11,000 employees with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, for Palestine, went on strike over unfair working conditions.
Employees say management at UNRWA engage in arbitrary firing and denial of workers’ rights. In some cases workers have been fired because of the political party they belong to.
The strike resulted in the closing of 238 schools, and 25 health clinics in Gaza.
At least 1,000 health care workers picketed a hospital belonging to one of the biggest insurance companies in the U.S.; Kaiser Permanente’s flagship hospital in Los Angeles, California.
The workers say Kaiser has been cutting back on staffing, forcing those still working to handle longer hours. The insurance company is also cutting back on services. Striking workers say the company is lying about lack of funding.
During the first quarter of 2011 Kaiser Permanente reported a profit of $920 million. For all of 2010 they made a profit of $2 billion. Yet the company came out and told employees there will be more rounds of cut backs.
Around the country, tens of thousands of teachers in the United States have been laid off.
New York City needs to lay off 6,000 teachers, to balance their education budget.
California has notified at least 20,000 teachers that they will be unemployed.
Dozens of teachers were fired in Ohio this week.
Broward County Florida School District will lay off 1,400 teachers.
And many layoffs took place in the past year.
In some cities pro-teacher groups are pointing out that their school districts actually have budget surpluses, yet teachers are being laid off in large numbers.
Teachers unions are on board with the layoffs, saying it’s time for the bad teachers to go. I’m all for getting rid of the bad teachers, there are plenty (from my own experience as a student, and as a parent putting four kids through school), but when you realize the number of teachers being laid off across the country it makes you wonder: Are there that many bad teachers?
A five year study, done by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, concludes that because of the promiscuous attitude of U.S. society, during the 1960s-80s, the Church let down its guard on sex abusers who became priests.
The report does say that the Church failed to enforce celibacy, and properly monitor the priests. Also, the report says large numbers of homosexuals entered the priesthood in the 1980s. However, it puts most of the blame on U.S. society.
Victim’s groups say the report is a sham because it is the Bishops who’ve been covering up the crimes from day one: “The Bishops are the ones who knowingly transferred predators, allowed them to remain in ministry, then covered up for them when they were found abusing, and then transferred them again to another place.”-Barbara Blaine, President of SNAP
U.S. Treasury Department announced that President Barak Obama has imposed sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and other Syrian officials.
The sanctions also include two Iranian officials. Also, Obama signed a similar order against at least 10 Syrian officials on April 29.
“As a result of this action, any property in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the individuals listed in the Annex have an interest is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”-U.S. Treasury statement
May 17, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was recently asked, by CBS’s 60 Minutes, about the war against Libya. He replied that the United States was not legally/technically at war with Libya (that would take a declaration of War by Congress). Instead Gates says the U.S. is engaged in “limited kinetic action” against Libya.
Gates is not the first U.S. official to make such a reference to the war against Libya.
Rumors say that President Barak Obama’s speech, on peace between Israel and Palestinians, will be a let down for those seeking statehood.
While Obama is expected to ask Israel to stop new settlements, he’s also expected to ask Palestinians to stop seeking statehood. He will give the speech on Thursday, May 19.
May 18, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, says the United States faces a new Cold War if it continues to push its “missile shield” across eastern Europe.
Medvedev says Russia will have no choice but to increase spending on its military, especially nuclear weapons: “We would then be talking about developing the offensive potential of our nuclear capabilities. This would be a very bad scenario.”
The U.S. has repeatedly said the missile shield system is aimed at Iran, but it’s very suspicious that most European countries that have agreed to host the U.S. system, are in eastern Europe facing Russia.
Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture has discovered that pasture grass, throughout the prefecture, is contaminated with radioactive cesium.
As much as 1,500 becquerels of cesium has been found. The national safe limit is 300 becquerels. All farmers/ranchers have been warned not to graze their livestock on the grass.
British military commanders have confirmed that they have been given “blunt warning” from U.S. commanders. The “warning”, call it a threat, is against the United Kingdom’s planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.
British military leaders say the United States has actually told them to ignore any orders from their U.K. government to withdraw from Afghanistan.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron wants to start drawing down U.K. troops in Afghanistan, starting in July 2011. British media are reporting that U.S. generals have warned their British counterparts not to follow those orders. This is another sign that the United States has no intentions of leaving Afghanistan.
One report says the British were told that they could not count on the U.S. to “bail them out” if they began withdrawing their troops. Another report says British commanders in Afghanistan were told they needed to stay until at least 2014.
President Barak Obama is the Commander in Chief of the U.S. military. If “his” officers are threatening the British it must be at his command.