The Tennessee legislature has decided that local control of local parks should be overturned. This legislative overreach will prevent localities from setting reasonable rules for using our parks. There is clear evidence that carrying guns endangers the public. Many innocent persons have been injured in Tennessee communities by guns, to the point where we are faced with a health epidemic due to gun injuries. Yet, the Tennessee legislature has passed legislation to prevent localities from establishing reasonable restrictions on gun carry on their local park property. Please stop this legislation from becoming law.

Last year a web-show sponsored by AFV, The Undercurrent, broke a series of stories on the Koch brothers' donor conference at the St. Regis Monarch Bay Hotel in Dana Point, CA, which was attended by several Republican Senate candidates — Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, Cory Gardner, and Mitch McConnell. The first three all disclosed the trip in their filings with the Federal Election Commission. From examining FEC and Senate Ethics reports, it appears as though McConnell did not. Mitch McConnell is the number one opponent of campaign finance reform, having fought against contribution limits and disclosure over the last 30 years in both the Senate and the Supreme Court, most recently with the disastrous McCutcheon decision, which eliminated the aggregate cap on individual contributions to federal candidates in one election cycle. Pre-McCutcheon the limit was $123,200. Now, there is no limit. In honor of the first anniversary of McCutcheon, Lauren Windsor, the executive producer of The Undercurrent and the executive director of AFV, filed a complaint with the FEC to compel the Majority Leader to explain who paid for his stay at the St. Regis last summer. And today, AFV asks you to sign our petition asking McConnell to disclose the information. Perhaps he broke the law, perhaps he did not. But either way, the American people — you — deserve to know who is paying his travel bills as required by the very campaign finance disclosure laws he disdains so much.

The effectiveness of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for the treatment of Autism and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders is supported by decades of clinical research (https://www.kennedykrieger.org/patient-care/patient-care-programs/inpatient-programs/neurobehavioral-unit-nbu/applied-behavioral-analysis). Yet insurance companies in Oklahoma continue to deny coverage for ABA therapy on the basis that it is "experimental" or "investigational"; that it is "habilitative" or "educational" in nature; or that the DSM-IV diagnostic codes for pervasive developmental disorders are simply not covered at all. Considering that the CDC estimates 1 in 68 children have been identified and that early intervention with ABA therapy is such a crucial element of a successful treatment plan, it is imperative that insurance companies be required to provide coverage. Furthermore, ABA has demonstrated effectiveness for persons with autism throughout the lifespan. Coverage for ABA should not be limited to children, but should be available to all.

My wife's daughter, Trilynn Brueggeman-Bruce was removed from the mother and the legal father while they forced the child (and, without checking her in, the mother as well) to remain for 72 hours. All the while, false documentation done by doctors and nurses of this hospital, made neglect look like the reason to later, after 3 days, have her placed elsewhere by DHS (and it stated so ON THE FIRST DAY, AFTER HER FIRST EXAM, before any kind of proof was given or falsely shown!!) We the parents were railroaded by Child Protective Services and the justice system in Iowa, so that healthcare and our state can embezzle federal funds to use for other reasons. Instead of placing her in the care of the married parents who have little or no criminal history, the judge has given her to the biological father, who has an OWI and assault record, and who is NOT married; and terminated our rights, all because we didn't agree with her completely illegal removal, and wouldn't jump through a score of unneeded hoops, which only served to make the state and the healthcare giant, Unity Point Hospital (the same two entities totally responsible for her being removed) money. Help us get her back where she belongs, in a complete and loving family!

My state, Tennessee, is a wonderful place to live. It's very peaceful and there are not many people around who might bother you. I'm very shocked by the Texas-like attempts to de-facto ban abortion by over-regulating abortion clinics, forcing them to shut them down. These regulations must be stopped.

Beginning tomorrow, if you have windshield wipers on in Massachusetts, you must have your headlights on. It's a good law; I have no issue with it. However, not only is it a ticketable offense if you are stopped, but the insurance companies are allowed to add a surcharge onto your insurance. That is dead wrong. They get enough from us and this is going to hurt those who can least afford to pay any more than they do already. It does not affect me, I have a new car so my lights are always on. But it infuriates me that they are getting away with making this a surchargeable offense.

The South Dakota Department of Education is proposing top notch new science standards for K-12 students that include sound climate change education. But climate science deniers are trying to stop adoption of the South Dakota Science Standards. Opponents are creating the impression that parents don’t want climate science taught in South Dakota. At a recent hearing on the new science standards in Sioux Falls, one parent called evolution and climate change “fringe ideas.” Another said that “many South Dakota families have values that don’t match the school standards as proposed.” If they are successful, South Dakota kids will not only be kept in the dark about climate change, they will be denied access to a world-class science education. The Board of Education may vote on whether to adopt NGSS in May. It’s critical to tell Board members now that the vast majority of South Dakota parents strongly support the new standards and climate change education. Tell the Board of Education to adopt the South Dakota Science Standards that include climate science for all South Dakota students. Thank you for taking action!

Let's increase voter participation in Hawaii by making voting easier, not harder.

Protect Our Children (protectourchildrencoalition.org) is a coalition of parents groups and environmental and health advocates calling for a one mile minimum separation between schools and oil & gas wells or related infrastructure projects. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is accepting comments until May 4th on a proposed set of regulations that does not include the separation we've been calling for.

On February 12, those making a million dollars a year reached the annual tax cap. After that day, none of their income will be taxed to pay for Social Security. Meanwhile, 94% of Americans -- those who make less than $118,500 a year -- will chip in a portion of every single paycheck, all year long. That’s right. A single mother working as an ER nurse pays 6.2% of every paycheck toward Social Security, 12 months out of the year. Meanwhile, a wealthy investment banker on Wall Street isn’t paying a dime into the system for the rest of 2015. They say we can’t afford Social Security. No. We can’t afford to keep giving unfair tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires! Add your name. Sign the petition and tell Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Mark Kirk, and Rep. Rodney Davis it’s time to end the Social Security tax break for millionaires!

Now that I am drawing on my Social Security, i can do volunteer work in my community.

There were 73 decrees to wipe out Yezidis through murder and forced conversion over the past 700 years, which led to the loss of 22 million Yezidis. Please help us to stem the tide of this 74th attempt to wipe out the Yezidis. Yezidis International works to raise consciousness about the Yezidi crisis in Northern Iraq. The Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County, California is also sponsoring an effort to raise consciousness about the plight of the Yezidis.