L.A. teachers approve pact
LOS ANGELES — Teachers overwhelmingly approved a new contract Tuesday and planned to return to the classroom after a six-day strike over funding and staffing in the Los Angeles school district.
Although all votes hadn’t been counted, preliminary figures showed that a “vast supermajority” of some 30,000 educators voted in favor of the tentative deal, “therefore ending the strike and heading back to schools tomorrow,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, accompanied by leaders of the union and district, announced the agreement a few hours after a 21-hour bargaining session ended before dawn. “This is a good agreement. It is a historic agreement,” Garcetti said.
The deal was broadly described by officials as including a 6 percent pay hike and a commitment to reduce class sizes over four years. Specifics provided later by the district and the union included the addition of more than 600 nursing positions over the next three school years. Additional counselors and librarians were also part of the increase in support staff.
Iowa senator: I turned down VP
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst says she turned down President Donald Trump after interviewing to be his running mate, according to a divorce court filing. Ernst wrote in an affidavit that after Trump interviewed her in 2016 to be his vice president, “I turned Candidate Trump down, knowing it wasn’t the right thing for me or my family.” The filing doesn’t say whether Trump asked her to join the ticket.
Court to allow transgender policy
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration can go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women while court challenges continue, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. The high court split 5-4 in allowing the plan to take effect, with the court’s five conservatives greenlighting it.