Did you know that if a Juvenile is found incompetent to stand trial, charges are dismissed. My granddaughter and another child are victims of rape by a 16 year old boy that fell into this category, Charges were dismissed!! Where is the justice??????????

The sequester is going to get more and more expensive to us ordinary Americans. We will all pay in time wasted, jobs lost, and goods and services wasted. Lets send the responsible congressmen a bill for the loss their playing politics is causing us.

Sexual violence in the U.S. military is a crisis. The Pentagon estimates that sexual assaults increased from 19,000 in 2011 to 26,000 in 2012. That's 71 sexual assaults EVERY DAY, and in roughly 56% of cases, the victims are men. Making matters worse, each branch of the armed forces has its own judicial system. It's currently legal for base commanders to overturn a jury's guilty verdict, as happened at Aviano Air Force Base in February 2013. The STOP Act takes the prosecution, reporting, oversight, investigation, and victim care of sexual assaults out of the normal military chain of command -- which has proven grossly ineffective -- and places jurisdiction in an autonomous Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office. Join us to help pass it.

My parents pay about 25 percent of their monthly income on meds. This doesn't sound reasonable to me. I thought with the passage of the Affordable Health care act by the Obama administration the cost of meds would go down.

Let the Mayor and the Town of Pinedale know that you want to keep the FREE covered wagon shuttle operating this summer!

Who was Toussaint Louverture? Would the United States of America have become the greatest power in the world without…? Toussaint Louverture was first this young, skinny, and shy slave, but with a dream to free his people; and he did! He would become the general-in-chief then the Governor General of the most important French colony in the Caribbean. He would say, NO to Napoleon's grandiose project to expand his empire to the American continent after being ceded the vast Louisiana Territories in October 1800. He defeated Napoleon who took the matter to the force of arms, forcing the latter to sell the Louisiana territory in 1803. Toussaint was viewed here as the indirect means of expansion of the United States 16 colonies to the West with the acquisition of the vast Louisiana Territory for only 15 million dollars, or four (4) cents an acre. It was the greatest land bargain in history. With the Louisiana Purchase deal, the United States had doubled its size. “Thus, all of Indian Territory, all of Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa and Wyoming and Montana and the Dakotas and most of Colorado and Minnesota and all of Washington and Oregon States, came to us as the indirect work of a despised negro. Praise, if you will, the work of a Robert Livingston or a Jefferson, but today let us not forget our debt to Toussaint Louverture...” Rev. Talmage De Witt wrote (Christian Herald, New York City, November 28, 1908.) More importantly, between 1796 and 1797, at Toussaint’s invitation the government of John Adams had joined Toussaint in a trade agreement with the British that would authorize the latter to trade in all Haiti’s ports and would also safeguard the US goods to reach Europe through Haiti (then the most important colony of France) thereby would help the American merchants to by-pass trade embargo by European powers against the United States. Such trade treaties were indeed vital to the American economy. To facilitate the trade with the French colony Haiti, the US treasury department had passed a law that allowed the use of the French currency in the United States. The late French President Francois Mitterrand said: “Toussaint Louverture was the symbol of freedom for not only blacks but for us all.” Despite all the glories Toussaint had remained a very humble man. In his speech dated August 1797, just a month before his nomination as the general-in-chief of the army, Toussaint Louverture declared: “I was born slave but nature gave me the soul of a free man. Every day I raised my hands in prayer to God to implore him to come to the aid of my brethren and to shed the light of mercy upon them.” In analyzing Toussaint’s remarkable character a certain psychic elevation to spirituality can also be noted, which in turn elevated him above all blacks, whites, or mulattos. This was the origin of his unconquerable power. "Toussaint Louverture, in the words of Dr Wesley- Smith, was one of the truest and noblest of his or any race. He was pure, when to be otherwise was no discredit; grateful when ingratitude was the rule, and self-sacrificing when individual aspiration seldom extended beyond self-interest. More than any other man he contributed to the honor and reputation of that division of mankind with which he was allied by blood and birth." PETITION STATEMENT We, the undersigned of this formal document, request the honor of the United States Congress to consider declaring April 7th as a TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE MEMORIAL DAY, in order to educate our school aged children, the nation, and the whole wide world about the deeds and legacy of this great Champion of Freedom. For we believe that it is an honor for us as a country among others and as a grateful nation among the few to have a day of reflection in honor of this great champion of freedom, “this spirit of peace, the patriot, the father, and benefactor of mankind.” The success of this petition will make the world a better place where people could live in greater harmony, love, and peace. It will also be a source of widespread pride for the people from the Caribbean islands, North, and South America. Last but not least, it will also be the victory of GOOD over EVIL. PS: If you are interested in learning more about Toussaint Louverture, consider this book, titled: “Toussaint Louverture: A Missing Hero from American History” written by Jacques A. Dorcely. Please contact Imperial Book Company at (631) 929-8424

the state house of representatives just voted not to renew the Texas Lottery Commission. This is an act of moral ignorance. They're cutting $$$ from education, and we're already at the bottom of most measures of education, and they're cutting $$$ from veteran services. There's no excuse for this. We settled the issue of whether or not Texans wanted a lottery in 1991 by a 2 to 1 margin. Let your state legislators and Governor Perry know you support the Texas lottery and demand it be kept.

The Koch brothers are the right-wing oil and gas billionaire duo infamous for funding the Tea Party. Now they want to buy their own media empire to spread their extreme views -- including the Baltimore Sun, and its parent, the Tribune Company. The Kochs have spent their fortune funding anti-worker candidates like Scott Walker, right-wing lobbying groups like ALEC and climate-change denying 'think tanks.' They even warned tens of thousands of their employees that there would be "consequences" if they didn't vote for Republicans. Not exactly the kind of guys I want running the most respected newspaper in Maryland. Isn't one Rupert Murdoch enough? The Baltimore Sun is a valuable source of honest journalism. We can't let it turn into a right-wing mouthpiece. Please sign our petition against a Koch brothers buyout of the Sun.

Parkland High school's athletes deserve to play on turf. Our Soccer, Lacrosse and Field Hockey teams could use this turf for games, and possibly even practices. The best athletes should play on the best fields!

Parkland High school's athletes deserve to play on turf. Our Soccer, Lacrosse and Field Hockey teams could use this turf for games, and possibly even practices. The best athletes should play on the best fields!

We all know politics are broken in the United States these days. We can take a big step in fixing those problems by demanding campaign finance reform to stop big money from buying our elections before the 2014 elections.

After the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, last week killed 15 people, including workers and volunteer firefighters, and injured 150 more people, Gov. Rick Perry said he's comfortable with current government regulation of such facilities. This is absurd. We need stronger safeguards to keep our communities safe from more deadly accidents like this one. Sign our petition to the president and urge him to make this a priority.