Gregg Abbott is disgracing Texas. He is a bigot. He is a moron. He needs to go.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of Shelby v. Holder, the Supreme Court decision which gutted core components of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. The Shelby case is devastating because for the last half century, the VRA has protected the right to vote for millions of Americans. Unless Congress updates the Voting Rights Act, the federal government will be powerless to stop racially discriminatory election procedures from going into effect. Congress has been unwilling to restore the critical protections of the VRA for two years -- however the need for voting rights protections has skyrocketed. In 2014, 21 states had new voting restrictions in place, followed by 17 states introducing 40 new voting restrictions in 2015. The 2016 election will be the first in 50 years where voters will not have the full protections of the VRA, which makes fixing the Voting Rights Act an urgent priority. The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 (VRAA), a bill just introduced in Congress by Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. John Lewis, will restore key voting rights protections. Most importantly, the VRAA will modernize the preclearance found in the original Voting Rights Act of 1965 and protect against voting changes that may be harmful or discriminatory. Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses alike have reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in full for decades, and there is no reason why we cannot all work together to restore the Voting Rights Act today.

Unfortunately, only 33% of construction equipment in Oregon meets the cleanest federal standards for diesel engines. Which means until our state passes regulations like California and Washington, the protection of the public from the most dangerous cancer causing air pollution, is in the hands of citizens and individual project managers. The World Health Organization says that exposure to diesel exhaust at ambient levels can cause cancer. Diesel is also known to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular disease; exacerbate asthma; and lead to low-weight and pre-term births. Oregon estimates that 460 deaths a year are attributed to diesel exhaust at an annual cost of $3.4 billion dollars. Off road engines, like construction equipment, account for nearly half of the 700 tons of diesel particulates emitted annually in the Portland Metro air shed. But the good news is there is a ready solution at hand. New technology reduces harmful emissions by over 90%. And across the country, municipalities and project leaders, like the executive director of environmental field compliance for Columbia University’s Manhattanville Development Group, are instituting Clean Diesel Contracting Policy to minimize the impact of construction on the daily life of the community and its workers. OHSU should commit first and foremost to not add to Oregon's diesel death toll by enacting a clean diesel contracting policy for the building of its new state of the art cancer center. We have the technology to prevent cancer before it starts. This saves lives and money. Oregon leaders who invested $200 million of public money, and all those 10,000 individuals who donated directly, should expect the project won't cause cancer in the workers that build it or in the community that surrounds it. When it comes to cancer, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So please sign the petition and urge OHSU to set an example by committing to cancer free contracting.

The SEC is one of the financial watchdogs that was too often asleep at the switch in the years leading up to the disaster of 2008-09. It needed an injection of backbone then, and, sadly, it still does. The President will be announcing new nominees soon. Please join us in urging the White House to steer clear of “revolving door” corporate and Wall Street insiders, and find nominees who will help the SEC become the tough and effective rule-writer and watchdog that we need.

Although the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of marriage equality, current Michigan laws offer LGBT people no protection from workplace discrimination. LGBT couples who get married in Michigan can still be fired without legal recourse. Tell the Michigan Legislature to act immediately to amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include workplace protections for the LGBT community.

Dear Rep Darren Jernigan: Please vote to discontinue issuing Tennessee license plates that display the Confederate battle flag. Today it is considered a symbol of hate to most Americans. It divides the people and it and other symbols of the Confederacy have no business being displayed on government issues in the 21st century. Time to move on! My name is Bernadette Killeen, I voted for you and I live in Hermitage. Thank you!

Pope Francis has bravely spoken the truth about climate change, and he deserves our strong support. However, he has yet to take a position against the Keystone XL pipeline, and our petition urges him to do so, which would be totally consistent with his encyclical.

The news is out - Chris Christie will announce his candidacy for President this coming Tuesday. But none of us are surprised. In reality, Chris Christie has been running for President for more than a year. In 2014, the Governor of New Jersey spent a total of 137 days out of the state, more than a third of the year. And the cost of his security detail to NJ taxpayers now well exceeds $1 million. New Jersey won't accept a Governor who refuses to make his job here at home a priority. And let's be real - running for President is no side-show. Chris Christie should resign the Governor's seat this Tuesday when he launches his official campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination. Christie simply cannot do his job as Governor while he's flying around the country running for President. And there's something else that is deeply disturbing about Chris Christie running for President while he's simultaneously charged with leading our state. Chris Christie is making urgent, critically important decisions that affect our state and our families based on what the conservative Republican primary voters in Iowa and South Carolina think and want. As long as our state is facing multiple crises - a lagging economy, billions in unfunded pension obligations, a depleted transportation trust fund with no money to repair crumbling bridges (to name a few) - we cannot accept a Governor who will not put New Jersey first. Will you add your voice to the chorus calling on Presidential Candidate Christie to resign? New Jersey deserves a Governor who puts the needs of New Jersey families first. Christie can't possibly run for President and continue on as Governor. He should resign this Tuesday

My husband can no longer be a member of the Boy Scouts of America because of one man's opinion of him. This includes being a Cub Scout Den Leader for our 7 year old son. Our son is beside himself about this bullying of his Dad. Mickey is a 31 year Scouter, an Eagle Scout, a merit badge counselor, worked at Scout summer camp for 12 years, and is a Cub Scout Den Leader. Please help us fight this injustice and bullying.

The next financial collapse is going to be dreadful. Knowledgeable people are talking of the collapse of $100 trillion. It is the MONETARY system of the world, not the financial system involving a few corporations, which will collapse. The modern, prevalent solution of letting the taxpayer come in and save the “too big to fail” corporations might not be available at the next meltdown. Sequestering the deposits of individuals and perhaps even corporations in banking institutions might not be sufficient for the creation of money to run apace with the growth of interest. General knowledge is gradually growing that charging interest on a loan sets up an impossible race between growth of real wealth and growth of financial wealth. No matter how much new money is ever created, it is never enough because interest -- especially in the form of compound interest -- grows inexorably at a faster rate. Money can never keep up. Interest always wins. But its victory is ephemeral. Bankruptcies result. Next time around, not even the Fed might have enough latitude to fill the gap.

I am starting this petition because I want to be healthy and natural. I want what goes into my body, as well as into the bodies of the people I live around and loved ones, to be foods that are COMPLETELY natural as well. I don't want this genetic corruption going into my body. Who asked we the people if we wanted this? Who made this known to our people through everyday news and media and radio? I want natural food for my people and myself!!

A few days ago a subcommittee in the House of Representatives approved a bill to underfund The Corporation for National and Community Service. If this legislation is approved by the Full Committee it will likely go to the floor of the House for a vote, from there to the Senate and then finally to the President. If this bill is actually passed into law then AmeriCorps NCCC will be completely underfunded and will cease to exist. So let's take a second and list some quantifiables from NCCC during the year 2014. -removed 1,179 acres of brush/undergrowth to prevent fires -helped to construct 281 houses with Habitat for Humanity -assisted over 17,000 homeless people -over 24,000 at-risk youth I can't even begin to explain how much of an impact NCCC has made when it comes to disaster recovery services. Two examples I can think of are Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. This is just a small portion of the impact that AmeriCorps has had in the past year. These numbers aren't even covering what Americorps State/National and Americorps VISTA has done. Not only does Americorps serve local and national communities but they also serve its members. They do this by building and developing leaders, guiding people on the right path and exposing individuals to life experiences and lessons that they may have never gotten if they hadn't joined. I have served two years with Americorps and I am about to serve a third year starting this august. Learning about this bill has made me upset beyond anything. Americorps has changed my life and helped mold me into the person I am today. All I ask is that you stand beside me and help prove to those in the House of Representatives that don't realize how much of an impact Americorps has made throughout the United States in the past twenty years.