My name is Gary and I am starting this petition because I have seen too many of West Virginia’s children fall through the cracks. As a clinical social worker in a public school, I work with students and families who are struggling on a daily basis. In my school, like many West Virginia schools, I encounter students who live in households facing poverty, substance abuse and family breakdown. My students experience toxic stress and trauma that affect their mental and emotional health. When I try to connect my students and their families to community-based mental health services, I find that these services are not available or that my students’ families cannot access existing programs because of long waiting lists for appointments, unreliable transportation or inability to pay. We must do better. Because community-based mental health services are not available in most of West Virginia’s communities, state agencies often troublingly advise parents to file court petitions against their own children in order to get help.. As a result, desperate families seeking help from the court system oftentimes see their child removed from their home and institutionalized in a juvenile facility. A recent U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that West Virginia’s overreliance on institutions causes significant harm to children and their families. Although West Virginia invests very little in community-based mental health services, the state spends millions of tax dollars a year to operate hundreds of beds in private juvenile institutions. A year of residential treatment for one child costs our state as much as $120,000, money that could be used much more successfully in the child’s community to provide psychotherapy and counseling services, intensive outpatient services, crisis stabilization, school-based services, prevention and early intervention. By comparison, a child could see a psychotherapist 5 days a week in their own community for an entire year and it would cost $26,000, nearly $100,000 less than locking up a child in a facility. West Virginia should plan and develop a strong coordinated network of mental and behavioral health care services to reduce the number of children struggling with long-term mental illness. The state must create a comprehensive plan to ensure that those children who are coping with mental health conditions or behavioral disorders are identified early, and have a continuum of care to meet their needs. We need to ensure that families have the resources and support they need to help them navigate raising a child with mental health challenges. As a state, we are paying too much of our limited tax dollars on the back end of the problem. Unsurprisingly, we are experiencing poor outcomes as a result and wasting money on expensive and ineffective methods. Shifting services from institutions back into the community, closer to family, into the school, and earlier in the process would not only save money but will help young people successfully cope with mental health challenges. We must give schools the necessary resources and tools to ensure that children with mental health conditions are able to get a quality education, and ensure that courts utilize community-based alternatives rather than out-of-home placement for at-risk youth. This will have the ripple effect of making healthier and happier friends, classmates and neighbors. Please join me in signing this petition.

Never has it been more important for Anytime Fitness to compete with personal training. We believe that a personal training software vendor should have to compete to win franchisee business, not have a monopoly. Franchisees are at risk when a mandated personal training software vendor is not forced to innovate or compete with regards to pricing, technology, & customer service. We believe that that personal training software vendors must compete in order for Anytime Fitness to stay competitive.

Last week, the Vermont State Senate passed automatic voter registration with nearly unanimous support. This legislation would make Vermont fourth in the nation to enact such a law. Governor Shumlin needs to hear that you support automatic voter registration, and he should sign it into law. Automatic voter registration, H. 458, could add up to 50,000 voters to the rolls in the next four years. It would strengthen security of our voter database, increase accuracy, save taxpayer dollars, and protect the fundamental right of every eligible citizen to participate in our democracy. It works by allowing the DMV to use information they already collect – age, address and citizenship – to determine if a person is eligible to vote. If eligible, the citizen is added to the voter rolls unless they decline to be registered. Automatic voter registration is already seeing incredible success in Oregon, quadrupling registrations since it was enacted four months ago. We believe that our democracy works best when more people participate, and it's time for Vermont to join the wave of automatic voter registration.

Yes I personally have been affected by this. Geico went from charging me $241 for 6 months of liability to wanting $820 for 6 months because my credit is bad. My driving record is good and I have not been involved in any claims at any time through Geico or any other insurance company. Decent paying jobs are scarce and a lot of us cannot afford to pay these ridiculous premiums based off of nothing more than a credit score

We have a problem - we need a clean energy source to replace the dirty coal power plants that are closing in 2017. Thankfully there is a solution - there is enough offshore wind on our Atlantic coast to power all the homes in Massachusetts. Offshore Wind is a clean energy source that can - Reduce pollution - Increase energy security - Stabilize electric rates - Create thousands of new jobs across the state - Confront the urgent threat of climate change. While there are lots of offshore wind farms in Europe, there are none in the US yet. If we invest first then we will have an advantage in attracting offshore wind jobs. If we wait then New York State will jump on this opportunity and they will have the advantage. We need our state leaders to make sure that Massachusetts is first when it comes to offshore wind! For more information visit - http://www.offshorewindma.com/ http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Energy-and-Climate/Renewable-Energy/Offshore-Wind.aspx

The PennEast Pipeline Company is trying to build a massive pipeline through Hunterdon and Mercer counties that will pollute the water supply and scar preserved land. Pipelines put local communities at risk – and to add insult to injury, PennEast may get the power to take private property against land owners’ wills for this project. The good news is that there's massive opposition to the project. Local townships in the pipeline's path, residents across the state, and members of Congress have weighed in, and they’ve managed to delay PennEast's application for seven more months. If we can mobilize state lawmakers to speak up, we can keep the pressure on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and get the attention of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which needs to approve PennEast’s application too. Tell your state legislators to oppose the PennEast Pipeline and urge FERC and DEP to reject the application!

Southwest Airlines claims to operate on the principle of #SouthwestHeart, but when it comes to Muslim and Arab customers, it seems to be #SouthwestHeartless. On April 6th, the airline kicked 26 year old Khairuldeen Makhzoomi off a flight after a customer overheard him speaking Arabic on his phone. Makhzoomi was then subjected to an FBI interrogation—simply for making a phone call to his uncle. On April 13th, a Southwest flight attendant removed Hakima Abdulle, a woman of Somali descent wearing a hijab, from a flight after she tried to switch seats with fellow passengers. These recent cases are just part of a trend of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination by Southwest Airlines—last November, the airline delayed two men from boarding a flight after they had a conversation in Arabic together. That same week, a Southwest pilot removed several Arabic-speaking passengers from a plane after they tried to be seated together. People shouldn't be barred from air travel just for speaking Arabic, being Muslim, or wearing a hijab. It's clear that Southwest needs to make some changes in how it treats its customers. We're calling on them to publicly apologize for discrimination, review their policies, and implement anti-bias training for flight crews.

We took the issue of cybercrime head on in our Global Action Initiative project at Edgecombe Early College High School. Cybercrime is the criminal activity or a crime that involves the internet, computer system, or computer technology. In our world today, there are over 1.5 million victims of cybercrime daily. "To ensure your security online, sign this petition so that we can get our message to the Governor."

This petition is about Rape. I personal have not been affected by it, but I do know people who have been effected by it.

The union security officers protecting hundreds of thousands of fans and employees at Heinz Field lost their jobs with little notice when the Steelers organization fired their employer, U.S. Security and decided to go with a non-union security contractor. The 15 hardworking security officers were given less than a week’s notice and were left without a means to support themselves and their families. Bill Chernosky has been a security officer for 41 years and has been at the stadium for three years. He loved his job and knows Heinz Field inside and out. Now, he doesn’t know how he’ll take care of his car payment, mortgage, insurance, and other bills.

Governor Larry hogan is terrible on marijuana legalization.

I believe in democracy in its purest sense. I am registered as an Independent and should be allowed to vote in the Primary. I should not be required to change my registration just to be given my right to vote; it is un-American!