Hamilton Honors MLK Day With Youth Poetry Slam
Central Brooklyn State Sen. Jesse Hamilton is honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tomorrow with a “Our Youth Are Slamming” Poetry Workshop.
The event in partnership with the Green Earth Poets Cafe is open to youths 10 and under, who are encouraged to honor the legacy of Dr. King to create their own dream with words.
The event is free and open to the public. It is slated for between 12 noon and 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Brownsville Heritage House, 581 Mother Gaston Boulevard, 2nd Floor in Brownsville.
Donovan Takes Cruz To Task
GOP Congressman Dan Donovan (Bay Ridge, Staten Island) today took fellow Republican Party colleague and Presidential candidate Ted Cruz to task for saying New York had a different set of values than the rest of the country during last night’s debate.
“Everybody understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal and pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage,” Cruz said. “And focus on money and the media.”
Donovan said contrary to Cruz’s assumptions, the values of New Yorkers are strength, compassion, hard work, family and generosity.
“Not only was it on display in the aftermath of September 11th and Hurricane Sandy, but we encounter it in our everyday lives. The next time Senator Cruz is fundraising in Manhattan, I invite him to come to my district where he can meet real New Yorkers, and maybe then he will think twice about wrongly insulting the integrity of the people I am so proud to call my fellow citizens,” said Donovan.
Richardson Responds To Cuomo Speech
Assemblywoman Diana Richardson today responded to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State Address yesterday by laying out her own agenda as a state lawmaker.
- Working alongside other New York State elected officials to support the transformation of failing schools and other high needs schools into community schools so issues of poverty can be addressed with communities working together to ensure that every student is prepared, safe, healthy and ready to learn.
- Supporting healthy children and youth initiatives, including those addressing mental and physical health needs and substance abuse issues.
- Supporting quality, affordable, accessible school-based before-school and after school programs.
- Invest $20 billion over five years for two historic proposals – A $10 billion Housing Plan for affordable housing, and a $10 billion Homelessness Action Plan.
- Create and preserve 100,000 affordable housing units across the state through the Housing NY 2020 plan. This proposal , which boosts state spending on housing programs by nearly $5 billion will build and preserve affordable units and individual homes; make home ownership affordable for first-time buyers; increase investments in the revitalization of our communities; promote housing choice opportunities for all New Yorkers; revamp services in ways that better serve clients including New Yorkers seeking affordable housing; and directly support permanent housing programs for those struggling with homelessness.
- Proposal of an additional $22 million investment in pre-kindergarten for three year olds that will support the provision of early childhood education to an additional 2,000-2,500 three year old students and ensure that these children will have even earlier access to high-quality instruction during the critical brain and language development years, along with opportunities to build confidence and social skills through activity and play And the Governor proposes an additional $2 million investment to ensure pre-k programs are high quality.
- Making New York the first state in the nation to enact a $15 minimum wage for all workers. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all industries directly benefits 2.3 million workers in New York State, about a quarter of the total workforce. Previously, as a result of the Governor’s efforts, New York has begun moving toward a $15 minimum wage for fast food employees, public sector workers, and SUNY employees – in total amounting to roughly a quarter of a million workers in New York State.
- Supporting the Governor’s proposal for a $55 million investment in the Urban Youth Jobs Program and related workforce training,modernizing the use of alternatives to incarceration, reducing criminal behavior through educational programming in prisons,improving the use of transitional supports during the first six months after an individual’s release, and restricting access to criminal records for pardoned individuals.
“My top priority is to ensure that all working families can get ahead,” Richardson concluded.
