News while traveling

Yours truly is currently in transit. However, two items are in the news today:

1) The AFSCME strike is now off. A settlement was reached at the last minute. (It is not unusual for negotiations to conclude at deadlines.)

From the LA Times:

A strike that would have disrupted operations affecting thousands of University of California hospital patients and students was averted at the 11th hour Thursday morning after UC and leaders of 40,000 union members reached a tentative agreement, winning raises and capped healthcare costs for workers...

From the NY Times:

The University of California, Los Angeles, should toughen its approach to combating antisemitism, an internal committee recommended Thursday, after the Trump administration and many students and faculty members said it had not done enough to curb harassment of Jews on campus...

Some of the recommendations in Thursday’s report fall beyond U.C.L.A.’s authority. For example, the group suggested that the University of California as a whole consider using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism....

Dozens of American universities have adopted the definition, including Columbia and Harvard last year. In March, the University of California, Berkeley, agreed as a part of a legal settlement that it would continue to consider the definition and its examples “whenever investigating or assessing claims of discrimination or harassment against Jews or Israeli individuals.” The president of the University of California system, James B. Milliken, did not immediately commit to embracing the definition across its 10 campuses. But Mr. Milliken hailed U.C.L.A.’s efforts as “important and impressive” and said, “Antisemitism is antithetical to the core values of the University of California, and it is essential that we continue to demonstrate this principle through our policies and actions.” ...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/us/ucla-considers-new-tactics-to-combat-antisemitism.html.