Obama Defends Sweeping Education Reforms in Face of Criticism from Minority and Teachers' Groups - Democracy Now!

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President Obama took on critics of his administration’s sweeping education reform plan on Thursday in a nearly hour-long speech at the National Urban League’s 100th anniversary convention. His address came on the heels of news that New York public school students are not performing nearly as well as prior state tests had revealed. We speak with Diane Ravitch, the former Assistant Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, and Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters.

Spanish Civil War Volunteers' Cultural Legacy Kept Alive By Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives to be Feted on May 2nd at New York's Museo del Barrio..

Archive's Letters, Photos, Films and Documents Preserve "The Good Fight" For Inspiration and Education

Photo of Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Ernest Hemingway. Pablo Picasso. Henri Cartier-Bresson. Federico Garcia Lorca. All were deeply touched by the efforts of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade- the nearly 3000 Americans who fought against Franco's forces in Spain in the 1930s. Those volunteers will be celebrated Sunday, May 2 at the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives' (ALBA) 74th Volunteers for Liberty reunion program and reception at New York's Museo del Barrio.

Picasso's "Guernica" (photo above) and Hemingway's 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' are probably the best-known works inspired by the Spanish Civil War, and ALBA has recently been instrumental in two others. The first, a film shot by the legendary photographer Cartier-Bresson (currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art) was recently rediscovered in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives collection. And a new staging of Spanish poet Garcia Lorca's play 'El Retablillo de Don Cristóbal' quotes letters from Brigade volunteers preserved by the Archive - and available free to the public on the ALBA website at http://www.alba-valb.org/resources/digital-library

The May 2 program and reception celebrate the Abraham Lincoln Brigade's volunteers and their legacy of activism with the presentation of the first annual ALBA Activist Award to Amy Goodman, author and host of Democracy Now!; an appearance by Matti Mattison, one of the last surviving Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteers, now an honorary Spanish citizen;, a talk by ALBA board members James Fernández and Sebastiaan Faber that will take attendees on an adventure through the Archives; and a performance by Bruce Barthol (Country Joe and the Fish) of the stirring songs of the Spanish Civil War.

Event information and tickets are available via
http://www.alba-valb.org/news-events/events/#alba-74^th-reunion-of

Hear ALBA Executive Director Jeanne Houck discuss the Abraham Lincoln Brigade on the Leonard Lopate Show on New York's WNYC Friday, April 30 at 12:40 PM at http://www.wnyc.org/flashplayer/player.html

Read The Volunteer, founded by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade:
http://www.albavolunteer.org/

A Pulitzer for Juan Gonzalez by Ben Smith...

I was thrilled to see my old colleagues on the Daily News editorial board win a Pulitzer for their all-out fight to put the heatlh of Ground Zero workers on the local and national agenda.

One guy who really deserves that award, though, was left off: News columnist Juan Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was hammering the issue when most of the New York press, myself included, were believing assurances from the local and federal governments that the air was fine, assurances that virtually everyone has since backed off. A few local officials, led by Jerry Nadler, among others, didn't buy it, and neither did Juan.

Way back on September 28, 2001 he wrote the first about 30 columns on the subject,

"Ever since the World Trade Center disaster, federal and city officials have said there is minimal risk from the fetid, dust-filled air and smoke that continue to envelop Ground Zero. But independent tests of dust samples around the site have found dangerous levels of cancer-causing asbestos, fiberglass - and even residues of human bone particles," Gonzalez wrote. "Leaders of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association retained the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project to conduct independent monitoring after dozens of cops assigned to rescue operations voiced their worries to union leaders about what is in the polluted air they keep breathing."

Read entire article posted at Room 8 - NY Politics...

I couldn't agree more with Ben's assessment...Juan was way ahead of the rest of the pack on this issue...he also hammered away on his Democracy Now! broadcasts about the air quality downtown after 9-11 ...

Read the transcript or listen to a segment which aired on Friday, October 26th, 2001 - Toxic Zone: World Trade Center Clean-Up Workers Face Hazardous Conditions...

Juan co-hosts Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman - it's on Times-Warner Cable (Queens) on Channel 75 at 1 am and can be viewed online...