The Trump administration’s push to privatize public education not only seeks to deprive traditional K-12 schools of billions in federal aid, but may greatly expand existing tax loopholes that already allow wealthy people and firms to make money on donating to private schools.

When President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, he acted in concert with 22 Republican senators, who collectively receive $10,694,284 in contributions from the coal and oil industries.

These 22 senators wrote to Trump, asking him to pull out of the accord. The president and the senators put their own political and economic interests above the safety, security and indeed survival of the American people and the entire planet.

More people have died illegally crossing the southwestern border of the United States in the last 16 years than were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina combined.

[…] Political scientists and other researchers have repeatedly documented that the American public does not have a sophisticated knowledge of political matters. The average American also does not use a coherent and consistent political ideology to make voting decisions.

Donald J. Trump was a builder of casinos and high-priced hotels and golf courses. Now he is a builder of a tower of contradictions for the American people that is making “America Great” at their expense.
[…]

The Trump administration wrapped up a weapons deal with the Saudi Arabian government this week that will be worth up to $350 billion over the next ten years. News of the deal came as Trump visited Riyadh and paid fealty to one of the United States’ most enduring allies in the Middle East.

Denny DeMay
On May 23rd Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he stated the Department of Labor would not delay the implementation of the Fiduciary Duty Rule. This rule would require financial advisers to only consider the client’s best interest when advising him on his 401 (k). This rule would be enforced by the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.

A new era of proxy wars
Fast forward 28 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and few such promised realities seem to have materialized. On the contrary, we have entered a new era of proxy wars.

The Lancet studies looked at how the American health system affects inequality and structural racism, and how mass incarceration and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, have changed public health.

With a mission to provide a forum for mis-, under-, and un-reported news and events of local, state, national, and global significance, the Lafayette Independent quickly grew from 8 to 20 (sometimes 24) pages. Covered in each edition were issues from the domains of media, education, labor, state & local, politics & policy, international, social justice, and health & environment.

According to the New York Times, The Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed at least five members of a major scientific review board, the latest signal of what critics call a campaign by the Trump administration to shrink the agency’s regulatory

Vic's Statehouse Notes #297 - April 29, 2017
Vic Smith, Indiana Coalition for Public Education

The 120th General Assembly reduced the powers of voters. Democracy in Indiana has taken a hit.

In the historic final vote on Tuesday April 18th, the power of voters to elect the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was ended after 166 years. The power taken away from the voters was given to the Governor.

By Helenback
“Sometimes I think the world has gone completely mad. And then I think, “Aw, who cares?” And then I think, “Hey, what’s for supper?” Jack Handey

In Good News: U.S. Senator Donnelly made the right decision to oppose a bill that would have crippled a federal policy aimed at controlling methane emissions (i.e., the BLM Methane Waste Prevention Rule) -- an important part of U.S. climate strategy.

Move Will Reduce Employment Barriers for 17% of Hoosiers

It’s equal pay day, which means women in the United States have finally caught up with what their male counterparts earned last year.

On Why Donald Trump should release his tax returns

On February 23, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, reversed Sally Yates’ order of August 18, 2016 to phase out private prisons holding federal inmates. President Trump signed an executive order calling for expansion of immigrant detention facilities and authorized use of private contractors to “construct, operate, or control facilities.” (NY Times, LA Times)

Five major US newspapers—the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News—offered no opinion space to anyone opposed to Donald Trump’s Thursday night airstrikes. By contrast, the five papers ran a total of 18 op-eds, columns or “news analysis” articles (dressed-up opinion pieces) that either praised the strikes or criticized them for not being harsh enough:
New York Times

[…]
The statistics showing the widening pay gap between CEOs and their workers are stunning. In the mid-1960s, the gap was about 20 to 1. By 2014, the gap had swollen to about 300 to 1.

"Skyrocketing CEO pay is one of the drivers of increased US income concentration," Anderson says.

[…] But was Assad really responsible for the attack?

To ask such a question is to be deemed an “Assadist” by pundits and discourse police across the political spectrum.

Neither the lack of an independent investigation, nor the fact that nearly all the information on the alleged attack has come from rebel sources, who stand to benefit from a US response, is deemed sufficient cause for skepticism.

According to a report prepared by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, a new group representing more than 400,000 doctors, man-made climate change is making Americans sicker with increases in deadly diseases to choking air pollution and onslaughts of violent weather. The harms are most felt by children, elderly with low income or chronic diseases, and members of communities of color.
The report classifies three types of harms:

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos finally found a public school she could visit where there wouldn’t be protests. It’s on a military base, safely inside the compound of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina.

Lafayette, IN – Lafayette’s non-audition community choir, Blue Moon Rising, will present its “Spring Sing” on May 6 at 7:00 p.m. The concert will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 333 Meridian St., West Lafayette, IN. All are invited to stay afterwards for a reception with refreshments. There is a suggested donation of $10 to help with the choir’s scholarship fund and children (any age) are free.