‘I liked the idea of unions. Then I joined one at Starbucks.’
Joe Emmenegger at USA Today
“Liking the idea of unions — and actually wanting to be a part of one — are two very different things,” says Joe Emmenegger. Workers “often join unions that make big promises about improving working conditions but ultimately fail to deliver,” and “that was unfortunately my experience with Starbucks Workers United.” It “was the pervasive secrecy surrounding the union that struck me,” and “getting rid of a union is not easy, regardless of how detrimental it may be.”
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‘Some Republicans don’t want Indian American votes’
Sadanand Dhume at The Wall Street Journal
The “multiracial coalition that helped Donald Trump win the presidency in 2024 is unraveling,” says Sadanand Dhume. A “portion of the MAGA base appears to be increasingly hostile to ethnic and religious minorities, including the small but prosperous Indian American community.” Instead of “bringing new voters into the tent, a section of the party base appears intent on driving them away,” and “Indian American Trump supporters aren’t the only minority voters apparently feeling buyer’s remorse.”
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‘The hidden toll on Black doctors: We are saving lives but losing our own.’
John H. Stewart IV at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There is a “truth medicine doesn’t talk about enough: Black doctors are getting sick too,” says John H. Stewart IV. A 2025 study “revealed that Black physicians die at more than twice the rate of white physicians.” The “very people trained to save lives are losing their own far too soon,” as “Black doctors are not exempt from the same inequities we work so hard to treat in others.” This “isn’t just a professional concern; it’s a public health crisis.”
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‘A “fight worth fighting”: Paramount settlement is less than desired, more than nothing’
Anita Chabria at the Los Angeles Times
Did “California come out a winner when Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta settled a multistate lawsuit against Paramount Skydance on Monday, allowing its $111-billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery to move forward”? says Anita Chabria. Whether “California won is the wrong question,” as “there was always something bigger at play here.” The “question the lawsuit asked is, ‘do we live in an America where government institutions are so broken that power makes its own rules?’”
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