“For Eric Chornoby, leisure time is a ‘luxury’ he can’t afford. He’s a union postal worker from Detroit who hasn’t gone on vacation in five years. ‘Everyone told me our generation was getting it good. I did what I was supposed to do. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot get ahead,’ Chornoby said at a rally in Washington, D.C., on February 7. Chornoby, along with other workers from the American Postal Workers Union’s (APWU) Young Members Committee, traveled to the U.S. Capitol to attend the first-ever march for young workers. Today, the federal minimum wage sits at $7.25 an hour, and it hasn’t been increased since 2009. Many states and cities have doubled their minimum wages, but workers want to see an increase at the federal level that’s adjusted for inflation. In recent decades, workers have become the most productive they have ever been in history as wages have stagnated and corporations reached record-breaking profits.” (02/23/26)
“The former CEO of a San Francisco homeless services charity will be arraigned Tuesday on nine felony charges after prosecutors said she stole more than $1.2 million in public funds meant to keep people off the streets. Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, raided the accounts of the United Council for Human Services while she had ‘near-exclusive financial control’ over the nonprofit serving homeless and low-income people, according to a statement Monday from the district attorney’s office. ‘Prosecutors allege that between 2019 and 2023, Ms. Westbrook engaged in unauthorized self-payments, improper cash withdrawals, and fraudulent reimbursement practices that diverted public funds for personal use,’ the statement said. She faces charges including misappropriation of public funds, grand theft and filing false California tax returns. Her arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.” (02/24/26)
“At 12:01 this morning, the United States officially ended collection of its International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs, which were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last Friday. By now, you’re probably aware that President Trump has replaced these tariffs with a 15 percent levy based on Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows for a tariff of that size for up to 150 days to deal with a balance-of-payments deficit. The administration has been planning this switch for months, once the Supreme Court’s position on IEEPA became clear at oral arguments. It is interpreting a trade deficit, which has essentially not changed at all despite nearly a year of tariffs, as fitting the balance-of-payments standard; some experts do not agree with that interpretation, meaning that litigation could ensue on these tariffs, too.” (02/24/26)
“I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Jesse Jackson, Jr., his father’s namesake and the last person to see his extremely frail dad in the quiet moments before he died. ‘I woke up at about 12:35 a.m., I heard a gasp, and that gasp was my father’s final breath,’ he said in a CBS interview. … ‘That pressure is the inability to live up exactly to who he is, and what he’s been able to accomplish, and I’ve also lived with that my entire life. … At a critical juncture in the centuries-old freedom saga, Jackson helped to write those chapters as heir apparent to Martin Luther King, Jr. Or was he? From the moment King died, there was a general sense that Jackson was pushing himself to be ‘king’ of a movement that never bestowed the crown.” (02/23/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“They’re not even trying anymore. US middle east envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Saturday that Iran is ‘probably a week away’ from having the materials necessary to make a nuclear bomb — a line that Iran hawks have been falsely repeating for over three decades. It’s such a transparently bogus claim that even The Jerusalem Post dunked on Witkoff for making it, quipping that ‘The US envoy left out that Iran currently has no access to its material, no machines to enrich it, and no weapons program to use it for any operational purpose.’ This is the guy supposedly assigned by the White House to the task of establishing peace in the middle east, churning out the most fuzzbrained justifications for war with Iran you could possibly imagine.” (02/24/26)
“Some tales can cross cultures, continents, and even centuries to arrive in our own era … That’s particularly so for the immortal story of ‘an appointment in Samarra.’ It first appeared in the fifth century in the Babylonian Talmud, that ancient repository of Jewish rabbinical wisdom. Then it crossed over into Islamic literature … before popping up on the London stage in Act III of William Somerset Maugham’s 1933 play Sheppy. In Maugham’s retelling, the tale is rich in irony. Once long ago, he wrote, there was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to shop in the market. But the servant soon returned home in a panic and told his master about a woman in the crowd there who stared at him angrily. ‘It was Death that jostled me,’ the servant announced, pleading with his master for a horse to flee to the town of Samarra.” (02/23/26)
“After the Trump administration illegally kidnapped the legitimate president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3, 2026, we saw two distinct and divergent responses from Venezuelans. On the one hand, the Venezuelan diaspora, especially in the United States, celebrated President Maduro’s kidnapping and bombing of their birth country. They congregated in small gatherings the weekend of the abduction, including in Miami. These celebrations, alongside videos online, were widely disseminated in corporate and social media for a US-based (and broader Western) audience, all broadcasting the same message: Venezuelans support President Maduro’s abduction. On the other hand, inside Venezuela, for weeks after the illegal abduction, citizens engaged in (almost) daily and massive demonstrations to condemn the attack that killed and wounded over 100 people.” (02/23/26)
“The mayor’s Winter Storm Response Commission, chaired by former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, convened this morning for its first meeting. The commission is set to deliver its final report on the storm response in August. During the inaugural meeting, former TVA board member and Republican speaker of the House, Beth Harwell, indicated that members are still uncertain about their mission. ‘Are the recommendations going to the mayor, the Council, or the [NES] Board?’ asked Harwell. ‘And I’m a little confused as to really our overall objective, and so maybe the staff can answer that at some point.’ Throughout the proceedings, Chair Bredesen emphasized that he wants to avoid a ‘finger pointing’ exercise. Instead, members focused on procedure and constructive goals. During presentations, OEM Director Chief William Swann said that the department is independently implementing after-action changes.” (02/23/26)
“The United States women’s ice hockey team, fresh off a gold-medal victory over Canada in the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, declined an invitation from President Donald Trump to attend his State of the Union address on Tuesday. ‘We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,’ USA Hockey told NBC News. ‘Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.’ The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.” (02/23/26)
