Majority of my peers spend their leisure time in school, participating in athletics, or establishing a social life; they are not plotting, executing, and contemplating the consequences of criminal activity. These are the primary reasons why adolescents should be given alternative trials and consequences; they do not share the same mental capabilities as adults, so they should be regarded as one.

Democracy in America and Maryland is being corrupted by big moneyed interests. Legislative leaders should help create a more level political playing field for all Americans, rich and poor, by allowing a floor vote in the Maryland General Assembly on the Democracy Amendment. This proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution would declare that: • Corporations are not persons with constitutional rights. They do not have First Amendment rights such as free speech. • Money is not speech. The right to spend vast sums of money on elections is not protected as freedom of speech. • Federal, state and local governments have the right to regulate campaign finance, to assure free and fair elections. That should include how money is raised, how money is spent, public disclosure and public financing. • Natural persons who are U.S. citizens have the right to vote and to have their vote counted. The amendment this resolution supports will overturn the deeply flawed Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, and similar court decisions. Why do we call for a constitutional amendment, given how hard it is to pass an amendment? Because it’s the only way to reverse the Supreme Court when it goes in the wrong direction. For example, after the Supreme Court in the 1857 Dred Scott case declared that slaves are property who cannot become citizens and have virtually no rights, the United States in 1865-66 passed the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments. These abolished slavery and gave former slaves full citizenship rights.

A great University should be a force for fairness, but that has not been the case with the treatment of the 14,000 Teamsters whose hard work makes the University of California function. The University is all too happy to accept our members’ contribution to its success. But when it comes time to hand out well-earned incentive and bonus awards, the University excludes administrative support workers. To make matters worse, managers dishonestly blame the Union for the University’s decision to exclude our members, falsely claiming that the Union Contract prevents them from including the Teamsters in incentive and bonus programs. The truth is that the Teamsters Contract clearly permits our members to be included in incentive awards. Yet the University has systematically excluded administrative support wrokers from receiving incentive and bonus awards it gives to other employees. Such insidious discrimination has no place at the University of California.

Right now, loopholes in the Clean Water Act leave more than half our streams—and the drinking water for over 4.5 million North Carolinians—at greater risk of pollution. The EPA has finally proposed a rule to restore Clean Water Act protections to these critical waterways across the country. But polluters from Big Ag to Big Oil are going all in to stop this effort and keep using our waterways as their personal sewers.

2014 is on track to be the hottest year on record. That's why it's time to get serious about cutting carbon pollution, and the EPA's clean power plan is an important first step. We need to get this plan over the finish line so that we can ensure a safer climate for future generations.

Our group feels that many people in the city of Buffalo would love to have an NBA team in our city and the Buffalo Braves back home. Not only would many people like to have the team back, but Buffalo is on the rise economically right now. Bringing the Braves back to an already flourishing city would be a great idea.

Please support and sign this petition to end workplace bullying. It destroys lives and the workplace. It increases each day when no one deals with this issue or takes it seriously. It only takes 1 incident to create a toxic working environment. When not taken seriously it can result in loved ones committing suicide or ending up behind bars for defending themselves. The perpetrator ends up winning and moving on to the next victim. This petition is on behalf of my brother and other victims of bullying in school and workplaces.

I deployed twice to Afghanistan and I served with local national interpreters who risk their lives to provide an invaluable service to our troops. They risked their lives for American forces, and as a result their families have become permanent targets of insurgents. We need to stand up and protect those who protected our service members by allowing them to obtain visas to enter the US.

My petition is about stopping animal product testing. This testing affects everyone personally. Animals cannot speak for themselves, but they feel pain and have emotion just like people. We say it is inhumane to experiment on humans. It is also inhumane to experiment on animals. We want to give animals a voice!

To get this establishment shut down due to faulty security and ongoing violence

There has been a personal attack on 2 of the best tennis players in WTA history. Coach Shamil Tarpischev's attacks on Serena and Venus Williams were not only sexist, but racist also!!!

Our most recent petition campaign was successful in supporting Abdel Rahman to attain a Blue Card from UNHCR-Egypt on September the 2nd of this year, after over a decade of life-threatening racial, ethnic, economic and religious persecution in the inhospitable host state of Egypt. [1] I have lived, studied, and worked in Egypt for over a year in 2007-2008, and 2010, specifically focusing on community-based self-education efforts in African refugee communities. This is how I met Abdel Rahman, as he was the director of the El-Wafaa Refugee Culture Center, a non-political, non-tribal, non-religious community education organization in Ain Shams, Cairo. More than anything, this is a plea for the physical safety of a respected community leader, who has shown a remarkable contribution to international research, and education initiatives. For example, after 40 years of isolation, Abdel Rahman brought the American University of Cairo to the impoverished Cairo suburb of Ain Shams, to facilitate English courses for refugees and asylum seekers from Africa living in Egypt. Abdel Rahman belongs to the Zaghawa ethnic group in Darfur, one of the three major indigenous groups subjected to systematic genocide by the Sudan-government backed Janjaweed militias in Darfur from 2003 up to the present. Due to this ongoing strife, Abdel Rahman became a refugee, and continues to seek resettlement out of Egypt, where he has also lived through life-threatening forms of social and institutional persecution. Abdel Rahman is originally from Darfur, and has been living in Cairo, Egypt for over a decade, suffering the agonies of life as an African refugee. On Sunday March 23rd, Abdel Rahman was brutally assaulted at night in Cairo, and represents the countless many who face such challenges on a daily basis. (We have a translated police report proving the details of the incident, for any interested in following up.) He then successfully reopened his file with the UNHCR-Cairo office, and now seeks immediate relocation out of Egypt. [2] In 1951, Egypt made reservations to refugee rights chartered by the UNHCR Refugee Convention, also known as the Geneva Convention, effectively disallowing refugees the right to access public relief and humanitarian assistance. Most of Egypt's refugees are hopelessly unemployed, and in dire need of educational, and professional opportunities, especially those further marginalized by race, ethnicity, and religion, as is the case with African refugees in Cairo, Egypt. Most refugees in Cairo are suffering from third-rate medical care. In many cases refugee patients have received false medication, leading to further complications. Egypt, as elsewhere in Africa, is known by its diversion of humanitarian aid for the interest of its own poor rural citizens. Refugees in Egypt live in perilous situations, often with specific needs that can not be addressed in the country where they have sought protection. Meanwhile, resettlement countries such as the UK, the U.S., and Canada pledge to provide legal and physical protection, including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights similar to those enjoyed by nationals, effectively allowing refugees to become naturalized citizens. [1] http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/unhcr-egypt-reopen-emergency?source=c.em.mt&r_by=8673541 [2] http://www.nationofchange.org/refugee-rights-egypt-cairo-s-african-refugee-demonstrators-call-peace-and-civil-rights-syria-sudan-a