Author Archives: Ben Y.

On March 8, 2013 the United States Armed Forces discontinued Tuition Assistance. The program, which provides up to $4,500 a year for service members working towards a higher degree, was scrapped in response to the cuts mandated by the sequester. That day, for all the Army, Airforce, Navy and Marine personnel who go to college – or possibly joined to military for the purpose of going to college – the DOD just stopped paying. Personally, I learned about this only two weeks ago at a friend’s party. A soldier in his Freshman year of college, weighing whether he should take a year off to voluntarily deploy to Afghanistan so he could serve with his friends, told me about it. He also … More >>

On the lighter side, this has been making the rounds on the Internet. Kick off your Monday with this hilarious email exchange between the President and Congress.

A very interesting article by my friend Curtis Ellis on why, with our elected leaders’ help, America’s gas bonanza risks shifting our economy from first world industrial/innovation hub toward third world commodity exporter like Russia or Saudi Arabia. The resource curse is well documented and something to seriously consider in crafting economic strategy. And this just in from Tarik Najeddine – According to Fox Business, the U.S. overtake Russia as the world’s largest gas exporter.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, New York has been experiencing a rash of corrupt officials heading off to jail. Former Senate Majority Leader John Sampson, who turned himself in yesterday, will make something like 7 in the past 3 months. The question that remains, though, is who will fill those newly empty seats? With politicians in NY more likely to go to jail or die in office, how do we decide who replaces them? I’ll tell you this, it’s not the voters. It’s the Democratic County Committee. In New York, fully one-third of all State elected officials are given their seats by their County Committee. And again, once you’re in, you’re almost never going to go out – … More >>

As part of its commitment to represent young Democrats and make their voices heard by elected officials, MYD is starting a program to interview policy makers and bring them the questions of our members. Next week, we’re kicking it off with Assemblyman Micah Kellner. He’ll be on video with MYD and we want to know what we should ask him! FEEL FREE TO ASK ANYTHING YOU WANT! For inspiration, though, here are a few key issues at the moment: His proposed ban on pub crawls on the UES (What’s this? Click here) His lawsuits against the Marine Transfer Station (here‘s what this is about: ) The new state budget (it’s being rammed through, but what’s in it?) Handicap accessible taxis … More >>