Within affluent Potomac, Maryland, descendants of former freedmen in the Tobytown community have struggled for 50 years to maintain jobs due to the lack of public transportation. As a result, many residents of Tobytown are unemployed or underemployed. Transit access should be a top priority for low- to moderate-income communities.

It’s time for Congress to enact a Robin Hood tax (also known as a financial transaction tax) to help ordinary people and the planet. The Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2013, H.R. 1579, introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), would put a miniscule tax on Wall Street transactions to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year to support education, employment, health care, HIV/AIDS research and treatment and the fight against climate change, here at home and around the world. Please contact your representative and ask her/him to cosponsor this important legislation to establish a financial transaction tax on Wall Street.

Durham NC was just voted 'Tastiest Town in the South' - which is great! But as someone who has worked for years in the Durham F&B scene, I know that behind our celebrity chefs are a LOT of minimum-wage, hard working kitchen staff. Let's include them (and all Durham's working people) in our appreciation by including them in the City of Durham's Liveable Wage Ordinance (#11333) Acaban de nombrar por voto la Ciudad de Durham como la más sabrosa en el sur, ¡que maravilla! Pero como llevo varios años trabajando en los restaurantes de Durham, sé que detrás de nuestros cocineros celebres hay muchos otros trabajadores apoyándoles y estos trabajadores están ganando salarios mínimos en las cocinas. Debemos incluirlos todos (y a toda la gente trabajadora de Durham) en nuestra apreciación incluyéndolos en la Ordenanza Municipal de la Ciudad de Durham para un sueldo dig (#11333).

A teacher from the Diocese of San Diego, who is a victim of domestic violence, was fired rather than being helped because of her estranged husband's criminal acts. This is WRONG!

Currently, Military personnel who have served 20 years or more, receive only 50% of their retirement benefits, while Congress receives 100% benefits. Those military personnel should get 100% benefits. Many of have family that has served in the military, having served 20 or more years, only to retire having to find jobs or work to piecemeal money to fill in the gaps, that the other 50% of their benefits would fill.

Natural hair stylist and braiders should not be forced to go to Cosmetology School where braiding,weaving and natural hair care is not taught, force to learn from texts that does not teach braiding, weaving or natural hair care force to take a test on subject matters that does not pertain to natural hair care, force to take additional course in oder to teach braiding, or force to work or learn in toxic chemical environment, asssociated with a school or salon where chemicals are used, that has proven to cause miscarriages, birth defects, infertility, cancer and upper respiratory problems. ON JUNE 15, 2000 GOVERNOR GRAY DAVIS SIGNED SB-235 in law (Effective 01/01/01) exempting hair braiders from cosmetology laws in the state. Florida has taken a very different approach. In 1994 it began to allow people to braid hair after a 16 hour health and safety course, the course does not need to be taugh in a licensed cosmetology school though the cosmetology board must certify the eight school that teaches it. The only major problem with the Florida license is that it does not permit the use of hair extensions, which is a necessary step in most braiding styles. Florida also took the unnecessary step of creating a separate licenses for hair wrapping. SB-235 in law (Effective 01/01/01) exempting hair braid

Just read your example . Dont be HYPOCRITES. Hard working tax dollars can be spent here where it should be spent instead of a foreign country that calls us their enemy,Eygpt A piece of the 1.2 BILLION ,Im sure there is so much more money sent we dont know about , could help pay down some bills here instead of raising taxes higher to fund them over there .

For more than 8 million Floridians, the harsh reality of sequestration is about to hit home. As a direct result of sequester cuts — the across-the-board federal budget cuts that Congress enacted in March — the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is being forced to close offices throughout the country, and they have zeroed in on Tampa and Orlando. This state has the number one foreclosure rate in the nation, with the Tampa Bay area consistently ranking in the top 10 for the highest rates of foreclosures in the country. As Florida has barely begun to recover from the housing crisis, it’s astonishing that the Tampa field office would be put on the chopping block. Not only does it serve the second-largest number of people out of all four of Florida’s offices, but it also serves one of the largest populations in comparison to HUD field offices across the country. A report released last year by the Continuum of Care, led by the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, indicted that Tampa has one of the nation’s highest populations of homeless families with children. HUD brought together eight committees made up of stakeholders, community leaders, and government officials to help address this problem. This is an office that services approximately one-third of Florida’s population. But closing this office will leave Central and Central West Florida citizens, as well as agencies that depend on the local HUD field office and its most valuable assistance and resources, in the dark. We may be able to save the Tampa office, but quick fixes will only work for so long and for some programs. It’s time for our lawmakers on Capitol Hill to act responsibly and pass a fair and responsible long-term budget plan so that communities such as Tampa are able to keep these much-needed resources. HUD should unquestionably remove the Tampa field office from its closure plan or risk seriously jeopardizing the health and welfare of citizens in this region. Help us save the Central West Florida HUD office by signing this petition and asking at least 10 others to join in this campaign for fairness to the citizens of our state.

Small retail businesses are having to accommodate many thousands of different state and local tax codes and be subjected to enforcement by out-of state revenue boards in out of state courts. With no system available to apply appropriate taxes at the time of purchase, the businesses will be forced to raise prices by up to 10% to cover the various taxes once all records are reconciled.

Jamaican citizens property tax has increase by 150%; this occurred due to loan furnished to the Jamaican Government by IMF for (u.s) $932.3 million, world bank $510 million and the Inter-American Development Bank $510 million. This decision has further created intense hardship,and the development for property confiscation. What happen in this country could happen any where, that is why we should partake and deter this decision.

NYS has NO oversight over title agents or title agencies despite the FACT that these entities are the cause of mortgage fraud and title fraud resulting in the mortgage crisis in NYS and other states. The NYS Insurance Dept., now known as DFS (Dept. of Financial Services) refuses to take jurisdiction over these fraudulent acts by claiming that NYS does not require LICENSES for these title agents/agencies who ultimately falsify property assessment values in order to MILK out mortgages on homes over 2-3 times the property value. They are also responsible for filing false deeds via fraud and deceit. ?Deeds can be filed out of chain of title by non-owners and illegally sold. NO entity protects the true homeowner, usually vulnerable human beings who are disabled, elderly, women, Afro-American, etc. There MUST be oversight and active immediate protection since the courts do not advocate for the victims.

Our only ammunition that 'they' care about is money and because 'they' have given us just about all of it with our mortgages, credit cards and student loans all we need to do to get 'them' to the bargaining table is to withhold it.