We are told the Town Council may not grant us permission to volunteer and update the City of Chesapeake Playground at the corner of 116th St. & Kanawha Avenue. We want a high school regulation basketball court. Basketball uprights and rims are being donated. Volunteers are available to put in proper mulch and write playground companies for update and compliant play areas. Vote to update our playground. Permission to raise funds and make a safe and compliant playground.

On April 26, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback notified “the Obama administration" that the Kansas Refugee Resettlement Program State Plan, which resettles refugees with help from federal funds, will no longer accept those funds because he says Kansans are in danger of terrorists from Syria, Iraq, or Sudan sneaking in as refugees. Because governors have no authority to limit who enters their states, the federal government will now have to identify a private Kansas entity to run an “alternative” resettlement program under the Wilson-Fish Amendment. While this eliminates supervision by the state over the funds, it has no effect on which refugees come to Kansas or on the 13-step screening process. Apparently the governor is trading away the public’s goodwill towards our Arab and Muslim neighbors to avert attention from the serious problems the state faces.

My son, who turned 3 this April, is enrolled in preschool. I asked his teacher: how much time does he spend outside? 45 minutes was the answer. Shocking? No wonder American kids have vitamin D deficiency. So I asked if he could play outside more. The teacher said that he could, but then he would be missing out on other activities, including tracing letters and numbers, and by the time he turns 4, when he goes to the next class, he needs to know letters and numbers. I was shocked even more. I insisted that I want him to play more outside, and she agreed, saying if the parent asks, then it is ok. Why, despite all the scientific proof, that early academics hurt, the government keeps pushing first grade curriculum to kindergarten and to the preschools? Isn't it time to actually incorporate research into school policies, instead of making policies that hurt our children? Researcher and educator Mercedes Schneider, author of A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Education, has documented the lightning- quick writing of the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) and has found no evidence that they are based on research. She writes: If they [the writers of the CCSS] were interested in research they would have started with kindergarten and piloted the standards for a few years and then made adjustments based on their research — and built slowly from there. There is absolutely no evidence that developmental stages were considered. That is a major problem across the standards and especially for the youngest grades. Anyone who has a cursory knowledge of development knows that it is not linear and that children do not all develop at the same rate — there is a span. Now, as the Common Core standards take hold across the country, literacy has taken over even more space in kindergarten classrooms, crowding out many high- quality learning experiences young children need. In a survey by Defending the Early Years (DEY) of about 200 early childhood teachers (preschool to grade three) across 38 states, 85% of the public school teachers reported that they are required to teach activities that are not developmentally appropriate for their students.9 A New York public school kindergarten teacher with more than 15 years of experience reported: Kindergarten students are being forced to write words, sentences, and paragraphs before having a grasp of oral language...We are assessing them WEEKLY on how many sight words, letter sounds, and letter names they can identify. And we’re assessing the “neediest students’” reading every other day. While the timetable for children’s cognitive development has not changed significantly, society’s expectations of what children should achieve in kindergarten have. A recent two-year study by the Gesell Institute in New Haven found that “children are still reaching important developmental milestones in much the same timeframe as they did when Dr. Arnold Gesell first published his data in 1925. Gesell used 19 measures to ascertain a child’s development. Among them were asking children to look at and draw a circle, cross, square, triangle, divided rectangle, and more complex forms. A clear pattern emerged. He found an age span for each task, but also a clear pattern of when most children could accomplish the task. By age three most children could replicate the circle, but most could not copy the cross or square until age 4.5. They could draw the triangle by 5.5 but could not copy the diamond until after age 6. The Institute’s recent study, given between 2008 and 2010 to about 1300 children across the country, found almost identical results. The Harvard Education Letter described the findings under the heading: “Kids Haven’t Changed; Kindergarten Has.” A number of long-term studies point to greater gains for students in play-based programs as compared to their peers in academically-oriented preschools and kindergartens in which early reading instruction is generally a key component. A number of long-term studies point to greater gains for students in play-based programs as compared to their peers in academically-oriented preschools and kindergartens in which early reading instruction is generally a key component. Findings from HighScope’s Preschool Curriculum Comparison Study, for example, suggest long-term harm, especially in the social-emotional realm, from overly directive preschool instruction. In this study, begun in the late 1960s, 68 children from low-income homes were randomly assigned to one of three preschool classes. Two were play-based and experiential. The third was a scripted, direct-instruction approach. Interestingly, there were very similar short-term gains among the children in all three programs at the end of year one. But the children were followed until age 23. By that time, there were significant differences in social behavior. School records indicate that 47 percent of the children assigned to the direct instruction classroom needed special education for social difficulties versus only 6 percent from the play-oriented preschool classrooms. And by age 23, police records showed a higher rate of arrests for felony offenses among those who were previously in the instructional program (34 percent) compared to those in the play-based programs (9 percent). Rebecca Marcon found negative effects of overly- directed preschool instruction on later school performance in a study of three different curricula, described as either “academically oriented” or “child- initiated.”18 By third grade, her group of 343 students — 96% African American with 75% of the children qualifying for subsidized school lunch — displayed few differences in academic achievement programs. After six years of school, however, students who had been in the groups that were “more academically directed earned significantly lower grades compared to children who had attended child-initiated preschool classes. Children’s later school success appears to have been enhanced by more active...

My name is David Jon Timm and I have been a patient of Positive Health Care at India Street Public Health for 12 years. Portland's proposed municipal budget calls for closing the India Street health clinic, which serves 1,000 patients a year, regardless of whether you have health insurance. Nowhere else in greater Portland can a person receive low-cost STD testing, free treatment for STDs, harm reduction education, clean needles and injecting equipment, and comprehensive HIV medical care. I was diagnosed with HIV in February of 2004 by the doctors at India Street. By April of 2006 I was diagnosed with AIDS. I started medical treatment immediately and by October of 2006 the virus was undetectable and I have remained undetectable and extremely healthy for the past 10 years. My experience with India Street has been nothing but stellar. Not only are the staff knowledgeable and highly educated in HIV care, they are a family to me and my relationship with them has been extraordinary. I can actually call my doctor and speak with her directly concerning any issues. Where can you get care like that? My story is different than most patients who are treated at India Street. I consider myself a success story. I have private insurance, a job, and I'm a college graduate. My medical history and my ability to beat AIDS and manage HIV can only be associated with the knowledgeable, professional staff at India Street. I owe them my life! Please sign this petition to keep India Street open.

This primary season has shined a new light on the levels of corruption and influence that plague our outdated systems. I served this country because I believed in what it stood for... If we do not take the necessary steps RIGHT NOW, TODAY to give the power back to the people, then we will crumble just as every other major power throughout history has. Only by recommitting to the true principles set forth at our nation's founding can we hope for a sustainable future. And only then, can we restore pride in service to those of us who are ashamed at what our government has become. We can do this together.

We can't wait

President Obama has been subject to an unrelenting attack from the right about his leadership. But there are millions of us ordinary citizens who appreciate the job he has done and want to gather publicly to thank him. We ask the DNC to take the lead in organizing events in at least several cities before he leaves office.

On March 23, the North Carolina General Assembly, with virtually no public input, passed House Bill 2. Although some have cryptically anointed it “the bathroom bill”, Reverend William Barber came closer to the truth in calling HB2 a hate bill. A creepily crafted smokescreen, HB2 was constructed to gin up blind fear and stoke homophobia so that the deeper and darker aspects of the bill could be slipped into law. This is hate and switch legislation by another name. Yes, HB 2 drastically restricts the ability of local governments to pass nondiscrimination measures that offer protections to the LGBT community. That’s horrific in its own right. But HB 2 also restricts local leadership from requiring recipients of government contracts to adopt nondiscrimination policies that go beyond state policy. This is, in effect, mandated discrimination against ALL workers, regardless of gender identification. HB 2 hammers the working class, locking in low-wage and low- power position by blocking cities from independently adopting higher minimum wages, raising employee benefits, or paying sick leave or vacation benefits above the mandated state levels. This is mandated suppression of workes’r rights and their ability to earn a living wage, regardless of gender identification. With HB 2, North Carolina joins Mississippi in the ignominious honor of being one of only two states in the country that refuse to provide their residents with the option of filing a wrongful termination discrimination claim in state court. Again,this is applicable to all workers, regardless of gender identification. Finally, HB 2 has made North Carolina the focus of increasing derision and negative attention, while crippling North Carolina’s local and state economies. The state has been rebuked by everyone from the entertainment industry (Springsteen, Lovato, Jonas) to businesses (Deutsche Bank, PayPal), and Great Britain went so far as to issue a travel advisory warning its LGBT citizens to avoid our state. Repeal North Carolina HB 2. This hate-and-switch legislation hurts workers, families, state and local economies, and puts LGBT individuals at risk.

It’s common sense: Elections should go to whichever candidate gets the most votes. But in the Democratic Party’s primary system, that’s not how it works. Candidates also need to win a lot of “superdelegates” – unaccountable party insiders that make up almost one-fifth of the “delegates” up for grabs in the primary. That means superdelegates have about same voting power as 5.5 million ordinary voters in Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan! Even worse, the 712 unelected, “superdelegates” get to vote however they want, regardless of which candidate ordinary voters choose. So even if voters choose one candidate in a close primary race for president, these superdelegates could overrule the people if it doesn’t go their way. Superdelegates like DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz shouldn’t have more of a say than you or me just because she’s a party insider. And superdelegates should NOT be able to overrule the will of the voters. Tell the DNC: Bring back democracy to the Democratic primary process and eliminate the superdelegate system for all future primaries!

I want our congress to get back to work on the real problems facing this nation and the world!

As forewarned in the New York Times, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has received $3.7 million from the Hitz Foundation to create so-called TRANSLATIONS (as distinguished from Reformation amendments, adaptations, parodies, etc) of Shakespeare's plays for 21st- century audiences. In this massive, 39-play Alternative Shakespeare Canon classical references are to be minimized or "contextualized," ambiguous meanings simplified or streamlined, and words amended or replaced . . . “bringing fresh voices and perspectives.” References: (A) Opinion piece in The New York Times by James Shapiro, "Modernizing the Bard?" (October 7, 2015, page A27) (B) Article in New York Times by Jennifer Schuessler, "Oregon Shakespeare Festival Plans Shakespeare 'Translation' Project" (October 1, 2015, Arts Beat--Theater) (C) "Why 'Translating' Shakespeare for the 21st Century Is a Bad Idea" by Dennis Abrams ( The Markets) (D) Oregon Public Broadcasting "Oregon Shakespeare Festival To Modernize The Bard's Plays" (E) Facebook "Play On: 36 playwrights translate Shakespeare"

Since cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose heightened risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. During attacks, the weapons are prone to indiscriminate effects, especially in populated areas. Unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians long after a conflict has ended, and are costly to locate and remove. That's why more than a hundred nations have joined the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of these weapons. [1] Saudi Arabia has used cluster bombs in its war in Yemen, according to Human Rights Watch. [2] HRW documented the remnants of a CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon, a cluster bomb manufactured by Textron Systems Corporation in the US and supplied to Saudi Arabia. [3] Although the US is not yet a member of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, US law bars the sale of these weapons to countries that use them in civilian areas. [4] But according to Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia did use these weapons in a civilian area. [5] Urge Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Assistant Minority Leader, to advocate for a ban on sending these weapons to Saudi Arabia, including in the National Defense Authorization Act, by signing our petition. References: 1. http://www.clusterconvention.org/ 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/world/middleeast/saudi-led-group-said-to-use-cluster-bombs-in-yemen.html 3. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32572408 4. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32572408 5. https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/03/yemen-saudi-led-airstrikes-used-cluster-munitions