The news reporters and papers make it sound like a great thing. But what people don't realize is that Right to work means the right to work for less. The unions actually hold the prevailing wages where they are for everyone. It will be a trickle down effect. Everyone will be affected by this. If everyone's wages go down people will be spending less money else where. This issue doesn't only affect union workers it affects everyone. Please vote no on the Right to Work amendment this coming November!!!

Despite bipartisan opposition, supporters of the irresponsible "Right to Work" Constitutional Amendment are trying to move the bill forward in the Minnesota Senate. They know that Minnesotans oppose this unsafe, unfair and unnecessary law, and have resorted to desperate gimmicks to try to pass it. This bill is not what its supporters say it is. Plain and simple, this isn't a right to work; it's the right to hurt workers, our economy, and the middle class.

In February 2012, the U.S.P.S. announced the closing of the mail processing facility on Nandino Blvd. in Lexington, KY, thereby rerouting mail processing to Louisville, KY and Knoxville, TN. This will be devastating to the area for several reasons. It will impact several hundred employees and there families, who may have to relocate to different areas, it will impact the delivery of important mail such as prescription medication and bill payments being delayed, and local businesses where these employees and there families frequent. This will be devastating to the economy in Lexington.

Arizona House Majority Leader Steve Court and his fellow Republicans in the State Legislature still just don't get it when it comes to protecting a liveable wage for low income Arizona workers. Last week, Rep. Court sponsored HCR 2056, a proposal to cut the minimum wage by $3 per hour for workers under the age of 20, and by $2 per hour for tipped employees. This economically draconian bill was endorsed 5-3 by the Arizona House Commerce Committee and looked poised to become law. The good news is that the 99% in Arizona are vigilant. Due to public outcry and widespread media attention both within and outside of our state, the worst has been averted and the proposals affecting tipped workers and youth have been dropped. But the resulting bill is small comfort to Arizona's working poor. It would reverse a 2006 voter approved measure allowing for inflation adjustments to the state minimum wage, freezing the current $7.65 per hour state minimum and limiting further increases except when required by federal law. A strong minimum wage is a critical part of bringing back jobs and opportunity to Arizonans. It puts money in the pockets working people who will spend the money immediately and locally. This helps everyone, the 99% and the 1%: businesses small and large see increases in demand for goods and services, leading them to hire more people to keep up with demand. With the economy making small, fragile improvements, now is not the time to freeze the wages of those who will spend money in our communities and contribute to our local economy. We need our Legislature to invest in workers, not force them further into poverty. If we keep speaking up, maybe our state legislature will finally realize that assaults on low income workers are a "lose, lose" proposal.

On February 27, 2012, the Town of Littleton Selectmen voted to discontinue the 20+ year policy of plowing and sanding the 4.27 miles of private roads. The Town failed to notify us of this decision, although we had requested to be notified of any changes to this policy.

This petition is addressed to the Alaska Legislature to ask them not to undo the Alaska Clear and Equitable Share act (ACES) which greatly benefits Alaska. ACES has provided much extra revenue for many necessary and beneficial projects in Alaska, and the jobs to build them. There will be a loss of jobs and project revenue and benefit to Alaska if it is overturned. When Alaska became a State, we didn't model our constitution after run-of -the-mill constitutions, but after the best at the time. This was the case with the creation of ACES, which was long overdue in it's creation, and a miracle it actually happened under a Republican administration. It provides strong incentives for exploration and development our oil resource, but still gives Alaska a fair share. If anyone should profit from the price of oil skyrocketing worldwide, Alaskan projects are as worthy to benefit, if not more so, as anyone standing to profit incidentally may be. The Petroleum Industry is financing a full-scale campaign to persuade us to fatten their profit margins. Not that it is hurting in this state. It is profiting, significantly. But they want even more wealth, which would probably not remain in Alaska. The facts belie many of the industry's arguments. Petroleum Industry employment and projects on the north slope have not gone down since the creation of ACES. And the spending on Alaskan infrastructure development has been able to go up. It is probably a good bet that the oil development will expand in Alaska in the near future no matter what, given the huge resource and profit incentive. And if it didn't happen immediately, it would be there for our children. Norway shares the diverse latitudes and climate of Alaska, and also an oil industry; yet it has over $500 Billion of oil resource wealth in its permanent fund, after paying for benefits for a population six times larger than our state. Norway's petroleum royalty is the only to exceed that of Alaska, at current rates, and yet and the oil industry is in no hurry to leave Norway. They are doing fine. When it comes to this current big push to overturn ACES, we should not be so dense as to not consider the source at this time - Governor Sean Parnell. It is often overlooked that he has been a long-time lobbyist for ConocoPhillips, who is financing much of the current campaign to overturn ACES, and who would stand to make billions in return for their media campaign investment in this regard. Let's not get caught up in the emotional propaganda generated by the "undo ACES" campaign, and keep a very sound policy for Alaska. It is something to be proud of, without apology!

Landlords in the City of Lewiston are facing greater difficulty maintaining quality housing amidst the current economic climate. As a City with the highest poverty rates in two of the most densely populated census tracts, the rental market is unable to respond to increases in operating expenses by spreading costs amongst tenants who have limited ability to pay. Landlords are asking the City of Lewiston to remove the trash collection fees that were formerly included as a benefit of being a tax payer.

The PA State Legislature has the opportunity to save lives by adding a tax to non-smoking tobacco products and by increasing monetary support for tobacco cessation and prevention programming. PA is the only state that does not tax non-smoking tobacco products. These changes may prevent youth from becoming tobacco users.

Long before the economic tailspin, Flight attendants were being replaced with cheap labor, and to make it more palatable to our Commander and chief, and the public as well, it appears that they are only replacing foreign unionized interpreters. Instead, with the union removed, we are all slowly being replaced by "language speakers". "IT'S Discrimination!" America does not need a huge group of baby boomers collecting unemployment and retirement. instead we need our Jobs to continue helping the economy recover!!

130,000 Italians just signed a petition calling for the Catholic churches in Italy to pay taxes on all properties they own to help cure it's financial ills. I propose that ALL churches here in America do the same: Close the tax loopholes that exempt ALL properties owned by churches!

It's the year 2012. The permitting process for mining is both lengthy and exhaustive to mine for copper and nickel in Minnesota. The actual mining process takes place 3,000 to 4,000 feet underground not on the surface. Neither the State of Minnesota nor the residents of Ely, MN want to see their backyard destroyed but DO believe that in these modern times, we actually can mine unobtrusively and without damaging our precious environment. Ely, MN is suffering significantly with a declining ability to survive on tourism as the years and bad economy have chiseled away steadily at the population here. We need to do something and sell a product that everybody needs, that being nickel. It's is used in every thing from iPads to cellphones to stainless steel and the US currently imports all of it. Let Ely, MN contribute to its own sustainability and the economy of the United States in a meaningful, tangible way. Support the mining efforts for the underground mine south of Ely MN.

http://wh.gov/81O I was on a recent conference call with White House officials, during which research funding was discussed. It seemed to me that these officials did not fully understand the central importance of NIH funding to our national research enterprise, to our local economies, to the retention and careers of our most talented and well-educated people, to the survival of our medical educational system, to our rapidly fading worldwide dominance in biomedical research, to job creation and preservation, to national economic viability, and to our national academic infrastructure. In response to a question from a participant, they staunchly defended the proposed flat $30.7 billion FY 2013 NIH budget as being perfectly adequate, remarking that “The NIH receives more funding than any other research entity; it will continue to be strong; it will do just fine.” This is not the case. The proposed flat NIH budget will severely exacerbate a catastrophic crisis that has been ongoing since 2003, when growth in NIH funding fell (and has continued to fall every subsequent year) behind the rate of inflation. As a consequence of this deeply flawed public policy, promising careers have been cut short, amazing research projects have been aborted, hundreds of laboratories nationwide have shrunk or been shut down, established and accomplished senior researchers have been forced to abandon their programs, young scientists have departed from research of even left the country (even after many years of productive training), thousands of ancillary jobs have been lost, our worldwide medical research dominance has been eroded (ceded to China, India, and other nations), and a large support network of laboratory supply and biotechnology companies has been drastically attenuated. We successfully rescued the auto industry because we understood the ramifications of letting it fail. Our biomedical research infrastructure is just as far-reaching and vitally important to our nation’s economy as is the auto industry. I hope that our Administration understands this. In response to this apparent lack of understanding of the current medical research crisis, I started the following petition: Dear friends, I write to let you know about a recently created petition on "We the People", a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov , and ask for your support. If this petition gets 25,000 signatures by March 18, 2012, the White House will review it and respond! We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response. “You can view and sign the petition here: http://wh.gov/81O Here's some more information about this petition: Increase NIH budget to $33 billion dollars next fiscal year! A flat $30.7 billion will kill jobs and hurt research. Increase NIH spending to $33 billion! The proposed flat NIH budget will close labs nationwide, kill good-paying jobs, damage our worldwide medical research dominance, and hurt state economies. NIH jobs cannot be outsourced. NIH funding created 350,000 jobs and contributed $50 billion to the national economy in 2007! Insource our jobs!! Stephen J. Meltzer, M.D. The Harry & Betty Myerberg/Thomas R. Hendrix Professor Departments of Medicine (GI Division) and Oncology The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine & Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center 1503 E. Jefferson Street, Room 112 Baltimore, MD 21287