My latest FOIA request
There’s been so much controversy about Acting Police Chief William Castro staying home and collecting his salary that I requested records of all employees placed on administrative leave with pay from the last three administrations under the Freedom of Information Act.
My request consisted of Dan Rivera, Kendrys Vasquez, and Brian DePeña’s decision to follow this path with city workers. The purpose of this is to put an end to misconceptions and lies because I was told that the normal procedure when an employee is placed on leave s/he must receive FULL SALARY while an investigation is ongoing.
So far, the only answer received is that those are old records and they no longer exist. We are talking about personnel documents from not so long ago that are supposed to be kept indefinitely.
If I don’t receive it by Friday, January 17, I will send a formal complaint to the Attorney General’s office.
The changes in the “new” School Committee
I just realized that the title of the Home Rule Petition includes the phrase “…upon the exit of state receivership.” That means it will not be included in the next municipal elections. We will still elect six members of the School Committee by district, in November unless something happens, and the Commonwealth releases the schools back to us before that – which I doubt.
In all this controversy, there has been no mention of when the Commonwealth will return the school to Lawrence.
The end of DEI
For the past couple of years, we have seen large corporations abandoning their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, and with the incoming administration, this movement is making news.
Beginning in 2020, corporations adopted this system to apply fairness in their hiring. They soon found out that hiring someone under the DEI label was a mistake if they did not have the proper qualifications for the job they were selected to fill.
Walmart has just announced that will be eliminating this practice.
Many companies joining Walmart were John Deere, Ford, Toyota, Harley Davidson, Black & Decker, and Bud Light. They are doing away with DEI because they, too, realized they were spending many millions of dollars and not accomplishing the expected goal: a diverse but qualified employee base.
In recent years, Walmart has worked to increase the number of suppliers that are at least 51% owned or managed by a woman, minority, veteran, or LGBTQ person.
An interesting article about Walmart in Newsweek Magazine says, “The company confirmed its plans to stop using the terms “LatinX” and “DEI” in official communications, won’t continue the Racial Equity Center it founded in 2020, and will ban any sexualized or transgender products marketed toward children.”
Those results on the national level are a wake-up call that DEI doesn’t work. If you have ever wondered why tuition at universities is so high, an opinion piece by Howe Carr in the Boston Herald showed us how expensive DEI can be to maintain, and we pay for it.
Mr. Carr listed some of these positions at the University of Massachusetts and their salaries, adding, “But it’s a state school, so money is no problem.” Among them:
Chief People Strategy Officer, Carolyn is a “people person” with $453,966.45.
Dr. McGriff was hired last year at a $325K job which is considered an entry-level position. She oversees a staff of 16 people, including an “associate vice chancellor” ($271,830 a year) and two “assistant vice chancellors” ($128,000 and $120,000, respectively). The $128K assistant vice chancellor, by the way, holds “climate-related office hours.”
PBS and NPR “government-funded media”
We have not heard about another ongoing battle in Washington: defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Since Donald Trump’s first term, he has been trying to eliminate the $535 million that the government contributed through the CPB to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Congress will be debating defunding the CPB from the $575 million in this year’s budget, but with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy looking to make huge budget cuts, the results are difficult to predict.
Part of the argument through the years has been that the government should not be supporting any media because it is against the First Amendment of the Constitution. As it is, many critics claim that plenty of coverage produced by their stations is based on leftist idiosyncrasies.
There are others who say that the program quality of these stations is superior to regular commercial stations because they do not have to worry about selling advertisements. The response to that has always been that, if their programming is so much better, they should have no problem selling airtime – like everyone else.
An article in The Western Journal states, “NPR says only 1 percent of its annual budget comes from federal sources. But according to its numbers, the broadcaster gets much more from government sources than it lets on.
For fiscal year 2020, the broadcaster’s affiliate stations received 8 percent of their revenue from federal appropriations via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
They also received 10 percent from colleges and universities — which are themselves publicly funded — and another 5 percent from federal, state, and local governments. That is 23 percent, not 1 percent.
For its part, PBS gets even more from government or government-affiliated sources.
On its website, the TV broadcaster says it gets 15 percent of its revenue from the federal government, 13 percent from state governments, 3 percent from local governments, and 8 percent from universities, for 39 percent.
Musk is 100 percent correct. Both NPR and PBS receive substantial financial support from government sources, so it is entirely fair and accurate to label them “government-funded media.”
That brings me to the local plea of radio producers wanting the Brian DePeña administration to share some of the cash available for Lawrence merchants.
If the mood in Washington is to allow radio stations to be free from political influence, have you thought that this city may get into trouble for doing so? Also, those funds are destined for Lawrence residents and businesses, and Lawrence does not have a radio station.
Out-of-sight inauguration
US President-elect Donald Trump is just days away from being sworn in on Inauguration Day. In the run-up to the big moment on January 20, tech giants and Wall Street leaders have written out fat cheques to Trump’s inaugural committee. At last count, a whopping $170 million has been collected, far surpassing Trump’s 2017 record of $107 million.
According to FirstPost.com, in 2009, Obama raised $53 million in private donations, although, he had then refused money from lobbyists, corporations or political action committees and limited individuals to $50,000. In 2013, Obama’s inaugural fund received $44 million.
Before that, George W. Bush raised $40 million for his 2001 inauguration, and supporters donated $42 million in 2005 for his second inauguration. Bill Clinton raised $33 million in 1993 and $30 million in 1989.
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies shoulder the remaining costs, which include the construction of the elaborate stage on the west side of the Capitol grounds and the official congressional luncheon for the new president and vice president.
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