“I Want Us to Be First”

We can’t waste any more time when it comes to rebuilding our roads and bridges. Yesterday, at the Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown, New York, the President explained why:

One study recently found that over time, we’ve fallen to 19th place when it comes to the quality of our infrastructure — 19th place. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like America being 19th. I don’t like America being second. I want us to be first when it comes to infrastructure around the world, because businesses are going to come where there’s good infrastructure to move businesses, move people, move services.

Learn more about the state of our infrastructure — and what’s at stake if we don’t fix it.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on infrastructure near the Tappan Zee Bridge, at the Washington Irving Boat Club in Tarrytown, New York, May 14, 2014. Construction on the new Tappan Zee bridge can be seen adjacent to the current bridge. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Justice betrayed!

change.org

https://www.change.org/petitions

Cecily McMillan was sexually assaulted and then falsely arrested by a NYC police officer! She is a committed social justice advocate with no prior criminal history, yet she was then convicted of assaulting HIM and may be sentenced to seven years in jail?

The court process showed clear bias on the part of Judge Zweibel in favor of the prosecution. Evidence of the officer’s prior acts of aggression and falsification of evidence was not allowed.  Video of rampant police brutality against peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters who were gathering just to socialize the night of March 17, 2012 was not allowed.

Cecily is now at RIKER’S with NO BAIL, and has a sentencing hearing on Monday May 19.

She is not an elopement risk! She is a graduate student who plans to write her thesis on Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin!

The police were not peaceful that night and justice has not been served.  9 of the 12 jurors who sat on the jury to hear her case have even said in writing “We would ask the court to consider probation with community service. We feel that the felony mark on Cecily’s record is punishment enough.”

Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have a history of supporting civil rights and civil liberties.

How can they allow this to happen in their state?  Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance must surely know that aggressively prosecuting Cecily is a waste of the city’s time and resources. Surely the Honorable Ronald A. Zweibel knows that this incident is not worth ruining a young woman’s life or eroding our 1st and 4th Amendment Rights (Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly). The Governor can pardon Cecily; but only after many appeals.

I am a Licensed Psychologist (PhD) and a specialist in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is probably what drew me to Cecily’s case.  In my work as a psychologist I have heard MANY stories of people sexually abused by people in positions of power — whether police, doctors, teachers, priests, AND members of my own profession.

My teenage niece was also brutalized by NYC police who violated her civil rights and tried to pin felony charges on her including assaulting a police officer. Eventually everything was dropped; but I will never forget how both the assault and the arrest can impact a young person.  Cecily was arrested for a natural reaction to being sexually assaulted when the plainclothes police officer grabbed her breast from behind. She is not a criminal, nor a danger to anyone.

Cecily’s sentencing is on Monday, May 19, 2014.

Please sign this petition to request leniency in this case by granting her probation or time served. 9 of the 12 jurors who convicted Cecily have come forward in writing to say they do not believe she deserves to be jailed. It is now time for all of us to do the same by signing this petition.

First posted in March 2014 …

While progressives earned a couple of important wins this legislative
session, Rodney Tom and his Senate Republicans put greedy corporations
first and obstructed progress every step of the way. Fuse members stood
up to hold them accountable online, on the ground and in person. Here’s a
rundown of some of our biggest accomplishments during the 2014
legislative session and what we need to do next to build a more
progressive Washington.

The Good News:

The Dream Act
The clear highlight from this legislative session was the passage of the Dream Act. The Washington Dream Act allows all of our brightest students to apply for the state need grant, regardless of their immigration status. Our friends at OneAmerica, the Washington Student Association, the Washington Bus, and many others worked for years to build grassroots support for this legislation. More than 1,500 Fuse members joined them by urging legislators to support the Dream Act this year. Thanks to this unwavering pressure, the Senate finally passed The Dream Act.

Gun safety and domestic violence prevention
The House and Senate also unanimously approved a bill to expand gun violence protections for survivors of domestic violence. This legislation allows judges to require people under a restraining order to surrender their guns while the order is in effect. Even the NRA supported it, and in a functioning Senate it wouldn’t be controversial. Sadly, it took more than a year for Sen. Rodney Tom to allow a vote. Our friends at the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility deserve much credit for organizing support for this bill.

Why we need change:

In their second year in power, Sen. Rodney Tom and his Republican caucus were even more partisan and dysfunctional than 2013. They spent much of the legislative session congratulating themselves and repeating their tired sound bites, rather than working together to pass major legislation. Here are a few key bills that failed in 2014:

Closing tax loopholes and funding education
There are more than 650 tax loopholes on the books that cost our state billions of dollars every year. Closing some of the unnecessary or inefficient tax loopholes is critical to funding education. The House made modest progress by voting to close four tax loopholes to save $200 million in the budget for education. Yet Sen. Andy Hill of Redmond, the Senate’s budget writer, balked at this responsible solution to our state’s education funding crisis. Instead, he actually created or extended 18 other loopholes that will cost taxpayers $87 million. It’s sad to say, but Sen. Hill’s budget prioritizes every one of these 650 tax loopholes over our kids’ future.

Transportation and transit funding
The House passed a comprehensive transportation package in 2013 while the Senate Republicans spoke at length about the need for a transportation package. Yet nearly a year later – huge transit cuts looming across the state –– the Senate Republicans still have yet to approve any solutions to fix our bridges and roads or  improve public transit.

Reproductive Parity Act
The Reproductive Parity Act (RPA) would require health insurance companies to cover all of a woman’s legal pregnancy options, ensuring every woman has the freedom and privacy to make her own pregnancy decisions. The House passed the RPA and a majority of Senators have signed a letter in support, yet Sen. Tom refused to allow a vote yet again this year. His hand–picked anti–women’s health committee chair, Sen. Randi Becker, refused to allow a vote on the critical bill. More than 2,600 Fuse members called on Senators Tom and Becker to allow a vote before the deadline. With a change in leadership, the RPA could pass the Senate in a matter of minutes.

Homeless Housing
One of the biggest controversies in 2014 was over funding for homeless housing. A strong bipartisan coalition worked to extend the fee that funds a huge portion of the state’s budget for housing assistance for low–income and homeless families. Unfortunately, Rodney Tom’s committee chair, Republican Sen. Jan Angel, abruptly ended a committee hearing without voting on the bill just before the legislative deadline. According to Sen. Steve Hobbs, one of the bill’s champions, Sen. Tom told Sen. Angel to kill the bill. Only after a flurry of outraged press coverage¹  and editorials²  did Tom and Angel back down and agree to extend the funding in the final moments of session.

Raising the minimum wage
Fuse members sent more than 7,500 messages to legislators in support of raising the statewide minimum wage to $12 per hour. This important legislation would help ensure that no one who works full time lives in poverty. Unfortunately, we came up several votes short in the House while the Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane, tried to cut the minimum wage for thousands of Washington workers.

Fuse Senior Organizer Alex Epstein preps volunteers to meet with legislators about the Big Oil tax loophole

Holding the Senate accountable:

Fuse members were there every step of the way to put grassroots pressure on the Senate Republicans and educate the public about their far–right agenda. We organized canvasses, phonebanks and constituent meetings with swing Senators. We also provided rapid–response communications and social media to spread the word and ensure the media and our members online also held the Senators accountable.

More than anything else, the 2014 legislative session showed how much we need a change in the Senate. Tom and his Republican caucus continue to be an obstacle to progress, which means our hopes of passing meaningful progressive reforms depend on retaking the Senate this fall. That’s where you come in.

It’s going to take a, long–term campaign to both retake the Senate and build grassroots support for change on the issues that matter, from commonsense gun laws to raising the minimum wage.

Will you give us the long–term funding we need to win by donating $10 per month as part of the Fuse PowerSource team?

and since this post we found out that Rodney Tom will not run for reelection ! So, that happened

“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.” 

-Theodore Roosevelt

Teens see bullying everyday. They want to help, but don’t know how. Teach them how to be more than a bystander. Share these words and learn how you can motivate teens to take action when bullying occurs.