The race for a vacant congressional seat in northeast Ohio was a fierce battle between status quo politics and calls for social transformation. In the end, when votes were counted Tuesday night, transactional business-as-usual had won by almost 6 percent. But the victory of a corporate Democrat over a progressive firebrand did nothing to resolve the wide and deep disparity of visions at the Democratic Party’s base nationwide.

One of the candidates -- Shontel Brown, the victor -- sounded much like Hillary Clinton, who endorsed her two months ago. Meanwhile, Nina Turner dwelled on the kind of themes we always hear from Bernie Sanders, whose 2020 presidential campaign she served as a national co-chair. And while Brown trumpeted her lockstep loyalty to Joe Biden, her progressive opponent was advocating remedies for vast income inequality and the dominance of inordinate wealth over the political system. Often, during the last days of the campaign, I heard Turner refer to structural injustices of what she called “class and caste.”

In The Last, Best Small Town playwright John Guerra has adapted Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Our Town, resetting the turn-of-the-last-century Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire at turn-of-the-21st-century Fillmore, California, which is located a bit north of Six Flags Magic Mountain, in Ventura County. In doing so, Guerra has injected contemporary ethnic, as well as economic and wartime concerns into Wilder’s Americana classic, which – along with gems like Romeo and Juliet – is one of those perennial favorites performed by junior high and high school theater departments across the USA.

Monday, August 2, 3-4pm; or Wednesday, August 4, 12noon-1pm; this on-line event requires advance registration

This training will build expertise on how to deliver health and social services to the trans community in an affirming and inclusive manner. Basic definitions of gender identity, gender expression, and the range of trans identities (including non-binary identities) will be explained. Best practices concerning pronoun usage, the creation of inclusive forms, and the establishment of affirming and inclusive spaces will also be discussed. There will also be a live question-and-answer period.

This session will be presented by Ramona Peel [she/her/hers], Lead Trainer, Equitas Health Institute.

Two virtual sessions will be offered.

• Monday, August 2, 3-4pm

• Wednesday, August 4, 12-1pm

CEUs will be available for social work or counseling.

Registration is free, thanks to our colleagues at Kenyon College.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration and a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators announced an agreement on details of a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package, which includes $550 billion in new federal investments. Later in the day, the Senate voted 67-32 to proceed with debate on the bill. The bill’s “once-in-a-generation” investments would “enhance our competitiveness, create good jobs, and make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and just,” according to a White House statement.

The infrastructure deal is Track 1 of four legislative tracks with bills that could decisively shape the future of trains in the U.S. Find HSRA’s breakdown of all the train-related action in Congress here.

The infrastructure bill provides for the largest federal investment in public transit ever. It would do the same for Amtrak, positioning it to “play a central role in our transportation and economic future.”