Now the Administration and the U.S. Trade Representative have reached a deal with 11 other nations on a new, secretly negotiated, massive so-called "free-trade" agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The public and the press did not have any access to the negotiations, and even Members of Congress had limited access. However, over 500 official corporate “trade advisors” representing Wal-Mart, Haliburton, Dow chemical and others have not only had access to, but also influenced, the negotiations. As the long fought for, recent release of the TPP text proves, the agreement will greatly empower corporations to challenge new consumer, health, safety, labor, privacy, and environmental regulations and have a devastating impact on CT small businesses and local farmers. The TPP would allow foreign corporations to bypass our domestic justice system to sue governments for domestic laws that they consider to undermine their “future profits” through the investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS. CT residents must reserve the right to determine our own consumer, health, safety, labor, privacy, and environmental regulations without the threat of our governments being sued by foreign corporations. Do not surrender our rights to trans-national corporations. Despite massive popular opposition to the TPP (despite media silence) on the part of citizens of all party nations, the Obama administration is trying to bring the TPP up for a vote in Congress within months under the anti-democratic Fast Track procedure. Fast Track legislation, which limits Congressional debate on trade agreements and only allows an up-or-down vote with no amendments, was passed in June 2015 despite no votes from nearly all of the Democratic Congressional Delegation with the notable exception of Jim Himes (4th district). CT residents, like all Americans, are in the fight of our lives to urge Congress to oppose the TPP. We also urge members of the CT Legislative Assembly as well as city and town councils to speak out against the TPP.

I am a Puerto Rican American who along with the other 8.5 million, cares about Puerto Rico, its culture and its heritage!

The developer of the proposed retail and housing development that surrounds the new light rail station in Capitol Hill is currently trying to recruit a Portland-based, non-union grocer called "New Seasons Market" to fill its space. Central Co-Op is better suited to fill the space as it originated in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but the developer will not hear the co-op's requests to fill the space. Sign the petition to stand with workers in support of local businesses that share our values!

Unfair discrimination target age kids students age discrimination

My daughter is embroiled in a horror story involving one such company, Title Max. After paying close to $2,000 against a $2,000 loan, she was three weeks late on a payment. The lender repossessed the vehicle without providing notice, gave her ten days to pay before threatening to sell the vehicle at auction. After paying Titlle Max another $2,000, we made three attempts to reclaim the vehicle. While we did actually get the vehicle, it had been stripped and was undriveable. Police informed us that since numerous companies had custody of the vehicle, we would have a difficult time proving which one actually stripped the vehicle.

We are all full-time students working low-wage jobs, it is time for a change. Have you been affected by minimum wage?

Never has it been more important for Anytime Fitness to compete with personal training. We believe that a personal training software vendor should have to compete to win franchisee business, not have a monopoly. Franchisees are at risk when a mandated personal training software vendor is not forced to innovate or compete with regards to pricing, technology, & customer service. We believe that that personal training software vendors must compete in order for Anytime Fitness to stay competitive.

The union security officers protecting hundreds of thousands of fans and employees at Heinz Field lost their jobs with little notice when the Steelers organization fired their employer, U.S. Security and decided to go with a non-union security contractor. The 15 hardworking security officers were given less than a week’s notice and were left without a means to support themselves and their families. Bill Chernosky has been a security officer for 41 years and has been at the stadium for three years. He loved his job and knows Heinz Field inside and out. Now, he doesn’t know how he’ll take care of his car payment, mortgage, insurance, and other bills.

I am starving to death. I've been teaching as a part timer for ten years with no assurance of employment, benefits I have to pay for, afraid to make a peep or join Cal Strs whenever I don’t know how long I can continue to do this. Retirement looks sketchy at best. I'm 61 years old. Because I got into this "racket" called community college teaching, I am doomed to a subsistence level quality of life. I share custody of a 12-year-old girl. All she sees is this overworked, underpaid, grumbling, disappointed curmudgeon who wonders why he even liked to read and write in the first place. My eyes are going bad from all the bad writing I've had to read. My neck is a mess from all the nights in front of a computer. And for what? I’ve been passed over every year for a tenure track position because I am not a "team PLAYER"--In other words I say it like it is, you can call it all the sour grapes you want but this country is going to the dogs and those ignorant of history (like my students) are doomed to repeat it. You are welcome to the next generation. You think they will suddenly get curious about all the ways their freedoms are being taken away day by day? Rhetorical question? It won’t hit them till they’re in their thirties, still living with their parents, unable to pay off their student loans and worst of all, useless as far as contributing to society. What society? It’s a big gang of owners and we ain’t in the club.

Every year, the average American spends over a dozen hours and hundreds of dollars simply to pay their fair share in taxes. But it doesn't have to be that way. Back in 1998, a Republican-controlled Congress passed a law meant to make it easier for all Americans to file their taxes. But, thanks to lobbying from tax preparation giants like Turbo Tax, the IRS hasn't actually implemented the changes mandated by the law. The "Free File" program the IRS created, which is supposed to give 70 percent of taxpayers access to free tax preparation, is used by only 3 percent of eligible taxpayers. Our taxes cover critical services like infrastructure, health care, and education, and it should be as easy to pay them as possible! Stand with Senator Warren and demand that Congress pass the Tax Filing Simplification Act.

Numerous state governments in the United States, in their important and urgent efforts to protect elephants and rhinoceros from poaching and slaughter, are unknowingly undermining the rights of Alaska Natives and their historical and contemporary use of ivory by adopting state law that "prohibits import, sale, purchase, barter, or possession of ivory". Alaska Native peoples continue to rely on walruses, seals, whales, etc., as primary food sources, as they have for untold centuries, particularly in remote communities with little alternative food sources, with the tusks, membrane, sinew, bones, and other by-products of hunting used for trade with other indigenous individuals, or converted into artwork, a vital contemporary practice in remote villages with few alternative resources, revenue, or employment opportunity. For centuries, these materials were used in the making of sacred objects, tools, clothing, toys, housing construction, and in trade practices during both pre-contact and post-contact eras. Unfortunately, in most, if not all of the adopted or pending state law, the term "ivory" is written in a broad fashion: "'Ivory' means any tooth or tusk composed of ivory from any animal, including, but not limited to, an elephant, hippopotamus, narwhal, walrus, or whale, or any piece thereof, whether raw ivory or worked ivory, or made into, or part of, an ivory product." Confusion over existing and pending laws will hamper vital sales of Alaska Native artwork and handicraft. There is an absolute need to recognize and respect cultural rights of Alaska Native peoples and their long-standing use of ivory, as well as its contemporary use and dimensions. Therefore, the undersigned respectfully request that all congressional and state law makers correct any and all actions that undermine the federal exemptions in favor of Native peoples. Such existing and pending laws must acknowledge and make exemptions for Alaska Native use of old and new ivory (and other relevant marine mammal products) consistent with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).

One of the largest grocery retailers in the St. Louis area has announced plans to eliminate 190 union jobs and subcontract their work to a non-union operation.