Donald Trump's racism and bigotry is being welcomed with open arms by Florida Republicans. Right now, Republican legislators are trying to enact two pieces of legislation inspired by Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric - further spreading fear and xenophobia across Florida. Both of these proposals are nothing more than attacks on immigrant families, and would place undue burden on local governments, school districts, and law enforcement across the state of Florida. One of the proposals, sponsored by Republican Representative Carlos Trujillo of Miami, would charge immigrants with a third-degree felony if they violate a deportation order. The second proposal, sponsored by Republican Representative Larry Metz of Yalaha, would fine local government, law enforcement and school personnel who do not report undocumented immigrants. I am sick and tired of politicians attacking immigrant communities! Neither of these bills seek to find a common sense solution to address our nation’s broken immigration system, and would only undermine the trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement. An editorial from the Tampa Bay Times recently called these proposals “burdensome” and told the Florida Legislature that immigration policy “should be addressed by Washington,” not Tallahasse. Florida politicians should not get a free pass as they attack immigrant communities. Please join me and tell Florida Legislators to reject anti-immigrant legislation inspired by Donald Trump.

I was born and raised in Wisconsin, which does not have a death penalty, and followed arguments in favor and against for many years now. It has never been shown to have a deterrent effect, only to provide revenge, which does nothing for elevating the citizenry. As the state senate has passed the repeal and the governor has agreed to support, we only need the Delaware House to approve the repeal so that Delaware can stand with the other states which have eliminated this barbaric act.

State Rep. Joe Salazar, a Democrat from Thornton, said, "Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day is a small part in restoring just a little bit of our humanity and honoring people who still exist today despite past attempts to wipe them off the planet."

Charter Communications has a dangerous plan to merge with Time Warner Cable, consolidating the two companies into a massive cable and Internet conglomerate. The proposed deal would further reduce competition and choices for consumers — likely leading to higher prices, less diversity, and poorer service. The cable industry already has a horrible record of diversity in ownership and programming, and this deal would make things even worse. If approved, the new monster corporation, “New Charter” would also increase the threat to the open Internet, which has created so many new opportunities for Latinos to organize our communities, create our own media, and start our own businesses.

As an Iranian-American, I will be affected in this new law. As a lawful citizen of United States who has established my life in the USA I find this law very offensive and unjust.

These beautiful trees are part of a symmetrical planting that greatly beautifies the neighborhood. Our tax dollars should not be wasted on cutting down or moving healthy, beautiful trees and then re-planting new ones! An appeal of the tree removal will be heard at Miami City Hall in Coconut Grove on Thursday, January 28, 2016, exact time unknown but certainly after 3 pm; it is agenda item number 19.

block stomp for trump! Vote people!

The New York Times reported that Jake Sullivan, a Clinton campaign senior policy adviser, has attacked Bernie Sanders for supporting efforts to establish normal diplomatic relations with Iran. "'Normal relations with Iran right now?' Mr. Sullivan says. 'President Obama doesn’t support the idea. Secretary Clinton doesn’t support that idea. And it’s not at all clear why it is that Senator Sanders is suggesting it.'" [1] The New York Times merely has to compare Sullivan's statements with the debate transcript to show how misleading Jake Sullivan's attack was. Sanders was responding to a question which cited President Obama saying that the U.S. should re-establish normal diplomatic relations with Iran; and while Sanders agreed with President Obama that the U.S. should work towards normal diplomatic relations with Iran, he did not say that the U.S. should do so "right now." Here is the debate transcript, according to the Washington Post: [2] MITCHELL: Senator Sanders … The president said today, "it's a good day. It's a good day for diplomacy. It's a time now to restore diplomatic relations for the first time since 1979 and actually re-opened a U.S. Embassy in Tehran." SANDERS: I think what we've got to do is move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran. Understanding that Iran's behavior in so many ways is something that we disagree with; their support [of] terrorism, the anti-American rhetoric that we're hearing from of their leadership is something that is not acceptable. On the other hand, the fact that we've managed to reach an agreement, something that I've very strongly supported that prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and we did that without going to war. And that I believe we're seeing a fall in our relationships with Iran is a very positive step. So if your question is, do I want to see that relationship become more positive in the future? Yes. Can I tell that we should open an embassy in Tehran tomorrow? No, I don't think we should. But I think the goal has go to be as we've done with Cuba, to move in warm relations with a very powerful and important country in this world. "Normal diplomatic relations" and "opening an embassy" are the same thing. That's what "normal diplomatic relations" means. It doesn't mean you're best buddies. It means you have embassies and ambassadors. It's like saying hi to your neighbor when you pass them in the street. You're not necessarily best buddies; you have normal relations. You're on regular speaking terms. That's what we have with Cuba now: embassies and ambassadors. Urge the New York Times to correct the record on normal diplomatic relations with Iran by signing our petition. References: 1. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/21/hillary-clinton-knocks-bernie-sanders-on-foreign-policy-experience/ 2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/17/the-4th-democratic-debate-transcript-annotated-who-said-what-and-what-it-meant/

Netflix is planning on taking the popular BBC series off beginning February 1st, 2016. With this petition, I am demanding that Netflix keep the intelligent and creative show for us to binge watch at our leisure.

I started this petition not because of my own interests, but because of those around me who are directly impacted by the ongoing budget crisis that Rauner has perpetuated. The state can't pay it's bills. Tax refunds won't process until March (if they actually do process) which negatively impacts the people who count on those refunds to help pay bills. We voted for the right to recall our Governor and it a think it is high time we exercised that right. Here are the details of the vote below. The Illinois Governor Recall Amendment, also known as House Joint Constitutional Amendment 31, was on the November 2, 2010 ballot in Illinois as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment where it was approved. The proposal allowed voters to recall the governor and required that at least 20 state representatives and 10 state senators, equally balanced from each party in each chamber, sign a notice of intent to recall the governor before a petition can begin to be circulated. So contact your state Senator and state Representative and ask them to create and sign the required notice of intent to recall the governor. I don't want to wait an additional three years to see what kind of mess our state is in should Rauner serve out his term.

For months, a gas leak at SoCalGas’s Aliso Canyon storage facility has been spewing 1,200 TONS of methane gas into the air in Los Angeles’ Porter Ranch neighborhood every day. The gas leak is emitting as much global-warming pollution as six coal-burning power plants and seven million cars.(1) Local residents are suffering from nosebleeds, migraines, and dizziness.(2) Pet dogs, cats, and fish are dropping dead.(3) Now so much gas has leaked that the authorities are warning that one small spark could cause a massive explosion.(4) And SoCalGas just got caught lying to the public about the amount of cancer-causing benzene that's leaking into the environment.(5) This is being called the worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill, yet SoCalGas just abandoned their plans to stop the leak, and local officials are still scrambling to figure out what to do.(6) Our national authorities must step in now before it’s too late! 1. http://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/14/world/gas-leak-0 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/us/california-governor-declares-emergency-over-los-angeles-gas-leak.html?_r=0 3. http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20160116/pet-deaths-illnesses-evoke-concern-amid-porter-ranch-gas-leak 4. http://www.readingeagle.com/ap/article/explosion-risk-stalls-plan-to-capture-and-burn-gas-from-porter-ranch-leak 5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/15/an-oversight-calif-utility-understated-levels-of-cancer-causing-chemical-in-l-a-gas-leak/ 6. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-porter-ranch-leak-stopped-late-february-20160118-story.html

In the 2008 presidential primary, 18 debates were held before the Iowa caucus, the 2016 primary season only allows for 4 debates. Debating is a critical aspect of the democratic processes. Sanders, Clinton, and O’Malley have all called for more debates. The petition by Robert Reich calls for more debates and has nearly 120,000 signatures: http://act.democracyforamerica.com/sign/DNCdebates Debbie Wasserman Schultz has claimed that the reason more debates cannot be held is because the three candidates Sanders, Clinton, and O’Malley have very busy schedules. Despite their busy schedules, they have agreed to a Town Hall on January 25. http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-omalley-town-hall/ However, Town Halls have much lower viewership and contrived structures difficult for viewers to appreciate. In Town Hall settings, candidates are not allowed to respond to the accusations of their opponents. However, a debate allows for such lies to be called out for what they are. As a debate is no more demanding on candidate schedules than that of a town hall, we urge the DNC to declare January 25th a debate!