Intercepts

Where is Inside Labor and who drove it off the Internet?

It may be coincidental, but I find it disturbing when a site that has existed for more than a year gets wiped from the blogosphere a mere four days after it receives a favorable mention and a link here on Intercepts.

Here's all I know:

Inside Labor, launched in July 2005 by a blogger known only as "Laborite," contained much news and unique information about America's labor unions, with sometimes pointed commentary. However, there was no doubt that Laborite was pro-union. In one of his/her last entries, Laborite posted a lengthy examination of AFT's organizing plans, and cited material available only to AFT leaders and top staff. If you want to view Inside Labor as it was last seen, visit the Google cache. The AFT entry is July 20.

Soon after I mentioned the blog here, it disappeared from Blogger. Soon after that, an auto insurance company grabbed the domain name.

I wouldn't have made much of this development, but then I came across this. Before disappearing, Laborite apparently posted the message, "When the cyber-attack stops, the blog goes back up."

This is outrageous. If, through the magic of the Internet, Laborite sees this, he/she can post here, unedited, until Inside Labor finds a new home. I hope others who may have a longer history with Laborite will come to Inside Labor's defense.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 18:45 | Permalink | Comments

As I write this, I'm certain officials and staff of the Oklahoma Education Association, in concert with their colleagues at NEA, are crafting a statement to explain why today's dismissal, with prejudice, of their public education "adequacy and equity" in funding lawsuit, isn't really a defeat. Or maybe the spin will be that it is evidence of the right wing's control over the judicial system. Or something. I have confidence in the union's PR professionals.

The lawsuit was filed with much fanfare, with the help of a three-year, $5 per member annual assessment, and certainly a great deal of legal and staff help from NEA. You can read all the buildup on OEA’s web site.

Five dollars isn't a lot of money, but I'm thinking that right about now, OEA members would rather have used it for a hefty latte and a muffin rather than court fees for a frivolous lawsuit.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:32 | Permalink | Comments

Some other countries have much more entertaining teachers' unions than we have. Take for instance South Korea.

The Busan chapter of the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers' Union held a seminar last year for its members, and authorities have only just learned that more than two-thirds of a 92-page booklet distributed to union members was lifted verbatim from a North Korean history textbook.

The book is filled with North Korean propaganda, which is well-known for its lack of subtlety. One passage reads, "The hero Gen. Kim Il-sung, revered and fervently awaited by his Korean brethren, emerged in a commanding manner."

The material is occasionally educational. I, for one, didn't know that Great Leader was a libertarian. "The people of North Korea are the happy few at last liberated from taxation for the first time in the world," reads an excerpt.

The Digital Chosunilbo found the union antics less amusing. In an editorial headlined, "Teachers' Union Headed Over the Cliff," the editors declared, "The union spreads outmoded ideologies, turns education into a battleground, pits teacher against teacher depending on whether they are members, and disrupts every program it finds arduous or disadvantageous to it such as teacher evaluations, performance bonuses, English education at the primary level, stratifying students by academic ability, extra-curricular activities, independent private high schools and foreign-language high schools."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:02 | Permalink | Comments

I reported yesterday that "all 39 vice presidents" of AFT were returned to office. That was incorrect. What actually happened was that 32 vice presidents were returned to office, and 7 new ones were elected to open seats. No one was defeated for reelection. EIA apologizes for the error.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:24 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) AFT Goes on Record in Opposition to War in Iraq
2) Delegates Pass "Boycott Wal-Mart" Resolution
3) Shock Result! Everyone Reelected
4) Today's Commie Commentary
5) Scheduling Note
6) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:15 | Permalink | Comments

It has been a long slog, but the AFT Convention wrapped up at 11:45 a.m. by referring all left-over resolutions to the union's Executive Council. Delegates in the half-empty hall finished things by singing "Solidarity Forever."

All I could think of was how cool it would have been if Ed McElroy had said, "Before we adjourn, let us all join hands and rock out with a chorus of Aqualung!"

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:10 | Permalink | Comments

Until today I had never heard of the Inside Labor blog, but the pro-labor site has, quite frankly, much better information about AFT's internal problems than anything I've been able to turn up this week.

It might also cause some chagrin at AFT HQ that the blogger, identified only as Laborite, is a lot more critical of the union's "culture of organizing" plan than I've been.

It's a lengthy blog entry, but well worth reading all of it.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 17:34 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) "AFT Calls Higher Education Teaching the Wal-Mart of the Professions"
2) Tiananmen Square Activist Speaks to Delegates
3) Action Taken on Resolutions
4) Guam Guy's Very Specialized Role
5) Today's Commie Commentary
6) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 17:12 | Permalink | Comments

Big thanks to the Massachusetts NEA delegate who stopped by the Boston Convention Center with two knishes for me. If you don't know what those are, well, that's why we need to expand ethnic diversity training.

AFT John came over and introduced himself, and while we're not likely to agree on the big issues, we came to the mutual conclusion that good grammar was, er, good.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:20 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) AFT Passes Strong Pro-Israel Resolution
2) Send In the Pols
3) Dues Increase Passes
4) In Support of Union Schools 2.0
5) Today's Commie Commentary
6) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 18:29 | Permalink | Comments

For another take on the AFT Convention, visit the completely disinterested AFT NCLBlog, where they are down on my Jesuit education, but yet have mastered the art of hagiography.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 15:17 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) McElroy's Keynote Speech Covers the Bases
2) National Dues Increase on the Agenda
3) Upcoming AFT Resolutions
4) In Support of Union Schools
5) Fair and Balanced
6) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 19:29 | Permalink | Comments

Every time I attend a union convention, I learn something new. This year, at the opening session of the 2006 AFT Convention in Boston, I learned from AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour that the Boston Tea Party, and demonstrations against the Stamp Act and the Boston Massacre were "labor-related protests." In other words, the Founding Fathers were proto-union activists!

Of course, it's due to my bourgeois upbringing and fascistic Jesuit education that up until today, I thought the Townshend Acts, the Stamp Act and the Tea Act caused unrest and ultimately revolution because they were unpopular taxes forced upon small business owners by a distant and unresponsive government who treated Americans not as equal participants but as squawking geese to be plucked for their hard-earned cash.

We better get that labor education curriculum in the schools quickly, so that today's students don't grow up with the misapprehensions I did.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:35 | Permalink | Comments

EIA travels to Boston today for the American Federation of Teachers Convention. The first report will appear on the Convention page of this web site. Time and energy permitting, other tidbits will appear daily on Intercepts.

While I experience the earthly delight that is modern air travel, amuse yourselves with these:

* The Record continues its series on public sector unions in New Jersey with a penetrating look at teacher tenure. The story has many pungent quotes, but my favorite came from New Jersey Education Association rep George Lambert, who said:


* The New York Times editorial board dissects the U.S. Department of Education’s public/private school comparison study and comes to the conclusion that "on average, American schoolchildren are performing at mediocre levels in reading, math and science — wherever they attend school."

The Times also singled out NEA President Reg Weaver's quote about public schools doing "an outstanding job" and said that position "seems absurd."

* The apotheosis of AFT's blog also stalled a bit. The union's bloggers predicted that the public/private school study would be released on a Friday and they were right, if two weeks off on the date. This got the blog a mention in the New York Times’ story on the report’s release and pats on the back all around.

But the theory behind the prediction was, in the words of AFT's bloggers, "So, if the report comes on this pre-holiday Friday, we can surmise that in the topsy-turvy worldview of the Bush Administration, when students in public schools outperform students in charter schools and private schools, it's bad news to be buried at the bottom of the news cycle. Ugh."

As with all bad conspiracy theories, the evil schemers are credited with being both fiendishly clever and incredibly stupid. Burying an unfavorable education report until a summer Friday might be fiendishly clever, but burying it until a few days before you introduce a $100 million national school voucher program is incredibly stupid.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:45 | Permalink | Comments

The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey, is running a six-part series this week on government employee unions, including the New Jersey Education Association. Titled "Runaway Pay," the series examines the salaries, benefits and political clout achieved by the state's public sector labor unions.

One of Monday's stories profiled NJEA Assistant Executive Director Vincent Giordano and is an excellent story about the origins of NJEA's power. The Record is providing some old-school labor reporting. It's rare, so read it before it disappears forever.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:12 | Permalink | Comments

If I read the wonderfully titled report Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling correctly, there is virtually no difference between the math and reading test scores of public and private school students when corrected for various characteristics of students, teachers and schools.

This is bad news for private schools (and when the same results exist for charters, for them as well). If you are going to sell yourself as the superior alternative to traditional public schools, you have to produce results. Reading and math scores on the NAEP tests are excellent measures of academic results, though -- as my friends at NEA and AFT always tell me -- not the only measures.

National Education Association President Reg Weaver was correct when he told the New York Times that had the results been different, "there would have been press conferences and glowing statements about private schools."

Where Reg went wrong, however, was when he said that the results showed public schools were "doing an outstanding job." Standardized test scores are the measures used by the bad guys -- you know, people like me -- to evaluate schools. What about all the measures the unions claim are important?

Private schools spend about two-thirds what public schools spend.

Private school teachers make about two-thirds what public school teachers make, with nowhere near the same benefits.

Private schools have fewer certified teachers, fewer teachers with a master's degree or better, and fewer teachers with more than three years' teaching experience.

Though I have no data for this, I also suspect that private school teachers have fewer opportunities for teacher training and professional development.

What about all those tiny private school class sizes? There are no comparable class size statistics available for public or private schools, but student/teacher ratio should suffice. In 2001, the ratio was 15.9 for public schools, 15.2 for private. That's a small advantage for private schools, but since 1989 the ratio for public schools was reduced by 1.3 students, while the private school ratio increased by 1.4 students.

The report is bad news for private schools, but how much worse is it for public schools? After spending much more money on schools, teachers, advanced degrees, experience, training, certification, and class size reduction, the best the public school system can do is match the private school system in reading and math?

If you're fighting privatization, you shouldn't be cheering when the private sector provides the same service with the same results from the same students -- at a 33% discount. That is not a winning argument.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:08 | Permalink | Comments

The North Dakota Supreme Court let stand a ruling that the Kenmare school district could offer and pay more money to fill a speech-language pathologist position. The district's action was the subject of a lawsuit by the Kenmare Education Association (KEA).

The union filed suit in July 2005, after a state fact-finding committee recommended the district be allowed to offer an additional $15,000 in salary to find a taker for the hard-to-fill position. The union asserted that paying a pathologist more money than was proscribed by the salary scale violated the collective bargaining agreement.

Last November, a state district court judge upheld the district's action, prompting KEA President Donna Schmit to say, "For one individual to be allowed to negotiate up to $15,000 additional salary is wrong."

The state Supreme Court decision is worth combing through, as it takes a few slaps at the union and its claims. Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner noted, "KEA claimed giving the School District the discretion to increase an individual's salary would usurp the organization's power and allow for individual contract negotiations."

Justice Kapsner dispensed with KEA's claim that the district had negotiated in bad faith. "KEA's argument is premised on the erroneous assumption that contracts formed without KEA's consent are bad faith per se," she wrote.

She also put a stop to any claim the union had to exclusive representation. Noting that the word "exclusive" does not appear in the state's collective bargaining statute, Justice Kapsner reviewed the legislative history to find that in 2001, the North Dakota Education Association attempted to insert language into a teacher bargaining bill that would have given the union the "exclusive right to represent" and state that individuals "may not enter into independent negotiations with board." But this language was struck from the final bill.

In this lawsuit, therefore, "KEA is asserting a position that was rejected by the Legislative Assembly," Justice Kapsner wrote.

Unions going to court to fight against pay increases is an old story (item #4). This time, the good guys won.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:33 | Permalink | Comments

On April 19, 2005, EIA reported a story with the headline "Short List of Suspects in Michigan Union Theft Case." The item read:

"The Daily Mining Gazette reported that police are investigating possible embezzlement at the Michigan Education Association field office in Hancock. The paper cited an unidentified source with knowledge of the case who claimed as much as $100,000 may be missing. Denis Skoglund, the UniServ director for the area, confirmed the investigation was taking place but refused to provide additional details.

"'We are saddened by these allegations and are cooperating fully with authorities,' he said."

"I'm no Hercule Poirot, but only two people work in the Hancock office and Skoglund is one of them. Doesn't that narrow the list of suspects considerably? Let's see how long it takes to crack this case."

That week I heard from NEA members and officials concerned that I had implicated Skoglund in the theft. So the following week I issued this item:

"Concern was expressed in some NEA circles that last week's item about the alleged embezzlement at the Michigan Education Association's Hancock office indirectly implicated UniServ director Denis Skoglund as the suspect. Since that's the exact opposite of what I meant to imply, let me state here for the record that Mr. Skoglund is not a suspect. Since he is acting as MEA's spokesperson on the matter his innocence seems perfectly clear to me and should be clear to all my readers as well. Please re-read last week's story with this in mind."

It was obvious to me upon reading the original story that if two people worked in the office, and one was acting as public spokesman on the case, that it had to be the other person who had committed the embezzlement. I knew the person's name, but without proof, or even a single published account naming her, it would have been potentially libelous to identify her as the culprit. So I wrote what I wrote.

Last Monday, Susan Lynn Gregg, the other employee in MEA's Hancock office, pleaded guilty to making false statements on a loan application. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. Investigators discovered Gregg had misappropriated some $250,000 worth of bad checks, bank loans and credit card charges.

Skoglund discovered Gregg's fraud in March 2005 and reported it to police.

This story bothered me - not because I had to issue a clarification - but because I had to issue a clarification after failing to speak freely to state the obvious. I'm glad the facts have been revealed, the matter laid to rest, and the guilty punished.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:36 | Permalink | Comments

The South Carolina Education Association chose former Denver Public Schools Superintendent Sidney "Chip" Zullinger as its new executive director. Zullinger replaces Richard Miller, who resigned abruptly in February under mysterious circumstances.

The executive director is the union's chief of staff, in charge of all the organization's employees, from managers to UniServ directors to office personnel. Zullinger is an unusual choice, as NEA affiliates rarely hire top officials from outside of the union.

Since 1983, Zullinger has held superintendent jobs throughout the country -- Yancey County and Sampson County in North Carolina, Natrona County in Wyoming, and Charleston County in South Carolina from 1996-1999, before being named to the superintendent position in Denver.

Zullinger's Denver contract was bought out by the school board after only nine months on the job, amid disputes over his leadership style. Zullinger's last position was as superintendent in Manassas, Virginia, where the school board decided not to renew his contract last October. His tenure there ended with some dispute over his performance.

Before he was named to the SCEA executive director position, Zullinger was in the running for the superintendent job in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sonia Diaz was selected for that job last month.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:39 | Permalink | Comments

Former New York Daily News reporter Joe Williams puts NEA's research funding under the microscope in a new report for Education Sector.

Echo Chamber: The National Education Association's Campaign Against NCLB highlights the union's financial relationships with various organizations that oppose the No Child Left Behind Act, including NEA's own creation, Communities for Quality Education.

USA Today gets reaction.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:54 | Permalink | Comments

On July 4, EIA reported on New Business Item 46, which was to be debated the next day. Only July 5, it was withdrawn before debate. The item read:

"The NEA will publish a detailed article to inform its membership of the implications directly related to patronizing COSTCO. The article will include information on the ownership of COSTCO, its policies toward human rights and justice and the effects that supporting COSTCO and China's policies have upon the manufacturing and textile industries in the United States."

When I first read this, I thought COSTCO was involved in some sweatshop deal with the Chinese. But I laughed out loud when I read the rationale submitted with the new business item, which reads:

"Manufacturing jobs are being lost in the U.S. at a record pace, while the Americans pump billions of dollars every year into the China Overseas Trading Company (COSTCO). China's use of slave labor grants it an unfair advantage in trade, which should not be supported by citizens."

This NBI was introduced (and withdrawn) by Kathleen Flaherty of Connecticut, and it was signed by 50 delegates in order to get it on the convention agenda.

As you've probably figured out by now, there is a China Overseas Trading Company, called COTCO, and there is a China Ocean Shipping Company, called COSCO, neither of which is likely to be patronized by NEA members (unless they own a dockyard).

COSTCO is a chain of big-box stores headquartered in Issaquah, Washington. It has nothing to do with COTCO and COSCO.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:03 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) This Way to the Egress
2) Action on NBIs and Other Business
3) Scheduling Note
4) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 19:36 | Permalink | Comments

* The mayor showed up to welcome us on the last day!

* NEA Friend of Education Tom Joyner didn't show up!

* Wisconsin Education Association Council President Stan Johnson agreed to shave off his moustache if his delegates raised a certain level of PAC contributions. They did, and thousands of people watched as he shaved it off. So I owe an apology to education reporters all over the country for my previous criticism of their not covering the NEA convention. With each one you miss, you show better judgment than mine.

* The shave took longer than the debate on Resolution B-10.

* Jim Mordecai of the Oakland Education Association described Oakland as "the Guantanamo of California." I didn't understand his analogy. Was he saying:

a) Oakland is an outpost of freedom on the edge of a communist dictatorship?

b) Oakland is a place where people who want to destroy the United States are sequestered?

c) Oakland is a place where people fling feces at U.S. soldiers?

d) Oakland is a place where people are held against their will?

Some of these California leftists delve too deep for me to understand.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 16:47 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) EIA Exclusive: Data from NEA's Most Recent Member and Local President Survey
2) NEA Booster Club Defeated
3) National Toddlers of the Year
4) Other Action on NBIs and Legislative Amendments
5) Upcoming Business
6) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 19:38 | Permalink | Comments

Happy Independence Day!

* Met and talked with NEA's director of Collective Bargaining and Member Advocacy Bill Raabe about a subject that consumes both of our lives - running. Bill, however, is on an entirely different athletic plane. He ran the 2006 Boston Marathon in 2:55:49, finishing 679th overall (that's in a field of 20,000) and an amazing 15th in his age group. I could conceivably reach that velocity, but only if dropped from the top of a tall building.

* A teacher from San Jose complimented me on my grammar. She may be the first teacher in my life to do so.

* NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen sang and played the guitar during today's July 4th celebration. I would consider playing bass guitar in her backup band, but the only song I think we might be able to negotiate playing together is “Teacher” by Jethro Tull.

* NEA celebrated the 4th in typical fashion, which means it was more like Festivus than anything to do with this thing and these guys. Thankfully, there was a true patriotic moment today at the convention when everyone actually put aside their differences and united for a single purpose. NEA interrupted business to show the shuttle launch live on the big screens in the convention hall. And everyone in the hall watched in rapt attention as Discovery's crew performed an awesome lift-off and ascent into space. It was a few minutes worth savoring.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 16:13 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) NEA's Accountability Plan: Money to Reward Success, Money to Correct Failure
2) Today's Action on New Business Items
3) Upcoming New Business and Other Agenda Items
4) Dueling Plato
5) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 17:56 | Permalink | Comments

* Yesterday someone said, "NEA is the largest professional employee organization in the history of this nation." Without checking myself, I suppose that's true. And yet people still ask me why I bother covering NEA.

* Actually got to eat in a restaurant today! Had the fish and chips, which consisted of what seemed to be two deep-fried whales and a 20-pound bag of potatoes. I wouldn't have been able to carry it all, much less eat it all.

* Having been an editor, and having edited my own stuff for a very long time, I notice that a fundamental difference between my editing and the editing NEA delegates do with new business items is that I'm always removing words, and they're always adding them. I'm sure someone can account for this -- probably that our differing libertarian vs. liberal fiscal philosophies carry over into the arena of words.

* Another difference is that when a delegate reads something in an old NEA Handbook called The Nine Principles of Education Excellence, thinks it's useful, but notices it's no longer in the new NEA Handbook, he goes through all the trouble of writing up a new business item to get it restored, gathers 50 signatures to get it placed on the agenda, goes to state and special interest delegations to drum up support, writes up a two-minute speech to present it to the convention, and goes through an extensive debate and vote before, yes, it gets restored to the NEA Handbook, which is issued to a small number of NEA leaders and officials.

Me, I would have just e-mailed it, posted it on a website or blog, or even xeroxed it to hand it out to people -- and gotten greater dissemination with less than half the bother. Maybe there's a public sector lobe in the brain and I just don't have it.

* Passed along my heartfelt thanks to Eric Feaver, president of the merged Montana NEA-AFT affiliate and runner extraordinaire, who gave me some good advice at the convention last year that helped get me through my first marathon last December. He can still leave me in the dust, but I'm trying to catch up.

* "No Chocolate Left Behind" -- seen on a delegate's t-shirt.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 15:14 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) The Secret of the NEA Fan Club Revealed!
2) Reg Is Right! Theorists Aren't the Experts, Educators Are
3) Delegates Approve New Mission Statement
4) Action on New Business Items
5) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 19:23 | Permalink | Comments

We ran late today so I'll have to keep this one short:

* Don't buy a bagel in the Orlando Convention Center. I walked the half-mile to my seat before I discovered the flip-side of mine was green and fuzzy.

* Someone asked me if I get to have any fun while covering the convention. Last night I had enough time to iron my shirts and watch a 30-minute computer recreation of the Battle of Pharsalus on the History Channel.

* My good friend Lu Battaglieri stopped by to say hi and compare me to a canker. He was paying me a compliment. Really.

* An education reporter covering the convention for the first time told me, "This is so mind-numbing" -- and this on the first day. Yes, it's novocaine for the brain, but that's only so it doesn't hurt so much when you think about it.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 16:42 | Permalink | Comments

Mike Antonucci is angry with Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman.

Not me. The other Mike Antonucci.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 05:38 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) "Measurable Outcomes" the New Mantra for NEA Budget
2) Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund Put to Use
3) Ten State Affiliates to Receive Media Fund Money in 2006-07
4) NBIs, Committee Reports, and Assorted Flotsam
5) NEA Convention Diary – Day 1
6) Quote of the Day

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 15:27 | Permalink | Comments

The actual "news" from the NEA Representative Assembly will appear on the convention page of the EIA web site, and in your e-mail, but I thought I'd jot down some unconnected observations as I go through this routine for the ninth time.

* There are the beginnings of a notion of a study of a plan to consider moving the NEA convention off the July 4th holiday. NEA contracts convention centers about 10 years in advance, so if this ever gets done, it won't happen until after 2016. If I'm still around by then, I would really appreciate spending Independence Day in a more patriotic manner.

* I got in at about 1 a.m. The Rosen Centre Hotel has a 24-hour deli, which was nice because all they fed us on the aircraft was croutons and dog biscuits. If you think I'm kidding, you haven't flown in a long time. There was some loud boozing going on in the hotel lounge, and evidently in the room next to mine, where the following intellectual argument was taking place:

Person #1: "No way!"

Person #2: "It's true."

Person #1: "C'mon..."

Person #2: "I'm serious."

Person #1: "NO WAY!"

And so on.

* Got up early to run a nice four-mile loop around the area. It was peaceful and quiet at 7 a.m. in the no man's land behind the North/South building of the convention center. Orlando must be nice without the tourists, but I'm sure Hawaiians say the same thing about Waikiki.

* Greeted some familiar faces, which was nice, because some unfamiliar faces seemed all jacked up by my presence. Calm down, people. I'm just writing. Besides, you’ve got other things to worry about.

* NEA officials mentioned at the budget meeting that next year's convention in Philadelphia will be significantly more expensive than this year's. I wonder why.

* Stopped by to see the other convention in the building: the Florida Roofing, Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors Association. That tub of Karnak 98 Asphalt Emulsion they have on display might seem interesting after four more days here.

* Give me a couple of hours and you'll be knee-deep in convention news and analysis.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:01 | Permalink | Comments