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Urge Facebook to prohibit promotion of animal crueltyI refuse to have violence as a daily ingredient. I believe that when we are exposed to such content, what at first is gruesome with time it becomes normal, we can get used to violence, as humans we cannot remain sensitive to what today looks outrageous because we need to adapt. Whenever I have reported violent content pages to Facebook they claim they don't see violence in an image such as the ones displayed by "Peleas de perros" (a Facebook community whose name translates as Dog fights) for instance. This is the reason why I started this petition.72 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Patricia
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Save Our Kids-Block the Creepypasta website or shut it downAs a mental health professional, I have seen, first hand, how Creepypasta negatively influences teens with mental health issues. We will continue to have violent behaviors from sick kids as long as their negative impulses are justified through this website, which they currently have free and unfettered access to.118 of 200 SignaturesCreated by April Clark
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Signs Save Lives: Zoning Bylaws to Allow for Lost Pet SignsCurrently many communities have zoning bylaws in place that prohibit the posting of lost pet signs. I have been impacted by these bylaws. Two and half years ago, my Siberian husky, Bridgett, went missing and these zoning laws cost me thousands of dollars and impeded my ability to locate and trap my dog. I am not alone in this. There are many, many pet owners fighting the same battle. I am a certified Missing Animal Response Technician trained by Kat Albrecht, the founder of Missing Pet Partnership. I am also the team leader for their Lost Pet Consultants. I understand missing animal behavior and know how long they can survive on their own. These bylaws need to be amended. There is a simple win/win solution for the communities and the pet owners. All we want is to bring our pets home. Let's make this happen.1,149 of 2,000 SignaturesCreated by Patricia Panek
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No Bench SeatsYou are making vehicles I cannot drive. You did not think of drivers with handicaps.142 of 200 SignaturesCreated by Patricia Barbee
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We want King on the $20 bill!It's appalling that the same man who forced almost 50,000 Native Americans off their lands and forced them on a death march is still honored on our currency.21 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Demand Progress
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We Need More Bike Lanes in Bushwick!It is imperative that the neighborhoods of Bushwick and East Williamburg, Brooklyn receive more dedicated bike lanes, specifically on Broadway between Marcy Avenue and Gates Avenue. On June 10th , 2014, Zack Xochil Fortune, an acquaintance of mine and a neighborhood figure, was hit by a car and killed at the intersection of Boradway and Myrtle. I live in Bushwick and just like many other community members I ride a bike every day for both recreation and work. With the increase in people living in my community - the number of cars, pedestrians, bikers and other commuters has vastly risen creating a dangerous environment for cyclists. Bicycle safety is personal to me on multiple levels and the catastrophe that took a fellow citizens life may have been prevented if proper action had been taken sooner. This is an issue of public and individual safety and with the addition of more bike lanes, the quality of life in our neighborhood will be greatly improved.124 of 200 SignaturesCreated by Chris Banks
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Tell Congress no more delays! Social Security disability is not a handout; it's insurance you've ...Setting the record straight: Social Security is a vital system, one you’ve paid into your whole life Three things you need to know: • Social Security is fiscally sound. • Social Security is not a handout, you paid for it. • Spreading the truth is the key to urging lawmakers to ignite change. There are rumors and false information abounding regarding the financial status of the Social Security System and what really happens to that 6.2 percent taken from your paychecks. Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano wants you to know the facts! We want you to understand that Social Security isn't going anywhere for the hardworking men and women who have paid into the trust fund. Social Security As long as Americans are working, Social Security will have funds. Currently, $2.8 trillion is stored in the Social Security Trust Fund, which is collected from wage earners' paychecks [1]. That 6.2 percent taken from your paycheck is an insurance policy that you paid for; Social Security is not an entitlement or welfare program as some media have portrayed it. While nearly everyone understands that Social Security assists retirees, there is a lesser known benefit built into the system in case you cannot work because of a disability. No one wants to be out of work, but if you become disabled and are unable to return to work, you have invested in an insurance policy that can assist you - Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The false representation of SSDI in the media has caused some Americans to feel ashamed and embarrassed to apply for benefits even though they are compiled from the money the government deducted from their paychecks. Internal issues affecting applicants Delays in processing applications are affecting America's most vulnerable - those on long-term disability. Less than 30 percent of initial applicants are awarded benefits, which are modest at an average $1,130. Processing delays have caused some to file for bankruptcy or lose their homes; some even die before seeing a penny of the money they are entitled to [2]. An applicant must wait a minimum six months without any source of income, but the wait times nationally have been as high as 382 days in 2013 with no signs of decrease in 2014 [3]. Justice delayed is justice denied to those unable to work because of disabilities. What can you do? By knowing this information and sharing it, you can help ensure that lawmakers fulfill their obligations by advocating the importance of Social Security Disability Insurance and helping end delays within the system. In 2014, Pond Lehocky will redouble its efforts to remind lawmakers of their responsibilities to advocate for disabled American workers. Pond Lehocky asks you to support our efforts and have your voice heard by signing our online petition to urge lawmakers to do something about the delays affecting injured workers and help dispel the false persona the media has created about Social Security Disability Insurance. 1[] YES! Magazine, “Infographic: Why Social Security’s Not Going Broke,” http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-power-of-story/social-security [2] The Baltimore Sun,” Social Security disability backlog in Md. Among the highest in the nation,” http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-06-02/news/bs-md-ssa-delay-20140602_1_disability-backlog-ruppersberger-inspector-general. [3] “Getting Worse by the Month,” http://socsecnews.blogspot.com/2013708 of 800 SignaturesCreated by Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano
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Mayor de Blasio: Rescue Our Libraries from Developer DestructionLibraries, creating opportunity, underpinning democracy, and available to all New Yorkers, are an essential and basic city service. They should always be fully and adequately funded. The cost of funding libraries is a small fraction of the city's budget, an exceptional bargain, given the economic, social and myriad other benefits libraries deliver. But in 2013, breaking headlines disclosed that Mayor Bloomberg, in his last term, was again reducing library funding at a time of increasing public use. Proposals were presented to close the resulting fiscal shortfall with a self-cannibalizing sell-off and shrinkage of system assets. The proposed transactions were costly, and would include the sale of the most valuable library properties, the focus being the generation of real estate deals. Citizens Defending Libraries (CDL), a group of concerned citizens, was formed in response to protect the public interest by opposing these wrong-headed and counterproductive plans.. CDL has since worked together with other groups such as the Committee to Save the New York Public Library and Library Lovers League, and has collected more than 17,000 signatures on a petition to stop the sale of libraries. In July of 2013, Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio joined CDL and other opponents of the library real estate deals on the steps of the 42nd Street Central Reference Library calling for Mayor Bloomberg to halt the proposed sales turning over “public land permanently to private parties”: Such sales include the New York Public Library's Central Library Plan, involving the sale of Mid-Manhattan and the 34th Street Science, Industry and Business Library, and the Brooklyn Public Library's plans for selling the Brooklyn Heights and Pacific branches. De Blasio joined with critics and other elected officials such as the City Comptroller and City Council Member Tish James, now the Public Advocate, in decrying a lack of transparency. He expressed skepticism about plans that had been pursued, largely in secret and without public scrutiny, by the NYPL and Brooklyn Public Library going back to at least 2007. Events have proved that skepticism about planned library sales is justified: • After belatedly responding to repeated calls for an independent audit, the NYPL disclosed that their original Central Library Plan would have cost $500 million, hundreds of millions more than the publicized estimate. Amazingly, they were about to spend half a billion dollars to sell and shrink libraries, demolish the research stacks of the Central Reference Library, exile books to New Jersey, and replace New York's most heavily used branch library, the Mid Manhattan, and SIBL with a much smaller space. When this scheme was abandoned, the NYPL had already spent at least $18 million on architect's and consultant fees. • The sudden, secretive sale of the Donnell Library in Manhattan, a transaction on which later library sales are largely modeled, netted the NYPL a pittance and space for a much smaller branch library, largely underground. The penthouse, just one apartment in the fifty-story luxury tower replacing Donnell, is on the market for 50% more than the sale netted. • With a similar lack of public discussion, NYPL sold off much of the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) space for a fraction of the $100 million it had cost to build the facility in 1996. The sale was part of the now renounced Central Library Plan. • After candidate de Blasio called for a halt to library sales, it was revealed in connection with the proposed sale and shrinkage of the Brooklyn Heights Library, that about half the development rights for the site had been transferred years before, to the developer, Forest City Ratner, which is now in a position to be a gatekeeper profiting from the transaction. • The number of books in the NYPL and BPL libraries are being drastically reduced, emptying shelves of millions of books as library officials prepare to launch the real estate deals that require them to accommodate reduced collections in smaller spaces. These events cannot be ignored. While the Central Library Plan has been modified, aspects of it still ominously survive and, in Brooklyn, library trustees and officials continue to express enthusiasm for the proposed sale and shrinkages of libraries, saying that they are assessing “all” the libraries in Brooklyn for such “opportunities.” The Brooklyn Heights and Pacific Branch libraries are still prominently in their sights. Plans to sell the rest of SIBL have yet to be abandoned. The three million research books removed from the stacks of the Central Research Library have yet to be returned. Transactions such as the sale of Donnell Library, the NYPL's Central Library Plan and proposed sales of libraries in Brooklyn should be subject to a much higher level of public scrutiny than they have yet received, including review from the City Council and the State Attorney General. It is clear, among other things, that library officials and trustees do not always think in the same terms as the public when considering priorities and what is in the public's best interest. Selling libraries, these shared resources, should not become another chapter in the tale-of-two-cities story of escalating income disparities, with a few of the connected and privileged profiting at the expense of the rest of us. We should be one city standing together to protect the public commons. Libraries cannot be held hostage and traded in for development. We cannot let our libraries be the victims of privatization, or so-called “public-private” developer-driven partnerships-insider deals that put developers in the driver's seat and render competitive bids impracticable. Normal funding for operations must not be withheld to pressure communities into accepting sales of public assets, resulting in libraries housed in smaller, meaner spaces with fewer services. Isaac Asimov has commented: “Wh...11,423 of 15,000 SignaturesCreated by Carolyn McIntyre
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Stand by Our Isham & Inwood Hill Parks Groups!The Northern Manhattan community was promised $300,000 in 2011 in association with Columbia University’s Baker Field expansion. The community is still waiting because SOME of our elected officials have been sitting on the issue and continually moving the goal post. This only hurts the community. As shown in DNAinfo's "3 Years Later, Uptown Groups Still Waiting for Funds Promised by Columbia" (http://goo.gl/l1lWR9), the money is currently at risk of disappearing into the Parks Department. Our community is fortunate enough to have numerous neighborhood park groups and organizations whose projects and innovative programs improve the quality of life and make the parks more accessible to everyone. The money that was promised to the community should go to the community to support these groups and their efforts. Conservancy North is committed to administering grant funds equitably and supporting the growing community of stakeholders who recognize the critical importance our blue-green public spaces have on health, education, and making Northern Manhattan a great place to live, visit, and work. Please sign our petition urging our Northern Manhattan elected officials to stand by their commitment and sign the letter of unity that was requested by Columbia University in 2012 as the final condition for releasing the money.265 of 300 SignaturesCreated by Andrea Kornbluth
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Congress! We want the AUTOCYCLE!The government should create a new vehicle class to allow the new vehicles being manufactured so they can be classified as green, travel in the carpool and hov lanes and not have to pay outrageous insurance premiums.62 of 100 SignaturesCreated by TRR Group
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Ban Fox News in All Military Establishments and Federal BuildingsThe KMPH FOX 26 News was outraged after an investigation reveals the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Fresno was caught blocking the "Fox News Channel" from a hospital waiting room. Let me remind Fox news and everyone that the Fresno VA Hospital is a military establishment not a civilian establishment and is regulated by military standards. All military personnel have taken the oath, and to abide by the oath which they were sworn in! The oath stated… I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. Any establishment like the likes of Fox news that constantly belittles, disrespect the president of the United States, and constantly promoting, siding with domestic terrorists like the likes of the Arizona rancher, it’s willing to raise arms against the flag should be banned not only in the Fresno establishment but and every military establishments and federal building.338 of 400 SignaturesCreated by Ed Salazar
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Contrast How U.S. Handled the 9/11 and Benghazi DisastersThe public needs to be better informed on how well the administration of each political party handled these two disasters and the extent to which there was full disclosure to the public or a politicized one.10 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Burt Hall