Our members include some of 100's of people stuck in payday loans as high as 459%!!! Faith and Community groups want protections from this kind of interest rate but we are nervous that the bill might not get heard. Interest rates like this trap hardworking people into a terrible debt cycle, and keep local families down.

David Corn of Mother Jones published a scathing article exposing Bill O'Reilly's lies that he was involved in combat in the Falklands. In 2013, Bill O'Reilly stated: "I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, where my photographer got run down and then hit his head and was bleeding from the ear on the concrete. And the army was chasing us." Yet in his own memoir O'Reilly doesn't describe even being anywhere near the Falkland Islands. After the Mother Jones piece was published, O'Reilly lashed out at David Corn by calling him a "despicable guttersnipe." Journalists should be held to standards. Brian Williams was suspended from NBC News for 6 months for lying about being in combat. Why should it be any different for Bill O'Reilly? Sign the petition and tell Fox News to suspend Bill O'Reilly for his Falklands combat lies.

We call on the New Hampshire state legislature to support a constitutional amendment overturning the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). Since this flawed decision, New Hampshire has faced a deluge of outside spending. In the 2014 congressional election, outside groups spent more than 49 million dollars on three congressional races in New Hampshire- one of the highest amounts of outside spending in the nation. We believe that this is unacceptable.

The 'Fairness Doctrine' is necessary to encourage unbiased information and diversity of editorial comment and to identify editorial comment as such as opposed to news. Recent studies have shown an unacceptably large percentage of inaccurate and misleading content in news/editorial broadcasting. Though there are alternative means of getting the news and commentary, none are as powerful as television and radio which are, for all intents and purposes, the sole domain of corporate owned entities. Corporate consolidation of media is having a chilling effect on diversity of opinions represented and the selection of news stories covered. Last but not least, these airwaves belong to the people of the United States and should be the most inclusive in diversity of viewpoints and free of bias in any news coverage. The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced. It was ruled on and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1969. It was deregulated in 1987.

Elephants are one of the most incredible creatures. They, like humans, remember the deaths of their family members and are extremely traumatized by it. We must stop this atrocity from occurring each day! We must save the African Elephants from inevitable extinction! As citizens of humanity, it is our job to carry out our function on earth: to be humane. Not only this, but the money earned from selling ivory goes to support terrorist organizations. Basically, the State of California is helping terrorism by standing by and doing nothing to enforce the already existing ban on ivory. So, we must bring attention to this issue, and pressure the governor of California to enforce the law! Once California strictly prohibits the selling of ivory, then the poachers won't earn as much money for ivory because there isn't a market for it. Once this occurs, elephant deaths will hopefully decrease! Support this effort to help African elephants by signing my petition.

If Comcast merges with Time Warner cable, Comcast will gain unprecedented power over our country’s cable and Internet market -- resulting in higher prices, fewer choices, worse customer service and control over the information we read, watch, and hear. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and CA Attorney General Kamala Harris have the power to block this disastrous merger. But they must hear from concerned citizens like you RIGHT NOW to let them know that we do NOT want the corporate giant Comcast to have a monopoly over us. If we can stop the merger in California, Comcast’s national domination plan could be over. Without California’s biggest markets, the cable giant would most likely walk away from the whole deal. So let's make sure the CPUC and Attorney General hear us loud and clear! JOIN US & SIGN TODAY!

If Comcast merges with Time Warner cable, Comcast will gain unprecedented power over our country’s cable and internet market -- resulting in higher prices, fewer choices, worse customer service and control over the information we read, watch, and hear. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and CA Attorney General Kamala Harris have the power to block this disastrous merger. But they must hear from concerned citizens like you RIGHT NOW to let them know that we do NOT want the corporate giant Comcast to have a monopoly over us. If we can stop the merger in California, Comcast’s national domination plan could be over. Without California’s biggest markets, the cable giant would most likely walk away from the whole deal!

This bill would be a bad deal for New Mexico. We've seen time and time again that when public systems are bought up by private companies rates increase, staff lose jobs and transparency with the public vanishes. In the water sector, a public-private partnership is a type of arrangement wherein a local government contracts with a private entity to run all or part of a government-owned drinking water or wastewater system. Communities with aging infrastructure often think that the private sector can deliver financing or better services. The truth is just the opposite. These kind of public-private partnerships restrict transparency and keep the public out of the loop. Full proposals would NOT be subject to the state's open records laws until after the deal is signed, so the public would not be able to review a proposal or weigh in and voice their opinion. Instead, the state should facilitate public-public partnerships among public sector entities to share resources and expertise. Intermunicipal cooperation, interlocal agreements and bulk purchasing consortiums can improve public services and reduce costs while allowing communities to retain local control of their essential water and wastewater resources. Keep our public water under public control!

With all of the public knowledge about recycling, there are still people who do not recycle -- whether out of ignorance or apathy. If advertisers took the extra step in informing consumers (even in a small-text message at the bottom of their advertisements) about properly recycling their product and the importance of doing so, the United States could see a considerable change for the better in energy savings, greenhouse gas emissions, conservation of natural resources, and job creation.

Le Corbusier's famous Capitol Complex in Chandigarh is about to be ruined by the construction of 19 towers, each between 12 and 36 stories tall, on land located just to its north. This project, called 'TATA Camelot', is being developed by TATA Housing, the real estate wing of TATA Sons, one of the largest industrial houses of India. This petition to stop TATA Camelot is directed at Ratan Tata, Chairman (Emeritus) of TATA Sons, who is an architect (Cornell '62) and Pritzker Prize jurist. ARGUMENT 1. The transparent relationship between the Capitol buildings and the agro-pastoral landscape and the Himalayas to its north is an integral part of the design of the Capitol Complex. Le Corbusier documented this extensively, and carefully controlled all development in this area to ensure that it did not interfere with this relationship. He even moved the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to prevent the building of a military cantonment within the sightlines of the Capitol. (See Documentation below.) 2. Due to political exigencies (i.e. the redrawing of state boundaries in 1966), a portion of the land just to the North of the Capitol is no longer under the jurisdiction of Chandigarh Administration, but under that of the state of Punjab. The TATA Camelot project exploits this loophole to cash in on the exorbitant real-estate values of Chandigarh by proposing the construction of this high-rise residential tower complex. More than a hundred members of the Punjab legislature are shareholders in the project, raising question of due process. 3. The towers are guaranteed to destroy the integrity of the design vision of the Capitol Complex. It will be a lamentable eyesore both from the Capitol Complex and from the Lake. The small sliver of land just to the north of the Capitol Complex deserves to be protected as a common heritage of the tri-city region. There is ample developable land around Chandigarh on all other sides. 4. While TATA Housing claims that its towers are "green", a development of the size of Tata Camelot will severely disrupt the sensitive hydrology, natural habitats and rural ecologies of the area around it. It is proposed on land that is at the very first flats at the foothills of the Himalayas. It is immediately adjacent to a national reserved forest. It is sited on former riverbed, created by diverting an intermittent river. Sukhna Lake, the preeminent public space of the city and a renowned wild-life sanctuary, is located just to its east. Three villages and extensive farmlands abut it. 5. Chandigarh was a prominent part of Jawaharlal Nehru's post-colonial vision for independent India. It was designed by Le Corbusier (along with a team of other European and Indian architects and planners) and is a signature destination of global modernism and the founding of the Indian nation. J.R.D. Tata, Mr. Ratan Tata's predecessor, was an integral collaborator on this project, flying Le Corbusier on Air India regularly, and hosting him routinely in Bombay (now Mumbai). The democratic values of the Indian nation-state, and of modernism, enshrined in the Capitol Complex deserve to be protected. 6. Since two previous attempts to reach Mr. Tata and the senior management of TATA Sons have fallen on deaf ears, and while a legal argument is pending in the courts, this online petition is designed to appeal to Mr. Tata publicly. Complete visual documentation at - http://chandigarhurbanlab.org/?p=1318

As CEO of eBay and PayPal, along with about 500 other corporate advisors, you have, over the last 5 years, had unlimited access to the negotiating text of the TPP, while we, the people of the United States, have been barred from reading the classified texts. This puts you at an unfair advantage. This comes after 20 years of millions of jobs lost through NAFTA, CAFTA, the Korean Free Trade Agreement and WTO. Asking your customers to tell our reps to vote yes on fast track, a bill that, if passed, would hand Congress’ Constitutionally granted authority to make trade, (Article 1.8) to President Obama, and just ‘trust’ that he has our backs, reminds us of how we got swindled into NAFTA, by promises of good jobs and a boost to the economy. What we do know of TPP, through 2 leaked chapters, indicates it is much worse than NAFTA, and will only benefit the John Donahoe’s of the world, while the rest of us will see further outsourcing of jobs and even more depressed wages. Apparently, Donahoe’s idea of “trade modernization” and ours, where labor and environmental groups have a seat at the table are quite divergent. We have learned from over 20 years of NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, and we are insulted that eBay/PayPal CEO, John Donahoe, would think we are gullible enough to go along with his collaboration with the U.S. Trade Representative’s campaign to fast track deals that will bury the people of this country and the fragile economy and send more jobs to Viet Nam with its 56 cent minimum wage, child labor, and human rights violations.

Time Warner now has the capability to 'remotely encrypt' any and all televisions stations. This includes 'over-the-air' stations such as PBS, NBC and ABC that for decades were free (no cost) to the public. A powerful corporation -Time Warner - now LITERALLY CONTROLS THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES, dictating which channels they will allow you to view, and which channels they will not allow you to view. After the channels have been encrypted ("blocked" from your television set), Time Warner then advises that, in order to receive these stations, one must purchase or lease a "digital adapter" and one must subscribe to their (costly) monthly cable service. This violates the FCC edict that; "If you view television over-the-air through the use of an antenna, cable system encryption will not impact you in any way." Time Warner now brazenly operates as if they own the public airwaves. We Must put a stop to their unlawful practices.