The Montana Senate and House have passed a bill, finally accepting the reality of people across the state who currently fall through the cracks. Now they need to give final approval to the legislation and send it to Gov. Bullock for his signature. Let's give our Montana lawmakers the message: Pass the bill, before this legislative session ends.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Education Management Corporation (EDMC), who operate the chain of Art Institutes, for $11 BILLION! So what about the parents and the 151,000+ students who attended during the years 2003 to 2011, who were innocent of the crimes committed? Would paying back the student loans make them accessories to the fraud? Making these parents and students pay monies that were intended for education, but were used for salaries and bonuses for executives in the company, is NOT in line with our Constitution. Consider THIS: Then-President (and now CEO) Edward West received $1,551,802 in compensation for 2009, $5,486,905 in compensation for 2010, and $6,355,982 in compensation for 2011. Then-CEO (and now Chairman) Todd Nelson received $1,812,996 in compensation for 2009, $3,804,121 in compensation for 2010, and $13 million in compensation for 2011. The year 2006 saw the takeover of EDMC by Goldman Sachs and its private equity partners. Source: Huffington Post article below. I enrolled at Ai Pittsburgh in 2009 and graduated with an Associate's in graphic design in 2010. I, like many others, had been lured in by their claims of high employment ratings and being the first, therefore the best, school for graphic design. This is far from the truth as many of the courses had nothing to do with graphic design and failed to provide the tools needed for the professional field; such as web design. I endured the same situation as Matt Bors in the Huffington Post article saying, "that many of the students in his classes had no talents to speak of, and it was clear that they would not be able to get jobs as artists or designers." This created an atmosphere not of creativity, but of confusion, discouragement, discontent, and low spirits. As they say, "If I only knew then, what I know now", I never would have signed my parents or myself up for a $50,000 debt for a lack of education only to find out that my enrollment directly contributed to the fraud. $11 BILLION seems quite unfathomable to students and parents now burdened by sums that are miniscule in comparison. I have not paid a cent to contribute to this company's fraudulent action, and I refuse to pay a cent, or let disciplinary action to be taken upon myself or my parents. The loan company is threatening wage garnishment. How is this possible when they are accomplices to a HUGE fraud scandal? This scandal has been recognized in the Supreme Court, who then took action against EDMC. Loan agency Sallie Mae, now Navient, was hand-in-hand with EDMC, handing out loans to anyone who asked. So what happened to the $11 BILLION? While a civil court case could prove punitive damages to the ones affected, the least I am asking is for the debt to be lifted for all those in attendance at the Art Institutes from 2003 to 2011. View these articles on the EDMC money scandal, read the comments people have made on these articles, sign the petition, and help out those who have been conned into this scheme. http://www.pdnonline.com/news/The-Art-Institutes--3531.shtml http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/edmc-professors-and-stude_b_1909449.html http://petapixel.com/2011/09/02/us-gov-sues-the-art-institutes-for-11-billion-fraud/ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/education/09forprofit.html?_r=0 http://www.studentsreview.com/specific_detail.php3?uid=3147 Quote from Huffington Post article: "Senator Tom Harkin's Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee calculates that 77.4 percent of EDMC's 2010 revenue came from U.S. Department of Education student financial aid." In 2012, an online petition was started by Vaughn Reynolds at Change.org. He sought to unite Art Institutes students at various campuses in opposition of the teacher layoffs, to educate students and the public about the impact of Wall Street ownership of colleges. The petition has more than 2800 supporters so far. A related Facebook group has over 1800 members. Find the Facebook link here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aistudents/?ref=ts

All recognized federal and state parks including forests, and open range should be returned to the Indian Nations. The first people of this country have been waiting for 500 years to have a right to their own land that was acquired by birthright and taken away from them illegally. I have been affected personally by this issue. My family was forced out of their home land by gun point and only a small portion was returned back to the Indian People and they were forced to live in a foreign way of life in their own land. I have never felt that I was home, neither did the earlier generations of my family. Native American Indians deserve to have a portion of their land back, furthermore out of 500 nations we are ONE PEOPLE and we have a birthright given by our Creator that is being overlooked by the United States Government. We feel that the Creator ranks higher than any government because his deed has been registered far longer than any claims on this land. When the people return to their land, the land will heal, and the animals will replenish.

I am deeply concerned about the unrelenting use of pesticides on our food which now invades our water systems, including rain water. I want a planet, sky and ocean which hosts life rather than killing it for profit.

We firmly believe that access to broadband internet opens doors for individuals to be able to realize their full potential. For those with broadband access, the option to upgrade to a higher connection speed will allow for greater innovation, evidenced by cities with current Google Fiber installs. For those without broadband access, the option to acquire it at a low cost enables individuals to enhance their lives in ways such as providing students with access to online resources and connecting individuals in rural areas with the rest of the outside world.

All people, at least indirectly, are morally affected when states impose a death sentence.

New York is in the midst of a landmark Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) process, including reorientation of NYSERDA's programs. The small wind industry has been actively participating in the REV proceeding and has been impressed by its breadth and ambition. We expect that certain of the REV initiatives – such as community net metering, community choice aggregation, valuing distributed generation in new utility tariffs, and demonstration projects could provide new exciting opportunities for the small wind industry in New York. However, we need to maintain momentum until these REV initiatives are in place, and not disrupt business opportunities in New York to the point where there is no small wind industry to take advantage of the new REV framework. For this reason, we strongly urge you to support continuation of on-site wind incentives, in some form, in the near-term, to avoid a cliff in the small wind industry. A cliff for small wind will disrupt our trajectory towards grid parity, which is the goal for distributed wind, like other distributed generation technologies. DWEA had previously suggested a program modeled after NY-Sun in meetings with NYSERDA and DPS. Like solar, a system of declining incentives based on the amount of megawatts deployed would provide a long-term signal to the industry and a strong incentive to continue to reduce costs. Further, achieving scale will itself reduce costs as customer acquisition, design and construction, and permitting costs come down due to economies of scale. Note: If appropriate please include your company name in the comment or address field.

Keeping students from getting in-state tuition will keep them from being able to afford to go to college. We have many students in Texas who will be negatively affected by this mean-spirited act.

I am insulted that women's rights to privacy are being commandeered. We are not children who need to be protected by the Tennessee Legislature. Women can make choices and have the right to have a choice.

California is in a water crisis — yet recent water restrictions mandated by Governor Brown are inadequate. While we support individual efforts to conserve, it's clear that the severity of this drought calls for much more than just individual action (residential use accounts for less than 15% of water use in the state). It's time for Governor Brown to take bold action to stop wasteful and unreasonable uses by corporate agriculture, oil interests and the bottled water industry. Big Ag: Big agribusiness is over-pumping California's precious groundwater, especially the water-guzzling almond empire that has doubled in size in the driest part of the state over the last five years. But Governor Brown’s mandate places little burden and no new restrictions on agriculture. Big Oil: Not only does fracking and drilling use tens of millions of gallons of water a year, but the oil and gas industry has been dumping toxic waste water into California's aquifers. This toxic practice needs to end today. Bottled Water Companies: While restaurants will only serve drinking water upon request, water bottling giants like Nestlé continue to suck the state dry. California’s groundwater (that is, the water that exists in our natural aquifers underground) is considered private property and is not treated as the public resource it is. This means that corporations can use it up with little to no restrictions, leading to extreme over-pumping and depleting the state’s already dwindling aquifers. We need real and meaningful action to save our water now!

The Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA) is pursuing legislation in the current Iowa legislative session to provide an incentive program for small wind that mirrors the tax incentives provided for solar. Senators Rob Hogg and Joe Bolkcom continue to construct the Senate's omnibus renewable energy bill. With a finite amount of money to utilize, it is shaping up to be a fight to the finish to see who can make it into and stay in the bill. In addition to signing onto the petition, please directly email each of the Senate Ways and Means Committee members listed below (firstname.lastname @legis.iowa.gov) and ask them to please support the establishment of an Iowa small scale wind assistance program similar to the one currently in place for solar energy. Sen. Joe Bolkcom Sen. Chaz Allen Sen. Randy Feenstra Sen. Bill Anderson Sen. Jerry Behn Sen. Michael Breitbach Sen. Bill Dotzler Sen. Robb Hogg Sen. Pam Jochum Sen. Matt McCoy Sen. Janet Petersen Sen. Herman Quirmbach Sen. Jason Schultz Sen. Joe Seng Sen. Roby Smith Note: If appropriate, please include your company name in the petition sign-on's comment field.

I have no problem with responsible gun ownership. However, as a wife and mother, I cannot sit idly by and allow the state to remove the permit required to carry concealed weapons in this state. Without this permit practice, it will be legal for criminals, domestic abusers and the mentally ill to carry concealed, loaded weapons. That is a threat to everyone's safety, my family's and yours.