EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
Time flies. It’s already December and soon we all will be celebrating the end of year holidays and waiting for a New Year with the hope that it will be better than this one. Still, the scare of Covid is not gone and Flu season is here as well. I wish better health for all of us.
House Democrats picked Nancy Pelosi’s successor, Hakeem Jeffries, as leader of the minority Democratic Congress. It is a choice supported by Pelosi. Jeffries ran unopposed and will be the minority leader of the house. Current assistant speaker Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark will be the WHIP and California Rep. Peter Aguilar will be leader of the House Democratic Caucus. As expected, Pelosi will still have a good control of the Democrats in the House and will be controlling things behind the scenes.
Tornadoes ripped through Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana damaging properties. Luckily, no injuries or lives were lost due to these (about 10) tornadoes. Because of the cover of darkness, nighttime tornadoes are more dangerous than daytime tornadoes.
Pro Union President Joseph Biden was not successful in making a deal with the strong railway union. Biden appealed to Congress to intervene and stop a massive strike, as this would cost the US economy $2 billion a day as estimated. The Union wants better paid sick leave and quality of life issues. They have given the deadline of December 9, and as of now nothing has happened between the Union and administration.
An African American woman was insulted at Buckingham Palace. According to a CNN report: “An honorary member of Buckingham Palace has resigned and apologized after a Black charity founder said she was questioned about whether she was really British at a royal reception on Tuesday. The guest, Ngozi Fulani, is the CEO of Sistah Space, an organization that provides specialist services to women of African and Caribbean heritage affected by abuse. Fulani was attending a royal function on domestic abuse organized by the Queen Consort on Tuesday evening when she said a member of staff began a line of questioning that the palace called “unacceptable and deeply regrettable. Sistah Space shared a rough transcript of the conversation on Twitter on Wednesday. Fulani said that, after identifying herself as British-born, the person asked her “where do you really come from;” “where do your people come from;” and “when did you first come here?”
This shows that hatred and racism still exist. All humans should be treated equal, but we have still long way to go.
The Newark Teacher’s Union won against the Newark Board of Education, who will have to reimburse about $1 million to teachers who took time off either using their sick pay or went unpaid for days lost to COVID isolation. The ruling of the arbitrator for about 800 teachers is similar to something that happened in New York recently with its public employees getting reimbursed.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
