The county board needs to adopt a resolution of approval in order to have the state take the trail into the state park system. The trail is in private hands and available for use only by permit. Having it be a public trail would provide for regular maintenance and capital improvements, thereby greatly increasing its utility for public use.

We are a small business that provides high-quality therapeutic programming. We believing in supporting families and providing them with all of the tools to promote a successful quality of life for individuals.

Since September 2013, eleven universities – Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Temple University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Brown University, Penn State University, University of Wisconsin and Syracuse University – have formally required their brands producing collegiate apparel in Bangladesh to sign the Accord, as a condition of producing university apparel. This is a broad group of universities, representing Big Ten sports schools, Ivy League schools, and public schools. These universities’ actions have shown that there is nothing preventing universities like ours from taking a stand for workers rights. The time is now for Emerson College to follow the lead of these other universities and require its brands to sign the Accord. The actions of these universities are already making an impact on the behavior of brands in the collegiate market. In response to this growing university pressure, eight college-logo apparel brands – Fruit of the Loom, Adidas, Knights Apparel, Top of the World, New Agenda, Cutter & Buck, Ahead LLC and Zephyr Headwear – have signed the Accord since our campaign began. Fruit of the Loom's signing of the Accord is significant not only because it is the first company affiliated with the corporate-controlled, non-binding Gap/Walmart "Alliance" to also join the Accord, but also because it is the tenth U.S. company to join the Accord. Nevertheless, at the date of writing, several major licensees in Bangladesh, including Columbia Sportswear and VF Corporation, have refused to sign the Accord. This indicates a dire need for more universities to issue a formal requirement for their brands to sign. We would also like to clarify that, as part of the university requiring its brands to sign the Accord, we expect the university to terminate its licensing relationship with Jansport and VF Imagewear, unless their parent company VF Corporation signs the Accord. As you know, the WRC officially recommended to its affiliates in October 2013 that “colleges and universities add, to their existing labor rights requirements for licensees, a requirement that licensees that sourced, produced or purchased collegiate apparel in Bangladesh as of January 1, 2013, or do so at any point thereafter, become signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh." VF Corporation, parent company of Jansport, VF Imagewear, North Face, Timberland, and Vans, contracts with a factory called Optimum Fashions in Bangladesh to produce collegiate VF Imagewear apparel. In August, the Worker Rights Consortium conducted a safety assessment of Optimum Fashion. After VF attempted to prevent the WRC from accessing the factory, the WRC’s inspection uncovered a number of very serious safety hazards, all of which constitute violations of university code of conduct provisions requiring licensees to maintain safe workplaces and any of which could result in injury or death to workers. These violations “included inadequate means for workers to escape the factory in the event of a fire and structural flaws that would facilitate the rapid and widespread propagation of deadly smoke throughout the factory building.” (http://www.workersrights.org/Freports/WRC%20Fire%20Safety%20Assessment%20re%20Optimum%20Fashion%20Wear%20Ltd%20%28Bangladesh%29%2012.5.13.pdf) Given that VF Imagewear and Jansport both belong to the same parent company, and given that it is the decision of the parent company, not the subsidiary, to sign or not sign the Accord, the university should cut ties with all VF Corporation brands, including Jansport, unless VF Corporation signs the Accord. To not do so would be a logically and morally inconsistent position for the university to take. Please let us know as soon as possible if the university will be applying the requirement to sign the Accord to all VF Corporation subsidiaries, including Jansport.

Both parties just made themselves complicit in turning the rest of American politics over to Walmart and Monsanto. Don't let our president finish the job!

The Irish beer staple's Dublin history and iconic status make its sponsorship a loss anti-gay organizers can't afford to ignore. Celebrate St. Patrick's day by thanking them now!

This fight isn't about protecting Louisiana's "brand": it's about silencing the GOP's critics, no matter how much parody and political opposition are protected by free speech.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 18), the House Choice & Innovation Subcommittee will vote on HB 7099, a massive expansion of Florida's voucher system that could defund public schools and divert millions of taxpayer dollars to private institutions with little accountability. We want legislators to hear from you and everyone today in opposition to this proposal:

JUSTICE FOR RUBEY

It’s as if Republicans haven’t learned one thing. Last year Rep. Joe Heck voted with his party to deport DREAMers. He kept saying he supported immigration reform, but that was his only vote. Last week, Heck doubled down. He voted again to gut deferred action programs for DREAMers and military families. The so-called ENFORCE Act would do away with the programs that protect immigrants from deportation and would block President Obama from using his executive authority to fill the vacuum left by Republicans' own inaction. House Republicans like Joe Heck had a real chance to build on the immigration principles they introduced just a few weeks ago. It was a step in the right direction. But instead, they claim they can't move forward on reform because they don't trust the President to enforce the law. This is the same president who has deported nearly 2 million immigrants. So instead of advancing reform for DREAMers and their loved ones, Rep. Heck and House Republicans have chosen to double-down and blame their inaction on Obama. We're tired of the double-talk. Tell Joe Heck he can’t have it both ways – either he supports immigration reform or he wants to deport DREAMers. Which one is it?

It’s as if Republicans haven’t learned one thing. Last year Rep. Paul Ryan voted with his party to deport DREAMers. He kept saying he supported immigration reform, but that was his only vote. Last week, Ryan doubled down. He voted again to gut deferred action programs for DREAMers and military families. This so-called ENFORCE Act would do away with the programs that protect immigrants from deportation and would block President Obama from using his executive authority to fill the vacuum left by Republicans' own inaction. House Republicans like Paul Ryan had a real chance to build on the immigration principles they introduced just a few weeks ago. It was a step in the right direction. But instead, they claim they can't move forward on reform because they don't trust the President to enforce the law. This is the same president who has deported nearly 2 million immigrants. So instead of advancing reform for DREAMers and their loved ones, Rep. Ryan and House Republicans have chosen to double-down and blame their inaction on Obama. We're tired of the double-talk. Tell Paul Ryan he can’t have it both ways – either he supports immigration reform or he wants to deport DREAMers. Which one is it?

Comcast, the biggest cable and Internet provider, is trying to take over its chief rival Time Warner. This would give Comcast a near-monopoly, and a presence in every major media market in the country. With almost no competition, a merged Comcast-Time Warner would have no reason to keep prices low, or offer consumers more choices, much less improve its infrastructure. Millions of rural customers who have been waiting for decades for broadband internet access would likely have to keep on waiting. We already deserve much better than we're getting from telecom giants. America lags far behind the rest of the developed world in Internet service, speed and affordability. The profit-greedy telecom industry has opposed infrastructure improvement at every opportunity. If two of the worst and most incompetent cable providers consolidate their power, America's digital divide will grow as we all fall farther and farther behind the rest of the world. Moreover, allowing only a handful of giant corporations to be the gatekeepers for almost all media and Internet services would be disastrous for privacy, freedom of speech, and what's left of an open Internet.

My husband and I are unable to refinance our mortgage or qualify for a home equity loan because if our Parent Plus loans. The monthly payments are now so high we are unable to make the payments. We are not allowed to pay what we can afford and the interest is accruing at an alarming rate. Even though we qualify for an Economic Hardship Deferment the interest continues to accrue. At this point, the monthly payment required is laughable.