United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten will be leaving the NYC-based teachers union, as has been widely rumored and reported, to focus on her duties as president of the national union, the American Federation of Teachers, a post she's held since last July.  UFT VP Michael Mulgrew, who began his professional life as a carpenter and is a long-time advocate for career and technical education, will step up and serve as president until elections are held in 2010.

Weingarten's most recent achievements cap her decade of service with the UFT: She succeeded in negotiating a new contractthat gives teachers Labor Day weekend off (and which succeeded in angering the Principals Union), and she worked with the Department of Education's  Charter Office and Green Dot Public Schools, the California-based charter school entrepreneurs, to secure well-paying union contracts for the new charter's teachers.