News of the World

[kyonides]

Chicago Employees Fired for Not Getting
a COVID-19 Vaccine Must Be Reinstated

Workers in Chicago who were fired for not complying with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate must get their jobs back, a judge said in a new ruling.

City officials violated multiple parts of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act by imposing the mandate without negotiating with unions representing the workers over the effects of the mandate, including consequences for not getting vaccinated, Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal said in a 78-page ruling dated April 19.

The mandate itself was not subject to bargaining because the vaccination requirements were “integral to [the city’s] ability to maintain a functional workforce that was capable of carrying out public services during a global pandemic,” Hamburg-Gal said. But that didn’t remove the need to bargain over aspects of the mandate.

“Even where an employer’s decision to implement a management policy is not subject to negotiations, the Act requires good-faith collective bargaining over the effects of that policy decision on the terms and conditions of employment of bargaining unit employees,” the judge said.

Effects that should have been negotiated included sick leave availability for workers who were injured by a vaccine and discipline for failing to report vaccination status or failing to get vaccinated, according to the ruling.

No emergency removed the bargaining requirements for the mandate, which was imposed on Oct. 8, 2021, the judge said.

‘Park Outside’: GM Recalls 40,000 Pickups to Fix Fire Risk

General Motors is recalling certain Chevrolet Silverado medium-duty trucks for model year 2019 or later, following the discovery of a potential leak in brake fluid that could result in a fire.

Potentially 40,428 vehicles could be affected. They include 4500HD, 5500HD, and 6500HD models with model years between 2019 and 2023, according to documents posted by U.S. safety regulators on Saturday.

The vehicles may have a brake pressure sensor assembly that allows brake fluid to leak and cause a short circuit. That in turn increases the risk of a fire that could occur when the vehicle is either driving or parked.

GM advises owners with potentially affected models to park outdoors and away from structures until the recall repair is done. Vehicles with model years before 2019 used a different design.

GOP Lawmaker Sees Potential Biden Impeachment
as Hunter Biden Probe Intensifies

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, has stated that information presented by an IRS whistleblower might bring President Joe Biden to the point of impeachment.

“This is just the very tip of the iceberg. This very brave IRS agent coming forward, I think, will just start it,” Burchett said in an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “They’re talking about impeaching Biden. How could we not impeach Biden if this does, in fact, reach him?”

The whistleblower, who claimed to be with the IRS for more than 10 years, sent a letter to Congress on Tuesday seeking legal protection in exchange for information showing how “preferential treatment and politics” have been infecting the probe into alleged tax violations by Biden’s son Hunter.

The letter, delivered by attorney Mark Lytle, also claimed that the whistleblower has proof that would “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee” and involve a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case.” There has been speculation that the “senior political appointee” was Attorney General Merrick Garland.

While the letter didn’t mention Hunter Biden by name, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” that the Biden administration may be “obstructing justice by blocking efforts to charge Hunter Biden for tax violations,” and that his colleagues have been “wondering all along” about the apparent inaction of the DOJ and IRS.

The IRS whistleblower came out after former CIA official Michael Morell testified to the House Judiciary Committee that, in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election, then-Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken orchestrated a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials dismissing the explosive Hunter Biden laptop story as mere Russian propaganda.

Public-Service Strike: Union ‘Fed Up’
With Pace of Talks but Ottawa[, Canada] Blames Union

Talks between the federal government and the union representing 155,000 striking public servants appeared mired in communication issues on Saturday as both sides accused the other of obstructing negotiations and being too slow to respond to key developments.

The head of the Public Service Alliance of Canada held a news conference to blast Ottawa’s Treasury Board for its failure to respond to a revised contract offer and called on the prime minister to help hasten the pace of contract talks.

But the office of Treasury Board President Mona Fortier fired back an hour later, saying efforts to meet with the union went unanswered on Friday, and a Saturday afternoon meeting was cancelled nine minutes after being arranged.

The union’s president, Chris Aylward, said he was still waiting for a response to new proposals tabled on Thursday evening. Fortier’s office acknowledged the new offer but challenged Aylward’s timeline.

It said the union was “unreachable at the common issues table” all day on Friday. It reached out again through a mediator on Saturday with plans to put forward a revised offer of its own at 1 p.m., but accused the union of thwarting those plans.

DeSantis Seeks Major Disaster Declaration From White House

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will ask the Biden administration to declare a major disaster for Broward County.

“Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced he will request a Major Disaster Declaration for Broward County due to the catastrophic impacts of unprecedented flooding in Southeast Florida,” DeSantis’s office said in a statement. “If granted by the White House, a Major Disaster Declaration will provide a wide range of federal assistance programs for individuals and public infrastructure damaged by the floods.”

More than 2 feet of rain fell in some parts of the county on April 12. The 1-in-1,000-year deluge left some parts of the county with up to 3 feet of water.

Australian Children Spending More Time on Screens, Less Time Reading

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released new statistics on April 21 after analysing how much time children spend in front of a screen by tracking the number of hours they spent watching TV, using the internet, and playing games or participating in activities through screen-based portable devices such as consoles, smartphones, or tablets.

Statistics found that the percentage of children aged between 5-14 years using screens remained around the same when compared with 2017-18 data at around 90 percent. However, the amount of time spent using screen-based devices has since increased dramatically, with nine in ten children spending at least one hour a week using screen-based devices.

“Of children doing screen-based activities, 40 percent were spending 10-19 hours, but there has been an increase in the percentage of children using screens for more than 20 hours a week, from 16 percent to 24 percent,” Michelle Ducat, ABS head of education statistics, said.

Reading has became less prevalent in older age groups, with only 63 percent of 12 to 14 year olds taking up reading, 76 percent of five to eight year olds.

“Reading for pleasure was considerably less popular than screen-based activities, with 72 percent of children reading—down from 79 percent in 2017-18. Around one third of these children read for two hours or less a week.”

Children who participated in creative activity also fell to 59 percent in 2021-2022 compared to 63 percent in 2017-18.

Eric Adams Says ‘Migrant Crisis’ Has ‘Destroyed’ New York City

Adams made the remarks during a panel discussion hosted by the African American Mayors Association in Washington, D.C., on April 21.

“The city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis,” Adams said.

Adams made the remarks a day after signing an executive order that extended for another five days the state of emergency in New York City related to the influx of illegal immigrants.

“The City now faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that requires it to take extraordinary measures,” Adams said in the order.

Over 55,000 foreigners claiming to be seeking asylum due to the threat of violence and persecution in their home countries have arrived in New York City over the past year, according to City Hall.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said in an April 7 report that the city has had to scale up its shelter provision by over 75 percent due to the influx. As of early March, the city was providing shelter to over 30,900 asylum seekers.

The Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget has estimated the full cost of providing shelter and other services to people claiming refugee status at around $1.4 billion in 2023 and another $2.8 billion the following year.

This is weird. Even if a judge  informed Bragg that he had won the appeal allowing him to freeze the subpoena, today the DA simply dropped his case against the Republican congressman. Thus the newspaper is claiming that the former prosecutor can declare before congress.

Bragg Drops Case Against Jordan,
Allowing House GOP to Depose Ex-Manhattan Prosecutor

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has dropped his effort to quash a congressional subpoena to a former prosecutor who worked in his office, a congressional aide told The Epoch Times in a statement on Friday.

“This evening, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office withdrew its appeal in Bragg v. Jordan. Mr. Pomerantz’s deposition will go forward on May 12, and we look forward to his appearance,” Russel Dye, spokesperson for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to The Epoch Times in a statement.

“Bragg caved. Jim Jordan won,” the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a statement on Twitter Friday.

The development wrapped up a legal clash between Bragg and House Judiciary Republicans, whereby Bragg had attempted to stop the lawmakers from requesting testimony from Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor who investigated former President Donald Trump’s finances. Pomerantz left Bragg’s office in February 2022 in protest of Bragg’s initial unwillingness to bring an indictment against Trump.

A grand jury, encouraged by Bragg, brought an indictment against Trump in late March, prompting Jordan to initiate a probe into what he calls a “politically motivated” prosecution against a former president. Jordan subpoenaed Pomerantz to seek his testimony as a part of that probe. In response, Bragg sued the House Judiciary Committee and Pomerantz to prevent Pomerantz from testifying.