House Bill 4052 would take power away from communities in order to protect corporate profits. Special interests shouldn't be allowed to overturn decisions they don't like made by local governments, but now they're trying to prevent local laws that reflect our values, like making our workplaces healthier and requiring community benefit agreements when taxpayer resources are used in development projects. Tell Gov. Snyder to veto HB 4052 and protect local progress today.

Americans should not have to pay their hard-earned tax dollars to wealthy multinational corporations to conduct business activity abroad. Eliminating the Ex-Im Bank has garnered public support from across the political spectrum, but the largest and most powerful multinational corporations and institutions, such as Boeing and the Chamber of Commerce, have continued to pressure Congress to uphold the subsidies and preserve the status quo. For lawmakers looking to eliminate waste and get our fiscal house in order, the Export-Import Bank should be at the top of the list. With the bank’s charter expiration date set for June 30th, Congress simply needs to do nothing. We need to make sure Congress makes the right choice to let the Export-Import Bank expire, and act in the public interest. (1) http://reut.rs/1umaXLf, http://1.usa.gov/1INucEl

Gary, Indiana is the only city on the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System in the United States & Canada without a public access fishing spot. The average resident of Gary lives below the poverty level and can only take a staycation in Lake County Indiana. In Lake County Indiana, there are approx. 95,318 people who live below the poverty level. There is too much despair and nothing to do or anywhere to go but to the casino that purchased our fishing piers and will not allow us to fish on them. https://medium.com/@silasgsconiers/no-equal-opportunity-to-fish-in-lake-michigan-in-gary-indiana-5bc727af3cd

My husband and I were hoping to move closer to Chicago in order to have better success in finding additional jobs as well as saving money on traveling. Over the past few months, rentals we have looked at either in the newspaper or online have skyrocketed. Tiny apartments, with few amenities and allowances for pets such as cats, are more than the rent we pay currently for a reasonably-sized home. This petition is for hard-working, fixed income persons and their families to rally the local and state government to force landlords to lower rents and cap the rents in consideration to those who rent and are not section 8 candidates.

I am starting this petition because we have 2 children affected by the disease of addiction. Once they are adults and not covered by our insurance any longer, it is next to impossible to get effective treatment for them. In essence, it is a death sentence.

Workers at the Lear Corporation plant in Selma, AL, make foam seat cushions for Hyundai. These workers—most of whom make $12.25 an hour or less—use dangerous chemicals, called isocyanates, which are known to cause asthma and related respiratory problems. There is evidence that one of the chemicals used in the plant, an isocyanate called TDI, may also cause cancer. Despite numerous efforts by workers to address these health and safety issues with plant management, workers and even the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) say there is still cause for concern. Hyundai has the power and the responsibility to require Lear to make the necessary investments to ensure good, safe, fair working conditions in Selma. Hyundai’s own corporate social responsibility policies acknowledge that its obligations extend to the companies in its supply chain.

Charities are desperate for the food that is used as landfill. I was encouraged by the French parliament's vote to ban destruction of unsold food products; the ban requires edible foods be donated to charity, or used as animal feed or farming compost. Let's be wise and stop dumping edible food.

I see widespread damage caused by vaccines, and want this damage to stop. The only way for it to stop is to hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable and hit them where it hurts--their bank accounts.

Paid sick days help keep families financially secure, workplaces and communities healthy and strong, and businesses and the economy productive. A study conducted by our very own University of Pittsburgh found that allowing all employees access to paid sick days would reduce influenza infections in the workplace. More than 20 other cites or states, including Philadelphia, have adopted paid sick day laws. It’s time to add Pittsburgh to the list!

The Philadelphia School District needs to close its budget gap. The City of Philadelphia's solution is to raise real estate taxes again on working men and women. Property owners of new homes should pay their fair share for our public schools.

Everyone deserves the same fair and equal treatment, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. "Open to the public" should mean open to everyone, fairly and equally. Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania it is still completely legal to be turned away from a business, fired from a job, or evicted from a home just for being gay or transgender. Polls show that 74% of voters in Pennsylvania agree that no one should be discriminated against for being gay or transgender, and voters agree that there should be a law to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Our state legislature has been considering an update to the nondiscrimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity for more than a decade. The time has come to update the nondiscrimination laws of the commonwealth. Sign our petition to the PA State Legislature and tell them to end legal discrimination against gay and transgender people now.

The EPA recently released its long-awaited study of fracking's impacts on drinking water. The oil and gas industry cheered the topline findings highlighted in the EPA's own press release that accompanied the study, which read: “Assessment shows hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources and identifies important vulnerabilities to drinking water resources.” The industry -- and the media -- ran with this statement and concluded that fracking is safe. This takeaway offered by the EPA was grossly misleading. The EPA's press release made a subtle but enormously consequential change to the actual findings of the study. What the study actually shows is that, at every turn, the effort of EPA scientists to quantify the extent of fracking's impacts on drinking water resources was thwarted by "data limitations and uncertainties." Despite those limitations and uncertainties — including some of the EPA's own making — the study still confirms what existing scientific data and countless personal experiences have already made clear: fracking does indeed contaminate drinking water resources in numerous ways. (for full assessment: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/how-the-release-of-the-epas-draft-assesment-on-drinking-water-impacts-was-spun/) Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy that it is her responsibility to correct this misleading statement in the press release and to instead emphasize the very troubling findings of her agency's report.