As a civil rights organization, we see first hand the impact the foreclosure crisis has and continues to have in Illinois' working class communities and especially communities of color. It is important that we not kick people when they are down. Currently, an eviction cannot take place if the temperatures are 13 degrees or below and must be done by the sheriff. Now, the greedy banks have convinced State Reps. Monique D. Davis, Daniel V. Beiser, Robert Rita, Anthony DeLuca, William Davis, Derrick Smith, Charles E. Jefferson, Lawrence M. Walsh, Jr., Jerry F. Costello, II, Katherine Cloonen, Brandon W. Phelps, Patrick J. Verschoore to remove that restriction and allow evictions to take place regardless the temperature by their cousins, friends, or anyone off the street that can handle or even steal personal property without being licensed, bonded or insured! LET'S STOP HB 5395 today!

Save tax dollars and improve aviation safety

We the residents of Newark are seeking relief and assistance from the United States Department of Justice, the Office of United States Attorney General, Eric Holder and the Office of State of New Jersey Attorney General, John Hoffman to oversee the critical Mayoral election in the City of Newark, NJ on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. We seek this relief because of all the voter fraud and other illegal activity that have been proven in the past from the Essex County Office of Superintendent of Elections. We ask that your agencies help protect voters rights to a fair process so we will not be disenfranchised. Therefore, we are requesting immediate relief on this matter.

VICTORY! Governor Brown has now signed SB 27, the bill to force Dark Money non-profits to reveal their secret funders in California elections! Senator Vidak ended up voting for the final version of SB 27, one of three Republican Senators to do so. His vote was crucial to its passage. Thank you, Senator Vidak! And thanks also to all of you who asked him to vote "Yes". As California Clean Money Campaign President Trent Lange said afterwards in the Sacramento Bee: “Governor Brown’s signature of SB 27 marks a turning point in the fight to reveal secret funders of political campaigns. It starts to shed light on dark money in California and serves as an example for the entire nation." Your petitions and calls worked! SB 27 became law after more than 40,000 people like you signed petitions. More than a thousand people applied extra pressure by calling their legislator. SB 27 was a great coalition effort in which the California Clean Money Action Fund worked with not only the bill author Senator Lou Correa, the sponsor FPPC, and our CA campaign finance friends at California Common Cause, California Forward, and the League of Women Voters of California; but also with national organizations like Public Citizen, CREDO Mobile, Courage Campaign, Progressives United, Represent.Us, causes.com, MoveOn.org, Money Out Voters In Coalition, MapLight, Label GMOs: California's Grassroots, Lutheran Office of Public Policy - California, Moms Across America, and others. Thanks to everybody who signed and helped us achieve this historic victory! PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME TO THE PETITION and we'll tell you how you can help pass other crucial bills to end the dominance of Big Money in politics, like SB 52, the California DISCLOSE Act and SB 1272, the Overturn Citizens United Act. -- Your friends at the California Clean Money Campaign (www.CAdisclose.org)

All Americans are unjustly and unfairly impacted by any form of legislation passed by elected officials who hold themselves exempt from those laws. What happened to "equality under the law"? Let's fix this issue once and for all and let's fix it without controversial riders or other attachments to the bill. Is it not true that, in America, "no one is above the law"? Let's mean it.

Portland needs some sunshine. Portlanders are mostly left in the dark about how city funds are spent. Last year, the City of Portland earned a "D minus" for how transparent the city makes information about spending and subsidies available to the public online. [1] This is unacceptable. We need to make sure Mayor Hales hears from a lot of people across Portland so he knows that the public wants better transparency from our city so we can engage in decisions about public funding priorities and hold the city accountable for spending public dollars appropriately. [1] Transparency in City Spending, OSPIRG Foundation. 1/23/13.

For years, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado has been fighting to rein in abuses of federal power in the name of combating terrorism. Sen. Udall warned the American people about the dangers of mass surveillance against millions of innocent Americans for years before anyone knew the name Edward Snowden. To Udall’s great credit, he has consistently fought for our civil liberties in Congress--regardless of which party occupies the White House. Today, Sen. Udall needs our help.

Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein has publicly accused the CIA of spying on her committee, thereby violating the law and the Constitution and calling into question the Senate Intelligence Committee’s ability to perform its responsibility to conduct effective oversight of the CIA. (1) Behind the dispute over CIA spying is a dispute over the classification of two key documents: the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture during the Bush Administration, and an internal CIA review that corroborated the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report’s criticism while the CIA was officially telling the Senate Intelligence Committee that its report’s criticisms were wrong. (2) Under Section 8 of Senate Resolution 400 – the resolution that established the Senate committee in 1976, after the Church Committee’s investigation of abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies - the Senate Intelligence Committee has the power to declassify documents if it determines that is in the public interest, without the approval of the executive branch. If the executive branch objects, under the provisions of Section 8, the declassification can be approved by the full Senate. (3) Urge the Senate Intelligence Committee and the full Senate to move to declassify the committee’s report on CIA torture and the CIA’s internal review, and urge the Obama Administration to fully cooperate, by signing and sharing our petition. References 1. “Feinstein: CIA may have violated Constitution with monitoring of Senate staffers,” Ali Watkins, Jonathan S. Landay, and Marisa Taylor, McClatchy News, March 11, 2014, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/11/220849/feinstein-defends-senate-intel.html 2. “Letter to President Obama on CIA Spying on Congress,” Project on Government Oversight et al, March 12, 2014, http://www.pogo.org/our-work/letters/2014/letter-to-president-obama-on-cia-spying-on-congress.html 3. “Wyden: Intel committee used provision once to release classified info,” Steve Benham, KATU.com, Oct 23, 2013, http://www.katu.com/politics/With-power-to-disclose-classified-info-intel-committee-invokes-it-only-once-ron-wyden-228554661.html. 1976 S.Res. 400 is contained as Appendix A in this document: http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs/94_comm_prt.pdf

The politics at the top of our federal government have resulted in a stagnation of our lawmaking process. Hard party lines have destroyed cooperation and compromise. Lobbyists have entrenched current representatives' financial interests and plugged their ears to the voices of the public. It's time to rotate the board!

Yes, I am personally a victim of this law. I am one of every person that has had medical mishaps who have no chance of compensation when an error occurs. Anyone in this state that goes under the knife has no recourse if an error occurs. I will have to go to another state when I need my next surgery for fear another mishap. I have two complete boxes of medical records to back me up but in NC it doesn't matter.

Cancer affects 40% of the population and is becoming the largest health concern in the US. Most medicine today is costly and has adverse side effects. We need to start looking at new ideas to solve a new problem.

Senator Jeff Klein is the biggest obstacle to the progressive agenda in New York State. In 2012 New Yorkers elected a Democratic majority in the NYS Senate. Jeff Klein, claiming to be an "independent Democrat", abandoned the Democrats and made a self-serving deal with the Republican minority, transforming what should have been a powerless Republican minority into wall of obstruction. By standing with the Republicans, Klein bears responsibility for blocking the progressive agenda on countless issues -- a minimum wage increase, strengthening tenant protections, financing Mayor de Blasio's plan for Universal Pre-K, campaign finance reform, protecting women's rights and a ban on hydro-fracking to name a few. Jeff Klein has not acted like an "independent" Democrat -- he has empowered Republicans, and joined their obstructionist agenda. Oliver Koppell, throughout your public service career many have called you an independent Democrat. We applaud your independence. We even applaud those times some of us may have disagreed with you. We trust your history of independent, progressive Democratic leadership. You should run to defeat Jeff Klein and give progressive New Yorkers back the State Senate. Original Signers (all residents in the 34th Senate District of NYS): Dart Westphal / Margaret Groarke / Barry Soltz / Susan Moscou / Jack Marth Mollie Welsh Kruger / Alex Kratz / Elena Mora / John Kruger / Robert Jackson