Open Newswire

How crazy is this football season? It's like the Washington Generals beating the Harlem Globetrotters, the Jamaicans winning the Olympic bobsled gold medal or Luxembourg winning World War III.

Students who can’t read and secrecy from parents – that’s just part of the legacy of Stacy Davis Gates during her tenure as president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Now it’s coming for families outside of Chicago. Davis Gates was just chosen to head up the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the state union affiliated with at least 200 local teachers unions throughout Illinois. Those affiliates include unions in Galena, Peoria, Champaign, Quincy, East St. Louis and more. It’s not hyperbole that Davis Gates thinks children belong to the union. She has admitted it. During a June 2025 speech at the City Club of Chicago, Davis Gates joked that her detractors say, “CTU thinks your children are its children.” She then smiled, laughed deridingly and said, “Yes, we do. We do. We do.” Her reach has now expanded from the 316,000 children in Chicago Public Schools to more than 341,000 additional children in the other districts represented by IFT. Davis Gates confirmed her plan to unite all IFT affiliates under the CTU mission umbrella in a recent interview with WTTW. “I think that the state of Illinois needs leadership in this moment to create a united front,” she said. What can those 200 new communities expect from this “united front”? More politicking, poorer student outcomes, more union militancy and secrecy from parents, just to name a few. CTU has focused more on politics and less on teacher representation since Davis Gates took office. In its fiscal year 2025, the union expanded political spending to a new high of $4.23 million, quadruple what it was in the year before she took office. Yet just 18% of its total spending in 2025 was on representing teachers – what should be its core priority. In the meantime, student proficiency has suffered since Davis Gates and her Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, a radical slate of union leadership candidates, took over the union in 2010. Fewer than 1-in-3 Chicago students could read at grade level in 2024. Even fewer could do math. It was even worse for the district’s minority and low-income students. Enrollment has dropped by more than 86,000 students – that’s more than a fifth of the number of students enrolled in 2010. Notably, Davis Gates’ own son is one of the students who has left CPS’ failing schools. She placed him in private school so he could have “a curriculum that can meet his social and emotional needs.” Union militancy has also increased, with strikes becoming the go-to tool of the union. CTU has walked out on students and families five times in the last 13 years. In January 2022, parents were notified of the walkout after 11 p.m. on a school night, leaving them just hours to develop a back-up plan after the union decided not to show up for Chicago’s children. Then there’s the radical demands CTU has made in contract negotiations, such as police-free schools and cash to asylum seekers. The union’s most recent contract includes hiding students’ preferred gender identity from parents. The district must “respect students’ privacy, especially if parents or family members do not know how students identify or express their identity.” Another provision provides, “All students and staff are permitted to use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds to their gender identity,” with no limits on when male teachers can use female student bathrooms. While the other 200 IFT affiliates may not have seen such demands yet, they should be prepared for Davis Gates’ mission to put politically motivated provisions in its union contract. Teachers should be prepared to see less of their union dues going toward teacher representation, with politics taking priority over what the members in those districts want. And parents should be prepared for Davis Gates and her CTU leaders to counter what they think is best for students in their communities. After all, those children all belong to CTU now.

Former police chief convicted of bribery A federal jury has convicted a former Summit, Illinois police chief of bribery offenses for corruptly accepting money from a local businessman to facilitate the transfer of a liquor license. Prosecutors say John Kosmowski, 57, of Lockport conspired with Summit building inspector William Mundy to accept $10,000 from a businessman in 2017. Kosmowski’s sentencing is set for March 27, 2026. Man sentenced for fraud An Indian national has been sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $2 million in restitution for his involvement in an imposter scheme to defraud 11 identified victims, including elderly residents from Edwardsville and Effingham, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. Ligneshkumar H. Patel, 38, pleaded guilty several fraud charges. According to court documents, Patel worked within a major conspiracy that included at least 85 additional victims with an intended loss of more than $6.9 million. Gift card crime warnings The Illinois Organized Retail Crime Association is sounding the alarm about gift card fraud. The group says organized criminal groups tamper with cards, hack online accounts and scam victims into providing redemption codes. ILORCA pointed to a list of warning signs offered by Homeland Security Investigations at the agency's website.

(ANALYSIS) Obituaries preserve what families most want remembered about the people they cherish most. Across time, they also reveal the values each era chose to honor. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we analyzed 38 million obituaries of Americans published from 1998 to 2024.

Правоохоронці розпочали досудове розслідування за ч. 3 ст. 258 Кримінального кодексу, а саме як терористичний акт, що призвів до загибелі людини

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Maryland Thursday ordered the Trump administration to “immediately” release Kilmar Abrego Garcia from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, but it’s unclear if the Department of Homeland Security will follow the judicial order. In a statement to States Newsroom, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the “order lacks any […]

Shefi i NATO-s, Mark Rutte, u bëri thirrje aleatëve që të intensifikojnë përpjekjet për të forcuar mbrojtjen me qëllim që të parandalohet një luftë e nisur nga Rusia, që mund të jetë “në shkallën e një lufte që gjyshërit dhe stërgjyshërit tanë e kanë përjetuar”, raporton Radio Evropa e Lirë. Gjatë një fjalimi në Berlin, […]

An excerpt from “We Survived The Night” by Julian Brave NoiseCat

This handmade shopping festival will feature many local and regional makers, emerging brands, and artists.

În Indonezia, inundaţiile devastatoare s-au soldat cu cel puţin o mie de morţi şi sute de răniţi. Peste 220 de persoane sunt date dispărute. Autorităţile spun că bilanţul este provizoriu şi că sute de mii de persoane suferă din cauza lipsei de alimente. Mulţi dintre cei care au nevoie de ajutor se plâng că ajutoarele ajung cu întârziere.

Le Japon a annoncé jeudi 11 décembre avoir mené des exercices aériens conjoints avec les États-Unis dans une démonstration de force après des patrouilles Chine-Russie, et sur fond de vives tensions entre Tokyo et Pékin.

President Donald Trump endorsed Phil Berger on Wednesday evening, backing the North Carolina Senate leader as he faces a Republican primary challenge next year. “Phil Berger has my Complete and Total Endorsement for re-election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Berger has led Republicans in the Senate since 2005 and […]

The Democratic National Committee will run ads Thursday on the home pages of newspapers in a quartet of Republican senators’ hometowns, calling on the incumbents up for reelection next year to support a Democratic bill to extend health care subsidies. The digital ads target Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted […]

Nhau dzeShona Nguva yeChirongwa Muvhuro-Chishanu Nguva dzeChinomwe Manheru 19:00 UTC Time: 1700 Nguva yeChirongwa 30

Christmas tree sales are up in the Lone Star State, even as many tree farmers are aging out of the business with no successors.

This story was reported in partnership with LA Public Press, an independent nonprofit newsroom advocating for a better Los Angeles through journalism that interrogates systems of power. The video introducing Rae Huang’s candidacy for mayor of Los Angeles evokes arthouse cinema in dry tungsten hues. It opens with jump cuts between frustrated Angelenos honking their […]

בניגוד לנהלי הצבא לפתיחת חקירת מצ״ח במקרי מוות של אזרחים, ולמרות שהחיילים פעלו בניגוד להוראות הפתיחה באש - בצה״ל טייחו את מותו של אחמד שחאדה, אב לעשרה בן 57, שנחשף במקום הכי חם בגיהנום בספטמבר | כך סייעו בכירי הצבא להשמיד ראיות ולטרפד חקירה The post בן 57 נורה 18 פעמים, 8 מתוכן כשכבר שכב על הקרקע. צה״ל: "סיטואציה מבאסת" appeared first on המקום הכי חם בגיהנום.

Lux Tour 2026 comienza el 16 de marzo en Francia y, además de España, pasará por ciudades europeas como París, Zúrich, Milán, Lisboa, Ámsterdam, Amberes, Colonia, Berlín y Londres.

Kristi Noem, secretaria de Seguridad Nacional de EEUU, ha sido recibida con protestas en su comparecencia ante el comité del Congreso en el que ha sido cuestionada por su persecución indiscriminada de la migración, que contradice su lema de estar combatiendo "lo peor de lo peor" Una jueza federal ordena la liberación de Kilmar Abrego, el salvadoreño deportado por error por la Administración Trump Tarareando la banda sonora de Star Wars cuando aparece en pantalla Darth Vader y denunciando el “terror” del ICE en las calles de EEUU. Así ha recibido un grupo de activistas del colectivo Code Pink a Kristi Noem, la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional de EEUU en su comparecencia ante el comité correspondiente del Congreso. “¡Fin a las deportaciones!”, han gritado: “Que paren las redadas del ICE!”, ha gritado otro. La policía del Capitolio ha expulsado a las dos personas fuera de la sala de audiencias del Comité de Seguridad Nacional. El presidente del comité, Andrew Garbarino, republicano por Nueva York, llamó al orden mientras Noem reanudaba su discurso de apertura. Junto a Noem, también ha comparecido Michael Glasheen, director de operaciones de la rama de seguridad nacional del FBI,, quien ha sido cuestionado por Bennie Thompson, el demócrata de mayor rango en el Comité de Seguridad Nacional, sobre cómo la Administración Trump ha podido clasificar al movimiento Antifa como una organización terrorista nacional. Y el alto cargo del FBI de Trump se ha quedado sin palabras ante las preguntas sobre dónde Antifa tiene su sede y cuántas personas participan en el movimiento Lo más que atinó a pronunciar Glasheen es que las autoridades estaban “creando la infraestructura” para investigar al grupo, pero no dio más detalles cuando Thompson insistió en el tema. Noem tampoco ha sido capaz de dar una respuesta más allá de culpar a la Administración Biden de todos los males del país, ya sea para no querer responder que su propio departamento fue el que aprobó el asilo para el detenido por el tiroteo contra la Guardia Nacional en Washington DC, Rahmanullah Lakanwal; o para responder las violaciones a la ley que supone deportar personas pendientes de la concesión del asilo o si acaso las detenciones indiscriminadas eran compatibles con su lema de estar persiguiendo “lo peor de lo peor”. Thompson ha acusado a Noem de desviar grandes recursos para llevar a cabo la agenda migratoria “extrema” de Trump sin dar una sola respuesta a las preguntas del Congreso. “La pido que dimita”, ha dicho el congresista de Misisipi: “Haga un verdadero servicio al país”. Los demócratas de la Cámara de Representantes han señalado a varios miembros del público presentes en la comparecencia de Noem que tenían familiares que habían sido atropellados por el sistema contra la migración de Noem. Y la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional aseguró que revisaría los casos mencionados por el representante Seth Magaziner, demócrata de Rhode Island. Una de ellas, un veterano de guerra condecorado con la medalla Purple Heart, apareció en una pantalla: había sido deportado a principios de este año. “Parece que no sabe distinguir entre los buenos y los malos”, le dijo Magaziner a Noem. La secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, llega para comparecer ante el Comité de Seguridad Nacional de la Cámara de Representantes, el 11 de diciembre de 2025.

Nearly 40 years after an armed sheriff, anti-LGBTQ activists and a judge’s order shut down the Gay Rodeo Finals, this year the riders came home.