New York's minimum wage has risen only 10 cents since 2007, and today remains decades out of date. If the state's minimum wage had simply kept pace with the rising cost of living since 1970, it would equal more than $10.70 per hour today. Instead, the current minimum wage remains stuck at $7.25 per hour, which translates to just $15,080 per year for a full-time worker. Governor Cuomo called for raising New York's minimum wage to $8.75 per hour during his 2013 State of the State address. Now the legislature must deliver. The Independent Democratic Caucus must use its leadership power in the New York Senate to support legislation that raises New York's minimum wage to at least $8.75 per hour and indexes the minimum wage to automatically rise with the cost of living each year.

Faster, affordable, convenient rail service is within our reach in the Northeast. The Amtrak rail line from New Haven to Hartford, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Canada is being improved for high speed commuter rail and faster intercity trains. But in Connecticut, an insanely stupid busway project, the New Britain-Hartford Busway, is being built on the rail line, paving over the rail right of way that is needed for better rail service. The busway will cripple this improved rail service. Two transportation projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars -- and one of them harms the other. The busway MUST be stopped.

The State of NY has turned law-abiding gun owners into criminals with the stroke of a pen. Governor Cuomo has shown disrespect for the role lawful gun owners play in maintaining State resources by waiving the mandatory 3-day discussion period of any proposed law. We need to strike back in a lawful, effective manner.

Student Loan payments, I am concerned because I do not know how much longer I can continue to pay which will only put me in default and the interest will start all over again. I will never finish paying my student loans not because I am not complying but because it is abuse on the part of the Federal Government. yes I feel I have been personally effected by it. I have been paying for 5 years $300.00 per month and now $320.00 for one year. I feel I have paid my debt and should been forgiven on Student Loans.

Corporations have been deemed people by the US Supreme Court, they are allowed to spend unlimited funds and hide behind free speech while not being held to the same standards as any private citizen. This petition will allow corporations, their excutives, board members and major stockholders be for their criminal behavior. Federal and state attorneys can now bring criminal charges against any corporation as if they were ordinary people who break the law. That they be punished in the same manner when found guilty. Facing incarceration in federal or state prisons maybe then corporations will no longer expect to be ABOVE THE LAW!

Business Roundtable is a group of Conservative CEO's whose companies revenue is around $7.3 Trillion. Many of the companies are taxpayer funded like Boeing or have received bailout funds in addition to their normal subsidies. They shouldn't have more of a say than we do.

City Council is urged to reduce N. Ellis Street's speed limit from 35mph to 25mph from W. Cemetery Street to Lake Drive. Lowering the speed limit would make it the same as that on the remainder of the street stretching south from Shober Bridge to Salisbury High School. Neighbors are concerned for the safety of children who regularly play in and around the street and also desire to reduce speeding in general throughout our neighborhood.

For too long the working poor and lower middle-class have suffered at the hands of businesses big and small,facing frozen wages,cut hours and few benefits if we were able to keep them! I have been very troubled at my job at a plastics factory with the lack of effort in getting new customers and thus,we are stuck with cutbacks and frozen wages for multiple years!!

President Obama and ultra-liberal democrats have proposed gun violence reduction laws. The only law that should be passed is strict background checks on all firearms purchases. The notion of banning "assault rifles" and limiting clip capacity is a violation of our civil rights under the U.S. Constitution. Join me in being safe, but fair for law abiding citizens.

Gun violence is an intolerable and solvable problem in this country. We can protect our people and at the same time protect the 2nd Amendment by placing RFID chips in weapons. American Passports already utilize these chips.

American workers are tired of government changing social security retirement age because they raided the SS lockbox money for pet projects and pay backs to supporters.. Letting them retire at 50..and getting pensions after six years is nothing less than stealing...END THEIR DOUBLE DIPPING...CLEAN up the special priveleges in Washington ...make congress and government employees live, work, retire under the same rules we are given. Taxpayers should be voting on their wages, benefits and perks. End the lucrative budgets they our given ...spending $220,000 on a bathroom remodel for one congressional office is mismanagement of the taxpayer money. Making taxpayers pay someone $102,000 to walk the presidents dog is beyond ridiculous.

Protect the welfare of innocent children. Avoid senseless violence and needless deaths. As a pediatric emergency physician, I can no longer sit by and watch this discussion deteriorate into an argument about the second amendment to the US Constitution. We must amend the US constitution so that children's rights take priority over all existing legislation. Only then can we enact stronger, federal legislation protecting children from this epidemic of gun violence.