As the bi-vocational pastor of a small church here in Jackson, MS, over the last 12 years, I've watched Nissan engage in abusive, exploitative, and militantly anti-union labor practices in their Canton, Mississippi facility. At the same time, Nissan tries to burnish their image by sprinkling charitable contributions around the community. The disconnect between Nissan's public image and actual corporate behavior was so great for me that I decided to get involved by joining the Mississippi Alliance for Fairness at Nissan. Now I'm asking you to get involved too. Tell Nissan to stop using their advertising dollars where hate is being promoted. Tell Nissan to stop the threats and let workers have a fair union election. Join me in adding your name to this petition. Nissan has chosen to take a page out of the playbook of Mississippi and intimidate workers against voting for a union. The U.S. is the only place in the world where Nissan operates non-union. So we pastors here say: "Why not Mississippi?"

The district teacher’s union states that currently, “at stake is retroactive salary increases for the district’s teachers — at a time when both sides agree there is a significant shortage of teachers and a focus on recruitment and retention.” Over recent months, we have watched teachers struggle for a minimal raise in salaries, despite the fact that this raise still will not be commensurate with the invaluable service they provide to our children and our community. However, the clock is ticking toward a March 15 deadline for “payroll processing.” Santa Rosa County Schools Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick claims that if the current impasse exceeds this deadline, it will prevent the district from making retroactive payments, denying Santa Rosa teachers their rightful opportunity to receive this modest raise for the 2016-2017 school year. “There is nothing more important to the future success of Santa Rosa County than our children,” said Sarah Coutu, Chair of the Santa Rosa County Democratic Executive Committee. “Santa Rosa County employees, whether they are teachers, deputies, or other county workers, are unfortunately some of the lowest paid county employees in the state. Our neighboring counties to the east and west both pay better wages than we do. This must change!” said Coutu. According to the district website, the Santa Rosa District Schools consist of a total of 26,144 students; 2,582 employees; and 91 administrators countywide. The school system includes: 17 elementary, 8 middle, and 7 high schools; a pre-kindergarten center; a technical center; an adult school; a community schools program; an adult literacy program; a variety of alternative programs, and 4 administrative/support locations. As one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, we need to recognize that as people move here from all over the country, including many military families, they look first and foremost at our educational system. Our reputation as a family-centered community depends greatly on retaining qualified and professional teachers. Santa Rosa District Schools have identified on their own webpage that they struggle in maintaining “availability of certified teachers for high need courses.” Teachers in Santa Rosa work tirelessly for our children. It is time we stand in solidarity. Let us show the educators of our county that no teacher stands alone. Let’s invest in our children, invest in our teachers, and invest in a brighter tomorrow. Residents of Santa Rosa County: it is time to make an investment in our schools and stand with teachers of our county. We are asking you to sign this petition in support of a 2.77% teacher’s salary increase for the fiscal year of July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017.

Congress wants to get rid of Obamacare but they can't decide what they will do to replace it. There is a simple solution: let them offer all of us the same health benefits that they, the members of congress get! if it is good enough for them, it should be good enough for us and it would eliminate a lot of bipartisan infighting.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have warned that Yemen is on the brink of famine, with hundreds of thousands of children in danger of starvation if the Yemeni port of Hodeida is not quickly opened to international humanitarian aid. Rep. Ted Lieu [D-CA] and Rep. John Conyers [D-MI] are circulating a letter to Secretary of State Tillerson, "urging him to use all U.S. diplomatic tools to help open the Yemeni port of Hodeida to international humanitarian aid organizations to allow them to import food, fuel and medicine into northern Yemen and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children who face starvation." Urge House members to sign the Lieu-Conyers letter by signing and sharing our petition. References: "Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children are nearing starvation," https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/hundreds-of-thousands-of-yemeni-children-are-nearing-starvation/2017/02/23/f01ead8a-f850-11e6-aa1e-5f735ee31334_story.html "Red Cross: Yemen Food Reserves Dwindling as War Escalates," http://www.voanews.com/a/yemen-food-reserve-dwindling/3743457.html "Yemen conflict: Red Cross appeals for access to key port," http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39114349

These families are fleeing violence in their home countries; the parents' primary goal is to protect their children. Separating the parents and children, putting them in different facilities, is cruel and violates all norms of child welfare.

I am extremely upset about the new EPA rollback of auto emission regulations to ensure greater profits for the auto industry. How does one convince the corporations to become responsible citizens and promoters of the public good, i.e. to be mindful of public health?

Speaker Ryan changed the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) rules regarding how the CBO is allowed to evaluate the repeal of the ACA. Previous CBO reports estimated the federal deficit would explode if the ACA was repealed. House and Senate rules required sunset provisions on laws that impact the Federal deficit, and simple majorities can't repeal such laws. Americans need accurate, unbiased information regarding the cost and impact on the Federal deficit of the repeal of the ACA and how many people will be hurt. Ryan's rule changes have destroyed the independence of the CBO.

Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake has introduced another bill to split up the 9th Circuit Court, which Republicans feel is too liberal. This has long been a goal of the Republican Party & although they have introduced similar bills in the past, Washington has had little interest in the issue. However, due to the Republican dominance in Washington now, it is being introduced yet again. Their spin is that by splitting the current district into two, an additional U.S. Circuit court could be created— composed of Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Idaho and Alaska — to relieve what they say is an “oversized and overworked” 9th U.S. Circuit. However, per Barbara Atwood, a law professor at the University of Arizona, "The caseload per judge I'm not sure is higher than other districts. Usually the people who are advocates of (dividing the circuit) are really focused on THE NATURE OF THE DECISION-MAKING at the 9th Circuit." Arizona's Republican-controlled Legislature has long been frustrated by being kept in check by this court. This is the court that banned Arizona’s SB 1070 which created racial profiling, & its ballot harvesting law, which limited the number of ballots that could be collected and submitted to election officials. It is also the court the stopped Trump’s recent Muslim Ban. Regardless of what they say, what they want is to carve the above states out of a Circuit Court district they feel is too liberal, & put them in a new conservative district they will have more influence over. We cannot let this happen. Frankly, the 9th Circuit is the only thing that protects Arizonans from our state and federal governments, both of which continually try to impose extreme conservative beliefs on all of us.

Adolf Hitler was taking a variety of controlled substances, particularly in the latter years of the Third Reich, making his decisions reckless, radical and deadly. Athletes and fast food workers are required to take drug tests. With so much power, the president owes his employers; the American People; the guarantee that he is making decisions from a sober, drug-free position.

I am starting this petition because I am concerned for the welfare of this country and all its peoples, whether here as citizens or as guests. We have an acting president who has shown neither the capacity to lead nor the temperament to behave rationally. As a result, I believe we as Americans need to implore our members of Congress to remove and replace this person before he can do irreparable harm to our safety and livelihood.

The NJ legislator should repeal Baures vs. Lewis by passing S1137 (Senate) and A-339 (Assembly). Children's rights and their best interest must be at the forefront of the Court's evaluation of possible relocation in Divorce matters, not the wishes of any one Parent over the other. Kids are not property! A large body of research that was used to support Baures is now refuted as invalid. Other States whose laws were also used to support Baures have since switched to the 'Best Interests' standard.

Summary Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) has been an essential core component of Alabama's public schools for more than 23 years. We implore our legislators to represent the interest of students, teachers, and concerned community members by immediately putting ASIM back in as a line item in our Education budget. Furthermore, we ask that the funding for this critical program is increased to cover its actual operating costs to $3.5 million and that these funds be dedicated solely to Alabama Science in Motion. What is ASIM? ASIM provides teachers and high school students with expert guidance, professional development, curricula, and laboratory equipment that, in many cases, would be unavailable due to prohibitive costs. There are 33 ASIM specialists who travel around the state in multiple regions to share resources both in and out of classrooms. In 2016, ASIM specialists delivered $82,000 of supplies and $430,000 of equipment to 136,684 students in 352 schools, serving 132 of 137 school systems. The ASIM program is offered to ALL school systems in the state. What are the benefits of ASIM? For Students: ASIM works precisely because of the focus on student-centered classroom labs. A model program, ASIM efficiently shares high tech equipment among thousands of Alabama students. In having access to ASIM’s mentorship and laboratory equipment, much of which would otherwise be unavailable, students develop a genuine interest in science and are more prepared for higher education and the workforce. Having equitable access is critical for educational opportunities for children in poverty. In Alabama, these students are most often children of color and/or children from rural areas. Through ASIM experiences, many first-generation college students are more prepared to navigate university-level laboratory-based science courses. For Teachers: In having access to ASIM’s science education training and support, teachers gain specialized knowledge and invaluable tools. Teachers bring the continuing professional education they receive immediately into their science classrooms. ASIM specialists ensure that teachers are provided with updated equipment and that experiments are correlated to the latest science standards. Given the trend of increasingly high teacher turnover, ASIM guidance is particularly important for new classroom teachers in our school system. Specialists offer teachers collaboration, expertise, and encouragement in a challenging profession. Why did the Alabama legislature originally plan, create, and fund ASIM? Our representatives had a vision to get science into Alabama classrooms based on the pressing need to offer students a pathway to excel in the industries of science and technology. In a global economy, increasingly driven by digital technology, robotics, and information, this vision is more crucial than ever. What are the costs and budget for ASIM? ASIM has received its own line item allocation of around $1.6 million annually in the state budget for the past few years. It was funded at twice that amount before proration slashed the budget. AMSTI (Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative), a similar program for primary and middle school students, has allocated $1.5 million of its own operating budget for the past few years to keep ASIM operating at its current levels. That alone is strong evidence that science professionals highly value what ASIM is doing to prepare students to be scientifically literate. As of March 2017, the ASIM program has been completely taken out as a dedicated line item in the Alabama State Education budget. Governor Bentley’s administration has moved it under the "Other Current Expense" category of the Education Trust Fund in the state budget proposal for next year. Grouping ASIM into this discretionary fund ensures that the program is no longer earmarked as a priority. It will have to compete for funding with an array of unrelated budget items. Further, Governor Bentley’s administration has recommended that ASIM receives no discretionary funding at all from the “Other Current Expense” budget. This recommendation sends a clear message that the current governor and education superintendent want ASIM to be dismantled. What is the vision for Alabama public high school science? Alabama State Education Superintendent Sentance has argued that ASIM is not achieving his desired results for student performance and intends to work with Governor Bentley to phase out the program. Yet he and the governor have not presented a clear, detailed, and proven proposal for a comprehensive replacement for ASIM. Nor have they offered any data that something else will work better than this model program, which other states look to as a blueprint for cooperative science and technology. Few if any state delegates have been sent out to observe ASIM in action. Nor has any official data been collected from students, graduates, parents, teachers, scientists, or others who have firsthand experience with ASIM. Finally, Superintendent Sentance has unveiled a long-term plan to completely defund AMSTI as well. Since ASIM and AMSTI are the only two programs in the history of Alabama public schools that offer equitable access to high-tech, hands-on, student-centered, college-prep science education for all students, it is unclear what vision for education our current state administration holds. What are the long-term costs to Alabama students if ASIM is destroyed? Diminishing or obliterating the ASIM program strips Alabama public schools of essential components of our science education curricula. Our students rely on these components to have the mastery of science necessary to forge ahead as competent leaders and citizens. As a state, we continue to complain about a broken education system while citing standardized test numbers that imply only 24% of Alabama high school students are prepared for college science. Therefore we cannot risk losing ASIM, which ...