I want to thank Liz Kruger for her recent post on the Healthy Teens Act (S.1342) which (to quote Senator Kruger):

...will create a system for providing grants to schools for the purpose of developing age appropriate, medically accurate sex education. The legislation also stresses that curricula be developed that encourages communication about sexuality issues between parents and their children.

This bill is one I have highlighted before and I want to back Senator Kruger on this one. My own State Senator, Velmanette Montogomery, has been pushing for this one for some time and has even hosted a program on BCAT on the issue.

And I got this some time back from NARAL via email:

New studies show that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection (STI). In New York, 40,000 teens will become pregnant this year.

Our young New Yorkers deserve better.

My State Senator has been pushing for this one for some time. Needless to say, the Republicans of the State Senate are the problem when it comes to funding comprehensive sex ed programs in New York State. You know Republicans...they believe in the failed abstinence only program.

From NARAL via email:

New studies show that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection (STI). In New York, 40,000 teens will become pregnant this year.

Our young New Yorkers deserve better.

New York currently has no designated funding for comprehensive sex education in our schools, although New York’s rates of unintended teen pregnancy and STIs are among the highest in the country. We need to give our teens age-appropriate and accurate sex-ed so that they can make healthy decisions for themselves.

The Healthy Teens Act (S.1342) can make this happen.

If this bill is passed, school districts, BOCES, school-based health centers and community-based organizations would be able to apply for grants to create and implement programs that will give New York students real sex ed.

Whenever I find myself thinking that the soap opera that is New York's electoral process can't get any more exotic - and one is tempted to think this quite often - along comes someone even more exotic. People do run for the oddest of reasons.

Today's award for noticeable extravagance goes to one Christopher Strunk, running as a republican against Democrat Velmanette Montgomery in the 18th District. This not because general republican policy positions seem outlandish on their own merits, but I'll let him speak for himself. Spelling is maintained as in the original.

On Jesuits:

The banning of the Jesuits is a matter of process that must start based upon existing law.

[...]Fr. De Chardin’s Liberation Theology mission was and is continued to transform USA sovereignty under Vatican domination over U.S. Government Policy, against citizen protections of the First Amendment, intended to replace all religious practice with one world Gaia worship. That Fr. De Chardin and the Vatican’s enterprise acts in conjunction with agents of the New York Chatauqua Assemblies, corporate members of the Kellogg Foundation and related entities complicit with elements of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Hemisphere wrongly protected by segmented methods of secrecy.

Under Republican Party on the party's candidate's web site, we find:

The Republican party were it to survive must have a different slant on environmentalist treason and obstrurtion of human progress here in the State, the Greens and now the Dems are a tool of Big Oil and Big Religion that have covetted Big Government.

Did you know that New York State has Oil reserves? Yeah how about that. So lets drill for oil upstate and refine it here so we can drive the enironmentalists and BIG Oil nuts! Chavez has nothing on what we can do here in New York.

On the ongoing genocide in the 18th Senatorial District of New York:

DDDB sent me a link to some pictures from Saturday's "Put Up or Shut Up Ratner" Rally (as I call it). Once again, I am struck at the politicians that have come together to oppose Ratner.

The iconic picture for me is Chris Owens and David Yassky, on the same stage to demand accountability in all aspects of the Atlantic Yards project:

How times have changed since 2006. And Ratner brought them together.

This picture gives a good impression of the turnout:

Though I think this might be facing only one way from the stage and so show about half the crowd. A was the far end of the crowd in this picture, so I couldn't see to the other end. This seems to give an impression of the crowd facing the other way:

Not a bad turnout for a dreary Saturday.

Today was the rally calling for Bruce Ratner to put up or shut up. Brooklyn is getting tired of Ratner making promises then breaking those promises even as he demands more taxpayer money. The rally was well attended, though we came slightly late and were way at the back, so didn't really see the whole crowd.

Chris Owens, President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and Brooklyn Progressive Activist, led the rally. Three groups organized the rally: Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, and Brooklyn Speaks. MANY local politicians attended, including some who had previously been pretty solidly behind Ratner. Ratner has worn out his welcome even among his supporters.

Here are some excerpts from the press release from the three organizing groups:

In the ongoing battle over Atlantic Yards, one central critique of good government advocates has been the abject failure of the legislature to do its due diligence and examine whether this project is indeed in the public interest, and therefore worthy of public dollars.

One of the myriad lollipops being thrown at Bruce Ratner is this: a 421-a tax reform bill just passed by the Assembly reformed the 421-a tax break given to developers; now, one must actually build affordable housing to receive tax breaks for it. From Develop Don't Destroy:

The Assembly passed a bill reforming the 36-year old 421-a property tax break. No longer will developers building new construction receive tax breaks when they build all market rate buildings. Now they must provide 20% of the units at "affordable" rates in each building, based on a cap set at 60% of Area Median Income (AMI). AMI for New York City is about $71,000 for a family of four (AMI for Brooklyn is about $35,000).

But Bruce Ratner gets a special deal written in clause 13 of the bill. For his Atlantic Yards project, he gets the tax break for his market rate condos. No other developer in the 421-a "Geographic Exception Areas" (which include Central Brooklyn where the project is proposed) will receive tax breaks if they build all market rate.

Mayor Bloomberg has called for a veto of the bill, and now, the two legislators who represent Atlantic Yards in the legislature, Velmanette Montgomery and Hakeem Jeffries, have made their displeasure known in no uncertain terms.