Sherman A1
Sherman A1's JournalLarge Gift Gives St. Louis' Griot Museum Of Black History A Break From Hard Times
For two decades, Lois Conley, founder of St. Louis’ Griot Museum of Black History, has struggled just to pay the bills, hoping the roof, heating and air conditioning will last another season.
But a recent donation is giving Conley some breathing room. The money is from a longtime supporter who died last year and remembered the Griot in his will.
Conley declined to reveal the name or an amount. But it’s enough to cover a year’s worth of expenses, which includes paying an executive assistant, she said.
In 2015, Conley told St. Louis Public Radio the Griot needs about $100,000 a year for property taxes, utility bills and basic upkeep.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/large-gift-gives-st-louis-griot-museum-black-history-break-hard-times
Voters Reject MSD Rate Hike, Give St. Louis County Council Its Own Attorney
St. Louis and St. Louis County residents on Tuesday rejected a Metropolitan Sewer District tax increase aimed at stopping erosion and flooding.
Voters also endorsed designating an attorney to represent the St. Louis County Council, while in Ferguson Fran Griffin defeated Michael Brown’s mother, Lezley McSpadden, and incumbent Keith Kallstrom for a seat on the city council.
MSD asked voters for more money for stormwater service to stabilize creek and stream banks and to deal with flooding. The new fee, based on how much of a property can absorb water, would have cost a homeowner an average of $27 a year.
The new fee, which failed by more than 5,300 votes, would have generated around $30 million a year. It would have supplemented MSD’s current stormwater services, which cover things like replacing manhole covers and regulatory compliance.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/voters-reject-msd-rate-hike-give-st-louis-county-council-its-own-attorney
Southern Missouri diocese spent $700K settling abuse claims
CAPE GIRARDEAU — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has spent more than $700,000 settling claims of clergy sexual abuse over the last 30 years.
Bishop Edward Rice disclosed in a letter Tuesday that the southern Missouri diocese has spent more than $517,000 paying alleged victims and nearly $190,000 on legal fees since 1986, the Southeast Missourian reported.
Rice wrote that $70,000 went toward victims’ counseling, medications and “future funeral expenses.”
Eight of the abuse claims were settled through payments from the diocese’s unrestricted cash reserves, while another three were paid by the diocese’s insurer, Catholic Mutual Relief Society.
https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190403/southern-missouri-diocese-spent-700k-settling-abuse-claims
Voters approve taxes for Southern Boone
Turnout was below 20 percent in Boone County for municipal elections Tuesday, but voters in southern Boone County turned out to approve a property tax hike for their quickly growing school district and to support better fire protection.
The Southern Boone County School District won approval for a 40 cents per $100 assessed value tax increase, intended to finance a $6 million addition to the district’s primary school, by a 59 to 41 percent margin. Many of the same voters supported a 12 cents per $100 increase to support operations of the Southern Boone County Fire Protection District. The tax passed with 67.4 percent of the vote.
Voters in southern Boone County also selected Barrett Glascock and Steven Condron Jr. to serve three-year terms on the Southern Boone Board of Education. Glascock won easily, with 43 percent of the vote, but Condron had a close contest with Ashlee Vaughn, defeating her by 26 votes. Condron received 29.3 percent to 28.2 percent for Vaughn.
They also elected James Cunningham and Alicia Ozenberger to serve six-year terms on the Southern Boone County Fire Protection District Board of Directors. Cunningham and Ozenberger defeated Shelley Martin, Sam Scheulen and Liz Heyen.
https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190402/voters-approve-taxes-for-southern-boone
Pritzker agrees to back pay and raises for 42,000 SEIU members
Springfield, IL – Some 42,000 home care and child care providers in Illinois will get raises and receive long-withheld pay under an agreement reached recently between SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Governor J.B. Pritzker.
About 28,000 personal assistants in the Department of Human Services’ Home Services Program have been denied a 48-cent hourly raise for 20 months because former Governor Bruce Rauner refused to sign off on it.
In addition, 14,000 workers in the Child Care Assistance Program were denied a 4.26 percent wage increase for eight months, also because Rauner refused to pay.
“These caregivers provide valuable services to their communities, supporting independent living for people with disabilities and delivering quality child care so low-income working parents can remain in the workforce,” the union said.
https://labortribune.com/pritzker-agrees-to-back-pay-and-raises-for-42000-seiu-members/
Massive investment is needed to repair nation's underfunded infrastructure
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee)
The AFL-CIO is America’s Labor federation, representing 55 affiliate unions and 12.5 million working people across the country.
Together, these are the workers who build our roads and bridges. They are the workers that maintain and operate our passenger and freight rail trains. They drive the buses that move people to and from school and work every day. They install networks of broadband fiber that connect every corner of our country. They build our schools, power our homes and manufacture our goods. They educate our children, tend to the sick and keep our offices clean. Simply put—they are the people who make our nation work.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and I have had the pleasure of appearing before several congressional committees over the past decade, detailing the need for action and urging Congress to fund our nation’s infrastructure. It is a message Congress must always keep at the forefront of the discussion in Washington, D.C. and in our communities.
While testifying is a distinct honor, it also is equally frustrating. Despite widespread calls to act — from the people who build our infrastructure to the folks who rely on it every single day; after all of the studies and reports outlining this urgent crisis, and notwithstanding overwhelming public support and outcry for increased investments — no meaningful action has been taken to put us on a course to correct decades of chronic underinvestment.
https://labortribune.com/massive-investment-is-needed-to-repair-nations-underfunded-infrastructure/
Local 533 plumbers donate skills, time to restore homeowner's water service
Brighton, IL – Diane Brandt hadn’t been able to get the water flowing for about three months into her small, tidy house in Brighton, the village north of Alton where Macoupin County meets Jersey County.
She didn’t have money for a big plumbing project, either, so she called on the United Way for help. That led to a crew of union plumbers coming out on a sunny Saturday morning, March 16, to make a new connection.
The plumbers were from Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 533, based in East Alton. The crew is employed by Inspector Plumber, which serves the entire Metro-East area.
Nick Dodson, one of the Metro-East Labor liaisons for United Way, worked with Local 533 Business Manager Herb Frohock and Scott Smith of Inspector Plumber to put together the equipment and crew for a job, including Local 533’s Jake Dressler, Christian Kanon, Kurt Ansell and Joseph Smith.
https://labortribune.com/local-533-plumbers-donate-skills-time-to-restore-homeowners-water-service/
Meet Andrew Yang
I’m Andrew Yang, and I’m running for President as a Democrat in 2020 because I fear for the future of our country. New technologies – robots, software, artificial intelligence – have already destroyed more than 4 million US jobs, and in the next 5-10 years, they will eliminate millions more. A third of all American workers are at risk of permanent unemployment. And this time, the jobs will not come back.
I’m not a career politician—I’m an entrepreneur who understands the economy. It’s clear to me, and to many of the nation’s best job creators, that we need to make an unprecedented change, and we need to make it now. But the establishment isn’t willing to take the necessary bold steps. As president, my first priority will be to implement Universal Basic Income for every American adult over the age of 18: $1,000 a month, no strings attached, paid for by a new tax on the companies benefiting most from automation. UBI is just the beginning. A crisis is underway—we have to work together to stop it, or risk losing the heart of our country. The stakes have never been higher.
Once I understood the magnitude of this problem, and that even our most forward-thinking politicians were not going to take the steps necessary to stem the tide, I had no choice but to act. I’m the father of two young boys. I know the country my sons will grow up in is going to be very different than the one I grew up in, and I want to look back at my life knowing I did everything in my power to create the kind of future our children deserve—an America of opportunity, freedom, equality, and abundance.
I urge you to join me. No one else is going to build a better world for us. We’re going to have to do it ourselves. Together.
Humanity First,
Andrew
https://www.yang2020.com/meet-andrew/
MEET ANDREW
I’m Andrew Yang, and I’m running for President as a Democrat in 2020 because I fear for the future of our country. New technologies – robots, software, artificial intelligence – have already destroyed more than 4 million US jobs, and in the next 5-10 years, they will eliminate millions more. A third of all American workers are at risk of permanent unemployment. And this time, the jobs will not come back.
I’m not a career politician—I’m an entrepreneur who understands the economy. It’s clear to me, and to many of the nation’s best job creators, that we need to make an unprecedented change, and we need to make it now. But the establishment isn’t willing to take the necessary bold steps. As president, my first priority will be to implement Universal Basic Income for every American adult over the age of 18: $1,000 a month, no strings attached, paid for by a new tax on the companies benefiting most from automation. UBI is just the beginning. A crisis is underway—we have to work together to stop it, or risk losing the heart of our country. The stakes have never been higher.
Once I understood the magnitude of this problem, and that even our most forward-thinking politicians were not going to take the steps necessary to stem the tide, I had no choice but to act. I’m the father of two young boys. I know the country my sons will grow up in is going to be very different than the one I grew up in, and I want to look back at my life knowing I did everything in my power to create the kind of future our children deserve—an America of opportunity, freedom, equality, and abundance.
I urge you to join me. No one else is going to build a better world for us. We’re going to have to do it ourselves. Together.
Humanity First,
Andrew
https://www.yang2020.com/meet-andrew/
Audit: Missouri taxpayers could see $63 million more withheld this year
Missourians could see almost $63 million more withheld from their paychecks this year than last year, Missouri’s State Auditor Nicole Galloway said Tuesday.
Galloway’s office completed an audit of the Missouri Department of Revenue after the department failed to notify state residents to update their tax withholdings after 2017 federal tax overhaul. The changes could result in the state paying about $232 million less in tax refunds this year, according to the audit.
Galloway’s office said the Revenue Department changed the state’s tax withholding tables for the third time in just over a year this January. Last year’s changes could leave thousands of Missourians with less money withheld from their paychecks than expected when they file taxes for last year.
This year’s tax withholding tables could withhold $62.9 million more from Missourians paychecks than in 2018, the audit found. The changes will affect 53 percent of Missourians, all with incomes of less than $125,000, Galloway said at a Tuesday morning news conference.
https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190402/audit-missouri-taxpayers-could-see-63-million-more-withheld-this-year
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