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New York’s marijuana possession law remains broken as tens of thousands of mostly Black and Latino youth are arrested for marijuana possession each year. Given this changing landscape, we will discuss what’s happening with marijuana reform policy in New York, and get perspectives on what should happen next.
Please RSVP here to attend this event, download the flyer, or read on for speakers and more details.
An invitation from the New York City chapter of the National Organization of Women:
We are electing our first new Mayor in twelve years. Now is the time to make sure the next leader of New York City puts equality at the top of their agenda. Hear from the candidates on the critical issues that impact women and girls and affect every New Yorker.
The forum will be moderated by former New York Times city columnist Joyce Purnick, and will feature major Democratic, Republican, and independent candidates. Read on for full details!
Wednesday, Sen. Krueger joined Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, other colleagues, and a broad group of advocates for women’s rights to call for the introduction of legislation and an open vote on the Governor’s women’s equality agenda, including reproductive rights and workplace fairness legislation. From the Albany Times Union:
Though several pro-life groups have expressed disdain for Cuomo’s decision to yoke the rest of the agenda items to the more controversial reproduction rights provisions, Sen. Liz Krueger expressed the hope of the vast majority in the room was for an omnibus bill. “You need that full package,” she said.
See the full article at the Times Union, or read on to watch video of the press conference.
Parents: do you know that your child’s confidential, personal school records are going to be shared with a corporation called inBloom?
This highly sensitive information will be stored on remote servers “in the cloud,” shared with this corporation, and could be disclosed to third-party for-profit corporations, to help them develop and market “learning products.”
The data could include your child’s names, address, photo, email, test scores, grades, special education, economic and racial status, and could include detailed disciplinary and health records as well.
Please come and learn more about this plan from advocates and state and city education officials.
What: Town Hall Meeting on Student Privacy
When: Monday, April 29th, 6 p.m.
Where: Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street
In Politicker‘s continuing coverage of the wave of federal arrests of politicians and political party officials, Liz makes the case that real campaign finance reform is necessary to truly clean up New York politics:
Although Mr. Smith’s electoral plans could have simply been a fantasy in his own mind, some officials and good-government groups claim that the key takeaway from the allegations is the need to reform New York State’s campaign finance system. Current Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated over $3 million to various state and county GOP organizations over the past decade, even after he left the Republican Party to run as an independent in 2009. He received their Wilson Pakula blessing in order to do so. And Mr. Catsimatidis, who used to employ Mr. Tabone in both his campaign and his company, has been plowing plenty of his own dollars into the various county parties himself.
“Our wild-west campaign finance laws have nurtured a culture of corruption in this state,” Democratic Senator Liz Krueger told Politicker in a statement. “It has become accepted wisdom to too many people in New York politics that enough four- or five-figure checks, distributed to enough elected officials, can change anything and fix anything. At the same time, incumbents raise enormous amounts of money — the lion’s share of their money — from the established interests that are lobbying them.”
Reflecting on the multitude of political scandals that have rocked New York City in Albany in recent years, Ms. Krueger added, “The result is an environment where bribery schemes don’t seem outlandish and wrong — they seem pretty normal.”
Read more at Politicker.