Ohio Senate bill would automatically close low-performing public schools

 By Megan Henry

A Republican bill in the state Senate would automatically shut down low-performing Ohio public schools. 

State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, introduced Senate Bill 295 over the summer, which would revise the state’s automatic school closure language. The bill has a fourth hearing scheduled Tuesday in the Senate Education Committee. 

Democrats' Working-Class Failures, Analysis Finds, Are 'Why Trump Beat Harris'

 By Jessica Corbett

"By branding itself as an active party of economic populism that fights for needed changes for the working class, the Democratic Party can put itself in a position to regain the support of the voters it lost in 2024."

Further bolstering the post-election argument that U.S. working-class voters have ditched the Democratic Party because they feel abandoned by Democrats, a Tuesday analysis details why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

The report by Data for Progress, a left-leaning think tank, uses dozens of national surveys of likely voters conducted throughout 2024 to back up assertions that the party needs to improve its messaging and policies targeting working people if Democrats want to win future U.S. elections, after losing the White House and both chambers of Congress last month.

California’s jail population will rise thanks to Prop. 36. So will inmate deaths, advocates say

By Nigel Duara

In summary

California recorded historically high numbers of deaths in county jails for the past six years. Now, counties expect to house more prisoners as Prop. 36 takes effect.

According to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, California doesn’t have a crisis in its jails, where record numbers of people have died even as the state’s jail population shrank. 

“Saying people died in jails is a little bit of a misnomer,” said Barnes, who is also the president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association. “People who are dying in our care, and I can’t say this any other way, they’re not dying because they’re in jail. They are dying from things that are life choices, narcotics issues, poor health, cancer, other things.