Chicago teachers to return to class
Chicago teachers to return to class
CHICAGO (AP) — The city’s teachers agreed Tuesday to return to the classroom after more than a week on the picket lines, ending a spiteful stalemate with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that put teacher evaluations and job security at the center of a national debate about the future of public education.
Union delegates voted overwhelmingly to formally suspend the strike after discussing details of a proposed contract settlement worked out over the weekend. Classes were to resume today.
Delegates poured out of a South Side union hall singing “solidarity forever.”
“I’m very excited. I miss my students. I’m relieved because I think this contract was better than what they offered,” said America Olmedo, who teaches fourth- and fifth-grade bilingual classes. “They tried to take everything away.”
Said Shay Porter, a teacher at the Henderson Academy elementary school: “We ignited the labor movement in Chicago.”
The walkout, the first in Chicago in 25 years, shut down the nation’s third-largest school district just days after 350,000 students had returned from summer vacation.
Tens of thousands of parents were forced to find alternatives for idle children, including many whose neighborhoods have been wracked by gang violence in recent months.
Historic closing for Apple’s stock
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple’s stock closed above $700 for the first time on Tuesday, the day after it announced that orders for its iPhone 5 topped 2 million in the first 24 hours.
Shares closed at $701.91 Tuesday, up $2.13 from Monday’s close. They rose as high as $702.33 in afternoon trading Tuesday.
The rally in Apple’s stock price puts the company’s market value at $658 billion.
The $700 mark is somewhat of an arbitrary milestone for Apple’s stock, representing little more than a nice round number and a record high trading level.
The company, after all, already enjoys the distinction as the world’s most valuable public company ever, at least if one ignores inflation. Google Inc., its Silicon Valley neighbor, saw its stock price surpass $700 in 2007. On Tuesday, Google’s stock was trading at $712.28. But the online search leader’s market capitalization is well below Apple’s at $236.4 billion.
Apple started taking orders for the iPhone 5 at 3 a.m. EDT Friday. Orders during the first 24 hours more than doubled what Apple had for its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, over the same period last October.
Man arrested for threat to kill kids
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man accused of posting comments on ESPN’s website that said he was watching kids and wouldn’t mind killing them was being held Tuesday on $2 million bail after he was arrested for investigation of making terrorist threats, authorities said.
Several guns were found at the man’s home Monday, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Steve Low. The name of the man, who is in his early 20s, was not immediately released as investigators are trying to determine if there are any additional suspects.
Threatening posts were made in a reader response section to an online ESPN story on Thursday about new Nike sneakers named after LeBron James that cost $270 a pair, ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said Tuesday.
Some of the nearly 3,000 reader comments on the story talked about children possibly getting killed over the sneakers because of how expensive they are.
Police to enforce immigration law
PHOENIX (AP) — A judge in Arizona ruled Tuesday that police can immediately start enforcing the most contentious section of the state’s immigration law, marking the first time officers can carry out the so-called “show me your papers” provision.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is the latest milestone in a two-year legal battle over the requirement. It culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that upheld the provision on the grounds that it doesn’t conflict with federal law.
Now, with the requirement finally in full effect, both sides are anxious to see the outcome.
The supporters want local police to use it vigorously, but worry federal immigration officials won’t respond to calls to come arrest people.
“I am mulling what I will do if they don’t respond,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
who more than any other police boss in the state pushed the bounds of immigration enforcement. “I don’t feel comfortable letting the illegal alien back on the street.”
Federal officials said they will check people’s immigration status when officers call. But they’ll only send an agent to arrest someone if it fits with their priorities, such as catching repeat violators and those who are a threat to public safety and national security.
Meanwhile, civil rights advocates are preparing for a battle.
— They’re stepping up efforts to staff a hotline that fields questions about what people’s rights are in case officers question their immigration status.
— If a police agency plans a special immigration patrol, volunteers armed with video cameras will be sent to capture footage, said Lydia Guzman, leader of the civil rights group Respect-Respeto.
— The law’s opponents are spreading out across the state, asking police departments not to enforce the provision. Doing so could open officers up to lawsuits from people who could claim the agencies aren’t fully enforcing the law.
The incentive to not enforcing the law, said Carlos Garcia, an organizer for the Puente Movement: better cooperation of immigrants who would be more likely to report crimes.
Arizona’s law was passed in 2010 amid voter frustration with the state’s role as the busiest illegal entry point into the country. Five states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah — have adopted variations on Arizona’s law.
This section of the law requires that officers, while enforcing other laws, question the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country illegally. The “show me your papers” name comes from opponents.
It’s a tool for local police, said Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the measure, but won’t cure the state’s immigration woes.
“Only the federal government has the resources and responsibility necessary to achieve that,” Brewer said.
The law’s journey to this point has taken many twists and turns. Bolton is the judge who initially blocked it after the Obama administration challenged it on the grounds that federal immigration law trumps state law.
The case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. There, justices barred police from enforcing other parts of the law, including a requirement that immigrants obtain or carry immigration registration papers. But they allowed the questioning requirement — to supporters the most important part — to move forward.
The latest challenge from a coalition of civil rights, religious and business groups — which Bolton denied earlier this month— said Latinos in Arizona would face systematic racial profiling.
But Bolton agreed with the state’s lawyers that the law’s opponents were merely speculating on those claims. She did leave the door open to challenges once the law is in effect, if the claims can be proven.