Workmen's Circle Mourns Nelson Mandela

NELSON MANDELA (1918-2013)  The Workmen's Circle joins with the entire world in mourning the loss of President Nelson Mandela, a man of incomparable strength, vision, and courage and singularly one of the most powerful voices for change in history. President Mandela dedicated his whole life to the cause of social and economic justice for all people, a cause that we share, even when fighting for that cause meant 27 years in jail.  In President Mandela's name, we urge everyone today to commit to working to making his vision for a world free of hate, and one in which education is at the forefront of change, a reality. As President Mandela famously said, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn how to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can learn to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart." We couldn't agree more.  President Mandela made the world a better place for us all.  Even as we mourn our world's great loss, we are charged to keep his legacy of justice alive for generations to come.

******************** Proudly progressive since 1900, today's Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring engages Jewish families in lifelong education, cultural celebration and progressive activism.  Join us at www.circle.org

Tea Party thinks it's a "home run" to take away peoples' jobs

	We will lose 800,000 jobs next year because of a policy that the tea party calls a "home run."   Remember the sequester?  The media may have forgotten the across-the-board cuts Congress rammed through last year, but we are still suffering the consequences.  That's why we've joined with eight other groups representing millions of Americans in a campaign to get rid of the sequester.  Click here to pledge to participate. Budget negotiations are happening right now. This is the best opportunity to restore funding to everything from medical research, to Meals on Wheels, to Head Start and so much more. Republicans think that if they drag their feet we will forget about the sequester. Prove them wrong. Thanks for all you do, Robert L. Borosage Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future P.S. Please consider making a $5 donation through ActBlue to support this and other actions.

Fundriaising appeal from the good folks at @DailyKos

I’ve spent 11 years building Daily Kos and it’s amazing to see what it’s become. We’re the largest progressive political publication in the country. Our email list recently crested the one million subscriber mark. Our site reaches over five million unique readers every month. We reach twice as many people more via social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. We provide a million community members with a platform to report news, connect with each other and make change in their communities. And we have real successes to point to, such as raising over $1.6 million for great candidates in this non-election year. On policy, our advocacy work was specifically cited by CNN as the catalyst for filibuster reform. And we have just 22 staff members who help make it all happen. Meanwhile, the economics of online publishing are in flux. Ad revenue, which once supported the bulk of our activities, is no longer able to fund operations. In fact, community support has become more important to our ability to operate than advertising revenue. So we need your help. We need to raise $100,000 by the end of the year. Can you chip in $5 so that Daily Kos can keep fighting? If every one of our readers this month chipped in two cents, we’d be all set. If every reader chipped in a dollar, we’d be able to finance operations for two years. Not everyone is in a position to give. So, if you’re fortunate enough to make it through Black Friday with a few bucks in your pocket, please chip in to help Daily Kos keep fighting for the issues that matter to us. I’ll chip in $5 so that Daily Kos can keep fighting. Keep fighting, Markos Moulitsas Founder and Publisher, Daily Kos

NYC-built roads in Catskills imperil environment, health, safety of residents & NYC water

A great article in the Woodstock Times, about how New York City's Department of Environmental Preservation, which manages upstate reservoirs, is skimping on road building techniques so as to imperil not only the environment in the Catskills, and the health and safety of its residents, but also the safety of the very New York City water supply it's charged with protecting. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll mention that the author of the article, Mel Sadownick, is my brother in law, but the problem he describes is very real, and very disturbing, and I agree with the article 100%:

New reservoir roads create peril to our water, air quality, drivers, vehicles

by Mel Sadownick on Nov 25, 2013 • 6:30 am

Ashokan Reservoir (photo by Dion Ogust)

One might ask what would be the thread that ties the above, diverse issues, together. The answer to that question came knocking on my door, in the form of a dust cloud, during the weekend of September 8, 2013.

My house is next to Route 28A, the road that winds around the Ashokan Reservoir. That weekend, the dust on 28A was so intense that it made me wonder if I had been transported, in time and space, to the dust bowl of Oklahoma, in the 1930s. The dust was all over the road, in the air, in my car, in my house, and in my lungs.

I assumed that the project to repave 28A was somewhere in mid-construction. I called to ask when the trucks were going to come, to finally lay down the pavement. I quickly learned that the road was owned by the New York City DEP, and that they were the ones, to call and to ask.

A very nice and very forthcoming gentleman, the man in charge of the road project, took my call and answered my question. His answer shocked me. The answer was “never.” They were done. This was the final layer.

Over a period of a few phone calls, he explained that this was a road that was called a “tar and chip” road, and that it was the most economical (least expensive) way to keep DEP’s roads up.

I researched “tar and chip roads” on the internet and learned that the “chip” in this road is not made from natural stone, but is made with Bitumen (more about Bitumen later). I learned about the impact of this kind of road on cars, drivers, waterways, drinking water, and air quality.

I learned that “tar and chip” roads are most commonly used by economically strained (poor) rural counties, on their less traveled, rural roads.

Some of the drawbacks of this kind of road:

“Can cause safety and environment problems such as cracked windshields, loss of control, and crashes (especially for motorcyclists, bicyclists, and small trucks);” That “the rough surface causes a notable increase in vibration and rolling resistance for cars and bicyclists, and increased wear on all types of tires;” and that “There are incidents of loose chips hitting the underside of your car, debris from passing trucks hitting the sides of your car and striking your windshield.”
The “tar and chip” road may appear to be economical way to build a road, but it creates hazards for drivers, cars, trucks and bicyclists.

However, the environmental impact of building such a road, particularly near reservoir waters, is more profound..........

Complete article

Network for Public Education -- 1st National Conference - March 1 & 2, 2014 @NetworkPublicEd

Volume 1, Issue: #30  November 23, 2013 Inside NPE News Election 2013: The Results Victorious Sue Peters Thanks NPE Check out NPE News Briefs - a service from the Network for Public Education - for the latest headlines from journalists and bloggers around the country. You can even subscribe to our once-daily digest - delivered via email every day. NPE News Briefs NPE News Briefs PODCASTS This week, Julian Vasquez Heilig discusses charter school policies and practices Reign of Error,  the new book by Diane Ravitch is now available for purchase from major outlets. Find details here! The Network for Public Education is pleased to announce our first National Conference. The event will take place on March 1 & 2, 2014 (the weekend prior to the world-famous South by Southwest Festival) at The University of Texas at Austin. In the coming weeks, we will release more details. In the meantime, make your travel plans and click this link and submit your email address to receive updates about the NPE National Conference 2014. Information will also be available on Facebook, Twitter, and on the NPE website.   Click here to receive information about the NPE National Conference 2014  Sue Peters - Seattle School Board Director-Elect - Thanks NPE Members for Contributing to Her Victory Dear Diane and members and supporters of the Network for Public Education, Once again, I am pleased to extend my thanks to you and NPE for your invaluable support and endorsement of my grassroots candidacy for Seattle School Board. I am thrilled to announce that we won - convincingly! On Election night, we led by 51-48 percent, and that lead has only grown with every new vote tally. We are now approaching a 9-point margin, at 54-45 percent. That is nearly a 14,000-vote lead. Why Our Win Matters: This is a victory not only for my campaign, but for communities, families, and educators everywhere who are the key stakeholders in public education, but whose voices are not always heard in the national debate over education reform, or in our own local school district. This is also a victory for authentic, grassroots democracy. Seattle voters did not allow a small group of moneyed interests to buy this election. My opponent's campaign and political action committee (PAC) spent a record-breaking $240,000+, much of it on negative campaigning, most of it bankrolled by a small group of wealthy proponents of corporate ed reform and charter schools. The PAC attacked my candidacy four times throughout the campaign with progressively more mendacious and offensive mailers. The attacks focused almost entirely on defending the Gates Foundation, in a bizarre and unsuccessful attempt to discredit me, and completely ignored the important issues facing our school district like overcrowding, inequity of resources among our schools, excessive testing and low teacher morale. This amount of money and such tactics are unprecedented not only in Seattle but Washington State for a school board race. Thankfully, voters were not fooled by the distortions and diversions. I am proud of my authentic, fiscally responsible, volunteer-driven campaign, which remained focused on the issues and maintained its integrity. I am also grateful to everyone who helped us counter the barrage of misinformation, and to those of you who promoted my candidacy personally. I want to particularly thank Dr. Diane Ravitch, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and national education historian, who recognized that my campaign represented a national battle over the integrity and future of public education. Her support gave important legitimacy to our campaign and to my efforts over the years to engage on education issues, as both a journalist and parent. I believe my near decade of experience with the Seattle Public School District resonated with voters, as well as my clear commitment to keeping the public in public education. Thank you again. Sincerely, Sue Peters Parent, journalist, public education advocate, and Seattle School Board Director-Elect Please forward this newsletter far and wide!  In solidarity, The Network For Public Education