By Eric London
On a sunny Sunday morning in Napa County, California this past weekend, the 14-year-old daughter of a construction worker named Armando Nunez Salgado filmed through tears as her father was dragged away by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who parked outside their home in unmarked cars, walked into the family’s backyard through a side gate, and arrested him.
One ICE agent is heard telling Nunez’s daughter, Isabel, “If you turn the camera off, we’ll tell you where we’re going to take him.”
ICE conducted ten other arrests Sunday across Northern California, though their main purpose was to make their dangerous presence known. They congregated in front of movie theaters, taco stands, and other public places so residents could get a good look. These sightings caused false rumors of raids to spread across the region, prompting panic. Read more » |
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 US military, Trump administration claim unlimited powers to wage war in Syria
By Patrick Martin
The Trump administration has asserted the power to expand the US war in Syria and effectively annex and occupy significant portions of the country without even the pretense of international authorization, congressional sanction or public debate.
The New York Times reported the position, laid out in letters to Senator Tim Kaine from the Pentagon and the State Department, in a news article buried in its inside pages on Friday under the headline “Administration Says Syria Forces Don’t Need New Approval.” The letters underscore the dimensions of the assault on the Constitution by the White House, which is asserting inherent executive power to wage war not only in Syria, but by implication all over the world.
Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, has advanced a pro forma and hypocritical call for passage of a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to provide a legal fig leaf for war in Syria directed at bringing down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Read more » |
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 West Virginia teachers defiant as unions, governor scramble to end walkouts
By Tom Hall and Jerry White
More than 20,000 West Virginia teachers and other school employees are continuing their statewide walkout for a fourth day today, demanding pay increases and an end to rising health care costs through the state’s Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA).
The struggle is at a turning point. That the teachers’ strike—the first in West Virginia since 1990—has occurred at all, much less extended for the second time after the unions’ planned two-day walkout last week, is testament to the courage and militancy of the teachers and their determination to stop decades of declining living standards.
Even though the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) have sought to limit and demobilize the struggle at every step, teachers are justifiably proud that the walkouts have shut schools across all the state’s 55 counties, expressed in the use of the hashtags #55proud and #shutWVDown. Read more » |
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 West Virginia teachers strike at the crossroads
By Jerry White
More than 20,000 West Virginia teachers and other school employees are continuing their statewide strike today to demand improved wages and an end to crushing health care costs imposed by the state’s Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA).
Governor Jim Justice, a billionaire coal magnate, and the Republican-controlled state legislature have remained intransigent. Last week, with support of a significant number of state Democrats, Justice signed a bill giving educators an insulting two percent wage increase in July, followed by one percent annual raises over the next two years.
Teachers, who are currently 48th in the nation in pay, have rejected the state’s ultimatum and are pressing to expand the first teachers’ strike since 1990. The West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and the smaller American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV), which initially announced a two-day strike for last Thursday and Friday, were forced to extend it to a third day Monday. Read more » |
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 In wake of Parkland school shooting, Republicans and Democrats call for boosting police powers
By Kate Randall
In response to public outrage over the school shooting tragedy in Parkland, Florida, federal and state authorities, along with the media, are calling for increased police powers, particularly in the nation’s schools. On February 14, Nikolas Cruz, 19, entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and proceeded to kill 17 people and injure 14 others with a semi-automatic assault rifle.
Protests by students broke out at many high schools and middle schools across the country last week in response to the latest in a string of school shootings in the US. According to the group Everytown for Gun Safety, so far this year there has been on average one school shooting every 63 hours, more than double the rate for the previous three years.
However, these calls are being exploited by the Trump administration, Florida Governor Rick Scott and politicians of both-big business parties to demand an increased police presence on school grounds. Left in the hands of the parties of the ruling class, gun control, if enacted, will serve as a cover for increased militarization of the schools and society at large. Read more » |
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