Free Republic

Chicago teachers were anxious this morning as they walked the picket line for the seventh day, worried whether union officials will decide today to call off the strike that has kept 350,000 students out of the classroom. "I'm hoping the delegates come to their senses and know that our kids need us," Mary Silva, a CPS social worker, said outside school headquarters. The Chicago Teachers Union's House of Delegates is to meet at 3 p.m. to go over a tentative contract reached during marathon negotiations last week. It could decide to end the strike while a ratification vote is taken...

A Los Angeles city fire captain is on leave after for allegedly falsifying his timecard after auditors found he was paid $50,000 in vacation time last year, according to a report Wednesday. Capt. Eric Vasquez was paid nearly $77,000 above his base salary of $108,000 — the equivalent of nearly 23 weeks of pay — in vacation, overtime and bonus pay, according to payroll information obtained by the Daily News under the California Public Records Act. The alleged falsification by Vasquez, a 17-year LAFD veteran whose duties involved supervising time sheet data entry — including his own — were discovered...