Open Newswire

(The Center Square) – Republicans expressed their opposition to a new bill introduced earlier this month that would eliminate California’s biggest corporate tax break, called the Waters Edge tax break. The bill, Assembly Bill 1790, was announced in a press conference Feb. 10 by the bill’s author, Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael. “One problem is if that bill passes, we will be the only state in the union that gets rid of that Waters Edge feature,” Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview on Thursday morning. “This isn’t exactly a way to try to overcome our business-unfriendly environment. I think it would be very unwise.” Niello added that the implementation of the Waters Edge tax break bill, if it were to pass, would tax international companies that do business in California at double the amount for earnings outside of the state. “The interesting thing is that to tax an international company’s earnings for their earnings overseas is really the equivalent of a tariff,” Niello added. “So I have to believe then that Assemblyman Connelly and his co-authors agree with President Trump’s tariff policy because it is essentially an equivalent of that.” Other Democratic lawmakers spoke in support of the bill this month, calling the legislation a resource to help backfill some of the state’s most essential services that normally rely on federal dollars that are now no longer coming into the state. Those programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as CalFresh in California; Medi-Cal and other essential services, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. “For the past 40 years, California has given multi-national corporations the opportunity to choose what tax scheme they would like to use to ensure they pay as little taxes as possible in our state,” Connolly previously said of the bill. “They do this through the use of the Waters Edge tax election, which allows a corporation to only pay taxes on revenue they decide is earned through the ‘waters edge’ boundaries of California.” Niello also told The Center Square that if Connolly’s bill passes, he thinks it stands to reason that individual tax rates would be lower as higher corporate taxes go up. “I don’t think they have that plan,” Niello added. Advocates of Connolly’s bill earlier said the additional revenue generated from higher corporate income taxes because of the prospective end of the Waters Edge tax break could produce as much as $3 billion for California’s schools, health care system, green energy generation and climate programs. How to pay for those services has come under scrutiny in recent weeks as the state deals with an $18 billion budget deficit, as projected by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. “That brings up the issue of increasing taxes generally,” Niello said. “We have increasing revenue, so it’s not a revenue problem. It is a spending problem.” Assembly Republicans also commented on the possible ramifications of the Waters Edge tax break bill, criticizing California Democrats for pushing forward efforts to impose new taxes. “They built a spending model that keeps growing, even when revenues do not,” George Andrews, communications director for the Assembly Republican Caucus, wrote to The Center Square in an email. Andrews added that for decades, the Democratic Party controlled both the Legislature and the budget process. That has resulted in ever-increasing state spending in California, according to Andrews. “We are still facing a multi-billion-dollar structural deficit,” Andrews said. “Californians are already stretched thin, and another volatile revenue proposal will not fix spending that Sacramento refuses to control.” The Waters Edge tax break bill will now go to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee for a bill hearing in March, according to the state's bill tracker.

Backlogs and a shortage of properly qualified personnel have led to a crisis at the office

Simon Stone moves his shrewdly faithful version of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard to contemporary South Korea and the result is a rich mix of exuberant human foible, sadness, and manifest destiny.

Editor’s note: The candidate filing list is not final even though the filing deadline has passed. The list may change the evening of Friday, Feb. 27, while the Idaho Secretary of State Office finalizes the list of candidates.  All members of Idaho’s congressional delegation who are up for re-election are running, and they are facing […]

Andres Chait, who has served as LAUSD’s chief of school operations, will step in as acting superintendent, effective immediately.

Un descuido en redes muestra su usuario y una agenda futbolera.

LINCOLN — After new economic forecasts grew Nebraska’s projected budget deficit by roughly $175 million, lawmakers turned to the state’s rainy day fund to help fill the gap. The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee voted 8-0 Friday to recommend pulling $130 million from the state’s cash reserve to help plug the budget hole. Though Gov. Jim Pillen […]

As President Donald Trump presses for a takeover of Greenland, some Alaska state lawmakers are trying to send a different message about state cooperation with the Arctic island. A resolution recently introduced in the state Senate, Senate Joint Resolution 24, seeks to promote continued friendship, cooperation and “mutual respect” between Alaska and Greenland, an autonomous […]

A state senator recently offered an insightful opinion on South Dakota’s property tax conundrum. He was arguing, unsuccessfully, for a bill incentivizing data center construction. But his comments made a broader point. “What’s happened in South Dakota is we get people moving here for freedom, and that’s great,” said Sen. Steve Kolbeck, R-Sioux Falls. “But […]

با افزایش تنش‌ها در خاورمیانه و گمانه‌زنی‌ها درباره احتمال اقدام نظامی آمریکا علیه ایران، موجی از هشدارهای امنیتی و توصیه به ترک ایران از سوی کشورهای مختلف صادر شده است. برخی دولت‌ها نیز اقدام به کاهش حضور دیپلماتیک خود در منطقه کرده‌اند.

Tiempo de lectura: 4 minutosDespués de una primera fase marcada por el avance de la oposición en las facultades, la elección a rector de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala entra en una etapa decisiva: 14 colegios profesionales elegirán a sus cuerpos electorales en medio de denuncias de bloqueos, rechazos y acciones de amparo que han obligado a ... Read more

El equipo de Giraldez evita al gran coco, el Aston Villa, pero tendrá que enfrentar a uno de los conjuntos más en forma de Francia.

中国外交部周五发公告，提醒中国公民暂勿前往伊朗，已在当地的中国公民加强安全防范，尽快撤离。这是伊朗局势已很危急的最新信号。

中國外交部周五發公告，提醒中國公民暫勿前往伊朗，已在當地的中國公民加強安全防範，儘快撤離。這是伊朗局勢已很危急的最新信號。

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox. Six decades ago, Colorado lawmakers made it easier for school districts to band together and offer services that they couldn’t afford to provide on their own. The creation of Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES, allowed districts to pool resources for things like special education services, career and technical education, early intervention services, gifted and talented programming, and teacher training. Last fall, one of these co-ops proved to be a useful vehicle for a different aim — opening a school intended to test the legality of spending public money on religious education. Education reEnvisioned, or ERBOCES, launched Riverstone Academy in Pueblo County with 30 elementary students in August. Billed as Colorado’s “first public Christian school,” it is the most prominent example of how its authorizer is using its BOCES status to further school choice. The school — and ERBOCES’ recent role steering state dollars to home-schooling — is raising questions about whether these co-ops created in a different era for different purposes have too much latitude and too few guardrails. The Colorado Department of Education’s enforcement powers are limited to certain areas, such as special education, a department spokesperson said. Most oversight falls to BOCES’ boards of directors, which can vary in how much or little they hold school operators accountable. “Nobody in the state actually regulates how BOCES operate or what they can do,” said Ken Haptonstall, co-executive director of the Colorado BOCES Association, a membership group for BOCES. “There’s no statutory way for the department to be able to say, ‘Oh, you’re being bad as a BOCES or you need to do this as a BOCES,’” he said. Some lawmakers and education officials contacted by Chalkbeat said Riverstone’s creation shows school-authorizing safeguards failed — and creates a dangerous precedent. George Welsh, executive director of the San Luis Valley BOCES, doesn’t agree with public funding for religious schools and said Riverstone’s launch by a BOCES creates a slippery slope. “Obviously, if one can do it, why couldn’t all?” he said. Riverstone is currently receiving state funding. But if a state audit underway now finds the school is ineligible because of Colorado’s ban on religious public school, the state could claw back the money. Riverstone and ERBOCES cited that possibility in a lawsuit filed against the state this month for religious discrimination. BOCES exist to pool district resources A 1965 Colorado law allowed the creation of BOCES. A year later, 14 school districts in the San Luis Valley banded together to form the state’s first one. Most states have a version of the public education co-ops, though names and formats vary. In Colorado, BOCES are typically made up of a group of school districts from a single region. About half include a college or university. The cooperatives are governed by a board of at least five people, usually school board members from districts that belong to the BOCES. In some cases, school district superintendents can serve on the BOCES board. Five Colorado BOCES authorize schools. ERBOCES, unlike the other four, doesn’t hire school staff or oversee day-to-day operations at its schools. Instead, it contracts with outside groups to operate them. Some BOCES focus on offering a single service or program. One in Adams County provides insurance services to its three member districts. The only job of the Denver-based Expeditionary BOCES is to run a single school, the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning. “The purpose of the BOCES is it’s a collaborative,” said Welsh, who heads the 14-member San Luis Valley BOCES. He offered an example: “We have six and a half school psychologists in our stable … and so they serve all the school districts in the San Luis Valley in terms of the identification process for special education students.” Welsh said his BOCES also runs a program for several young adults in the valley who have significant emotional disabilities. This semester, his team launched a pilot internship program that matches high schoolers in member districts with local businesses so they can get on-the-job experience. Like many BOCES serving small, rural districts, Welsh’s BOCES is considered a “special education administrative unit.” It’s a label that can apply to a school district or a BOCES and means that the entity must ensure special education laws are followed for students with disabilities. Royce Tranum, the executive director of San Juan Boces, which has eight member school districts in southwestern Colorado, said one of the “curious” things about BOCES is that there are strict state rules governing some areas but not others. For example, the state carefully monitors BOCES for the job they do as special education administrative units. “They oversee parts of what we do, but not the organization as a whole,” she said. Education reEnvisioned is different from other BOCES ERBOCES was founded in 2013 as Colorado Digital BOCES. Brad Miller, an attorney who helped start the co-op, said by email that its founders “recognized that school districts are reticent to offer student-focused special schools and programs … and that a BOCES was statutorily intended for such innovations and opportunities.” State law says the cooperatives were enacted for the “expansion of education services of the public schools” in Colorado and, where possible, to enable “two or more school districts to cooperate in furnishing services.” But mostly, ERBOCES isn’t helping member districts achieve economies of scale. Education reEnvisioned has three member school districts with no shared boundaries, including District 49 in El Paso County and the Montezuma-Cortez district, which is almost 400 miles away in southwest Colorado. Pikes Peak State College is a member, and the Elizabeth school district in Elbert County joined Feb 10. Montezuma-Cortez Superintendent Eddie Ramirez wrote in an email that his district belongs to the co-op so that it can receive $10,000 in “flow-through funds” to serve English language learners. Ken Witt, the head of ERBOCES, has long been a familiar face in Colorado’s conservative education circles. As school board president in Jeffco more than a decade ago, he was part of a three-member conservative board majority that was recalled. Later, during his tenure as superintendent in Woodland Park, there was a staff exodus and accusations of transparency lapses. Since Witt took the reins of ERBOCES in 2017, the cooperative has grown from two schools to 10, and enrollment in those schools has grown from 2,200 to 13,500 students, a 600% increase. Many of those students come from outside ERBOCES’ member districts. Ken Witt has been the executive director of Education ReEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services since 2017. Of Colorado’s 186 school districts and co-ops, ERBOCES is the 22nd largest, serving more students than some Denver metro school districts. In 2022, ERBOCES began authorizing state-funded home-school enrichment programs, something no other BOCES does. Such programs typically offer one day of classes or activities each week, and the state pays half the normal per-pupil rate. Today, the cooperative authorizes more than 50 such programs, with more than 8,000 students. Witt said in a presentation last fall that 30-40 more home-school enrichment programs are in the works. Witt sent ERBOCES’ mission and vision statements to Chalkbeat and answered a couple questions by email, but he didn’t respond to follow-up questions or agree to an interview for this story. Some district officials have objected to ERBOCES placing schools or programs outside member districts. The Colorado Springs School District 11 sued ERBOCES over the issue in 2020 after ERBOCES placed a new school in the district without permission. The district argued that allowing the cooperative to open schools in non-member districts without permission violated the principle of local control. In 2024, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in District 11’s favor, saying state law doesn’t say or suggest that BOCES were meant to open schools in any district they wished. Haptonstall, of the Colorado BOCES association, said he gets calls from people asking about ERBOCES: “Why are they opening this up in my region?” “We always encourage them to call the Department of Education and just clarify whether or not that’s legal,” he said. Cayce Hamerschlag, a mother from the 2,200-student Montezuma-Cortez district, said BOCES were created to provide benefits to member districts, but she doesn’t see that occurring with ERBOCES. Instead, she said it’s acting primarily as a school authorizer, drawing away students from school districts around the state. ERBOCES’ six online schools enroll about 80 students from Montezuma-Cortez and several hundred from nearby districts, according to data shared at a recent school board meeting. Hamerschlag said when districts lose students, it creates a downward spiral. Declining enrollment leads to fewer offerings for students, the loss of good teachers, decreasing interest in neighborhood schools, and eventually a hit to the local economy, she said. “I’m disgusted because I’m seeing the dismantling of public education here in Cortez,” said Hamerschlag, who works for San Juan BOCES in southwest Colorado but didn’t speak to Chalkbeat on behalf of the group. “I hear of it happening across the state, and my heart breaks for the students and communities that it’s affecting.” Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat, said by email that if Riverstone is found eligible for public funding it could set a precedent, encouraging every religious school “to seek ‘public school’ status so they can receive public dollars.” But one lawmaker believes Colorado’s current system “too often protects institutions over students and families.” Sen. Scott Bright, a Republican from Weld County, said by email, “BOCES and the Department of Education should not be locked in a tug-of-war; instead, the legislature ought to reinstill clear guidance so that local partners are not forced to ‘push the edge’ of the law just to expand options for families,” he said. How Education reEnvisioned created Riverstone Miller, the lawyer for ERBOCES, said that BOCES “operate schools or programs at the direction of their members.” But there’s no evidence that District 49 or Montezuma-Cortez officials requested or directed the launch of Riverstone. The school is nowhere near either district. An email written by Miller indicates that Riverstone arose because Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm based in Arizona, sought a test case on religious public schools after the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked in a similar case out of Oklahoma last spring. “ADF asked me if I could find a way for a parallel case to be initiated out of Colorado,” Miller wrote in the June 4 email labeled “privileged and confidential.” Riverstone opened two months later. Key start-up documents didn’t mention Riverstone’s religious affiliation or that it was intended to spark a lawsuit. There were no public deliberations about the idea of creating a religious public school. The school board in the Pueblo 70 district, where Riverstone is located, did give permission for the school to locate there as required by the 2024 court decision, but the school’s real purpose went unmentioned at both meetings where it was on the agenda. It’s not clear whether the ERBOCES board, which unanimously approves the vast majority of motions before it, discussed the school’s true purpose either. The cooperative doesn’t livestream its board meetings, and an ERBOCES employee told Chalkbeat the audio recording of the August 12 meeting where Riverstone’s contract was approved no longer exists. Last summer, as Riverstone was taking shape, four of ERBOCES’ five board members may not have been eligible to serve on the board, based on Chalkbeat’s review of the state law on BOCES board makeup. Jeremy Dys, a lawyer for the cooperative from the First Liberty Institute, said by email that ERBOCES Board President Lis Richard is an appointee of Montezuma-Cortez and John Graham, who recently left the board, was an appointee of District 49. Dys didn’t explain how this aligns with state law since neither had been a school board member or administrator in their respective districts for one to three years. Dys described two other board members — Bethany Drosendahl and James Salazar — as “at large” members, which is allowed under state law provided they live in member districts. Asked why the two members live in non-member districts, Dys didn’t respond. Salazar participated in the June vote on Riverstone but abstained from the August vote, possibly because of a conflict of interest. He was appointed president of the Riverstone Academy board in July. None of the five ERBOCES board members when Riverstone was approved responded to Chalkbeat’s request for comment. (ERBOCES recently appointed a school board member from District 49 to its board.) Riverstone is run by a Pueblo nonprofit called Forging Education that runs Christian private schools and home-school programs. Witt told Chalkbeat last fall that Riverstone is a public school because it was authorized by ERBOCES, and in January, the school received a $55,000 installment of state funding. But Forging Education officials have classified the school as private on their lease, insurance policy, and other documents. The school also acts like a private school by limiting public transparency. Quin Friberg, the local pastor who heads Forging Education and Riverstone Academy, recently told an attorney working on behalf of Chalkbeat that Forging Education is not a public entity and therefore not subject to a state law that allows news organizations and others access to public records. In early October, when Witt publicly announced Riverstone was the state’s “first public Christian school,” Pueblo County officials were surprised. They’d known that Friberg was interested in starting a school, but not that he’d opened it to students without ensuring the building was up to code. They quickly issued more than a dozen health and safety violations. In late January, Riverstone leaders agreed to close the school building after orders from county officials. School leaders have since refused to disclose the school’s temporary location, and ERBOCES officials say they have no records showing the school’s current address. Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

(The Center Square) – Legislation to update how Washington state handles childcare licensing and to provide fraud protections and accountability within the Department of Children, Youth & Families is apparently dead this session. House Bill 2253, sponsored by Rep. Adam Bernbaum, D-Port Angeles, would make the licensing process smoother and more efficient for providers and DCYF. Before final passage, Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, and Rep. Josh Penner, R-Orting, offered several amendments, most of which were ultimately adopted by the full House to add rules that would stop people from stealing taxpayer money meant for kids. As reported by The Center Square, DCYF has been under growing scrutiny due to large subsidy payouts to some questionable home daycare providers. The bill passed the House with nearly unanimous support. But when the legislation got to the Senate, where it was given a public hearing in Human Services Committee on Monday, Committee Chair Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Federal Way, filed an amendment. According to Couture the amendment stripped out every bit of the fraud prevention measures that both parties and DCYF had agreed on in the amendments that passed the House. Couture took to X to criticize Wilson and told The Center Square that the bill was suddenly pulled off the agenda on Wednesday, when it had been set for executive session in the Human Service Committee. “DCYF really wanted this bill. I mean, it was pretty innocuous, but because it was about childcare licensing, we decided to take the forward step and add in fraud measures and other things,” Couture said. “So, we got like six or seven amendments into the bill, and it was pretty much unanimous out of the House.” He said he was shocked to see those amendments stripped out of the bill. “It was just incredible. Like, one of the amendments was simply saying that if you got caught doing fraud as a daycare provider, that you couldn't have a license to be a daycare provider anymore. She wanted to strip that out,” Couture said. “That's completely nuts and insane, and it just draws more questions about why is there so much fight back from the Democrats on anti-fraud measures.” The Center Square reached out to Wilson requesting an interview to find out why she killed the bill and received a short response via email. “Sen. Wilson is busy right now … but I can let you know this bill is no longer in play for this year,” media contact Bridget Doyle Williams wrote. Follow-up requests for additional information did not elicit a response. "So, now we don't get any kind of technical fixes to childcare licensing, but we also don't get any reasonable anti-fraud measures, so that's kind of sad,” Couture said. “It seems like if you want to tackle waste, fraud and abuse in the Department of Children, Youth &Families, that it doesn't get a hearing.” Penner also expressed frustration in a Friday interview with The Center Square. “One of the big amendments that we dropped in there is anti-fraud protection. Electronic logging, so that way there was an audit trail because the auditor said that they couldn't verify any of the information over the last four or five years,” he said. “And if somebody is guilty of fraud, they shouldn't be allowed to continue to defraud the agency. But she stripped that out. She pulled out every single reasonable protection against fraud, waste and abuse.” Penner said he was questioning if DCYF staff members who helped them craft the amendments had actually negotiated in good faith. “What happened? Was DCYF negotiating with us and then working on her [Sen. Wilson] to pull it out?” he asked. “I don't know the answer to that. But ultimately, whatever happened just caused the bill not to move forward in the Senate, and that’s sad.”

O ministro Gilmar Mendes, do Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), decidiu nesta sexta-feira (27) proibir que o Ministério Público e tribunais realizem reprogramações financeiras para acelerar para o pagamento de penduricalhos. Mendes reiterou decisão proferida, na última terça-feira (24), para proibir o pagamento dos benefícios, concedidos aos servidores dos dois órgãos e que, somados ao salário, não cumprem o teto remuneratório constitucional de R$ 46,3 mil. Notícias relacionadas: STF adia para 25 de março julgamento sobre suspensão de penduricalhos . Penduricalhos: STF e Congresso fecham acordo para regra de transição . “Está vedada a reprogramação financeira com objetivo de concentrar, acelerar ou ampliar desembolsos, tampouco a inclusão de novas parcelas ou de beneficiários não contemplados no planejamento original”, decidiu. A decisão foi tomada após o Supremo adiar para 25 de março a votação das decisões que suspenderam o pagamento de penduricalhos. Segundo Mendes, somente podem ser pagos os valores retroativos que já estão programados e que foram reconhecidos legalmente.  O ministro também determinou que o Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ), o Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público (CNMP) e Ministério Público do Rio de Janeiro (MPRJ) prestem, em 48 horas, esclarecimentos sobre o cumprimento da decisão que suspendeu os penduricalhos.

(The Center Square) – Alberto Carvalho, the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent, was placed on paid administrative leave by the Board of Education late Friday afternoon pending an FBI investigation. Carvalho's home in the coastal San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles was searched Wednesday by FBI agents who arrived with a warrant and left carrying boxes. Media reports have said the investigation may be linked to possible kickbacks when Carvalho was superintendent of Miami-Dade County schools. Other news reports say the search was tied to AllHere, an artificial intelligence company that the LAUSD hired in 2024 for a $6 million chatbot that was never created. Carvalho has not been charged with any crime and has not commented on the search. The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI's Los Angeles Office told The Center Square they could not comment and that the search warrant affidavit was under seal. The Board of Education of the nation's second-largest school district voted 7-0 in favor of putting Carvalho on leave during a closed session that lasted more than three hours on Friday. The decision was announced during an open session that was just a few minutes. Andres Chait, who has served as the district’s chief of school operations, will begin work immediately as acting superintendent, the board announced. Board President Scott Schmerelson said employees will take their directions from Chait. “The board believes in you, supports you, knows you will always continue to do your very best,” Schemerelson said, addressing district staff during the open session. The closed session on Thursday followed a five-minute public comment period during which three people called on the district to show greater transparency and accountability and to consider matters such as special needs students as they discuss leadership.

法國世界報指出，拉美國家智利與美國因通往中國的海底電纜項目而關係緊張。這是美國干預他國內政的又一例證。

法国世界报指出，拉美国家智利与美国因通往中国的海底电缆项目而关系紧张。这是美国干预他国内政的又一例证。