I am starting this petition for Oregon because the Democratic Party elites and the political establishment should not have a veto over the will of the voters.

EnergizeRI and our carbon pricing proposal have recently come under attack from the Heartland Institute. We are taking this opportunity to reach out, set the record straight and shed some light on the work and reputation of this group as you consider their comments on carbon pricing legislation here in Rhode Island. The non-profit Heartland Institute claims it was created to "discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems." However, upon review of the organization's body of work, it is clear they operate on a platform of climate change denial. In fact, the organization is well known as one of the nation's leading climate change deniers. They are a think tank funded by groups such as the Koch Brothers, Big Tobacco, and Exxon Mobile. The only thing that Heartland seems to promote is misinformation. This is the same group that included scientists on a list of "climate deniers" even after they claimed they were being misrepresented and asked to be removed. This is the same group that to this day denies the link between secondhand smoke and cancer, claiming "smoking in moderation has few, if any, adverse health effects." Heartland's interest is clearly not in "finding and promoting ideas that empower people" as they claim but instead to allow their funders to manipulate credible sources and scientific facts. They manipulate the public to their own benefit and operate without repercussions. To be very clear, we here at EnergizeRI are proud to have a group like the Heartland Institute as critics. We are even prouder to share that distinction with people like Pope Francis and President Obama. There are legitimate debates to be had about the best way to address climate change, but pretending it isn't happening or that we are powerless to stop it helps no one. We are already seeing the effects of climate change here in our state. No Rhode Islander will deny the damage that was caused by Hurricane Sandy in Westerly and Charlestown. No one can deny the damage caused by the microbursts in Cranston or the severe flooding witnessed in Warwick. All over the state Rhode Islanders are dealing with the damage caused by climate change and leading climate scientists believe it will only get worse. Climate change denial is no longer part of the national conversation and it should not be part of the policy debate here in Rhode Island. As President Obama himself said, "if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it, you'll be pretty lonely because you'll be debating our military, most of America's business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it." All studies completed on our proposal to this point have shown that Carbon Pricing would create, not reduce jobs. The EnergizeRI Act is projected to add about 2,000 new jobs in the first few years alone and about 4,000 in total. The reasons for this are fairly simple. Rather than sending money that Rhode Islanders spend on fossil fuels each year to Texas or Saudi Arabia, the act redirects those funds into our own local economy. The act uses those funds to make investments in solar and wind as well as weatherization and other energy efficiency measures. The act makes investments into the fastest growing sector of our state’s economy: clean energy. Finally, carbon pricing is recognized worldwide as one of the most effective emissions reductions tools. Seventy-four countries, 23 subnational jurisdictions, and more than 1,000 companies and investors expressed support for a price on carbon ahead of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit. Locally, the REMI study estimates that carbon pricing, as proposed in the EnergizeRI Act, would get us halfway to the Resilient RI goals all on its own. Sign this Petition and tell our government that groups like Heartland have no place in conversations about our future.

To save my local region from economic disaster. And relieve congestion with general purpose lanes. And to keep airspace above the Interstate in the control of NC, not foreigners.

Superdelegates skew election results away from the will of the People. I believe this is undemocratic.

We fully support MV@play and their proposal. We understand that the High-grade synthetic Turf with organic infill is the Best option for safe and durable playing fields.

Water quality is crucial to all life on Earth. Amendment 1 and HB 937 would take away the voice of the people to help protect MO water.

The White House announced today that President Obama will be the first sitting US President to visit Hiroshima - a historic event, and one that will strengthen our all-important relationship with Japan. I am a member of the filmmaking team of Paper Lanterns, a documentary by Barry Frechette, which tells the stories of the 12 Americans who died in Hiroshima, and the man who was responsible for getting their names into the Hiroshima Peace Museum. For 40 years, these brave American soldiers were neglected and forgotten, but thanks to the perseverance of A-bomb survivor, Shigeaki Mori, they are now immortalized in a small memorial at the site of the Hiroshima Military Police Headquarters. The 12 Americans, and Mr. Mori, are deserving of Presidential recognition, which will take President Obama a mere 15 minutes or less, as part of his visit to Hiroshima.

Senator Lindsey Graham has stated that he will not support Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, and has had harsh words about Trump's fitness for the presidency. Yet by being part of the Republican blockade of President Obama's nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, Sen. Graham is gambling that a "President Trump" will get to pick the next justice. Donald Trump cannot be allowed to get his hands on the Supreme Court. We ask that Senator Graham reconsider his stance and call for a timely hearing and up-or-down vote for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.

On April 21, 2016, CBS's new show, “The Odd Couple” aired an episode containing a scene that was offensive, inappropriate and a direct insult to the victims and survivors of the Bosnian war, and in particular, the Srebrenica Genocide. In the aforementioned scene, a male character, played by actor Thomas Lennon, asks a female character, played by actress Lindsay Sloane, out to the “new Serbian restaurant called A Taste of Srebrenica” and in the same breath makes a sexual innuendo about the “meat sticks” of that restaurant. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, it has faced some of the greatest challenges seen in Europe since World War II. The war of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina left over 100,000 dead, over 2 million displaced and according to the United Nations (UN), between 20,000 – 50,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) women and girls victims of sexual violence. On April 16, 1993, the United Nations Security Council declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in Resolution 819, placing the Bosnian town of Srebrenica under the protection of the UN. However, on July 11, 1995, over 8,372 innocent Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were systematically separated from their mothers, sisters, grandmothers and slaughtered by Serb forces within a five day period - the youngest victim being a newborn baby who in 2013, was buried next to her father, also a victim of the genocide. Srebrenica marked the final act of brutal genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While the Srebrenica Genocide continues to be denied by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb leadership as well as neighboring Serbia, it is important to note that in 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a UN court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990's, was the first international criminal tribunal to enter a conviction for genocide in Europe when it ruled that the Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide against Srebrenica’s non-Serb population. Moreover, in March of 2016, the ICTY ruled that Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb wartime leader committed genocide in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica against its non-Serb population. Further, the United States Congress unanimously adopted H. Res. 199 which was introduced by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and S. Res. 134, introduced by then Senator and now Vice President, Joseph Biden which states that "the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 and 1995 meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, created in Paris on December 9, 1948, and entered into force on January 12, 1951." Despite the fact that it has been twenty years since the genocide occurred, widespread genocide denial and the revision of history continues to threaten peace, progress and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. On July 11th of each year, the surviving family members of the Srebrenica Genocide along with supporters from the local and international community gather in Srebrenica for a burial ceremony. Last year, 136 newly identified victims were laid to rest but countless remain missing, their body parts hidden in mass graves as their surviving family members painstakingly wait for their bones to be discovered so they can give them a proper burial. According to the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP), which deals with DNA identification, there are approximately 1,200 people left to find. According to the numerous associations within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as multiple research and studies done, it is estimated that the PTSD rates in Srebrenica survivors are at 70% (Hasanovic, 2012) and that PTSD is prevalent in a minimum of 50% of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, although some studies estimate that number is as high as 70%. Given the above facts, it is incomprehensible that CBS would attempt to make the Srebrenica Genocide into a joke. Today, there are over 250,000 Bosnian Americans living in the United States as a result of the war and genocide that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992-1995 and CBS's insensitive joke dehumanizes genocide survivors and minimizes the pain they have experienced. We demand a public apology from the CBS television network itself and request an apology from the show’s writers. We ask that the person who wrote this inappropriate joke be immediately dismissed as Srebrenica is a painful topic for all Bosnians and we deserve more than to let the crime of genocide, where innocent people are still searching for the bones of their loved ones be the butt of a TV joke. I, alongside the hundreds of thousands of genocide survivors, demand a public apology issued on all of CBS's social media platforms. As an act of good faith, we demand that CBS and their TV show “The Odd Couple” donate to the "Movement of Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves", a non-profit organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina that works with survivors and family members of the victims, who have disappeared or been killed in Srebrenica and Zepa during the fall of UN "Safe Haven" in 1995.

Maine Democrats have voted to require that, beginning in 2020, the state’s total delegate votes at the national convention must be awarded proportionately to the results of the state’s presidential caucus or primary. The proposal would urge but not require this year’s superdelegates to honor the outcome of the Democratic caucuses in March. Finally, it calls on the national party to eliminate the superdelegate system altogether. [1] Urge Illinois Democratic Party leaders on the State Central Committee [2] to follow Maine's lead by signing our petition. 1. http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/07/maine-democrats-vote-to-change-superdelegate-system/ 2. http://ildems.com/illinois-democrats/state-central-committee

Human Rights Watch has reported that Israeli security forces are abusing Palestinian children detained in the West Bank. "Israeli security forces are using unnecessary force in arresting and detaining children, in some cases beating them, and holding them in unsafe and abusive conditions," HRW said. [1] Minnesota Democratic Representative Betty McCollum is now circulating a letter to President Obama, urging him to appoint a Special Envoy for Palestinian Youth to travel to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel to hear directly from Palestinian youth, human rights and legal experts, NGOs, and Palestinian and Israeli officials, including police and military leaders, about the conditions of children in military detention and what steps can be taken to guarantee the internationally-recognized human rights of these children. [2] Urge your Representative to support Rep. McCollum's letter by signing our petition. References: 1. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/11/palestine-israeli-police-abusing-detained-children 2. http://fcnl.org/issues/middle_east/standing_up_for_human_rights_in_palestine/ For more information on the "No Way to Treat a Child" campaign, see: http://www.nowaytotreatachild.org/

The question of whether we allow or do not allow an outside developer to come to the city exclusively for the purpose of establishing local gambling is an issue that should not be made by the city council alone.