Jessica Ann Mitchell

Writer for OurLegaci.com and founder of Black Bloggers Connect

This defense obviously doesn't work for black and poor youth. Yet, news outlets are spiraling about 16-year-old Ethan Couch who caused the deaths of four people by drunk driving. His defense was that he suffered from "Affluenza" -- a disorder that only the affluent have.

Alan Singer

Social studies educator, Hofstra University

I do not understand why Pearson for-profit and the Pearson Foundation do not face criminal charges and why New York State will continue to do business with a foundation and a company that admitted under pressure, to have violated state law.

Randi Weingarten

President, American Federation of Teachers

What if, instead of using international rankings to bash our students, schools and teachers, we learned from top-performing countries and applied their lessons for the benefit of all children?

Salvatore Bono

Blogger, officiallyayuppie.com

To celebrate the triumph of success that their new album brought on, they staged their very first headlining arena tour, which landed at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Saturday night.

Sanjay Sanghoee

Banker, political and business commentator; author of 'Killing Wall Street' (www.sanghoee.com)

The families of Newtown victims have done a lot to push for gun control and their work will surely continue to make a difference both in terms of public awareness and also legislation, but the burden of restoring sanity to a nation gone gun crazy should not fall to them alone.

Monica Swanson

Mother, blogger at www.thegrommom.com

Over time, I have I have been surprised, and slightly entertained, as people have admitted to me their assumptions about doctors, or what it is like to be married to one.

HuffPost Radio

Reagan charged up the hill of Big Gov't - now it's Obama turn on Big Inequality. Lowry & vanden Heuvel debate whether that's the "defining challenge" of our era and if government can do anything about higher executive pay, lower worker wages. Then: is Boehner's tantrum a one-off or a strategy?

Menachem Rosensaft

Professor of law and son of Holocaust survivors

More than 68 years after Allied troops liberated the German death and concentration camps in which millions of European Jews had been ruthlessly murdered, many of those who miraculously survived live precariously in dire circumstances.

John Mariani

Food and Travel columnist, Esquire

Food hipsters who insist that Brooklyn is the new mecca for hot new restaurants ignorantly neglect what's happening on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Charlotte Robinson

Broadcast journalist and host, 'OUTTAKE VOICES'

This week I talked with Michael Petry, author, artist and director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in London, about his new book Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate the Still-Life Tradition. I also talked with Michael about LGBT issues.

Andrew Zimbalist

Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics, Smith College

Although Rodriguez may think that MLB's aggressiveness to procure evidence was motivated by a personal vendetta, the public should recognize it for what it is -- an energetic effort by MLB to eliminate the use of performance enhancing drugs from the national pastime.

Faith Hope Consolo

Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Susan Cole

Director, Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative

Schools that make trauma sensitivity central to their educational mission will benefit all students, whether they have experienced traumatic events or not, because everyone needs to feel safe and connected to the people around them.

Matthew Chapman

Writer/director, "The Ledge", author "Trials Of The Monkey," President ScienceDebat.org

For Bloomberg bloomdoggles that sticks for any length of time, I'd like to apply for credit for the invention of a German-style compound word, "Dinglebloomdoggle," this being a bloomdoggle that's really hard to shake loose.

Len Levitt

Veteran police reporter and author

Guess who wants to return to the NYPD? Maybe as Bill Bratton's chief of staff? It's Joe Esposito, the recently retired Chief of Department, who many consider the glue that held the department together for the past 12 years under Ray Kelly.

Jane Isay

Writer and Editor

His posture, his diction, his height -- what a presence. We understood why he was being called the next Laurence Olivier.

Barry Lando

Author, "The Watchman's File"

At times, outrageous juxtapositions in the news shriek for attention. Sometimes, they're actually obscene.

Alex Khan

Student, College of the Holy Cross

Since the MTA's income is not substantially affected by the quality of the service it provides to its customers, it has little motivation to improve the service.