Late Night News Report

Two major happenings.

First is in the Marysville Strike. No, nothing good.

The Marysville Education Association has updated their website to include more information about why the strike is taking place, including the fact that the administration has been gobbling up more and more of the percentage of funds available to the district. Also noted is the method that the administration is using to try to "prove" that teachers are paid too much: by including all supplemental income in the list of teachers' salaries, but none of the same sort of supplemental income in the list of administrators' salaries.

The school board also refused to show up for the parents' meeting held at the library last night, although they were asked to come and explain their policies. Initial reports say that the crowd of parents was standing room only. I'm waiting for more news on that.

Students are in their second night of the sit-in. The district refused to allow the students to stay on district property after dark, even guarded by most of Marysville's finest, so neighbors across the street allowed the kids to pitch their tents on their front lawn. Yesterday the teachers and students were together. Some 300 teachers with 100 or so students in front of the district office. Depending on which newscast you watched, the students were either supporting the teachers, or annoyed at the teachers for taking their limelight. The organizers of the student sit-in are trying to stay neutral, but it's clear that many students are taking sides.

According to the Seattle P.I., no progress was made in the negotiations. They are meeting again 10 am today. From earlier reports, the mediator has issued a strict gag order on the negotiating teams for some reason, so all we should hear from them is whether or not progress is being made. It sounds like it's not.

The second major happening is comic book related.

I'll let you go read for yourself if you haven't already heard from fifteen other sources. Basically, CrossGen has gone "normal". Instead of having their studio with salaried artists and writers, they are going to page-rates and no insurance. This will be a painful change for some of the folks down there, and it doesn't bode well for the future of the company. I hope they can hold it together, but I'm not sure how much room for hope there is.