Do you have $10,000 to spare so that you can dine with Tea Party Republican Paul Ryan in Baltimore? I didn’t think so, but that’s how much billionaire Mitt Romney’s former vice-presidential running mate is asking for if you want to be a “Presidential Sponsor” for the Republican Party’s annual Red, White and Blue Dinner in Baltimore on June 20. It’s not often that someone like Paul Ryan comes to town, and maybe it’s because he knows that most Marylanders don’t support his extreme right-wing policies that hurt the working class while benefitting Ryan’s 1% campaign donors. As part of his austerity agenda, Ryan has fought tooth and nail against efforts to increase the federal minimum wage – which has remained stagnant since 2009 As he visits Baltimore tell Rep. Paul Ryan and his Tea Party allies to stop opposing a raise to the federal minimum wage! Raising the minimum wage is one of the issues I care most passionately about, and that’s why we’re fighting to increase Maryland’s minimum wage. Unlike the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that Paul Ryan supports (that do nothing to help create jobs), raising the federal minimum wage would stimulate our economy from the bottom up. Raising the national minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would increase GDP by about $32.6 billion and create approximately 140,000 net new jobs. I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds pretty good Join me in telling Rep. Paul Ryan to stop opposing a raise to the minimum wage – hard work deserves fair pay!

Americans are working harder and harder for less and less. For the past 45 years, the federal minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living. Right now, forty percent of Americans make less than the minimum wage from 1968. While working Americans do more work every year for less pay, the wealthiest watched as their share of the total income pie grew by 275% over the last thirty years. Senate Majority Leader Reid has said he intends to take up a minimum wage increase in the Senate before the end of the year. Now is the time to stand together and call on Congress to enact a living wage and strengthen America’s middle class. Raising pay for American workers is not only the right thing to do, it will also increase demand for goods and services, creating millions of good new jobs. Big, profitable employers like McDonald’s and Walmart should learn that better wages for their workers mean millions of families will have more money to spend at their stores. It is unacceptable that the minimum wage today pays only $15,000 per year. That’s $3,000 below the poverty level for a family of three. A living wage would help working families still suffering from the effects of the recession, and would boost the economy by putting money in people’s pockets. Join me in spreading the call for a living wage.

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.