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San Francisco Chronicle
09-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Have California Republicans finally found their spines on Trump?
Like many California Republicans, Rep. Kevin Kiley has gone out of his way to show he's not just on board with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's priorities — he's eager to help make them happen. Since Trump's election, Kiley, of Rocklin (Placer County), has introduced bills to eliminate funding for California's high-speed rail, to allow law enforcement officers to ignore the state's sanctuary law and to reverse its law to phase out gas-powered cars. He even introduced a measure to reform Federal Aviation Administration bureaucracy that he made clear would benefit Musk's SpaceX. So, it was a surprise to see a far more measured statement from Kiley on Friday asking his House colleagues to 'provide robust funding for AmeriCorps' in the upcoming budget. It was a gentle way of acknowledging the obvious: Trump's cuts are hurting his constituents. Musk's Department of Government Efficiency recently cut $400 million from AmeriCorps, the national volunteer program that connects young adults to volunteer opportunities in poor neighborhoods. Kiley, a veteran of AmeriCorps' Teach for America program, did not directly mention Musk, Trump or the cuts in his plea. But he gave a nod to DOGE's purported mission by touting the programs as 'proven, cost-effective solutions to longstanding workforce challenges.' Kiley isn't the only California Republican who is beginning to speak out as popular programs and agencies are unceremoniously gutted. Some state lawmakers this week joined Democrats in defending programs that have been gutted. More than a dozen Republicans in the state Legislature signed onto a letter pleading with their congressional colleagues to preserve funding for Head Start, which provides free early learning and support services across the state, which they called 'foundational to our state's early childhood education, home visiting, and family support infrastructure.' About two-thirds of the state Legislature signed on while doing something exceedingly rare under Trump — it stated that the bipartisan group is 'deeply aligned' on the 'shared goals of advancing opportunity, equity, and economic resilience.' (Nobody tell the Republicans who signed the letter that they just put to paper their commitment to the 'E' in DEI.) Meanwhile, a separate discussion in the state Assembly this week further exemplified the tightrope Republicans are walking as they take pains to avoid disparaging Trump — even as they oppose his efforts. Lawmakers were discussing a resolution calling on Trump to honor his commitments to wildfire mitigation projects and urging him to veto any legislation that would defund the U.S. Forest Service. It's a symbolic gesture that doesn't include any action or spending. Still, Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher scolded Democrats for their 'rhetoric' regarding the president even as he admitted he supported the measure. Another Republican, Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, likened Democrats criticizing Trump to 'the devil complaining about sin.' Yet he, too, voted for the resolution. It passed unanimously. None of these actions by Republicans were particularly courageous; they all involved wildly popular programs. Head Start is supported by a whopping 74% of Trump voters, according to a recent survey. And California Republicans, unlike their colleagues in red states, have to navigate their allegiance to Trump while representing a state where he is deeply unpopular. One recent poll found that '68% of registered voters in California disapprove of the president's job performance and believe the country is on the wrong track,' according to the Los Angeles Times. The same phenomenon is happening in New York, where some of Trump's top allies in Congress pushed back aggressively against a proposal to raise the cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT. 'A higher SALT cap isn't a luxury. It's a matter of fairness. We reject this offer,' they wrote in a letter. Defending noncontroversial programs is an easy way for these politicians to show they're attuned to their constituents' needs. And the sheer breadth of the Trump-led cuts makes it possible for Republicans to pick and choose the most appealing programs to defend. Is anyone in favor of being blindsided by an atmospheric river? Anti-preschooler? Yet the increasing frequency with which Republicans appear to be taking public stands against Trump suggests that the missing-in-action Congress might be awakening to his most egregious actions. This week, Senate Republicans — the ones who welcomed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth into top leadership positions — forced Trump to abandon his nomination of Ed Martin, an extremist who defended Jan. 6 rioters, as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. It's against this backdrop that Republicans in Congress will be wrestling with budget cuts, including, potentially, cutting billions from Medicaid. Republicans in swing districts, including California Reps. David Valadao of Bakersfield and Young Kim of Anaheim, told House Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter that 'we cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.' Of course, letters are one thing; standing up to Trump in a contentious budget showdown is another. It's far from clear whether these lawmakers would buckle under meaningful pressure from Trump. Still, their pushback this week offers at least an acknowledgment that Trump's moves are impacting many of their constituents' livelihoods — and perhaps soon, their own.
Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Three finalists named to lead Massachusetts education department
'We're excited to have three highly qualified and passionate leaders as finalists for the next DESE commissioner,' said Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler in a statement. 'This public interview process will allow the Board and Massachusetts families and educators to hear from each candidate about their vision for equity, excellence, and innovation in our public schools. We look forward to an engaging and transparent discussion.' Tutwiler sits on the state board and in recent weeks has served Related : Advertisement The education commissioner oversees day-to-day operations of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which regulates public and charter K-12 schools. The commissioner's duties include creating long-term plans for the department, providing technical assistance, guidance, and training to school districts, collecting and publishing data, and implementing the school accountability system. Here's more about the finalists: Jack Elsey Elsey, an administrator for education non-profits, is the founder and chief executive of state shortages. Advertisement Early in his career, he worked as a middle school social studies teacher with Teach for America in New York City and in media and school relations for Teach for America. He later worked as an administrator in Detroit Public Schools and Chicago Public Schools, then served as chief schools officer for Michigan's Education Achievement Authority, a state-run program to turn around Detroit's lowest-performing schools. The agency appears to have shut down at the end of Elsey's tenure. Elsey spent the next five years running the Detroit Children's Fund before founding the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative in 2022. Elsey has a master's degree of education in educational leadership from the Broad Center at the Yale School of Management. Lily Laux Laux spent nearly seven years at the Early in her career, Laux was a middle school teacher in Memphis City Schools at a Title I middle school for nearly two years from 2006-08. Starting in 2008, she worked for about nine years for Teach for America as an advisor and manager of a training institute, Laux is currently the Laux has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in history, political theory, sociology, and education. Related : Advertisement Pedro Martinez Martinez is the recently fired CEO of Chicago Public Schools, a district of more than 325,000 students with a budget of more than $9 billion. In 2015, he was a finalist for Martinez has led multiple school districts, previously serving as superintendent of Reno, Nevada's Washoe County School District and as superintendent of the San Diego Independent School District. He also served as 'superintendent in residence' for the Nevada Department of Education. Twice in his career, Martinez has ended up in a public dispute with his employers, including Chicago Public Schools. While working as superintendent in Washoe County, Nev., he was fired in 2014 by that school district after about two years on the job, after building tensions with the teachers union. He took legal action against the board and will stay until June, under the terms of his contract. Like Elsey, Martinez is an alum of the Yale's Broad Center. An immigrant from Mexico who arrived in Chicago with his family when he was 5, he was the first in his family to graduate high school and attend college. Globe staff writer James Vaznis contributed to this story. This is a developing story and will be updated. John Hilliard can be reached at
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former school board member officially wins seat in SC House
Courtney Waters was officially elected to the represent the House's 113th District on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Courtney Waters) South Carolina's newest legislator is a former Charleston County school board member and the state's Teach for America director. Democrat Courtney Waters, 35, officially won a seat Tuesday representing North Charleston in the state House. She was unopposed in the special election after defeating a pair of opponents in January's Democratic primary. She expects to be sworn in Tuesday. Waters paints herself as a Democratic voice willing to reach across the aisle. She said her focus will be education, affordable housing, child care, abortion access, and the environment. 'I'm just looking forward to knowing the system better and figuring out how to make it work for District 113,' she told the SC Daily Gazette Tuesday night. She will assume the seat left vacant by former Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, who resigned in September amid a state investigation into claims he settled a former client's lawsuit without telling him, then tried to buy him off to prevent the allegations from becoming public. After SC legislator resigned, he won anyway. Now a special election is set. Pendarvis won re-election anyway in November as the only candidate on the ballot. He declined to re-take the seat, triggering the special election. Waters served on the Charleston County school board from 2020-2024, an experience that she said served as a catalyst for her new role. 'After my time on the school board, I was fortunate that enough people appreciated my service there that folks asked if I'd consider running,' Waters said. The North Charleston native received nearly 70% of the vote in a three-way primary in January. Michelle Brandt, the state Democratic Party's third vice chair, was far behind at 28%, followed by Kim Clark, with less than 2% of votes cast. No Republican ran for the heavily Democratic seat. Waters' supporters included two Democratic state senators: Deon Tedder, who won a special election in November 2023 for a district that includes North Charleston, and Ed Sutton, who last November won a seat representing areas including downtown Charleston and West Ashley. Tedder, who first met Waters at a training event held by the Legislative Black Caucus on how to run a campaign, was elected to the state House as Waters won her seat on the school board. He described Waters as a well-respected, outspoken person who can explain complicated issues to constituents. 'I knew she was the right person for the job,' he said.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Perspective: The dangerous politics of precedent
Have you ever heard of Gerald Walpin? I doubt it. In fact, I probably wouldn't have heard of him either if I hadn't been a law clerk for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2009, when he was investigating Walpin's firing. Walpin was an inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs programs like 'Teach for America.' He was removed by then-President Barack Obama after he created problems for an ally of Obama's. Inspectors general are again in the news for the wrong reasons. Shortly after he took office, President Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general for major agencies like the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Department of the Interior. He also fired the inspector general for USAID. This is making bigger headlines than Walpin's firing did. To his credit, Grassley is among those who objected. Inspectors general are charged with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in government agencies. They are supposed to be insulated from political pressure, removable only for cause and only after 30 days notice to Congress, neither of which was applied to Walpin, or any of Trump's firings. Walpin never got his job back, and it seems even less likely that Trump's actions will be reversed, despite a lawsuit filed for wrongful termination. In the bigger picture, this is another example of small abuses leading to much bigger ones — an abuse of precedent. Take the pardons issued the day Trump took office. Joe Biden's preemptive pardons of family members who had been accused of shady business dealings were an outrage. But just a few hours later, Trump pardoned those convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol who marched in his name. Both outrages were preceded by Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, a tax cheat whose family also donated to Democratic Party causes, nearly a quarter-century earlier. While it seems almost quaint now, at the time, Rich's pardon raised bipartisan outrage. In the span of 24 years, we went from a relatively mild abuse of the pardon that caused widespread outrage, to much more concerning ones happening twice in a few hours. Another example is the tit-for-tat removal of security clearance that we saw with both Biden and Trump. In 2021, Biden removed Trump's security clearance and intelligence briefings, citing Trump's actions and inactions on that Jan. 6. This hadn't been done to any president before. Not surprisingly, Trump did the same to Biden. With alarming speed, we went from this never happening to the prospect of it happening every four years. Those who want to do so in the future will find reasons — or excuses. And sometimes, yes, while they might have legitimate cause, if this continues, it's another example of the weaponization of precedent. The consequences of this spiral can be disastrous. Indeed, they can backfire. In 2010, Barack Obama famously said, 'I'm president, I'm not king,' in explaining why he couldn't unilaterally change immigration policy. Years later, Obama attempted to do so anyway with his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which allowed illegal immigrants who came here as children to stay. This was widely considered to be well beyond his authority without Congress, even according to Obama himself. The litigation has been going on ever since, and it increasingly looks like it's going to be declared unconstitutional for good. In the meantime, Trump was able to make the Democrats' laxness on illegal immigration the centerpiece of this 2016 and 2024 campaigns. Even those who favor DACA as a policy thought that Obama's method, likely — and deservedly — to be found illegal by the courts, was going to backfire. Congress could have told Obama that an attempted end run-around on this issue would have backfired. They were hearing from their constituents. A compromise that legislated the DACA policy along with meaningful border enforcement? This would likely have had widespread support. But Obama had poisoned the well. Now, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are rampaging around the government, looking for waste. If this sounds familiar, it's probably because in 2009, Obama brought on a series of 'czars' that some congressional Republicans said 'raised serious concerns' since they had 'undetermined powers.' Increasingly, both parties seem to be locked in a power struggle, with both using authoritarian means to dubious ends, oblivious to the costs. I have my own opinion on which 'side' is worse at the moment — and why — but I think that's secondary to the deeper issue. Both sides need to hold their own accountable, and stop excusing dubious actions with the bad precedents of previous administrations. If we don't, rock bottom is just around the corner. Cliff Smith is a lawyer and former congressional staffer. He lives in Washington, D.C., where he works on national security related issues. His views are his own.
Associated Press
11-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Gireesh Kambala Receives a 2025 Global Recognition Award for State and Federal Digital Innovation and Leadership
Gireesh Kambala, a distinguished technology leader, received a 2025 Global Recognition Award for enhancing federal digital infrastructure and talent development. His innovative solutions improved government efficiency by thirty-five percent, while eighty-five percent of his mentees advanced to senior roles during his remarkable two-decade career. Photo Courtesy of Gireesh Kambala NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gireesh Kambala, an esteemed technology leader and digital solutions expert, has received a 2025 Global Recognition Award for his major contributions to state and federal digital infrastructure and global talent development. His achievements in technology innovation, process optimization, and international mentorship have set new standards in information technology. Through a career spanning over two decades, Kambala's expertise has shaped critical systems for organizations such as Teach for America, the General Services Administration (GSA), and the State of Georgia. Technical Excellence Kambala's innovative solutions have redefined operations for federal and state agencies. By designing sophisticated headless Drupal systems, he streamlined complex workflows and strengthened data security. His integration of Salesforce APIs into diverse platforms enhanced inter-departmental functionality, reducing data reporting times from seconds to milliseconds and significantly improving system responsiveness. Under Kambala's leadership, federal systems achieved 99.9 percent uptime reliability and 35 percent faster response times through strategic legacy system migrations. His emphasis on modern development practices and robust security protocols has fortified government digital infrastructure, protecting sensitive data while delivering measurable efficiency gains. These improvements have also led to substantial cost savings for federal agencies, reducing operational expenditures by 35 percent. Kambala's commitment to accessibility is equally noteworthy. He ensured that technology solutions remain accessible to thousands of users, demonstrating his dedication to inclusivity and user experience by implementing comprehensive Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance measures. His work on developing structured onboarding and training systems has further enhanced digital literacy, allowing users of all skill levels to efficiently navigate complex platforms. Strategic Digital Transformation in Government and Education Kambala has played a pivotal role in transforming digital ecosystems within both government and education. At the State of Georgia's Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH), he led the development of a modernized eCourt system after two major vendors had failed to deliver a viable solution over six years. By identifying inefficiencies and implementing a tailored, scalable case management system, he reduced manual workloads by 35 percent and streamlined judicial processes, setting a new benchmark for digital legal systems. His work at Teach for America (TFA) underscores his ability to drive large-scale digital transformation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he spearheaded the transition of TFA's in-person Institute into a fully virtual training program. By designing a centralized platform with user-friendly onboarding, progress tracking, and region-specific insights, he ensured that corps members remained fully prepared for their teaching roles despite the shift to remote learning. This initiative not only maintained the quality of training but also reinforced TFA's mission of educational equity. Kambala led the development of TFA's Alumni Directory, a strategic solution aimed at strengthening professional networking. By implementing an iterative feedback process and a phased development strategy, he built a robust system that fostered long-term engagement within TFA's extensive alumni network. Leadership Development Kambala's ability to inspire and lead high-performing global teams has been a cornerstone of his success. By introducing structured Agile methodologies and promoting a culture of continuous improvement, he achieved a 30 percent improvement in project completion rates while maintaining the highest quality assurance standards. Through his leadership roles at International Business Machines (IBM), Enliven Technologies, Collabera, and Teach for America, Kambala has driven measurable improvements by focusing on cultural integration and mentorship. Survey responses from team members consistently rate his leadership as exemplary, highlighting his focus on ethical practices and integrity. Through targeted skill development programs and regular feedback sessions, Kambala has cultivated a culture of collaboration and growth, driving sustainable team productivity and satisfaction. His systematic approach to project management has enabled federal stakeholders to exceed their goals consistently. Shaping the Future of AI and IT Innovation Looking ahead, Kambala envisions a future where artificial intelligence (AI) plays an integral role in optimizing digital operations, particularly in education and government. His initiatives focus on leveraging AI for personalized learning experiences, automating complex workflows, and strengthening cybersecurity measures to combat emerging digital threats. As a strong advocate for accessibility, Kambala is dedicated to ensuring AI-driven solutions serve diverse populations equitably. His future projects aim to integrate AI into educational technology, providing tailored training programs that adapt to the individual learning needs of students and professionals alike. By harnessing AI's predictive analytics, he seeks to enhance decision-making capabilities across government agencies, ensuring policies and programs are driven by data-driven insights. Kambala also recognizes the importance of cybersecurity in an increasingly interconnected world. His commitment to implementing advanced encryption protocols, real-time threat detection, and automated compliance monitoring underscores his dedication to safeguarding critical digital infrastructure. His efforts are focused on setting new security benchmarks that ensure resilience against evolving cyber threats. Global Impact International teams at IBM, Enliven Technologies, Collabera, and Teach for America have achieved measurable improvements through Kambala's management methods focusing on cultural integration. Mentorship programs developed under his guidance help junior developers master complex technical skills while building leadership capabilities across multiple countries, ensuring consistent professional growth. Statistical analysis reveals that 85 percent of program participants advance to senior positions within three years of completion, validating the effectiveness of his development approach. Professional development initiatives created by Kambala maintain 95 percent satisfaction rates among participating team members worldwide, reflecting his commitment to excellence. Remote teams demonstrate increased technical proficiency through structured guidance programs, which adapt to various cultural contexts while maintaining high standards. Documentation shows consistently high retention levels among professionals who complete his comprehensive development curriculum, proving the long-term value of his mentorship approach. 'The selection committee unanimously recognized Gireesh Kambala's exceptional contributions to technological advancement and leadership development in the state and federal sector, which have established new industry standards,' states Alex Sterling, spokesperson for Global Recognition Awards. 'His system architecture and mentorship achievements demonstrate the caliber of excellence our organization seeks to celebrate, while his implementation strategies provide a model for future innovations. The measurable improvements in efficiency, security, and professional development under his guidance exemplify the standards of innovation and leadership that will continue to influence information technology practices for years to come.' Global Recognition Awards is an international organization that recognizes exceptional companies and individuals who have significantly contributed to their industry. Contact Information Spokesperson: Alex Sterling
