UPDATE: Breaking: Reported 15 of 17 Newark, NJ high schools see walkouts protesting budget cuts +Pension call Tuesday. | Fred Klonsky

Pension call Tuesday. | Fred Klonsky:

Pension call Tuesday.

by Fred Klonsky

“I’m taking Mike Madigan at his word that there will be a comprehensive bill put together,” said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, a leading pension reform negotiator.
There is so much to unpack in that sentence.
Taking Madigan at his word?
Nekritz is a leading pension reform negotiator?
Anyone who is not actually sitting at Madigan’s table at Saputo’s will admit that his word is worth no more than the word of any common gangster.
And what has happened to the English language when a pension bomber is now called a pension reform negotiator.
And the former Chicago Richard Daley was a parking meter payment facilitator.
Al Capone was an olive oil distributor.
When last we were watching Springfield the Senate passed SB1 by a single vote.
The brainchild of Senate President John Cullerton, this is the new SB1.
It would force seniors to choose between a cost of living increase to their state-wide average pension of $46,000 or access to health care insurance they already pay for.
Did I mention that this is the same John Cullerton who worked with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to give the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Board of Trade a $100 million dollar tax break so that it could pay their CEO $6.1

Breaking: Reported 15 of 17 Newark, NJ high schools see walkouts protesting budget cuts.

by Fred Klonsky

Twitter photo: Newark high school students rally at Rutgers following walkout at 15 high schools across the city protesting budget cuts.