Help Local Small Businesses: The city and the airport need to stop showing preferential treatment to the large companies and give all companies the same access to the airport and potential customers. The access needs either to be rotated monthly or be on a first come, first serve basis.

The apartment building in which I live just increased my rent by 13 percent after a 6 month lease. My family could barely afford to pay the original amount. This is extortion and something needs to be done to stop these people.

An expectant mother is told by her manager to treat a bad boiling-water burn with mustard. MUSTARD. A fast-food worker gets third-degree burns from a blisteringly hot, totally unsafe fry lamp. A cook sears the entire palm of his hand on a too-hot grill — and his supervisor makes him work for hours before getting it treated. This is the truth about the serious, painful and often permanent injuries that occur every single day in fast-food kitchens across the country. Dangerous conditions, insane “first-aid treatments” like mustard and butter on burns, and poor management have led to this: Four out of five fast-food workers have been burned, most repeatedly. That’s 2.8 million workers burned this year. Call on the Department of Labor to investigate an industry that is putting millions of fast-food workers’ health and safety at risk EVERY DAY.

Many homes in my region , including my own are threatened by the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline project. And this is only one of several large ( 42" high pressure pipelines) proposed to be built across Virginia. Permitting gas pipeline companies to survey properties against the will of the people violates our property rights and abuses the concept of eminent domain.

We are petitioning the United States Department of Justice to investigate allegations that Pearson has been monitoring social media sites looking for teenagers posting critical remarks of Pearson's invalid standardized testing. In one case in a New Jersey high school, they demanded that a student be punished for a tweet, which was deleted. Not only is this action by Pearson unethical, it is likely criminal as well as no company, no matter how powerful, should be spying on Americans, especially our children. Neither should Pearson, along with the blessings of the New Jersey Department of Education, subject our children to possible violations of free speech. We ask the Department of Justice to advocate for our nation's youth by investigating, indicting, and ultimately convicting Pearson for these egregious breaches of privacy and likely violation of our First Amendment rights.

The City of Berkeley is now considering a proposal for a HUGE five story development between San Pablo Ave and 10th St and Cedar St and Jones St. The developer wants to build 170 units and has asked for numerous exemptions to the Berkeley zoning code. As proposed, the project would significantly alter and degrade the character of our neighborhood. Please make your voice heard on this important issue!

Allied Waste Services of North America. LLC, d/b/a Republic Services of West Virginia has filed a proposed rate increase of 44% with the Public Service Commission. This proposed increase comes on the tail of a huge decline in service and what appears to be a lack of interest by Republic agents to complaints of trash not being picked up for weeks at a time and requests for refunds due to lack of service. Along with the current recycling services need and desire by a vast number of WV residents, we request that a more modest increase of 15% be instated and residential and business single-stream recycling included in the weekly pickup services.

Amazon.com is a powerhouse in the sale a distribution of goods and information in the United States and has the authority to dictate what is and what is not available for purchase on its website. Further, Amazon.com should be held accountable for any profits it has obtained in contributing to the commercial sexual exploitation of children through the sale of Mickey Royal’s titles through Amazon.com. The books written by Mickey Royal clearly detail the exact steps child sex abusers should take to successfully lure, manipulate, enslave, and sell our children for sex and profit. Here is an excerpt from the book The Pimp Game: Instructional Guide: “You’ll start to dress her, think for her, own her. If you and your victim are sexually active, slow it down. After sex, take her shopping for one item. Hair and/or nails is fine. She’ll develop a feeling of accomplishment. The shopping after a month will be replaced with cash. The love making turns into raw sex. She’ll start to crave the intimacy and be willing to get back into your good graces. After you have broken her spirit, she has no sense of self value. Now pimp, put a price tag on the item you have manufactured.” (Smith et al. 2009) And this is no lie. This is precisely how vulnerable children are lured away every day to be raped, abused, and commercially sexually exploited right here in the United States (Mitchell, et al 2010). The pimps and exploiters of the world would have you believe the children for sale on the streets are willing participants. This book is proof otherwise. This book is proof of the twisted abuse tactics used by exploiters to meet their own needs for power and money. The issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children is a complex one which I invite you to look deeper into. To be a successful exploiter one must prey on the individuals with the least amount of power seeking the most amount of belonging. Children are not only a desirable commodity for sex from buyers, they are also ideal candidates to be manipulated and controlled (Gibbs et al., 2012). The average age of children being targeted by exploiters, commonly known as pimps, is between the ages of 11-14 years old (Hammer et al., 2002). That’s right, children, from all walks of life, between the ages of 11 and 14 years old are the most vulnerable targets to be lured by exploiters who use means of force, fraud, and coercion including rape, torture, and kidnapping to bring these children under their control and sell their bodies for sex and profit. More devastatingly, the children most at risk to be targeted by exploiters are among our most vulnerable; those who have been involved in the child welfare system due to abuse and neglect in their homes (Colby, 2011). Don’t be fooled by the idea that any exploiter is in the business of only enslaving ‘consenting adults’. The issue of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States is overwhelming. As a nation we are scrambling to merely begin to get a grasp on just how many children are being commercially sexually exploited each day (Nixon et al., 2002). Andrew Oosterbaan, Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, U.S. Department of Justice, says, “The stark reality is that the supply is never-ending … I mean, that little girl who started as a runaway on the streets in Washington State and ended up on the streets of Miami Beach as a prostitute is way too typical … There is an endless supply — and it is almost surreal to have these words leave my mouth — endless supply of victims. But that’s the stark reality.” (Smith et al. 2009) Tina Frundt, Founder of Courtney’s House, and Survivor of domestic minor sex trafficking, explains, “I was 14 years old, and the way the pimp came at me was that at first I didn’t even know he was a pimp. He came at me like a boyfriend. Yes, he was an older boyfriend but he cared about me.... Six months later he told me ‘Let’s run away together. We can have a beautiful house and family.’ And I did believe him, and we ran away, and then the story changed and I met the other girls that he had in his stable. And I had to go out every night and work the streets — the alternative was being gangraped by a group of pimps while everyone watched.” (Smith et al. 2009) Say what you will about free speech; the right to pen an instructional guide and other like material on the topic of identifying, coercing, and enslaving human beings for the purposes of selling their bodies for sex is not in question. What is in question is the culpability of a worldwide leading retailer in promoting and profiting from the commercial sexual exploitation of children by allowing these materials to be sold through their online storefront. Tell Amazon.com how you feel and sign the petition to ask Jeff Bezos, Founder, Chairman, & CEO of Amazon.com, to take responsibility for protecting our most vulnerable children. Tell Amazon.com to stop promoting and profiting from the instructional guide and other materials on pimping written by Mickey Royal. References: Colby, I. (2011). Runaway and throwaway youth: Time for policy changes and public responsibility. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 2(1), 1-11. Gibbs, K., & Kendoll, S. (2012). Child welfare practices for cases with child sex abuse (Oregon, Department of Human Services, Office of Safety and Permanency for Children). Salem, OR: Oregon DHS-CAF Division-CPS Program. Retrieved from http://www.oregon.gov/dhs/publications/child-welfare-practices-abuse.pdf Hammer, H., Finkelhor, D., & Sedlak, A. J. (2002). Runaway/thrownaway children: National estimates and characteristics. National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART)., pp. 1-12. Washington, DC: USDOJ. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffilesl/ojjdp/196469.pdf Mitchell, K. J., Finkelhor, D., & Wolak, J. (2010). Conceptualizing juvenile prostitution as child maltreatment: F...

Preserve the environment, community and small businesses of Castroville, TX. Wal-Mart destroys small communities and invites a culture of consumerism that is not healthy for the future of our town and future generations.

The proposed site is right next to the road and would destroy our pristine views. The tower is not needed and needs to be STOPPED!

The AFL-CIO recently filed proposals to let big-bank shareholders demand greater transparency around golden parachute practices that make huge payouts available to executives who leave big banks for top posts in government. The banks reacted in panic and are working as we speak to persuade the Securities and Exchange Commission to step in, allowing them to keep their policies a secret and their shareholders in the dark. Wall Street executive, Antonio Weiss, was recently in line to receive a $20 million bonus from his investment-bank employer for agreeing to take a Treasury Department undersecretary position. Weiss, who eventually took an advisory job that did not require Senate confirmation, is only the latest in a series of would-be and actual public officials who have stood to benefit from these “golden parachute” deals. When bankers get large bonuses for taking government jobs, it sends a dangerous message about who is really calling the shots. If the big banks think these practices are defensible, they should let their shareholders know the facts and judge for themselves. Sign our petition and call for Wall Street to allow shareholders to vote on these practices.

Senate Bill 541 has created a platform for Election Regulations the Remove Control of the voters at large. This is OUR State and we need to increase bi-partisan voter participation and REMOVE the persuasions of in-state and out-of-state Corporations and those that hide behind Non-Profit Organizations.