City commissioners have this to say about this offer. " These are the people, who brought us the Emergency Manager law, who brought us the disaster in Flint, who brought us Detroit Public Schools, who brought us the seizure of public land in Benton Harbor.” Your signature is opposition to stop the next plan to privatize our local communities, and that you stand with the local community.

Incredible! Republican leaders who complain about "rigged elections" are trying to do exactly that in North Carolina by making it harder for African Americans and students to use early voting. Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, sent instructions to Republicans who hold the majority on all 100 county boards of elections to "make party line changes to early voting." He specifically told them to close early voting sites on Sunday, remove them from college campuses, and open more in Republican areas, according to his emails obtained by the Raleigh News & Observer. More than half of N.C.’s voters used early voting in 2008 and 2012; it was even more heavily used by African Americans and young voters. Closing sites and reducing hours will mean longer lines and discouraged voters on Election Day. Fortunately, many Republican members on county election boards are ignoring Woodhouse and obeying their oath to serve all voters. But in Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and many other areas, they are opposing Sunday voting where it was used in the March primary. The reduced early voting plans of these counties will come before the State Board of Elections on September 8. The State Board has the power to restore them and repudiate the deliberate anti-black, anti-youth strategy of Republican Party leaders. Sign the petition to ask Mr. Grant Whitney Jr., board chair, and other board members to restore early voting on Sunday afternoons and on campuses that were recently eliminated or opposed by Republican county election boards. Last month, the federal Court of Appeals overturned a state law it said would suppress voting; we can't let local officials do the same thing with weak or discriminatory early voting plans for November.

The incarceration of immigrants has skyrocketed under President Obama, allowing the private prison industry to rake in massive profits by locking up immigrants in facilities where they often face abuse, violence, unsanitary conditions, and lack of proper medical care. The Department of Justice is phasing out the use of private prisons, saying that they are less safe, less secure, and less effective. But the Department of Homeland Security – which incarcerates immigrants - handing out most of the federal government's contracts to private prison companies, is continuing business as usual. The DOJ’s decision is important because it shows that the Obama administration is starting to acknowledge that mass incarceration is out of control and that imprisoning people for profit can't be justified. But unless we push President Obama to do more, it won't make a difference for thousands of immigrants locked up in for-profit dungeons.

In the 2012 election, registered voters from Tillicum turned out at a 10 percent lower rate than the rest of Pierce County. Voters from this community have expressed time and again that having a ballot box in their neighborhood will make it much more likely that they participate in our democracy. We need a ballot box in Tillicum now.

1. We vehemently oppose a site that destroys our valued wetlands and some 10,000 year old fens. The Town of Mountain Village failed to disclose to the EPA and the Army Corps that there are 2 rare fens adjacent to THD's proposed site. Both the Town of Mountain Village and THD failed to disclose to the EPA and the Army Corps that THD will destroy or seriously impact wetlands that are protected under an EPA management agreement. 2. We want a location that has access to all as equally as possible-including Ophir, Norwood, Placerville, Sawpit, the Town of Mountain Village and the Town of Telluride. 3. THD has failed, and refused outright, to provide a reliable study of financial feasibility for the new medical center with projected demographics and healthcare needs, most likely because it knows that the projected demographics and healthcare needs will not support a 40,000 square foot facility. THD has failed to consider the affect a large, new, publicly funded medical center would have on the existing local, privately owned, small health oriented businesses, including pharmacies and physical therapists. 4. There are viable and practicable alternative sites to the proposed location in Mountain Village and the alternative sites will have minimal environmental impacts. We, the signatories of this petition, ask the Telluride Hospital District Board of Directors to work with San Miguel County, the Town of Telluride, the Town of Mountain Village, EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers and others to find a site that meets with the above, in order to serve ALL members of our communities equally and respect our precious environmental habitat.

Louisiana is in a state of emergency, and the Red Cross is calling the recent flooding the worst U.S. natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy. Yet, on August 24, the Obama administration is planning to sell off an area the size of Virginia for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. This fossil fuel auction is set to take place in the New Orleans Superdome, just an hour's drive from Louisiana cities and towns that have just been ravaged by unprecedented floods. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and stop treating the Gulf Coast like a sacrifice zone. In the midst of a climate-fueled disaster, which will most gravely impact those already marginalized in our society, moving forward with this auction is a terrible idea. Selling fossil fuels at the New Orleans Superdome–the site of one of the most visible and tragic instances of climate injustice in recent memory–is nothing short of insulting. In this moment, we need to stand with Gulf communities who have been resisting the fossil fuel industry for decades. President Obama can allow the fossil fuel industry to carry on with business as usual, or he can stand with Louisiana residents who are living under a state of climate emergency. He can’t do both. We are calling on President Obama to cancel the upcoming fossil fuel auction and stop new offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico altogether.

The recent flooding in Louisiana is the country’s ‘worst natural disaster’ since Superstorm Sandy. Yet, in a disastrous move that will put millions of Gulf state residents at risk and threaten the fight to combat climate change even further, the Obama administration is planning to auction to the highest bidder nearly 24 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil and natural gas exploration and drilling. The Obama administration calls this lease sale part of its “continued commitment to safe and responsible domestic energy production,” but there's nothing safe or responsible about opening an additional 23.8 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. These leases will go up for sale on August 24, so we need to act now to stop any further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico once and for all.

Everyone deserves to know who is spending money on our elections -- it’s the only way for voters to know who is trying to influence our views and our elected representatives. This November, South Dakota voters will have the chance to make that right to know a reality -- when they vote on Measure 22, a package of democracy reforms that includes full public disclosure of political donors. But the Koch brothers and their big-donor network are bankrolling a big-money effort against Measure 22, buying ads and hiring staff to turn voters against these common-sense solutions that an overwhelming majority of Americans support. The Kochs are notorious for spending big to promote their agenda -- but this goes one step further. In attacking Measure 22, the Kochs are opposing common sense reforms to create a democracy that represents all of us -- preserving the Big Money status quo that benefits them. The fact that the Kochs are fighting so hard to keep their political spending a secret should tell you something. Transparency is a necessary first step if we want to have a government that represents all of us, and not just wealthy donors like the Kochs. The Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, currently before Congress, would set strict disclosure requirements on any individual or corporation that spends money to influence elections. Disclosure gives voters the information they need to hold secret donors and elected officials accountable. That’s why the Koch brothers and their allies are fighting so hard against it -- and that’s why Congress must immediately pass the DISCLOSE Act.

Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants "murderers" and "rapist," and has since deployed similar attacks targeting women, Muslims, and most recently veterans and their families. Donald Trump has only intensified his vile attacks on minorities and people of color. Trump has insulted the parents of a fallen military veteran on national television and stated that a federal judge could not be unbiased because of his “Mexican heritage.” With full knowledge about Trump's racist comments and policies, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has chosen to support Trump - despite promising his constituents that he would govern in a non-partisan way. Lenny Curry was elected serve and protect the residents of Jacksonville, not to further his political career by supporting a racist like Donald Trump. It is unacceptable for Lenny Curry to put his political ambitions ahead of the residents of Jacksonville, especially at the expense of supporting one of the most extreme and dangerous presidential candidates in recent history. Lenny Curry needs to put people befor politics and revokes his support for Donald Trump!

In The State Of Pennsylvania, Major George Tillery #AM9786 has been in prison over 31 years for crimes he did not commit. There was no evidence against him for the 1976 poolroom shootings that left one man dead and another wounded. Major Tillery Is Innocent. The surviving victim gave a statement to homicide detectives naming others—not Tillery or his co-defendant—as the shooters. Major wasn’t charged until 1980, he was tried in 1985. Neither witness had personal knowledge of the shooting. This is a case of gross prosecutorial misconduct and police corruption within the Philadelphia criminal justice system. Major Tillery deserves more than a new trial, he deserves dismissal of the charges against him, restoration of rights and freedom from prison. To Learn More About This Story: Visit: http://www.justice4majortillery.info/

The race for the 98th Assembly seat has taken a turn that defies belief. Karl Brabenec has proven himself unfit for office. Background- United Monroe is a grassroots political movement based in Monroe NY. It has a board of directors that vote on political endorsements. It began 4 years ago when the Monroe government bought a movie theater over the objections of the residents. It has since grown into a political movement that has stopped the KJ annexation, overturned a corrupt Monroe town board, sued to open up election practices in Orange County and 2 years ago garnered over 9000 votes for its Assembly candidate. That election put United Monroe on the map as a political force that must be reckoned with as a counter weight to the Bloc vote coming out of the village of Kiryas Joel. United Monroe is not an official political party like the Republican or Democratic Party. In order to obtain that status a Party must obtain a significant number of votes for Governor. United Monroe has never endorsed for Governor. United Monroe has always been about free and fair elections, open government, fighting corruption, protecting the environment, sustainable smart development, open space preservation, protecting our schools and giving every citizen the right to be represented by elected officials not beholden to corrupt voting Blocs that subvert the best interests of the population for their own benefit. It has been on the ballot each year since its founding as an independent party. United Monroe rejected the candidacy of Karl Brabenec. They felt that anyone who would vote not to empower the monitor of the East Ramapo School District with the power to help those children was unworthy of support. They felt that anyone who would stagger up to a microphone and tell a packed house of over 1000 people that making a decision on the Annexation of Town of Monroe land into the power of the corrupt religious oligarchy that is the Village of Kyrias Joel “is hard”, is unworthy of support. They felt that his sponsored bills were incompetent and his “me too” attachment to bills written by effective legislators was pathetic. United Monroe endorsed one of its founding members, John Allegro to run for the seat. United Monroe passed petitions for John Allegro to run for office under its banner, obtaining almost 2200 signatures. The chairwoman of United Monroe arrived at the Board of Elections today to turn in the petitions only to find that Karl Brabanec had already submitted petitions stealing the United Monroe name for his own. It seems logical to assume that he and his minions went door to door getting signatures by obfuscating the name of their supposed party or by claiming to be the United Monroe endorsed candidate. He is a thief. He is attempting to steal the good name and the good will of United Monroe. He knows that he is certain to lose the Republican Primary against John Allegro unless he can confuse the electorate about who he is and who supports him. The candidate willing to do anything to win is unworthy of the office he seeks. Reject Brabanec and everything he stands for. Corruption. Confusion. Spinelessness. Incompetence.

Our State Assembly will be voting on SB 32, The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, in just a few days. This clear measure will extend the state’s targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through 2030. Matt Dababneh hasn't announced his position on this crucial legislation. He needs to know that we will be talking about this for a long time in terms of public health, California's clean energy economy, and the moral imperative to protect our children.