Last year JPMorgan Chase agreed to a $13 billion settlement for their actions that helped create the Great Recession and enabled them to steal thousands of homes from struggling homeowners. $600 million of that goes to New York State and it’s supposed to be used for direct relief for homeowners. But not if Gov. Cuomo has his way. Instead of helping homeowners, the Governor wants to use that money to pay for a major cut to corporate taxes, including something called The Bank Tax. That’s right. Gov. Cuomo wants to steal the settlement money from struggling homeowners and give it back to Wall Street criminals. The foreclosure and underwater crisis is still devastating our communities and the families and communities hardest hit are exactly the ones from which Gov. Cuomo proposes stealing. Recently, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was able to use $136 million from a previous settlement to help thousands of families stave off foreclosure. We need the $600 million to alleviate the continuing pain. This pain, which has affected almost every neighborhood, has not, however, been spread around evenly. Communities of color lost the most when Chase and other Wall Street bankers pushed us into the Great Recession – the median black household lost almost 84% of its household wealth in the recession. Latinos lost 66%, while white households lost some 34%. Now Gov. Cuomo wants to keep it that way. I know by now that nothing related to Wall Street and elected officials should shock me. But the pure callousness behind this proposal caught me off guard. And if we let Gov. Cuomo get away with this, then Governors across the United States will think they can use this money for their pet projects or to pay off Wall Street criminals too. We can’t let that happen. Tell Gov. Cuomo: Don’t steal the Chase settlement money from struggling New York families and give it back to Wall Street criminals.

Since 2011, the FCC’s net neutrality rule ensured that Americans could access internet content equally, no matter how they access the internet. For example, if your internet service provider was Comcast, (which owns NBC content) they could not control your internet usage, even on competitor’s websites, like watching “Modern Family” on ABC.com. However, on January 14, a federal court struck down net neutrality, opening the door for internet service providers to slow down or completely block any website they choose. In addition, they could charge additional fees to access some of your favorite sites like Netflix and YouTube. This is harmful to the American consumer as well as our economy – the internet’s open and level playing field enables the growth of tech startups. Would Amazon and Twitter have emerged in a restricted, filtered internet? All that it takes is for the FCC to garner the political willpower to appeal this disastrous decision, or re-write their internet polices. With regards with redoing FCC internet policies, internet service providers are regulated like phone companies, but if the FCC reclassified them as “common carriers,” they could regain oversight. Either way, net neutrality can be reinstituted if the FCC fights back. Please sign this petition and forward it to others, and we’ll deliver it to the FCC to urge them to preserve the internet as we know it. Joe Sestak is a former 3-Star Admiral and U.S. Congressman. He is seeking to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate in 2016. Visit his website at http://JoeSestak.com TWEET THIS PETITION: The end of the internet as we know it? Sign the petition asking FCC to fight for #NetNeutrality http://bit.ly/KaeTMG #IWantMyInternetBack

Target has been scrambling to respond to the company’s massive data breach, which affected up to 110 million consumers. But so far, they’ve fallen short. Instead of working to make sure data breaches never happen again, they've announced a $5 million "financial education" plan and are offering customers a "ProtectMyID" service that does nothing to prevent fraud on existing accounts and may give consumers a false sense of security. Thieves got away with card numbers, expiration dates and security codes. That's a mother lode for fraud on existing accounts. In fact, JPMorgan Chase has decided to re-issue two million cards that are at risk from the breach. They’re taking this threat seriously. So why isn’t Target? Target needs to do a better job of taking responsibility and protecting consumers from the threat they created. First, they should agree to provide full restitution to all of their consumers who actually become victims of fraud or identity theft as a result of the breach. Second, they should inform consumers that they have a legal right to place a security freeze on their credit reports – that’s the only real way to stop identity theft. And third, they should promptly upgrade their systems to meet the highest industry standards for security.

Amendment: Section 1 [Corporations are not people and can be regulated] The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable. Section 2 [Money is not speech and can be regulated] Federal, State and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, for the purpose of influencing in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment. Section 3 Nothing contained in this amendment shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

An appeals court just dealt the latest blow to the open Internet. The court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order because of the questionable legal framework the agency used when it adopted its Net neutrality rules in 2010. This ruling means there is no one who can protect us from ISPs that block or discriminate against websites, applications, or services. But there’s hope: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler can correct the agency’s past mistakes and truly protect our nation’s communications infrastructure. The agency must take the necessary steps to make broadband networks open, accessible, reliable, and affordable for everyone. We need to tell the FCC to start treating broadband like a communications service, and to restore its Net neutrality rules.

AT&T has plans to install a cell tower at the corner of Retford and Kettring. We need to oppose this move for several reasons a. Spoils the look of the neighborhood there by affecting home values b. Might affect the health of residents c. There is already a cell tower on Cherry road near Stonewater that houses T-mobile and seems like it should be able to host AT&T equipment as well. Why build multiple towers?

Corporate lobbyists are influencing & lining our politicians' pockets. Instead of doing what is best for their constituents, they are acting in their own best interests by accepting campaign donations. Stop the greed!

I am dismayed by the ability of special interests and their lobbyists to undermine the influence of average Americans, and control information broadcasted to the public. When we allow special interests to spend money individuals can’t match, we implicitly give them permission to drown out the voice of the public, creating an imbalance in the electoral debate. Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system. With the Citizens United decision, large corporations have the power to spend unlimited amounts of money from their general treasuries to buy elections. What's more, Citizen United opened loopholes that allow corporations to hide their campaign expenditures by laundering the money through non-profit advocacy organizations. We need a government of, for and by the people. We need a constitutional amendment to undo the worst aspects of the Citizens United decision.

Citizens United was a disaster. It opened the floodgates for corporations to write big checks to fund right-wing special interest attacks, helping them pour $719 million into the 2012 elections. The question is, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to stuff this "corporations are people, elections are auctions, democracy is for sale" mess into the Dumpster of Bad Ideas? Here's how: A constitutional amendment that puts power back in the hands of the people. The actual, human people. Sign the petition to join me in calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

I am tired of being held hostage over benefits we have paid for so millionaires can have massive tax breaks only to then have the benefits watered down and sequestered. Why aren't we sequestering those tax breaks? Citizens United shush funds, that's why. Cork the slime fund and it's immoral goals today. Pass a Constitutional Amendment blocking CU and any attempt to do an end run around human rights of One Man, One Vote (One Woman, One Vote) even if it's a media based brainwashing run.

Clear Channel has a virtual monopoly over radio news and public information. Consequently, this private corporation has far too much influence and control over the public air waves. It has nearly eliminated all sources of AM progressive broadcasting in southern California. This is a major threat to democracy, where a broad range of news, opinion and information is important and necessary.

Unregulated money in politics makes the government answerable to the rich and powerful corporate employees, not the citizens that the representatives and senators are supposed to answer to. It is time to take our government back from the oligarchs. Please sign. the state of Illinois has already passed a bill supporting this! Our federal representatives need to follow suit.