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Franks: Low unemployment only half the picture

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

Is the media trying to make President Joe Biden “look good” instead of reporting the news as news, along with analysis?For example, are we being misled about the condition of our economy? Does anyone not understand the following: If you are not working, you are unemployed?Biden’s claim that the unemployment numbers are some of the best has been an enigma for me. The fact that the vast majority of Americans seem not to be “feeling” all this good news per the direction of the country in polling is not surprising, however.The labor force participation rate indicates the percentage of all people of working age who are employed or are actively seeking work. In conjunction with the unemployment numbers, it can offer some perspective into the state of the economy. This is a standard definition of labor force participation used by experts.The truth is we have altered what the truth is. Back in the 1950s we had a labor force participation rate of over 85% for males. Today that figure has dro...

Lauren Monroe & Rick Allen bring healing music to City Winery

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

If Lauren Monroe and Rick Allen aren’t the oddest musical couple you’ve seen, they would have to be up there. She’s a singer-songwriter, physical therapist and mental health counselor who writes songs to assist in healing. He’s her husband, a former client…and the drummer in arena rock mainstays Def Leppard.Don’t expect an arena show when the pair plays City Winery (www.citywinery.com) this weekend — but if you come in as a Leppard fan, that’s alright with them. “I personally love that because if people come into the room, they’re here to receive what we’re giving,” Monroe said in a Zoom interview this week. “Some people come because they know Rick, and I’m always happy to have a hard-sell room to start with, Once they get into what we’re doing, they open their hearts to our work. And helping other people is part of our mission as a couple.”Playing the back room at the Winery will certainly be a different experience for Allen, whose last Boston show was at Fenway Park wi...

Editorial: Teachers unions balk at fixing COVID shutdown learning loss

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

Apologists for the nation’s teacher unions have been busy rewriting history on school closures. Now, in some places, they’re opposing efforts to bring struggling students up to speed.The disaster of remote schooling during the pandemic has been well-documented. The Nation’s Report Card recently revealed that eighth-grade reading and math test results hit their lowest levels in decades. Kids from disadvantaged backgrounds suffered the most.It is against this backdrop that national teacher union leaders have embarked on a shameful effort to sanitize the indefensible.Despite their aggressive crusade to keep schools closed far longer than necessary, despite outrageous rhetoric warning of mass deaths and body bags, they now claim no responsibility for shuttered classrooms and the calamity that followed.It’s a crock. But it gets worse.In its June 26 edition, The New Yorker features an essay revealing the hurdles that the education establishment in Richmond, Virginia, erected to plans for ...

Dear Abby: Man lashes out after learning truth about past

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

Dear Abby: A friend of many years, “Adam,” no longer speaks to me. We met in high school and were involved in band, debate club and other activities together. He recently discovered through a genealogy site that he was adopted and neither of his parents were his birth parents. The site led him to clues about other biological relatives, and he eventually reached his birth mother, who rejected his efforts to talk to her.I recently learned about this from another high school friend. When I contacted Adam, he responded with hostility, stating that I am no longer his friend because I didn’t reach out when he was going through all this. But I didn’t KNOW at the time. I cannot locate any voice messages, emails, texts, etc. showing that he shared with me the details of what happened.I live in a different part of the country now. I have offered to travel to visit him. I also offered to talk on the phone, but I’ve received only aggressive and bitter responses. Ho...

Truck carrying oil overturns on I-15

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A truck carrying oil overturned on Friday afternoon, causing the temporary closure of several lanes on Interstate 15 through Miramar, traffic officials said.Around 4:30 p.m., SkyFOX was over southbound I-15 at Miramar Road, where the truck was seen on its side with oil spillage right beside the vehicle. Gas leak prompts evacuation order in Poway Four lanes were shut down for several hours due to the crash, but have since reopened, according to California Highway Patrol.No other information has been released about how the collision occurred or if there were any injuries.

Six men overdose on fentanyl in North County

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- Six men who overdosed on fentanyl were revived Friday with Naloxone in the Oceanside area, authorities said.The incident occurred at Seagaze Park next to the beach, located south of the Oceanside Pier, Blake Dorse with the Oceanside Fire Department (OFD) said in a news release.When first responders arrived on scene, they found six men who had overdosed on fentanyl, which is known to be a highly potent drug and often deadly. Cartels fighting for control of brothels, strip clubs and bars in Tijuana’s ‘tolerance zone,’ report says Dorse says if the patients had not been treated promptly with Naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdose, the men would not have survived the drug's effects.All six patients refused to be taken to the hospital against the advice of paramedics, officials said.Synthetic opioids have contributed to over 72,000 U.S. deaths in 2022, according to OFD."The Oceanside Fire and Police Departments implore the public to stay clear of drugs and enco...

Over the Line community pays respects to 'Godfather' of sport

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The Over the Line community is just one day away from the world championship tournament.“A lot of people call this Christmas in July, and it really is, it has that kind of atmosphere to it,” said Old Mission Beach Athletic Club Marketing Chair Tom Doyle.For some, this Christmas in July doesn’t have the same spirit. It’s the first world championship tournament since the passing of one of the sports founders, Mike Curren, known as the Godfather of Over the Line.“We’re going to pay our respects tonight with the celebration of life. All weekend and all next weekend. We want people to understand like OTL is alive and strong. We want more people playing it, we want to let his legacy live on,” Doyle said. Three great white sharks spotted near Blacks Beach; advisory posted Many from the OTL community, or beach rats as Curren called them, miss him. None more than his brother Terry.“Of course, it’s a loss. My oldest brother, I lost my younger brother three weeks ...

Efforts to deceive are a top concern among state election officials heading into 2024

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts to deceive the public about voting and elections remain a top concern for state election officials as they dig into preparations for the 2024 election.Misinformation and the emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools to create false and misleading content were cited in interviews with several secretaries of state gathered recently for their national conference. Other top concerns were staffing and the loss of experienced leaders overseeing elections at the local level. The officials were gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State.“The cliché here is true,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat. “You hope for the best, but plan for the worst. So, we’re planning for the worst, which is that multiple communications channels will be filled with false and misleading information.”State election officials in Michigan and Colorado said they were particularly conce...

Why a single senator is blocking US military promotions and what it means for the Pentagon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is waging an unprecedented campaign to try to change Pentagon abortion policy by holding up hundreds of military nominations and promotions, forcing less experienced leaders into top jobs and raising concerns at the Pentagon about military readiness.Senators in both parties — including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell — have pushed back on Tuberville’s blockade, but Tuberville is dug in. He says he won’t drop the holds unless majority Democrats allow a vote on the policy.For now, the fight is at a stalemate. Democrats say a vote on every nominee could tie up the Senate floor for months. And they don’t want to give in to Tuberville’s demands and encourage similar blockades of nominees in the future.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that holding up the promotion of military leaders, most of whom have dedicated their lives to protecting the country, “is one of the most abominable and outrageous things I have ever seen in this...

On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:42 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s a “Strike Girl Summer.”So read a picket sign as the sidewalks of Hollywood and midtown Manhattan teemed with actors on Day 1 of their strike, protesting alongside the writers who have been at it since May. Together, the two guilds have ground the entertainment industry to a halt. On both coasts, though, there was a buoyant mood in the air as picket lines were reinvigorated by the support of some of the 65,000 actors who comprise SAG-AFTRA (98% of members voted to approve a strike back in June). This is Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in six decades, and the first dual strike since 1960, reigniting the fervor against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just as a historic heat wave hits Southern California.Outside the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, throngs of protesters chanted: “Fists up, curtains down, LA is a union town.” Food trucks flanking organizers’ tents served churros, boba tea and cold lemonade to p...