On Friday, May 16, 2003, Columbus Jobs with Justice participated in one of Columbus' first workers' rights delegations. A group of local labor, religious and community members (including County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, representatives from JwJ, the Central Labor Council, the Catholic Diocese, and a number of labor organizations) visited the corporate offices of the Kroger Corporation to ask for a visit with the president and to present a large signed poster demonstrating community support for truck drivers of Teamsters Local 413, who are in danger of losing their jobs. Kroger, a union shop where cashiers and others are represented by the UFCW, is considering giving the trucking contract to a non-unionized, low-paid owner-operator trucking firm in Texas.

At least 50 workers from Teamsters Local 413 marched with the delegation to the corporate office. Delegates presented their statement to a Kroger executive and made statements about their support for the campaign. After the delegation visit, supporters handbilled at a nearby Kroger store to gain support for the campaign and held signs near the highway to raise

As Ohio lurches toward more education cuts to resolve the state’s fiscal crisis, state legislators should be cutting wasteful spending. This means they should even consider cutting failed pet projects that have been coddled by lawmakers.

Limping toward its 7th year of existence, Ohio’s charter school program is one such project. The program has produced no academic return for our investment of state and local taxes, more than $200 million this year. Fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives scrutinized every line item in the Ohio Department of Education’s budget with a fine toothcomb, yet they refused to even glance at the failed charter school program. With more than $600 million cut from K-12 and public higher education already, this program should be the first place lawmakers look to help balance the budget.

Charter school proponents sold the public a new approach to education. They promised taxpayers that if you ‘forget regulation and red tape, we’ll get results, never you mind how.’

The results are dismal.

BOISE, Idaho -- When last we left the saga of Texas' few living elected Democrats, they had fled the state pursued by minions of the law -- legislators on the lam. These courageous citizens, fleeing vile Republican oppression in their state capital, took refuge at the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Reporters embedded with the law-breaker law-makers in Ardmore say the perps remain unrepentant.

Meanwhile, back at the capitol, mighty was the wrath of the Republicans left holding session without a quorum. Bills died by the dozens as the lawmakers wanted by the law bollixed up the legislative works (bills not passed through second reading as of May 15 die automatically, a bit of legislative process the fleeing Dems cunningly used to their advantage).

Gov. Goodhair Perry, who keeps saying he wants more civility and bipartisanship, denounced the AWOL solons as "cowardly," childish" and "irresponsible." It was a bad day for bipartisanship.

Everyone mourned the death of legislative civility while colorfully cursing the other side. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, the

Months before the United States military showered Iraq with bombs and missiles, the Department of Defense was secretly working with Vice President Dick Cheney’s old company, Halliburton Corp., on a deal that would give the world’s second largest oil services company total control over Iraq’s oil fields, according to interviews with Halliburton’s most senior executives.   

Moreover, classified Halliburton documents obtained over the past month prove that the war in Iraq was as much about controlling the world’s second largest oil reserves as it did about overthrowing the regime of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein.   

The deal between the Department of Defense and Halliburton unit Kellogg, Brown & Root to operate Iraq’s oil industry, which was hatched as early as October 2002, according to the documents, and could ultimately be worth $7 billion, couldn’t have come at a better time for Halliburton.   

AUSTIN, Texas -- They just went too far, that's all. This session of the legislature has been as brutal, callous and indifferent to the welfare of the weakest, the most frail, youngest and oldest Texans as it is possible to get. The level of pure meanness is just stunning. They have just gone too damn far.

The session was pretty well summed up by Rep. Senfronia Thompson when she illustrated what was going on by taking the House rulebook to the podium with her and dropping it on the floor. There is no rule of procedure, fairness, common sense or decency that has been observed by the Republican majority in the Texas House.

This is not about partisan politics -- although that has certainly reared its ugly head. In case you hadn't noticed, every major newspaper in this state has criticized the plans and performance of the legislature this session, often in harsh language. Those wild-eyed radicals at the Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle are just disgusted with the tacky display these people have been putting on.

There is no excuse for this, and blaming it on the deficit will