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Sigaud: Union revival not on table, despite ’23 wins

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

There’s no denying that unions notched impressive victories this year, including substantial increases in compensation for auto workers, actors, screenwriters, airline pilots and delivery drivers. Regarding work days lost, union strikes in 2023 were the largest in 40 years — big enough to affect the overall job market.But it would be premature to declare a resurgence of the U.S. labor movement or to argue that most workers would have benefitted from one.The historical trendline is unmistakable: In 2022, one in 10 U.S. workers belonged to a union, down from one in seven in 1996 and one in five in 1983, when the first comparable data were collected. The decline of union membership has been remarkably steady over the last four decades.Moreover, the latest data show that unionization is increasingly concentrated in the government sector, especially local services like K-12 education and public safety. Only 6% of private-sector workers are union members.Another sign that unions are a wan...

Chicago Bulls’ Lonzo Ball expected to start running in January: ‘The pain that he was experiencing has been eliminated’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

Lonzo Ball is expected to begin running again in January as the next step of his nearly two-year-long recovery process from a knee injury.Ball returned to Chicago last week to meet with Bulls staff and outline a plan for the next steps of his recovery after undergoing a rare cartilage transplant in March.The Bulls received a $10.2 million disabled player exception for Ball in July and do not anticipate he will return to the court in a game until the 2024-25 season. But coach Billy Donovan said the team has been bolstered by Ball’s response to his third knee procedure.Ball has been able to progress with weight and mobility training and stationary shooting while recovering in Los Angeles over the past six months. Most importantly, Donovan said Ball is pain-free at this point in his recovery after suffering chronic pain in everyday activities for the first year after the injury.If Ball does not experience pain when he returns to running in January, he will be closer to a return t...

The 5 Best Rock Albums of the year

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

This year the annual calls of “rock is dead” and “the album is dead” seem a bit muted. Sure, there will always be bozos claiming “Pet Sounds” was the last great LP. But the indie press, a big chunk of the mainstream, and many Grammy voters disagree. Here are the five best rock — yup, take a wide view of rock — 2023.“Guts,” Olivia RodrigoOlivia Rodrigo has great ears. She came up on her parents’ Weezer albums, has a Tori Amos obsession, and knows the coolest guitar tones (check out Smashing Pumpkins nod in “Pretty Isn’t Pretty”). But her voice is better. She outgrew Disney at 17. On “Guts,” made when she was 19, Rodrigo has outgrown pop. Not pop hooks (she’s a hook maestro) but pop pleasantries. She can do authentic rage and sardonic rants at once, scream like Joan Jett, strip it bare like Adele. The album opens with: “I’m a perfect all-American bitch/With perfect all-American lips/And perfect all-American hips/I know my place/I know my place and this is it.” It closes with: “W...

The 10 Best Films of 2023

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

Last January, “M3GAN” and “Cocaine Bear” were unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. In February, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was a Marvel wake up call. Trouble ahead.The brilliant action-movie “John Wick: Chapter 4” rescued us from the fangs of “Renfield.” Modern day master of unease Ari Aster and his leading man Joaquin Phoenix faltered with “Beau Is Afraid,” although the film is a wonder.  In May, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” proved that Marvel fatigue was avoided if your writer-director was James Gunn. Netflix’s “The Mother” proved that people like watching Jennifer Lopez kick ass. The Disney magic disappeared with “The Little Mermaid,” the latest attempt to make a live-action version of a beloved Disney classic with Halle Bailey as Ariel. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” were not just two of the best animated films of the year, they were two of the best. Warner Bros. June release “The Flash” has becom...

Lueken: When students leave, the funding stays

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

With 10 states enacting universal or near-universal school choice programs since the pandemic, it’s no surprise many are wondering how public schools will be impacted in the future.A chief concern perpetually levied against these programs, which allow families to receive a portion of their child’s per-pupil funding for K-12 education to access schools and other educational services outside the public system, is that they “drain” resources from public schools when students leave.But a look at the data show this criticism defies fiscal sense. In fact, public schools are actually better off when choice policies enter the picture.Choice programs lead to smaller class sizes, better fits between teachers and students, and better matches between students and their learning environment. This translates into more manageable classrooms for teachers and better learning environments for students.Academic research also shows public schools, and outcomes for students who remain in them, improve a...

Pipes: How Obamacare tax credits spike premiums

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

For the health insurance industry, Obamacare open enrollment, which started last month, is the most wonderful time of the year. Millions of Americans are signing up for plans on the exchanges. Each click of the “submit” button adds a fistful more dollars to insurers’ bottom line.Open enrollment comes complete with tax credits for lower-income enrollees. They’re supposed to make monthly premiums more affordable. But their biggest effect is the risk-free enrichment of insurance companies.The pursuit of profit in a competitive market is the driver of economic growth and innovation. But when government dictates the specifications for the product that can be sold — in this case, the details of insurance coverage — and then effectively guarantees a profit for compliance, the result isn’t competition and better service but entrenched rent-seekers protecting their turf from competitors. The bigger the subsidies for “premiums,” the greate...

Editorial: New Year’s resolutions for the Boston City Council

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

Michelle Wu’s administration announced Wednesday that there will be a “strong” police presence at this weekend’s annual First Night festivities.It’s what you do when you want to keep the city safe.Thank goodness that move didn’t need City Council approval.This year the council has honed dysfunction to a fine art. And while a new council will be sworn in within days, the slate isn’t totally fresh. There are new faces mixed among the incumbents, progressive councilors amid the moderate and more conservative. There is a chance for more division, as well as for unity. Time will tell.But to start things off on the right foot, we have a few resolutions that the council should heed for 2024.Remember who you work forThat would be the residents of Boston, not special interest groups, not an agenda. If this ideal had been adhered to, it’s unlikely the council would have whiffed on a $13M counter-terrorism grant.The vote was deadlocked, and the possibility of losi...

Dear Abby: Unhappy wife tempted by new man

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

Dear Abby: I have been married to my husband for 12 years. We have had our ups and downs. I was unfaithful at one point, and he left for eight months, but we worked through it all.We are now coming out of another really rough patch involving a lot of arguing and talk of divorce. I’m having a hard time because around the time he left, I started falling out of love with him. I tried my best to be a good wife and do what I am supposed to, but this last bout of unpleasantness has left me feeling empty and no longer in love.There is now someone in my life I have developed strong feelings for. I imagine a life with him and the thought of being with him excites me. My husband is a good person, but he’s an alcohol and drug addict. He has done EVERYTHING he can and is willing to do things he can’t to ensure I love him as much as he loves me, and that our marriage doesn’t end. He has been sober now for seven years, but habits and tendencies still remain.The problems in...

FBI helping in hunt for Colorado Springs mother suspected of killing her 2 children, wounding third

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — A Colorado Springs woman was being sought Thursday on suspicion of killing her two young children and wounding a third, authorities said.Kimberlee Singler, 35, of Colorado Springs is wanted on an arrest warrant alleging murder, attempted murder and child abuse, according to a statement from the city.Police answered a 911 call reporting a burglary at an apartment complex at around 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 19 and found the bodies of Singler’s 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, the statement said.Singler was found injured along with her 11-year-old daughter. They were taken to local hospitals for treatment, the statement said.“As the investigation into this case unfolded, it was determined the initial report of a burglary was unfounded,” the statement said.Singler was last seen on Dec. 24. An arrest warrant was issued Dec. 26.The FBI is assisting in the search for Singler, said Vikki Migoya of the agency’s Denver office. The Associated Press

The Air Force said its nuclear missile capsules were safe. But toxins lurked, documents show

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 20:12:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A large pool of dark liquid festering on the floor. No fresh air. Computer displays that would overheat and ooze out a fishy-smelling gel that nauseated the crew. Asbestos readings 50 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety standards. These are just some of the past toxic risks that were in the underground capsules and silos where Air Force nuclear missile crews have worked since the 1960s. Now many of those service members have cancer. The toxins were recorded in hundreds of pages of documents dating back to the 1980s that were obtained by The Associated Press through Freedom of Information Act requests. They tell a far different story from what Air Force leadership told the nuclear missile community decades ago, when the first reports of cancer among service members began to surface: “The workplace is free of health hazards,” a Dec. 30, 2001, Air Force investigation found.“Sometimes, illnesses tend to occur by chance alone,” a follow-up 200...