Our kids deserve the best education available to them and Mr. Cody meets that standard. A mistake made on the weekend outside of school should not dictate whether or not he is capable or suitable for his job. Mr. Cody is one of our best teachers in the school system. My daughter has always struggled in Math she just doesn’t get it, since she has moved up into high school and has had Mr. Cody not only have her grades skyrocketed for Math but her state test scores in Math have skyrocketed. Her UNDERSTANDING of the subject has went through the roof. She has went from testing below the state average to ABOVE it. And it is solely because of the methods and extra care that Mr. Cody takes with his students and her story is not the only one like it. Mr. Cody spends his planning periods and lunch hours whenever necessary helping students one on one. If they are behind he helps them catch up, if they just aren’t getting it he helps them. And he takes the time for those students out of his personal time. Instead of using his planning period he helps them and then goes home and does his planning. Instead of getting his personal time for lunch he helps them. He goes above and beyond his job. And it shows in our kids test scores. Not only does he do those things but he also makes your children comfortable in asking for the help. Which is something that can’t be said for most teachers. A lot of time the attitude our children have is that it’s not worth asking, because they won’t listen, or they’ll say no. Our kids not only get the help they need but feel safe and optimistic in asking for it. These kids love him not because he’s cool or he lets them mess around but because he legitimately helps them. He has their respect. We are the generation that voted for medical marijuanas legal status. So not only should we help keep a teacher that we KNOW is massively beneficial to our children’s education but we should fight for our medical legalization that we worked for. We should fight against the school for trying to make something that we pushed and voted for still a negatively looked upon thing, like it’s still makes you a pariah to have a medical card even one that recently expired. We need them to know that this is not a firable offense. Then, there are other teachers in the school who have not gotten marijuana possession charges on there own time that deserve to be forcefully resigned. That not everything should be about the way something looks. It should be about what’s best for our kids. What THEY deserve. If they wanna get rid of teachers, great! But let’s get rid of the ones that don’t care. That say things like… “well all my kids in this class are making C’s so it’s fine”. No it’s not fine, your not doing your job!!! That no matter how much effort your child puts into trying to catch up or understand something they get met with a do it yourself attitude. Who no matter how little they do they put their own failures onto your kids. The Lexington school system has done a lot of shady stuff to help themselves “save face” and we as parents HAVE to fight for the best interest of our kids. The school system needs to remember that they are at the bottom line emoloyed by the parents of this state. They are employed by our tax dollars and when they make poor decisions they have someone to answer to. That’s you. This community needs to come together on soooo many issues. And I feel strongly for our kids it needs to start here. Help us keep a valuable teacher, if we don’t, we senselessly lose him to another school. For what? Ask yourself that.

FOR THE STUDENTS!

The Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act have allocated billions of taxpayer dollars and created tax credits to support the creation of a hydrogen economy. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm first announced plans to bring down the price of hydrogen in 2021. Since then, her agency has led a process to create hydrogen hubs across the country. The idea is to use public funds to create a hydrogen industry by establishing regional hubs, or constellations of business ventures dedicated to hydrogen production, transportation, storage, and consumption. The DOE received at least 79 applications for hubs. In October, President Biden announced the seven hubs selected to receive a combined $7 billion. The hubs were selected, in part, based on the kind of hydrogen they would produce. Today, more than 95% of hydrogen is produced from methane gas using a process called steam methane reforming. It’s referred to as gray hydrogen. Because hydrogen can be produced by various methods from different feedstocks, scientists have begun assigning colors to differentiate its many forms. Black and brown are made from coal. They are all considered to be dirty forms of hydrogen. The DOE’s hubs would support forms of hydrogen the agency has put in the clean column, including pink made from nuclear energy, green made from renewable energy, and blue made from methane. Blue hydrogen is gray hydrogen with carbon capture and storage (CCS) added to the process. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as clean hydrogen. No matter the color of the rainbow it has been assigned, hydrogen has profound impacts on health and the environment and exacerbates climate change. Blue hydrogen, for instance, relies on unproven, some say disproven, CCS technology to address the CO2 emissions and locks in powerful methane emissions that come from creating the feedstock and powering the CCS process. Even green hydrogen considered to be the cleanest of the clean is anything but. Whether it’s green, pink, blue, orange, yellow, turquoise, white or any other color on the H2 rainbow, it is, after all, still hydrogen. - Hydrogen is the smallest molecule, which makes it prone to leaking. - Hydrogen is a highly flammable gas. - Hydrogen’s NOx emissions when combusted can be six times higher than methane’s. - Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas whose Global Warming Potential, or GWP, is roughly 12 times that of CO2. Still other problems make hydrogen an impractical solution to the climate crisis. Producing hydrogen is extremely costly and energy-intensive. Producing green hydrogen is still prohibitively expensive and its renewable energy feedstock is still relatively scarce. Using renewable energy directly to electrify is far more efficient. Hydrogen is just one of the false climate solutions the fossil fuel industry has been promoting so it can continue to do business as usual. The resources going into creating a hydrogen economy should be going to pay for deployment of real, available, and scalable renewable energy solutions. Hydrogen is a distraction that is robbing us of time we don’t have to take real steps to address the climate crisis. Since June of 2021 when Secretary Granholm first announced the initiative to bring down the price of hydrogen, the public has been given little information about this tectonic economic shift and no voice in deciding if it is the right way forward. That is unacceptable. Tell the Department of Energy that our new economy must be built on truly clean and renewable energy solutions and that hydrogen has no place in it.

TikTok is one of the largest social media platforms right now, and taking direct, actionable steps to support artists and their labor, as well as to prevent artificial intelligence from stealing their work and likenesses, could be a model for how other platforms handle these issues moving forward. But it’s not just about being able to dance and do trends with some of our favorite music. Universal Music Group is pulling its music from TikTok after negotiations failed to extend the licensing agreement between the two companies, and those negotiations centered around prominent issues in today’s society: paying people for their labor, the effects of generative artificial intelligence more broadly, and benchmarks for online safety in a world that has become increasingly reliant on digital communications. TikTok needs to support artists and their labor.

The more people we have that express their concerns we feel that something might get resolved.

Our intersection of State st and Cleveland Ave NW has a long history of being the Greentown Square. It is the home of great businesses, holiday gatherings, and parades. During construction it would be very inconvenient for all of our residents that use this intersection multiple times a day. Any detours created could make our neighborhood side streets very busy and dangerous with extra traffic. Our side streets are narrow as it is and when the widening of Cleveland Ave happened in the late 90s our side streets became cut through routes for a lot of traffic. They became dangerous as they were unpatroled. None of our residents are willing to sacrifice the safety of our neighborhoods for a roundabout that we weren't interested in to begin with.

Why was Congressman Trone so dismissive, insulting and ignorant in his interaction with Dr. Marsha Adebayo at a recent MLK event. She asked to talk to him about the Bethesda Road Moses African Cemetery and efforts to reclaim the land to memorialize the lives of enslaved and post-emancipated African Community. Instead of engaging, he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and a turn of his back saying" who cares about that little cemetery?" I care about that "little Cemetery," and I don't care to have a person with David Trone's historical ignorance and dismissiveness towards African American struggles influencing our community. The people in the "little cemetery were human beings and they deserve respect. Most of those buried in the "little" cemetery were children who were kidnapped, raped, murdered and worked to death in Bethesda, Maryland. Why are we still debating whether Black Lives Matter? We need the community to speak out against Congressman Trone's statement. David Mott - retired union organizer, Poor People's Campaign, Montgomery County Contact: bethesdaafricancemeterycoalition.net

I think southington needs a skate park because it will give a place for the youth to go and spend some spare time and get out the house and get into new sports or get better at some skills they already knew and also it will bring some more business opportunities like someone can make a skate shop to support it and also the schools then can make a new club where they go to the skate park or something here are some other reasons a skate park will be a good idea 1-Physical Exercise: Skateboarding provides an active and engaging form of physical exercise, promoting a healthy lifestyle and helping combat issues like childhood obesity. 2-Increased Foot Traffic: A skatepark can attract a diverse crowd, including families and youth, leading to increased foot traffic around the area. This can benefit local businesses by potentially translating into more customers. Increased Property Values: Well-maintained skateparks have been associated with an increase in property values in surrounding areas, benefiting businesses with higher property values. 3-Event Hosting: Businesses can explore hosting events or promotions in collaboration with the skatepark, creating opportunities for increased sales and customer engagement during special occasions or Competitions 4-Positive Community Relations: Supporting a skatepark demonstrates a commitment to community development, enhancing the business's reputation and potentially fostering positive relations with local residents. 5-Social Interaction: Skateparks create a social hub where kids and teens can gather, make friends, and build a sense of community, fostering positive social interactions. Skill Development: Skateboarding encourages skill development, perseverance, and goal-setting as individuals work towards mastering various tricks and techniques.

Out of 30 NFL teams, 14 use real grass, 14 use artificial turf, and 2 use a hybrid field of grass and artificial materials. It would only cost the NFL 12 million dollars to replace the current turf fields to grass, compared to the nearly $12 billion dollars in revenue that the NFL made in 2023. And that’s not all: Over the last 8 years alone, the NFL has made over 74 BILLION dollars in revenue. Yet, many NFL team owners (30 out of 32 of whom are billionaires and have a combined net worth of over 260 BILLION DOLLARS) would rather prioritize their corporate profits over their players’ safety. For over a decade, NFL players themselves have been very vocal about how much of a toll turf takes on their bodies, and how they dread games where they know they will be playing on turf. The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the labor union that represents NFL players, has been advocating for grass fields despite the league’s PR attempts to defend the use of artificial turf. The NFL has a history of putting corporate profits above players: • In the 2000s, Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered a link between football and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) , a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head causing concussions. But instead of thinking of ways they could protect their players, the NFL went after Omalu and other scientists studying CTE. After nearly a decade of denial and suppressing scientific evidence, the NFL finally admitted the truth: There is a link between football and CTE. • Back in 2021, after shamefully using “race-norming” which prevented hundreds of Black football players with dementia from qualifying for awards in a $1 billion settlement of concussion clamps, the NFL agreed to end this practice. • The NFL has continued to come under fire for their lack of guaranteed contracts for players. The sham contracts offered by the NFL give so many outs for the corporation that players rarely see the full payouts from their deals. Meanwhile, every other major league in professional sports has guaranteed contracts. This is greed and exploitative, plain and simple, and it's costing players. And these are just a few examples. The NFL must do better and put player safety above corporate profits NOW. Add your name to the petition.

Ivan Cantu was convicted of killing his cousin, James Mosqueda, and Mosqueda’s fiancée, Amy Kitchen, in 2001. Prosecutors argued that Cantu killed Mosqueda, who was a drug dealer, and Kitchen while trying to steal cocaine, marijuana, and cash from Mosqueda’s home. However, Cantu has claimed that a rival drug dealer killed Mosqueda and that he was framed for the murders. Recent vigorous investigation into Ivan’s case has uncovered serious exculpatory evidence that was suppressed or manipulated at trial by state officials. Additionally, key state witnesses have recanted their testimony and, in light of these findings, three trial jurors have stated that had they known of these wrongdoings at trial, they very possibly would have rendered a different verdict. And according to a new filing just released before the TX Court of Criminal Appeals, the DA just disclosed that the state’s star witness in the original conviction case falsely testified and the lead detective knew she was lying. Ivan’s death date is fast approaching. We are calling on the Collin County District Attorney to request to withdraw the execution date. Everyone deserves a fair trial. We want the judicial system to scrutinize the new evidence in Ivan’s case that exposes fraudulent testimony and wrongdoing by state witnesses and law enforcement. The Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s office says that their mission is "not to convict, but to see that justice is done." Justice has yet to be delivered in Ivan's case. All we are asking is for the execution to be delayed and an inquiry into new evidence to be opened. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 196 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row. To ensure that an innocent person is not executed, our legal and judicial systems must do their due diligence to examine all evidence in Ivan's case.

The IDF has a pattern of targeting and killing Palestinian journalists, according to media rights groups. Add your name to call for an independent investigation into the killing of journalists in Gaza. Media reports from Gaza are one of the few ways information comes out of the strip, with restrictions on media in place by the IDF and limited or no internet and phone access in Gaza. Meanwhile, Palestinian journalists share that they are having to choose between dying with their loved ones or reporting the news from a human catastrophe unprecedented in modern history. Netanyahu’s siege of Gaza is already the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data in 1992. More than 79 journalists have been killed in Gaza, 72 of whom were Palestinian. By one estimate, 1 out of every 10 journalists in Gaza has been killed, making it the single-biggest death toll for journalists in a conflict zone in years. Media and human rights organizations are calling for an independent investigation into the targeting of journalists in Gaza. Reporters without Borders has filed multiple war crimes complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding the deaths of journalists in Gaza. In a CPJ report, titled "Deadly Pattern," the media rights group concluded that a "routine sequence" occurs when a journalist is killed by the IDF. Despite all evidence, the CPJ reported that “no one has ever been charged or held accountable for these deaths.” Journalists must be protected. Their coverage and reporting from inaccessible and often ignored places are one of the only ways to reveal the truth in an otherwise contentious or controlled narrative.

1.5 acres makes sense for large farm animals, however a smaller lot size should be available for chickens.