Zerohedge

At this point the Hamas-Israel truce has held since January 19, and several successful rounds of hostage/prisoner exchanges have followed since. The latest happened Saturday, with Hamas releasing three more Israeli hostages captured on Oct.7, 2023 – in exchange for another 183 imprisoned Palestinians released by Israel.

This brings the total freed since the ceasefire took effect last month to 21 people freed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad – 16 of them Israelis and five Thai citizens who had been workers in the Kibbutz which were attacked. This is still part of the first, 42-day phase of the agreement.

The three Israelis released Saturday have been identified as Eli Sharabi, 52, Ohad Ben Ami, 56, and Or Levy, 34. They were paraded on a stage in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza to sign handover documents.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described the scene of the emaciated hostages “shocking” and vowed that the government would take action against Hamas.

“The shocking images we saw today will not pass without response,” the statement reads. “The government, together with security officials, will support them and their families. Israel is committed to bringing back all the hostages and missing.”

According to a description via NBC:

The freed captives looked gaunt as they were paraded on stage by Hamas just before the were transferred into the custody of the Red Cross, and they were also interviewed on stage by one of the fighters.

Netanyahu has “instructed to now allow the situation to go unaddressed,” a statement from his office said, without giving further details. 

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in separate statement the hostages were “being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle,” after suffering “491 days of hell.”

But Gaza officials also pointed to the emaciated condition of some of the freed Palestinians:

Seven of the Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel today have been taken to hospital due to “their poor health condition,” according to the Red Crescent.

Hamas said yesterday that 183 would be freed today. A group were taken to the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank earlier today. But it is unclear how many were freed.

The released prisoners were let go by a bus in Ramallah, to large crowds and jubilation as they were reunited with their families.

Palestinians say there were abused in Israeli jails and right up until release:

“They beat us in front of the Red Cross”: A Palestinian man, released after 22 years of unlawful Israeli imprisonment, reveals that detainees were beaten up even in their final moments before release right in front of the Red Cross. @AlarabyTV broadcast pic.twitter.com/hbsamboyP8

— Translating Falasteen (Palestine) (@translatingpal) February 8, 2025

“Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, the head of the medical division in the Israeli Health Ministry, reported that the three hostages who returned to Israel today are malnourished and have lost significant weight during their time in captivity,” NBC added.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills on Friday that would set aside a combined $50 million to protect immigrants and defend the state from potential legal actions by the Trump administration.

One of the bills allocates $25 million to nonprofit organizations that offer legal immigration services to people “at risk of detention, deportation, eviction, wage theft, intimate partner violence, and other actions that put their safety at risk” due to federal actions.

In his signing statement, Newsom said the bill will help to protect the civil rights of California’s “most vulnerable residents,” including people with disabilities, homeless people, victims of human trafficking and wage theft, as well as immigrants.

The governor made clear that the allocated funding would not be used to protect immigrants convicted of serious or violent felonies. Newsom also called on state lawmakers to pass subsequent legislation if further clarification on this is necessary.

The second bill sets aside $25 million for the state Department of Justice to push back against federal policy “that adversely impact the state, its taxpayers, and residents” through litigation.

The bills were passed by state lawmakers on Feb. 3. California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-District 29) has raised concerns over President Donald Trump’s executive actions targeting various federal agencies, as well as the administration’s recent funding freeze—which he said has affected critical resources for the community.

“Right now, Californians are being threatened by an out-of-control administration in Washington that doesn’t care about the Constitution and thinks there are no limits to its power,” Rivas told the assembly on Feb. 3.

 “We must ensure that our residents receive the federal services and benefits that they have contributed to and that they deserve.”

California joined a coalition of attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia in filing an emergency motion on Feb. 7 to ask a federal judge to enforce a restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s freeze on federal financial assistance.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo on Jan. 27 directing federal agencies to suspend the distribution of grants, loans, and other financial assistance while the programs were being reviewed to ensure they aligned with the president’s policy priorities.

California has also moved to protect immigrants amid the Trump administration’s recent crackdown on illegal immigration. Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has directed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out enforcement actions in various major U.S. cities, resulting in the arrest of 956 people within a day on Jan. 27.

Newsom’s Meeting With Trump

Newsom signed the two bills just a day after returning from Washington where he met with Trump and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to secure federal disaster aid.

His office described the meeting with the president as “very productive,” with Newsom emphasizing the critical need for disaster aid for people affected by the wildfires that hit parts of California last month.

“We’re working across the aisle, as we always have, to ensure survivors have the resources and support they need,” Newsom said in a statement on Feb. 5. 

“Thank you President Trump for coming to our communities to see this first hand, and meeting with me today to continue our joint efforts to support people impacted.”

The governor expressed his appreciation for the Trump Administration’s early collaboration and specifically thanked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for his agency’s swift action,” including the deployment of 1,000 individuals to aid with debris removal.

Newsom signed a $2.5 billion package for fire relief into law last month to help fund the state’s disaster response including evacuations, sheltering survivors, and removing household hazardous waste. His administration has said they expect the federal government to reimburse the state.

In addition to propping up far-left corporate media outlets like Politico and the BBC with taxpayer funds, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has funneled half a billion dollars to a secretive non-governmental organization operating a global news propaganda matrix. 

WikiLeaks published the bombshell report in the overnight hours that shows the massive taxpayer-funded state propaganda network – operating as a shady NGO – called “Internews Network”: 

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, “Internews Network” (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and “training” over 9000 journalists (2023 figures). IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.

The operation claims “offices” in over 30 countries, including main offices in US, London, Paris and regional HQs in Kiev, Bangkok and Nairobi. It is headed up by Jeanne Bourgault, who pays herself $451k a year. Bourgault worked out of the US embassy in Moscow during the early 1990s, where she was in charge of a $250m budget, and in other revolts or conflicts at critical times, before formally rotating out of six years at USAID to IN.

Bourgault’s IN bio and those of its other key people and board members have been recently scrubbed from its website but remain accessible at http://archive.org. Records show the board being co-chaired by Democrat securocrat Richard J. Kessler and Simone Otus Coxe, wife of NVIDIA billionaire Trench Coxe, both major Democratic donors. In 2023, supported by Hillary Clinton, Bourgault launched a $10m IN fund at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The IN page showing a picture of Bourgault at the CGI has also been deleted.

IN has at least six captive subsidiaries under unrelated names including one based out of the Cayman Islands. Since 2008, when electronic records begin, more than 95% of IN’s budget has been supplied by the US government (thread follows). 

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, “Internews Network” (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and “training” over…

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

Not suspicious at all! 

USAID (and State) funneled nearly half a billion dollars through this building which is at “876 7th St Arcata, CA 95521-6358”. The IRS and IN government contracts list this address as the current registered address for IN although it was clearly abandoned by December 2024. Shot… pic.twitter.com/ELzv3G4p5l

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

IN’s funding has doubled since Trump’s first-term victory, as the Deep State poured billions into combating so-called misinformation and disinformation targeting conservative media worldwide—all under the guise of “saving democracy.”

IN’s funding has doubled since 2016: pic.twitter.com/8jnO6DMJwM

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

IN’s complex funding graph. 

Where Internews fits in the funding graph (h/t @DataRepublican) https://t.co/d11oX7nmFq pic.twitter.com/47xMOJsPeJ

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

The bio for IN CEO Jeanne Bourgault shows past jobs at Wired, Guardian, and other corporate media outlets. 

Bio for Jeanne Bourgault: pic.twitter.com/vZMGXfIpcA

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

Not surprising. 

Removed Internews Network (IN) page of its chief executive Jeanne Bourgault at the Clinton Global Initiative (2023) pic.twitter.com/hKInv2i9m2

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

Speaking at the globalist Davos event last year, IN’s CEO argued that global advertisers should prioritize spending ad dollars on “good news.” In other words, this would pressure companies to spend exclusively on far-left corporate media outlets while ensuring they slash ad spending on alternative media websites that do not promote state propaganda.

American taxpayers funded the global censorship matrix that has lied about wars, covid origins, vaccines, and go down the list…

Now I want you to listen to me very closely: when the CEO of USAID’s Internews pressured advertisers to create exclusion lists to only fund approved news sources, she was carrying out USAID’s formal policy goal to have USAID partners do “advertiser outreach” to “redirect funding” https://t.co/NVI6DtUfcl pic.twitter.com/vyWReP0epx

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 8, 2025

Wikileaks shows the moment in time when IN “lost its way”… And you’ll never guess how. 

How IN lost its way (2006, John Hopkins University Magazine):https://t.co/6L8NsDfJFs pic.twitter.com/xLr7xELcAN

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

IN’s media matrix spans worldwide.

Here are the downstream holdings on IN via public records forensics data:

“Internews is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect, and the means to make their voices heard,” the NGO stated in an IRS 990 filing as its purpose of businesses. 

Public records data shows IN has many business purposes worldwide, all in an effort to control a media matrix and ensure only state propaganda is told on the local level. 

How does it feel to know that your tax dollars are funding a state propaganda media matrix around the world? 

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

I’d like to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

[President] Donald Trump caused a firestorm in the aftermath of this horrific and tragic crash at [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]. He mentioned that he was going to examine the role of diversity, equity, [and] inclusion.

What he meant was criteria other than merit that go into hiring these critical positions in the air traffic controller tower, but also as pilots and general in the military.

And people got very angry, and they said this was inappropriate. But like all things Donald Trump does, he tries to open a very sensitive issue in a very loud fashion, and that brings attention to it, and then, people do some investigation.

Greenland is a good example. “How dare he say he wants to buy Greenland?” Then we discover that Denmark is investing almost no money in Greenland. We discovered that Greenland is in North America. Did you know that? It’s closer to New York than it is in Copenhagen.

That this left-wing Danish government is way behind on its NATO contributions. And it’s an imperialist power with a colony that it doesn’t really help too much. So, there’s always more to it, and there is with diversity [and] inclusion.

So, now we are learning that there were mandates about a person’s race and mandates about a person’s sexual orientation.

When I say mandates, I mean that people who didn’t fit those criteria were not encouraged to apply. [The Federal Aviation Administration] disbanded a lot of university programs that encourage people with military experience or encourage people that had courses in scientific disciplines or mathematics or aeronautics not to apply.

And the assistant director of the FAA and a former applicant nominee who was rejected, they were just explicit about that.

But here’s the thing about DEI in general: It’s a system that has many faces. In the old Soviet Union, it was not race or gender, it was ideology. And one of the reasons, among many, but I think the prime reason, that the Soviet Union imploded was they had an apparat, a group of incompetents that swore that they were more ideologically and Marxist-Leninist pure than anybody else.

And they were given the top billets in rocket science and military affairs. We saw that in World War II, with the Red Army almost collapsed in June of 1941. And within a year, all the commissars were out.

DEI is a commissar system. I once was in Libya and I asked this person—a high government official—I was interviewing, I said, “You have potholes everywhere, but you’re the fifth-largest producer of oil in the world.”

“Mr. Hanson, we hire our first cousin, first. We’re a tribal society.” He told me that.

The thing about DEI—what Trump brought up with the FAA—ask yourself something: If it’s so good, why don’t people just say that? Why don’t they just say, we’re willing to have collateral damage? We’re going to bring in people that may not have traditional criteria or traditional resumes, but we’re willing to take that risk with your life.

They never say that.

And remember one thing else, if you hire someone on the basis of their race, or their gender, or their sexual orientation, and they know it, then why would that be the end of it? That is the beginning.

If you show up late for work, if you don’t do your job, if you’re subject to an audit, then you think, I want the same exemptions that were accorded me when I was hired. I need them.

And of course, no one ever discusses that. So, what we’re watching is, if it turns out to be true that the tower was understaffed, that one person was let go early, that the air traffic controller made a mistake, that the pilot was at the wrong [elevation], these were all mistakes.

It was a perfect storm, apparently, of blunders. And if those blunders are connected with people who felt they were not subject to meritocratic criteria, there’s going to be a scandal.

I’m not saying there is, but Donald Trump is bringing attention to it. And by bringing attention, then, what do we do? We review the Biden-Obama FAA, and we discover—not us, we knew it a long time—but the general public, discovers that they have been systematically using race and gender and sexual orientation, not just to promote particular people, but to exclude people who have had perfect scores on tests, who come from the military, who have majors in the type of college disciplines that would be perfectly suitable for an FAA controller.

And if that’s true, then we’re in big trouble. I’ll just finish with this observation: When affirmative action started, some 50 years ago, I was a graduate student, and one of the professors said, “You’re not going to get a job.” None of the three males in the graduate program in classics—when you get your Ph.D. or not—and I said to them, “That doesn’t seem fair.”

And he said, “We’re guinea pigs, academia. Who cares about a classics professor?” So, we will be, basically, diverse. But nobody’s going to worry about that you use criteria because who cares about classics?

I thought that was a very cynical thing to say about an advocate. But then he said, “But of course, we would never do this with atomic reactors, nuclear reactors. We’d never do this with brain surgeons.” And then he said this, “And we would never do this with FAA air traffic control.” And that’s exactly what we may have been doing.

[It] doesn’t mean that was culpable in this particular instance. It means that this particular instance has got us worried about the system, in general, and we want to improve it.

And one of the things we can do is take a hard look at the FAA.

Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Revelations that USAID officials are spending hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars overseas for controversial projects such as advancing atheism in Nepal and funding “transgender opera” in Columbia are nothing new.

As Mark Tapscott details below for The Epoch Times, nearly 20 years ago, in October 2005, the refusal of USAID officials to admit they were funding a prostitution ring in India so angered Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that he vowed to introduce a new law enabling every U.S. citizen with the internet to quickly and easily find out how federal officials are spending his or her tax dollars.

A year later, President George W. Bush’s signing of Coburn’s proposal into law—thus mandating the creation of today’s USASpending.gov—marked a huge step forward in making government spending easily accessible for every citizen with internet access.

Coburn described the USAID coverup in detail in his Senate floor speech in April 2006 as he introduced the promised proposal, which was known as the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA).

The FFATA proposal was a bipartisan one from the beginning, with then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) as co-sponsors.

Coburn, who was already well-known among his Senate colleagues as “Dr. No” for his opposition to wasteful federal spending and his annual compilation of examples, called the “Wastebook,” assembled a crack staff of congressional investigators and communicators who constantly exposed outrages such as the $329 million earmark better known as Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere.”

In his FFATA floor speech, Coburn described how USAID officials fought his staff investigators every step of the way in their probe of the agency’s funding of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) called “Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM).

Coburn quoted an unclassified State Department memorandum concerning how SANGRAM opposed a U.N. agency’s effort to free 17 young Indian girls from a prostitution ring.

“The girls are now back in the brothels, being subjected to rape for profit,” the memorandum said.

“On November 16, 2005, a USAID briefer asserted to subcommittee staff that USAID had ‘nothing to do with’ the grant to the pro-prostitution SANGRAM and that the subcommittee’s inquiries were ‘destructive,’” the Oklahoma lawmaker told his Senate colleagues.

“Nonetheless, congressional investigators continued to pursue this matter and eventually proved that USAID money financed the pro-prostitution SANGRAM through a second organization named Avert, which was established with the assistance of four USAID employees as a pass-through entity.”

Not only did USAID officials help start Avert and fund it, but one of them also served on the group’s board of directors.

Twenty years later, USASpending.gov has been used for billions of searches by journalists, congressional staffers, academic researchers, and nonprofit advocacy groups seeking information about how the federal government spends trillions of tax dollars every year.

Many of those searches produce widely read and discussed news stories about waste and fraud in government.

Roland Foster, who was one of Coburn’s staff investigators as his legislative director, is now a special adviser to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Ernst makes public a monthly “Squeal Award” that highlights the latest examples of tax dollars being wasted.

She has also introduced legislation to strengthen USASpending.gov, including the Stop Secret Spending Act that penalizes agencies that hide spending from disclosure and “TRACKS,” to require prompt and accurate reporting of funds going to China.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) questions former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought during a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on his second nomination to be OMB director, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 15, 2025. Jemal Countess/ AFP

When asked about the current USAID revelations, Foster told The Epoch Times that “between USAspending and Wastebook, Senator Coburn created the blueprint empowering every taxpayer to continue carrying on his mission today as a DOGE deputy.”

John Hart, the recently appointed chief executive officer of Open the Books, the website that captures virtually all spending by every level of government in America, was Coburn’s long-time communications director, including during the years when FFATA was conceived, written, proposed, and adopted by Congress.

Hart told The Epoch Times that the latest USAID revelations were no surprise for him.

“It’s been an open secret for years that USAID was not spending effectively on vital humanitarian assistance,” Hart said.

“Decades ago, Senator Coburn was pointing out that agency’s funding of radical organizations that use the money for far-left, dangerous or even criminal activities. It’s a relief that a reckoning has come.”

President Trump revoked former President Biden’s security clearance and terminated his daily intelligence briefings, stating that, given his “poor memory,” there was no reason for Biden to continue receiving classified government information. 

“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Friday evening. 

Trump said the decision was based on the precedent of Biden’s 2021 decision to end his access to the secret information. He also pointed to the special counsel report last year: “The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information.”

Biden in 2021… 

JUST IN: President Trump revokes Joe Biden’s security clearances, tells Biden, “YOU’RE FIRED!”

Biden revoked Trump’s intelligence briefings in 2021, something that was historically provided to former presidents.

During an interview with CBS in 2021, Biden said that Trump… pic.twitter.com/iEzeFj3DYb

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 7, 2025

Trump concluded the post with: “I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” 

Steven Cheung, the president’s communications director, shared Trump’s Truth Social post on X and said: “Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more!”

🎶 Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more! 🎶 pic.twitter.com/86fQf5naMK

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) February 7, 2025

Trump’s team made a smart move given the investigations into various Biden family members—including Hunter Biden, who has been at the center of a probe into influence peddling schemes. Federal investigators have also recently become concerned about the Biden family’s close ties to China.

Was Biden China’s Manchurian Candidate The Entire Time? https://t.co/NdxEXldOXt

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 21, 2025

Speaking with The Hill last month, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY.) said the pardons “validated” the investigations into Biden family members.

Biden just pardoned his family, not just Hunter. It’s a clear indication that they have a secret to cover up. Bohai (aka BHR) is worth billions. Via beneficial interest Biden family may own up to 27%. Was Biden China’s Manchurian candidate the entire time? pic.twitter.com/5S26KEIbnY

— David Asher (@dasher8090) January 20, 2025

Perhaps the actual reason the Trump team revoked Biden’s security clearance is over the family’s close ties with the Chinese. 

Authored by Vince Bielski via RealClearInvestigations,

After nasty clashes involving character assassinations and a mass resignation, a showdown is drawing closer in Chicago between the most powerful local teachers’ union in the country and the most financially distressed school district. 

The growing possibility of a teachers’ strike in a city with a long history of labor upheavals highlights the troubles rocking public schools nationwide. First came drops in academic performance and enrollment from lower birth rates and the pull of charter and home schools promising a better education and sometimes delivering it. Enrollment has plunged 20% in Chicago since 2012, a bigger decline than in many large cities.

After the pandemic hit, a windfall of $190 billion in federal emergency funding helped districts like Chicago paper over years of deficit spending and significantly expand the ranks of teachers, social workers, and counselors. Now that the federal aid has ended, students have only partly recovered from their devastating learning loss while budget deficits have ballooned, prompting widespread education cuts in Houston and upcoming reductions in San Francisco, to name just a few districts facing fiscal woes.

Chicago may be the most financially dysfunctional of them all, says Marguerite Roza, head of Georgetown’s Edunomics Lab. At the center of the drama is the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which has become a dominant force in city politics after playing a pivotal role in the election of one of its own, Brandon Johnson, as mayor two years ago. 

Emboldened by the victory, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and other militant leaders are not entertaining proposals for cutbacks in current contract negotiations. Instead, they are demanding significant increases in compensation and staffing and other changes to advance their social justice and anti-testing agenda. But CTU’s leverage may be weakened by the fraying of union solidarity.

CTU’s chief nemesis is Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, an immigrant from Mexico who was raised in a poor family in the Windy City before getting his MBA. An advocate of rigorous academics and accountability for teachers, Martinez says he offered the union only part of what it wants to avoid more financial turmoil and instability. 

In many ways, this is a story about the hazards of running a district deeply into debt. With a projected $500 million annual deficit and holding a whopping $9.3 billion in long-term debt, the district depends on the city of Chicago, which also runs in the red, to provide most of its $9.9 billion in funding. Making matters more precarious, the district has to rely on short-term loans at high interest rates to make payroll. It is also the largest issuer of junk bonds in the U.S. 

The labor negotiations took an ugly turn in December over the matter of a loan. Martinez flatly refused Mayor Johnson’s request to take on more debt to fund CTU’s salary demands. The union protested with a vote of no confidence in the CEO, and then a school board appointed by Johnson fired him. 

Adding insult to injury, Davis Gates disparaged Martinez, whose contract allows him to stay on his job until June. The union president compared Martinez to a special education student who can’t be suspended and later apologized for the offensive remark, according to media reports. 

The costly issues in the negotiations are compensation and staffing. The district says it offered a 16% cost of living pay hike over four years, on top of baked-in increases that bring the total to about 30% for most teachers with a master’s degree. The average teacher salary would jump to $110,000, with the most experienced instructors earning $140,000 – compensation that’s competitive with other large urban districts. 

The union says it wants a bigger cost of living increase of 18% over four years. It’s also demanding the hiring of more than 1,200 teaching assistants, librarians, nurses, art teachers, social workers, and more – on top of 7,000 new hires since 2019. 

With tensions running high, an arbitrator has been called in to recommend a nonbinding resolution. But arbitration hasn’t stopped the union from striking in the past. 

If CTU and the district don’t agree to a financially sound deal, a state takeover is possible, and the 325,000 predominately black and Latino students would pay the price, says Roza of Georgetown.

“Historically, when districts can’t pay their bills, what happens isn’t pretty,” said Roza. “Bean counters come in and make widespread cuts, and parents get really mad because they don’t have any representation.”

Strife Within CTU

Although CTU projects a united front in its frequent press conferences criticizing Martinez as unwilling to fight for more funding, there’s unrest inside the union over the leadership of Davis Gates, two longtime CTU members who insisted on anonymity told RealClearInvestigations. Both say they doubt that she could get enough members to approve a strike. 

The internal critics say the leadership’s political demands for green schools and affordable housing are given more priority than the primary mission of educating students, most of whom aren’t proficient in reading and math. They also object to what they call the divisive leadership of Davis Gates, who earns more than $269,000 a year, according to an estimate by Illinois Policy, a nonpartisan group that advocates for government accountability. 

CTU has three caucuses, with Davis Gates leading the left-leaning CORE caucus. Members of the other caucuses who challenge CORE are punished by losing their committee assignments and other responsibilities, the union members said.

“If you don’t drink the CORE Kool-Aid, they will make your life miserable. I’ve watched them do it,” one member said. “The other caucuses are now joining together to defeat CORE.”

In the latest example of internal strife, members are suing CTU and Davis Gates for failing to publish annual audits of the union’s books for four years as required by its own rules. Concerned that the union may have acted improperly in funding Johnson’s mayoral campaign, CTU member Philip Weiss says he requested in writing to see the audits three times. Getting no response from CTU, Weiss and four other members sued in October to force publication of the audits.

At the time, Weiss was also running for re-election as a trustee at the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. At a gathering of union delegates to meet the trustee candidates, Weiss says, Davis Gates mispresented his political background to cast him as a danger to CTU.  

“She declared to the delegates that I was right wing and part of Project 2025,” Weiss said, referring to the conservative policy manifesto. “These are factually false statements. She ambushed me before she introduced me as a candidate.”

Weiss, a lifelong Democrat who’s not a member of CORE, wasn’t reelected. CORE candidates won the two trustee seats. 

CTU and the union’s lawyer didn’t respond to requests for interviews. The CTU lawyer called the lawsuit “harassing and frivolous,” according to a letter to Weiss’s lawyer at the Liberty Justice Center, who posted it on X.

CTU’s Social Justice Agenda

CTU became “Chicago’s most powerful political machine” after CORE leaders took the reins more than a decade ago, says Mailee Smith, a labor expert at Illinois Policy. They rode a backlash against reforms that sought to bring accountability to districts through testing and close severely under-enrolled and poorly performing schools.

The new leaders revived CTU’s long tradition of striking in 2012, taking advantage of a right to strike that’s not shared by teachers in many other nearby states. In that decade, the union held two more strikes, which proved effective in winning a contract in 2019 with a 16% raise over five years and a significant increase in staffing. It turned out that the district had agreed to a contract it couldn’t pay for and was later saved by $2.8 billion in federal pandemic funding, a former senior district official told RCI.

CORE’s leaders also changed CTU’s political strategy by focusing on social justice issues to extend its influence, a shift embraced by teachers’ unions in Los Angeles and other cities. The strategy found support at the State Capitol in 2022 when lawmakers enacted a CTU-backed amendment to the constitution that allows government unions to bargain over a wide range of issues, such as climate change and immigration, that go beyond bread-and-butter negotiations for wages and benefits. 

CTU’s biggest triumph was the mayoral election of Johnson, a former middle-school teacher. CTU and other teachers’ unions provided Johnson with more than 60% of his campaign money and a robust door-to-door ground game, says Smith. 

“CTU hand-picked Johnson to run, and the union is the reason he won,” Smith said. 

As mayor, Johnson has unabashedly embraced the union’s agenda, calling himself an “advocate” for schools to make sure they get more funding and don’t suffer any cuts or closures. The mayor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Johnson’s advocacy stirred a remarkable round of political turmoil. In July, the mayor demanded that the district take out a $300 million loan to pay for the teachers’ pay hike proposal that began at 9% a year, according to a letter from the CEO’s attorney. 

Martinez, who served as chief financial officer before becoming CEO, refused to take on more debt, fearing it would harm the district’s already low credit rating and boost the cost of borrowing. Martinez’s concerns were later affirmed in a warning from an S&P analyst. 

In September, Johnson told his appointed school board to fire Martinez, the letter said. But instead of ousting the CEO, the entire board resigned, prompting city council members to issue a statement decrying the “instability to our school district.” Johnson then appointed a new board that, in December, fired the CEO without cause.

An Impasse

The union’s initial long list of demands was breathtaking. It included social justice priorities – gender support and restorative justice coordinators, climate champions, social workers, sanctuary protections for migrants, housing for homeless students, and solar panels – as well as more typical requests for librarians, art and bilingual teachers, and sports programs. 

Instead of lifting achievement, a priority associated with conservative educators, CTU leaders frequently say their goal is to bring “joy” to education. “Robust enrichment programs are what kids get excited about and what makes them fall in love with school,” said CTU attorney Latoyia Kimbrough at a press conference in January. “They shouldn’t have countless hours of standardized testing.”

Although the two sides have agreed on many areas of expansion, negotiations have reached an impasse, partly over CTU’s approach to education. Among its demands: teachers should be able to pick their own curricula, including antiracist and social justice-focused materials, rather than use those supplied by the district; teachers should have control over diagnostic assessments that identify students who need extra help rather than use a universal district test that allows it compare results; and the district should push lawmakers to scrap the current evaluation process partly because black and Latino instructors receive less favorable ratings, and in the meantime, evaluations for most tenured teachers should occur less frequently, or once every three years. 

Chicago’s sustainable community schools are the apotheosis of CTU’s vision for education. They get an extra $500,000 a year in funding to provide culturally responsive instruction, social services, and restorative justice counseling to address the needs of low-income students. The results of community schools in Chicago and nationwide have been mixed, with some studies showing they boost attendance and academic performance and others demonstrating no improvements. 

District leaders are skeptical about the value of community schools and consider them as a way for CTU to hire its allies to provide the extra services, said the former senior district official. But the district agreed to increase the number of community schools to 70 from 20 because it can’t say no to every union demand.

“We can’t assume that wraparound services in these schools automatically will result in better academic performance,” said William Corrin, who has evaluated community schools as a deputy director at MDRC, a policy group focusing on low-income communities. “It depends on the intensity and quality of the implementation. This is hard stuff.” 

Martinez is pushing against much of CTU’s educational agenda. His view on the importance of high standards with curricula, testing, and teacher evaluations was partly shaped by his years as a student in the Chicago district. 

The CEO has overseen a notable improvement in student test scores after a decade of decline in Chicago and many urban districts. During the pandemic, he spearheaded the effort to hire academic coaches for teachers and tutors for students to reverse learning loss. Between 2019 and 2023, Chicago posted the greatest growth in reading among big districts, according to a study from Harvard and Stanford. Still, fewer than a third of students in grades three through eight are proficient in reading. 

“It’s very satisfying to see yet another sign that our investments in the classroom are yielding positive results, and that students are moving in the right direction,” Martinez said in June. 

A Strike Looms

Martinez said at a press conference in January that these academic gains would be jeopardized if he capitulates to CTU’s wage and staffing demands, which would prompt a wave of destabilizing layoffs. 

The union proposal would cost an additional $2.4 billion, the district says, or about $800,000 more than it can cover. The city and state are both running large deficits, and there’s no indication that they will be sending more money to the district anytime soon to cover the difference. 

CTU says the district is understating the available resources to pay for its demands. Leaders say the district could draw from its fund reserves set aside for emergencies and borrow more money since it hasn’t hit its debt limit of $13.6 billion. More local property tax revenue for the district is also expected in coming years. 

The Civic Federation, a nonpartisan governmental financial research group, recently warned the district against using more debt or cash reserves to cover the contract, which could lead to credit downgrades and ruin.  

“The current situation is so serious that a state financial takeover is not and should not be out of the question,” the federation’s report said.  

It’s now up to the arbitrator, who is expected to propose a resolution in early February. 

But CTU doesn’t have much faith in the arbitrator’s fact-finding process, which it says is biased in favor of the district since it stresses the importance of its financial condition rather than the needs of students. 

The union has a few options. It could wait until the mayor appoints a new CEO in five months and hope for a better deal. Or it could strike. 

“CEO Martinez has decided to put his personal politics above the interests of CPS students, families, and educators,” CTU attorney Thad Goodchild said at a press conference in January.  “We are headed into a fact-finding process that has twice been a precursor to a strike.”

Update: On Feb. 6, the Chicago Teachers Union rejected the neutral arbitrator’s recommendations for ending the contract dispute with the school district and can give notice to strike after a brief period. 

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, locates Google’s data centers that consume the most water in America.

Why do data centers need water? It’s because computer servers generate significant heat that must be dissipated to maintain performance.

As a result, water is used in chiller plants, evaporative cooling systems, and humidification to manage temperature levels.

Data is sourced from Google’s 2024 Environment Report.

Ranked: Google’s Thirstiest Data Centers

Google’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa consumed nearly 1 billion gallons of water in 2023, by far the most by any single complex listed in their report.

All of that water was potable, i.e., safe for drinking.

The data center complexes in Mayes County, Oklahoma and Berkeley County, South Carolina are the next “thirstiest,” using 750–800 million gallons of water a year.

These top three locations are well-above their counterparts across the U.S., and the rest of the world in water usage.

ℹ️ Fun fact: the U.S. has nearly half of the world’s 12,000 data centers. Germany and the UK are distant runners-up.

Together all of Google’s data centers used nearly more than 6 billion gallons of water in 2023, the equivalent of 41 golf courses.

Do Google’s Data Centers Drink Water?

Technically, data centers don’t actually “consume” all the water they use. Most of it is circulated in a closed-loop cooling system, with some loss.

However these numbers are from Google’s Sustainability Report, which specifies the water it’s withdrawn from the supply, discharged, and “consumed,” with the latter visualized here.

Also in drier areas, water is actively used to control humidity by evaporation which means it is being lost to the surroundings.

Finally, heated water returned to the ecosystem can have an adverse environmental impact.

The other thing data centers need a lot of: electricity. Check out Data Center Electricity Consumption by State for a breakdown.

Authored by Charlie Doughtry, Jackie Benson, and Ali Hajibeigi via Wells Fargo,

Summary 

Eagles vs. Chiefs in SBLVII Redux 

The Philadelphia Eagles will take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl this Sunday. You aren’t experiencing déjà vu; the two teams last met in the league championship game two years ago in 2023. The Eagles will seek to avenge the loss with a new offensive weapon and a revamped defense loaded with young talent. The Philadelphia economy has also been flying high as of late, with the metro economy boasting low unemployment and solid job growth. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are aiming for their third straight championship, which would make them the first NFL team to achieve such a feat. The Chiefs franchise turnaround over the past decade echoes an economic renaissance in the Kansas City economy, which is now outperforming many of its Midwestern peers.

Eagles and Chiefs Down in New Orleans 

Super Bowl LIX kicks off on Sunday at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in a matchup that will feature the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. The final game of the year is certain to be an entertaining showdown between two of the top teams in the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs will have competed in five of the past six Super Bowls and look to be the first team in league history to win three consecutive Lombardi Trophies. Meanwhile, the Eagles have will seek to dethrone the defending champs in what will be their fourth Super Bowl appearance since 2005. 

Millions of viewers are expected to tune in to catch the 59th installment of the Super Bowl. In 2024’s version, over 120 million viewers watched the big game, marking the highest total ever and a turnaround from a recent slump. 

Between 2015 and 2021, both the total number of viewers and Nielson household rating for the Super Bowl trended lower, consistent with reduced viewership numbers across professional and college sports. 

The recent turnaround has coincided with higher advertising costs during the big game.

In 2024, the average cost of a 30-second ad was $7 million, similar to 2023’s total but 13% above the recent low of $6.2 million in 2021. Zooming out, advertising space during the Super Bowl has become increasingly valuable since the first championship game in 1967. While the total number of viewers have tripled, the average inflation-adjusted cost of a 30 second-ad is now almost 15 times higher. 

The recent turnaround in ratings can be owed to a number of factors ranging from offense-friendly rule changes to the presence of beloved international megastar Taylor Swift. However, the emergence of the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes is likely the driving force. There is little left to be said about Mahomes except that he is only 29 years old and already trending toward “GOAT” status. Currently, Mahomes is without peer, however his reign is by no means secure thanks to a growing stock of elite young quarterbacks across the league. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is just 26 years old but will be playing in his second championship. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen and Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson are both under 30 and currently lead as candidates for MVP. Over in the NFC, the Washington Commanders’ storybook upset of the top-seeded Detroit Lions was led by rookie Jayden Daniels. Elsewhere, Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers and Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings had their teams in the playoffs despite playing in NFC North division, which ended the season with the highest overall win percentage.

Fly Eagles Fly 

The Eagles will seek to avenge 2023’s loss with a similar cast of characters and a major new offensive weapon. Philadelphia acquired Saquon Barkley this offseason from the New York Giants. Barkley posted historic levels of offensive production for a running back this year, coming close to setting the all-time regular-season rushing record. The power-house running back joined Jalen Hurts, all-pro wide receiver A.J. Brown and the top-ranked offensive line in football. Since Super Bowl LVII, the Eagles have made significant changes the defensive side of the ball. Veteran cornerback Darius “Big Play” Slay will once again take the field, however most other positions will be filled with younger talent. In addition to a pack of former Georgia Bulldogs in Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Nolan Smith, the Chiefs will line up against defensive rookie of the year candidates Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. 

The Philadelphia economy has also been flying high as of late. When the Bird’s last played in the Super Bowl in early 2023, employment in the Philadelphia metro had yet to recoup all the jobs lost during the pandemic. A strong pace of employment growth has generated a full recovery ever since, with the employment level at the end of 2024 over 4% above the peak set in February 2020. In addition to an increase in public sector headcounts, hiring in Philly’s influential “eds and meds” sector has been the driving force behind the overall pick-up in job growth in recent years, notably in the metro’s burgeoning healthcare, biotech and life sciences clusters. Job growth has moderated somewhat more recently, yet remains strong enough to keep unemployment low. The metro unemployment rate stood at 3.8% in November, not far from the 3.4% record low posted in the summer of 2023. Although cooler, Philadelphia’s labor market is currently outperforming. The metro unemployment rate has held steady below the national rate, which has drifted up over the past year. What’s more, the metro labor force has expanded strongly over the past few years and currently sits near an all-time high of 3.3 million workers. 

The strength in Philadelphia’s labor force growth stands out compared to most other major metro areas in the Northeast, many of which have experienced a sluggish rebound following the pandemic.

Kansas City Chiefs Going for a Three-Peat

The Kansas City Chiefs will make their third straight Super Bowl appearance this Sunday. Although the Chiefs finished the year with a 15-2 record, one of the best records in franchise history, the team suffered a number of injuries over the course of the season which contributed to a noticeable lack of offensive pizzazz for the defending champs. Even still, the connection between Patrick Mahomes and tight-end Travis Kelce remained alive and well, and the arrival of speedster wide receiver Xavier Worthy helped bolster the team’s offense. Meanwhile, the Chiefs elite defense has been a potent mix of brains and brawn, with defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo setting impenetrable defensive fronts with the help of all-pro defensive tackle Chris Jones. 

The Kansas City metro spans across Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri. Downtown KC is located on the Missouri side of the border and is known for its fervent sports fans and world-class barbeque. The Kansas City economy also has been vibrant lately. Following a robust 5.0% expansion in 2022, the metro’s real GDP registered a solid 2.7% increase in 2023, lifting the economy 9.6% above its prepandemic size in 2019. Recent momentum has been driven by sectors associated with a growing population. The retail trade and real estate, rental and leasing industries are two noteworthy examples, propelling more than half of the metro’s economic expansion in 2023. Migration to the city is steadily climbing. Kansas City welcomed 3.2K new domestic residents in 2023 and 3.6K new foreign residents in 2023, pushing the annual rate of population growth up to 0.6%. Affordable housing costs are a notable draw, with KC apartment rents and home values well below the national average. 

A growing population has helped to fuel the local labor market. The Kansas City metro added 18.6K jobs in 2024, amounting to a 1.6% annual increase. Yet, most of these gains occurred in the first half of the year. Employment has essentially moved sideways since June, weighed down by recent losses in education and accommodation & food services. As job growth slows, KC employers have had a harder time absorbing new labor force entrants. Kansas City’s unemployment rate picked up from its cycle low of 2.4% in July 2022 to 3.6% as of November 2024, which is still comfortably below the U.S. rate of 4.1%. The health care industry has bucked the trend, becoming a more prominent feature of Kansas City’s labor market. Persistent job growth in recent years has lifted the share of KC payrolls in health care & social insurance to 13%, its highest level on record. 

Arrowhead Stadium may be the site of future development. The Chiefs have called the stadium home for 53 years, making it the third oldest stadium in the NFL. Last year, the team unveiled plans for an $800 million renovation to upgrade and repair the facility. Those plans are currently in flux after Jackson County residents voted down a tax increase to fund the project. Now, reports suggest that the Chiefs may be looking for a new stadium, possibly on the Kansas side of the city, once their lease expires in 2031. Whatever the case, Arrowhead field will remain a mecca for sports fans in the years ahead. The stadium is slated to host six FIFA World Cup games in 2026.

Who Will Hoist the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans? 

The Eagles and Chiefs will once again face off on Super Bowl Sunday. The Chiefs enter the contest as slight favorites, though they are arguably up against their toughest competition of the year. The Eagles underperformed to start the season, but now appear to be hitting their stride at exactly the right moment. Although favored, Kansas City will need to continue to play mistake-free football and put on a defensive display for the ages in order to three-peat, a feat that other dynasties such as the 1970s Steelers, 1990s Cowboys and 2000s Patriots failed to accomplish. The Chiefs are well-accustomed to winning close games, with narrow margins of victory common throughout the regular season and playoffs. That said, the Eagles have continuously turned close games into wide margins of victory over the course of the season.

Overall, we expect the Eagles to defeat the Chiefs 31-17.

Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows a US Air Force RC-135V/W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft conducted its second signals intelligence (SIGINT) operation near cartel-controlled territories within Mexico this past week. The SIGINT mission coincides with remarks from US Border Czar Tom Homan, who warned on Thursday that he “expects” a hot confrontation between the US military and drug cartels. 

Flightradar24 data shows the USAF RC-135V/W Rivet Joint taking off from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha on Friday evening. The Spy plane arrived at the heavily fortified southern border hours later and flew a SIGINT mission in US airspace from El Paso, Texas, to the Big Bend Ranch State Park, located in west Texas. 

The spy plane flew the west Texas route twice, following a figure-8 pattern around the Big Bend Ranch State Park, before returning to Omaha. The SIGINT mission appeared focused on gathering intelligence on drug cartels in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas. 

Chihuahua is a major hub for narco activity, primarily because of its strategic location along the U.S.-Mexico border. The state has been a battleground between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juárez Cartel, fighting over trafficking routes of drugs and migrants into the US. 

On Monday, the USAF spy plane flew a similar SIGINT mission over the southern half of Baja California, a region home to heavily armed Tijuana Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel members. 

USAF Spy Plane Runs SIGINT Operation Near Cabo As US Preps For Potential Cartel Fight https://t.co/H7ZT5oG57Y

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 4, 2025

Recall that President Trump recently designated Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” When reporters asked Trump whether he would consider deploying US special forces operators to Mexico, he responded, “Could happen” and added, “Stranger things have happened.” 

On Thursday, Border Czar Tom Homan told ABC News hosts…

Pres. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan says the U.S. military could get involved in a conflict with the Mexican cartels.

“I think the cartels would be foolish to take on the military,” Homan said.https://t.co/2MHah30Ivj pic.twitter.com/Fi8ogjEfjM

— ABC News (@ABC) February 6, 2025

What’s important to note is that China’s “reverse opium wars” on America, think of it as hybrid warfare, is coming to an abrupt end under Trump. The drug death catastrophe of 100,00 Americans per year was unacceptable and somehow allowed to happen under the Biden-Haris regime and rogue Democrats who pushed open southern borders. 

Dismantling Mexican drug cartels could be a very messy operation, which is why the Trump administration fortified both borders. 

It is only a matter of time before the Trump administration properly targets China for flooding the world with subsidized fentanyl precursor chemicals.