Yelp.com, the popular social review site has joined the league of greedy corporations that is spreading dangerous conservative legislation nationwide. ALEC is the reason so many states have passed laws like “Voter I.D.” and “Stand Your Ground.”

The online reviewing company Yelp has joined the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. They have paid thousands of dollars to sit on ALEC's Civil Justice Task Force. Whether Yelp likes it or not, that money will be used to further all areas of ALEC's pro-corporate agenda, from voter suppression and union-busting to "Stand Your Ground" laws. More info here: http://bit.ly/YelpandALEC

WSSC water rates for PG and Mont. County residents (in Md.) have increased 60% in the last 6 years! (That's 7-10% each year during this recession.) WSSC Commissioners will soon be deciding on next year's increase. Please help us stop them from placing such an intolerable financial burden on Marylanders.

Like cigarette warnings from the Surgeon General, there should be ratings on stocks and mutual funds of lawbreaking companies. Investors need to know when they're about to support a company with a record of breaking the law and endangering the public and the economy.

Wall Street and the big banks engaged in predatory lending and pushed working families into mortgages they knew they couldn’t afford. The housing bubble and the subsequent foreclosure crisis, created by Wall Street, has destabilized communities and pummeled municipal budgets across New Jersey. We can no longer wait for action at the federal level to hold banks accountable. Our communities need to protect the public interest now. NJ Communities United is actively organizing homeowners in cities around the state to demand urgent action by local elected leaders to end the crisis, keep families in their homes and protect the public good of our struggling communities. Specifically, homeowners and advocates are urging New Jersey cities to pursue principle reduction strategies for homeowners whose mortgages are underwater - including the use of eminent domain. Historically, eminent domain has been used against working-class communities to make way for large development projects that profit investors and banks. Angry that this tool is being used against the banks, Wall Street predictably filed a lawsuit against the city of Richmond, CA calling the use of eminent domain “unconstitutional,” even though there are multiple court rulings that support its use in similar circumstances. We are certain that Richmond, CA – and other cities considering eminent domain – have the constitutional right to seize underwater mortgages from banks that are unwilling to work with homeowners. More than this, we believe in that the power of the people cannot be defeated! Thousands of homeowners are actively engaged in campaigns across the country to save their homes from greedy banks – and YOUR voice is central to this struggle! In solidarity, Trina Scordo NJ Communities United

PROPORTIONAL PUNISHMENTS are required for individual and corporate responsibility. Current law allows the worst offenders against humanity to pay minuscule fines instead of facing punishments that deter crimes. My proposed law would make responsibility paramount in every industry and act as a REAL deterrent to violations of regulations and laws. It would also make individual punishments equal by fining people a percentage of their wealth and not continue to have a system that allows unequal punishments for identical crimes. Deterrents to crimes are only effective if punishments are more just and equal, and based on the wealth of individuals and corporations. All people and corporations should face proportional punishments based on their wealth when they commit a crime, violate a regulation or violate any law. As an example, currently corporations violate regulations with impunity and consider fines as just another expense in conducting their business. Current punishments have zero detrimental effects on crimes for the very wealthy. If we used proportional punishments a corporation's first offense could be say 1% of their total wealth. A 2nd violation would increase the penalty to 5% and so on. Since corporations or the wealthy can only be forced to adhere to laws and regulations by hitting them in the only area that truly hurts them then proportional punishments would act as a perfect deterrent to their crimes. In another example, if a poor person gets a littering ticket any fines should be proportional to their net wealth, which if close to zero, the fine would be say $5. If a billionaire committed the same offense their penalty would be a proportional one based entirely on their wealth. If their wealth was $1 billion and the percentage of the fine was 1% then their resulting fine would be $10,000,000. I've seen warnings that if an individual poured even one can of used oil on the ground they can be fined up to $25,000 and face time in jail. Corporate executives do not face any repercussions when their corporations release toxins into our air, land or waters because they know government oversight is lax because of gutting of enforcement and lack of adequate laws that would deter such heinous acts. My proposed law would make personal & corporate responsibility a reality because only when the wealthiest face severe financial punishments corporate carnage against people and the environment will these crimes become less frequent. Since fines and punishments are supposed to be deterrents to violations of laws and regulations then the only way to enforce them fairly and equally is through proportional punishments. Financial punishments that are identical no matter what a person's or corporation's total wealth are currently ignored. The current system is regressive and punishments only truly affect the poorest in society. Fining an unemployed person $200 & a billionaire $200 isn't equality under the law. It's a regressive punishment which can devastate the poorest. The wealthy couldn't care less if they receive a $200 fine. It doesn't provide a penny of deterrent. To make proportional punishments even more effective corporate fines should be also paid by the entire executive level of corporations and their boards of directors. Currently, CEOs, CFOs, COOs and the like suffer no punishments for the unlawful actions by the corporations they run. Fines against corporations now are merely added on to the cost of products corporations make so we the cunsumer pay 100% of a corporation's wrongdoing while the poorest individuals pay 100% of any fine they receive. Individuals cannot pass on fines as expenses to others. Corporate executives should be forced to pay a percentage of their personal wealth in addition to any corporate fines. If an executive presiding over a corporation has a net wealth of $100 million and their corporation violates a regulation or law they should face the identical punishments based on a percentage of their wealth. If a corporation has commited multiple offenses and the proportional punishment percentage has risen to 10%, the the CEO with a net worth of $100 million would be forced to pay a fine of $10,000,000.00. Only then would a corporate executive act responsibly to have his corporation adhere to the law. Except in a minuscule number of cases corporate executives are 100% protected from any financial punishments no matter how heinous the acts of the corporations they lead. Executives are fully aware that they don't have to have any personal responsibility because they are insulated from ramifications of any offenses they or their corporations commit. To have a fair & equitable deterrent to violations of regulations and laws THAT HAS TO CHANGE. Currently, if a corporation has 20 violations of regulations or laws executives are often rewarded with even greater salaries and perks. Executives benefit from a defective system by willfully violating laws knowing they will suffer zero consequences. Until we have PROPORTIONAL PUNISHMENTS our country will continue to deteriorate because the worst offenders are shielded and all fines are paid for by the customers of any corporation. We must force executives who benefit from willful violations of regulations and laws to be held personally responsible, and in addition, corporations must also face financial punishments that increase with each infraction. The proportional punishment law I am proposing doesn't affect any other laws or regulations. The punishments I am advocating are in addition to all existing laws. Anyone who is opposed to my proposal is in effect against corporate & personal responsibility and opposed to equitable punishment under the law.

CARFAX has destroyed the value of my car by putting inaccurate information on their report and we have no recourse or way to get this information off the report.

According to Collene, her devastating story is that of illegal foreclosure and eviction practices that came to light "after" she had already paid for her home: all monthly mortgage payments paid on time, and mortgage 100% paid off! Freddie Mac, Harmon Law Firm, and several others are involved. This case has devastated Collene and her family. They now have no home of their own, but are living with Collene's parents in a 1-1/2 bedroom home. This injustice has caused so much suffering, cost them their retirement and life's savings, and is a violation of one's human dignity.

Many multi-national corporations have been remarkably successful in manipulating the tax system to avoid paying even a dime of tax on billions of dollars of profits. That's wrong and it’s past time for Congress to end corporate tax dodging. Instead of maintaining policies that allow the super-rich and huge corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes through foreign tax havens, we need Congress to invest in US! We need to rebuild an America that works for working families and the middle class.

This is a huge problem to get people in office to help Americans move foward in the 21st century. There are huge problems that needs common sense solutions and when you are beholdened to only a few entities that put in unlimited amounts of money it keeps dishonesty and corruption rampant and solves nothing. We need honest Americans to run for office that wii help everyone not just the corporations and the 1%. It is about time to stand up to them who rules with an iron fist. People join with me to fix this problem now by signing my petition thank you for your time and passion and integrity.

A newspaper -- an honest one -- was a marvelous place to learn about the world and to convey what is learned to the community it serves. But this is only true, of course, if the newspaper is of and for the community and if it values its daily report more than any pre-determined point of view. So it is alarming to me that the Koch brothers, the billionaire duo so actively engaged in supporting a particular political ideology, are interested in buying the Baltimore Sun and a dozen other newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Hartford Courant. A sale to the Koch brothers would indeed be a journey from bad to worse. The only way to restore print journalism for the civic good is to have it practiced and owned by those who live in and are dedicated to the community itself. Join me in signing a petition asking the Tribune Company not to sell to the Koch brothers, and to instead support the local ownership of American news organizations.

Bill Edwards is the largest individual donor to Scott’s 2014 re-election campaign outside of the governor’s own family. He runs a St. Petersburg-based mortgage company recently fined $7.5 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violating the “Do Not Call” telemarketing law and for misrepresentations made to members and veterans of the military. Sign the petition and tell Gov. Scott he should immediately return Bill Edwards' $500,000 contribution to his campaign.