The Rise of Fascism, Racism & General Strikes
https://laborfest.net/2026/event/the-rise-of-fascism-racism-general-strikes/
July 12 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PDT
The fascist racist agenda to re-segregate the South, remove all Black representation and target Black and Brown workers has a …historical precedent. This forum will look at the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the rise of fascism in the Post War period and what workers and unions can do to fight the rise fascism and a racists country and world.
speakers:
Carol Lang – AFT PSC CUNY Professor
Barry Anderson – IBT 856 Steward
Russ Bellant – Researcher & Author On Fascism & Right

Events for July 2026 – LaborFest 2026

This forum will look at the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the rise of fascism in the Post War period and what workers and unions can …

laborfest.net

The Hard-Line Activists Ramping Up for the War With AI
The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing over fears about human extinction—but one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge
…https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anti-ai-activists-disappearance-sam-kirchner-6872879f?st=H82VNL&reflink=article_copyURL_share

By
Zusha Elinson
July 11, 2026 at 9:00 pm ET

The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing over fears about human extinction—but one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge
SAN FRANCISCO—In the months after Sam Kirchner disappeared in November, Matthew Hall searched for him on city streets where homeless live and in wooded hills where campers hide away.

Hall worried for the safety of Kirchner, an intense 27-year-old activist who had been leading sit-ins at OpenAI to protest the dangers of artificial intelligence. He feared for OpenAI’s employees, too.

The last time Hall saw him was at the spartan Oakland cottage that served as headquarters for their hard-line group, Stop AI. Kirchner, an electrical engineering technician by training, was angry, insistent that more had to be done.

“I’m done with this,” he said, according to Hall. “The ship may have sailed on nonviolence.”

Kirchner’s disappearance looms over what has become ground zero for a hardening resistance to the world’s hottest technology. The Bay Area’s AI boom is drawing young disillusioned men and women to join the fight against it. They are upending their lives and leaving behind careers for think tanks, nonprofits and street protest groups.

Sam Kirchner leads an anti-AI protest in front of the OpenAI office, speaking into a megaphone and wearing a "STOP AI" shirt.
Sam Kirchner at an AI protest in February 2025. AUTUMN DEGRAZIA/THE SAN FRANCISCO STANDARD
Their cause is now riding a surge of anti-AI backlash. Many Americans are souring on the technology amid mass layoffs, data center sprawl, reports of chatbot-fueled attacks by unstable users and hacking tools that have panicked cybersecurity professionals. Seventy percent of U.S. adults believe AI will cost jobs, and 55% believe it will do more harm than good in their daily lives, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.

But for activists on the front lines, the driving fear is often more dramatic: human extinction.

They cling to dire predictions, like Geoffrey Hinton’s. The Nobel laureate, dubbed the “godfather of AI” for his work on artificial neural networks, warns of a 10% to 20% chance AI will wipe out humans.

At its most extreme and troubling end, some believe they must stop an AI apocalypse by any means necessary.

In April, an unknown assailant fired 13 shots at the home of an Indianapolis councilman, leaving a note: “no data centers.”

That same month, authorities arrested a 20-year-old Texas college student for an attack on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco, and charged him with attempted murder and arson. The student was carrying an anti-AI document with a section on “our impending extinction,” according to a federal criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said his actions appear to have been driven by an “acute mental-health crisis, not a desire to harm.”

“We’re committed to building AI that improves people’s lives and embrace robust debate because it makes our research, products, and policies better and safer,” an OpenAI spokesman said in a written statement. “But violent rhetoric and actions put people at risk and make it harder to have the conversation this moment needs.”

When Kirchner vanished in November, his own comrades feared the worst. So they called the San Francisco police with a stark warning: Kirchner “wants to murder people and OpenAI…is ‘at risk’,” a friend told the officer, according to police records obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

A person walks along a connecting skywalk at an OpenAI office.
A connecting skywalk at an OpenAI office in San Francisco.
Holly Elmore had a dilemma on her hands: What to do about Sam Kirchner’s demands.

It was February 2024, and Elmore, a 34-year-old Harvard Ph.D., was running Pause AI US, a group devoted to halting development of the most advanced AI models. A rift had formed between members over tactics. Kirchner, one of them, wanted to engage in acts of civil disobedience, such as blockades of OpenAI’s offices, to bring more attention to the cause, according to Elmore and others in the group. Elmore didn’t want to break the law.

A prophet for those fighting AI is philosopher Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-author of “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All.” Yudkowsky has warned for years of AI’s perils, often invoking the thought experiment known as the “paper clip maximizer,” in which an AI ordered to make paper clips devours the universe’s resources, humans included, to do so.

Yudkowsky’s acolytes grew into the rationalist movement, a group of brainy, often libertarian-leaning outsiders who revel in logical debate. The overlapping effective altruism movement, a network of wealthy do-gooders whose most infamous adherent is imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried, also adopted the cause.

Both factions obsess over AI risks, and both prefer technical solutions and quiet influence over AI companies to street protests.

At the time, Elmore was working at a think tank funded by effective altruists, and wanted to see more done to sway public opinion. A 2023 letter signed by Elon Muskand other industry figures, warning of the “profound risks” of the most advanced AI and calling for a moratorium, inspired her.

The letter echoed something Altman himself had said back in 2015: that “superhuman machine intelligence is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity.” He’d later, as OpenAI’s CEO, laud AI’s benefits, including “faster scientific progress and increased productivity.” (News Corp, owner of the Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.)

Holly Elmore, founder of PauseAI US, poses for a portrait.
Holly Elmore, founder of Pause AI US. MORIAH RATNER/FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Three years ago, Elmore quit her job to start Pause AI US out of her Berkeley apartment. A key moment for the fledgling group came in February 2024, when Elmore organized a protest against OpenAI and its ties to the military, which at the time included collaborating with a Pentagon agency on cybersecurity. Kirchner drove down from his home in Seattle in a red pickup truck to help and she was struck by his dedication to the cause.

“He did sleep in his truck, and he was very willing to just rough it,” she recalled.

Less than three dozen people picketed outside of OpenAI’s offices, but the demonstration sparked a bitter feud on an effective altruist forum. One of the demonstrators accused her online of overstating the company’s work with the Pentagon.

It looked like a semantic quibble but in these circles, it was a serious accusation, one that drew rebuke even from Elmore’s husband, Ronny Fernandez, a rationalist and self-described “unlicensed philosopher.” He agreed AI could wipe out humanity but disagreed with Elmore’s approach.

“He…looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Holly you could be very dangerous,” she recalled.

She left him that week.

“I actually got divorced because of starting Pause AI US,” she said. “I wasn’t going to be able to do the organizing if we were married.”

Fernandez said he worried that Elmore wasn’t taking the criticism seriously enough, adding that he’s wary of advocacy groups in general.

“I think that activism is dangerous,” he said. “Youth movements with unusual views and a lot of moral certainty don’t have a great track record.”

But if Elmore was too extreme for the rationalists and effective altruists, Kirchner and others quickly became too hardcore for Pause AI.

“They just wanted to do civil disobedience—that was the line for me that we’re not doing illegal stuff,” she said.

Elmore kicked Kirchner out of the group, she said.

Life in the anti-AI barracks

Kirchner thrived on solving thorny engineering riddles. In his 20s, he invented a bicycle powered by legs and arms to give riders an upper body workout and extra speed. His father, an engineer, helped him file a patent application that is now pending.

As AI advanced, Kirchner feared it would extinguish that spark of human ingenuity. He picketed alone outside Google and Microsoft in his home city of Seattle, carrying a sign: “Death of Human Invention & Discovery = Depressing,” according to his social-media posts.

The prospect of human obsolescence drew him into the fight, he said in videos recorded before he vanished. “If super intelligence does everything for us then there’s not going to be a whole lot of reason to live,” he said.

In the Bay Area, he rallied a group of like-minded young men to co-found Stop AI, a group devoted to “protecting human life by achieving a permanent global ban on artificial superintelligence.” One recruit was Derek Allen, a computer programmer who graduated from high school at 16 and dropped out of college, convinced AI-generated code would turn programming into a dead-end job.

“I knew that if I stuck in computer science, it might just end up being a minimum wage job by the time I graduated,” said Allen, 24. “It was going to turn into like the same wage as working at McDonald’s.”

Kirchner, Allen and other members moved into a one-room cottage that some called “the barracks” in a rundown industrial Oakland neighborhood. They slept in bunk beds and dedicated every waking hour to the cause, garnering thousands of followers on X. They drew up fliers and screen-printed red “Stop AI” shirts.

Kirchner was single-minded and spoke with a flat affect, rarely smiling or laughing, members said. When he felt he was right, which was often, he dug in. He fumed when a group member suggested printing ‘Stop AI’ on purple shirts rather than red.

“He didn’t see a future for himself and he was so worried about the future of humanity,” said Wynd Kaufmyn, a retired engineering professor and veteran activist who joined the group later.

Stop AI members gathered signatures for a letter campaign in May; a Stop AI protester's sign. JASON HENRY FOR WSJ
Kirchner’s conviction about imminent danger only grew. He obsessed over a scenario—often discussed among rationalists—in which a superintelligent AI covers the earth in data centers. “We need to get people scared about extinction,” Allen recalled him saying.

Kirchner was arrested three times in the Bay Area in the fall of 2024, records show: twice for blocking the entrances at one of OpenAI’s San Francisco offices, and once for blocking traffic in the street outside another. In April 2025, at a conference in Berkeley, he interrupted a presentation by Yoshua Bengio, a prominent academic working to make AI more compatible with human values.

“Permanently ban artificial superintelligence!” Kirchner shouted. “What they’re doing is going to kill everyone on Earth.”

Stop AI’s viral peak came last November when an investigator with the public defender’s office cut in on a talk about the societal impact of artificial intelligence between OpenAI’s Altman and Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr. The investigator hopped on stage and served Altman a subpoena, naming him as a potential witness in the continuing criminal case against Kirchner for blocking OpenAI’s entrance. Video of Altman looking quizzically at the investigator ricocheted around the internet.

Two weeks later, everything fell apart.

The breaking point

Stop AI was plotting its next stunt, draping banners from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, when Kirchner and Allen got into a screaming match over the wording, Allen and other members say. Kirchner wanted to warn that human extinction could come within one to three years; Allen didn’t want to mention specific dates. Kirchner huffed off.

Kirchner came back inside the cottage, ranting about how he was fed up with the group’s democratic decision-making, and then left, members recalled. He returned later that night, calm.

“As we all kind of lied down to go to bed, he leaped out of bed, started knocking furniture over, and that’s kind of when he snapped and started punching me,” said Hall, a 36-year-old who goes by “Yakko.”

Allen fled the barracks. Kirchner stormed off again.

He came back the next morning, when he said, “The ship may have sailed on nonviolence,” according to Hall.

The comment sent the group into a frenzy. Some jumped in a car and drove to San Francisco to warn OpenAI, then changed their minds outside the office and drove back to the barracks instead. They found Kirchner in bed; he apologized.

Four days later, on Nov. 21, Kirchner, Kaufmyn and others were scheduled to hold a press conference ahead of their trial on blocking OpenAI’s entrance. But early that morning, Kirchner posted on X that he was “no longer part of Stop AI.” He skipped the press conference, and when Hall returned to the barracks, he was gone.

One of Kirchner’s associates called the police, saying he was possibly armed with a knife and might be trying to get more weapons, according to police records. The OpenAI headquarters will be the first place he goes to cause harm, the caller said.

Officers rushed to OpenAI. The company locked down its campus, issued an internal security warning with Kirchner’s photo, and told employees to stop wearing gear with the company logo in public, according to media reports at the time.

“We made an effort to contact him and have not been able to locate him,” said Evan Sernoffsky, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. “We take all information we receive very seriously.”

The department’s unit that deals with mental-health crises blocked release of the full report, citing medical privacy. A synopsis provided by the department said that OpenAI officials told officers that Kirchner “made threats against employees of the business through another subject but was never on scene.”

His comrades now say that he never made any specific threats, adding they alerted authorities out of an abundance of caution.

Kirchner’s friends searched desperately. He had taken only his bicycle and camping gear. The last search on his phone was for a bike shop in a nearby suburb, Hall said, where the owner recalled Kirchner saying only that he was “headed north.” His friends hired a private investigator and hung fliers begging him to come back.

Two weeks later, on Dec. 8, San Francisco police got a tip that Kirchner had been spotted at a cheap motel two hours away in Merced, Calif., according to police records. But their search was fruitless.

Kirchner’s exit sent AI activism spiraling. Critics blamed doomsday rhetoric for radicalizing young men, while the movement itself, including Stop AI, denounced violence and tried pivoting to a gentler brand of advocacy. In May, the group sang songs and performed anti-AI themed street theater outside of the Oakland federal courthouse during the high-profile Musk-Altman trial.

Demonstrators protest Elon Musk and Sam Altman outside a federal courthouse.

Meanwhile, the existential crisis is deepening in the movements focused on the risks of AI. At the Bay Area Secular Solstice, a biannual celebration for rationalists and effective altruists, one speaker’s voice quavered as he talked about the threat of AI in the dimly lit hall: “Guys, I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

The mystery of Stop AI’s founder remains. One theory holds that he’s gone underground or perished in the wilderness. “He was definitely planning some kind of bulls— against OpenAI back in October, but I cannot say that he lives into the year 2026,” said Allen.

Some believe he’s back with his family in Seattle; his father declined to comment, and Kirchner didn’t respond to emails or a letter left at his family’s home. A red pickup like one he drove to San Francisco in early 2024 sat in the family’s driveway on a recent day, though Hall said Kirchner didn’t drive to the Bay Area when he moved here permanently.

The last tip about Kirchner came in January. An OpenAI employee told security that they thought they saw him on a bus near the company’s office. Security contacted Stop AI with the news, and Hall rushed to the neighborhood. He rode the bus for hours, back and forth in front of OpenAI looking at every face—but he couldn’t find Kirchner.

“I’ve thought about Sam probably every night, every day since he’s disappeared, and I pray that he’s OK,” said Hall. “I pray about the issue of AI more generally, that humanity will choose the right path here.”

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Zusha Elinson is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal, based in California, who covers guns, crime and politics. He is co-author of the book "American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15." Zusha grew up on a dirt road in upstate New York and has worked as a stonemason and a chimney sweep.

The Hard-Line Activists Ramping Up for the War With AI

The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing—although one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge.

www.wsj.com

A sugar company built this Bay Area town. Now residents are turning against it
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/crockett-sugar-refinery-strike-22323665.php
By Connor Letourneau,
Staff Writer
July 11, 2026

Kendra Sparks, third from left, holds a pickets sign …outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett on June 30. Sparks has worked at the company for 30 years.
Kendra Sparks, third from left, holds a pickets sign outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett on June 30. Sparks has worked at the company for 30 years.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle

Standing in a picket line outside the Crockett refinery where she usually packages sugar cubes, Kendra Sparks took a drag from her cigarette and nodded toward a nearby silo. On it was a pink-and-blue sign with the California and Hawaiian Sugar Co.’s catchphrase: “Baking Happiness Since 1906.”
“Just absurd,” Sparks said, shaking her head as she exhaled a thin ribbon of smoke. “This place is not nearly as happy as it once was.”
At 59, her graying hair dyed light purple, Sparks is old enough to remember when C&H wasn’t just Crockett’s largest employer, but also its social anchor. Some of her fondest childhood memories are of tagging along with her parents to C&H Christmas parties that brought much of the town together.

As the plant changed ownership over the decades, those annual parties at a company-owned cottage lingered only in people’s minds. Now, in response to a proposed contract her union called “egregious,” Sparks is one of 93 C&H warehouse workers four weeks into a high-profile strike against the employer she once loved.
Crockett might be the Bay Area’s last surviving example of a historic “company town,” but many residents have offered unwavering support for the protesters. In the process, the strike has become about far more than contract negotiations. It’s a community’s referendum on the company that helped shape it.
Mariko DiBiase at her shop, Flowers Fresco, in Crockett. “Right now, a lot of people are upset with how C&H is treating their employees,” she said.
Mariko DiBiase at her shop, Flowers Fresco, in Crockett. “Right now, a lot of people are upset with how C&H is treating their employees,” she said.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
“Folks will always love the history Crockett shares with C&H,” said Mariko DiBiase, the owner of a flower shop in town. “But right now, a lot of people are upset with how C&H is treating their employees.”

With more artists, musicians and craftspeople flocking here for its relatively cheap apartments and commercial rents, Crockett feels suspended in a kind of limbo: It’s still known throughout the Bay Area as “Sugar Town,” but now it’s more day-trip destination than an industry town.
Crockett, a town of roughly 3,200, was shaped by C&H Sugar. But the town has now developed a bohemian business district separate from the sugar company.
Crockett, a town of roughly 3,200, was shaped by C&H Sugar. But the town has now developed a bohemian business district separate from the sugar company.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
C&H’s 55-acre facility, purchased in the early 2000s by a global sugar giant, still produces around 15% of all domestic cane sugar. When many of Crockett’s roughly 3,200 residents see the refinery’s porcelain “C and H” sign rising above where the San Pablo Bay meets the Carquinez Strait, they feel a surge of pride.
But as the current dispute has shown, those same “Sugar Town” residents are increasingly frustrated by what they view as the company’s indifference — or disregard — toward the surrounding community. Within the past decade, C&H stopped importing raw sugar from Hawaii, scaled back its charitable giving to local nonprofits and received hundreds of complaints from locals over a foul smell that lasted for weeks.
“For some people here, the refinery has kind of always been this mysterious ‘Willy Wonka’-type thing in the distance,” said Sparks, a second-generation C&H employee in her 30th year with the company. “But lately, I think more and more people are really starting to see it as a villain.”
That much was obvious outside the refinery on a sunny recent Monday. Cars honked in support as they cruised past workers holding “LABOR SOLIDARITY” signs. While repeatedly blaring his horn, one middle-aged man in a white BMW rolled down his window, looked directly at the refinery and stuck out his left middle finger.
“F— you, C&H!” he yelled.
Lucia’s Craft Sandwich offers “Strike Brownies” in support of C&H Sugar workers in Crockett. Many local businesses have sided with the warehouse workers in the strike.
Lucia’s Craft Sandwich offers “Strike Brownies” in support of C&H Sugar workers in Crockett. Many local businesses have sided with the warehouse workers in the strike.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
About a half-mile away, some downtown storefronts displayed navy-blue flyers backing the warehouse workers’ union. Noticing one outside Lucia’s Craft Sandwich, a young woman covered in tattoos turned toward her friend. “I’m done with C&H sugar,” she said.
During the company’s early days, that kind of declaration would have been blasphemous.
In 1906, just a week before a 7.9 magnitude earthquake devastated San Francisco, a company backed by Hawaiian cane growers opened the refinery, converted from an old sugar beet factory. Ships brought raw sugar from the islands through the strait, then refinery workers melted, filtered and crystallized it.
Within 15 years, pink-and-white sacks of C&H sugar were a domestic staple, and the company employed about 95% of the town’s residents.
C&H helped its workers purchase plots of land, obtain bank loans, design their new homes and even maintain their gardens. Employees enjoyed public amenities that might seem better suited for a posh resort, like tea parties, a bowling alley, company tennis courts, swimming pools and a shooting club.
“There probably wasn’t a better place to raise a family than in Crockett during its heyday,” said Barbara Pagni Denton, a longtime resident and author of a 2024 history of the town, “Sweet Success.” “This wasn’t just some ordinary company town. This was a company that understood that to run a good business, you need happy workers.”
Barbara Pagni Denton at the Crockett Historical Museum in Crockett. Denton is a volunteer at the museum and the author of “Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town.”
Barbara Pagni Denton at the Crockett Historical Museum in Crockett. Denton is a volunteer at the museum and the author of “Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town.”
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
In the late 1930s, just before World War II, C&H peaked at about 2,500 employees in Crockett. Though the company was reducing its workforce by the time Sparks was growing up there in the ’70s and ’80s, her mother, father and stepfather all still worked at the refinery.
Like many other Crockett schoolchildren at the time, Sparks used the shrill, long wail of the refinery’s day-shift whistle as a timekeeping device. At one particularly memorable C&H Christmas party, she was given what would become one of her favorite toys: a little doll wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
C&H’s rosy reputation was part of why Sparks joined as a temporary employee after graduating high school in 1985. But as the company installed more automation, she couldn’t get a full-time job there. After playing bass guitar in a punk rock band in Los Angeles for a while, she moved back to the Bay Area in 2001 and landed a job at C&H when the warehouse started hiring.
“I figured I could always work on my art when my shift ends,” Sparks said. “At that time in my life, I wanted stability.”
She started as a shipping foreman, overseeing the crews who loaded bags of sugar onto trucks and railcars, then became a forklift operator. More recently, she graduated to her role wrapping sugar cubes during the day shift — a coveted position that requires decades of seniority.
Kendra Sparks at her home in Crockett, the town where she grew up. Sparks has fond memories from C&H during her childhood, but now says the company is alienating its workers.
Kendra Sparks at her home in Crockett, the town where she grew up. Sparks has fond memories from C&H during her childhood, but now says the company is alienating its workers.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
In the 24 years since Sparks returned to C&H, she hasn’t seriously worried about losing her job. A steady stream of overtime pay has allowed her to travel — she’s visited Scotland four times — and paint and sew in her off hours. Two years ago, she bought a single-story house downtown with a view of the Carquinez Bridge, just a 10-minute walk from work.
Most of her colleagues aren’t so fortunate. Many commute from places like Vacaville, Antioch, Brentwood and even Sacramento, sometimes logging 12-hour workdays and sleeping for only a few hours.
As workers moved farther away, other changes have strained the relationship between the refinery and the town. In 2005, American Sugar Refining — the world’s largest cane sugar refiner — bought the C&H plant, adding to its expansive portfolio of sugar brands including East Coast giant Domino Sugar. Since then, Sparks and some other Crockett employees have feared the refinery is beginning to prioritize profits above all else.
In January 2017, after decades of contraction in Hawaii’s commercial sugar industry, C&H severed its 111-year relationship with the islands. It now imports its raw sugar from countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Brazil.
Protests roil town of Crockett
The unincorporated, census-designated place has a population of roughly 3,200 people and has been dominated by the C&H Sugar Refinery.
Of more pressing local concern was a sudden stench in 2022. For more than a month, a rotten-egg smell wafted from a wastewater treatment plant jointly operated by C&H. Community members later learned that the culprit was a potentially hazardous gas called hydrogen sulfide. At a public meeting in Crockett, they took turns lambasting ASR.
“This whole town has suffered because of you people,” one resident said. “If you can live with yourselves, shame on you!”
Crockett has been divided over a worker strike at the sugar refinery that has long defined the town.
Crockett has been divided over a worker strike at the sugar refinery that has long defined the town.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
Last fall, ASR agreed to settlements totaling more than $1.2 million with the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office and San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. According to authorities, the excessive odors were the result of operational disruptions at the wastewater plant worsened by unusually high temperatures.
But for C&H warehouse workers, the real breaking point didn’t come until last month. After weeks of stalled negotiations between their union, ILWU Local 6, and ASR executives over a five-year contract renewal, all 93 workers walked out of the refinery at noon on June 15. They contend that ASR is trying to cut their sick days in half, reduce overtime pay and limit medical benefits to retirees.
“It’s a huge slap in the face,” said John Parrish, a forklift operator in his 24th year with C&H, who was just months away from retiring at 67. “All of a sudden, you want to pull the retirement rug out from under me? Are you kidding me?”
Signs on utility poles outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett. A worker strike is roiling the town and testing the relationship between residents and its major company.
Signs on utility poles outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett. A worker strike is roiling the town and testing the relationship between residents and its major company.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
Mario Rivas, a crane operator at C&H, lamented the possible loss of overtime pay, which allows him to earn more than $100,000 a year despite an hourly wage of only around $30. “Without it, there’s no way I could keep working here,” said Rivas, who helps support his three adult children. “It’s scary to even think about.”
In an email to the Chronicle, Peter O’Malley, ASR’s vice president of corporate relations, said the contract proposal included a 2% signing bonus for all warehouse workers, a 4% wage increase in the first year and a total 20% wage increase over the term of the five-year agreement. “While we are disappointed the union has chosen to walk out, we fully respect their right to do so,” O’Malley said.
The strike hasn’t shut down the plant. Warehouse workers say ASR has made supervisors work overtime in their absence. The sugar workers, who boil and prepare the raw sugar itself, are represented by another union and are still on the job.
Laborers who unload raw sugar from ships arriving at the Crockett facility are represented by the same union as the warehouse workers. Although they aren’t on strike themselves, they have refused to cross the picket line to do their jobs. This recently forced C&H to divert a sugar shipment from the Philippines to Richmond, where a private company handled the unloading.
Through it all, some Crockett residents have delivered food to striking workers, and politicians, including Sen. Alex Padilla, have weighed in to support them. But this 1.1-square-mile community has hardly come to a halt. As C&H became less of a local influence in recent decades, Crockett carved out an identity all its own.
Samantha Jean Bartlett at her shop, the Cat Vintage & Antiques, in Crockett. The town has become a destination for day-trippers.
Samantha Jean Bartlett at her shop, the Cat Vintage & Antiques, in Crockett. The town has become a destination for day-trippers.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
On that sunny recent Monday, a handful of local artists and day-trippers strolled its small downtown, popping into the antique shops, cafes and art galleries clustered around Second Avenue. Partially hidden underneath the southern end of the Carquinez Bridge, this bohemian burg has begun to receive considerable media attention for its small-town charm, colorful characters and whimsical backdrop.
There are stunning bay views, century-old California cottages and Craftsman bungalows, steep hillsides with narrow, winding streets and even a 125-year-old dive bar with a rotating cast of regulars. But what locals value the most is its volunteer ethos and friendly neighbors.
“It feels like there’s always something going on here, whether it’s live music or a stand-up comedy night, and that’s really a testament to how invested people are in this place,” said Brian Montgomery, president of the Crockett Community Foundation, which supports dozens of nonprofits in the area. “You can barely go anywhere without striking up a good conversation with someone.”
It’s also hard to spend time in Crockett without being reminded of its “Sugar Town” history. At Cat Vintage & Antiques, visitors can see old C&H belt buckles. Several posters downtown advertise the upcoming “Sugar Town Festival,” sponsored by C&H, among others. A quaint history museum is loaded with sugarcane-themed knickknacks.
Even as she fights back against C&H, Sparks herself holds on to that history. She still has the doll with the Hawaiian shirt from that Christmas party half a century ago.
“The thing is, we’ll always be ‘Sugar Town,’” Sparks said from the picket line. “Nothing can really change that.”

A sugar company built this Bay Area town. Now residents are turning against it

Does the Bay Area’s last “company town” still need the sugar company that founded it?

www.sfchronicle.com

The St Louis Commune of 1877 Communism in the Heartland by Mark Kruger

the st Louis Commune of 1877 Communism in the Heartland Mark Kruger

for further reading go to https://www.marxists.org/ and https://th…

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AI could replace humans in 90% of tasks at 90% of jobs by 2030, predicts KDI
https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/1267727.html

Posted on : 2026-07-10 17:15 KST Modified on : 2026-07-10 17:15 KST
The think tank stressed that employment prospects will depend …heavily on how companies approach AI transformation and their ability to create new jobs.
Image generated by ChatGPT depicting the replacement of human work by AI..jpeg
Image generated by ChatGPT depicting the replacement of human work by AI.

A Korean state think tank projected that the adoption of AI and other technical advancements will make it possible to automate over 90% of tasks for over 90% of jobs by 2030. The outlook is part of why the government has decided to launch its own “canaries dashboard” that shows changes brought about by AI development in the country’s labor market.

The projection was made by Han Joseph, a labor economist at the Korea Development Institute, during a policy forum titled “The Future of Work: A New Labor Market Coexisting with AI,” put on by the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the KDI at the Korea Federation of Banks building on Thursday.

Noting the mounting discussion on the potential for technology to shrink job opportunities for young people both in Korea and worldwide, Han stressed that employment prospects will depend heavily on how companies approach AI transformation and their ability to create new jobs.

“In these circumstances, net job creation is only possible if new labor demand is generated quickly. Increasing flexibility within organizations to facilitate transitions to new roles and enhancing the capacity to create new roles and occupations by revitalizing the start-up ecosystem should be considered,” he said.

A series of reports warning of the potential impact of job losses caused by AI have been published by major institutions around the world. In May, the International Labour Organization noted around one-quarter of jobs worldwide are in occupations that could be affected by generative AI, with the share rising to 34% in high-income economies.

McKinsey & Company published a report in 2023 which estimated that by 2030-2060, 50% of all jobs could become automated.
Lee Hyoung-il, the first vice minister of finance and economy, speaks at a forum on the future of work put on by the ministry and the KDI. (courtesy MOFE).webp
Lee Hyoung-il, the first vice minister of finance and economy, speaks at a forum on the future of work put on by the ministry and the KDI. (courtesy MOFE)


Some argue that the growing impact of AI on employment among younger generations calls for a comprehensive overhaul of policies spanning economic distribution, governance, and skills development.

“We are facing an asymmetric situation where productivity gains are expanding the economic pie, but polarization is worsening,” said Chang Ji-yeun, a senior research fellow at the Korea Labor Institute.
“We must diversify the foundations for securing financial resources, such as measures to redeem AI-generated excess profits through sovereign wealth fund mechanisms,” she said.

Furthermore, Chang called for young people to be included as actual decision-makers, rather than merely serving as advisers in name, on social issues that cannot be resolved at the corporate level.
She suggested expanding government support, which currently focuses on education in schools and training institutes, to include those existing outside the formal education system. Such programs should also better reflect rapidly changing technologies by incorporating online and workplace-based learning opportunities, she suggested.

By Park Su-ji, staff reporter

AI could replace humans in 90% of tasks at 90% of jobs by 2030, predicts KDI

The think tank stressed that employment prospects will depend heavily on how companies approach AI transformation and their ability to create new…

english.hani.co.kr

East Bay health system averts layoffs as county approves $19.3 million lifeline
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/alameda-health-layoffs-averted-22338195.php
By Catherine Ho,
Staff Writer
July 9, 2026

Pedestrians walk past the acute care tower at Wilma Chan …Highland Hospital in Oakland in 2016. Alameda Health System, which operates the hospital, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.
Pedestrians walk past the acute care tower at Wilma Chan Highland Hospital in Oakland in 2016. Alameda Health System, which operates the hospital, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.

Alameda Health System, Alameda County’s safety net healthcare provider, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees — a cost-cutting move that doctors and other workers had decried for months — after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.
The county Board of Supervisors last month passed a budget for fiscal 2026-27 that includes $19.3 million to prevent the layoffs and extend a behavioral health program that had been slated to close.
The union that represents healthcare workers at Alameda Health System, SEIU 1021, called it a “major victory for public health.”

Alameda Health System, which operates the flagship Wilma Chan Highland Hospital in Oakland, announced in December it would lay off about 250 employees, roughly 4% of its workforce, due to federal funding cuts to Medicaid laid out last year in the GOP’s tax and spending megabill.
The plans included closing the outpatient behavioral health programs at Highland Hospital and Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, which provide critical services for low-income patients with moderate to severe mental illness.

Dozens of physicians and other staff pushed back against the reductions, calling the decision hasty and dangerous for patient care.
In March, the Board of Supervisors voted to delay the layoffs and form a working group to consider alternative solutions. By June, the initial layoff target was reduced after negotiations among the hospital, the county and labor, and due to attrition, said a spokeswoman for Alameda Health System, which also runs three other hospitals and nine clinics in the East Bay.
The allocation will allow the behavioral health program, which had been slated to close in June, to continue through Oct. 31.
The Board of Supervisors approved the allocation at the recommendation of Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Nate Miley.

East Bay health system averts layoffs as county approves $19.3 million lifeline

Alameda Health System, Alameda County’s safety net health care provider, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees after the county…

www.sfchronicle.com

The Black Panther Party & SF State Strike
https://laborfest.net/2026/event/the-black-panther-party-sf-state-strike/
Saturday July 11 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm PDT
Zoom event
With Clarence Thomas and Judy Junita, Professor emeritus Laney College
The history of the Black Panther …party and the San Francisco State Third World Strike were connected. This panel includes two strikers and members of the Black Panther party. They will discuss this history and how this was an important part of the struggle of the strike.
Clarence Thomas was formerly Secretary Treasurer of ILWU Local 10 & Publisher of Workers On the ILWU history including the Million Workers March
Judy Junita was in the Black Panthers at SF State, a poet and retired professor at Laney State College. She edited the BPP newspaper and worked in the Breakfast for Children program while finishing her BA at SF State. Five days after graduating, she became the youngest professor of the nation’s first black studies program.
Sponsored By Laborfest

Events for July 2026 – LaborFest 2026

The history of the Black Panther party and the San Francisco State Third World Strike were connected. This panel will discuss this history and how…

laborfest.net

Sugartown Is on Strike (And It’s Not So Sweet)
ILWU Local 6 workers have entered their third week on strike at C&H Sugar – their first strike in nearly a century.
https://bayareacurrent.com/sugartown-is-on-strike/?ref=bay-area-current-newsletter
CAITLIN CLIFT
Sugartown Is on… Strike (And It’s Not So Sweet)
C&H Sugar Workers Weeks into Strike. (Joe St Germain/ Bay Area Current)
JULY 10 2026

When Kendra Sparks was a child, her curfew was the sound of the California and Hawaiian (C&H) Sugar factory steam whistle.
“You could hear it everywhere in town,” Sparks recalled.
C&H Sugar set the pace of Crockett, California — a small town just north of the Carquinez Bridge to Vallejo. Now its workers are shutting it down, at least for now.
At one point, the C&H Sugar factory, one of the leading sugar companies in the country, employed 95% of the company town. As a co-operative, they gave out turkeys for Thanksgiving and presents for Christmas. They built many of the town's public amenities, and designed residential homes. Many of those in town wore Hawaiian shirts on Fridays in honor of the Hawaiian sugar being produced in the factory. C&H Sugar was the lifeblood of Crockett.
“That’s where my mother met my pop,” Sparks said, adding that her four sisters and one brother all worked for the company at one point.

Kendra Sparks, whose parents also worked at C&H Sugar, on Strike. (Joe St Germain/ Bay Area Current).
Sparks, initially hired by C&H Sugar at the age of 18, is now approaching her 30th year as a warehouse employee and International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 6 member. Her familial ties to C&H Sugar are shared by nearly all of her co-workers — many, if not most, of whom entered the business in the footsteps of their parents or grandparents.
“There was such a sense of pride in working here. Everybody knew what good jobs they were,” Sparks explained. “The town itself had a lot of pride as being home to C&H sugar, too. But that definitely took a sharp [turn].”
After American Sugar Refining (ASR) bought C&H Sugar in 2006, the company prioritized profits over the well-being of their workers — both inside and outside of the physical workplace.
"…with the way things are in this country and how much power corporations and billionaires have, it’s not shocking to see they’re trying to take more away from the working class.”
Almost immediately upon company acquisition, ownership rolled back benefits. In the 2009 contract negotiated between C&H and ILWU Local 6, workers were told that anyone hired after that year would not qualify for previously-guaranteed retiree health or pension benefits. It was a sacrifice workers made with the chips they had on the table.
“Me and another 60 or so guys in here don’t have pensions,” said Manny Loera, a belt foreman who has been working in the factory for 11 years. “We’ll be working until we can’t, really."
Flash forward to May 2026, and workers said they found themselves once again trapped by C&H management’s antagonistic bargaining. When the union contract expired on June 1st, 2026, workers were at the same place they were at the start of negotiations — with overtime pay, sick days, and more retiree benefits on the line.
On June 15th, 90 ILWU Local 6 warehouse workers walked out, beginning a now three-week-long strike against the world’s largest cane sugar refiner and marketer.
Reneging on Retirement
“The new contract is pretty much nothing but takeaways,” said Loera, whose brother, dad, uncles, and cousins have all worked for C&H Sugar at one point. “The fact that they were so strongheaded on this and not really wanting to work with us on trying to meet in the middle anywhere was kind of a shock, but with the way things are in this country and how much power corporations and billionaires have, it’s not shocking to see they’re trying to take more away from the working class.”
Under the company’s new proposed contract, all workers’ retiree health benefits would be revoked — not just those hired after 2009. This would mean that already-retired, former C&H Sugar workers actively using their retiree medical benefits would no longer be able to do so.
IMG_7855-1.jpeg
ILWU Local 6 members demanding C&H maintain retirement health benefits. (Joe St Germain / Bay Area Current)
“The new employees that came in [after 2009…] at least they knew that when they came in and could make plans for their future accordingly,” Sparks said. “It’s just a big slap in the face to the [retirees] that are entitled to that and the people currently employed here.”
Sparks herself started working for C&H Sugar three decades ago in large part due to the benefits, specifically the retiree health insurance now on the line. Both of her parents, former C&H Sugar workers who are in their late 70s, now fear for their future.
“[My dad and my mom] would have to pay full price for their medicines and for their doctor visits now,” said Sparks. “It just feels like an act of cruelty to do this to people. Just really a ‘ha-ha gotcha’ kind of thing to the people who have invested so many years there and then to have them just pull the rug out.”
Many C&H Sugar retirees are showing up at the picket line — years after their last day of work — because they say they have no other choice.
According to Sparks, there are about 25 current ILWU C&H workers who qualify for the retiree medical benefits, and about 90 retired ILWU C&H workers who are currently on the plan.
Fighting Overtime for Overtime
Sparks said that under the company’s new contract proposal, workers would also not be able to receive time-and-a-half overtime pay until they have worked 40 hours in a week. Previously, it was after 8 hours, which is the California state standard.
“Normal shifts are 8 hours for all warehouse [workers], but 80% of us work 12 hour shifts every day, and maybe another 10% are hitting 60 hour work weeks at a minimum. Sometimes 18 days in a row — we’ve done 21 days in a row,” Loera said. “Easily 90% of us bank on having overtime here. There’s guys here where half their wages are coming from overtime, or more. With the new language on the overtime pay […] that just gives them way too much power to alter our schedules and could potentially cost us $10,000 each in wages per year.”
Workers said the company could use forced overtime for their own financial gain by intentionally cutting their hours short right before they hit the 40 mark.
Sparks said this coincides with another part of the company’s contract proposal, which states that C&H Sugar would no longer be required to respect seniority for hiring or scheduling purposes.
“Because they're taking away the idea of seniority and with no guaranteed 40 hours, they could absolutely force you to do three 12 [hour shifts] and lay you off for a day, not pay you any overtime at all, and you’re not getting any full-time work,” explained Sparks.
In the past, schedules were determined by asking those with highest seniority first. Under the company’s new proposal, those who will work overtime may be handpicked by C&H management, giving the employer a tool to discipline workers. On top of this, management can hire externally without first regarding those already in the workplace who may be seeking a promotion.
“You’re taking your most experienced people who can pass on the most knowledge to their coworkers and not wanting to give them what they’re entitled to from their seniority,” said Sparks. “I just don’t understand how you want to take your most experienced people and really punish them the most.”
In addition to these changes, C&H Sugar's proposal involves cutting workers’ paid sick days in half — from 10 sick days to five.

Manny Loera picketing outside C&H Sugar. (Joe St Germain / Bay Area Current)
“Health issues happen, and if anyone has young kids, you know they’re getting sick all the time, and you’re going to have to keep them home from time to time, and we counted the sick days for emergencies like that,” said Loera, a father to a 3-year-old. “I could be disciplined or fired because my daughter doesn’t feel good one day, that’s just baffling that they want to hurt us. It’s going to hurt every one of us.”
Scabs Prolong a New Sugar War
In 2003, C&H Workers went out on a solidarity strike with the sugar workers represented by Sugar Workers Union Local 1, but this is the first time in nearly a century that the C&H Sugar warehouse workers have walked out. The last time was during a strike locally known as the Sugar War of 1938.
The ongoing strike, while not as violent, is just as contentious.
On June 25th, 2026, four ILWU warehouse workers received a call from C&H Sugar Human Resources saying that they were immediately terminated due to activity on the picket line.
“It kind of slapped me in the face, knowing I’m being terminated from a place I put so much blood and tears into for so many years, and this is how they repay me.”
“They told me that I would be terminated for striking an individual with my picket sign, which is totally false,” explained Robin Pittman, who has worked as a raw sugar operator in the factory for 44 years. Pittman had already put in his retirement date as July 1st of this year.
Pittman said he was reported by a private security officer working for C&H Sugar. Three other individuals received similar calls for incidents such as “driving sporadically” and “flipping the bird,” according to workers on the line.
“I was shocked. I was retiring to help watch my granddaughter,” said Pittman. “It kind of slapped me in the face, knowing I’m being terminated from a place I put so much blood and tears into for so many years, and this is how they repay me.”
ILWU Local 6 has since filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for “unlawful” terminations as well as “bad faith bargaining tactics,” according to the ILWU Local 6 communications director, Roy San Filippo. The charges are still under investigation by NLRB Region 32 in Oakland.
Private security firms hired by C&H Sugar have been patrolling the perimeter of the factory since ILWU Local 6 gave the company 72-hour notice of the strike. Each security guard is equipped with a video camera. Workers said security guards videotape them at the truck entrance picket line every time a truck comes through the gate, and escort scab workers inside the factory.
On top of the paid, out-of-state security, workers say C&H Sugar is flying in the contracted scabs from out-of-state. The company is now paying for private shuttle service to bring scab workers to and from their temporary lodging in Concord and Fairfield.
“Not only are [the scabs] getting their salary pay that they normally get, they’re actually paying them time and a half after their regular eight hours. That’s one of the biggest reasons we’re out here fighting,” said Mario Rives, who has been working as a crane operator for C&H for a decade. “It’s pretty wild that our rights mean so much that they're willing to spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands just to keep us out here on the picket line without pay.”

Mario Rives on Strike in front of C&H plant. (Joe St Germain / Bay Area Current)
ILWU Local 6 is one of many locals without a strike fund, meaning that they are unable to provide any financial support to their members out on strike. As the scabs operate with bonuses, time-and-a-half, and private shuttles, Local 6 members don’t know when they will receive their next paycheck.
Paid scab labor has raised safety concerns. Workers on the picket line said they do not believe that the scabs are qualified to operate the warehouse machinery or complete necessary tasks.
Otis Brown, union shop steward and truck foreman, said trucks of shipments are being loaded incorrectly, posing a danger to the truck drivers and to those on the road.
“They’re loading more weight inside these trucks because they can get more product out,” explained Brown, who has been working at C&H Sugar for 25 years. “Usually I load 42,000, they’re loading 45,000, 46,000 pounds in a truck right now. The guys in the trucks don’t know the weights. They’re going down the highway [weighing] 80,000 pounds. That’s illegal.”
As for the equipment itself, workers said it takes months of training to operate property.
“We’ve got 30-year-old equipment in there that is not maintained very well, and I’m sorry I don’t care how smart a person is that they bring in off the street, they’re not going to know the nuances of the operation,” said Sparks. “They don’t seem to have any respect for that at all.”
In response to Bay Area Current’s press inquiry, C&H management said “We presented our ILWU members with a robust new contract that included a 2% signing bonus, a 4% wage increase in the first year and 20% increase over the five-year term of the agreement. We remain committed to an open and constructive dialogue with the union as our goal has always been to reach an agreement that supports our employees while ensuring the long-term sustainability of our company and the communities we serve.”
C&H Sugar did not respond to additional questions.
“They’re talking 4% this year… and that’s really just keeping up with inflation and the cost of living,” said Loera. “That sounds good on paper, but when you take into account everything else the company’s not promoting, all the takeaways, then we’re losing out big time.”
image1-2-1.jpeg
Letter from ASR to workers on strike. (Caitlin Clift / Bay Area Current)
Workers on the line said that paid overtime accounts for as much as 25-50% of their income.
“If they’re going to cut you off at the knees and not give you any overtime, then [that pay increase] doesn’t really matter,” noted Sparks. “They are taking away the biggest piece of people’s income earning potential, which is overtime.”
Solidarity Against Blood Sugar
Compounding the battle for a dignified life for the Bay’s sugar refinery workers is contention around a shipment of sugar linked with a massacre in the Philippines.
ILWU longshoremen are refusing to offload a shipment of sugar currently in the harbor from the Philippines —– because it is allegedly “blood sugar.” The sugar was reportedly harvested on the site of the Toboso Massacre, an armed confrontation leading to the death of 19 individuals this April, including minors, community organizers, and a journalist at the hands of the Philippine Army.
Longshoremen and Filipino activist groups are protesting the offloading of the supply, meaning that the scabs inside will eventually run out of sugar supply. On Monday, July 6, ILWU and DSA Easy Bay held an emergency picket to block the sugar from being offloaded at the Port of Richmond with scab dockworkers.
image2-1-1.jpeg
Sign by artist Kaonti Creations connecting the Toboso Massacre on the Negros Island of the Philippines to striking ILWU workers in the Bay. (Rane Stark-Buhl / Bay Area Current)
Now, C&H Sugar has diverted the shipment from the Philippines to Levin Richmond Terminal Corporation, which handles scrap metals, coal, and other industrial materials.
Demonstrators have already noted the hazardous handling of the raw sugar import, with drone footage reportedly showing raw sugar being dumped onto the ground, uncovered. If the “blood sugar” is successfully brought to the factory, it could then be processed by scab labor at C&H.
After a protest Wednesday, Richmond City Councilmember Claudia Jimenez said city planning staff inspected the terminal, but has not yet reported back.
As week five of the strike approaches, the company has yet to schedule negotiations or reach out with updates. Nonetheless, workers' spirits remain high as they continue to fight for their rights — and for a job that can keep up with the Bay’s skyrocketing costs.
“We’re not asking for wage increases and more sick time, we just want to keep the status quo and keep up with inflation, that's all we want,” said Loera. “We want to go back to work.”
The ILWU Local 6 Strike Line welcomes supporters any day of the week at the intersection of Loring and Rolph Avenues in Crockett, California. East Bay Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are hosting a fundraising party Friday July 10.

Sugartown Is on Strike (And It’s Not So Sweet)

ILWU Local 6 workers have entered their third week on strike at C&H Sugar – their first strike in nearly a century.

bayareacurrent.com

Jim Crow 2, Redistricting, Labor the Fight Against Racism & The New Confederacy
https://laborfest.net/2026/event/jim-crow-2-redistricting-labor-the-fight-against-racism-the-new-confederacy/
July 10 @ 5:00 pm PDT
Zoom event
The open move to disenfranchise the Black people and …remove Black representatives is part of the effort to sanitize Black history and return to the Confederacy.
This panel will look at what this means to Black people and the Black working class and the role of unions and the working class as a whole.
Initial speakers:
Steve White – Teacher In CTA
Barry Anderson – IBT 856 Steward, Musician
George Wright – Professor CSUC & Skyline College
Akua Holt Houston – Houston Texas KPFT
C.C. Cambell – Independent Jounalist New Orleans, Louisiana
Cheryl Thornton – SEIU 1021 SF Community Healthcare Chapter
Brena Barros – SEIU 1021 SF General Hospital Chapter
Orlando Tolbin – SEIU 1021 SF Mental Health Mission Mental Health Clinic
Sponsored by WorkWeek

Events for July 2026 – LaborFest 2026

The open move to disenfranchise the Black people and remove Black representatives is part of the effort to sanitize Black history and return to the…

laborfest.net

"The Atlantic has an article out by David Brooks titled “Democrats Became Great by Fighting the Left,” and in a sense this claim is absolutely correct. It’s not correct in the sense that David Brooks suggests, but it is correct that the reason the Democratic Party has been allowed to …remain so dominant is because it is such an effective tool for thwarting all leftward political movement in the United States."

It’s Been Ten Years. It’s Time To Admit Bernie Sanders Was Wrong.

Reading by Tim Foley:

www.caitlinjohnst.one

More Privatization Of SF General Hospital Services Under Billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/public-health/new-care-pilot-aims-to-improve-patient-flow-at-zuckerberg/article_e27bdb62-6e3d-4819-bf8f-82123a7e7165.html
SF General Hospital program aims to support …patients after discharge
By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer 5 hrs ago

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and health-care nonprofit Homebridge are hoping to prevent patients from needing to return to the hospital.
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

A new pilot program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital aims to reduce the number of patients who remain in hospital beds even after they’ve been cleared for discharge.

By providing wraparound services for them after their visit, a six-month pilot program launched by health-care nonprofit Homebridge is providing follow-up care for patients with complex needs.

The aim is to prevent patients from needing to return to the hospital for repeat visits, and from remaining at the hospital for longer than necessary because they don’t have the right resources at home.

“What often happens with hospital discharges is that we don’t take the time to think about that and set it all up correctly — the services, the medical equipment, whatever he or she may need at home before they actually come home,” said Min Chang, the CEO of Homebridge.

The services, which are facilitated through city programs or nonprofits, can include installing safety rails in showers, connecting people with caregivers or even moving homes.

With additional care available outside the hospital setting, the goal is to reduce the burden on hospital resources and have fewer bottlenecks occur when trying to place patients in the right beds.

The pilot has started on a small scale, working with 44 patients since its launch in February, said Bazil Fonseca, the senior director of growth and innovation at Homebridge. He said that as of last month, with the resources already deployed, there has been a 19% readmission rate among those patients within 30 days of their initial discharges.

That might not seem significant, but that percentage is “continuing to go down,” Fonseca said.

“We’re seeing that number decline when we get engaged and we provide wraparound services, and just stay engaged,” he said.

Each client’s circumstances are very different, and several different factors can contribute to whether or not they’re readmitted, said Chang. One of the program’s first clients has remained stable and thriving at home, while another had to be readmitted after being injured in a fall.

“We want to understand what happened, what were the things that we could do that could have prevented that, things that we can control versus things that we can’t,” Chang said. “In the case of the second client, I think that wasn’t something we could have influenced or changed — but ever since then, she hasn’t been readmitted.”

Hospital resources — particularly in emergency departments — have increasingly been under strain, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2023 study published in JAMA Network Open found that visits to California emergency departments increased by more than 23% between 2011 and 2019, while the total number of emergency departments decreased by 3% during that same timeframe.

A UCLA study published last year found that average hospital occupancy in the United States increased from 64% before the pandemic to 75% afterwards — a rate of increase that could lead to a hospital-bed shortage by 2032. While the number of hospitalizations remained relatively steady, the number of staffed beds shrank by 16%.

New SF General pilot offers post-discharge care

The program aims to reduce repeat hospital visits.

www.sfexaminer.com

Drama Masks: SF Mime Troupe marches forth through country’s ‘Wreckage’
Religious prurience meets the surveillance state in company's latest free show. Happy Birthday, America!
https://48hills.org/2026/07/drama-masks-sf-mime-troupe-marches-forth-through-countrys-wreckage/

… By CHARLES LEWIS III
JULY 8, 2026
This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof.

Have a fun 250th for our bastard nation? I mostly stayed clear of mainstream media, but some highlights included: 1) white supremacists marching through DC like they owned the place; 2) our transphobic SCOTUS saying San José Mayor Matt Mahan (inspired by London Breed) can go right ahead and arrest homeless people for being homeless; and 3) SF Sup. Matt “Lock up all the addicts!” Dorsey asked a pro-Nazi chatbot for good reasons why people in Gaza deserve to die by the hands of Israel, thus conclusively he is SF’s Mike Lindell: weaponizing his own former addiction to target other addicts as he leans on Big Tech to spread his right-wing conspiracy theories.

Truly, this is the greatest country in the world. Where else could a twice-impeached failed businessman with numerous sexual assault allegations rise from his already-affluent background to the highest office in the land? Where else would such a chronic loser set new standards for his title by {checks notes}

transforming the Reflecting Pool into a literal swamp
destroying the White House lawn for a shitty MMA fight
greenlighting the Paramount-WB merger just so he could throttle CNN (and order a new Rush Hour sequel)
making FIFA reverse a Team USA penalty
picking a fight with the Pope
and turning himself into a literal golden idol.
All of that is just in the past year-and-a-half. Again, these are just off the top of my head. Forgive me if I forgot a few. (Killing SNAP benefits, demanding the Nobel Prize, making air travel even worse, etc.)

It’s easy to forget his desecration of the arts. Whether it be sticking his leathery grimace on US passports, sticking his bankrupt name on the Kennedy Center (only for it to be taken off), or the way he gutted the NEA, our country now finds itself full of major media powers all-to-willing to capitulate, and a citizenship refusing to accept that capitulation.

When all is said and done, how will this story be written? I’m old enough to remember when any one of the above listed was enough to instantly nuke one’s career, political or otherwise. Now, this Epstein associate has done all that and more without consequence. It’s like that time Mr. Burns went for his check-up and was told that he had so many diseases that they essentially cancelled out one another. This story is tragedy and farce at the same time.

Where does that put someone like me? Well, like the citizens of Whoville after the Grinch stole all their presents, we push forward.

I’m not a flag-waver. Hell, I’ve personally witnessed a great many flag-burnings. But I do believe in the collective power of the people. People wonder why I still do what I do when I’m barely scraping a living off it. It’s because I’m always amazed by how much story there still is to tell.

No, I haven’t made a full-time living off arts writing, but I love the fact that companies go out of their way to get my attention. They feel it’s important to have a voice like mine—PoC, genuinely Bay Area, fully independent —shining a light on their works. It offers a perspective they just won’t get from the still-majorly-white alternatives. They want to see themselves reflected in critique the way they try to reflect themselves on stage or on canvas. I wish I had the time and money to get to them all.

You notice me, and I notice you. And, it turns out, others notice us all.

So, when I look back over the story of the past 250 years, I don’t see it from the perspective of the disease-spreading pilgrims, I see it as a Black Panther would, as an indigenous tribe member would, as a suffragist would, as San Francisco’s very own Wong Kim Ark would. I see it from the perspective of everyone whose story isn’t awarded golden statues. As both an artist, activist, and journalist, I still love telling that story.

Most of all, I know that story isn’t over.

Keiko Shimosato Carreiro in SFMT’s ‘Wreckage’
SF Mime Troupe presents Wreckage: A Musical Tragicomedy

What would the 4th of July be without sitting outside in Dolores Park (CO² levels hovered around 423ppm the whole time) in the sun watching Socialist theatre? That much I expected. Getting a large crowd to join in a chant of “Tax! The! Church!”? Now, that was unexpected.

Such is the dénouement of Wreckage (through September 7 at various Bay Area parks), SF Mime Troupe’s latest call to arms. Though SF isn’t specified this time (there’s an Escape from New York-style Liberty head in the set design), the setting has the air of Silicon Valley-vicinity.

Michael Gene Sullivan’s script follows Felicity (Chloris Li), a good Christian girl eager to serve the Swaggart-like Brother Gideon (Jed Parsario)—mind you, Gideon’s definition of “service” is more prurient than the girl realizes. Still, Felicity takes Gideon’s word to the rundown city streets, where flower merchant Mari (Keiko Shimosato Carreiro) is happy to still have customers. She doesn’t like the way the world has gone, but she believes the lesson of her parents—victims of internment Order 9066—was to keep one’s head low and go unnoticed.

That’s hardly an option anymore, now that every digital device in the city is forcibly updated with “Claudine” (Li again), the new AI app so intrusive, even it disillusioned creator (Sullivan) is having second thoughts about implementing it.

Wreckage goes some places that are dark even for a Mime Troupe show: Though never explicitly detailed, there’s the suggestion of a sexual assault committed by Gideon, and the play stops cold in the latter-half to see Mari’s mother (Li) recounting her tenure in an internment camp through Japanese theatre techniques. As important as these elements are, they’re awkwardly wedged into the show that’s otherwise pretty enjoyable. It’s stances against the military (when one realizes they’re part of ICE murder-squad) and organized religion (what with the Bible preaching altruism and all) are as inspired as the songs are entertaining.

Mime Troupe shows don’t often require a trigger warning, but be advised of the above darkness amongst the pro-worker satire this time.

WRECKAGE: A MUSICAL TRAGICOMEDY runs through September 7th at various Bay Area parks. Further info here.

Drama Masks: SF Mime Troupe marches forth through country’s ‘Wreckage’ – 48 hills

Religious prurience meets the surveillance state in company’s latest free show. Happy Birthday, America!

48hills.org

‘We will never use them’: the California universities stockpiling AR-15s, grenades and submachine guns
A 2021 state law allows campus police to own military equipment for civilian safety – students fear it may be used to quash dissent
…https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/09/california-universities-military-equipment
Phoebe Huss of CalMatters
Thu 9 Jul 2026 12.00 EDT

For many public colleges and universities in California, keeping their campuses safe includes owning military-grade weaponry: AR-15s, stun grenades designed to cause temporary blindness and sonic weapons that resonate so loudly they are known in the armed forces as the voice of God.

According to California state law, campus police can only own military equipment if the college believes there is no other way to uphold civilian safety.

That law, which passed in 2021, also requires police to make all their equipment dealings exceedingly clear to the public. However, not every college follows every part of the law, according to an investigation by CalMatters into all 148 public campuses in the California Community Colleges, University of California and California State University systems.

Each campus’s state or district governing board – which gives permission for police to procure such items – has to annually re-approve a use policy, a chronicle of when the equipment has been used and an inventory. Once the report is approved and published online, campus police have 30 days to hold a conveniently located and “well-publicized” forum for the public to learn about and give feedback on the equipment, according to state law.

CalMatters attempted to compile the 2025 annual reports and use policies from every public higher education police department in the state that owns military equipment.

A University of California campus police officer pushes a pro-Palestinian protester away from a moving San Diego sheriff’s bus carrying arrested protesters, at UC San Diego on 6 May 2024.Photograph: Adriana Heldiz/AP

Several campus police departments created reports after CalMatters’ inquiries, though the law requires the documents to be posted online as long as the equipment is usable. Not all reports or policies contained the details mandated by the 2021 law; in many cases, campuses left out information, including manufacturers’ product descriptions, up-to-date inventories and equipment quantities. The University of California board of regents approved UC Berkeley’s annual report last September, but university police only published their equipment list on 7 April, after four CalMatters inquiries.

According to their own reports, San Jose State University and San Francisco State University own AR-15s even though Cal State’s policy does not authorize this. A Cal State spokesperson, Amy Bentley-Smith, said these AR-15s are standard issue, which would exempt them from the reporting requirement, even though San Jose’s report classifies them as specialized firearms and university police departments determine which equipment is standard issue. San Francisco State’s semi-automatic rifles are standard issue and won’t be listed in the annual report going forward, university spokesperson Robert King said.

Campus police also must submit their yearly report to their district or state governing boards. Chico State and Cal State Northridge police said their reports are sent to the Cal State chancellor’s office, which the systemwide policy requires. But Klarissa Garcia, executive assistant to the chief of police at Cal State Dominguez Hills, said her department does not submit its report to any governing body.

Multiple police departments, including Cal Poly Humboldt and Cal State Sonoma, said they did not hold a campus forum in 2025, nor did they respond to inquiries about when the required public meeting was held. Many departments said they held meetings, but did not answer questions about how they publicized them, or said they posted announcements on social media without any record of it on their accounts.

The Cal State board of trustees has not reviewed the systemwide equipment policy at a public meeting since 2022, though the policy is supposed to be renewed at least annually. Under the policy the board adopted, the trustees only need to check the policy again if the university system wants to authorize new types of equipment, Bentley-Smith told CalMatters. She added that Cal State would re-examine the policy to ensure it follows the law.

Several community colleges were missing military equipment policies and reports. The college system’s chancellor’s office does not track whether colleges follow the transparency law, according to communications specialist Melissa Villarin.

police and students facing each other
View image in fullscreen
Police officers descend on pro-Palestinian students at UCLA on 2 May 2024. Photograph: Étienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images
CalMatters used annual reports to create a mass inventory of the equipment found at California higher education institutions, which includes hundreds of semi-automatic rifles, thousands of munitions containing the same chemical as chili peppers, and hundreds of thousands of rifle munitions. Some reports did not list quantities despite the legal requirement; CalMatters sourced other documents posted on campus websites or directly asked for those figures.

The military equipment law, written by former the Democratic assembly member David Chiu, now the city attorney of San Francisco, only applies to campus police departments with sworn police officers. Campus safety or security departments with unsworn personnel do not have to report their equipment. More than 40 community colleges told CalMatters they did not file a report.

It’s not just police using military-grade tools. The Cal State Monterey Bay 2025 report states its emergency management team owns three camera drones, which, as remotely piloted aircrafts, are classified as military equipment under state law. The emergency management team reports to the campus chief of police but is not itself made up of sworn officers, according to the interim police chief, Yvonne Gordon.

Following CalMatters’ inquiries, several campuses – as well as the Cal State system – said they were hereafter committed to following the military equipment transparency law in its entirety. In addition, some are downsizing their inventories.

Defense-style weaponry at schools
Military equipment forums held at universities are often sparsely attended, according to several police departments. But some students are impassioned about the issue. At a rally outside a UC board of regents meeting in January, the University of California at Los Angeles’s chapter of the UC Divest Coalition, an anti-imperialism and anti-militarism student group, criticized the regents for spending tuition money on military equipment, while the board convened yards away in a school ballroom.

Law enforcement at UCLA as protesters try to build a new Palestinian solidarity encampment, on 23 May 2024. Photograph: Christina House/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
UCLA police use long-range acoustic devices – which emit focused beams of high-volume sound – as giant loudspeakers to broadcast announcements to large crowds. In the 2024-25 school year, the department deployed these “voice of God” tools 71 times, all during crowd-management situations, defined by the university as assemblies, protests and demonstrations. Police at UC Santa Cruz used a similar acoustic device to give dispersal orders during the 2024 pro-Palestine student encampments.

UCLA does not use the acoustic devices to produce high-pitched tones, which they are also capable of emitting, said Richard Mejia, the director of emergency communications and information for the university’s campus safety office. But pitch differs from loudness, which is measured in decibels: a long-range acoustic device can produce 160 decibels, and sounds over 120 can cause permanent hearing damage even during a short exposure. The university said it doesn’t prescribe a fixed decibel output, adding that it follows federal and scientific exposure regulations, including those from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which permits sudden noises up to 140 decibels. For reference, a bulldozer emits about 95.

Not all inventoried equipment is approved for use by district or state governing boards. An October 2025 memo from San Jose State University states its police department owns 33 teargas grenades, which burst into clouds of choking chemicals when released and, for some brands, cause “psychological and physiological effects”. The Cal State military equipment policy does not authorize using grenades to deploy teargas or oleoresin capsicum, the chili pepper irritant.

These grenades have “always been in our armory”, Capt Jermaine Thomas said. “We will never use them.” He added that the department plans to destroy them, along with the university’s submachine gun, which is also not authorized under Cal State policy.

Pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on 24 April 2024. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

Bentley-Smith told CalMatters that the submachine gun was never added to the systemwide policy manual because the university never used or requested permission to use it.

Campus forums vary in scope
A promotional website for San Jose State’s 2025 community forum says the event covers current police initiatives without specifically mentioning military equipment, but Thomas said that subject was indeed discussed.

About 21,500 students attend El Camino College in Los Angeles county, which announced its 2025 meeting, held in a gymnasium, during four other meetings held on campus: the Campus Safety and Security Consultation Committee, the academic senate, the College Council and the president’s meeting. Police chief Matthew Vander Horck said about 30 people attended. Meanwhile, Capt Jeffrey Chobanian of the UCLA police department, which serves about 49,000 students, said the department used social media to promote its 2025 forum, held on Zoom, but nobody attended.

Some of the forums become question-and-answer sessions, like the ones held by San Bernardino Community College district police, according to their chief, Blake Bonnet. Students and faculty come prepared, read the policy – which includes when and where the equipment can be used – to the officers and press them directly on how it will be enforced, Bonnet said.

Bonnet said he publicizes the annual meeting through the police department’s online newsletter, Just the Facts, which contains crime logs and topical safety tips and is sent to students and staff every month.

“People ask questions and seek clarification,” Bonnet said. “If you don’t understand the police world – which some people do, some people don’t – if you have a question, I would rather you ask so that we can understand your concern.”

At UC Davis’s annual forum, meeting participants have asked about when and why officers can deploy weapons, which necessitates at least annual trainings, and how the equipment is shared with others – since the school has lent drones to other UC campuses for use in crowd control and can borrow equipment from other campuses in preparation for “major” protests and demonstrations. Last year, an attender asked whether other police forces can bring unauthorized military equipment to campus, according to meeting minutes. Capt Mark Brunet responded that they can.

In February 2025, a Mount San Antonio College police advisory committee composed of college and police personnel and two students met to discuss adding AR-15s to the department’s arsenal. Before long, other students caught wind of the plans. Student César Tlatoāni Alvarado said fellow students, especially veterans and students of color, were not comfortable with their campus becoming militarized.

“The entire campus was talking about it,” said Tlatoāni Alvarado, who studies political science and world languages and global studies. They also served as the campus’s student trustee for two terms, from 2023 to 2025.

By CalMatters’ count, more than 25 public colleges own semi-automatic rifles, which shoot with more precision, accuracy and distance than handguns, according to several school policies.

Tlatoāni Alvarado said they were fearful of the impact of a militarized police force on the campus protesting scene, which they said was active but peaceful.

“I knew for a fact that this was being done to silence dissent on our campus,” Tlatoāni Alvarado said.

They led a coalition of campus clubs to demonstrate against the proposed purchases and vehemently protest at multiple police town halls. That April, nearly 20 students, faculty and alumni condemned the plan to buy AR-15s at the college district’s board of trustees’ monthly meeting. The protesters included the student trustee, who said several hundred students were involved in the overall effort.

“There were so many students that were yelling,” Tlatoāni Alvarado said. “They were screaming at the administration. They were upset, they were frustrated. They felt betrayed.”

Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators in an encampment on the UCLA campus, on 2 May 2024. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

As of June 2026, the college does not own semi-automatic rifles. “The discussion is still ongoing” on whether the college will seek them in the future, according to the campus police chief, Kelli Florman.

Still, Tlatoāni Alvarado considers the students’ work a success.

“It was a lot of work,” they said. “I was one of the students that had led the way in that campaign. But I couldn’t have done it alone. There were so many of us.”

Compton College’s president, Keith Curry, said a February inquiry from CalMatters put the military equipment law on his radar for the first time. Campus police had issued semi-automatic rifles to patrol officers for more than seven years, arguing that standard-issue pistols had not effectively protected civilians and officers during the 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout. The campus police department also owns incapacitating tasers and a submachine gun, the latter of which the college reports is for potentially lethal situations and to shoot through barriers. However, after some research, Curry realized his college never adopted an equipment use policy.

“Once I understood that it was not implemented correctly, I went into action mode,” Curry said. “I was calling around, I was calling a police chief that I know, I looked on different websites. I had to dissect the bill to understand it, myself, about what’s going on.”

Ultimately, Curry and Compton’s attorney wrote up a corrective action plan that his district’s board of trustees unanimously approved on 16 March. In accordance with the plan , the college approved an official policy in April, held a community engagement meeting in May, reviewed an annual use report in June and will update the police policy manual by September.

The compliance review served as a general reminder to build transparency between campus police and their constituents, Curry said. In April, he announced the establishment of three new forms of oversight for campus police: a student committee, a community advisory committee and a taskforce reviewing police procedures and policies.

“As a leader, you have to understand what mistakes are made. You have to fix the mistakes,” Curry said.

After a CalMatters inquiry, Chaffey College officials also discovered they had no policy, which chief Steven Griffin amended by writing a policy that his college board then passed in April. Cal State Monterey Bay updated its website with an equipment policy. Southwestern College modified its annual report with munition quantities. San Joaquin Delta College, Cuesta College and the Riverside Community College district all said they are unsure whether their past documentation follows the law, but were working to ensure future compliance.

Other college officials said adjusting their documentation to conform to state law made them reconsider the tools they have. After taking “immediate steps” to update MiraCosta College’s report, its public and governmental relations director, Kristen Gonzales, said the campus police chief planned to “responsibly reduce [munition] inventory to a level that aligns with our actual operational needs and best practices”.

Tlatoāni Alvarado said that while campus militarization was deeply concerning, he was witnessing a growing trend of students resisting it.

“College campuses are a focal point for where our activism can translate into real-world change,” they said. “Colleges are trying to quash that dissent. But what they need to know, and they need to be made aware of, is that there’s many more of us than there are of them.”

‘We will never use them’: the California universities stockpiling AR-15s, grenades and submachine guns

A 2021 state law allows campus police to own military equipment for civilian safety – students fear it may be used to quash dissent

www.theguardian.com

Union says East 42nd Street building developers cut corners, put safety at risk
https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/national/union-says-east-42nd-street-building-developers-cut-corners-put-safety-at-risk/article_f60741fd-4c90-50e8-a249-0084a37f182f.html
Kerry Burke and Leonard Greene, New York… Daily News Jul 9, 2026 Updated 1 hr ago
Sean Dow, now being called the“ 42nd St. Hero,” speaks during a news conference near 235 E. 42nd St. Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Manhattan. Dow is the shop steward from Steamfitters Local 638 who warned workers about the collapsing structure at 235 E. 42…

Sean Dow, now being called the “42nd St. Hero,” speaks during a news conference near 235 E. 42nd St. Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Manhattan. Dow is the shop steward from Steamfitters Local 638 who warned workers about the collapsing structure at 235 E. 42nd St. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS)
Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

NEW YORK — Thanks to a young union member who spotted shockingly buckled support beams in the Midtown East high-rise that suffered a partial collapse Tuesday, a major catastrophe may have been averted. His union is now hailing the hard hat as “The Hero of 42nd Street.” Meanwhile, slamming the project’s developers as reckless, the union says the site’s safety must be guaranteed if any work there is to resume.

Eagle-eyed apprentice Sean Dow spotted the damaged beams while working on installing sprinklers inside the building with a crew of fellow union members. Initially, Dow had been on the 22nd floor, where he noticed that the floor had sloped down “several inches.”

“I realized I saw cracks in the slab (concrete floor) and I realized that’s not supposed to be there,” Dow said. “So I proceeded to head down to the 21st floor, and that’s where I saw the bending columns. I was there with a group of general contractors, and we decided it was time to evacuate the building.”

The former office tower, which was being converted for residential use, was promptly ordered evacuated by the FDNY and Department of Buildings, as were at least nine neighboring buildings, while a swath of streets around the site were closed off to vehicles and pedestrians.

At a news conference near the construction site Thursday afternoon, an outraged leading union member went as far as to call for the damaged structure to be completely demolished and rebuilt from scratch.

“Would you live in it?” Cliff Johnsen, business agent for the Steamfitters Local 638 union, fumed. “I believe this building should be brought down to the ground and built the right way.”

Although Johnsen’s title is equivalent to a vice president, a source said the union honcho’s statement does not reflect the union’s current stance on the issue.

“The position of the union is: Demonstrate it’s safe,” the source said of the crippled building. “As of today, the city hasn’t certified it’s safe. So, the union is gonna continue to wait and see when it’s safe for them to return to work.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said DOB is monitoring the emergency response and will conduct a full investigation.

Union officials accused the project’s developer of compromising safety — most notably by using cheaper, nonunion labor for most of the work.

“These failures are far less likely when union standards control the job from top to bottom,” Johnsen said. “It’s about building right and building safe.”

According to DOB, as of Thursday afternoon, temporary shoring has been installed from the ninth floor to the building’s roof. Construction crews are now installing steel columns as a temporary stabilizing measure on multiple floors, and reinforcing several existing structural columns in the building. As additional steel columns are delivered to the site, they are being installed in place of the light shoring equipment.

Meanwhile, the developers have downplayed any concerns about the massive office-to-residential conversion project moving forward.

Nathan Berman, the founder and managing principal of MetroLoft, a developer of the project, downplayed the situation’s seriousness and shrugged that the damage is easily fixable. The project is adding new floors atop the existing structure.

“It’s very simple,” he told The Real Deal hours after the bent support columns were spotted and the building evacuated. “You add more load to something that can’t support it, it’ll give way, and that’s what happened, and now it just needs to be fixed.”

“This is a freak accident that something occurred with these two specific columns that either were not reinforced or were not reinforced sufficiently, and they gave way. That’s it. There’s no mystery, and there’s no magic,” he said, calling it “a very fixable issue.”

But city officials have made no commitment about resuming construction, while focusing on a probe into what caused the near catastrophe.

The steel-framed high-rise at 235 E. 42nd St. near Second Ave. formerly held offices for the world headquarters of Pfizer, but is now being renovated into luxury residential housing, the largest such conversion in city history. The project is slated to create 1,602 apartments.

Firefighters were first called to the scene after a report of bricks falling from the facade of the 37-story building. But when they arrived, firefighters learned that two support columns had buckled on the 21st floor, causing floors to sag between the 21st and 26th floors.

No injuries were reported as firefighters evacuated the building and set up a frozen zone closed to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic from E. 40th to E. 45th St. between First and Third Aves.

The off-limits area was later scaled back after work crews braced the buckling beams. Forty-third St. between Second and Third Aves. currently remains closed “in the interest of public safety,” according to DOB.

Union says East 42nd Street building developers cut corners, put safety at risk

NEW YORK — Thanks to a young union member who spotted shockingly buckled support beams in the Midtown East high-rise that suffered a partial…

hanfordsentinel.com

LAUSD faces ‘severe’ signs of insolvency; county warns it could take control of budget
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-07-09/la-unified-budget-finances

The LAUSD headquarters on June 12, 2026. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
By Jaweed Kaleem, Howard Blume and …Kori McNair
July 9, 2026 2:06 PM PT

Los Angeles Unified is facing “severe” signs of insolvency, with county officials projecting a $231-million cash shortfall by late 2027.
County education authorities have appointed a fiscal expert and have given the school board 45 days to fix its budget or risk outside control.
Costly union contracts, stalled cuts and steep enrollment declines helped drive the troubles.
The Los Angeles Unified School District faces “severe” indications that it will be insolvent by November 2027 — falling $231 million into the red and unable to make payroll — county analysts have concluded, setting up a 45-day deadline for the school board to amend their budget or face losing significant future authority over spending decisions.

The county has appointed a “fiscal expert” to work with the district to eliminate the projected deficit. If that effort falls short, county authorities will appoint an official empowered to overturn school board spending decisions, according to the letter sent to L.A. Unified.

The July 2 notice, from county education office Supt. Debra Duardo to L.A. school board President Scott Schmerelson, said the district’s recent budget adoption “erodes confidence” in its decision making. The county attributes the crisis largely to union contracts it repeatedly warned L.A. Unified officials the district could not afford. The projected annual cost of the union settlements and employee raises is well over $1 billion a year.

“They have some serious financial concerns that they need to address,” Duardo said in an interview Thursday. “It’s very serious.”

The letter formally issues LAUSD a “Lack of Going Concern” determination, meaning that the district may not be able to meet its obligations in the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years. It is a step the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) takes only when a district faces serious deficit spending, Duardo said.
The price of LAUSD union peace will be $1.2 billion a year. Next up is paying for it

“This determination does not change our commitment to students, families or employees,” Chait said in a statement. “Our schools will continue to operate as normal while we work closely with LACOE to strengthen our long-term financial outlook. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate and remain focused on making thoughtful, responsible decisions that protect classroom instruction and student success.”

Employee unions have repeatedly downplayed financial warnings, saying that the projections don’t fully account for increases in state funding that are almost certain to become available. Education advocates have asserted that California schools are legally entitled to billions more under state law.

State tax revenues have been at record levels, but are heavily dependent on the current stock performance of artificial intelligence companies.

Duardo said the goal is to keep the district from sinking so far that it would need a state bailout.

“What we’re talking about is just making sure that they don’t get into a situation where they have to take out a loan from the state and we’re going to do everything possible to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Were L.A. Unified to need a state bailout, its school board would lose authority over the school system, with authority transferring to an administrator appointed by Duardo.

A financial expert now, possible oversight later
At this juncture, the county is not taking over the district. Instead, it is moving in two stages, as mandated by state law to ensure school districts remain fiscally sound.

On July 1, the county assigned a fiscal expert — Octavio Castelo, an official from the county education office — to work alongside district staff. That role is “advisory and diagnostic,” the letter said. Castelo cannot unilaterally make district budget decisions.

The second stage involves major restrictions. If the district does not address the budget issue to satisfy legal requirements, the county may assign a “fiscal adviser” with “stay and rescind authority over board actions,” such as the power to block the board’s spending. The adviser would not run the district but could reject board spending decisions.

The step beyond that would be a full takeover. That happened in 2012 in Inglewood, which received an emergency state loan, Duardo said she is optimistic the LAUSD can avoid that fate.

Why the district is in trouble
The county’s chief complaint is the high cost of district employee-union contracts. On June 16, the school board approved new contracts covering multiple employee unions. County officials warned the board at the time that deals were too expensive. The board approved them anyway.

The contracts add about $1.13 billion this school year, rising to $1.44 billion in 2027-28, the letter said. The deals, reached to avert a strike in April, promised double-digit raises to teachers, aides, custodians and other workers.

The letter also faults the district’s planning. About $231 million in previously planned cuts were never carried out. On the same night it approved the contracts, the board overrode its own chief financial officer to pull $175 million from a fund set aside for retiree health benefits. The county said it all “further erodes confidence” in the district’s budgeting abilities.

Enrollment is another issue. L.A. Unified, the nation’s second-largest school system, educates about 390,000 students. That is roughly half its size in the early 2000s. As enrollment falls, so does state funding. But the district has not adjusted its staffing to match, the letter says.

The district also has undergone leadership change at the top. Chait has been superintendent since Alberto Carvalho resigned last month amid a federal investigation.

The district’s month-end cash balance is projected to go negative by $231 million in November 2027, and negative again from February through May 2028. A district that cannot maintain a positive cash balance cannot make payroll or pay its bills. The letter says that is “the most immediate and severe indicator of insolvency.”

Fixing the problem will be painful. The district’s plan already calls for unpaid furlough days beginning as early as fall break this year; if they are not in place, the county has said it will consider escalating to a fiscal adviser. Layoffs are also coming. The budget the board approved in June already included more than 1,000 job cuts, with thousands more projected over the next three years.

What happens next
The 45-day clock puts the next decision point in mid-to-late August. The board resumes meeting in August, giving it time to adopt a revised budget before an adviser would be named. District officials also have the option to appeal the county’s findings to the state superintendent of public instruction within five days.

Duardo said she has spoken with Chait since the letter went out and said that the superintendent “understands the need for them to balance their budget and to make some hard decisions about how they’re going to cut, and he’s very collaborative and very willing to work together.”

“They’ve gotten into a situation where they’re very close to possibly running out of money if they don’t put the measures in place that they need to,” Duardo said. “And I’m confident that they will.”

LAUSD faces ‘severe’ signs of insolvency; county warns it could take control of budget

L.A. County education officials say union contracts Los Angeles Unified couldn’t afford have pushed the district toward insolvency. They threaten to…

www.latimes.com

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/attorney-general-orders-changes-sacramento-city-unified-enrollment-policies/103-9e44f00a-e975-420c-8dca-3c3c55b0436c#:~:text=State%20investigation%20prompts%20settlement%20over,there%20is%20room%20for%20improvement.

Professor George Wright Explores Capitalism and FIFA; Court Sentences Prairieland Defendants to 450 Years; CC Campbell-Rock Presents Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Address
…https://capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2026/07/07/professor-george-wright-explores-capitalism-and-fifa-court-sentences-prairieland-defendants-to-450-years-cc-campbell-rock-presents-frederick-douglass-fourth-of-july-address/
By Capitalism, Race & Democracy – July 7, 202610

The corporatization of soccer under the corrupt FIFA has been going on for decades. This is more evident than ever with this summer’s World Cup games playing now in cities across North America though with the bulk of the games in the US under the racist reactionary Trump presidency. Professor George Wright, an expert on class, race and sports spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer about the nature of FIFA during this North American iteration of the quadrennial World Cup.

The North American FIFA World Cup finale is scheduled for July 19th at in East Rutherford, NJ/ for July 19th at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. The website SeatGeek lists a ticket to that Final Game starting at $9924.

***

In a high profile travesty of justice that marks another low point in the Trump regime’s war on domestic dissent and resistance, eight Prairieland defendants were sentenced to a combined 450 years in federal prison for their roles in the July 4th 2025 “noise demonstration” including fireworks and a subsequent police provocation outside the private Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. Here is a brief mainstream local NBC Dallas affiliate report in the aftermath of these grotesque sentences imposed on June 23rd.

In that report you heard in order Hope Song, the mother of Benjamin Song, followed by Song’s attorney Philip Hayes and Brian Buford, the attorney for Zachary Evetts. The statement read by Miller defending the sentences was from Ryan Raybould, US Attorney Northern District of Texas. The federal judges presiding over the trials and sentencing are Chief US District Judge Reed O’Connor and US District Judge Mark Pittman.

The eight Prairieland Defendants and their sentences are:

Benjamin Song — 100 years;

Maricela Rueda – 70 years;

Branford Morris – 50 years;

Zachary Evetts – 50 years;

Savannah Bitten – 50 years;

Elizabeth Soto– 50 years;

Cameron Arnold – 50 years;

Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada– 30 years

For updates on their cases, appeals, and to support their defense efforts, see the websitehttps://prairielanddefendants.com/

A July 1st update there announces – “Additional Federal Prairieland Defendants, Including Those Who Took Plea Deals, Sentenced Today to Prison Terms Ranging From 22 Months to 50 Years”.

What follows is a reading of an article published on Common Dreams on June 29 by Hannah Riley Fernandez. It’s entitled — Trump Admin Wants the Prairieland Sentences to Scare You Into Silence — NSPM-7 is the architecture of a system designed to make dissent unthinkable, but it won’t work.

National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) is an ominous and sweeping federal directive signed by Trump last September directing a so-called “whole-of-government” approach to investigate and disrupt so-called “domestic terrorism” and “organized political violence.” The administration’s intentions and publicly clear and mounting abuses represent a heightening campaign to ramp up targeting and suppression of domestic dissent and resistance. Hannah Riley Fernandez also links Prairieland to the recent Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta and offers lessons gleaned through that earlier struggle.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/prairieland-ice-trial

***

Next, independent Journalist CC Campbell Rock from New Orleans reads Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”.

***

We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates that contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer, Ann Garrison, Polina Vasiliev, and Thomas O’Rourke.

You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.

Thanks for listening.

Music:

The Clash – I Fought the Law (Official Video)

América Los Tigres del Norte

Professor George Wright Explores Capitalism and FIFA; Court Sentences Prairieland Defendants to 450 Years; CC Campbell-Rock Presents Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Address – Pacifica Radio’s Capitalism, Race and Democracy

  The corporatization of soccer under the corrupt FIFA has been going on for decades. This is more evident than ever with this summer’s World Cup…

capitalismraceanddemocracy.org

C&H offloads sugar at industrial terminal in East Bay due to strike sparking health concerns
…https://abc7news.com/post/ch-sugar-company-offloads-industrial-levin-richmond-terminal-due-strike-sparking-health-concerns/19472212/?fbclid=IwY2xjawS85-5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE1V1NVenBRdXp3TGJGa1dZc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHq0zuzSN5P133C_8KOQng7JGLYLaHjNNpTkXAwtlxRLowGY9bsCGIvUWd50l_aem_7uIJ0J9xtLiTudPYnrRGRg
ByAnser Hassan KGO logo
Wednesday July 8 2026 10:45PM
C&H offloads sugar at industrial terminal sparking health concernsAd0:170:003:08 Concerns are growing over how raw sugar destined for the C&H Sugar refinery is being stored at a private terminal during an ongoing labor dispute.RICHMOND Calif. (KGO) — Concerns are growing over how raw sugar destined for the C&H Sugar refinery is being stored at a private terminal during an ongoing labor dispute prompting calls for investigation by local officials and criticism from union leaders.Video from the site shows piles of raw sugar being stored at the Levin Richmond Terminal where city leaders and labor groups say the product is being kept near coal and petroleum materials."Sugar, which is a food product, is being dumped here next to coal and petroleum products," said Richmond City Councilmember Claudia Jimenez.Jimenez said the city sent staff to inspect the terminal after learning about the storage arrangement and contacted the Contra Costa County Health Department to investigate."The concern is also that the coal (does) not have a cover. The wind — as you know, today — the wind is strong. So (there) could be cross-contamination," Jimenez said confirming city staff did observe the sugar on the ground.MORE: Chevron fined $900K for air pollution monitoring failures at Richmond refinery air district saysThe storage issue comes amid a labor dispute at C&H Sugar's Crockett refinery. Members of ILWU Local 6 who work at the refinery warehouse have been on strike since mid-June over issues including overtime pay and retirement benefits. According to union officials ILWU Local 10 workers declined to unload sugar at the Crockett facility in solidarity with the strike leading to shipments being diverted to Richmond.C&H Sugar said in a statement: "In terms of quality, there is no difference in using this terminal instead of ours. Raw sugar is not food grade until it moves through a sugar refinery. Once it has been processed in our refinery, we assure the quality of our finished sugar."Union leaders dispute the company's assurances."We didn't work the ship. They say the silos are running low. And they decided to bring the ship here. It was anchored for 10 days. And they brought it here to Levin," said Michael Villeggiante President of ILWU Local 10.MORE: New plan could prevent Valero Refinery plant in Benicia from closing next year report saysVilleggiante said union members observed the sugar being moved through the terminal on conveyer belts and by bulldozers which may also be utilized to move items like scrap metal or cement adding to concerns about potential contamination."Some of this stuff can be refined out. But some of it can't. Cement products, petroleum products cannot be refined out. We have seen hydraulic fluid on the ground. We have seen oil, or cement being powdered on the ground," Villeggiante said.The San Francisco Bay Area labor dispute remains unresolved. Union officials contend C&H Sugar is not bargaining in good faith while the company says it has offered a 20% increase over the next five years and remains committed to constructive dialogue. The city and county continue to review conditions at the terminal as questions remain about the storage of the raw sugar and its proximity to other industrial materials.

C&H offloads sugar at industrial terminal in East Bay due to strike, sparking health concerns

Concerns are growing over how raw sugar destined for the C&H Sugar refinery is being stored at a private terminal during an ongoing labor dispute,…

abc7news.com

ILWU10 and Community Protest Unloading of Sugar at Richmond Levin Industrial Terminal and Health Concerns as well as union busting. …https://abc7news.com/post/ch-sugar-company-offloads-industrial-levin-richmond-terminal-due-strike-sparking-health-concerns/19472212/