Corporate lobbyists have been pushing for special rules in order to rush the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal through Congress. If they succeed, it will mean a loss of U.S. jobs and pressure to hold wages down for those that remain. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is being negotiated in secret, but negotiators are making big claims about boosting U.S. exports. We've been down this road before. The reality is that deals like this make it easier for corporations to keep wages low by trading U.S. jobs to the lowest bidder. Now corporate lobbyists want Congress to help speed things along by authorizing Trade Promotion Authority, a special set of "fast-track" rules for the deal so that it can be pushed through without allowing time for close review, debate or amendments, and guaranteed a quick vote in both the House and Senate. It's no wonder the corporate lobby doesn't want Congress to take a close look at what's been going on behind the closed door of the negotiations. The deal gives special rights and benefits to companies that offshore investment and jobs and allows multinational corporations to sue governments if they legislate improvements in environmental, labor, consumer or health standards that might impact future corporate profits. Please take action today and tell your member of Congress to stand up to this corporate power grab and vote NO on fast track authorization for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that teens start school no earlier than 8:30 AM. Schools that have met this standard are already enjoying the benefits of decreased rates of teen car accidents, substance abuse, obesity, depression, and anxiety – and better academic performance. All Massachusetts schools could enjoy similar success. Statewide support in the form of legislation will help Massachusetts communities mobilize to meet the goal of healthier school start times – and will help coordinate across-town scheduling for academic, athletic, and other competitions and events, which otherwise can be a logistical roadblock. Statewide legislation also avoids the barriers inherent in a piecemeal town-by-town effort, to ensure that the health and well being of our children remains paramount.

My brother Steven Ercolino was murdered outside the Empire State Building on August 24th, 2012. The image of him lying in a pool of blood was front page news in the NY Post and NY Times. Now, the images are all over the Internet for our children and future generations to be victimized again. That"s why Diane Clausz and I created this petition.

I am starting this petition in order to see that the State of Ohio joins the twenty three other States in America that have ended their prohibition against Cannabis/Marijuana for the purposes of medical, industrial and recreational use. Please join me and the good folks of ORG (Ohio Rights Group) in seeing that this gets done. Thank you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment - Full Text Be it resolved by the people of the State of Ohio: That the Constitution of the State of Ohio be amended by adopting a section to be designated as Section 12 of Article XV thereof, to read as follows: Article XV: Section 12. The medical, therapeutic and industrial use and regulation of Cannabis. Section 1. Rights. In accordance with Article 1: Bill of Rights, Section 1 of the Constitution of the State of Ohio: (A) Residents of the State of Ohio, who have attained the age of majority and who are diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition, shall be eligible residents for the purpose of making therapeutic use of the genus Cannabis, also known as medical marijuana or marihuana, currently defined in Section 3719.01 of the Revised Code, hereinafter referred to as Cannabis, to alleviate their suffering. Residents of the State of Ohio, who are under the age of majority and who are diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition, may be eligible residents with the prior written consent of a parent or guardian. (B) Eligible residents shall have the right to make therapeutic use of Cannabis to alleviate their suffering and to possess an amount of Cannabis sufficient to meet their therapeutic needs. (C) Eligible residents shall have the right to be free of discrimination and interference from the State of Ohio with regard to their therapeutic use of Cannabis. Persons who are not eligible residents may use medical necessity as an affirmative defense in a court of law. (D) Eligible residents shall have the right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to their therapeutic use of Cannabis, including, but not limited to, any records kept by the State pertaining to such use. (E) Eligible residents who make therapeutic use of Cannabis shall have the right to produce their own Cannabis, and to acquire Cannabis sufficient to alleviate their suffering from state-licensed providers without fear of arrest, prosecution or undue interference by the State. (F) Eligible residents shall have the right to access goods and services to enable their therapeutic use of Cannabis. (G) Within the State of Ohio, it shall be a legal right for individuals or organizations, deemed eligible by the Ohio Commission of Cannabis Control, to grow, process, distribute, transport, purchase or sell Cannabis for therapeutic use in various forms to eligible residents according to rules and regulations as established by the Ohio Commission of Cannabis Control. (H) Residents of the State of Ohio, deemed eligible by the Ohio Department of Agriculture under Section 3(E), shall have the right to produce and sell non-psychoactive Cannabis, also known as hemp, for industrial use including, but not limited to, paper, fuel, foods, building materials and clothing. With this right, Cannabis for industrial use is hereby removed from any schedule or classification system in the State of Ohio wherein it is listed as a drug. (I) These rights shall not be abridged, and the State of Ohio shall support, uphold and defend these rights in accordance with the health and safety of Ohioans and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America. Section 2. Limitations. (A) Nothing in this Amendment requires the therapeutic use of Cannabis or the industrial use of Cannabis; nor does this Amendment invalidate existing bans against smoking in public places or places of employment. (B) Nothing in this Amendment shall prohibit the reasonable regulation and control of the commercial production and distribution of Cannabis for therapeutic use by the Ohio Commission of Cannabis Control as set forth in Section 3. (C) Nothing in this Amendment shall prohibit the reasonable regulation and control of the commercial production and distribution of Cannabis for industrial use as delegated by the Ohio Commission of Cannabis Control to the Ohio Department of Agriculture as set forth in Section 3. (D) Nothing in this Amendment shall prohibit the sale of Cannabis for therapeutic use or for industrial use to eligible residents; nor prevent research or educational institutions from studying the therapeutic properties of Cannabis; nor prevent research or educational institutions from studying the properties of Cannabis for industrial use; nor prohibit the reasonable application of fines or fees pursuant to the regulation and control of Cannabis within the State in accordance with Section 4; nor prohibit the reasonable taxation of Cannabis for therapeutic use or Cannabis for industrial use in a manner similar to other agricultural commodities. (E) Debilitating medical conditions include, but are not limited to, the following diagnoses: glaucoma; multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis; multiple sclerosis; nail-patella syndrome; positive status for human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS); Alzheimer’s disease; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; cancer; celiac disease; Crohn’s disease; hepatitis C; mylomalacia; post traumatic stress; rheumatoid arthritis; sickle cell anemia; injury or disease to the spinal cord, spinal column or vertebra; Tourette's syndrome; a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or chronic pain, severe or chronic nausea, seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy, or severe or persistent muscle spasms; depression; and any additional medical condition or its treatment that may be designated by the ...

A 1 year old Yorkie named Rose was brutally beat to death by a man whos girlfriend was watching the dog. He slung her around by her leash and slammed her into the concrete afterwards he beat little rose to death then put her in the trunk of his car and dropped Rose off at the local hospital instead of the vet and told them what he had done. We just want justice for Rose and peace for her family.please help us in our fight.

This is an urgent moment for recycling on Maui. The pilot 3 Can Plan curbside recycling program is to be prematurely terminated on February 1st even though it was funded through June 30, 2015. If the plan is shut down, the opportunity for Maui to have island wide curbside recycling will vanish. We cannot let this happen. Curbside programs have been implemented and fully embraced by communities around the globe that have far fewer environmental concerns than we do on our island, and that have far fewer recycling commitments and obligations than we do. The goals of the pilot 3 Can Plan in Maui Meadows and parts of Kihei were to determine the program’s popularity, logistics, effectiveness and costs with the intention of expanding the program island wide. And by these criteria, the program appears to be a success. However, the success of Maui’s curbside recycling test program has been clouded by a lack of transparency in the Department of Environmental Management (DEM). Also, questionable conclusions, misleading statements and county politics have cast doubt on the accuracy of the DEM’s figures and heightened skepticism about department claims that curbside recycling is not viable for Maui. This is one of many reasons the County Council recently ordered a full performance audit of that department.

Join the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center in it's fight to END WAGE THEFT! Unfortunately, the philosophy of fairness is often omitted when it comes to fair pay. Low wage and immigrant workers suffer from some of the worst indignities, with exploitation, discrimination, and wage theft at the top of the list. Wage theft is the common practice of not paying a worker part or all of what they are owed, and it is plaguing our communities . This plays out in unpaid over time, being mis-classified, and even not receiving pay at all. In Cincinnati, millions of dollars (including tax dollars) are lost in unpaid wages. The Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, a community led organization, has launched a campaign called "Just Pay Cinci" a campaign to end wage theft. It is designed to lay out a City Ordinance to deter the boss from this unethical labor practice. The ordinance will make the city report wage theft, expose wage theft, fine repeat offenders and ultimately END WAGE THEFT! Please sign the petition!

Republican House Speaker John Boehner has scheduled an address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu two weeks before the Israeli election, without consulting the White House or the House Democratic leadership. Netanyahu and Boehner have said that the purpose of the talk is to attack President Obama’s diplomatic engagement with Iran and try to blow up the talks. The White House has said that President Obama and Administration officials will not meet with Netanyahu. Urge Democratic Members of Congress not to attend Netanyahu's speech by signing our petition. UPDATES: So far, 36 Democrats have said that they won't attend the speech: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/democrats-skipping-netanyahu_b_6770734.html

As a lover of British and Cadbury products I believe one company should not have the right to say what is imported in to the USA.

The CIA leadership continues to make headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. Warrantless surveillance of American citizens, clandestine torture operations overseas, and even hacking into U.S. Senate computers are just some of the recent examples. Enough is enough, and it’s time for action. The men and women of the CIA do important work, but its leadership should be kept in check and held accountable for its actions. We’re calling on CIA Director John Brennan to keep the CIA in check and stand up for the Constitutional principles that make our country great. Add your name and join the fight today!

In the 1990s, Bain Capital owned Damon Laboratories, which made Bain hundreds of millions by ripping off Medicare. Just before the justice department sued Damon, Bain sold the company and got away with it. Today, Boston Heart Diagnostics--another Bain-owned lab--is under investigation for massive Medicare Fraud. Guess what Bain just announced: they are selling Boston Heart Diagnostics to a European Conglomerate called Eurofins for $200 million. In addition to robbing tax payers of hundreds of millions, Bain will now be rewarded with $200M. Lets force Bain to keep Boston Heart Diagnostics and have to repay the taxpayer some of what it stole, and better yet, face criminal charges for this repeated pattern of Medicare theft.

Google took almost three years to disclose to WikiLeaks it had handed over emails belonging to three of its staffers to the U.S. government under a secret search warrant, the Guardian reports. [1] The subjects of the warrants were WikiLeaks investigations editor Sarah Harrison, WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, and WikiLeaks senior editor Joseph Farrell. The court orders cast a data net so wide as to ensnare virtually all digital communications originating from or sent to the three, the Guardian says. Google was told to hand over the contents of all their emails, including those sent and received. Just Foreign Policy’s Policy Director Robert Naiman has communicated by email with all three of the named WikiLeaks staffers over a period of years using his Gmail account. Therefore, based on the Guardian report, Naiman believes that Google may have supplied the FBI with Naiman’s email correspondence with the three WikiLeaks staffers. Alexander Abdo of the American Civil Liberties Union said the warrants were “shockingly broad” in their catch-all wording. “This is basically ‘Hand over anything you’ve got on this person’,” he said. “That’s troubling as it’s hard to distinguish what WikiLeaks did in its disclosures from what major newspapers do every single day in speaking to government officials and publishing still-secret information.” Urge the FBI to destroy all copies of correspondence between Just Foreign Policy and WikiLeaks and pledge to refrain from spying on correspondence between Just Foreign Policy and WikiLeaks in the future by signing our petition. References: 1. “WikiLeaks demands answers after Google hands staff emails to US government,” Ed Pilkington and Dominic Rushe, the Guardian, January 25, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/25/wikileaks-google-staff-emails-us-government