The children that live in the neighborhood need a safe place to play, climb and explore nature.

I do not believe that the “Diversity Questionnaire” is separated from the job application itself. When we disclose our "Race," it is then used against us, therefore not giving us a fair chance to have an interview with the employer. Let’s stop employers from using race to discriminate against people of color. Please demonstrate your concern about race discrimination by signing this petition today!

I am the Director of Eye of the Whale Research. We are a non-profit Research group studying humpback whales in the North Gulf Coast of Alaska. Humpback whales have had a great recovery in the North Pacific Ocean after commercial whaling was banned. Now thousands of whales come to feed in our coastal waters. I am deeply concerned about the Navy’s plans to use sonar and underwater explosives in this area where so many whales are feeding. The Navy’s supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS/OEIS) was thorough and a very updated source of abundance data for marine mammals inhabiting the North Gulf coast of Alaska. In this draft it is stated many times that there is little known about the affects of sonar and loud noises on the inner soft auditory and organ tissue and brains of marine mammals. Most of the experimentation was done with terrestrial animals, ie small mammals or bovine tissue (which is cow meat) were submerged in cages and exposed to sounds and sonar. Marine mammals are different than terrestrial mammals. They have adapted to their marine environment in many delicate and refined ways. Stranded marine mammals are difficult to study because either they are damaged by the time they are found or the tissue gets crushed during investigation. But by freezing the skulls and using cat scans it has been proven that some stranded whales have blood around their brains and have suffered from something similar to what we call “the bends”. There have been too many mass strandings that have been related to sonar activities in the vicinity to ignore the dangers it causes to marine mammals. Truly we do not have any way of knowing the whole story of the affects of Navy mid range sonar and large explosives on sea mammals. Quantifying the temporary or permanent damages caused to the animals by the Navy activities is guesswork. Many mammals affected could be dying at sea or abandoning their normal ranges. Thousands of hours of study and millions of our tax dollars have gone into it trying to prove that sonar is not damaging marine mammals and we all know it can and does. In the North Gulf coast there are many species listed as “Endangered” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act: the western north pacific grey whales, the north pacific right whales (of which there are 31 remaining in the entire ocean), the Alaska North Pacific stock of sperm whales, the Stellar sea lion , and the heavily hunted sei, and minke whales. Though not listed, there are also three kinds of beaked whales, of the family Mesoplodon, of which we know very little about. They are rarely seen and regularly dive to depths of over 2000 feet. These odd and often solitary beaked whales can stay down for over an hour and feed in the deep dark trenches off our continental shelf. This alone makes them very difficult to study. We have had a few of these mysterious whales wash up on the shores of Kachemak Bay. All these endangered whales communicate, navigate and hunt with sound. There is no arguing that both sonar and explosives affect their lives. In our remote North Gulf coast waters monitoring damages to the thousands of endangered marine mammals that feed on our food rich waters would be impossible. The next training is planned for June 2015. All the endangered whales will have just arrived from their migration to the North Gulf Coast from all over the North Pacific…bad timing. As I understand the Navy is presenting three alternatives. The “no action alternative” would be to continue their normal practice off the North Gulf coast with no sonar or explosives. Alternatives 1 and 2 would add various degrees of sonar and explosives. In the conclusions of the EIS/OEIS both Alternatives 1 and 2, I quote: • May affect, and is likely to adversely affect, the North Pacific right whale, humpback whale, blue whale, fin whale, sei whale, sperm whale, and the Western Distinct Population Segment of Steller sea lion • May affect, and is not likely to adversely affect Western North Pacific gray whale, and the Southwest Alaska stock of Northern sea otter I cannot live with these two alternatives. I suggest the “no action alternative”, which I understand would not allow the use of sonar or under water explosives. This is the wrong time and the wrong place for this kind of war practice.

The traffic circle that is located on 32nd and Guilford Avenue, makes it very dangerous for both pedestrians and drivers. The amount of space that is available at the location of the circle makes it impossible to see oncoming traffic if you are a pedestrian. All four corners of the pedestrian crosswalks are all blind spots to oncoming cars. This causes any pedestrian at the circle have to step out into the street, and in most cases into oncoming traffic. The oncoming traveling cars have a very difficult time seeing pedestrians and other cars coming into the circle. The spacing of the roadway and the crosswalks, that is available at the circles specific location is too small to be able to properly brake in time for pedestrians. This petition is being created for neighbors in the area to voice their concern about how dangerous of a traffic hazard the circle creates.

On the morning of Dec.10, 2007, armies of ICE and SWAT-like-agents raided seven restaurants of the Reyes family. They ransacked through every corner handcuffing workers as they passed. Simultaneously, agents entered the family’s house, where 3-year-old Josselyne watched how the agents handcuffed her grandparents and mother, Silvia, who was pregnant at that time. Arturo had just dropped off his son Jairo and three daughters at school, on his way back several cop cars pulled him over and arrested him. Silvia spent two weeks in jail, worried about what was happening to her family. Arturo spent 6 months detained, deprived of the love of his family; experiencing how his life was being swallowed away. ICE had investigated the Reyes family since 2006, for over a year they meticulously planned how to destroy this family’s legacy. The Reyes were absurdly accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. When in fact, the Acambaro restaurant chain had solely been a result of a driven and hard-working family. No evidence of drugs or money laundering was found in any of the restaurants, the charges were dropped in court; however, Arturo and Silvia were put in removal proceedings. It’s been over 7 years since the nightmare began. Today, Silvia and Arturo have been told by ICE to surrender on November 5, 2014. For 20 years, the Reyes have contributed tremendously to the entire community and economy of Rogers, Arkansas. They currently run three restaurants that employs many members of the community. They consistently make generous monetary and food donations to various churches of different denominations. They also cater school, sports, law enforcement and immigrant events. The Reyes are American in every way but without the paperwork, they are part of the 11 million who deserve a direct path to citizenship. They raised a beautiful family of six, a DACA-mented DREAMer and organizer,five U.S. citizens, one boy and four girls of between the ages of 4 and 19 years. They all deserve to stay together. Please watch this video about what the possible deportation means to the Reyes family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXXgpVdGVWI Previous media about the Reyes family: http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/4696916/rogers_family_fighting_deportation_to_stay_together

I'm not a government employee, a healthcare official, and I'm the farthest person from a politician, I'm just your average American citizen who like every other American is bombarded with Ebola news. It seems like everyday there's some type of Ebola scare somewhere in the country and it's getting ridiculous. The solution is very simple... JUST DON'T LET IT IN OUR COUNTRY. We need to lock down all airports and not even let passengers off the plane if there's a suspicion. Or at the very least, Just like Governor Chris Christi, have it mandatory that any passenger flying from one of the Western African countries into NJ be quarantined. It's time we americans become jerks and do what's necessary to protect OUR people from this horrendous virus. If an outbreak happens somewhere over here, how many other countries do you think will be coming over to help us. The answer is none, not even our UK friends. Just take a look back at different catastrophes that we've had such as Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, Sandy, all of the countless tornadoes that ripped through our country, all of the forest fires and snow storms where multiple states have lost power. Yes these are totally different, but if we never received any help from other countries for non contagious situations, do you really think we'd get any help if this spreads and people start dying as a result. Since before would war 1, the US has been helping other countries and even intervening when things started to get bad in some situations just like how we just sent 3000 troops over to west Africa to build hospitals to treat the virus. We spend Trillions of our tax dollars to help these countries and for what. It's seriously time we start minding our own business and just focus on taking care of ourselves and there's no time to do just that like the present. It seems like since we heard about the outbreak in Africa, we've only been hearing about little incidents popping up in different areas of the US. You never hear about incidents in other countries. It's as if the infected or potentially infected are ONLY trying to come here. If we're not aggressive and vigilant about this virus now, it's going to get out of control. At this very moment, the European Union has gone to the World Health Organization because they want to restrict all flights from West African countries from coming into Europe. So the Europeans are taking drastic measures to protect themselves, we should be doing the exact same thing to protect our people. So what's going to happen when flights are restricted from going into Europe? They're all going to come directly to America thus rapidly increasing our chances of coming in contact with the virus. After 9/11, we all came together as Americans against terrorism and once again we need to do the same. Except this time to protect ourselves, our family, and our friends from coming in contact with a virus that has the potential of becoming a fast spreading plague. That's all I'm saying and these are just my observations and opinions. I'm a man who will do anything to protect my family and I'm sure you all feel the same. If you agree, then please sign this petition and forward the link on your social media websites so others can sign. I'm only saying what a lot of us Americans are thinking, and I don't want to just sit around and watch this happen when I know deep in my heart how serious this is. Maybe some politician somewhere will see this and actually try to do something that's guaranteed to keep this virus out of our country. WE ARE THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND WE DEMAND OUR VOICES BE HEARD.

We are starting this petition to retain a tenured and recognized member of the faculty who has led a number of projects to encourage women into STEM programs, is a revenue generating professor in a deficit laden school, has an asteroid named after her, and teaches twice as many classes per year as the Physics professors at Orono. Due to the retrenchments put forth by the interim President Flanagan and Provost McDonnell, in December she will be unceremoniously ripped from the Physics program against her tenure and union contract. This decision will not only affect students currently enrolled in the program but will negatively impact the overall quality of education at the university and drive income earners from Southern Maine.

- The City of Springfield is planning to expand its urban growth boundary (UGB) and establish the “College View” industrial zone at Seavey Loop. - Seavey Loop is the sole urban entrance to a nearly 5,000-acre greenbelt that is now one of the largest metropolitan parks on Earth. - The proposed zone threatens the wells that supply water to over 700 families and farms because Seavey Loop is a floodplain where water moves in every direction above and below ground at different times of year. - The plan threatens local food security amid severe climate change that has already begun disrupting food supply. - The zone would generate noise and light pollution that would be disastrous for horse farms and cattle operations, cause severe harm to thriving agricultural businesses, and spoil the area for U-pick and on-farm sales. - Even the most limited expansion toward Seavey Loop would threaten the public safety of residents by reducing the Goshen Fire District tax base. - The plan is not economical or feasible, especially since the main landholders have announced they will not sell their land for industry. - The plan would hinder critical connections with the Ridgeline Trail system and bicycle system that are essential for the sustainable future development of Lane County. - The residents are united in steadfast opposition since they are fighting for their health, property and way of life. - The plan is being pushed to benefit a few powerful special interests at extreme costs to 200,000 stakeholders who love Seavey Loop and Mt. Pisgah. - The UGB expansion is based on an unrealistic projection of future industrial land demand, and is entirely unnecessary. - Springfield should restart its UGB planning process employing local experts to prepare a realistic industrial land demand projection using appropriate methodologies.

BETTER WAGES AND SUMMER SUPPLEMENT FOR SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS

Kaci Hickox is showing a direct disregard for the health and well being of the Public by not complying with Federal and State regulations.

This man yells at female students calling them whores in the middle of campus. He yells homophobic, sexist slurs and tells everyone they are going to hell. His female counterpart holds a sign "you deserve hell." He promotes insensitivity to rape survivors. He is negatively affecting the learning environment and causing severe anxiety for recent sexual assault victims.

Some are afraid of having her back in Maine!