The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is holding its annual policy conference in Indiana this week. But their shadowy lobbying practices shouldn't receive a warm welcome -- sign our petition to Indiana-based Eli Lilly to dump ALEC today! ALEC works behind closed doors to help big corporations like Exxon Mobil, Comcast, Pfizer, & Koch Industries secretly lobby politicians for favorable treatment. They work in secret, shutting voters out of the process, but giving corporate members the same vote as legislators and other elected officials who are elected to do the public's business. Even worse, those corporations get a tax write-off on their contributions, because ALEC claims that it is a "charity." Lobbyists from those corporations and politicians sit behind closed doors to adopt "model" bills that affect everything from the water you drink and air you breathe, the schools your children attend, the size of your paycheck, and your ability to access affordable healthcare and medicine. Public outcry has led over 100 companies, including Ford, Google, Facebook, and more, to cut ties with ALEC. Now, it's time for Eli Lilly to do the same. Eli Lilly touts its corporate commitment to laudable goals like "Improving Global Health" and "Strengthening Communities" -- now it's time to back up their words with action. Sign our petition and tell Eli Lilly to drop out of ALEC today.

GOP vice-presidential nominee Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has just withdrawn from the American Legislative Exchange Council's policy conference, where he was scheduled to give a keynote speech. But he's not the only one that should be withdrawing from ALEC. Sign our petition to Indiana-based Eli Lilly to follow in their governor’s footsteps and cut ties with ALEC for good. ALEC works behind closed doors to help big corporations like Exxon Mobil, Comcast, Pfizer, & Koch Industries secretly lobby politicians for favorable treatment. They work in secret, shutting voters out of the process, but giving corporate members the same vote as legislators and other elected officials who are elected to do the public's business. Even worse, those corporations get a tax write-off on their contributions, because ALEC claims that it is a "charity." Lobbyists from those corporations and politicians sit behind closed doors to adopt "model" bills that affects everything from the water you drink and air you breathe, the schools your children attend, the size of your paycheck, and your ability to access affordable healthcare and medicine. Public outcry has led over 100 companies, including Ford, Google, Facebook, and more, to cut ties with ALEC. Now, it's time for Eli Lilly to do the same. Eli Lilly touts its corporate commitment to laudable goals like "Improving Global Health" and "Strengthening Communities" -- now it's time to back up their words with action. Sign our petition and tell Eli Lilly to drop out of ALEC today.

This is an insult and another unfair burden to the workers of the post office and to organized labor. America needs the expansion of its ability to process and deliver the mail.

Meaningful changes and reforms that many Americans desperately need and desire are unlikely to be accomplished as long as the Republicans and Democrats have a monopoly over the electoral process. Much needs to be done to make the process more open to alternative candidates and ideas, but we can start by demanding that the national presidential debates be opened to all viable candidates, those who are on the ballot in a sufficient number of states to be able to win the required number of electoral votes to be elected. Supporting this demand does not support any candidates or their positions, nor does it oppose any candidates or their positions. Opening the debates to all viable candidates does, however, allow voters to be exposed to the open and free exchange of alternative ideas for governance that will allow us to be better informed before we vote.

Transparency and accountability are what we should aim for within the Democratic Party. It's time to have Democratic Party leadership which is elected for the people, and by the people. Let delegates, alternates, and standing committee members elect the Democratic Party leadership, including the National Chairperson, the five Vice Chairpersons, the National Finance Chair, the Treasurer, and the Secretary.

Our economy (along with those of the rest of the world) has suffered greatly from the absence of this law. Efforts to control the damage from the Great Recession STILL keep bank's depositor interest rates so low that many people are depleting their accounts' principal, since what passes for interest returns these days is really an insult.

and more from the Post Star... Congdon often erupts in shouts and insults of other board members. He also interrupts them and leads the board into tangential arguments that generally last 30 minutes or more. “These fights are terrible,” board member Gina LeClair said. “Who wants to be represented by the yelling and screaming we have at our meetings? I don’t think people want to say, ‘Heck yeah, that’s my town!’” After months of such behavior, a line appeared to be crossed at Tuesday’s board meeting. Twice, Congdon and Kusnierz stood as they confronted each other, both seemingly ready to throw a punch. Other board members were openly critical of Congdon, telling him to calm down and saying he throws temper tantrums. Even the public seemed to feel that enough was enough. People in the audience repeatedly tried to derail arguments, first by coughing loudly and finally by shouting, “Stop!” Van Tassel said the supervisor’s problem is “ineffective communication.” “If we could better understand his position, we could probably work better with him,” Van Tassel said. But instead, Congdon skips meetings or doesn’t offer his input and then criticizes the decisions after the fact. He angrily denounced the board’s choice for building inspector but had skipped the meeting at which they made the decision. He also recently criticized the decision to clean the Sandbar Beach bathhouse for one last season rather than demolishing it. “That should have been aired before, not after the fact,” Van Tassel said. “Be involved early on. Don’t always be criticizing after the fact.” The four board members have now banded together and are working to do the work that was often previously done by the supervisor. They are doing research, meeting with employees, talking out ideas with attorneys and developing legislation. “We’re hoping to handle things Gardner doesn’t want to work with,” LeClair said. The process is slower, but it’s working. “We may not always agree, but we always come to a solution,” LeClair said. “It’s wonderful. It’s never been as smooth as it is now.” Van Tassel stressed that the board members will work with Congdon if he wants to work in a collaborative, non-combative way. “We’re going to just move forward and we hope that he’s part that,” Van Tassel said. “We are fully committed to do that with or without the supervisor.”

The fact that This permit was denied is an outrageous attempt to silence democracy, from the very man who has woken the People to restore real democracy back where it belongs - to each & every one of us.

More than 20 million Americans have been made second-class citizens for LIFE because of a fraudulent arrest for marijuana. The rest of the country is terrorized by this insane war. - Promises mean nothing now. We need ACTION before the election or we will choose Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.

Everyday polls come out saying that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not trusted and are seen negatively by the American people. Recently, polls have begun to include Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party Candidate Jill Stein pitted against Clinton and Trump and have shown that people are looking for a different solution. However, in order for these candidates to be considered for the debates they need to be at 15% or higher in the polls. This is a rule that was put in place to make sure the debates were between serious candidates. This is a hard point to get to for candidates like Johnson and Stein because they are not given a chance to make their voices heard. There is no better way to do so then on the debate stage in front of a national audience. I am asking my fellow Americans to demand that the rules be changed to allow people from established parties, like the Libertarian and Green parties, to participate in the presidential debates

I am starting it to ask Bernie Sanders to officially endorse Misty K Snow for Senate.

49 public schools closed. Six public mental health clinics closed. Mass transit service cut backs. Chicago parks needing expansion and repair. Massive cuts threaten public schools. Joblessness and violence escalates in our communities. At the same time we see the Mayor pushing to give away park land to a billionaire filmmaker and plunge the city into another billion dollars of expensive debt to build a vanity museum. At the same time, Chicago continues to be plagued by corruption and crooked deals that rob us of hundreds of millions of dollars. It's time to get to the bottom of the TRUE state of Chicago's twisted finances. The CivicLab is calling for an independent forensic audit of EVERY aspect of Chicago's business. We want ALL the books opened and examined by experts who are not creatures of the Democratic Machine or its allies in business and Big Law. We want all departments, agencies, boards, commissions, contracts and employee records open and put online. The CivicLab is responsible for the TIF Illumination Project (http://www.tifreports.com) and the new book "Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve" (http://www.wearenotbroke.org). More info at [email protected].