Al Sharpton endorses John Kerry for President, but suggests that he will still campaign to send progressive delegates to the convention:

It would be misleading and futile to campaign for the nomination, but it continues for the platform and direction of the party,” Sharpton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “My campaign continues now to pick up delegates so that we can go to the convention to coalesce with other delegates.”

In welcoming the endorsement, Kerry praised Sharpton’s “ability to cut through the double-talk we see coming from this administration,” and pledged to work for Sharpton’s oft-stated goal of a new “urban agenda.”

A new urban agenda from John Kerry? Here’s hoping…

Saguaro high school demonstrates its policy of zero tolerance for Black students with sideways baseball caps:

Morgan was suspended from school for three days, beginning Monday when Saguaro returns from spring break. Though he was held in a jail cell at police headquarters for several hours, he wasn’t charged. He was held on suspicion of disorderly conduct, failure to obey a police officer, trespassing and interfering or disrupting an educational institution.

“Usually I don’t have a problem, (but) when you walk around you see everyone else with their hats like that. I just kind of got fed up with it,” he told The Arizona Republic.

The Times on the implications of the Socialists’ triumph in Spain:

Only last week several senior members of the administration said they fully expected that his conservatives would emerge victorious. In fact, months ago a senior adviser to Mr. Bush predicted that should a terrorist attack occur in Europe, it would probably drive the Europeans closer to the United States and its approach to the campaign against terror, not away from it.

But it was lost on no one in Mr. Bush’s inner circle that Mr. Zapatero rode to victory by denouncing Mr. Bush’s approach to the world, and that he pledged to bring home Spain’s 1,300 troops in Iraq in July. “We don’t know how big a factor the Madrid bombing was in the outcome,” one senior American official said. “We don’t know that what happened in Spain marks a broader trend. But I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said this is the kind of outcome we might have wished for.”

And Nathan Newman responds to the right-wing spin that the left has accepted an Iraq-Al Qaeda bond:

…this does not mean Al Qaeda liked Saddam Hussein’s regime. In fact, they hated him and had denounced him repeatedly over the years, since his Arab nationalism was a direct ideological competitor with their vision of an Islamic theocracy. But despite hating him, they can opportunistically take advantage of his ouster to pose as the defender of Arab nationalism against US interventionism. Iraq and Al Qaeda were not linked, until the US linked them. Having linked them through invasion, Al Qaeda can take advantage of the perception of the link to stoke anger and recruit new adherents from those opposed to the invasion

The Register reports on UNITE’s efforts to protect Cintas workers from corrosive chemicals:

Under the new rule, leased-and-laundered rags would be granted an official exemption from “hazardous” waste status, but must be sealed up during transport from clients to the laundry. A hearing on the proposed rule last week at EPA drew all interested parties. The Uniform & Textile Service Association, which represents lease-and-launder businesses, backs the rule, as do multiple printing lobbies and the automotive industry. The Sierra Club and the Environmental Technology Council both argued that the rule has no teeth.

Along with Fragola, DeLauro and UNITE representative Eric Frumin urged stricter regulation, saying that the proposed rule is fraught with loopholes.

Yet another reason why these workers need a union.

SEPTA and the TWA have settled in Philadelphia, agreeing to a one-year contract which preserves the health benefits management tried to slash and grants all employees a bonus. Hopefully, when negotiations resume for a longer contract, SEPTA will have given up for good on balancing its budget on the backs of its workers.

In The Nation, Naomi Klein takes Thomas Friedman to task:

Friedman is right to acknowledge, finally, that there is a clear connection between fighting poverty and fighting terrorism (a step up from his usual practice of blaming suicide bombing on “collective madness”). He is wrong, of course, to argue that free-trade policies will alleviate that poverty: In fact, they are a highly efficient engine of dispossession, pushing small farmers off their land and laying off public-sector workers, making the need all the more desperate for those Victoria’s Secret and Delta call center jobs.

The Bush Administration: You report, we fire you:

Democrats called Saturday for an investigation of charges that the Bush administration threatened to fire a top Medicare official if he gave data to Congress showing the high costs of hotly contested Medicare legislation. The official, Richard S. Foster, chief actuary of the Medicare program, said he had been formally told not to provide the information to Congress. Moreover, he said, he was told that “the consequences of insubordination would be very severe.”

Senior officials at the Medicare agency made it clear that “they would try and fire me” for responding directly to inquiries from Congress, Mr. Foster said in an interview on Saturday. Mr. Foster said he had received that message from Thomas A. Scully, who was then administrator of the Medicare program. Mr. Scully denies threatening Mr. Foster but confirms having told him to withhold certain information from Congress.

Looks like I got back to Philly just in time for SEPTA‘s contract with Local 234 to run out tonight.

The issue at hand? You guessed it:

For the first time, SEPTA wants veteran bus drivers, cashiers and mechanics to regularly pay for health care – estimated between $50 and $100 a week. New employees now pay part of health costs for their first three years on the job.

“SEPTA Beware. Keep hands off our benefits,” is the slogan on buttons worn by SEPTA drivers, cashiers and mechanics.

Time for SEPTA to settle, or else bear the responsibility for keeping 400,000 riders from work.

We had a powerful week at Project Democracy’s conference, with the chance to register 700+ Florida voters, organize and plan towards November, and hear from amazing folks like Maria Elena Durazo, Granny D, and Lois Gibbs. More on it later, maybe.