CHICAGO – Chicago teachers took to picket lines Friday in a one-day strike they say is aimed at getting lawmakers to adequately fund education and other programs in the nation’s third-largest district.
The walkout has closed schools for nearly 400,000 students, who have the option of spending the day at one of the more than 250 “contingency sites” Chicago Public Schools has opened at churches, libraries and school buildings.
Among those picketing outside the Oscar DePriest Elementary School was special education teacher Brian Orlinsky, who said he hopes the walkout will be a wake-up call for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and other lawmakers.
“There’s not enough textbooks,” the Spencer Technology Elementary School teacher said. “There’s not enough technology that’s up to date and that’s working.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. employers shrugged off signs of weak growth and extended their long stretch of steady hiring in March, adding 215,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 5 percent from 4.9 percent in February but mostly for a good reason: More Americans came off the sidelines to look for work, though not all found jobs.
That is the fifth time in the past six months that the proportion of Americans working or looking for work has increased, an encouraging trend after that figure fell to four-decade lows last year. Many Americans, discouraged by a lack of available jobs, had given up on their job hunts since the recession, while others stayed home to take care of family members. Many baby boomers have also been retiring.
“This is a vote of confidence on the part of workers regarding the health of the U.S. economy,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS.
The data suggests that employers remain confident enough in their business prospects to add staff, even as overall growth has slowed since last winter.
RICHMOND, Va. – A 34-year-old Illinois man fatally shot a Virginia state trooper at a busy bus terminal before the gunman was killed by other troopers, authorities said Friday.
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller identified the shooter as James Brown III, of Aurora, Ill. Police did not give a motive for the shooting.
Brown shot Trooper Chad P. Dermyer, 37, multiple times Thursday in Richmond before he was killed by two other troopers, police said. Dermyer had been participating with about a dozen other troopers in a training exercise at the bus station when a brief encounter with the gunman quickly turned violent, police said.
Associated Press