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First, the Good News
1) National: Over the past few years there have been regular complaints about how disaster relief is being politicized, both from right wing Republicans and from liberal Democrats. But as Donald Cohen, executive director of In the Public Interest points out in the latest ITPI newsletter, the politics are always already there.
“The fires put into stark relief the principles that underlie our work: There are things that government must do and which only government can do. It is the public acting in the public interest. The more than 7,500 fire fighters and emergency personnel from across the country who have been working around the clock battling these blazes are public employees. They are the ones heading toward the flames when everyone is fleeing. More than 1,000 incarcerated individuals who have volunteered to join emergency crews for 24-hour shifts for about $26 a day are also fighting the fires—our gratitude for their efforts shouldn’t dismiss the deep concerns we have about the program and policies that lead to it. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is, as its title states, a federal agency. It’s what we created that shows that we are all equally invested in handling the aftermath of emergencies, whether we live in hurricane alley, or the path of wildfires. FEMA is already helping, providing the wide range of emergency services that no private, for-profit entity can afford to do. And yet it’s been the subject of constant criticism and misinformation from the right. FEMA currently covers 75 percent of the cost of a national emergency; Project 2025 proposes reducing that to 25 percent.”
2) National: Even the Wall Street Journal gets it that privatization would be a disaster. In an October 2024 op-ed, Randy Manner wrote, “Project 2025 would push the privatization of disaster-relief functions currently managed by FEMA, forcing state and local governments to rely on private contractors during an emergency. Privatization can be good, but its disaster-response track record is poor. Reeling states could ill-afford added costs.”
3) National: As the Biden-Harris administration exits the White House billions in infrastructure grants hare being rolled out. “The Department of Transportation is rolling out billions of dollars in federal grants as the agency heads into an uncharted future and a change in leadership. ‘Though the Biden-Harris administration is drawing to a close, today we’re proud to announce one more major round of grants to keep that work going and further modernize our roads and rails, build out a national EV charger network, and ensure that transportation in the 21st century lives up to its basic promise and connects more communities across our nation,’ said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Federal infrastructure grants are typically paid as reimbursements or as matching funds for projects often financed through bond issuance.” [Sub required]
4) California: Capital and Main reports that as Los Angeles burns, immigrants mobilize. “Two days after a massive fire broke out in nearby Eaton Canyon, dozens of volunteers gathered at the Pasadena Community Job Center. The center, which connects immigrant day laborers with work in construction, painting and other manual trades, became the starting point for an effort to clear fallen trees blocking sidewalks and roadways in a nearby predominantly immigrant neighborhood. As José Madera, the center’s director, gave instructions, he also had a message to share: As the climate crisis contributes to bigger disasters, immigrant communities must pull together to support one another. ‘Only the community saves the community,’ said Madera, who would repeat that mantra throughout the day. ‘A lot of undocumented families will not get the support they need from FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] and the government.’”
5) National/California: FEMA has provided help at public libraries.
6) Florida: Professors have filed a Federal lawsuit against DeSantis’s Anti-DEI law, the Orlando Sentinel reports. “The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP on behalf of six professors, alleges that the restrictions violate educators’ and students’ speech rights and is chilling expression in public universities. It targets the 2023 law (SB 266) and rules passed last year by the state university system’s Board of Governors. ‘Continuing its effort to police the marketplace of ideas, the Florida Legislature again passed vague, viewpoint-discriminatory legislation that broadly restricts academic freedom and imposes the state’s favored viewpoints on public higher education, punishing educators and students for expressing differing and disfavored viewpoints,’ the lawsuit said. The restrictions ban funding for programs or campus activities that advocate for diversity, equity, or inclusion or that engage in ‘political or social activism.’” [Sub required]
7) Virginia: State legislators are stepping in to regulate the expansion of data centers, which suck up enormous amounts of energy and may turbocharge global warming. “During a news conference at the state Capitol in Richmond, Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun, who is spearheading the legislative push, said the state’s approach to the IT hubs has, to a great extent, been unregulated. ‘The data center industry has largely grown unchecked,’ Perry said. ‘Today, we are here to present a framework for responsible growth, one that provides Virginia’s people resources, and our economy protection.’ The legislative package follows a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report highlighting the strain data centers place on Virginia’s infrastructure and resources, including increased energy demands, environmental risks and questions about whether the industry’s benefits are equitably distributed. The commission made several recommendations, including requiring data centers to report energy and water use, setting emissions standards for backup generators and ensuring non-data center customers do not subsidize data center energy costs.”
8) International/Upcoming webinar: A message from Alice Beste, Coordinator, Privatisation in Education and Human Rights Consortium (PEHRC). Title: Demystifying Education Public-Private Partnerships: What Every Policymaker Should Know.
DATE AND TIME
Thursday, January 30th, 2025
EST 10:00-11:00
“The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 articulates the ambition that all learners should attend free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education. Increasingly, the lack of government funding for public education is relieved via partnerships with private non-state actors, even though states bear the primary responsibility for education. The position paper, policy brief and launch event explore the challenges presented by Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), highlighting the common pitfalls in the implementation of PPPs and the common lack of stringent regulation to ensure that PPPs do not negatively impact public education systems. Policymakers, public education advocates, private funders, educators, and community members should have access to information on how PPPs work and the alternatives to make informed and strategic decisions regarding education provision. These publications and the webinar are publicly available to further this goal.”
9) National: Fred Clarkson, one of the foremost experts on the religious right in the U.S., published two articles last week that are must reading to understand the strategy and ideology of the Christian nationalist movement aiming to replace our public schools with private religious schools that rigidly follow their program. See “Happy Religious Freedom Day! (Welcome to the Revolution),” and “Pete Hegseth’s War on Religious Freedom and the Constitution.”
10) National: Rutgers LEARN has published a new edition of its excellent newsletter, which includes a feature article on The Importance of Political Economy Education for Workers and a page linking to their public sector labor relations Certificate Program classes (p. 12).
11) National/Vermont: Writing in The Hechinger Report, Jon Marcus analyzes the growing trend of public colleges merging or shutting down. “While that seemed a step forward, the consolidated university’s inaugural president, Parwinder Grewal, next announced that, to cut costs, its libraries would go all-digital and give away their books, the Randolph campus would no longer field intercollegiate sports teams, and athletics on the Johnson campus would move from the NCAA to the less prestigious U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association. This proved another blunder in a state so fond of its libraries that it has the nation’s highest per-capita number of library visits, and where rural communities rally around even Division 3 athletics. Faculty and staff unions and student government associations on every campus voted ‘no confidence’ in the university’s administration. Athletes transferred away. Grewal was loudly booed when he met with students.”
12) Colorado: The Colorado Education Association has listed its policy wins for the 2024-2025 school year. For example, “In Fall 2024, we rallied to successfully defeat Amendment 80, a ballot measure that would have opened the door to vouchers and enshrined private schools in our state constitution. This is a resounding victory for those opposing privatization, those who want to protect the public schools that serve 95% of students across the state.”
13) Upcoming meeting: Hold the date. The national conference of the Network for Public Education will be held in Columbus, Ohio, from April 5-6. By then the education wars are sure to have heated up as the Trump administration relaunches its crusade again public schools. All students are welcome. Register here.
14) California: The wildfires have generated widespread and intense discussion on the future of insurance and its effect on the housing “market.” Is it safe and necessary to have this housing density? To focus the discussion, veteran journalist Robert Scheer revisited the work of the late Mike Davis, a preeminent historian of Los Angeles, in particular his famous chapter in The Ecology of Fear, should we let Malibu burn? Scheer interviewed Ben Burgis about Mike Davis’ take. “The two dissect the multitude of issues at play in the wildfire disasters: the conceit of real estate developers testing the limits of nature, the passive and active exploitation of the working class to make and now handle the disaster, the greed of for-profit insurance companies cancelling policies, and the decisions by a major county like Los Angeles in foregoing budgets to handle these inevitable disasters. Burgis asks, ‘If the public is just frankly going to be on the hook for it, do we, in fact, need to be building this densely in areas this prone to fire? I think at the very least, that’s something that should be a question for public discussion in a way that it’s just not.’”
15) California/National: Fitch Ratings has placed Los Angeles and its city utility on rating watch negative, which will raise the cost of capital financing just as the city tries to recover from the wildfires and prepare for the future. “Fitch also placed two utilities tightly linked to LADWP, the Intermountain Power Agency in Utah and Southern California Public Power Authority, on negative watch. The city holds an AA-plus issuer default rating from Fitch, and LADWP’s water revenue bonds are rated AA and the electric revenue bonds are rated AA-minus. Both SCPPA’s and IPA’s bonds are rated AA-minus. Early concerns and questions have been raised by the community and political leaders about utility infrastructure resiliency to fire, sufficiency of available water supplies for fire suppression, utility protocols and communications ahead of and during red flag events, and ultimately the source of the ignition for the fires, Fitch said. The city’s AA-rated general obligation bonds were placed on CreditWatch with negative implications by S&P Global Ratings late Wednesday. S&P had already downgraded LADWP Tuesday.” [Sub required]
16) Puerto Rico: “Bad Bunny’s new album is a love letter to the people of Puerto Rico,” says Rafael Álvarez Febo in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “While Bad Bunny’s depiction may seem hyperbolic, many residents of the archipelago are feeling the immense pressure of rising property values, privatization, and lack of public investment. In one of the album’s most poetic tracks, ‘Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,’ Bad Bunny characterizes Puerto Rico and Hawaii as cultures trapped in colonialism. In the song, he pleads with Puerto Rico to not allow annexation and privatization of its natural resources, rivers, and beaches. He also highlights Puerto Rico’s incredibly corrupt government as a major factor in the mass exodus of the island’s residents to the mainland U.S. due to its inability to deliver health, education, electrical power, and other public services needed to maintain society.
17) Texas: As the Lone Star State faces a cold snap this week, will its privatized power grid collapse as it did in 2021? The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says no. “After Winter Storm Uri blanketed communities with snow in February 2021, state lawmakers passed legislation requiring energy providers to ‘weatherize’ their power generation and transmission facilities to withstand extremely hot or cold temperatures. The 2021 storm left millions of Texas households without power for days and led to nearly 250 deaths, according to previous reporting. Texas has not experienced a disaster of that scale since, although over 2 million people lost power due to local issues in the Houston area after Hurricane Beryl swept through the region in July. The last time ERCOT asked residents to conserve electricity was during a January 2024 freeze, according to agency records. Over 10,000 megawatts of generation capacity have been added to Texas’ power grid since March, which will help reduce the likelihood of future outages, officials said Dec. 3.”
18) National/California: Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, joined Tavis Smiley to discuss prisoners serving as firefighters in southern California.
Smiley: “All right. So let me ask the next question in. Are these firefighters, these 1,000-plus incarcerated persons helping to put out these fires, are they volunteers or is this mandated?”
Tylek: “You know, I think that question is a complicated question. The CDCR, the Correctional Agency, likes to say that they’re voluntary, but I think people really have to understand the context of prison labor to understand that question first. And so it starts with just the basic tenet that people who are incarcerated in California are required to work.” [Audio, about 22 minutes]
19) National/Think Tanks: Pew has published five articles on state fiscal debates to watch. One of them is on how state governments are approaching the issue of regulating and using artificial intelligence. “Many government agencies are now actively experimenting with functions that could transform how they operate and interact with residents and businesses. Amanda Crawford, president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), compares this part of the process with the reality-sinking-in stage of a classic romantic comedy. The initial excitement has settled down—and the plot is thickening. ‘Now we have to decide: How are we going to make this relationship work?’ said Crawford, who also serves as the chief information officer (CIO) of Texas. ‘Have we set up the appropriate boundaries and guardrails? And we also realize that maybe we need to work on ourselves a little bit—cleaning up our own practices, whether it’s our data, or our governance, or guardrails.’ At this point, both the costs and benefits of generative AI are moving targets, and state leaders have been racing to harness its potential while bracing for plot twists. Texas agencies, for example, are already using cybersecurity tools, public-facing chatbots, and a whole host of other technologies that leverage generative AI, Crawford said. At the same time, the state is aggressively auditing and refining the tools on an ongoing basis, encouraging state and local employees to learn from one another’s experiences, and finessing its statewide strategy.”
How much does the private AI industry make? Last year revenue was $184 billion, and is projected to grow to $826 billion by 2030.
20) National: Writing in The Hawk Eye, David Ure of Burlington, Iowa, asks Who is helped by privatization? “By the time we moved to southeast Iowa, the cost had returned to what we’d been paying when the city was in charge of trash collection. Magically, the number of pickups per week stayed at one. Who gained? I assume the city saved some money. The new owner must have made money; at least I assume he did, or he wouldn’t have bid for the project in the first place. The workers? I have to assume the private owner paid them less since that’s usually the easiest way such people can make money, they would’ve lost their state pension, and they would have lost whatever protections against abuse and discrimination that they had as city employees. And it is always thus. Privatization promises to be more efficient and more cost-effective than the government-run service it is taking over, but all it does is enrich another set of bosses and worsen the lot of the workers affected. Please don’t let the current lies become more of our future.”
21) National/Montana: Writing in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Mike Sunnucks reports on the Trump administration’s plans to privatize the U.S. Post Office, and notes that many post offices sit on prime real estate which people like Trump would covet. “But Salas is not sure there is a political appetite to close local post offices across the country, noting the potential for problems if hometown post offices were to be closed by some new corporate parent. ‘Trump’s base is in the rural areas,’ he said. In Montana, for example, federal lawmakers have objected to USPS plans to move mail processing from Missoula and Spokane, Washington. Opposition from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to local post office closures as well as other operational challenges makes Salas question how much political capital Trump might expend on the matter. ‘I think it is a big can of worms,’ Salas said. Postal workers unions representing many of USPS’ just under 640,000 worker— along with direct mail and other groups and industries that still rely on traditional mail—are also poised to oppose a privatization push which will have to navigate narrow GOP majorities in Congress. Some Democrats and advocates on the political left also are opposed to privatization of the post office and other federal agencies.”
61% oppose the privatization of the U.S. Postal Service, according to USA Today.
22) National: The State Innovation Exchange (SiX) is closely following issues facing state legislatures in 2025. “After the election, SiX invited legislators from our network to share their priorities for the 2025 legislative session. Legislators shared plans spanning diverse political contexts, including harm reduction through community-based approaches, strengthening bipartisan relationships, and bold initiatives on racial equity, immigrant justice, reproductive rights, taxes, climate change, worker power, and anti-monopoly reform. And at SiX’s National Conference in December 2024, state legislators and movement leaders reflected on what the election results mean for the future of state governance and discussed the work ahead in the mainstage panel, ‘Election Reflections and Charting a Path Forward Together.’ You can watch the plenary here. As we prepare for 2025 state legislative sessions, here are trends we’re anticipating (…) For a deeper dive into how federal and state budgets interact with each other and how states can lead in 2025, legislators and staff are invited to the ‘State Budgets: Threats and Opportunities in 2025’” briefing on January 23, 1-2 pm.” [Video, one hour and 18 minutes]
23) National: Trump’s pick for OMB chief defends removing civil service protections and withholding appropriated funds, reports Government Executive. “Russ Vought, Office of Management and Budget director-designate, drew criticism from both sides of the aisle for his refusal to confirm he would follow congressional spending laws when distributing funds to agencies, noting Trump has called existing restrictions unconstitutional and he would follow the president’s directives. Vought, who has taken an often adversarial approach with the federal civil service, suggested again the bureaucracy has been weaponized and that reforms were necessary to undo that reality. Vought served as OMB’s deputy director from early in the first Trump administration and then took over as acting OMB head in January 2019. He was confirmed by the Senate for that post in July 2020. During his tenure, Vought repeatedly submitted budgets that would have gutted non-defense agencies and spearheaded efforts to remove civil service protections for much of the federal workforce (…) While the clock ran out before Schedule F could take effect and President Biden immediately revoked it upon taking office, Vought sought to designate 88% of OMB as falling under Schedule F and eligible for politically based, at-will firings. (…) Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the panel, said Vought’s experience at OMB disqualified him for the job.
‘Unfortunately, your record and actions in these roles raise serious concerns about how you’re going to lead this critical agency that touches literally every single part of the federal government,’ Peters said.”
24) National: Multistate Associates has published its always useful upcoming state calendar. Check out the 2025 Legislative Session Dates. See also their chart of all the governors and which party controls which legislatures.
25) National/California: UFCW 770 is currently hiring Organizing Interns in Los Angeles for an exciting new campaign. From UFCW Local 770:
- Join us as an Organizing Intern and help make labor history by growing the labor movement and winning rights for workers! We represent workers across many industries, from grocery to pharmacy to cannabis to healthcare. We believe that union organizing isn’t just about wages, benefits, and working conditions. It’s about changing power dynamics and building solidarity. When you organize, you’re creating something bigger than yourself. You’re becoming part of a dynamic, transformative and radical force for justice: the labor movement.
- In collaboration with the Inside Organizer School, UFCW 770 is recruiting organizing interns to join a program designed to offer training and work experience to anyone interested in becoming part of the labor movement and organizing their workplace. The internship begins with a classroom component that goes over history, theory, and tactics. New organizers are then placed in the field on active organizing campaigns where they can develop their skills and get a real understanding of organizing work.
- The program is run by experienced organizers who emphasize what approaches are truly helping workers win organizing drives today. We believe that the best way to help workers – and the best way to learn union organizing – is through a focus on inside organizing and building strong worker committees. When you join us as an intern, your commitment to us is to help build the movement in Los Angeles. Our commitment to you is to help train you as an organizer and to work together to build a more just world for the working class.
- To Apply: Please email organizing@ufcw770.org
26) National: “DOJ Antitrust was one of the most active corners of the federal government in the past four years, winning the first major monopolization case in a quarter-century, blocking dozens of mergers, and restoring the posture of zealously defending competition in the U.S. economy.” Here is an interview by David Dayen with its director, Jonathan Kanter.
Dayen: “You’ve talked about this kind of outsourcing that goes on in the agency with regard to expert witnesses. How you have to keep hiring witnesses to counter the other side. It’s an extension of the privatization and use of contractors across the government. But how do you actually slow that down when experts are valued in court cases?”
Kanter: “It’s spiraling out of control. The cost of hiring experts and dealing with the arms race in litigation can run into tens of millions of dollars just for a single case. Many of those experts never end up testifying. You’re putting experts on a list so you have a rebuttal witness to the other side. It’s spiraling out of control and it’s wasteful for taxpayers and courts. We need to do a better job of limiting experts to testify. And if we’re calling experts, we should call people who really have industry knowledge, and are not just hired to take the stand. We’ve veered from expertise that’s rooted in actual knowledge and expertise about something, about a service and a market. Now we’re just hiring someone with credentials. We need to reorient around when the use of an expert is persuasive and when it’s used to neutralize someone else’s expert.”
27) Rhode Island: A private hospital chain has revealed it owes $1 billion—and can’t afford to pay staff. “Even Chris Callaci, who represents the 1,200 United Nurses & Allied Professionals members who work for Prospect’s Rhode Island facilities, was taken aback.
‘That was more grave than we thought in terms of a brush with disaster of not making payroll,’ Callaci said in an interview on Wednesday. “We thought they had access to a little more capital.” The 12,500 Prospect hospital employees, including the 2,500 in Rhode Island, will get their next paycheck, after a federal bankruptcy judge in Dallas authorized a $100 million line of credit on Tuesday. Not that it offered much assurance to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, whose office has been keeping close tabs on Prospect’s management of Roger Williams and Fatima for the last decade. Anticipating the potential for bankruptcy, Neronha’s office also brought on New York bankruptcy attorney Andrew Troop last year; Troop attended the hearing in Dallas Tuesday on the AG’s behalf. ‘We wanted to be ready,’ Neronha said in an interview on Wednesday.”