Public education in New York State and across this land is being subjected to a movement that demands the acceptance of an arbitrary set of common core standards and the use of one-size-fit-all standardized tests. In spite of claims to the contrary, these standards and tests do not address the higher level cognitive processes of synthesizing and critically/creatively evaluating required for problem solving in today’s world. (Bloom et.al.) The products created by these higher level intellectual processes are unique to every individual; therefore, they are not measurable with a standardized test. Using the legislative process, decision makers responsible for this movement have deliberately prevented effective alternative assessment and evaluation strategies from being demonstrated in our public schools. There are examples of tested alternatives available that accurately measure higher level thinking such as The Constructive Assessment, Recordkeeping and Evaluation System (CARES) prepared and field tested by Robert L. Arnold, SUNY Professor Emeritus of Education. The common core and an arbitrary version of standards must be challenged to enable our citizens to make intelligent judgments about the most effective strategies available for their schools, before any further damage by current versions of standardization is done to the lives of our young citizens. Alternative assessment and evaluation strategies must be allowed to demonstrate their superiority over the existing strategies of testing, testing and more testing. For further elaboration, access on-line: AdirondackDailyEnterprise.com, January 7, 2014, “Guest Commentary” by Robert L. Arnold, SUNY Professor Emeritus of Education.

Last year JPMorgan Chase agreed to a $13 billion settlement for their actions that helped create the Great Recession and enabled them to steal thousands of homes from struggling homeowners. $600 million of that goes to New York State and it’s supposed to be used for direct relief for homeowners. But not if Gov. Cuomo has his way. Instead of helping homeowners, the Governor wants to use that money to pay for a major cut to corporate taxes, including something called The Bank Tax. That’s right. Gov. Cuomo wants to steal the settlement money from struggling homeowners and give it back to Wall Street criminals. The foreclosure and underwater crisis is still devastating our communities and the families and communities hardest hit are exactly the ones from which Gov. Cuomo proposes stealing. Recently, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was able to use $136 million from a previous settlement to help thousands of families stave off foreclosure. We need the $600 million to alleviate the continuing pain. This pain, which has affected almost every neighborhood, has not, however, been spread around evenly. Communities of color lost the most when Chase and other Wall Street bankers pushed us into the Great Recession – the median black household lost almost 84% of its household wealth in the recession. Latinos lost 66%, while white households lost some 34%. Now Gov. Cuomo wants to keep it that way. I know by now that nothing related to Wall Street and elected officials should shock me. But the pure callousness behind this proposal caught me off guard. And if we let Gov. Cuomo get away with this, then Governors across the United States will think they can use this money for their pet projects or to pay off Wall Street criminals too. We can’t let that happen. Tell Gov. Cuomo: Don’t steal the Chase settlement money from struggling New York families and give it back to Wall Street criminals.

The great news is that Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley said the Pennsylvania Voter ID bill is unconstitutional. He ruled that the law is "invalid and unconstitutional on its face as the provision and issuance of compliant identification does not comport with liberal access and unreasonably burdens the right to vote. “Voting laws are designed to assure a free and fair election; the Voter ID Law does not further this goal.” Now the bad news. It is still possible for the law to be appealed. PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane defended the Voter ID law before Commonwealth Court. She may appeal the ruling to PA's Supreme Court. If she does appeal, the Voter ID law may be reinstated. Tell Attorney General Kane that we agree with Judge McGinley. Voter ID is “invalid and unconstitutional on its face.” Do not appeal Voter ID to the Supreme Court.

As a local resident that would be directly affected, I believe this location is not the best choice and that there are several land options in West Dundee that would be better suited for development. The density and architectural design of this project is not suited for West Dundee nor the neighboring community. We have serious concerns about how this overcrowd the current school system. We understand that more household brings more businesses, which is needed. But a focus on townhouses or single family homes with less density would be much better suited for West Dundee. This would fit the future of our small town and also accomplish a higher revenue of tax dollars.

Unemployment benefits need to be extended ASAP. People are going to lose what little things they have. Congress has forgotten who they work for. American do not desert each other. Anyone who calls the unemployed lazy needs to be better informed, & I urge them to take the time to talk to people who are unemployed. I'm unemployed, for 6 months now, in the State of NY. I put 10+ years of my hard earned $ and have never once regretted my taxes helping others. In my case my medical conditions caused my dismissal at work. New employers DO NOT want the problem of the disabled. Unemployment isn't supposed to last forever, But 3 months is better than 0 months. We are only as strong as those around us.

Since 2011, the FCC’s net neutrality rule ensured that Americans could access internet content equally, no matter how they access the internet. For example, if your internet service provider was Comcast, (which owns NBC content) they could not control your internet usage, even on competitor’s websites, like watching “Modern Family” on ABC.com. However, on January 14, a federal court struck down net neutrality, opening the door for internet service providers to slow down or completely block any website they choose. In addition, they could charge additional fees to access some of your favorite sites like Netflix and YouTube. This is harmful to the American consumer as well as our economy – the internet’s open and level playing field enables the growth of tech startups. Would Amazon and Twitter have emerged in a restricted, filtered internet? All that it takes is for the FCC to garner the political willpower to appeal this disastrous decision, or re-write their internet polices. With regards with redoing FCC internet policies, internet service providers are regulated like phone companies, but if the FCC reclassified them as “common carriers,” they could regain oversight. Either way, net neutrality can be reinstituted if the FCC fights back. Please sign this petition and forward it to others, and we’ll deliver it to the FCC to urge them to preserve the internet as we know it. Joe Sestak is a former 3-Star Admiral and U.S. Congressman. He is seeking to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate in 2016. Visit his website at http://JoeSestak.com TWEET THIS PETITION: The end of the internet as we know it? Sign the petition asking FCC to fight for #NetNeutrality http://bit.ly/KaeTMG #IWantMyInternetBack

Our son Robby as a penniless law student was forced to wait until gravely ill to seek ER care. As a consequence, the infections were way out of control and forced him to resign from law school. There are more than 242,000 others in the same boat due to Jindal's gap created by his stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid.

If genetically modified foods are good enough for me and my family then they should be good enough for whomever resides in The White House. Many people, due to grossly disproportionate government funding, do not have the luxury of being able to simply choose these healthier options for their own family, it should be insulting that their tax dollars should pay for 100% organic gardens at the White House. Their tax dollars should be going towards making these same options easily obtainable for their own family. These are our gardens, we own them, and yet many of us are forced to eat genetically modified foods while we pay for others to have healthier options. This is hardly in the interest of the people.

The Historic Jackson Rooming house is a former boarding house in Tampa centered on Central Avenue. The Jackson house was the only house in the area where African Americans travelers like Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, and James Brown could find accommodations when segregation was in force in the south. Now the city has added thousands of dollars of fines and a short window to fix the building or they will demolish a historic site that was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic places in 2007. There is no rush to destroy history please allow volunteers ample time to get this house up to code.

i have been a server for 23 years and now we having to pay the salaries of busboys and bartenders. we are required to tip out 2.25 % of our sales even when we don't make even 15% of our sales. the IRS has taken away adding 18% gratuity on the bills of large parties..but in reality we hardly ever make that. we must pay taxes on of the sales we make(which if by choice would be small)and we never see a paycheck but we are forced to cover taxes on the people who dont even tip..never mind taking out the insurance we are forced to have. we need someones help please

I was at Whole Foods just before closing one night and the meat counter was almost full. I asked the employee behind the counter what they do with the meat at the end of the day. After me asking "Is it donated? Is it cooked for the salad bar? Is it given to the employees? Is it put out another day?" he acknowledged that, indeed, the expensive meat is thrown away at the end of everyday. The management refused to answer questions about what is wasted.

War is never the answer to conflicting ideas. When both parties are willing to slowly come to some sort of agreement, however small, it is time to give the two countries time to work things out. Please do not make it more difficult for the United States and Iran to come to some sort of agreement.