The language of the platform of both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions calls for a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, a law that supported a more level economic playing field and a six-decade rise of a more egalitarian financial system and strong middle class. Luckily, there is already a bill in Congress to do just that: The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act (S. 1709)! This bill is a modern version of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall that is sponsored by Senators Warren, Cantwell, King, McCain, Sanders, Baldwin, Whitehouse, Mikulski, Markey, and Merkley. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will help tackle “Too Big to Fail” by shrinking and simplifying the banking system, ensuring that the riskiest banking activities are no longer supported by the public safety net, and regulators can more easily oversee banks that are central to financial stability. Restoring Glass-Steagall wouldn’t just make our financial system safer, it would diminish the influence of big bank money in politics – by introducing more competition among investment banks and commercial banks. Stability in America depends upon a viable middle class. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act provided excellent protections for that class and the economy as a whole. Its reinstatement will go a long way to providing a powerful economic safety net that will more reliably limit ongoing risk to the strongest economy in the world.

In August 2013, Florida Rep. Alan Grayson was a vocal opponent of plans to bomb the Syrian government. Those plans were blocked by bipartisan Congressional opposition, invoking the power of Congress to authorize - or not authorize - the use of military force according to the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution. Instead, President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry negotiated a diplomatic agreement with Russia that avoided war. Now Alan Grayson is running for Senate. If elected to the Senate, Grayson would participate in confirmation hearings for the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State. Under current Senate rules, any Senator can place a hold on a nomination or attempt to lead a filibuster against it. That gives individual Senators tremendous leverage to insist on answers from Administration nominees, such as when Senator Rand Paul used the nomination of John Brennan to insist that the Administration clarify its claims concerning its authority to target U.S. citizens with drone strikes. Alan Grayson should publicly pledge that if elected to the Senate, he'll oppose confirmation of any national security nominee unless they affirm under oath that they will respect the Constitutional role of Congress in authorizing the use of force. Specifically, unless they pledge under oath that they will not support, advocate, or participate in any military action in Syria against Russian, Iranian, or Syrian government forces, unless that action is 1) in immediate self-defense against direct armed attack on U.S. forces or imminent threat of direct armed attack on U.S. forces or 2) such action has been explicitly authorized by the U.S. Congress. Lying to Congress under oath is a serious federal crime; people have been prosecuted for it in the past. Urge Representative Grayson to make this pledge to hold national security nominees accountable to the Constitution by signing our petition.

Dogs experience harsh living conditions in puppy mills causing deaths and illnesses to occur more and more every year. We need to put a stop to this, it violates the animal's rights. If you do not start taking action to stop these situations from happening more and more dogs will be forced to breed, continuing to die from illnesses and live unhappy lives.

More than five years ago, I filed a complaint with the Office of Attorney General against a person, at that time the owner of a mortgage company in Scottsdale, who scammed me and others for more than $200,000. The defendant's own former partner, who described Bill's business practices as a 'ponzi scam,' was scammed for $25,000. Bill ------'s marketing schemes have been described by an attorney as “the unlawful marketing and sale of an unregistered security.” The complaint was transferred to the Securities Division, Arizona Corporation Commission. In October 2015, I was advised that no action would be taken by the ACC, no reason for such a decision would be given to us, and a copy of the investigator's report would not be provided to us. The AZ Corporation Commission and Attorney General's Office find it quite OK for a man who wreaked havoc on the lives of others to go unpunished or to pay restitution and to be employed today as a mortgage loan officer. I want the Arizona Corporation Commission Director and the Commissioners to exercise their legal authority to provide me with a copy of the investigator's report. We have lost more than $200,000 to a scam artist, and the ACC refuses to tell us why they will take no action against the scam artist.

A person experiencing a mental health crisis presents some of the most intricate, dangerous, and unstable conditions that a police officer may encounter. Our mission is to help alleviate the problem by providing law enforcement personnel with information and training in how to safely and compassionately handle a person in a crisis. TN law enforcement can prevent errors in escalated interactions by training to defuse and deescalate moments of conflict.

In the latest demonstration that he has learned nothing from the Flint Water Crisis, Gov. Snyder appointed oil industry lobbyist Heidi Grether to head the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Grether has said publicly that her top priority is improving the department's public image - not environmental protection. Yet again, Snyder is more concerned with PR than protecting our air, water and public health. The Michigan Senate has the power to confirm or reject her nomination. Tell them to stand up for clean air, water and healthy communities today by refusing to confirm Gov. Snyder's MDEQ pick.

In the latest demonstration that he has learned nothing from the Flint Water Crisis, Gov. Snyder appointed oil industry lobbyist Heidi Grether to head the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The Michigan Senate has the power to confirm or reject her nomination. Tell them to stand up for clean air and water today by refusing to confirm Gov. Snyder's MDEQ pick.

Last year President Obama instructed the Department of Labor to update the overtime earning rules so that anyone making less than $47,000 a year would be eligible for overtime pay. Thousands of Americans spoke up to help make sure that the rule was passed. But now, Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR) is working to pass a bill that would delay this rule and stop millions of people from getting fully paid for the work they do. Congressman Schrader wants to delay the start of the new overtime law and get rid of the language that would automatically increase the threshold for who's eligible for overtime, which would leave working people behind because their wages won’t rise with inflation. This is one of the major reasons we needed to have this rule passed in the first place, but now Schrader wants to remove this important fix. Families are counting on this to make sure they can make ends meet. We have to speak up now to make sure that we protect this provision for the millions of women, men and children who stand to benefit from having more money in their pockets and more time with family.

As residents of this area we all have our rights to have more choices and should let other internet companies into this area to offer better service!

and more from the Post Star... Congdon often erupts in shouts and insults of other board members. He also interrupts them and leads the board into tangential arguments that generally last 30 minutes or more. “These fights are terrible,” board member Gina LeClair said. “Who wants to be represented by the yelling and screaming we have at our meetings? I don’t think people want to say, ‘Heck yeah, that’s my town!’” After months of such behavior, a line appeared to be crossed at Tuesday’s board meeting. Twice, Congdon and Kusnierz stood as they confronted each other, both seemingly ready to throw a punch. Other board members were openly critical of Congdon, telling him to calm down and saying he throws temper tantrums. Even the public seemed to feel that enough was enough. People in the audience repeatedly tried to derail arguments, first by coughing loudly and finally by shouting, “Stop!” Van Tassel said the supervisor’s problem is “ineffective communication.” “If we could better understand his position, we could probably work better with him,” Van Tassel said. But instead, Congdon skips meetings or doesn’t offer his input and then criticizes the decisions after the fact. He angrily denounced the board’s choice for building inspector but had skipped the meeting at which they made the decision. He also recently criticized the decision to clean the Sandbar Beach bathhouse for one last season rather than demolishing it. “That should have been aired before, not after the fact,” Van Tassel said. “Be involved early on. Don’t always be criticizing after the fact.” The four board members have now banded together and are working to do the work that was often previously done by the supervisor. They are doing research, meeting with employees, talking out ideas with attorneys and developing legislation. “We’re hoping to handle things Gardner doesn’t want to work with,” LeClair said. The process is slower, but it’s working. “We may not always agree, but we always come to a solution,” LeClair said. “It’s wonderful. It’s never been as smooth as it is now.” Van Tassel stressed that the board members will work with Congdon if he wants to work in a collaborative, non-combative way. “We’re going to just move forward and we hope that he’s part that,” Van Tassel said. “We are fully committed to do that with or without the supervisor.”

Echoing critiques made by Bernie Sanders and supporters of his presidential campaign, 14 progressive organizations are urging the Democratic Party to scrap the superdelegate system, which they say "undermines representative democracy." The groups, including Democracy for America, National Nurses United, The Other 98%, and Progressive Democrats of America, outline their concerns in a letter, which was obtained by Politico, to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the DNC Rules Committee, and the delegates to the Democratic National Convention. They're calling on the party to take action to get rid of the system that allows state party elites and elected officials to back the candidate of their choosing when the committee convenes in Philadelphia July 25-28. Read the whole article at Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/14/name-democracy-progressives-urge-dnc-ditch-superdelegates

The fact that This permit was denied is an outrageous attempt to silence democracy, from the very man who has woken the People to restore real democracy back where it belongs - to each & every one of us.