A 5 member BOS allows for a better representation of all of Nottingham's residents. It provides protection from a "super majority" of two pushing personal agendas. It prevents the frequent "conflict of interest" that occurs in a smaller town from being left in the hands of two people who could potentially be split on a decision and delay action. It protects from the same one or two persons being over represented on town subcommittees, allowing for more diverse opinions and knowledge. While the petition process only allows the question to be voted on, it is of *paramount* importance that supporters of this measure vote for this Warrant Article on the Special Ballot (March 8th), and attend the Town Meeting (March 12th) to make sure the measure is not defeated by a minority of opponents in that forum. We can only change our Town for the better by directly engaging and supporting measures like this that will benefit our Citizens in the years to come.

Hillary Clinton wants to be president of the United States. She has claimed she will be tough on Wall Street, yet she has accepted nearly $3 million in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms. When a reporter asked Mrs. Clinton if she would release the transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs, Mrs. Clinton laughed. This is no laughing matter. What does Wall Street expect from a president Hillary Clinton? What has Mrs. Clinton promised Wall Street? We should know. Demand Hillary Clinton release all the transcripts of her speeches to Wall Street.

All around us still remains evidence of past life, culture advances, and history, and this is not something we should blindly let erode away. It is part of us. Just like Register Cliff or the Oregon Trail Ruts, Natural Fort is a tribute to the struggles of the people here before us, their stories, and of events that unfolded to bring us to where we are today. Email me at [email protected] to read the full letter about Natural Fort.

The DeVos family has underwritten the Michigan Republican Party's disastrous cost-cutting policies in Flint. They should help foot the bill for Flint's ongoing public health emergency.

This petition is asking Hillary Clinton to make clear her stance on reparations for the descendants of slaves, and explain how her position on reparations compliments, or runs contrary to her receiving PAC money from the private prison-for-profit industry lobby.

The Massachusetts public records law is broken. Our freedom of information law hasn't been substantially updated since 1973 and has received an F grade multiple years in a row. Journalists, citizens, and all those with a need - and right - to know what their government is doing are too often unable to find out. We need reform to bring added sunshine to our state and help protect the public's right to know.

Before a single snow flake fell, D.C. officials announced that they wouldn't enforce the law requiring property owners to shovel sidewalks and keep them free of snow. But now that sidewalks have become dangerous and impassable, the police are threatening to ticket anyone who walks in the streets. Councilmember Jack Evans even wrote that "if you can't travel on sidewalks, then stay inside." It's absurd to force carless D.C. residents to choose between staying inside for weeks and risking their lives on icy sidewalks.

Manatees face significant threats of extinction, and have been dying in record numbers in recent years. Despite this, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed downgrading the manatee from “endangered” to merely “threatened,” leaving it vulnerable to capture and displacement. Of course, if this downgrade were because they were surviving, that would be good news. But this move is premature. The Center for Biological Diversity says that the threats “that landed it on the endangered species list persist today.” We simply can’t let the manatee die off. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently launched a 90-day comment period to hear from the public on this issue. Tell them to reverse their decision and keep the manatee on the endangered species list. Together, we can raise our voice and prevent this beautiful animal from going extinct. Sign the Petition: Keep the manatee on the endangered species list!

The disastrous, brutal, and failed war on drugs has been especially punishing for Latinos in the US and across Latin America. In Central and South America the drug war — fueled for decades by racist United States policy — has led to misery, corruption and widespread violence. In the United States it has led to the criminalization and incarceration of generations of people, mostly for low-level and nonviolent drug crimes; and discriminatory enforcement that sees poor neighborhoods and communities of color more heavily targeted by police despite their using drugs at lower rates than their wealthier and/or white counterparts. This April, world leaders will gather at the United Nations to debate drug policy for the first time in nearly 20 years at an international convening known as UNGASS 2016. The stakes of this meeting are high — the outcomes could further entrench the world in the failed policies of the past, or they could signal the beginning of the end of the war on drugs. President Obama is still very influential internationally. If he were to speak out in favor of common sense drug policy, his voice could help to ensure a strong outcome. That's why we're asking him to address the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs and call for global drug policies focused on public health and human rights, not punishment and criminalization.

We need real reform and these three steps will drastically change the economic future of past and current students and of our country. It allows past and current students a way to pay the debts and halts the fraud of the department of education which has blocked our access to the free market. The system would regain checks and balance to stop the fraud of our educational loan system.

We are requesting that our elementary schools provide students with at least fifteen to twenty additional minutes of additional unstructured, outdoor playtime each day. Teachers should be included and supported in figuring out how best to implement the recommendations, in order to best support the needs of their students. We support the teachers’ request for less testing and more learning, and we envision that adding recess will fit into those efforts. There has been a marked increase in the past few years of the intensity of children’s emotional needs within our district. This increase has coincided with a push to increase students’ time spent on classroom instruction and on standardized assessments. Increasing instructional time and assessment time have not made a dent in the achievement gap. Meanwhile, research has shown that increasing recess time improves students’ ability to focus on academic tasks, while reducing behavioral issues in the classroom. Children with special needs and children of color receive a much higher proportion of disciplinary action within our district. Providing more recess would be providing a more equitable system.

Because I am 83 years old, I sometimes think about unpleasant possibilities for my last years. I know many contemporaries in the same position.