Connecticut’s Citizens Election Program has increased participation, diversified the donor pool, helped more candidates of color run for office, and led to policy outcomes more responsive to the needs of the general public than the elite donor class. In bipartisan interviews with public officials, Demos has shown the state’s public financing has helped Connecticut—in policy, representation, and process. Once candidates were no longer exclusively dependent on wealthy donors and businesses, the influence of lobbyists decreased, and elected representatives became more responsive to the public will and passed popular programs such as guaranteeing paid sick leave to workers and raising the minimum wage. And participation in the Citizens’ Election program is extremely high. The 2012, 77 percent of elected legislators participated in the voluntary program and all current statewide offices are held by public financing participants. That’s why this really makes no sense. Let the Connecticut legislature know this is unacceptable.

I am a Lebanese American who fled the civil war in Lebanon 30 years ago, but I was fortunate that my dad could pay our plane tickets and provide us with a home here. It aches my heart to see the drownings happening in the Mediterranean while there are ships around !!

Walker does not exemplify the "Wisconsin spirit!"

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Nearly every school-age child in America has been taught these words and what they stand for. We are told glorious stories of escape from religious persecution and intolerance. We are shown images of those who have traveled long and arduous roads to reach our shores. We are taught these words and we should stand behind them. Let us demonstrate to the world that we not only know these words, but that we believe in them. Let us lead the world not in defense spending but in humanitarian effort. And let us prove to the rest of the world that we are indeed a part of it.

I am tired of listening to people talk about issues without having any basic understanding of the issue, of history, of facts or reality.

New Jersey could face a water crisis similar to California if the Christie administration doesn’t act now. Counties across the state are rationing water, and water supplies in parts of Cape May and Cumberland counties are contaminated with salt water. Groundwater supplies are being depleted across the state. New Jersey’s population is growing, and we’ll need more drinking water in years to come. Yet the policies that ensure we have the water we need haven’t been updated in nearly two decades. It’s unacceptable that the state has not taken action to ensure clean drinking water for everyone. Governor Christie must release the state Water Supply Master Plan now. Without this plan, New Jersey can’t address our aging water infrastructure and plan for the demands that are being placed on our precious water. Add your name to tell Governor Christie to prevent a water crisis similar to what’s happening in California, and approve a new Water Supply Master Plan.

This petition is about what it's like to be America. We are a beacon of freedom and prosperity, and allowing fear and politics to drive our decisions is completely against our values.

DCS has destroyed and torn apart not just my family but several others. They place children, but with people who haven't even really changed and go right back to doing the same thing. I've seen them give kids back in just a few short months and close the case soon after and something starts all over again. The parents who want their children can't seem to get them back. The department lies and makes false promises to parents. They don't try to help families or care how it is affecting everyone as a whole. Myself personally have dealt and are still dealing with them and the department along with the therapist who sees my older children and has them convinced that I don't want them or love them. I have my youngest daughter, whom the department failed to inform the court of when my rights where terminated, and failed to inform the court that I owned my place. And, my attorney was no help. When I filed my appeal, I was told I could continue seeing my children with no change. As of October, they took my visits away and informed me they were moving forward with adoption and to treat my case as if there was no appeal in place. They had set up a goodbye visit without asking if I was available, and when I wanted to change the date because I had to work, the therapist told the caseworker that I didn't want to see my children, so now they are denying me a goodbye visit. They won't answer any of my questions. Now they are doing the same thing to a friend of mine; they told her to clean her house and then her children can come home. Her home is clean and they are not letting them come home. I love my children and want them home. Something needs to be done about DCS. I've never hurt my children or neglected them. They always had clothes, food, beds, and have never been abused. There are people who are starving their children and beating their children and nothing happens to them until it's too late. My children went to private schools and were active in their school. Please sign this petition to put a stop to DCS and have something done. Thanks

My local congregation of friends are discussing sponsoring a Syrian family and we want the world to know that the governor of Florida nor the right wing state legislature do not represent the caring people in this state and other states who are not willing to turn our backs to the families horrendously displaced by the militarization of the world wreaking total destruction of everything good and decent or humane. We will step up to act humanely and not stick our heads in the sand. Let it be known that we have done this before when thousands of refugees fled Vietnam. Many thousands ended up in Florida on Eglin Airforce reservation and the people of Florida took them in. Thank you for caring, Johnnie Bohannon

According to New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, "People are dying nearly every day in New Hampshire from the heroin and opioid epidemic, and we all need to work together on a comprehensive approach to strengthen our efforts to combat this crisis and save lives." Yet, there is currently a 5 month waiting period in the state of New Hampshire for anyone struggling with chemical dependency to access inpatient chemical dependency treatment and detox due to insufficient resources in our state. Many heroin addicts will not survive the 5 month wait to access inpatient treatment. Given the severity of a heroin addiction and the agonizingly painful process of detox, many heroin addicts cannot successfully complete the detox and treatment process through outpatient treatment alone. Multiple research studies demonstrate that investing in treatment programs for chemical dependency is a much more effective strategy to both keep communities safe and reduce the overall cost to taxpayers than incarcerating people for drug related crimes.

Currently, high schools in Okaloosa County start at exactly 7 o' clock in the morning. These start times are harmful for our teens, in regards to their mental health, grades, and their safety. Furthermore, early school start times are linked to increased drug use, sleep deprivation, depression, and other health problems related to lack of sleep. Many organizations, such as Start School Later, say that starting high school classes later would reduce tardiness to the first two periods of classes, improve student's grades and test scores, decrease drug use, reduction in car crashes among teens, and improvement in student's attentiveness. A few years ago, in neighboring Santa Rosa County, the starting time for high schools was moved to 9:15am as part of a new three-tiered busing system to save money on busing students to school. After this change, school attendance and grades improved and there were fewer tardies in first period. Another school district which changed their start time from 7:45am to between 8:55am and 9:10am saw their graduation rate jump from around 82% up to 90%.We support the three-tiered system, as it's the most cost-effective way of busing students to school. To keep elementary school parents happy with current elementary start times and to provide middle and high school students more time to get the sleep they need, we propose that these changes be considered: One option is to move the entire district 30 minutes later, so that means that the high school would begin at 7:30am. But Florosa and Longwood elementary schools would start at 9:30am, and in Seattle parents complained about these late elementary start times, and wanted them to start earlier, like 8am. Also not all schools are at the 7:45am minimum start time we request for all schools. Another option is to move all middle schools to the third tier, with elementary schools now starting directly after the high school tier. Start times would be 7:55am for the high schools, 8:30-8:35am for the elementary schools, and 9:25am for middle schools. Baker School would be on the 2nd or third tier (due to large busing area and one bus run that runs for up to 100 minutes long), and Laurel Hill on 2nd tier. There are many counties (with both early and later high school start times) in Florida that have middle schools on the third tier, such as Pinellas County, Bay County, Escambia County, and Leon County, among others, with middle school starts as late at 9:30am. In general, we request that the School Board and Superintendent come up with a later start times plan that meets these guidelines: - No bus stops, regardless of elementary, middle, or high school bus before 7am. - No school should start before 7:45am, and preferably not before 8am. - Middle and high schools must start at 8:30am or later, as per the CDC and AAP recommendations. - No schools should start after 9:30am, so afternoon bus runs are not after sunset. - Use the bus optimization software purchased in 2014 to optimize and shorten bus runs to allow the bus window to be shortened, saving money. - Finally, please implement later start times in August 2017, because doing nothing is to do harm. Please make the change now to help our middle and high school students get the recommended amount of sleep each night.

We are enraged with ISIS for killing people who do not agree with their extreme Islamic beliefs. Yet about two weeks ago, Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, and Mike Huckabee attended and spoke at the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. At that conference Kevin Swanson spoke at length about the Bible saying we can kill people for being homosexual. This is not an acceptable stance for someone who wants to be President of the United States.