Anyone who is a State of IL employee or retiree, senior citizen, teacher, fire fighter, police officer, or a taxpayer has heard about the dire state of the State. There is the pension "crisis" as well as threatened cuts to Medicaid and the list goes on. People don't want or can't afford tax increases but drastic cuts in programs is not acceptable either. The legalization of marijuana would alleviate the tax burden on Illinois citizens and avoid the need for drastic cuts. I am a retiree who spent over 34 years working for my pension and our governor and others would like to see my benefits cut. Whether you like the idea of smoking marijuana or not, those who smoke it do so even though it is illegal. Those who don't, are not likely to start if it becomes legal. Colorado is rolling in profits from the huge increase in tax revenue.. We need to send a message to members of the IL House & Senate that we, the citizens of IL, would welcome the legalization of marijuana for recreational use to help unburden the tax payers, fix the pension crisis, and avoid cuts to Medicaid and social programs in the State.

During the Reagan Administration means tests were added, so that any veteran could obtain assistance through the VA Medical System. Myself, my son, and many other veterans are being denied admission to VA Psychological System when suffering from severe PTSD

I used to work at a local humane society. The organization would raise funds for free spay and neuter vouchers, but the money that was raised did not come close to meeting the demand. The coffers were almost always empty. Most people I spoke with stated that the only reason that they did not spay or neuter was the cost of the service (generally $75-$100). If the cost of spaying and neutering was 100% tax deductible, I believe it would benefit shelters that are overwhelmed by the number of animals in need and it would also make communities safer.

I love Chicago. I grew up here, and I'll always fight for what's right for our city. Ms. Kramer made a number of offensive posts to Twitter that were laced with racism and homophobia. I don't think there should be a seat in our City Council for a candidate who is unwilling to recognize that those posts offend the very people they're seeking to represent. I think that if Ms. Kramer considers herself a viable candidate she should apologize immediately.

WE DESPERATELY NEED PEOPLE WITH REAL CHARACTER IN POWER IN OUR GOVERNMENT TO RESTORE LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL AMERICANS !

Elephants are one of the most incredible creatures. They, like humans, remember the deaths of their family members and are extremely traumatized by it. We must stop this atrocity from occurring each day! We must save the African Elephants from inevitable extinction! As citizens of humanity, it is our job to carry out our function on earth: to be humane. Not only this, but the money earned from selling ivory goes to support terrorist organizations. Basically, the State of California is helping terrorism by standing by and doing nothing to enforce the already existing ban on ivory. So, we must bring attention to this issue, and pressure the governor of California to enforce the law! Once California strictly prohibits the selling of ivory, then the poachers won't earn as much money for ivory because there isn't a market for it. Once this occurs, elephant deaths will hopefully decrease! Support this effort to help African elephants by signing my petition.

Over 75% of monarch butterflies essential to pollinate our food supply have disappeared, along with the milkweed they need for their own survival, due to the widespread use of toxic agricultural chemicals. Nobody seems to have put forward the idea that state highway departments, at little extra cost, could plant milkweed instead of grasses, providing the little beasties with nourishment along their entire incredible migration route. It's not rocket science, folks. --- I am a member of the Conservation Commission for the City of East Providence, Rhode Island and we are looking into doing just that on some public properties along our waterfront, and I am sure that in addition to state highways there are many cities, towns, and counties that could replace weeds and grasses on a variety of public properties with milkweed and an admixture of native plants

This law is a travesty and will only undermine Michigan's progress.

To abolish the death penalty, since it is inhumane and does not represent our country in a very good light. The death penalty isn't helping anyone and only hurts our country and our people.

Rodney Reed was set to be executed on March 5, 2015, but he was given a stay. Now the state is trying to execute him on November 20, 2019. This is unacceptable. New evidence has been found and new witnesses have come forward since this petition was created in 2015. A new witness described a confession by Stacey Stite's fiance, Jimmy Fennel. The witness describes Jimmy saying to his cellmate that he murdered Stacey because she was secretly dating a Black man, Rodney Reed. Rodney Reed has been on Texas’ death row since 1998. He was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, a white woman, in the small town of Bastrop, Texas. Stacey’s brutal murder struck at the very heart of the community, not only for its brutality, but for the sinister chain of events it would set into motion. Rodney’s case is a troubling mixture of prosecutorial misconduct, police corruption, poor defense, and deep institutional racism

The fossil fuel industry's campaign to promote climate denial, led by the Koch brothers, has corrupted Harvard University and the Smithsonian, two of the most trusted scientific institutions in the world. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a joint program of the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University, is harboring a polluter-funded climate denier. Documents uncovered by Greenpeace reveal that Dr. Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon has taken money from the Kochs, Exxon Mobil, coal giant Southern Company, and others to produce "deliverables" that push the long-debunked claim that solar activity, not fossil fuel pollution, drives global warming. The New York Times reports: "He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work." Coal giant Southern Company was one of Soon's biggest funders: "The newly disclosed documents, plus additional documents compiled by Greenpeace over the last four years, show that at least $409,000 of Dr. Soon’s funding in the past decade came from Southern Company Services, a subsidiary of the Southern Company, based in Atlanta. Southern is one of the largest utility holding companies in the country, with huge investments in coal-burning power plants." Smithsonian-Harvard's contract with Southern Company forbade disclosure of Willie Soon's funding, a clear violation of scientific integrity and ethics. The Guardian reports: "ExxonMobil gave $335,000 but stopped funding Soon in 2010, according to the documents. The astrophysicist reportedly received $274,000 from the main oil lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, and $230,000 from the Charles G Koch Foundation. He received an additional $324,000 in anonymous donations through a trust used by the Kochs and other conservative donors, the documents showed." Some of the Exxon Mobil money was used to directly fund Harvard-Smithsonian general expenses. Harvard-Smithsonian has no funding-disclosure requirements, nor does it have a conflict-of-interest policy that prevents funding from fossil-fuel companies of climate science research. Is Harvard-Smithsonian a scientific institution or a fossil-fuel climate-denial public-relations firm? To restore public trust in the institution, Harvard-Smithsonian director Charles Alcock must: 1) sever his institution's ties with Dr. Wei-Hock Soon 2) end all financial relationships with the fossil fuel industry 3) establish strong financial public disclosure rules for all institute scientists that prevent anonymous or secret funding of research Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution are two of the most prominent and trusted scientific institutions in the world. They are taking money from Koch and Exxon to promote climate denial. This must end today. Sources: "Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher," The New York Times, February 21, 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html "Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry", The Guardian, February 21, 2015 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry "Documents Reveal Fossil Fuel Fingerprints on Contrarian Climate Research", Inside Climate News, February 21, 2015 http://insideclimatenews.org/news/21022015/documents-reveal-fossil-fuel-fingerprints-contrarian-climate-research-willie-soon-harvard-smithsonian-koch-exxon-southern-company

My friend Micki Fine lives in this building!