Local News

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is looking on Boston City Councilwoman Tania Fernandes Anderson to resign after she was arrested on federal corruption charges Friday morning.

Several city councilors also called for Fernandes Anderson's resignation on Friday afternoon.

The District 7 representative was charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft related to programs that received federal funds. The US Attorney's Office announced this on Friday.

“Like every member of the community, Councilor Fernandes Anderson has the right to a fair trial. But the seriousness of these allegations undermines the public’s trust and will prevent them from effectively serving the city,” Wu said in a press release. “I call on Councilor Fernandes Anderson to resign.”

The councilman, who represents Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and a part of the South End, is scheduled to look in federal court in Boston on Friday at 2:15 p.m.

Other reactions

On Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., City Councilors Ed Flynn, Erin Murphy and Sharon Durkan, in addition to Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, called for Fernandes Anderson's resignation.

Flynn said the allegations against the town council were “very disturbing.”

“This is unfortunately the result of a series of legal and ethical lapses by members of the Boston City Council in recent years that have both reflected poorly on the city and prevented us from caring about the people’s business,” said Flynn. “It is critical that elected officials appointed to positions of public trust work to provide positive and ethical leadership.”

In a press release to Boston.com, Flynn said he plans to order a hearing Friday on the creation of an ethics commission on the Boston City Council.

Murphy also called the allegations against Fernandes Anderson “deeply disturbing.”

“Elected officials are charged with honestly and ethically representing the public and must not abuse their power for personal gain,” Murphy said in a press release. “Actions like these undermine public trust and perpetuate the harmful belief that our City Council is unworthy of the trust of those we serve.”

Murphy continued: “I firmly believe that any officer who engages in criminal activity or unethical behavior must be held fully accountable. We are here to empower and protect the people of Boston, not to exploit our positions for personal gain. To betray that trust is to betray every resident who looks to us for leadership.”

Murphy also said she hopes justice is correctly served.

“If these allegations are proven true, I expect swift and appropriate action to be taken to ensure that justice is served and the integrity of our government is preserved,” she said.

In addition, City Council President Louijeune said that Fernandes Anderson should resign in order that the authority can proceed its work without disruption.

“Councilman Fernandes Anderson has every right to due process in court. “Given the seriousness of the allegations against her and the direct impact they have on residents’ ability to view the Boston City Council as their faithful stewards, it is in the body’s best interest that she resign,” she said in a press release Opinion Opinion. “This would allow the legal process to proceed without undue disruption to the panel.”

Durkan said the allegations damaged the council's repute.

“These allegations demonstrate a clear failure to maintain the integrity and fiduciary responsibility required of a public official.” Durkan said in a press release. “Only by prioritizing accountability and integrity can we build public trust and ensure that City Hall remains a place of service and not self-interest.”

Fernandes Anderson allegedly implemented a plan to rent a relative — which is prohibited for Boston city councilors — and agreed to pay the worker $13,000 as a bonus on the condition that a few of it’s returned to her, based on reports Court documents show.

Authorities said the worker and Fernandes Anderson allegedly arranged to fulfill in a restroom at City Hall, where the worker handed the councilman $7,000 in money.

The Massachusetts Republican Party called the town council's alleged misconduct “completely abhorrent.”

“Boston deserves so much better,” said the Republican caucus Posted on X.

Just completely disgusting. Boston City Councilwoman Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested on corruption charges. Boston deserves so significantly better. #mapoli #bospoli https://t.co/ER4nHZaUpw pic.twitter.com/Nbu42JsWW2

– MassGOP (@massgop) December 6, 2024

A compliance plan

A poor track record

What happened?

What Lilium tried to construct

Rise and fall

A majority of employees at two Mercedes plants near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, declined the chance to hitch the United Auto Workers union in an election that ended on May 17, 2024.

UAW supporters lost 2,642 to 2,045, Just a month after employees at a Volkswagen factory within the neighboring state of Tennessee voted by a majority of three:1 to hitch the union.

Related to my research on organized labor within the United States and other countries, and from what I learned after I went to Alabama to look at the elections and discuss with Mercedes employees, I consider that the events in Alabama illustrate how tough union organizing is within the South, But it's still too early to write down off the UAW's possibilities within the region.

Public and personal efforts to dam unions

The UAW made eight failed attempts to unionize foreign automotive factories within the south over the past 35 years. That losing streak ended when the corporate won 73% of all votes solid in its historic victory in Tennessee.

My latest book: “The UAW's Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Vehicle Factories“underscores the most important challenges the UAW has long faced within the South.

For 40 years, Southern political and business leaders have tried to draw investment to their states – particularly from foreign-owned manufacturers – by offering massive subsidies, low taxes and lower labor costs and a largely compliant workforce.

This model worked. Today, about 30% of U.S. auto employees are within the South, up from about 15% in 1990.

Whenever the UAW tried to unionize the region's industry, the South's political establishment, dominated by the Republican Party, fought back.

Most recently, six Republican governors from the South combined this tradition into one Joint letter shortly before the Volkswagen vote. In it, they denounced the UAW's organizing efforts as “special interests invading our state and endangering our jobs and the values ​​we live by.”

“Union Avoidance Playbook”

Automotive executives across the American South have developed what I call the “union avoidance playbook.”

This strategy includes They locate factories in rural areas with few union members, eliminate employees who could also be union sympathizers, and divide the workforce by utilizing temporary labor agencies to fill significant portions of jobs.

Messaging is equally vital.

The plants have television monitors in break rooms and cafeterias where pro-business and anti-union messages are spread. To undermine support for unions and business Donate generously to local churches, charities and politicians.

When, despite these efforts, a labor campaign gains momentum, plant managers often start a communication flash This includes mandatory meetings for entire shifts and smaller meetings with undecided employees to keep off against unionization. Union supporters should not given the chance to comment.

The communication strategy lately has included a flood of anti-union emails and text messages Persuading employees to withstand unionization.

Most foreign-owned automakers from the South will likely be hiring anti-union consultants with years of experience fighting unions to guide their efforts. If the selection still looks close, it's the businesses can replace the local CEO of the plant.

This recent hire then tells employees that the corporate now understands their complaints and is asking for a second probability.

Why the UAW convinced Volkswagen employees

The UAW's victory in Tennessee shows that the South's public-private, anti-union partnership will not be invulnerable. Three aspects explain the union's success.

First, the election of Shawn Fain as UAW president in March 2023 marked a turning point. The charismatic one Electrician from Kokomo, Indianawasted no time in dissuading the UAW from its previous agreement with automakers.

Fain used powerful rhetoric and modern tactics to attain victories on the negotiating table in the course of the UAW's simultaneous strikes at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis in the autumn of 2023.

The New contracts followed Employees got significant salary and profit increases and value of living adjustments were made. These agreements also eliminated a two-tier wage structure that gave employees hired since 2007 significantly less pay for a similar work than colleagues with more seniority.

By the tip of 2023, the UAW had shown autoworkers within the South that it could make gains that their employers were unlikely to offer on their very own. This led to more auto employees within the South want to hitch the union.

Second, the UAW overhauled its union system.

The top-down approach was history. Under Fain's leadership, the UAW provided Brian Shepherd – a proven organizer with the Service Employees International Union – will take the lead.

Shepherd gave auto employees who supported unionization the chance to accomplish that Customize organization campaigns as you see fit.

German solidarity

Third, the UAW's relationship with Volkswagen's German works council leadership, which represents employees within the workplace, has improved dramatically.

A works Council is an elected worker representative body that represents the interests of employees at the corporate and company level. It differs from the German Metalworkers' Union, IG Metallwhich has consistently supported unions representing U.S. auto employees.

There were connections between the UAW and the labor council tense in the course of the organizing campaigns in 2014 and 2019. But the The works council leadership modified in 2021.

During the Volkswagen campaign, the German Works Council intervened in several cases to temper management resistance to unionization and urge Chattanooga employees to vote for the union.

The UAW's Mercedes defeat

In previous votes at foreign auto plants within the South, the UAW has typically been the case received only a 3rd of the votes. In Alabama it received 44%. Therefore, it is cheap to see this loss as an indication of progress and strength, even when it fell in need of the bulk.

As I explain in my book, to win an election, a union must assert itself within the political arena and throughout the corporate and workplace.

Mercedes had the overwhelming support of the Alabama political establishment, including Rev. Matthew WilsonTuscaloosa City Council member and Baptist Church pastor.

However, there was a giant difference between the commercial disputes at Mercedes and Volkswagen. The UAW won timely support from the VW works councilthereby convincing management not to rent anti-union consultants, use anti-union language, or hold mandatory meetings.

The Mercedes works council, nevertheless, protested belatedly and didn’t change Mercedes' approach. Mercedes also replaced the local CEO, Michael Göbel Federico Kochlowskiwho promised that the corporate would higher address long-standing worker concerns.

This final flood revealed a weakness within the UAW's employee-led organizational model. It proved difficult for the few organizers to reply quickly and effectively using a network of staff who had little experience with these tactics.

Despite the win in Alabama, Mercedes management could possibly be in trouble in Germany for allegedly unfair tactics.

The The federal government is investigating Whether the corporate's anti-union campaign violates the country's supply chain law, which requires corporations to respect economic, governance and social standards, including labor rights, of their foreign subsidiaries.

Violations may end in a penalty Fine of as much as 2% of total sales.

Separately the UAW has filed a criticism against Mercedes with the National Labor Relations Board over anti-union tactics. The criticism is pending before this federal authoritywhich is chargeable for enforcing the precise of U.S. employees to prepare.

It continues

Gladly promised to proceed organizing efforts when he announced the outcomes at Mercedes. “These workers will get their fair share,” he said. “And we will be there to support them every step of the way.”

It wouldn't surprise me if a majority of employees on the two Mercedes plants in Alabama ultimately resolve to hitch the UAW.

The vote was relatively close. Union initiatives often fail at the primary attempt but succeed later when it becomes clear that management is not going to keep its guarantees to do higher.

If the UAW leadership can persuade the Mercedes works council to pressure management to limit the usage of union avoidance, the prospects for organizing the Alabama plant with a brand new campaign are particularly promising.

I feel the UAW also has an excellent probability of organizing BMW employees in South Carolina.

On the opposite hand, the unionization of employees at Korean and Japanese automotive corporations within the South is more likely to prove to be a greater challenge – also because each countries don’t have any institution comparable to the German works councils.

For the UAW to achieve success throughout the South, I consider it must develop strategies that may overcome the complete repertoire of the region's union-avoiding playbook.

RALEIGH, N.C. – This column is not going to be fair. Not really. Not when a jump here, a whistle there, a completely satisfied accident somewhere, anywhere, could have modified the complete look and narrative of this series, this team, the perception of this organization itself. Not when this team has looked so strong at five-on-five, not when the transience of special teams is the basis explanation for its current woes, not when every game it plays — and each rattling game it loses – appears to be decided by a goal, a shot, a deflection. Not when this team is having fun with the longest sustained success in franchise history.

But we have now to speak in regards to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Not in the identical sentence because the Toronto Maple Leafs – that's too harsh, too melodramatic. But in the identical paragraph.

Because it doesn't work. It didn’t work. And it appears that evidently it won't work.

By now you already know what hurricanes are all about. Depth over elite finishers. Quantity of recordings takes precedence over quality. Relentlessness as an alternative of ingenuity. A goalkeeper is all the time adequate, but never great enough. It works so beautifully, so majestically, from October to April. But things didn't work out in May, they usually didn't even make it to June.

Carolina is an organizational marvel, one in all the best-run and most forward-thinking front offices within the league. The Hurricanes have built a monster, a team that’s so strong, so fast, so effective and so ferocious on the forecheck. You win battles. They get pucks. They wear down opponents. They won the NHL's highly competitive Metropolitan Division three years in a row before narrowly losing by three points to the Presidents' Trophy winners New York Rangers this season. In each of the last 4 seasons they’ve finished among the many top three teams within the league. The analytical models love them, the bettors prefer them, and the hockey players and computer kids alike respect them.

Then the playoffs come and, well, it happens.

The Hurricanes are once more getting ready to disaster, trailing 3-0 of their second-round series against the Rangers after Artemi Panarin's acrobatic tip-in 1:43 into time beyond regulation gave New York a 3-2 win on Thursday night. It was a heartbreaking loss for Carolina, especially after Andrei Svechnikov scored the equalizer with 1:36 left in regulation, sending the cacophonous PNC Arena into absolute chaos. It gave the look of this may very well be a turning point within the series. Instead, there was simply one other twist of the knife.

HAVE A GAME, ANDREI! pic.twitter.com/6jfaD9Af6H

– Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) May 10, 2024

It was just as cruel in Game 2 on Tuesday night, when the Hurricanes lost in double time beyond regulation at Madison Square Garden. And once they lost 3-4 in Game 1. And once they lost all 4 games of last season's Eastern Conference finals to the Florida Panthers, each by one goal, two of them in time beyond regulation, one in all them in quadruple time beyond regulation, the sixth-longest game in NHL history. The last eight postseason losses were by a goal difference, five of which got here in time beyond regulation.

Always pursue one other goal. I'm all the time attempting to recover from the hump. I never quite get there.

“That’s a bit of a broken record,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said quietly Thursday night. He was talking about one other game through which special teams – which had been such a force all season – betrayed Carolina. The second-best power play within the league ended 0:5 for the third game in a row. The Hurricanes even allowed Chris Kreider a shorthanded goal and two other first-class shorthanded probabilities.

But Staal could have also talked in regards to the greater picture. Because we have now experienced this May frustration too over and over now.

Counting the play-in round of the 2020 Bubble Playoffs, Carolina has won a postseason round in six straight seasons. It's the sort of sustained competitiveness that almost all players within the league would do anything to attain. But Carolina hasn't won a game beyond the second round in those six seasons, winning the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019 and 2023. The Hurricanes Way works extremely well within the regular season. This allows wild card-level playoff teams just like the New York Islanders to work quickly during the last two seasons.

But against other elite teams — ones with all-world players like Panarin or Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov or Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point and all-world goaltenders like Igor Shesterkin or Sergei Bobrovsky or Andrei Vasilevskiy — they last only briefly. short. So short that it looks like a mistake each time, that it feels unfair in charge them for these losses, that it looks like the hockey gods are only fidgeting with them in their very own cruel way.

But still short. Always short.

And so Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour can say ad nauseam that he loved Carolina's five-on-five game against the Rangers. He should. The Hurricanes were the higher team in all three games. And we will point to Pyotr Kochetkov's sensible pokecheck of a Kreider breakaway in the ultimate minute of regulation time, or any variety of saves from Frederik Andersen in the primary two games. And so should we. Both goalkeepers were solid. And we will indicate that Carolina got the finisher it's all the time been missing in Jake Guentzel, and he's scored three goals within the last two games. And so should we. He was as advertised.

But sooner or later, tripping hazards develop into a trend, tripping hazards develop into a trademark. And while the intense case of every situation could be very different, the Hurricanes find themselves in the same situation to the Maple Leafs, who’ve turned “run it back” right into a punchline and are running right into a brick wall spring after spring. The Canes are higher than the Leafs. The Canes have achieved greater than the Leafs. The Canes are the polar opposite of the star-laden, top-heavy Leafs. But the Canes have won the Stanley Cup just as over and over because the Leafs. That's what it's all about, right? Both were built to win championships. Neither of them got here that close.

Toronto fired coach Sheldon Keefe on Thursday. Carolina obviously won't do the identical with Brind'Amour, the most effective coaches within the league. He's due for a brand new contract, but it surely's inconceivable that the franchise icon shall be on the bench anywhere else. He shall be back. But Carolina may rethink things. Top duo Sebastian Aho and Svechnikov are locked up long-term, however the roster is filled with pending free agents. General manager Don Waddell may have the sort of cap flexibility most contenders can only dream of. Waddell can pursue more top talent in attack and maybe in goal. Brind'Amour can tinker together with his system, perhaps loosening the structure and constraints of Carolina's dump-and-chase sort of sending pucks to the web from anywhere and all over the place, and inspiring more creativity and offensive boldness. Something. Anything. Because the Rangers are attacking the web. The Hurricanes just shoot for it.

Unless there’s a historic comeback from a 3-0 deficit that makes this column and this narrative more irrelevant than the silly concept that hockey can't thrive in a southern market, Waddell and Brind'Amour may have to make your mind up whether or not they too need to run for it back. Or when it's time for something else.

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Staal said. “It's going to hurt tonight – I won't get much sleep. But tomorrow it's a new day and we'll find a way to win a game. It has been our role model here for a long time.”

And it worked for a protracted, very long time. Just not quite adequate. Just not when it matters most.

Current instructions The report, issued by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to the Office for Students, reveals conflicting priorities inside the federal government and adds fuel to the hearth burning in an already struggling higher education sector.

The deal with science, technology, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) – “strategically important, high-cost subjects” – is being met with a freeze on funding for arts subjects comparable to music, fashion and theater at undergraduate level.

This amounts to an actual cut within the face of inflation, and there are cuts in graduate education grants – in addition to within the Program to expand participation to support access to higher education for college kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It follows an earlier tranche of cuts in 2021 and comes at a time when universities normally – and the humanities and humanities particularly – are struggling. Inflation has exacerbated the strains felt across the sector and exposed long-term tensions on the university The financing model is beginning to unravel.

In short, the fee of teaching a student exceeds fees, with no immediate prospect of accelerating them, not least because they already burden graduates with heavy debt. This is further reinforced by falling A-level numbers in the humanities and humanities, making recruitment difficult. The inevitable consequence is a decline in provisions.

Oxford Brookes And Kent Universities have announced the closure of their music departments, while there might be redundancies at Goldsmiths endanger as much as half of jobs in departments comparable to English and Creative Writing, History, Music, Theater and Performance and Visual Cultures.

A false economy

The supposed logic of supporting the hard sciences and the general economy exposes contradictions in the federal government's self-declared policies and masks false economics. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Vision for the creative sectorFor example, it says: “The creative industries are a true British success story, from global music stars like Adele and Ed Sheeran to world-class cultural institutions like the National Theater.”

It also crucially highlights the importance of skills “to ensure the sector can attract and develop the best creative talent from all backgrounds and from all parts of the country”.

Even a sober economic perspective suggests that arts provision ought to be encouraged fairly than frozen. According to the federal government's own estimates, the creative industries contribute roughly £126 billion for the UK economy. This is greater than that automobile industryfor instance, or Aerospace, oil and gas.

While obviously lots of the talents needed can be in areas comparable to coding, the contribution still comprises around £27 billion within the fields of music, visual and performing arts, publishing, design, fashion, museums and galleries.

As the federal government recognizes, the humanities offered at universities also further enhance the country's cultural life and its school-age educational framework. The National Plan for Music Educationnotes, for instance, that universities “provide access to live musical performances…through free tickets to on-site concerts or by bringing student artists into schools…”[ing] This has mutual advantages as students gain invaluable experience working with young audiences and school-age students are inspired by musicians their very own age.”

Value of art and science exchange

The contradictions also extend beyond the creative sector and the courses of study directly affected. The funding cuts appear to obscure the worth that arts courses bring to the upper education sector (the worth itself). £71bn gross value added for the economy) as an entire.

Universities don’t operate in silos where arts and STEM are separated. They support one another financially, e.g Cross-subsidization between degrees which can be cheaper to deliver and people which can be costlier (including subjects comparable to engineering).

In research, too, the entire is bigger than the sum of its parts: the humanities and natural sciences each profit from cross-disciplinary collaboration, especially within the rapidly developing creative sector, where technological know-how, critical considering and an imaginative approach are mutually useful .

This zero-sum approach to arts and STEM in higher education also undermines the holistic, Humboldt model of the university whereby a mixture of research and teaching across the humanities and sciences creates knowledge, values ​​and an engaged citizenry. This has long been central to the strength and international appeal of British universities.

DCMS's Creative Sector Vision highlights the worth of dialogue between interdisciplinary research, business and the broader public sector, arguing that “government and industry have shown how we leverage public funding, the UK's world-leading university base and the… “Ingenuity of the creative industry”.

Tense times result in difficult decisions, especially when The headline numbers show a fluctuation in revenue between graduates from different disciplines. But pitting deals against one another and dividing them into those which can be “useful” is an approach that uses immediate tactics on the expense of long-term strategy.

If funding cuts deteriorate the supply of creative subjects, the impact can be felt beyond the departments directly affected. The arts are the inspiration of the creative economy, and universities are a part of a broader research, development and education ecosystem that, even in the federal government's own words, relies on exchanges between arts and science to create value across all sectors.

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