Out d’Coup | Long COVID; CBO Score; John Deere Workers Win; Ohio Concealed Carry; Ithaca Carbon Free; School Board Mania; Fulton County Library; PA GOP Games; KU Dining Workers; CBSD; New Sci-Fi

New research shows that at least 50% of people who survive COVID-19 “experience a variety of physical and psychological health issues for at least six months following their recovery,” according to the Washington Post. 

The Congressional Budget Office says that Biden’s Build Back Better Bill will not be entirely paid for as the White House claimed. It’s close, but the CBO didn’t think the IRS would be able to raise $67 billion over 10 years; they put the number at $207 billion. That might just be enough for Manchin or Sinema to take a hatchet to key provisions of the Build Back Better bill. 

UAW workers at John Deere approved a new contract after a month on strike. The agreement will see a 20% increase in wages over the course of the contract and significant improvements in working conditions. Rank-and-file working power baby. 

The Ohio House passes a bill that will let residents 21 years old and older to carry concealed weapons without any kind of license or permit. If the Ohio Senate passes the bill, there will no longer be a requirement for a background check or training. 

A school district in Goddard, Kansas orders 29 books be banned from its libraries. You can already guess the kind of books being banned: the Pulitzer Prize winning play “Fences,” but August Wilson; Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale; The Hate You Give, by Angie Thomas; and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, are among the books on the list. 

Ithaca, New York votes to decarbonize all of its buildings by 2025. The unanimous vote for their “Efficiency Retrofit and Thermal Load Electrification Program,” will include everything from swapping out natural gas and propane cooking with electric induction to installing solar panels. The city of 30,000 is working with a Brooklyn-base company, BlocPower to manage the program. The move will eliminate 40% of the city’s carbon emissions. 

Right-wing parent groups at the forefront of “critical race theory” protests are now shifting their target to school-based mental health programs, according to reporting by NBC news. You heard that right. No more talk of suicide prevention, depression, or any “social emotional learning” is the goal. Right-wiing groups apparently believe that “social emotional learning has become a ‘Trojan horse’ for critical race theory…[and] encourage children to celebrate diversity, sometimes introducing students to conversations about race, gender, and sexuality.” God forbid. 

And, the QAnon Shaman is sentenced to 41 months in prison. 

Earlier this month, the Fulton County Commissioners denied the Fulton County Library a $3,000 budget increase because they host “hate groups” that are sympathetic to the LGBTQ communities or the Black Lives Matter movements. In response to this bigotry, Emily Best from the Sisters of the Night Caucus launched a gofundme page to help the library close the budget gap and ended up raising over $26,000.  

Pennsylvania House Republicans used their fall session to highlight their extremist agenda.  House Republicans passed a constitutional open-carry gun rights bill, a bill making bail funds illegal and advanced more voter suppression measures. 

The House Labor and Industry Committee held a hearing on a slate of radical anti-union bills.  Public Sector labor leaders refused to participate in the committee’s “farce,” and Democratic Chair Jerry Mullery walked out of the committee meeting and hosted a press conference outside of the meeting with members and labor leaders.

A landmark PA school funding trial got underway. The case involves the cash-strapped Panther Valley School District and five other Pennsylvania school districts. In opening remarks, of course, GOP House Speaker Bryan Cutler argued that there’s nothing to see here, everything’s fine. Tell that to the 75 kindergartners in the Panther Valley School District who are forced to share one toilet and two urinals. 

Spanning both Carbon and Schuylkill Counties, Panther Valley serves more than 1,600 students. Around 56% are classified as economically disadvantaged, though McAndrew believes the number of children living in poverty is higher.

Lt. Governor John Fetterman joined Kutztown University Dining Workers United for a rally on Tuesday, demanding Aramark and Kutztown University recognize their union. 

Dina Leygerman, a former Central Bucks School Board candidate, wrote an excellent piece on Medium critically responding to the recent two-part podcast on The Daily from the New York Times on the school board wars in Central Bucks. Dina Leygerman lays out a much more toxic history and lays bare the role Paul Martino played in fomenting the conflicts. 

The highly anticipated series The Wheel of Time launches on Amazon’s Prime Video. Get ready for social media haters and lovers. 

The new season of Star Trek: Discovery launched this week on Paramount Plus.