The U.S. Senate will be voting after Thanksgiving on a bill to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over the years. The bill would also increase the tipped minimum wage, which has been $2.13 an hour since 1991. Huge majorities across the political spectrum support an increase in the minimum wage. It's good for workers, good for local businesses, and it's the right thing to do. Tell Senators Begich and Murkowski: it's time to raise the minimum wage.

We only have two weeks until the budget deadline. We are counting on you as our representative to work across the aisle to pass a budget that 1.) ends the automatic cuts and prevents new cuts to education and vital services; 2.) invests in schools and jobs; and 3.) puts our economy on sound fiscal footing by closing $100 billion in corporate tax loopholes.

In retail, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day are the only two holidays that workers traditionally receive. Now that many stores are choosing to open on Thanksgiving, that break is being taken away, denying retail workers the rare opportunity to spend a holiday with their families. And most of these workers are only being paid minimum wage for their trouble. A holiday should not be a luxury for the rich – all workers deserve time to spend with loved ones.

I am State Rep. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown), and I am introducing legislation to crack down on big box stores who are forcing their employees to work on Thanksgiving. These Thanksgiving Turkeys: WalMart, Macy's, Target, Staples and many other companies each year are forcing their workers to miss Thanksgiving with their families, often with no extra pay. Working Black Friday is bad enough! We need legislation to give workers the freedom to stay home with their families on Thanksgiving, or else give them triple pay if they have to come in to work. Sign this petition and join me in urging the Connecticut legislature and Governor Malloy to take action to protect Thanksgiving and defend real family values.

On Monday night Chris Christie laid out the centerpiece of his second term agenda: another expensive tax cut for New Jersey’s top 1%. Sounding more like someone running for the Iowa Republican caucus than the Governor of a blue state, Christie demanded legislators make even deeper cuts to public investments like education and public safety to make way for his tax cut for the rich. Over the last four years Governor Christie has cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy and paid for it with billions in cuts to our schools and communities, green jobs programs and scholarships for college students. Passing Christie’s ridiculous tax cut would mean even deeper job-killing cuts, and as much as 40% of it would go to New Jersey’s richest 1%. We need to remind our legislators that they were elected to stand strong against Christie’s worst impulses and fight for policies that will benefit working families rather than the wealthy, and we need to do it now.

Verizon's corporate leadership is interested in one thing only - lining their own pockets and those of their Wall Street investors. Their lack of commitment to building FiOS in Upstate cities like Buffalo and Syracuse and their subsequent worker layoffs hurt our local communities. Tell Verizon STOP THE LAY OFFS AND INVEST IN UPSTATE!

I have a wine shop in Manchester. I do not want to sell mass market wines. What happened to slow food, buy individual family farms, help individuals as opposed to conglomerates.

Increasing Minimum wage to $10.10 an hour will provide more income for low-income families and individuals and will boost the paychecks of over 30 million workers in the United States.

The employees of the federal government at Local 1938 out of the Army Corps of Engineers (Huntington District) have had cuts in all aspects and would like to have some back. We have been without uniforms for over a year because the program has been dropped. We would like to have it back so we can be distinguished from the public. The Volunteer program the Huntington office has provides hats and corp shirts so they can be distinguished but nothing for its employees. We as Local 1938 feel this is wrong and would like to have our uniform program back. We also would like for our government officials to stop cutting our benefits we now have and give us back our pay raise we have not had in years along with a cost of living. We work hard to meet the demands of the public and are finding it very hard with the cuts our government officials are coming up with. We feel if the Government need to cut the budget down it stop giving money overseas to benefit the rich who are sending jobs overseas and start taking better care of people at home.

This petition is being started because I have been trying to get a decent job at least 20 years or more. I have a MS from the State University of Buffalo at New York. My female friends all have degrees. I have several African American female friends who have tried to secure jobs/at companies and colleges of course the companies and the colleges gave excuses. Your to short , your to tall not smart enough. My daughter Tolley R. PhD graduated from TSU recently and she can't secure a job they say she is over qualified or you need more training. Now please come on another way of derailing us Black women That's crape. All us Black women know that it is just another way to keep us poor and out of the people's system. They want to say we weren't looking and that's a lie. I have spoken to many of the women and it's the same with all of us.Something has be done about this issue. . We want to be separate from civil rights and locked down with the minority stuff. Put us Black women aside from all of that and you'll see they never hire none of us. I'm disgusted with this type of system greedy and not allowing others to made a decent living. doing things. They would rather hire a handicap person to do the job than a Black educated female. This rotten system has got to change. One group of people can't have everything.

Shocking! Earlier this week, news broke that in Ohio Walmart has been holding a food drive, asking its employees to donate to their hungry coworkers. I have a better idea for Walmart: Pay your workers enough to feed their families. But there is hope for change! Around the country Walmart workers are standing up and across the country they even went on strike for their right to speak out about issues like their low-wages without fear of Walmart retaliating against them. Workers and their supporters plan to hold protests at 1,500 Walmart stores around the country and in the Bay Area this Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the “Superbowl of Retail.” Sign my petition calling on Walmart to stop relying on other people’s generosity to support its low-road business model.

Shocking! Earlier this week, news broke that in Ohio Walmart has been holding a food drive, asking its employees to donate to their hungry coworkers. I have a better idea for Walmart: Pay your workers enough to feed their families. But there is hope for change! Around the country Walmart workers are standing up for their right to speak out about issues like their low-wages without fear of Walmart retaliating against them. Workers and their supporters plan to hold protests at 1,500 Walmart stores around the country and in the D.C. metro area area this Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the “Superbowl of Retail.” Sign my petition calling on Walmart to stop relying on other people’s generosity to support its low-road business model.