Thousands of local soccer-playing children in Annapolis, Maryland, many of whom are low-income minorities, are being denied equal access to modern, new, recreation and athletics facilities in publicly-owned parks located in their neighborhoods because of favoritism and cronyism on the part of the Director of Recreation and Parks, Rick Anthony. Mr. Anthony and his staff consistently award preferential access to the newest and most modern park facilities to elite groups from outside our town, who shouldn't even be permitted to use the facilities, and they deny equal access to the local residents. Elite travel teams from outside our town are being awarded most of the access to modern, newly constructed, recreation and athletics facilities in publicly owned parks in our town, while local children, many of whom are low-income minorities, are being relegated to inferior, poorly maintained, mostly dirt and stone fields that are not safe places to play. Mr. Anthony and his staff do not even follow the department's own adopted and published guidelines and policies. They violate the county's own guidelines and policies to make exceptions for a privileged group. They consistently make exceptions for one particular elite travel soccer group that seems to have Mr. Anthony's ear. Stop the conflicts of interest. Stop the insider deals. This must be stopped. Fair and equal access for the local residents must be restored.

The City of Eugene has been criminalizing our homeless community members for years and continues to do so at great cost. People have been arrested for violating no trespassing signs when sheltering themselves from the weather. Their RV's in which they live have been impounded along with all the belongings in them. They have been giving out violations and tickets for "illegal" camping and yet the City has not put the necessary effort needed into providing adequate shelter. In fact they have been doing things to make it even more challenging for people to self-shelter, such as constructing fences. Fences were constructed by the City (Parks and Open Space) under the overpass near 1st and Jefferson, near Washington Jefferson Park with a budget of $67,000. They were built in addition to the fences that were previously constructed in the park. Instead of using that money to come up with a solution to people having to live without shelter, they are using it to push people out of spaces that provide some shelter from the rain as well as a safer place to sleep. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights lists all of our human rights, including the right to housing. The City is not only in violation of this human right, but is also exacerbating this violation by not allowing people to self-shelter themselves. Recently the U.S. Department of Justice issued a brief in a court case that said punishing people who are sleeping outside when there are insufficient numbers of shelter beds being provided is a violation of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and thus "cruel and unusual punishment. Preventing people from accessing a place to self-shelter it seems is equally a violation. There are plans for more fencing to be constructed in other areas as well, which means more of our taxpayers' money being used to do so. Please tell the City of Eugene, to remove any and all fences already constructed and to stop plans of any future fence construction as well.

The Green Meadow Elementary School's playground has drainage problems so our children cannot play on it for much of the school year, and it is not accessible to children with disabilities. The taxpayers in Maynard have already set aside funds to improve recreation opportunities in town through the Community Preservation Act. We need full funding to move forward with the construction phase of this project.

To bring to their official attention public opposition of the proposed western bypass around Ashland for High Speed Rail.

Well over a hundred households are impacted by the condition of our road. We travel it daily commuting to and from work. Our children are transported to their schools. The road conditions impact the condition of our vehicles, the values of our properties, the health of our neighbors. Flash flooding blocks roads for emergency personnel and further erode the remaining asphalt. We want our road fixed and will not be ignored.

The issue at hand has caused havoc in my community as well as surrounding communities. The fact that the state laws that are in place are not being enforced is causing issues. These issues range from rent spikes, living conditions, health concerns and much more. The laws need to be changed so inspections are done on a local level, as well as enforcements. The fact that the states Licensing and Regulation Agency has not enforced codes and has a lax system of approving licenses to operate is causing deplorable living conditions as well as health concerns. These communities were created for an affordable means of living. However, the elderly, limited income residents, residents with handicaps, along with others are being taken advantage of. This needs to stop! And this starts with you helping to give voice to this concern. Please take a moment to sign and share so we can make a change in your community as well as ours. Don't let the silence cause evictions for others, and let's not let the state and nation sit idly by while it happens! Thank you in advance for your support on these issues, have a blessed day. Sincerely, Ginger Dowdle Community organizer in MICHIGAN

More than 5,000 children are in the custody of Mississippi's child welfare system. Despite a lawsuit settled several years ago, the child welfare system is still under-funded and over-burdened. The Division of Family & Children's Services is asking the state legislature to fully fund its programming so the agency can hire the case workers needed to properly care for and improve the child welfare system.

Many people who cannot afford it -- more than anything else -- simply want a place where they can grow organic food and homestead their own property -- to have a place where they can be part of the solution and not have to cause environmental degradation by the way they are living. Rather than having over 18 million houses either rot OR simply be purchased and rented out or sold back to the American people, let's get right to the solutions-- making sure people have food and housing and control over their own lives and destinies. Statistics: *** There are approximately 3.5 million homeless people.[1] *** Approximately 50,000 veterans are homeless[2], and about ~1.4 million veterans considered "at risk of homelessness" due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.[3] *** Since 2007, banks have foreclosed around eight million homes. *** There are 18.5 million abandoned properties just "sitting there" throughout towns and cities of all sizes. 1 in 2 Americans have fallen into poverty or are struggling to live on low incomes. *** The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative along with Amnesty International are asking the U.S. to step up its efforts to address the foreclosure crisis, including by giving serious consideration to the growing call for a foreclosure moratorium and other forms of relief for those at risk, and establishing a housing finance system that fulfills human rights obligations.[4] How "The Homestead Subsidization Act" Will Help People Domestically And Abroad: *** Immediately end homelessness with houses to spare. To create independence for people rather than dependence. *** Greatly reduce peoples' grocery bills. *** Greatly reduce the incessant filling of landfills AND the filling of oceans with plastic waste because "gardens aren't wrapped in garbage". *** Greatly reduce humanity's carbon footprint (less hauling of food great distances, reduce dependence on resource-intensive animal agriculture, and so on). *** Greatly reduce peoples' dependence upon food stamps (aka SNAP or EBT), thus saving tax dollars. *** Help create a healthy and ecologically sustainable food supply to help replace the GMO and animal agriculture-based food supply we currently have in place, thus creating a healthier Citizenry. *** To create a diverse organic agricultural economy with unique micro-economies. *** Alleviate strain on communities trying to keep up with poverty in their areas. *** Relieves people from what will become unnecessary excess labor: trucking and other forms of commercial hauling, garbage collecting and waste management, and so on) in a way which is "more beneficial to all people than the current paradigm is to anyone". [1]: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html [2]: National Alliance to End Homelessness. The State of Homelessness in America. 2015: http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/fact-sheet-veteran-homelessness [3]: National Coalition of Homeless Veterans: http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/ National Economic and Social Rights Initiative Home Page: https://www.nesri.org/ Amnesty International Home Page: https://www.amnesty.org/en/ [4]: Article by The Mind Unleashed, “18,600,000 vacant homes in the United States. Enough for every homeless person to have six!”: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/02/18600000-vacant-homes-united-states-enough-every-homeless-person-six.html

Access to safe drinking water is a human right. The people of Flint, Michigan have been denied that right. And too many other communities across the country have aging water pipes and not enough resources to fix problems with their water systems. Many of our nation’s water systems are over 100 years old — and the EPA estimates that each year we are falling $22 billion short of what is needed to upgrade them. Without increased federal support for community water systems, more communities will be in crisis -- and Flint's crisis shows just how much is at stake. We can fix this by supporting legislation like HR 4479, the Families of Flint Act, that would provide grants to fix the infrastructure in Flint to ensure that lead and other contaminants that pose a threat to public health and the environment are no longer present in the drinking water. The bill would also provide the Flint community with health services to identify and help children with lead poisoning. We also need legislation to provide mandatory, long-term, dedicated funding to ensure access to safe, affordable, public water for all communities across the country.

[UPDATE: ON MARCH 2, 2016, THE LARKSPUR CITY COUNCIL UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED REMOVING THE POLES AT MAGNOLIA AND WARD. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!] The installation of the poles seems to have bypassed the extraordinary scrutiny of the Planning Commission. According to City Manager Dan Schwartz’s comments in a recent article in the Marin IJ, “The poles were considered a utility project, which didn’t require the same treatment as a remodel or upkeep of architecture.” The fact that the city considered the poles, designed to allow the City of Larkspur sell advertising to non-profit groups, to be a “utility” is a gross misinterpretation of the word. It seems clear that the installation of the poles should have gone through the planning commission and been subject to Larkspur Municipal Code Section 18.41.120, Design Review and Heritage Preservation Board Review, SD Storefront Downtown Regulations that states: All proposed new structures, additions and other modifications to the exterior of a building shall be subject to the provisions of Chapter 18.64 LMC, Design Review, and for those parcels in the combining heritage preservation district, review and recommendation by the Heritage Preservation Board, per Chapter 18.19 LMC. (Ord. 933 § 3, 2004; Ord. 929 § 38, 2004; Ord. 841 § 1 (part), 1993). Furthermore, according to Larkspur Municipal Code Section 18.60.060 F, Signs, Permitted Identification Signs for Places of Business: The maximum height of freestanding signs shall be ten feet measured from finish grade elevation at the sign base to the uppermost part of the sign or supporting structure. The existing poles stand 25 feet high, 15 feet higher than is allowed for such a sign. Add your name to have these poles removed.

ACS needs to reevaluate the way they do things... It is sickening that reports can be made anonymously and exes or anyone that wants to spite you are able to continuously file report after report... When does it end? ACS should at least know who is making the report each time, and if seeing a pattern, especially year after year of the same nonsense and all unfounded reports, they should not continue to harass, investigate, and interrogate the parent/s... It's beyond unfair and a change needs to be made...

We are being charged ridiculous amounts on our utility bills.