The growing violence within daycare facilities today is not acceptable. We need better protection for our children! The children are suffering and nothing is being done to give families peace of mind.

I live in Washington D.C., one of the highest cost of living places in the country, which makes it difficult for me and others like myself, to manage or even make it, without struggling on our income. This is due to being taxed the same as others making the exact same salary, but living in lower cost areas of the country. While salaries are typically higher in areas where the cost of living is higher, these salaries are not growing at a proportionate rate to that of the overall cost of living. This makes it difficult for people to afford to remain in these areas, be able to save for the future, and have an overall decent quality of life. Why? Because our tax system does not factor the cost of living and offers no breaks for people in high cost areas. Help me tell Congress, my salary is not equivalent to someone who makes the same as me, in a low cost living area. Our American tax system needs to account for the cost of living, which in turn, will help every social class, businesses, and our overall economy.

EVERY YEAR 58,000 CHILDREN ARE SENT FOR CUSTODY OR UNPROTECTED VISITATION WITH A DANGEROUS ABUSER. EVERY COUNTY IN EVERY STATE HARBORS DANGEROUS JUDGES. NO CHILD IS SAFE. http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/med/PR3.html In addition, in 2013 the Center for Disease Control concluded a lengthy investigation into adverse childhood experiences. The ACE study is one of the largest medical investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being. They found that a child’s exposure to certain trauma’s, including domestic violence or child sexual abuse, resulted in more illnesses and injuries to children in childhood through adulthood (i.e., social emotional and cognitive impairment; adoption of health-risk behaviors; disease, disability and social problems; and premature death). This study demonstrates how a child’s exposure to domestic or sexual abuse is a PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE. Yet every year, an estimated 58,000 children are sent for custody or unprotected visitation with a reported abuser. So how is this happening? Although research confirms that deliberately false allegations by mothers in child sexual abuse cases occurs less than 2% of the time, 85% of these cases results in custody to the alleged abuser—which means our courts are sending children to live with their rapist. Inadequately trained professionals tend to believe the myth that mothers frequently make false allegations. Therefore, in thinking they have the needed expertise, they don't listen to domestic violence or child abuse evidence, experts, or consider current research. Mothers are then forced into poverty trying to protect their children-- while, their children continue to be abused. Mr. President, we now have the medical research to declare domestic violence and child abuse a PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE. The Justice Department reports that only 10% of children are protected from further abuse once they report. The U.S. Department of Justice's Saunders report states that the STANDARD and REQUIRED domestic violence training received by judges, lawyers, and evaluators does not adequately prepare them to handle abuse cases. WE ARE PETITIONING FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF FAMILY COURT PRACTICES IN AN EFFORT TO STOP STATE JUDGES FROM FORCING DEFENSELESS CHILDREN TO BE HARMED BY ABUSERS. WE WANT AN AUDIT OF THE FUNDING TO THE COURTS, AND ADDRESS THIS FUNDING THAT IS GENDER BASED AND FUELING THE WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN. WE WANT A MOTHERHOOD.GOV THAT WILL PROTECT OUR RIGHTS TO PARENT AND PROTECT OUR CHILDREN. We thank you in advance for your support.

I have noticed that people that are being found guilty of drug charges are being sentenced to extremely heavy prison terms, especially with the federal government cases. It seems as if persons with drug charges are being more heavily punished then persons found guilty of murder, raped and other violent crimes. It appears that the government is more focused on drug dealers than missing people, domestic violent, homeless individuals, the economy, rising minimum wage, cold case files, and many more serious problems happening in our country. Stand up and put a stop to over punishing what is not as important over things that are much more important.

There have been too many accidents at this intersection, many of them involving young drivers. A new bike path has recently been completed, which only adds to the complexity of this intersection. We must slow down or stop traffic at this intersection as a matter of public safety.

I was deeply disturbed by this column in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fairfax-should-force-police-to-come-clean-over-shooting-of-unarmed-john-geer/2014/10/15/7be2d804-54b2-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html?hpid=z2

On July 16th 2014, 22 yr old mother Natasha Adams rode her bicycle to work, Natasha had just dropped her 3 yr old son off at his daycare moments before,unfortunately Natasha never made it to work, Natasha was hit and killed by a distracted driver. The consequence for the driver who caused the death of a precious life was much too easy, receiving only 2 traffic citations. There is no laws in South Dakota with harsher penalties and consequences for Drivers who are sober and kill pedestrian/bicyclists while distracted or negligent. If you are driving distracted and you should take a life you should be held accountable to the same extent as an individual under the influence receiving jail time as well as losing your Operators license. Support Natasha’s Law to bring change to South Dakota and Make our Streets and Hiway’s safer. Maybe the next life that is spared will be yours.

The great majority of Americans believe that "the playing field is rigged" in favor of the wealthy and well-connected. The Cut Tax Loopholes Act, introduced by Sen. Carl Levin in February 2013, and which inexplicably has only one co-sponsor to date, R.I. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, seeks to address one part of our unfair "playing field" - tax loopholes. Amongst these is the "carried interest" loophole that allows hedge fund and private equity managers to have the bulk of their income, earned from managing their respective funds, taxed at a much lower capital gains rate rather than at ordinary income tax rates. The top hedge fund manager in 2013 reportedly made $3.5 billion, which based on a 40-hour workweek and 50- week work-year was over $29,000 per minute! Permitting this loophole and the others addressed by the Cut Tax Loopholes Act is an affront to every hard working American who believes in the American dream based on “working hard and playing by the same rules.”

“If you don’t have insurance, you need to get out of here.” That’s not something you’d ever want to hear from your hospital, but according to legal testimony, it's what Prem Reddy, CEO of Prime Healthcare, said to the former chief emergency room nurse at Desert Valley Hospital. And now Prime healthcare wants to buy the Daughters of Charity hospital system where I work--six hospitals with over a hundred years of service to California’s neediest patients. Daughters of Charity hospitals have operated in low-income communities as a safety-net healthcare service, with the stated mission of serving the sick and the poor, regardless of their ability to pay. Meanwhile, Prime Healthcare has admitted to being under investigation for allegedly overfilling Medicare, and they have a track record of ignoring community needs, eliminating health services, and laying off dedicated caregivers in order to maximize profits. Luckily, we still have a chance to stop this sale in its tracks. California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who has fought on behalf of low-income and vulnerable communities, has to approve the sale. If we can show her how a sale of Daughters’ hospitals to Prime would hurt these hospitals’ mission of service to the poor, we can convince her to stop the sale! We know that Prime is the wrong buyer for these hospitals. They are wrong for the patients, wrong for the communities, and wrong for the healthcare workers like me who have given our lives to service. Twenty-nine state legislators, 14 community organizations, and four county supervisors across California have already urged Harris to block the sale to Prime Healthcare. Now we need to add our voices.

I lost my son when I was 38 weeks pregnant because with factor V you can not carry a baby past 38 weeks. If i was given a simple blood test my son would still be here today. Women who have this factor V can not be on birth control pills or they could die. Why not save lives by just allowing one blood test to be done on every woman? And much more than this. This should be passed in all states.

Get this: Jimmy John’s makes ALL of their employees sign an extreme non-compete agreement that’s not only far outside of the norm for the industry, it’s completely CRAZY. Workers who leave Jimmy John’s for any reason – even if they’re fired – are barred for TWO years from getting jobs at any restaurant that sells sandwiches within 3 miles of ANY Jimmy John’s location. That means a sandwich maker or a delivery driver will have an even tougher time finding a job after she leaves Jimmy John’s. It’s time for Jimmy John’s to get rid of this oppressive and totally insane policy – not to mention pay their workers enough to support their families.

Factory farms house thousands of animals and can generate as much waste as a small city — waste that too often ends up in our rivers, lakes, and streams.