I hope everyone will realize the gravity of the situation at large regarding economic development and the specific development of this truck terminal. This is for the community as a whole. This petition is a means to start real change and show the city officials that we are not just complainers that are easily pacified by minimal results, weightless promises, or passage of time. It shows we desire real results and are willing to take the time to see them done and to see our tax dollars put to good use. See this as the first initial positive investment in the long-term growth and success of our community, the success of your personal home, and the continued enjoyment of this beautiful area! Please sign immediately, so we can get this to the officials before this truck stop is approved and it is too late. It is easy to complain and harder to change after the fact. Take this simple step to voice your opinion. This is not a political platform, movement, and not even based upon personal political ideology. This is our given right as citizens of this great country. Take this simple step to show that our elected officials are accountable to a democratic system; they are accountable us! Please note that I cannot change the text after signatures have been gained. Thus, while the title has been changed to reflect a "terminal" rather than truck stop, the only difference in the points would be the potential to disregard the crime linked to "truck stops" specifically. However, please not the remaining points of pollution, traffic congestion, and image still remain valid concerns. While the criminal activity may be lessened, I still posit the potential for increased criminal activity should be considered.

At a time when millions of Americans are facing poverty and homelessness, the City of Oakland is labeling hundreds of shopping cart recyclers as "addicts" and "thieves" and shutting down Alliance Metals, a recycling center that serves as a lifeline for Oakland's underclass. Join us, the ACLU, the NAACP and filmmaker Oliver Stone. Demand that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf find a compassionate solution, one that dignifies the labor and protects the economic livelihood of Oakland's most vulnerable residents.

Democrats are furious with Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz following WikiLeaks' release of documents showing Democratic National Committee officials under her leadership "conspiring to sabotage the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders," as the New York Times put it. [1] Sanders' supporters are furious that what they long suspected has been proven true. Democrats who didn't support Sanders are furious that the scandal has overshadowed the beginning of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. [2] Representative Wasserman Schultz has a ready means at her disposal to begin to make restitution: come out publicly against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement [TPP]. Hillary Clinton is against the TPP. Tim Kaine is against the TPP. [3] Bernie Sanders is against the TPP. The labor movement is against the TPP; the climate justice movement is against the TPP; the access to essential medicines movement is against the TPP. [4] Wasserman Schultz was one of only 28 House Democrats who voted for "fast track" authority to negotiate the TPP. [5] By coming out against it now, she can help ensure that there is no anti-democratic "lame duck" vote on the TPP after the election. Urge Debbie Wasserman Schultz to come out against the TPP now by signing our petition. References: 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-wikileaks-emails.html 2. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/07/24/debbie-wasserman-schultzs-dnc-resignation-and-headlines-the-clinton-campaign-doesnt-want-during-convention/ 3. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/kaine-comes-out-against-trans-pacific-partnership-deal-226064 4. http://msfaccess.org/about-us/media-room/press-releases/there%E2%80%99s-still-time-stop-tpp-cutting-critical-lifeline-affordable- 5. https://ourfuture.org/20150615/the-28-democrats-who-voted-for-fast-track

It is unacceptable for Hopkins to consider Broadway Services, a non-union security contractor that is under no obligation to pay the men & women who keep us safe the future wage increases and maintain the path to employer paid health care they need and deserve. Having received over a billion dollars in grants from Michael Bloomberg, John’s Hopkins does not need to use a contractor that would try and save pennies off the backs of African-American workers who are already struggling to provide for their families on low wages. A prestigious, wealthy and powerful University like Johns Hopkins has a moral obligation to do everything in its power to avoid using a contractor that could push low-wage, African-American workers closer to poverty and deny them employer-paid health care. I call on Hopkins to ensure that any new security contractor continues the gains in hourly pay that officers made in their first contract, and maintains the path to employer-paid health benefits that are now established. Health care should be paid for by JHU's contractors who can afford it and not by taxpayers.

Time to rein in the banks.

The language of the platform of both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions calls for a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, a law that supported a more level economic playing field and a six-decade rise of a more egalitarian financial system and strong middle class. Luckily, there is already a bill in Congress to do just that: The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act (S. 1709)! This bill is a modern version of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall that is sponsored by Senators Warren, Cantwell, King, McCain, Sanders, Baldwin, Whitehouse, Mikulski, Markey, and Merkley. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will help tackle “Too Big to Fail” by shrinking and simplifying the banking system, ensuring that the riskiest banking activities are no longer supported by the public safety net, and regulators can more easily oversee banks that are central to financial stability. Restoring Glass-Steagall wouldn’t just make our financial system safer, it would diminish the influence of big bank money in politics – by introducing more competition among investment banks and commercial banks. Stability in America depends upon a viable middle class. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act provided excellent protections for that class and the economy as a whole. Its reinstatement will go a long way to providing a powerful economic safety net that will more reliably limit ongoing risk to the strongest economy in the world.

Last year President Obama instructed the Department of Labor to update the overtime earning rules so that anyone making less than $47,000 a year would be eligible for overtime pay. Thousands of Americans spoke up to help make sure that the rule was passed. But now, Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR) is working to pass a bill that would delay this rule and stop millions of people from getting fully paid for the work they do. Congressman Schrader wants to delay the start of the new overtime law and get rid of the language that would automatically increase the threshold for who's eligible for overtime, which would leave working people behind because their wages won’t rise with inflation. This is one of the major reasons we needed to have this rule passed in the first place, but now Schrader wants to remove this important fix. Families are counting on this to make sure they can make ends meet. We have to speak up now to make sure that we protect this provision for the millions of women, men and children who stand to benefit from having more money in their pockets and more time with family.

Washington State Ferries is about to shut down at least 3 local women- and minority-owned businesses and replace them with an out-of-state, multi-national corporation. More than 100 jobs could be in danger. This process needs to be STOPPED. Revenues and jobs need to STAY IN WASHINGTON!

Despite greater human need – record inequality, increased poverty and long-term joblessness – management at the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) wants to make it harder for eligible people to get or keep benefits (Medicaid, SNAP, home care, etc.).

My name is Charles Gladden, and I’ve worked at the U.S. Senate for almost a decade, serving food to some of the most powerful people in the country – U.S. Senators, lobbyists and their staff. You would think that working at the Senate would be a good job, but the truth is I’m struggling. I earn so little that I’ve been homeless. It’s a big contrast from the people who I serve every day. But with your help, we can change that. As early as last year, I would finish my shift at the U.S. Senate cafeteria and would head to the McPherson Square metro stop, only a few blocks from the White House. It was my bedroom for the night. I spend countless nights sleeping on the streets, because my wages were so low, I could not keep a roof over my head. Because workers like me have been organizing under the banner of Good Jobs Nation, President Obama has taken action raising our wages to $10.10 an hour, preventing people who break the law from receiving tax payer dollars through contracting, and providing paid sick days so we can take care of ourselves and our families. Because of help from folks like you, I’m no longer homeless. But the truth is we need more to survive. I serve Senators and other powerful individuals, but still rely on public assistance to keep a roof over my head. Currently, the Democratic Platform Committee includes support for a Model Employer Executive Order—a critical initiative to protect low-wage workers. With the stroke of a pen, the next president could put 8 million low-wage federal contract workers like me on the path to the middle class. Join me, the Democratic Platform Committee, Members of Congress, U.S Senators, faith leaders, and 8 million other contract workers by calling on the next president to sign the Model Employer Executive Order! It’s time for the next President to put government on the side of workers once again.

At this time in our lives. Senior citizens should not be burdened with having to pay this tax.

A moratorium or ban on vacation rentals is NOT the best way to address vacation rental concerns. Concerns over noise and occupancy violations continue in our city, and we look to our City Council to be a leader in creating positive solutions to enhance residents lives. We are pleading with the City Council to not cause damage to the value of our homes, or the growth of our businesses. A ban will cause a drop in demand for homes here, and confusion in our local real estate market. Less demand will cause a drop in home values, weakening our local economy. A weaker economy will affect nearly all residents, not just vacation rental owners and management companies. Catering companies, restaurants, contractors, landscape and pool maintenance companies and many others will be especially at risk. Residents, business owners, employees and homeowners here want the City Council to help support the value of their homes, not harm it. Several ideas worth investigating, to help implement better enforcement, could include: 1. Implementing electronic signature technology to make renters aware of existing strict noise and occupancy restrictions BEFORE they rent, especially for properties not managed by local property management firms that already institute similar disclosures. Suggest the requirement to use a standardized form for ALL vacation rental homeowners. 2. Stronger commitment for fines for renters that violate the existing ordinance. This puts the responsibility back on a renter choosing to violate the existing city ordinance. Instead of considering $1,000 fines for homeowners that decide to violate a so-called moratorium (which is what the current moratorium suggests), renters should be held financially responsible for their behavior. In conjunction with the aforementioned electronic signature process, it would seem the technology exists that tenants would be required to leave their credit card info, at the time of booking, knowing UP FRONT it could be used in the event of a violation of the local ordinance the city needs to articulate it takes very seriously. This seems FAR LESS complicated than some of the elaborate and complicated solutions being discussed that include somehow devising a plan to determine density requirements or limiting ownership of rentals to one rental per person. Palm Springs is a city based on tourism. We are not like almost all of the other cities that have banned vacation rentals. Most of those cities have well rounded economies based on many different industries. A change in policy for a city like that will not likely have disastrous effects. Palm Springs is different. We don't have anything else to fall back on. Even the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico recently reversed its limit on the number of vacation rental permits, after acknowledging it was difficult to manage violations and that the policy was damaging their economy and financial well being. Vacation renters regularly rate the quality of their stay in Palm Springs among the Top 5 or Top 10 in the entire country. Certainly the City Council wishes to retain such a distinguished rating? We urge the City Council to not ban vacation rentals, but to get serious about continuing to implement better enforcement to help neighborhoods become more peaceful again. Many full time and part time residents alike look to your leadership to help keep the city from experiencing an economic shock that will be difficult to recover from. In the short term, real estate agents are reporting cancelled escrows, as well as angry buyers that recently purchased into our community, that are suddenly faced with the prospect that their home can no longer be used for the purpose they intended. Certainly there is a better way? We urge the City Council to get serious about enforcement, but to save residents home values by voting NO to any current or future moratorium or ban on short term rentals.