FEDERAL COURT ORDERS HOUSES OF WORSHIP TO RESUME MEETINGS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Congratulations to our elected officials that protected our houses of worship from being evicted from public school buildings. The leaders of the DOE need to understand that this nation still believes in a higher power. Shame on them for trying to impose their elitist agenda against the will of the majority. How could our educators have gotten it so wrong?

Gregory

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WHO: Council Member Fernando Cabrera & Bronx Household of Faith

WHAT: Federal District Court halts eviction of houses of worship meeting for worship services
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 24, 2012

WHERE: New York, NY

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NEW YORK — In the latest twist of Bronx Household of Faith vs. Board of Education, Bronx Household of Faith attorneys won a court order Friday that allows churches to continue meeting for worship services in New York City public schools while a lawsuit against the city continues.

New York City Council Member Fernando Cabrera who has played an important role in protesting against the City’s policy and who introduced Resolution 1155 in the New York City Council, urging the state legislature to act to repeal this policy, is hopeful about the preliminary injunction. He believes it should push the New York State legislature to act.

“The New York State Assembly should wait no longer,” said Council Member Fernando Cabrera. “Speaker Sheldon Silver expressed concerns about the bill and now it is sufficiently evident that there are indisputable grounds to repeal this policy. The bill has 74 formal co-sponsors in the assembly, and others who support it. If it were brought to the floor today, it would pass. I urge Speaker Sheldon Silver to bring this bill to the floor for a vote.” A bill that would compel the city’s Department of Education to allow the worship services passed the state senate this month and is awaiting action by the state assembly.

The preliminary injunction against the city’s unique-in-the-nation prohibition on worship services in vacant public school buildings on weekends comes on the heels of a temporary order that allowed the Bronx Household of Faith to meet for 10 days.

Bronx Household of Faith sought the injunction on Feb. 3 from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to stop the evictions based on violations of the First Amendment that had not been ruled on previously in the case, Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York.

“In this Court’s view, losing one’s right to exercise freely and fully his or her religious beliefs is a greater threat to our democratic society than a misperceived violation of the Establishment Clause,” the court wrote in its opinion accompanying the order.

NYS State Senator Klien Fights to Increase State Minimum Wage Requirement: "Living on $290 a-week is virtually impossible"

Capital and labor both need to be respected. For to long we have been beating up on the working class. Let workers bring home a check so they can feed, house and educate their children. Kudos to Klien and every elected official that promotes this legislation to increase the minimum wage to $8.50 and peg future increases to inflation. It's about time!!!!.

Gregory
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Statement from Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, (Bronx/ Westchester):

"New York is failing to live up to its tradition as a progressive leader as long as this state's minimum wage remains stagnant. Living on $290 a-week is virtually impossible in this state, yet that's what thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers are struggling to do each day.

"I believe we can do better as a state and as a society. That is why I, in the State Senate, have introduced legislation (S. 6413) by Assemblyman Wright and Speaker Silver to raise the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, and to peg the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.

"I'm hopeful that my colleagues in the Legislature will join us in this fight for a fair and equitable New York that lives up to the ideals of this great state."