UPDATE 3/14/16: The Florida legislature adjourned last week WITHOUT taking action on an independent redistricting commission. They have failed the people of Florida yet again. - Over 11 million of our taxpayer dollars (and counting!) spent on the Florida redistricting disaster. The Supreme Court found the GOP-led legislature designed the Congressional districts illegally. Then the legislature held a special session, wasted EVEN MORE money and time, and failed AGAIN to do their jobs and come up with a solution. Now the courts have to take over. Update 11-5-15: The legislature failed (AGAIN), and redrawing the Senate districts will be up to the courts. Just like the Congressional districts. We need a better way. As Sen. Clemens put it, "The Legislature is incapable of drawing its own maps that don’t have political intent". Call for an independent commission to draw fair districts now. Update 10-26-15: The Senate is digging in, and in the process of approving maps that the courts will have to throw out AGAIN. Please contact your legislators now and tell them to stop wasting time and our money, and draw fair maps. Update 10-23-15: The Florida legislature has been back in action this week (on the Senate districts this time). Instead of doing their jobs, they're working on protecting their jobs. Senator Bill Galvano, in charge of redistricting said, "the members who have been elected... have a right to those seats". Don't those seats belong to the people of Florida? Reference: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-lawmakers-try-again-to-redraw-state-senate-map/2249998 http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/10/05/florida-judge-to-unveil-redistricting-map/ http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-memo-to-florida-senators-you-dont-own-those-seats/2250517 http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/senate-redistricting-map-gets-4-3-approval-but-its-fate-remains-murky/2251003 http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article43276335.html

Broken campaign promises

Eliminating the pension for elected officials may encourage shorter terms in office. This would allow for more dynamic and innovative service to the people of Pennsylvania and a great savings of funds which could help educate our citizens.

Holding a full and open set of debates could not be more important. Our state and our country is in crisis, the top 1% keeps gaining more and more power -- and along with it influence over the levels of government, media, and industry -- while real families are struggling just trying to get by. If we allow those with money, those with power, to set the parameters of this debate, we know they will bend them towards the establishment. This is a time for us to stand up and make sure everyday Marylanders get the full debate they deserve, not the one the establishment chooses for them. Senator Barbara Mikulski is retiring. We owe it to her legacy to pursue a level of spirited discourse that raises expectations, and challenges each of us to stand before the voters and discuss our ideas. To read the letter in full outlining the debate challenge, click here: https://donnaedwardsforsenate.com/edwards-issues-debate-challenge/

A recent examination of U.S. Supreme Court opinions issued during the years 1996 to 2010, where the Court had made a citation to an Internet link as supporting authority for their opinion, revealed that almost one-third (29%) of the websites no longer worked (aka "Link Rot"). Additionally, because Internet web pages can potentially be later changed, it may be difficult (or impossible) to know which cited website links, even if still working, contain identical information to that which was relied upon by the Court in their original Internet citation. Source: "Something Rotten in the State of Legal Citation: The Life Span of a United States Supreme Court Citation Containing an Internet Link (1996 - 2010)", Yale Journal of Law and Technology (Volume 15, Issue 2, Article 2), published in 2013.

There are millions of Syrian refugees who need assistance in finding refuge and making new homes. Let's do what we can to help Syrians to settle and enrich our city.

Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards suffered the indignity of coming before Rep. Jason Chaffetz's Congressional committee supposedly to answer questions about Planned Parenthood. Instead, she was met with lies , unnecessary rudeness and continual interruptions. We demand that this man pay the price for being the GOP's whipping boy. Now it's time for Chaffetz to feel the heat of public opinion. Please sign!

The people living in the 4th District of the City of Syracuse deserve better representation in the local government than they have been receiving to date. Poverty, violence and hunger plague the south side of the city and the 4th District is central to the morale of the City of Syracuse. The demand for a civil debate between candidates running for Common Council in the 4th District must come now and the event must take place before the last week in October!

I-122 will ensure Seattle stays of, by and for all of the people, not just the ones with connections to wealthy donors and newspaper publishers. We probably shouldn't be surprised the Seattle Times Editorial Board is urging voters to vote no on stronger campaign finance laws. Like its support for Shell oil drilling in the Arctic, like its opposition to raising the minimum wage, and like its support for a long line of failed big money candidates from McCain to Romney to McKenna, the Seattle Times Editorial Board is dead wrong to oppose I-122.

I-122 will ensure Seattle stays of, by and for all of the people, not just the ones with connections to wealthy donors and newspaper publishers. We probably shouldn't be surprised the Seattle Times Editorial Board is urging voters to vote no on campaign finance reform. Like its support for Shell oil drilling in the Arctic, like its opposition to raising the minimum wage, and like its support for a long line of failed big money candidates from McCain to Romney to McKenna, the Seattle Times Editorial Board is dead wrong to oppose I-122.

New York is Donald Trump’s home state, home to over 4 million immigrants and 2 million immigrant voters. Yet Republicans here have a recent history of following an anti-immigrant electoral strategy very similar to Trump’s. In elections for State Senate last year, the New York GOP relied heavily on anti-immigrant scaremongering to turn out their voters in competitive races. And one Republican candidate on Long Island this year promised that if he were elected, he’d put "ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] on speed-dial." Some Republican candidates are speaking out against Trump's anti-immigrant comments. Former Governor George Pataki has said Trump is "not ready to govern" and that he would not vote for him, even if he were to win the nomination. But so far, all we've heard from Majority Leader Flanagan is silence. It's time for Majority Leader Flanagan to join Governor Pataki in denouncing Trump’s comments and sending a message that hate has no place in our state.

At midnight, Republican leadership shut down the federal government just to support Trump's reckless and racist agenda, insisting on his unpopular and wasteful border wall and refusing to vote on the bipartisan and popular Dream Act. Republicans have been funding the government a month at a time rather than coming up with real solutions to children's health, protections for Dreamers, relief for Puerto Rico, funding for community health centers, and more. This could be the first time in history there's been a government shutdown when one party has controlled both houses of Congress and the White House—and the result will hurt tens of millions of Americans, from furloughed federal employees to all of us who use federal services and programs. If Republicans are willing to shut down the government, then they should be willing to go without their own salaries.