As a teacher and parent of school age children I am concerned about their right to privacy. Imagine if your child's information - address, email, disability information, disciplinary records, performance on mental ability or psychological tests, their absentee records, academic classroom pullouts, reduced or free lunch eligibility, testing modifications, household information like foster care, single parent homes or military homes were all on a cloud that InBloom acknowledges it "cannot guarantee the security of the information stored". Guess what? It's all going to be there. NYS needs to withdraw from InBloom and protect our children's personal data and privacy.

There has never been a better opportunity to free Alan Gross from imprisonment in Havana. When laws and goals of two nations conflict, negotiation is the only realistic path, as undertaken regularly by the US, Israel and other countries that seek return of detained agents. Alan, Judy and two-thirds of the Senate have asked his employer, the Obama Administration, to take action on Alan's behalf. ****************** From an article in Florida's Sun Sentinel: Judy Gross is frustrated with the lack of help she feels she has not gotten from Washington. Gross said in a statement: "I am angry at the U.S. Government for its lack of response in working toward bringing Alan home. For four years, we have had meeting after meeting with the State Department, and the National Security Council. Each meeting ultimately ended the same way — with patronizing comments, with empty promises and ultimately with no action … The White House has refused to speak to me or Alan's legal team for four years. I didn't even qualify for a form letter one usually gets after writing to the President. "I do know that there are those in Congress with hatred so strong toward Cuba that they are willing to let Alan rot in prison. This way of thinking has failed to bring Alan home for four years and is a death sentence for Alan. … I urge all South Florida residents to send messages and meet with Senator Mark Rubio, CongresswomanDebbie Wasserman Schultz, Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lethinen and Congressman Mario Dias-Balart. … We need to try something different or Alan will die in prison." ****************** From a letter to the President by sixty-six members of the US Senate: "We urge you to act expeditiously to take whatever steps are in the national interest to obtain his release, and we stand ready to support your Administration in pursuit of this worthy goal." ****************** The President needs broad support to overcome special interests that prefer Alan remain a symbol, separated from his family, if the means of his release does not accommodate hostility to their country of origin. For additional background, visit http://thehavananote.com/2013/12 /could_alan_gross_be_home_holidays and http://thehavananote.com/2013/12/do_it_mr_president_do_it

Our goal is to place enough pressure on city council members to raise the minimum wages for workers in New York City to at least $10.10. As a teacher in a poor working class neighborhood in the Bronx, I see first hand the problems that plague the community I work at. With salaries set at the current minimum wage, parents (with an overwhelming majority being single mothers) are barely able to make ends meet despite the fact that many hold 2-3 jobs and work an exorbitant amount of hours. Many of my students spend a few minutes a day with their parents because the parents arrive home from work too late. With day care and other expenses on the rise, and wages not catching up with inflation it is imperative that we pass this bill to build better communities.

It is time for a national day commemorating the accomplishments of Rosa Parks in the United States of America. Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott on December 1, 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. Rosa Parks embodies the values of non-violent, peaceful protest and individualism that are synonymous with what it means to be a leader in the United States of America. It is time to celebrate this great American's service to her country with a national day of commemoration on the 60th anniversary of her refusing to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

I was arrested for simply wearing a mask on an OWS march. I spent several hours in jail for simply exercising my constitutional rights. I am one of about 1,000 people from OWS alone who had interactions with the criminal justice system for non-criminal activity. The NYPD must stop criminalizing our youth, our activities, our sons and daughters. Bratton is the wrong choice

Background: When people make mistakes, they should make amends. But once they have, they should be treated no differently than anyone else. But too often individuals with convictions in their past are discriminated against when it comes to hiring. This is particularly problematic because young men of color are far more likely to be convicted of a crime. Recently Kennard Ray was hand picked for a prominent position in the Mayor of Hartford's administration. But when it was revealed that he had convictions far in his past, he was forced to withdraw his appointment. This shouldn't happen to anyone. Especially because Hartford has a policy called 'ban the box' that is designed to stop this type of discrimination by prohibiting the city from asking about past convictions during the hiring process. It clearly isn't working. When qualified applicants are denied jobs because of prior mistakes they made, something is wrong, and we should fix it. Kennard's story is just one example a widespread problem that prevents thousands of people, overwhelmingly from low-income communities, from being able to re-enter the workforce. They are unjustly prevented from making a living, supporting their families, and contributing to their communities. Tell Mayor Segarra and the Hartford City Council to strengthen Hartford's 'ban the box' policy now!

My son has a little 9 month old baby at home with his wife. He gets by on his salary. He counts on his employer to pay in for part of his pension for when he retires. With some cities and states looking to use these pension funds to help run their municipalities, workers like my son will have a very difficult time when they retire. Please do not use pensions as a source of municipal income. Big corporations can handle an extra fee much more easily than the individual working man.

This petition hopes to solve the problem of gridlock in the House of Representatives today. I am a long-time political activist, and I've fought, for forty years, to elect a president from the progressive wing of the Democratic party. In 2008 I finally achieved that goal. And yet, when progressives lost the House in 2010, that was the start of three long years of gridlock and inaction. My hopes were dashed, those of my fellow progressive Democrats were dashed, the hopes of immigration reformers were dashed, the hopes of gun violence reformers were dashed, etc. etc. The shutdown just concluded definitively demonstrated that Tea Party Republicans are at the root of the problem. A Speaker needs to be elected by a majority of the House who will lead us away from Tea Party-style governing by crisis. It is time to form consensus. It is time to achieve.

Imagine dropping off your child to go overseas on an opportunity of a lifetime? Imagine how you would feel if your child never comes home. My son Ravi Thackurdeen died a 100% preventable death on a school sponsored surprised trip to the beach while on study abroad, two days prior to coming home on April 29, 2012. There was no beach trip not on the very stringent itinerary, however this was the 3rd year it had been done. Duke University and Organization for Tropical Studies took the students to a beach not advised for swimming due to its rip currents and the severe turbulence .caused by the four rivers that pour into it; one of them being the largest in Costa Rica. Duke/OTS took no safety devices, no communication devices, no lifeguards. The leaders and everyone watched for 40 minutes as my son was in the struggle for his life till he won't under. They then left the beach...they told us he was missing. The program continues and they tell me they are not responsible.

I want to prevent illegal overcharging.

The U.S. Supreme Court is gutting federal and state campaign finance laws and paving the way for a complete corporate takeover of our democracy. We need to fight back, and the first step is for CT to join other states in demanding a Constitutional Amendment protecting our ability at both the federal and state level to set limits on campaign contributions and spending by outside groups.

President Obama's administration has reached an interim nuclear deal with Iran which will prevent war and relieve any fears that Iran might build a nuclear weapon. The people of Massachusetts don't want more sanctions or war, they want diplomacy to succeed. We need Senators Markey and Warren to speak out in favor of diplomacy and against more sanctions.