If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
New Yorkers worried about fracking have been looking at the impact it has had on their neighbors in Pennsylvania. Increasingly, they don't like what they see there.
The very term Rockefeller Drug Laws has practically become a euphemism for unfair, racially biased mandatory prison sentences and drug-war related mass incarceration.
In 1973, two years after President Nixon declared a "war on drugs," New York Governor Rockefeller passed the toughest drug laws in the nation, demanding mandatory sentences for drug law violations, while removing the judge's power to consider each case individually.
Apparently, the nation's most prestigious newspaper feels Rattner's financial acumen and half-vast experience in manufacturing -- manufacturing kickback schemes, that is -- qualifies him to hold forth on what ails the economy.
The fight against corruption and the fight to expand democracy go hand and glove. If we do not recognize this, we allow those who seek greater control and less democracy to increase their power and the power of the parties they lead.
The state of New York has become an embarrassing example of what can happen when money is allowed to rule politics. But New York and its governor, Andrew Cuomo, now have an opportunity to shed the state's pay-to-play image.
While I am far less enthusiastic about Mayor Bloomberg's support for nuclear power, I agree that the discussion of nuclear energy needs to be stripped of emotion, and focused on an assessment of costs and benefits.
As a long-time fan of professional wrestling I've come to see how much of mortgage servicing resembles what goes on in the ring. Like wrestling the servicing business is full of "works," "gimmicks," "heels and baby faces," so let me explain.
Is Cuomo shying away from taking on the unions as it risks his political future or does he really have no more chips to trade with the unions? Rather than pressure our local officials to make even deeper cuts to our local budgets, let's put the pressure on Governor Cuomo.
People arrested by NYPD for marijuana possession have spent 5,000,000 hours in police custody over the last decade.
The current use of student test scores for such decisions is so fraught with unknowns that we do a disservice to all when we pretend they have any statistical utility in personnel decisions. The chief myth underlying this set of political follies is that we know enough to do no harm.
Flying in the face of the slew of scientific studies both on the harms of burning tar sands and on the KXL itself, State determined that laying down the pipeline is environmentally sound.
In 1977, New York removed criminal penalties for private possession of marijuana and made possession in public view a criminal offense. For years, there were relatively few arrests in New York for possession of marijuana in public view -- 1990 saw about 1,000. By last year, that number had skyrocketed to 45,000.
This is the third time the Assembly has passed such a bill, with similar moratorium bills passing in 2010 and 2011, but then dying a slow death in the Senate and never reaching the governor's desk, meaning the de facto moratorium has remained in place. Could the third time be a charm in 2013 in the Empire State?
So you're depressed about Citizens United, and you feel there are no options. You want a theory of change, how we get from candidates raising all thei...
President Obama can't solve the climate crisis alone, and this momentum in the states is an encouraging sign for anyone who wants to see our elected officials address the challenge of our generation, our changing climate.
