Politics

New York is heavily dependent on volunteer fire departments for fire protection. According to the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, 89% of the state’s fire departments outside of the New York City area are volunteer. Their commitment to volunteer fire protection provides both a critical life-savings service to communities and a tremendous cost savings to area taxpayers.

With kids starting a new school year, many will be encouraged to think about the future and set goals for themselves. For many kids, goals will include pursuing a college education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 19.9 million students will attend American colleges and universities this fall.

As students and teachers begin a new school year, I thought it would be a good time to update constituents on the Common Core standards, now known as the Next Generation Learning Standards, and where things stands with standardized testing. As many will recall, in 2013 the New York State Board of Regents adopted the Common Core learning standards. Almost immediately following their adoption, it was realized that the standards were flawed and that the quick implementation of Common Core would create unnecessary hardship on students, parents, teachers and administrators.

Earlier this month, more than 100 people were hospitalized within a short time period for synthetic drug overdose in New Haven, Connecticut. Health officials there issued a public health alert, warning people of the dangers of the drugs after several people convulsed and collapsed at a public park. This was not an isolated incident and our region is no stranger to the impact of synthetics drugs.