LIPA has been doing an inefficient and uneffective job for years. By far the worst scenario is the lack of power to Long Islanders for days on end in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. We pay the highest rates in the country, and should be receiving reliable service.

Like many public schools across the country, New Jersey's Newark Public Schools are under attack by their own leadership. Many Newark students, residents, and district employees agree on state-appointed Superintendent Cami Anderson's gross mismanagement of the city's schools. Her policies have adversely affected its most vulnerable populations, particularly students with special needs. This year, the projected number of incoming Special Education (SPED) freshmen for Central High School, a comprehensive public high school, increased yet again. This is a direct result of the adoption of Anderson's One Newark Plan, an enrollment system that uses a biased algorithm to carelessly spread students across the district. Current projections indicate there will be 80 new Freshman SPED students, representing 29% of the total incoming Freshmen class, which the school cannot accommodate in compliance with law. The district percentage of special needs is 15%. That makes Central's Freshman SPED population 93% over the district’s average. Ignoring this phenomenon is a blatant attempt to create hardships in comprehensive schools in order for them to fail. Our principal, Sharnee Brown, has boldly taken action to fight this attack on Central High School's students, staff, and community.

Dear Governor Ducey, Massage therapists serve a vital role in helping the public boost their immune systems, reduce stress, improve sleep, and alleviate pain. Many of us are self-employed and independent contractors. Due to your executive order on April 4th to cease massage therapy services, we scrambled to temporarily close our practices, then research and apply for financial aid. With the timing on that, most (if not all) of us didn't qualify for the Small Business Administration loans that were launched from the CARES Act before they capped out. Those of us who are self-employed and independent do not qualify for standard unemployment, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance has still yet to launch. As such, many of us are falling through the cracks! In addition to personal expenses, we have office leases, licensing, and other costs of doing business that haven’t stopped despite it suddenly becoming illegal for us to do our job! If financial aid isn’t on the way quickly, I encourage you to reconsider if we should be included as non-essential workers. We are educated, licensed, and insured professionals who provide a valuable health service to people who are suffering! Just like physical therapists and chiropractors, we cannot provide our service from 6 feet away, yet they are still permitted to serve the public in this time. Like them, we also strictly adhere to the universal precautions outlined by the CDC to prevent the spread of disease. As such, it is worth considering if the implementation of appropriate screening, sanitization, and the use of a face mask could tilt the benefit to risk ratio in favor of our work too. More detailed outlines of these suggested procedures can be found here: http://beintouch.pro/covid19/ Thank you for your consideration. Signed, Massage therapists, our clients, and those who stand behind us

We are counting on you to make sure that the Cleaner Air Oregon process you created delivers new regulations which will: 1) Prioritize public health 2) Provide the most protection to the people most impacted by air pollution, which too often are communities of color and low-income Oregonians 3) Require polluters to pay for implementation Oregonians deserve nothing less. We are counting on you.

Did you know that 71% of our 6th graders today are not lined up for Pre-Calculus in 11th grade because of 6th grade placement? This is important because the SAT is taken at the end of junior year, and the new SAT has pre-calc on it. That's a problem for many college bound students. As a parent I want the ability to do informed self-select to help guide my child's academic future.

Troubling news out of Idaho this week: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services is planning to send gunners in helicopters to start shooting wolves in the Lolo Elk Management Zone of the Clearwater National Forest. The Idaho Legislature has also requested another $400,000 to kill wolves in the coming fiscal year. "Idaho is making it clear that it has no intention to curb its attempts to decimate Idaho's wolf population."

-- "You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." ~ Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)-- All National Security Services have agreed that fake/fraud news is detrimental to our democratic system. The last thing we need is U.S. business entities to promote, sell and disseminate rag "Pravda" style lies and propaganda. This is the United States, not Russia.

In the National Basketball Association (NBA), players and teams don't even have the option to stay in the locker room--rather it mandates all players, coaches, and trainers must "stand respectfully" for the anthem. I urge the NBA to review this policy, live up to its image as a more open and forward-thinking sports league, and create a new anthem policy that supports the First Amendment right to free speech.

Dear Madame Speaker, we the undersigned respectfully request that you have the House hold daily Press Briefings, similar to White House Press Briefings, but with an emphasis on truth. We need to tell the world where Democrats really stand, where @GOP seems to stand and when TRUMP lies. Finally, we need to counter R/W Fake News & misinformation that gets confused with reality.

The company run by a major Republican party donor, Tommy Fisher of Fisher Sand and Gravel, was recently awarded a $400 million contract to build a span of new ‘border wall’ in Arizona, even though officials said its bid didn’t meet standards. President Trump personally lobbied on Fisher's behalf, in — yet again — an abuse of the president’s office for a calculated partisan purpose. We urge you to investigate.