancer-fighting moon shot now underway, from MRIs to GPS. I like to say that government is ubiquitous and invisible at the same time. But you probably know government workers and you’ve definitely benefited from their efforts. This week there were celebrations of those engaged in public service that are worth mentioning.”

26) National: Wall Street is licking its chops over the possibility that the private, for profit prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group will find a way to fill their prisons with masses of migrants from the Title 42 expiration surge. “Publicly-traded operators of illegal immigration detention centers, CoreCivic and GEO Group, are in the spotlight on the news, climbing 2.5% and 1%, respectively, in the premarket session,” said one news site. [Sub required]

Three weeks ago, GEO Group Executive Chairman George Zoley flagged this as a potential profit center in his quarterly profits call. “When Title 42 expires on May 11,” said Zoley, “it is expected that the federal government will likely have to process a significantly larger proportion of individuals encountered by Border Patrol. It is also widely expected that the expiration of Title 42 may result in an increase in Border Patrol encounters at the Southwest border at a time when there is already an unusual seasonal increase in border activity due to the warmer weather in the summer. While these circumstances could recently result in higher counts in the ISAP program in higher ICE processing center populations, these factors would be policy decisions that our company plays no role in setting and which are difficult to fully estimate.”

27) National/International: Would government consulting firms use the insider information they gather as part of their contracts to profit from? Well, it seems one of the large ones, PwC, may have been caught with its hand in the cookie jar. “PwC races to contain widening Australian tax leak scandal,” says the headline in the Financial Times. “PwC is racing to contain the global fallout of an Australian leak scandal on its business after it emerged that the firm used confidential government tax plans to advise tech clients. Emails released by an Australian senate committee last week showed that PwC had used information received during its work with the government to win business by advising corporate clients on new anti-tax-avoidance rules. Australian politicians have called for the partners who received the emails, as well as the clients that benefited from the information, to be named. The Big Four firm has flown some of its top global executives to Sydney as it attempts to prevent the scandal from spiraling into a global crisis. The team includes global general counsel Diana Weiss and global head of tax Carol Stubbings, according to a person close to the firm with knowledge of the details.” [Sub required]

28) National: With the ending of Title 42, Jennie Murray, National Immigration Forum’s president and CEO, says, “First, the administration must seek, and Congress must fund, urgently needed resources for orderly, humane processing at the border. Together with security, we must honor our commitment to U.S. and international law and preserve essential protections for people fleeing persecution. Restrictions such as those in today’s rule likely will block asylum seekers with valid claims who are turning to the U.S. for protection. The bill the House is considering would severely undermine humanitarian protections, constrict CBP’s ability to set up orderly processing at the southern border and be onerous to employers, among other concerns. Proposals to continue simply expelling asylum seekers also are not the answer. Instead, Republicans and Democrats must work together to improve border and immigration policies realistically and pragmatically. Americans still want border and immigration solutions and to welcome people seeking refuge. Congress has a responsibility to lead.”

29) National: Is artificial intelligence a new union-busting tool? asks Abbie Harper in Labor Notes. “For the leadership at the National Eating Disorders Association, it would seem the answer is yes. Two weeks after the Helpline Associates at the NEDA won our vote to unionize and join Communications Workers (CWA) Local 1101, NEDA interim CEO Elizabeth Thompson made a surprise announcement: the Helpline was being eliminated and replaced with a chatbot. Every newly unionized employee would be jobless as of June 1.”

30) Florida: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill during National Teacher Appreciation Week aimed at weakening public sector unions. “Senate Bill 256 forbids most unions representing government employees from having dues deducted directly from workers’ paychecks. It also requires that affected unions maintain at least 60% membership in their bargaining units, or else they could face decertification and lose their contracts. The new law will force public sector unions to develop new ways of getting dues from members — such as setting up electronic bank transfers — and will also imperil the existence of those unions that don’t meet the 60% threshold.”

Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, says “this new law grossly oversteps in trying to silence teachers, staff, professors and most other public employees. We will not go quietly—our students and our professions are simply too important.”

31) Iowa: This one’s a doozy. It seems that some seniors in Jones County have been cut down to one meal a day from three due to underfunding and privatization. “Changes in funding was a topic of conversation during senior dining director Lisa Tallman’s update as the county got a lower increased reimbursement for meals from Heritage than budgeted for, which is limiting seniors to a meal a day, though they said they’d work with the handful of participants that utilized that to ensure they got what they needed. She discussed the decrease she’d seen in Medicaid meals being offered, down from about 150 per month when Tallman started to around 20, which she attributed to likely being a result of the shift to frozen meals after the program went through privatization.”

This has happened before, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “A Cedar Rapids-based not-for-profit is working through April billing issues after the Medicaid transition has left its Meals on Wheels program on uneven ground. The state handed over its $5 billion Medicaid program with more than 560,000 enrollees and 29,000 providers to three private insurance companies April 1. (…) But since the April 1 switch, one managed-care organization (MCO) has denied all Meals on Wheels claims, one has not yet responded to the claims and one has approved only a small percentage of meals—14 of 58 meals requested for one client, for example—Mehaffey said.”

32) Virginia: Limited reproductive health care options are harming Rockbridge County residents. “With the increasing privatization of health care systems across the country, Carliss Chatman, an associate law professor at Washington and Lee, said that wealth and power determine where hospitals are located—not need. According to the U.S. Census, Rockbridge County has 22,593 residents spread across 597 square miles. With such a low population density, Rockbridge County is not the most profitable place to build a state-of-the-art facility.”

33) Think Tanks: Eileen Appelbaum of CEPR has an excellent new report out on how private equity is getting rich on hospice care. “Patients at the end of life are entitled to have their pain and other symptoms alleviated and to live out their last days with dignity. That is the promise of the Medicare hospice benefit. Opportunities to game the system and failure to provide adequate care to hospice patients should be eliminated; illegal behavior should be dealt with harshly. No one should be able to profit by preying on the dying.”

Everything Else

34) National/California: The U.S. Justice Department has intervened to support a religious organization that is feeding the homeless in Santa Ana. “‘Discriminatory barriers and land use restrictions against faith-based organizations is unlawful,’ Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. ‘Many faith-based organizations across the country are on the front lines serving the needs of people experiencing homelessness,’ she added. ‘The Justice Department is committed to enforcing federal civil rights laws to ensure that all religious groups can freely exercise their religious beliefs.’”

35) National: Writing in TomDispatch, Andrea Mazzarino explains the privatization of war, American-Style. “At least the Russian president and his state-run media make no secret of his regime’s alliance with Wagner. The American government, on the other hand, seldom acknowledges its own version of the privatization of war—the tens of thousandsof private security contractors it’s used in its misguided war on terror, involving military and intelligence operations in a staggering 85 countries.”

36) National: Is Google trying to privatize the web? Paris Marx thinks it may be. “In February, I argued that the narrative around ChatGPT and Microsoft challenging Google was all wrong. Sure, Bing might take a small chunk out of Google’s search dominance, but ultimately the benefit to Google was much greater: it got an excuse to push much harder on AI integration and to further exert its power over the web for its own benefit. The announcements at I/O show us that’s exactly what it’s doing.”

37) California: Where does the process to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans stand? The Task Force recently discussed the report and its process at several public meetings. For two different sets of views, watch the Task Force’s May 6, 2023 public meeting in Oakland [Video, about 9 hours], and read this New York Times rundown. The final report is due next month.