More California teachers strike over pay
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Teachers in Oakland, Calif., went on strike Thursday, the latest job action by educators over classroom conditions, pay and other issues. Other walkouts have taken place in West Virginia, Los Angeles and Denver.
The walkout affects 36,000 students at 86 schools.
The city's 3,000 teachers want a 12 percent retroactive raise covering 2017 to 2020 to compensate for what they say are among the lowest salaries for public school teachers in the expensive San Francisco Bay Area. They also want the district to hire more counselors to support students and more full-time nurses.
Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown said educators were forced to strike because administrators did not listen to their demands for two years.
"For two years we have been negotiating with the Oakland Unified School District to make our students a priority over outside consultants and central office administrators," Brown said.
The district initially offered a 5 percent raise covering 2017 to 2020, saying it is squeezed by rising costs and a budget crisis. On Wednesday, the district increased its proposal to a 7 percent raise over four years and a one-time 1.5 percent bonus. But union officials rejected the offer.
Oakland Unified School District spokesman John Sasaki said school administrators hope to get a counter proposal from the union when negotiations resume Friday.
A starting salary in the district is $46,500 a year and the average salary is $63,000, according to the union.
18 indicted in Oklahoma prison gang
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Eighteen members of a white supremacist prison gang have been charged with racketeering, drug conspiracy and kidnapping that resulted in at least six homicides during the past 14 years, according to a federal indictment in Tulsa.
The indictment, filed under seal Dec. 7 and unsealed Wednesday, said the 18 are members of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood, or UAB, described as a violent "whites only" gang based primarily in Oklahoma state prisons.
"They are certainly one of the most fearsome [prison gangs]. They're aggressive and they're violent," U.S. Attorney Trent Shores said Thursday. "They are absolutely one of the most threatening and one of the most dangerous [gangs]."
The indictment alleges the 18 indicted and 36 unindicted co-conspirators trafficked methamphetamine and marijuana, assaulted and kidnapped people to intimidate them, and killed rivals and at least one person during an attempted carjacking in Tulsa.
The indictment comes after similar charges were filed last week against 54 alleged members of the New Aryan Empire, a white supremacist gang in western Arkansas, but the two are not related, Shores said.
College town loses bike-sharing deal
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- A bike-sharing company is pulling out of Starkville because the company plans to only offer electric scooters and the university there won't allow scooters on campus, Mayor Lynn Spruill said.
Spruill and Jeremiah Dumas, Mississippi State university's director of parking and transit services, said they received letters Tuesday from Lime, asking to end its contracts with the city and university.
Lime's bright-green fleet in Starkville and MSU includes about 175 bicycles and electric-assisted bicycles. It added 25 electric scooters in January.
While the letter to the mayor doesn't mention the university, Spruill said she was told that was the problem when she called Tuesday to ask why Lime wanted to leave.
Lime's Starkville Operations Manager John Usry told the newspaper he couldn't comment.
City leaders in Little Rock announced last month they will end the city's relationship with Lime, which dropped off dozens of scooters around downtown in a pilot program which will end in mid-May, after receiving "numerous" complaints.
Utah bill aims to ban conversion therapy
SALT LAKE CITY -- Two Republican lawmakers on Thursday proposed a ban on gay-conversion therapy for minors in conservative Utah, a plan that's been hailed as a milestone by advocates and won't be opposed by the influential Mormon church.
State Rep. Dan McCay acknowledged he isn't a typical sponsor for such a measure, but said it's an important way to support gay and transgender young people as suicides spike.
"This is the Utah we want. This the Utah we're all going to fight for, for the rest of our time so we deliver a place to you that you are welcome," he said.
The plan would prohibit any treatment aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity, which has ranged from talk therapy to practices like electric shock. Therapists who practice it could lose their licenses.
"Conversion therapy has been proven to be not effective, and is particularly harmful to youth," said chief sponsor Rep. Craig Hall.
The proposal comes during a national campaign to ban the practice, which is now outlawed in 15 states and the District of Columbia.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 02/22/2019