Those of us on fixed incomes, or trying to help our children establish themselves, cannot be penalized financially. We seniors are encouraged to live with the times and embrace a tech lifestyle, and when we do, we are hit with more fees!

This week I had to bury two of my beloved cats, Abby and Arsenic. They caught some fleas and, while I waited for my check so I could treat all my animals, complications developed, resulting in both cats passing on after a two-day valiant struggle - all because flea treatments are so expensive. Lack of wealth should not mean lack of love and responsibility for the family pets. This summer's flea infestation has been virulent on many pets; treatment should be affordable.

I have personally been affected by this issue. My electric bill has been high for the last 2 months, but there hasn't been anyone living there. The bill is a little under what it was the previous year when a family of four lived there with a tracheotomy ventilator-dependent child that required electricity to be run 24/7 for all of his machines. This does not make sense and we are forced to pay because we do not have any other options. It really saddens my soul to know that people are struggling with something that they think they have control over, just to find out that all of their conserving energy efforts were just in vain.

President Obama has signed an executive order forbidding federal contractors from discriminating against LGBTQ Americans -- but there's no way to know if those same contractors are financially backing anti-LGBTQ candidates for office. A worker has the right to know if their employer is spending money to take away hard-won civil rights. Investors have a right to know how their money is being spent. And the American people deserve to know who is trying to influence our elections -- no matter what the purpose. President Obama can help make that happen with a stroke of his pen. Urge him to issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their spending today.

1.5 billion people live in countries rich with natural resources – but many never see the benefits. Instead of sharing in the wealth generated by oil, gas and mining, many communities face poverty, environmental damage, loss of land and human rights abuses. There's one tool that could help communities hold their governments accountable: transparency. Five years ago, an oil transparency law passed that requires Big Oil to make their payments to foreign governments public. But this provision still hasn't been implemented. Citizens in oil-rich countries haven't been able to track where oil money has gone. Oxfam's researchers estimate that $1.5 trillion should have gone back to the governments of poor nations – funds that could have been used to build schools, hospitals, roads and more. The Securities and Exchange Commission has the power to make this transparency law a reality. Speak up with us and demand action!

Hillary Clinton must reject for-profit incarceration, disavow the private prison industry, and oppose private prisons in policy platforms. We are appalled that Secretary Clinton is using private prison industry lobbyists as "money bundlers" to raise huge sums of money for her presidential campaign. These bundlers are lobbyists from the same private prison companies that make billions from our broken and discriminatory criminal justice system by disproportionately locking up Black and brown people in the country's most dangerous prisons, for profit. And, influenced by the private prison lobby, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is required to keep at least 34,000 immigrants locked up (most in private prison owned facilities) at a cost to taxpayers of $2 billion per year! We expect more from those who seek our votes. We urge Secretary Clinton to sever all ties with the private prison industry immediately.

If you want a flat-out comparison of NPR's bias and relative avoidance of Sanders, check out their candidate pages at NPR: Bernie Sanders: 14 stories in 2015 Hillary Clinton: 76 stories in 2015, 13 just since July 1. There was 542% more for coverage of Hillary. Need more proof of bias? Here are some numbers to demonstrate the uneven coverage, taken from NPR's search page. Includes "Hillary Clinton": 236. Includes "Hillary Clinton", excludes "Bernie Sanders": 188. Includes "Bernie Sanders": 66. Includes "Bernie Sanders", excludes "Hillary Clinton": 13. Includes "Hillary Clinton" and "Bernie Sanders": 48. Of NPR's recent coverage of Hillary, 80% of it excludes Bernie Sanders. Of NPR's coverage of Bernie Sanders, only 20% of it excludes Hillary Clinton. Interestingly, when you limit results to only what was heard on air, the percentages are the same, but the numbers are even worse: "Hillary Clinton" heard on the air: 113. "Hillary Clinton", without "Bernie Sanders": 91. "Bernie Sanders" heard on the air: 27. "Bernie Sanders", without "Hillary Clinton": 5. (and only one of those is specifically about Bernie Sanders)

Due to the economy, many homeowners fell behind on their mortgage. The Federal Government and President Obama signed into law many programs to assist homeowners to stay in their homes. The banks and mortgage companies accepted the monies/grants and do not assist the homeowners; they hold onto these funds for corporate greed and profits. I unfortunately know several people who qualified for these programs and were never assisted and had their homes foreclosed. I am also personally in this situation. I have had two predatory lenders. Instead of assisting and informing me, they added over $200K to my principal and then sold my loan to another lender. I now allegedly owe $425 on a home I purchased for $160K in 1998 and have over 12 years of perfect payment history. Where did my 12 years of payments go to ? Who is in charge of this Federal government program ? Who is overseeing this program that is supposed to keep people in their homes and not thrown out into the street with nowhere to go and who have a family to care for. Someone needs to be held accountable and needs to enforce the mortgage companies to assist the homeowners to stay in their homes, And not to be put into the street. The banks wins twice by double dipping; they get the funds for assisting the homeowners foreclosure and get even more revenue. We need to stand united and stand up to these giant conglomerates that squash the helpless homeowners like bugs.

While Netflix reaped tons of positive press for their new maternity/paternity leave policy, the company left many of their own workers behind. Their streaming employees recently received unlimited paid maternity/paternity leave, but their hourly workers on the DVD side didn't. An employee at one of Netflix's DVD hubs, where hourly workers package DVDs for Netflix customers, told Huffingpost anonymously that the hourly hub workers would not be included in the unlimited paid maternity/paternity leave. Instead, hourly workers only received 1-month paid maternity/paternity leave and an option for longer partial pay. Netlfix has declined to comment. Regardless of whether Netflix employees work on the streaming or DVD side, everyone at Netflix deserves their company's generous paid leave benefits. Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/certain-netflix-workers-dont-get-new-unlimited-parental-leave_55c38156e4b0f1cbf1e3edf6?qfzjjor

I, and I'm sure many other consumers, would prefer not to do business with this company. I would like choice in delivery service when I order online.

Right now huge corporations like WalMart get a tax break for handing out huge CEO bonuses. Meanwhile, the House has recently passed budgets that would drop 570,000 kids out of Head Start, make a deep $175 million cut to SNAP food assistance funding, and cut job assistance training for 2 million Americans. The tax code sets a $1 million limit per executive for the amount of pay that corporations can write off their income taxes. But the problem is that there’s a loophole that exempts “performance-based” pay. So, corporations are shelling out huge CEO bonuses to pay less in taxes. For example, during the past six years, WalMart pocketed $298.6 million in fully deductible “performance pay,” lowering the company’s federal tax bills by $104 million. We simply can't afford tax loopholes that help the biggest corporations dodge paying their fair share. It's time we close these loopholes and invest in an economy that works for all of us, not just the CEOs.

We are losing a voice that will be hard to replace, Lets send a message they can not ignore.