North Carolina Waffle House server Shaina Brown was given a $1,000 credit card tip by a generous customer. But Waffle House did not let her keep the tip. (Charlotte Observer, 6/9/14) In this case, the generous customer heard the news and sent a check to Brown. But across the country, not only are servers paid as little as $2.13 an hour, they are also frequent victims of wage theft.

Cable companies like Verizon and Comcast want to create a two-tiered internet for the rich and poor — so much so that they're funding shady front groups with fake consumer activism to create the illusion that Americans don't care about net neutrality!

When John Oliver went on a 13-minute rant in favor of net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission was so bogged down by the 45,000 comments that followed that its site shut down.

Koch Bro's dream of dismantling renewable energy in Maine just got real!! Their think tank, the Maine Heritage Policy Center, attacked Maine's membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative - a clean energy program that has created hundreds of green jobs, reduced the impact of climate change in Maine, and contributed $51 million to the Efficiency Maine Trust. Maine Senator Diane Russell calls the RGGI "a highly successful, regional cap-and-trade program that has contributed more than $92 million to the state’s economy and more than 900 new jobs between 2009 and 2011." (BDN 6/7/2014) If Maine legislators declare that they'll defend clean energy in Maine and won't bend to the Koch's demands, we can keep Maine's energy economy clean and politics clean of the Koch's money and influence.

Today, thousands of Walmart workers are striking at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas to take a stand for fair wages and just working conditions. We’re joining them by releasing a new brief that shows that Walmart could give Walmart workers substantial raises by simply ending their unproductive practice of stock buybacks. These buybacks amounted to $6.6 billion in 2013, and are a result of Walmart’s focus on short-term results over long-term value. The numbers are striking. For what shareholders spent on stock repurchases in 2013, they could opt instead to give all of Walmart's low-wage workers a $5 an hour raise. For what the company spent in dividend payments to the three heirs of the Walton family alone in 2013, they could give their 825,000 low-wage workers a $2 an hour raise. Sign our petition to support striking workers today, and tell Walmart that a higher wage is possible, and necessary. Thomas Piketty's bestselling Capital in the 21st Century places the onus of escalating wealth inequality on the growth of capital rather than labor. This year, Walmart can help break that vicious cycle by providing a productive boost to workers and its own bottom line through human capital investments that generate real returns.

Vermont is the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring all Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in food to be labeled for consumers. Now, Monsanto and other corporations in the the food industry are planning to launch a lawsuit against the state claiming this law violates their right to free speech, by forcing disclosure of GMOs. Consumers want to know what’s in their food. Food producers don’t want to disclose that information. Vermont is taking on a very powerful enemy to defend the rights of consumers against corporations, and this could set a very important legal precedent. Sign the petition: We deserve to know what's in our food. Stand with Vermont, as they face a lawsuit from Monsanto and Big Ag, for being the first state in the nation to require GMO labeling.

Vermont's amazing victory will only have meaning if we can keep the ball rolling in the next states — but if we can, we can save the electoral process and bring back the days of free, equal votes!

There's lots of discussion about what the long-term effects of GMOs might be, but one thing should be above debate: Consumers should know what they're eating and what they're feeding their kids.

We’re launching a campaign to show grocery chains, like Jewel-Osco, that their customers want GMO labeling, and persuade them to follow the lead of other grocery stores like Whole Foods. We have a right to know what’s in the food we buy, so we can make healthy, responsible, and informed choices about what we’re eating. Sign this petition to Jewel-Osco President Shane Sampson and ask him as a customer to label GMOs in store-brand products.

No corporation should be allowed to make laws as they would be biased for their present or former companies .

CVS/Caremark was the first chain of national pharmacies to take tobacco products off the shelves, but this should be just the beginning. Now we need to encourage other national drugstores to follow suit. "We have been evaluating this product category for some time to balance the choices our customers expect from us with their ongoing health needs," Walgreens spokesman Jim Graham said back in February. They need to hear from us that this is what their customers want. Cigarettes cause more than 480,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brad Stone's "The Everything Store" describes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' relationship with publishers as "a cheetah [pursuing] a sickly gazelle." Now we're seeing the same people who published activist heroes like Lawrence Lessig get shut out by the biggest bully in publishing.