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African countries can still get US funding for public health—if they cough up minerals and data first
New 'transactional' US global health agreements offer US aid for combatting HIV and other health threats in return for what critics say is expansive US access to resources.
The Bites and Boutiques of Bellevue's Historic Business District
Take a walk down Fairfield Avenue for vintage finds, sweet eats, and other gifts and goodies.
Spurs-Thunder: Victor Wembanyama beats buzzer with half-court shot, capping dominant first half
The first half of Sunday's Game 4 of the Western Conference finals was a grind for pretty much anyone not named Victor Wembanyama.
La Pale: Behind the Brownsville business
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — La Pale may be known for its frozen treats, but the story behind this Brownsville business is even sweeter. La Pale Frozen Fruit Bar has become a familiar name …
Rusty Djokovic beats Mpetshi Perricard in four sets
Novak Djokovic shows signs of rust as he is forced to fight back from a set down to beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round of the French Open.
Olympiakos beats Real Madrid 92-85 to win EuroLeague title
Olympiakos clinched the EuroLeague basketball title on Sunday, beating Real Madrid 92-85 despite a late stretch of mistakes. Alec Peters hit the final free throw as Olympiakos secured its fourth continental crown, sparking wild celebrations at the Telekom Center in Athens and across the Greek capital. “Blessed is the only word I have,” the American-born Peters said.
Indy 500 Results: Felix Rosenqvist Beats David Malukas In Photo Finish
Here are the highlights and key moments from the 2026 Indy 500.
Northwestern beats UNC to win ninth women's lacrosse title
No. 1 Northwestern beat No. 2 North Carolina 14-11 to win its ninth NCAA Division I women's lacrosse national championship.
Child Protection Faith Summit elevates Byron Donalds at summit in Washington, D.C.
'There is no greater measure of a nation than how it treats its children — especially the vulnerable, the forgotten, the abused, the trafficked, and the abandoned.'
Democrats vow a redistricting counterpunch but are facing hurdles Republicans don't
Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House.
Democrats vow a redistricting counterpunch but are facing hurdles Republicans don't
Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House.
Democrats Vow a Redistricting Counterpunch but Are Facing Hurdles Republicans Don't
Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House. They can catch up in 2028, but only if they overcome a series of redistricting hurdles that the GOP does not face. That's because Democrats, in many states, can draw ...
A Pentagon test group is eyeing ballistic ballcaps for troops
The protective hats could shield service members facing threats in places where patrol caps, not helmets, are the norm.
Social media reacts as Alabama defeats LSU, clinches WCWS berth
Alabama softball clinched a berth in the Women's College World Series on Saturday night, sweeping LSU in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional.
What next for heavyweight division after Usyk's win?
After Oleksandr Usyk beats Rico Verhoeven to retain his heavyweight world titles, who could he fight next?
Oleksandr Usyk beats Rico Verhoeven: What next for heavyweight division?
After Oleksandr Usyk beats Rico Verhoeven to retain his heavyweight world titles, who could he fight next?
Nikolaj Ehlers saves Carolina, beats Montreal 3-2 in Overtime
The Canes finally win an Eastern Conference Final game at home, series is tied 1-1.
Can the new tubeless Chilipad 2.0 finally end your night sweats? Our first impressions of the $3,000 bed cooling system
I tested the Chilipad 2.0 mattress topper for a week. Its active cooling and comfortable design impressed me, but it lacks sleep tracking.
Dear Abby | Delightful friend's 'wonderful' pup is no longer welcome
Dear Abby: A friend of mine calls first or pops by every few months. She's generous and brings homemade treats, something she has found at the grocer's or flowers from
Science news this week: Laotian 'death jar', climate change threatens rice crops, and an asthma drug treats tough cancer
May 23, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend
Bond breakout? Big effects of bad data. Immigration and thermostatic politics & dad-chat is coming for dad-books.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Anna Airy, A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 Bond breakout - John Authers Across the developed markets, bond markets are staging a slow-motion car wreck. Looking at the drastic moves in the US, Japan, the UK and France, Barclays’ Ajay Rajadhyaksha commented: “Last week, long bonds broke. Not in one country. In all of them. Simultaneously. Four countries. Four different political systems. Four different central banks. But the same trade — “get me out of duration!”” Each country has its own contributing political problems, but the uniformity of the shift out of long-term bonds with high duration makes clear that something broader is afoot. For Rajadhyaksha, it is “simple and uncomfortable.” The developed world “has too much debt, too little fiscal discipline, and no political appetite for fixing either.” If there’s a trigger, it has been the Iran war and the resulting shock to oil supply. Source: Bloomberg G7 countries are now borrowing at rates that were enjoyed by EM in the early 2020s For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Trade between China and Russia has grown in recent years For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Big effects of bad data A decade ago nearly nine in ten Americans, when approached, agreed to fill out the Current Population Survey, which is administered to about 60,000 households each month and asks about, among other things, employment. Fewer than seven in ten do so now (see chart 1). For the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tries to capture 3,700 households monthly, the response rate is down from 68% to 40%. … When the information becomes less reliable, investment decisions get more difficult to make. Some may be delayed, creating a potential drag on the economy. A new working paper by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Erica Groshen, former head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) now at Cornell University, and Duncan Hobbs and Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, hazards an estimate. Preserving trust in “the integrity and quality of official statistics”, the authors claim, generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the BLS, the agency with an annual budget of $700m that is responsible for many of these data. To arrive at their conclusion the quartet analysed an ignoble episode in the BLS’s recent history. On August 1st 2025 Donald Trump sacked Erika McEntarfer, appointed as the agency’s commissioner by his predecessor, Joe Biden. The president alleged, without evidence, that the BLS’s steep downward revision to recent jobs numbers had been “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”. In fact, it was the wanton dismissal that looked bad in the eyes of many observers. In the following seven days there was a 50% leap, relative to the week before, in the average value of the index of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU), which tracks the number of articles mentioning such uncertainty that are published daily in American newspapers. This was a discernible jump even when compared to the chaos caused by Mr Trump’s trade war in April 2025 and his real one in Iran in the past two months (see chart 2). Based on Mr Bloom’s earlier study with other colleagues of the EPU’s impact on business investment, industrial production and employment, the authors estimate that the jump reduced American GDP by over $100bn (0.3%) and non-farm payrolls by 168,000 (0.1%). Source: The Economist Immigration and thermostatic politics (Sarah O’Connor in the FT) A strange thing happened a year and a half ago. No sooner had Americans elected Donald Trump as president on an explicitly anti-immigration platform than US public opinion began to swing much more favourably towards immigration. … to political scientists who study “thermostatic” politics, this development is no surprise at all. Public opinion often moves against the prevailing party, especially if they are perceived to have gone “too far” in one direction. The phenomenon was first explored in the 1990s with reference to fiscal policy, but in recent years it has been particularly evident in the realm of immigration policy. While these swings in opinion polls can make it seem as if people don’t know their own minds, they can be a useful democratic check on governments by sending bright flashing warning lights when policies stray too far from the public’s comfort zone. The problem comes when politicians misinterpret those signals. When people tell pollsters they want less immigration, or think it is bad for the country overall (or the converse), they are often expressing an opinion about how things appear to be going in that moment relative to their preferences, rather than a deep shift in their underlying views. According to Alexander Kustov, a political scientist, most Americans’ views are quite stable and moderate: they support immigration that is controlled and in the national interest, and oppose flows that are disorderly or under-enforced. In the US, he argues the Trump administration over-interpreted dissatisfaction with high immigration under Joe Biden, and implemented policies that went too far for many voters. “People don’t necessarily change their idea about their ideal immigration policy, but they can react to what the government is currently doing,” he told me. “A lot of people are not happy with what the Trump administration are doing — right now we’re not talking about border enforcement, we’re talking about people not just getting harassed, but killed.” But similarly, he added, pro-immigration advocates would be making a mistake to interpret the recent, more favourable swing towards immigration as a deep-seated ideological shift in attitudes. The recent history of UK immigration policy offers another cautionary tale. After the 2016 Brexit referendum, public concern about immigration fell. This was partly because net migration statistics declined, but also because people felt a sense of catharsis and control, says Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think-tank. By 2019, the public ranked immigration as only the ninth biggest issue of concern, according to Ipsos polling. But when the Conservative government liberalised visa routes for students and care workers between 2019 and 2022, that helped net migration to surge. And so, too, did public concern. Today’s Labour government has implemented another sharply restrictive turn in immigration policy. As Kustov and researcher Caitlyn Yates argue, thermostatic public opinion should be a useful check on politicians. Instead it seems to have helped to magnify the pendulum swing in the UK. The government over-interprets and overreacts to a change in public opinion, which reacts in turn, prompting a sudden swing the other way. Source: Financial Times HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Anna Airy, Shop for Machining 15-Inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918 Racing for a vaccine … we have been here before! The deadly Ebola outbreak in two African countries driven by a virus species with no vaccine has triggered an urgent search for a potential jab, in a test of troubled global efforts to avert threats posed by emerging diseases. A World Health Organization advisory group is due to would meet on Tuesday to recommend candidate jabs to prioritise for clinical trials, the global health body said. It will assess data including an analysis by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), which was set up after failures in the international response to a previous Ebola crisis. The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has infected hundreds of people and killed more than 80, health authorities say. Cepi’s reaction will be a crucial indicator of its progress towards its wider goal of producing vaccines for pandemic threats in just 100 days, despite steep cuts to international health funding. “If there was ever a time that we could show the world why Cepi is needed and show the world why the 100-day mission is needed, it’s now,” Nicole Lurie, the organisation’s executive director for preparedness and response, told the FT. “We’re happy to accept that responsibility, but obviously we need help from partners — particularly financial help in the long run.” DR Congo and Uganda would make the final decision on whether to press ahead with any vaccine candidates endorsed for clinical trials by the WHO experts, the global health body said. “Other ethical and community acceptability issues will be considered,” said the WHO, which declared the latest outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. “This will be important to make sure that the trial, if it happens, will be adequately communicated to the population.” Lurie said Cepi had provided information from a survey of research teams and companies working on drugs that might be effective against the Bundibugyo virus behind the outbreak. The organisation hoped soon to announce partners in the quest for a jab, she added, although she declined to give a timescale for when one might be developed. Cepi’s Nicole Laurie said global health bodies were ‘getting some live-fire drills’ with hantavirus and the latest Ebola outbreak. The hunt for a vaccine should be helped by scientific advances including the use of artificial intelligence to find drugs active against viruses, Lurie said. Existing jabs against the Zaire Ebola virus responsible for many previous outbreaks might provide a basis for tackling the Bundibugyo species, she added. “We’ll see how far and how fast we can get,” Lurie said, adding that Cepi had done preliminary work recently on a possible jab for the rat-borne hantavirus responsible for a recent fatal outbreak on a cruise ship. “Both with hantavirus and now with Ebola, [we] are getting some live-fire drills.” Source: Michael Peel in the Financial Times Dad-chat is coming for dad-books. (By Pamela Paul and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the WSJ) They were the go-to gifts for Father’s Day: a book about some little-known chapter of World War II, the sweeping narrative of a shipwreck, perhaps the latest presidential biography. These days, dad books are a dying breed. Nonfiction book sales have been in decline for the past four years, and are now the most challenged segment of the print book market. Publishers say certain types of books still fare well—including celebrity memoirs and religious titles. But in recent years, print sales in such categories as biography, current affairs and business and economics—what publishers refer to as “serious nonfiction” and which tend to resonate especially with men—have fallen considerably. Sales of nonfiction print titles were down nearly 8% through May 9 this year, and sales of books about politics and current affairs were down 19%, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Publishing has long been subject to cyclical changes, with trends in format and genre taking over bookshelves in grand sweeps. (Remember the adult coloring-book craze? Or the stratospheric rise of romantasy?) But many in publishing believe the decline in serious nonfiction is more existential. “The trend couldn’t be clearer,” said Jonathan Karp, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster and publisher of the new Simon Six imprint. “This is a sea change and people should wake up and realize we’re living in a new world.” One culprit for the shift: a new media diet for fans of more serious nonfiction. … Sixty-two percent of men and 54% of women consumed a podcast in the prior month, according to a recent survey by Edison Research at SSRS, up from 46% and 39%, respectively, in 2023. “When we have internal meetings to talk about this problem, it always comes around to podcasts,” said Jonathan Burnham, president and publisher of the Harper Group at HarperCollins Publishers. “The man who wants to read American history is now tuning into one of the many good podcasts about history that lends the quiet attention to a serious subject he’s looking for. It makes the idea of sitting down with a 700-page Ron Chernow book less appealing. You’ve scratched that itch.” Source: Wall Street Journal Remarkable report by Novara from the nationalist rally in London in mid May. Anna Airy, Leopard Moth and Plums, 1915 If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
Michigan Football beats ND, Alabama for 2027 four-star recruit
BOOOOOOOM! 2027 four-star CB/S Tavares Harrington has committed to Michigan Football! The Wolverines beat Notre Dame and Alabama in this recruitment:
Outdoor Sports Growth Bodes Well for Footwear Industry
Pickleball, climbing and soccer are among the top growth sports, paving the way for demand in sneakers, performance shoes and cleats.
Nine incumbent candidates lost primary races Tuesday. Most were hardline conservatives
Nine Republican incumbents lost their primary races Tuesday in contests spanning the state of Idaho. In most cases, losses stemmed from seats held by hardline conservatives, according to unofficial election
From bans to recalls: A public health framework for AI companion bots
Gaia Bernstein discusses the threats that AI pose to public health—especially in children—and how a shift in the framing of legislative solutions could be beneficial.
Lawmakers discuss rising antisemitic threats in political campaigns
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., address the rise of antisemitism permeating 2026 political campaigns.
GTA 6 November 19 Date Holds as Take-Two Beats Earnings, but Zelnick Stays Coy on the Inevitable PC Port
Take-Two reaffirmed GTA 6’s November 19 launch date, while CEO Strauss Zelnick could only hint at the inevitable PC version.
Public health in action: from detection to response – how International Health Regulations (2005) guided response to hantavirus outbreak
In a world where people can cross borders in minutes, an infectious disease event – such as the cluster of hantavirus cases on the MV Hondius cruise ship – can quickly become a multi-country challenge.The International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) are the legally binding global framework that obligates countries to prevent, prepare for, detect, report and respond to public health threats that cross borders.When the United Kingdom notified WHO on 2 May 2026 of a cluster of severe respiratory illness cases aboard a Netherlands-flagged cruise ship in the Atlantic, passengers from 23 countries were on board. Within days, cases of hantavirus (Andes strain) had been confirmed in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland. The ship was still at sea.What followed was one of the most complex multi-country outbreak responses in recent years – and a direct test of the IHR.
House rejects Smithsonian women’s museum bill after GOP bans ‘biological men’
The widely backed proposal devolved into a partisan fight after Republicans changed the bill to ensure no transgender people are included in exhibits
Avoiding the Walker Dip: Military health professionals must ‘train how you’re going to fight’
Military Health System prioritizes skills sustainment, especially during times of peace, to prevent threats to medical readiness.
Nvidia beats Wall Street expectations amid AI chip boom, Asian tech stocks surge
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Gentoo Penguins Are Actually Four Different Species, Scientists Say, Revealing They're Not Quite 'Winners' of Climate Change After All
A new study indicates the adaptable birds evolved into distinct lineages as isolated populations shifted to match their environmental conditions over time. The work has implications for how conservationists assess threats to gentoos
ARC Raiders Is Getting New Massive Enemy Types, Including “Completely New” ARCs
Following the Turbine and Vaporizer, Embark is already working on the next generation of giant ARC threats.
Trump-backed Gallrein defeats Rep. Thomas Massie in GOP primary
Massie, who has served in Congress since 2012, fell into Trump’s crosshairs in part by pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and denouncing the war in Iran.
Polls have closed in Idaho Legislature races. Here’s what we know
In many districts, more-moderate Republicans challenged far-right incumbents for their seats. See how they did.
Gallrein supporters celebrate win over Massie in Kentucky's 4th District
Supporters of Ed Gallrein celebrate at his election night party after the Associated Press called the race for KY-04 in his favor. With the support of President Donald Trump, Gallrein unseats incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie.
College Station sports medicine clinic treats everyone like an athlete
SPONSORED: "We're building a community, not a clinic." Alpha Sports Performance Medicine in College Station has a unique approach — treating everyone like an athlete. Dr. Ben Baumgartner travels the world with Team USA and brings that expertise home.
Live Results: Pennsylvania midterm congressional primaries
Democratic voters in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary will pick their nominees to flip four seats seen as critical for the party to retake the U.S. House in November.
Introducing new Surface devices built for business and AI acceleration
Every IT leader and partner we work with is navigating the same challenges: AI is changing the demands of how teams work, security threats are growing more sophisticated and agents are changing investment decisions for the future. All under greater s
Fund Drive Special Programming: Disinformation, Political Manipulation, Identity Politics, and the Growing threats facing American Democracy
Host Davey D welcomed Jamelle Bouie to Hard Knock Radio for an in depth conversation about disinformation, political manipulation, identity politics, and the growing threats facing American democracy. Bouie, one of the nation’s most prominent political commentators, is a columnist for The New York Times and is widely known for connecting current political events to … Continued
Live Results: Kentucky midterm congressional primaries
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics within the Republican Party, faces a tough primary challenge Tuesday in Kentucky’s state primary. It’s the latest example this primary season of the president trying to purge the party of Republicans he perceives as disloyal. Kentucky voters will also pick nominees for U.S. Senate, five other U.S. House seats and the state General Assembly. Voters in Louisville will winnow down
Trump says he's called off plans for "scheduled attack of Iran" after request from Gulf partners
Training Naturalists Behind Prison Walls
A kestrel swoops to grab a smaller bird on the wing and eats it, right in front of a group of men in the garden at California Health Care Facility, or CHCF, a prison in Stockton, where the garden has become both a thriving ecosystem and a science classroom for people incarcerated there. As the feathers fly, UC Davis researcher Laci Gerhart pulls out a bird guide and shows the incarcerated men how to identify the bird by its size and coloration, noting that kestrels are North America’s smallest raptor and one of the few that are sexually dimorphic.
Children’s Colorado must resume care to transgender plaintiffs, state Supreme Court rules by 5-2
The Colorado Supreme Court, by a 5-2 vote, ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado on Monday to resume providing certain medical services to a group of transgender plaintiffs, which it had ceased in the face of funding threats from the federal government last year. The unusual appeal before the Supreme Court stemmed from a trial judge’s rejection […]
Bridging Systems: How Kentucky is Improving Response to Emerging Health Threats
Learn how Kentucky is integrating public health and health care emergency programs to improve their emergency readiness in this blog.
⚡ Weekly Recap: Exchange 0-Day, npm Worm, Fake AI Repo, Cisco Exploit and More
This week’s top cyber threats, attacks, breaches, malware, and urgent security updates.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander repeats as MVP; Aaron Rai wins PGA Championship; Aaron Rodgers to play in 2026
Plus NBA conference finals set as Cavs knock out Pistons
The Subnautica 2 fish self-defence debate rages on, as the game’s non-violent themes clash with player desire to fend off underwater threats
Unknown Worlds has stayed true to its oceanic pacifism themes, while the realities of living with dangerous animals has some players frustrated.
Redistricting debate shifts to South Carolina as Republicans seek clean sweep of House seats
GOP to target seat held by Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat among the state’s seven representatives in the House
Baidu beats first-quarter forecasts as AI business drives strong growth (BIDU)
Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) shares climbed more than 2% in premarket trading on Monday after the Chinese technology group delivered first-quarter revenue and earnings ahead of market expectations, supported by rapid expansion in its AI-related operations. AI-powered business becomes major revenue contributorThe company reported quarterly revenue of 32.
US states reject anti-vaccine bills as public health groups fight MAHA
Dozens of state anti-vaccine bills backed by "Make America Healthy Again" supporters have failed after public health groups won over Republican state lawmakers, marking a series of defeats for the backers of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This music streaming app nobody talks about actually beats the giants
I'm never going back to Spotify or Tidal
The 'fibermaxxing' trend has health benefits worth the hype
There are a lot of wellness trends that make health experts roll their eyes in skepticism. But there is one big trend that many experts can get behind – with a few caveats: fibermaxxing.
Redistricting debate shifts to South Carolina as Republicans seek clean sweep of US House seats
A debate over congressional redistricting is shifting to South Carolina.
Syracuse lacrosse defeats UNC to advance to final four
Syracuse advances to the final four for the second year in a row.
Dems have momentum in Florida. But can they reverse state's MAGA shift?
Florida seemed to lose its swing state status after big Republican victories in 2022 and 2024, but Democrats lately have been flipping GOP seats.
Southern Section track and field roundup: Braelyn Combe three-peats
The Southern Section track and field championships featured a slew of record-setting performances on Saturday at Moorpark High.
Schmitz Custom Meats opens for business in Dell Rapids
Schmitz Custom Meats held a grand opening Saturday, offering a community celebration, meet and greet, drinks, and of course, delicious food.
Now What? With Carbon Pricing Eroded and Pipeline Politics Advancing, Here Are the Pathways for Climate Success
At the end of a whirlwind week of news on carbon pricing and electricity strategy, capping a madcap year of pretty much non-stop, dramatic change, the word across much of Canada’s climate and energy transition community is that climate policy in this country has been shredded. Eviscerated. Hit with a sledgehammer by policy rollbacks that have pushed the country’s 2050 net zero target “well out of reach”. That means it’s never been more important to look for the rays of hope and glimmers of possibility. To glimpse the seeds of the next set of strategies to get Canada’s climate pollution under control and the country into the accelerating global dash away from fossil fuels. And then, once we’ve spotted those possibilities, get on with the hard, day-to-day slog of trying to make them a reality. Nothing takes away from the frustration and the deep disappointment so many climate and energy hawks are expressing, the sense of betrayal by the author of Value(s) and the former UN special envoy for climate action and finance. But we knew two things as the week drew to a close. We’re looking at the world as it most definitely is. And we don’t get to give up finding the pathways to confront climate change and deliver faster, deeper carbon cuts that leave no one else behind. So really, the first question we all have to ask ourselves is: What’s next? Subscribe All the Oxygen in the Room The outpouring of anger and grief over the carbon pricing deal between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been absolutely understandable. So much of the climate community poured years, more than a decade, into dragging the current federal pricing regime across the finish line, then defending it from a deluge of three-syllable rhymes after the Trudeau government proved utterly incapable of delivering its own message. The policy foisted on us by neo-classical economists took up all the oxygen in the room, burned through years of climate response time that we won’t get back, while cornering climate hawks into the position that the best response to the crisis of our lifetimes is a new tax…in an era of historic anti-tax sentiment. I mean, really—what could possibly have gone wrong? Against that history, let’s appreciate columnist Max Fawcett’s point that even a modest carbon pricing agreement with a government as off-the-wall libertarian/conspiracist as Danielle Smith’s—those adjectives are mine, not Max’s—is a win worth savouring (as long as Smith keeps her promises for a change). But part of living in the world as it is (no, I’m not letting that go) is to be clear-headed about what we can and can’t control. And one thing we get to decide, after seeing this week’s carbon price festivities take up all the oxygen yet again, is whether we want to keep letting that happen. Particularly when success down that road depends on a factor that no one with a climate agenda can control or influence—a provincial carbon pricing mechanism that has been manipulated and eroded beyond its lowest possible denominator. Thankfully, that’s not the way it has to go. Not when we have so many other powerful, practical tools at our disposal, including the ones still available to us through this abominable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and Alberta. Tools In Our Toolbox When I started roughing out this list, I didn’t expect it to grow to nearly a dozen bullet points. It’s probably still incomplete. Some of the greatest hits in today’s climate solutions toolbox include: • No Carbon Capture, No Pipeline: On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly stated that there’s been no change to the MOU provision that there will be no West Coast pipeline without an industry commitment to build its massive, $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage (CCUS) hub in Northern Alberta, and vice versa. The two megaprojects were joined at the hip when the MOU was signed Nov. 27, and the implementation agreement this week affirmed that they still are. A parade of independent analysts have spent years pointing to the economic and technical flaws in CCUS, while the industry kept postponing its investment decision until it could arm-twist the government for more “clarity” (by which it meant even more lavish taxpayer subsidies) on the project. Now the industry itself is running away from the CCUS hub and insisting the pipeline should proceed without it, but Carney doesn’t seem to be budging from a central tenet of the MOU to which Smith has signed on. • No Subsidies, No Investors: Climate analysts and advocates have quite rightly been hammering away at Carney and his team, insisting that any new capacity the industry wants to build must proceed without new subsidies. The government has responded with a growing collection of funding and financing mechanisms for the very wide menu of industrial development and nation-building projects they say they want to take on, and that menu always includes fossil fuel infrastructure. But it’s hard to see how even the combined fiscal clout of the federal and supportive provincial governments will deliver the financial backing private investors would need when the business case for new fossil fuel development is evaporating before their eyes. Particularly when… • No Market, No Demand, No Investors: As our friend Markham Hislop at Energi Media (our apparently sleepless friend, given the massive volume of great material he’s been churning out) points out this morning, the biggest vulnerability in any pipeline deal is the assumption that Asian buyers will want the oil or liquefied natural ga that our fossil industry is so keen to send them. Hislop writes in part: Ottawa and Alberta are effectively betting that countries like China and India will continue increasing oil imports for decades as their economies grow and energy consumption rises. That assumption underpins the entire economic rationale for expanding oil sands production and building billions of dollars in new export infrastructure. But Asian energy systems are changing rapidly… China, India, South Korea, and other major hydrocarbon importers are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars into electricity systems built around wind, solar, batteries, nuclear, hydro, and expanded transmission infrastructure. Domestic “energy sovereignty” is increasingly replacing the old energy-security model based on stable oil and gas imports. Those investments are expected to sharply slow oil demand growth and eventually reverse it, even as overall energy consumption continues rising. There are also refining constraints. Many Asian refineries and petrochemical complexes are already optimized to process discounted heavy crude from the Middle East and Latin America. That raises serious questions about how much additional Canadian bitumen Asian markets can absorb at profitable prices. Small wonder that there’s still no private sector investor for the project, despite Smith’s government desperately beating the bushes to put together a deal. For now, Alberta is acting as proponent and covering early start-up costs for a pitch to the federal Major Projects Office, which could actually turn into the next tough hurdle for Smith and her pipeline to jump. • Canada Day Looms: How ironic that Canada’s birthday this year could become a major chokepoint for the provincial premier who’s been working so diligently to tear the country apart! The July 1 target date for Alberta’s pipeline proposal is baked into the MOU, was reaffirmed by the implementation plan, but it hadn’t dawned on me that it cuts both ways. As one very smart colleague wrote in an email yesterday, “they’ve thrown the ball into Alberta’s court to get the project proposal on the table really quickly and to have to do a whole pile of work to put together a massive, complicated project that would typically take years to assemble, and they’ve given them weeks to do it.” That makes July 1 a looming deadline that Smith won’t be able to run away from politically, especially with the separatists in her party and her caucus breathing down her neck. (See previous ref to off-the-wall.) But if Alberta comes in with a sloppy, incomplete submission, even after Carney bent over backwards to simplify the application process and the rules that govern it, it may be harder for the province or the industry to blame Ottawa and insist on the faster process they claim their investors are demanding. (Oh, wait—which investors would those be??) • We’ll See You In Court (Then We’ll See You Again): If Carney did cave, that would be just one more reason for Indigenous and other affected communities to take the government and the process to court—Just as Alberta First Nations did, successfully, in response to Smith’s half-baked separation referendum. Veterans of the Harper era have been warning that a shoddy process around fossil fuel infrastructure or other major projects will be a recipe for the very delays that process seeks to avoid. And now more than ever, with renewable energy and energy storage eating fossil fuels’ lunch in import markets around the world, a delayed pipeline or LNG terminal may be as good as a cancelled one. • Charged Up, Ready to Go: With its goal of doubling Canada’s electricity supply to meet a doubling of demand by 2050, the national electricity strategy that Carney unveiled Thursday has a lot to like. With its explicit language about speeding the shift from fuels to more efficient and affordable electricity, global investment and deployment patterns that already favour that shift, an emerging bidirectional power grid, the role of front-line options like rooftop solar and heat pumps, the emergence of electric vehicles as behind-the-meter energy storage, and the domestic jobs and manufacturing to make it all happen, the document doubles down on the essential cornerstone of a faster shift off fossil fuels. The strategy envisions a more prominent role for gas and nuclear power. But some of those provisions were already in the Clean Electricity Regulations that climate hawks are now fighting so hard to defend, inserted as a compromise in a futile attempt to mollify the industry and its political representatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But once again, gas will be a tougher sell when it’s more expensive and now so much more unpredictable than the clean alternatives. The new nuclear technologies are still speculative and deeply vulnerable to cost overruns. Increasingly, utilities, developers, and investors know it. Carney declared Thursday that “it doesn’t do us good to be sitting in court all the time with provinces. It doesn’t do us good to be talking past each other. What does do us good is to come together with specific projects.” There are no guarantees, but so much of the language and narrative-building in the electricity strategy suggests the lion’s share of those projects will be renewable. • The Party Has Already Started: The electricity strategy only rarely digs down to specific projects, but provinces representing three-quarters of Canada’s population are already embracing a faster transition. Hydro-Québec is working on a 10-year, $185-billion renewable energy and grid buildout by 2035. Ontario recently brought 10 provinces and territories together in a National Energy Corridor Agreement to boost interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure. And the MOU implementation agreement commits Alberta to facilitate investment in renewable energy projects, a big step back from its continuing, punitive restrictions on renewables development. The electricity strategy envisions much of the financing and infrastructure that will be needed to pull those advances together into an integrated whole. • Delivering on Affordability: The MOU implementation plan has little or nothing to say about affordability (are you surprised?), but the electricity strategy does, with a top-line pledge to reduce home energy costs for seven out of 10 Canadian households by 2050, a total saving of $15 billion across the board. It’s just a start, but it puts affordability on the government’s narrative map. If they’re serious and deliberate about patching together a least-cost energy strategy, it’ll have little if any room for oil, gas, or nuclear—not with powerful evidence, for example, that electricity prices are higher when those prices are set by gas. • Smith Proves that Canada Works: By signing a deal that makes it harder to claim the federal government is blocking a new pipeline, Smith has helped prove Carney’s constant anti-separatist refrain that “Canada works”—incurring the rage, no doubt, of her own political base. Canada also needs to work for anyone who depends on a clean environment, healthy and thriving ecosystems, and safe, stable climate. But with Smith and her separatist constituents setting up as a fifth column for annexation by Donald Trump’s United States, let’s set aside any notion that 51st state status for Canada is a recipe for anything other than climate disaster (and so much else). Resisting and withstanding Trump (just 170 more sleeps until mid-term elections, which is a damn sight better than the 730 we started with) doesn’t mean a free pass for a pipeline, but we can still appreciate it that keeping Canada whole and sovereign is still Carney’s Job One. • The Words Not Spoken: Apart from a commitment to export a million barrels of “low-emission” Alberta bitumen per day (memo to Smith and Carney: You realize that that’s less than the industry is already exporting??), the MOU implementation plan says nothing about the international trade and economic sovereignty deals that Carney has been travelling the world to negotiate. It didn’t have to. Carney doesn’t need permission from Danielle Smith, her American enablers, or her separatist allies to continue building the alliances that will ratchet down our economic dependency on our unstable, unreliable neighbour to the south. But every connection he builds with countries outside North America helps align our economy and our future with a faster shift off fossil fuels. Little if any of this was on our bingo cards a year or two ago. But it’s the pathway that has opened up to us. And if it gives Canada any climate or energy gains at all in an era still dominated by Trump and his increasingly ridiculous tariffs, his loutish trade negotiations and his continuing annexation threats, we have to take the wins. Not least because they’ll be the point of departure for what we can achieve in 2027, 2029, and beyond, as Trump’s grip and this era begin to loosen and then fade. What is Carney Doing? If this line of thought is right—and it’s a possibility, not a prediction—it means that Carney’s actions and decisions are largely about buying time. Time for Trump’s power to wane. Time for Alberta’s separatist/conspiracist virus to spread, mutate, die out, or at least die back, with help from a vaccine of federal steadiness and calm (appropriate enough, for a movement populated largely by vaccine deniers) that no conspiracy theory can dismiss. And time for the government’s trade and investment agenda to deliver results—even knowing that some of those results will bring impacts that front-line communities will not and should not accept. In the immediate moment, none of this changes the way the wider climate community has to respond, from campaigners to investors to front-line practitioners. All of our voices are still essential. But those voices will be stronger and more confident if we have a clearer sense of the brutal game we’ve been pulled into, and a plausible path (or two it three) for playing it to the win we need. This conversation also underscores our biggest task for the remaining years of what was supposed to be the “decisive” decade for climate response: if we can shift the energy narrative in Canada, make it a mainstream view that the country’s preoccupation with oil and gas has us falling farther behind a changing world, we’ll see far better results in the 2030s and beyond. For many veteran climate advocates, taking on that part of the fight will begin with recognizing that most of our friends and family, neighbours and colleagues already understand that climate change is real and right in front of us: they’re looking away and staying silent because they don’t have what climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe calls “efficacy”. As Hayhoe recently pointed out in a feature interview with The Energy Mix, it amounts to science denial to keep hammering away at the dire news about global warming without also helping audiences understand what they can do about it, with multiple studies telling us why that won’t work. Far better to open those conversations with the dominant crises like energy security, food security, emergency preparedness and business continuity, affordability, and financial security that have knocked climate change far lower on the list of public priorities, and will likely keep it there. We Knew This Would Happen Climate hawks have always known this day would come. For decades, we warned that everyone had to pay attention to climate change right now, because it would be much tougher to respond once the crisis itself started affecting our daily lives. We were right, and here we are. But now, thanks to decades of hard work, communities and countries have an alternative to doubling down on fossil fuels. “In 10 years everyone will have ‘always known’ that solar and batteries were going to win,” Morgan Solar Executive Chair Mike Andrade writes on LinkedIn. With the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz roiling energy priorities around the world, Canada and the United States are among the shrinking number of countries that are still very keen on fossil fuel development. Understanding that gap is a first, essential step in spotting the opportunities ahead, and averting the deep economic as well as environmental and social risk we face if we don’t seize them. Thanks for reading The Energy Mix Weekender! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix and The Energy Mix Weekender. Chart of the Week BYD Eyes 20 Dealership Locations After Canada Greenlights Chinese EV Imports ‘Sledgehammer’ Carbon Price Deal Boosts Emissions by 230Mt, Aims for Fall 2027 Pipeline Approval ‘Worse Than Harper’: Regulatory Rollback Would Stop Canada from Assessing Project Impacts, Critics Warn Electricity Strategy Aims for Doubling by 2050, Allows ‘Flexibility’ for Gas Power Plants Opposition Mounts as O’Leary’s Data Centre Approved in Drought-Stricken Utah Diluted Carbon Price Misses ‘Reality of the World We’re In’, Could Impede Diversified Trade: Climate Institute $200B in Clean Energy Investment Will Need On-Time Delivery, Reliable Policies, Trade Association Says ‘Sovereign Pipeline’: CEO Pitches to Keep Trans Mountain in Government Hands What a Supercharged El Niño Could Mean for Canada Canada’s future is electric, and here’s how a power grid superhighway would get us there (Toronto Star) The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait (Globe and Mail) Saudi Aramco profits jump despite conflict in Middle East (The Guardian) Farmers confront rising cost of fertilizer and fuel as spring seeding under way (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Clarkson forecasts 24% decline in offshore oil, gas capital expenditures (Oil & Gas Journal) Pipe Dreams: How Oil and Gas Fail to Deliver Economic Development in Africa (Oil Change International) Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition (Climate Home News) Iran war threatens the dream of a post-oil economy in the Gulf (Washington Post) U.S. Oil, Gas Work Force Hits Lowest Level Since 2022 (Rigzone) Why Polestar Is Doubling Down on Net Zero as Rivals Pull Back on EVs (Bloomberg) Why this Michigan utility plans to sell its hydro dams for $13 (E&E News/Politico) Levees can no longer save New Orleans (Vox)
Virginia’s new House map is dead. Democrats think they can still flip these seats.
Republicans won the redistricting war in Virginia, but several lawmakers remain vulnerable.
Mira Costa defeats Loyola for the Southern Section boys' volleyball title
Mira Costa sweeps rival Loyola to win its second straight Southern Section Division 1 boys' volleyball championship.
Disruption in Science: Threats and Opportunities
Cincinnati Children’s 2026 Research Symposium explored how AI, exposome science, and innovative pediatric research are reshaping discovery, workforce strategy, and the future of medicine.
Supreme Court rejects bid to restore Virginia congressional map favoring Democrats
In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.
Congressman Cohen Announces Plan for His Political Future
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen, who has represented Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District for more than 19 years, held a press conference at his office in Washington this morning to announced that he will not be a candidate for any of the newly drawn Congressional seats carved out of the 9th. His majority-Black district was gerrymandered into three Republican-leaning districts by the state General Assembly last week.He made the following statement:
Rep Jayapal defends outreach after Cuba trip drew conspiracy allegations, death threats
Rep. Pramila Jayapal says she has received death threats after revealing she spoke with foreign ambassadors during a congressional trip to Cuba.
Zero-day exploit completely defeats default Windows 11 BitLocker protections
It's not entirely clear how the exploit works. Microsoft says it's investigating.
Pair Of Aggie Receivers Named Among Nation’s Top Returners By Hero Sports
Hero Sports has named a pair of UC Davis football wide outs to its top 25 list of returning Football Championship Subdivision wide receivers with Samuel Gbatu, Jr., being named the third-best returning receiver and Stacy Dobbins being tagged as the nation's 18th-best returning wide receiver, giving the Aggies a pair of nationally ranked offensive threats heading into the 2026 season. The Aggies are just one of three programs to have more than one member named to the list and they are one of four Big Sky teams to have at least one receiver named to the top 25.
Gavin Newsom Beats The Drum For Nationwide Entertainment Industry Incentives, And Dances Around His Presidential Aspirations
Throughout his decades in politics, Gavin Newsom has been called everything under the California sun by friends and foes alike, but there is one moniker the two-term Golden State governor embraces, th...
Entertainment this week: Fanny Bridge Dedication, CultureFest
Friday, May 15 Michelle Moonshine – 7:30-10:30 p.m., Moody’s Bistro, Bar & Beats, 10007 Bridge St. Singer-Songwriter Michelle Moonshine’s original songs have an upbeat tempo, catchy vocal lines and heartfelt lyrics; but it’s her unique...
ACPD investigating trio of robberies at Arlington businesses
Arlington County police are looking for suspects in three business robberies reported across the county on Tuesday. In each incident, suspects allegedly took merchandise from a retail store and either used force or made threats against employees, according to an Arlington County Police Department crime report. The first happened around 9:30 a.m. on the 4600
Scientists discover the strange way CO2 cools part of Earth’s atmosphere
Scientists have finally cracked the mystery behind one of climate change’s strangest fingerprints: while Earth’s surface heats up, the upper atmosphere is rapidly cooling. Researchers at Columbia University discovered that carbon dioxide acts very differently high above the planet, where it actually helps radiate heat into space instead of trapping it. The team found that certain infrared wavelengths fall into a “Goldilocks zone” that becomes increasingly effective as CO2 levels rise, accelerating cooling in the stratosphere.
Local health officials prepare for influx of World Cup fans
Health officials from the U.S. cities hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup say they are preparing to deal with infectious diseases, heat-related illness, and an array of other health threats when millions of fans, many of them from overseas, come to watch the games. The World Cup is expected to draw between 5 million and […]
Deschutes County Commission races bring in over $1M in fundraising
Candidates raise over $1 million in bid for four Deschutes County commission seats after voters expanded the board in 2024.
Whoopi Goldberg falls back on 'The View,' slams people who save seats in church
Whoopi Goldberg fell back on 'The View' as she slammed people who save seats in church: 'I'm gonna be in your chair,' the Oscar-winning star said.
RFK Jr. Swaps Vaccine Rhetoric for Story Time as GOP Woos Voters
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Nestled Between Fort Lauderdale And Miami Is A Florida City Brimming With Entertainment, Tasty Eats, And Shops
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Addressing growing and inevitable cyberthreats in health care
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You should probably eat more fiber. Here's why — and how to do it
The average person eats 10-15 grams of fiber per day, according to the USDA. The problem? That’s WAY under the recommended daily amount. Fiber – a type of carb that our bodies are unable to digest – is prevalent in foods like fruits, veggies, whole grains, and beans. And it’s key for everything from feelings of fullness, to gut health, to good poop. That’s why a lot of people online are “fibermaxxing”: trying to meet or exceed the daily recommendation of fiber, in hopes it’ll improve their health. But how should YOU add fiber to your diet… and are the fibermaxxers overdoing it? Gastroenterologist Berkeley Limketkai is here to help parse the science on how little fiber is too little, how much fiber is too much – and, like Goldilocks, how we can figure out the amount that’s just right.Interested in more food and dietary science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Calendar Pick: Weaver D’s Food & Entertainment Festival
Athens’ beloved soul food restaurant Weaver D’s Fine Foods closed its doors at the end of February, but the community will still come together in its name for Weaver D’s Food & Entertainment Festival. The festival theme is “Automatic For The People,” the restaurant’s famous slogan that put it on the map when R.E.M. used it as an album title in 1992. Attendees can enjoy a variety of food options, including but not limited to Londynn’s Lemonade, Taylor’s Treats and Ron & Sandra’s Fish Shack. Dexter Weaver, Weaver D’s owner, will also be serving the restaurant’s full menu. Entertainment will include the New Faith Tabernacle Male Chorus, Lavender House, Mr. Mister, The PRESHA Steppas, Old Gold Sport Peppers, Smackedass, Tonya […]
Arrest made after man threatens to blow up Nintendo's headquarters
Reports are emerging from Japan that a 27-year-old unemployed man has been arrested for threating to blow up Nintendo’s headquarters. Kyoto police made the arrest today, May 12. The man was arrested on grounds of suspected obstruction of business. In envelopes sent to Nintendo, the man included messages such as “I’m going to blow you all up” and “My plans...
Which side are business leaders on in Senate primary?
As Senate primary between Ed Markey and Seth Moulton heats up, Massachusetts business leaders are starting to pick sides.
The Hantavirus Outbreak Is a Test Case for the U.S. Public Health Response
The outbreak is also a kind of test case for how well the U.S. is positioned to respond to global disease threats under the Trump administration. Since early last year, the administration has pulled back U.S. engagement on global health, which has included completing a withdrawal from membership in the World Health Organization (WHO)...
Teen builds ‘Bionic Underwater Robotic Turtle’ to detect ecological threats
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Why Your Life Is Now on Subscriptions
As companies look to build cash flow and loyalty, everything from heated car seats to earthworm deliveries can become a recurring charge on your credit card.
Hawaii beats UC Irvine for NCAA men's volleyball championship
Kristian Titriyski totaled a match-high 16 kills, the last coming on championship point, and Hawaii beat Big West Conference rival UC Irvine 15-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20 on Monday night to claim the NCAA men's volleyball championship.
How Democratic Divisions Are Playing Out in NYC’s Primary Races
Establishment and left-wing leaders are clashing over House seats scattered across the city.
Why Republicans Are Still Drawing House Maps, While Democrats Are Stuck
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Democrats ask Supreme Court to halt a Virginia ruling blocking new congressional districts
Democrats on Monday filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to halt a Virginia ruling invalidating a ballot measure that would have given their party an additional four winnable U.S. House seats.
In Trump administration battle over AI, U.S. spy agencies seek more power
As the White House grapples with cybersecurity threats from artificial intelligence models, intelligence officials want sway in AI policy overseen by Commerce.
GOP rush to redraw U.S. House seats creates voter confusion, headaches for election officials
Republicans' rush to gerrymander congressional districts across several Southern states is confusing voters and creating logistical headaches for local election officials.
Democrats reel from court-imposed redistricting losses
The original map was designed to flip four GOP seats
Voter confusion and headaches for election officials follow hasty GOP push to redraw US House seats
Republican state officials are confusing voters and creating logistical headaches for local election officials across the South by redistricting U.S. House seats as primary season is underway.
Voter confusion and headaches for election officials follow hasty GOP push to redraw US House seats
Republican state officials are confusing voters and creating logistical headaches for local election officials across the South by redistricting U.S. House seats as primary season is underway.
Trump’s Redistricting Push Could Cost Republicans More Than It Gains
Republicans chasing extra House seats risk energizing Democrats and alienating key new voters.
Texas baseball beats Tennessee, becomes 1st program to 1,500 wins
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“The Devil Wears Prada 2 ”narrowly defeats “Mortal Kombat 2 ”in weekend box office cage match
No one tells Miranda Priestly no — not in the editor's room and not at the box office.
'The Devil Wears Prada 2' narrowly defeats 'Mortal Kombat 2' in weekend box office cage match
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Apple's 2026 MacBook Pro Available for Record Low Price This Weekend
Apple's new 14-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro with 24GB RAM and 1TB SSD is still available for an all-time low price this weekend on Amazon. It's available for $1,983.94, down from $2,199.00. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running. This beats the previous deal we tracked on this model by about $17, and as of writing it's only available in Space Black.
Chicago Teachers Union wants $8.5 million dues hike to fund politics
“Has your brand become toxic?” This was a pointed question from WGN Political Editor Tahman Bradley, posed to Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates in a recent interview. Her immediate response: “I don’t understand the question.” When pressed, Gates added, “The Chicago Teachers Union is not a political party, it is a labor union.” But internal union documents show CTU leadership is trying to skim $8.5 million more from teacher paychecks explicitly for politics, while trying to silence union members critical of Gates’ leadership. Under the proposed dues hike, Chicago teachers would see up to $800 more per year flow from their paychecks to union coffers. The union already takes in more than $40 million a year, mostly from dues. And it spends less than 18 cents of every dollar on teacher representation. The No. 1 reason for the proposed dues hike? Politics. “We must win a majority of the first 21 person fully elected school board in November,” reads the first point in CTU’s member FAQ document.1 This directly contradicts CTU’s promise to members about how leadership uses dues money. The official CTU handbook tells members that the union does not use dues money for politics, so if they are interested in funding political activity, they should consider voluntary donations to CTU’s political action committee. “Our dues are not used for political purposes,” according to the handbook. “So our PAC relies on extra contributions from our members to support progressive candidates and to impact elected officials at the city, county and state levels.” This kind of double-speak is one reason members are concerned about another constitutional change slipped into the dues hike vote, which will take place on May 20-21: an attempt to stop members from holding the union accountable. A proposed amendment to the union constitution tries to place limits on when members may bring a lawsuit against the union for violating members’ rights.2 This provision is clearly a response to members’ lawsuit against union leadership regarding Gates’ years-long refusal to publish audited financial statements. The judge in that case has repeatedly denied the union’s attempts to dismiss it. Teachers opposed to these changes have been circulating this flier, urging members to vote no. What will CTU members get in return for millions of dollars in additional dues? If the 2024 school board elections are any indication—not much. CTU leadership’s record on school board races may not inspire confidence among members. A Chicago Policy Center analysis of a dozen affiliated PACs found CTU spent nearly $2.9 million on school board races in 2024. Of that spending, more than $2.1 million (75%) went to losing candidates. And while CTU-backed candidates lost six of the nine competitive seats overall, they fared worse in their biggest-spending races, losing five of six contests in which the union and its affiliates put up more than $250,000 for their candidate. The Chicago school board elections take place Nov. 3.3 Is another $8.5 million enough to clean up a toxic reputation? Not likely. Update on federal tax credit scholarship: Last week, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she plans to opt into the federal tax credit scholarship program. If Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker follows suit, Illinois could unlock $1 billion in donor money statewide for both public- and private-school students. If Illinois does not opt in, that money will flow to other states. The Last Ward reported in February on how Illinois Democrats could unlock at least $100 million in new resources for Chicago public-school students by opting in. Update on the investigation into how Chicagoans learned about a meeting to hike their property taxes: The Last Ward reported in January on an absurd, taxpayer-funded investigation into how local media learned of a planned Chicago school board meeting to hike the district’s property tax levy. That investigation is now complete. Lawyers interviewed two dozen witnesses, and found nothing. Update on Illinois’ muni debt crisis: My colleague Joe Tabor last week published a must-read piece in Crain’s Chicago Business about how Illinois recently rejected south suburban Harvey’s request to be designated a “distressed city.” The saga shows why the state must implement a better structure to assist insolvent local governments, including allowing for the option to pursue debt relief via Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The Last Ward reported in October on how Harvey is tipping the first domino in Illinois’ municipal debt crisis. Mincing Rascals: I joined the Mincing Rascals podcast to discuss the SAFE-T Act, the millionaires tax, and more. My “green light” recommendation: Force Majeure (2014). 1 Notably, the No. 2 reason cited is “resources to fund a state-wide millionaires tax campaign in order to fully fund the state’s school funding formula.” The constitutional amendment necessary to implement a progressive income tax in Illinois recently died in the Illinois House, meaning this question would not appear on the ballot until 2028 at the earliest. 2 There is seemingly no single-subject rule for CTU constitutional amendments. So members only get one vote on the full package. One cannot vote “yes” on the dues hike and “no” on the restriction of members’ rights, for example. 3 Illinois law grants far too much power over local government to unelected officials like Gates. State lawmakers should fix that.