Without a 2nd petition, the RAR leadership will not permit these items be added to the meeting agenda for discussion. This request to add these items to the RAR member meeting is pursuant to the RAR Bylaws Article 12, Section 3.

The State Legislature has opted to not honor state employee contracts resulting in layoff notices to some 10,000 employees. The Legislature is citing a budget deficit of $3 billion dollars, but that isn't the real reason. Alaska has a rainy day fund of over $10 billion to deal with budget shortfalls like this. These layoffs mean state government departments would curtail or eliminate vital services should the Alaska Legislature's budget impasse continue resulting in a partial government shutdown occur on July 1. Here are just a few services that will be affected: Department of Transportation: A dozen state airports would operate at reduced hours. Department of Administration: Oversight of elected officials and lobbyists would stop; labor contract bargaining would cease; and hundreds of state leases will not be paid in full. Department of Military and Veteran Affairs: All Office of Veterans Affairs staff members would be laid off. All Alaska Military Youth Academy staffers would be laid off after August. Only three staff members would stay on at the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development: service reductions and cuts would impact rural utility assistance. Department of Education: State general funds for early learning will be reduced by $5.7 million, potentially closing Head Start programs. Department of Labor: All staff members would be laid off at the Alaska Labor Relations Agency, Wage and Hour Administration, and the Alaska Workforce Investment Board.

It's time for the characters in the hit musical Game of Thrones to finally start singing.

Hydraulic Fracturing is hazardous to the health of the Kansas community. It can destroy the water table with carcinogenic chemicals that cannot be removed affecting the entire population. Farmland could become toxic because of fracking and have a huge negative impact on the Kansas economy. The recent earthquakes are caused by hydraulic fracturing and can destroy our homes and endanger lives. It is urgent that fracking ends in Kansas. Several states in the US have fought and won against the oil and natural gas companies who are endangering our well being and public safety. It's time to End Fracking in Kansas!

Ohio charter schools have cost taxpayers and local schools millions and have only resulted in substandard results for our children. Even charter school supporters have recognized that reform is needed to protect our students from a poor education and our tax dollars from misuse. Nearly every major newspaper throughout Ohio has called for reform: • “The state legislature must eliminate the poor oversight and lax rules for Ohio’s troubled charter schools.” – Plain Dealer, Jan. 2, 2015 • “Lawmakers have solid evidence that current charter-school law is broken, and credible suggestions for how to fix it.” – Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 22, 2014 • “In too many cases, charter schools in low-income communities perform worse than traditional public schools that serve the same neighborhoods and promote themselves deceptively to parents.” – Toledo Blade, Dec. 29, 2014 • “Currently, the management companies often have the upper hand, to the detriment of effective oversight.” – Akron Beacon Journal, Dec. 23, 2014

Neonicotinoid pesticides have been positively linked to Colony Collapse Disorder in bees and adversely affect the health of many other beneficial insects. Most of the plants in Lowe's garden centers have been treated with these dangerous chemicals. Customers do not have a reliable way to determine which plants are harmful to bees. If these treated plants were labelled, people could make informed decisions about what to plant in their landscape.

Every American alive today has seen the state of endangerment that many species are in today. In Alaska, the Polar Bear. In Florida, the Condor. I do not want to live to see a vital animal in Michigan be hunted for sport in the state of Michigan.

This 62 year old tar sands pipeline is a serious threat to the Great Lakes. It has poor maintenance and is operated by Enbridge, known to have repeated pipeline leaks in their system and owners of the line that devastated the Kalamazoo River. A leak from this line, already known to have pinhole leaks, will be an environmental and economic catastrophe in the Great lakes.

The Michigan State House just passed House Bill 4052, which would take power away from communities in order to protect corporate profits. Now it's coming up for a vote in the State Senate. 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 your senator, committee members, and sponsor Rep. Poleski to protect local progress today.

I accepted responsibility of a neighbor who has no family. She entered a nursing home as a full time resident in January. She has long term healthcare insurance which covers a majority of the expense but not all of it. When they sent me a bill for the uncovered balance there was a separate 6% tax assessment. I was amazed that such a tax was passed back in 2002. I believe this is a way charging the tax payers twice. Our tax dollars are being used to pay for people with no assets and then the state is charging the county another tax of 6%. With the growing number of people living longer this is going to be a windfall for the state to put money back into the general fund to be used as they please.

Because I have over 3,500 Facebook friends, I am often added to several groups a day. It takes time that I could be using in other ways to remove myself. A couple of the groups have endorsed beliefs that I do not share or endorse. I want the freedom to choose which groups I join.

Nobody should have to choose between a job and healthy pregnancy, especially at the moment they need it most. Recently introduced with BIPARTISAN support, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would make it unmistakable: Employers must provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers who need them. Despite the Pregnancy Discrimination Act's requirement that pregnant workers receive equal treatment, the fact is that some employers are still firing pregnant employees for requesting simple accommodations, such as avoiding heavy lifting or even being able to take extra water breaks. Tell your members of Congress to support the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act now!