Why should BDC close? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forbids state governments to discriminate on the basis of disability in delivering programs and services. The 1999 US Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v L.C. defines unnecessary segregation as illegal discrimination under the ADA and requires states to serve people with disabilities in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs. The Olmstead decision and federal regulations also require that evaluations to determine what is “appropriate” must be professional, objective, and impartial. BDC is also extremely expensive to maintain ($450,000 per person per year). People can receive integrated community-based services for a third of that cost or less, while experiencing a much improved quality of life that supports their dreams and goals. What about all the job loss? NY’s Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) has stated that it does not plan to lay anyone off as a result of closing BDC. They say equivalent jobs will be available in community service programs. Nearly all of the residents leaving BDC will move to more integrated settings in Broome and surrounding counties. New programs will be created, and others will be expanded, to serve them. Almost all of the current BDC staff will find jobs in those programs. What should happen to the people who live in BDC? OPWDD has already closed several similar institutions, moving people into other more integrated settings. Services already exist to support people in the community. We call upon NY OPWDD and public officials to close BDC as scheduled, and ensure that those transitioning into the community have adequate supports to assist them with housing, employment, recreation/socialization and behavioral issues. Please sign this petition and send it to your friends, so that people with disabilities can be freed from segregation and enjoy the rights and independence to which they are entitled.

We, citizens of the international community, are demanding that you take immediate action to ensure the safety and welfare of Abdallah al-Shami and Muhammad Salah Sultan, who are both on a hunger strike in the Egyptian Aqrab Maximum Security Prison. While we are very concerned about the apparent erosion of due process in Egypt over the last months, we are now extremely concerned that Mr al-Shami and Mr Sultan may die. These two young men have found it necessary to use their weapon of last resort – hunger strike – in their attempt to secure a fair hearing. Abdallah al-Shami is a journalist with al-Jazeera. He was arrested on August 14, 2013 while covering the break-up of the Rabaa sit-in. After 5 months, on January 21 2014 he started a hunger strike in protest against being held without charge and without evidence. His imprisonment has been repeatedly extended, the latest time, on the 3rd of May, for 45 more days. His health has deteriorated badly but the Prison Authority has seen fit to send him to solitary confinement. They have revoked his exercise of rights and prevented him from receiving visits or talking with other people. In fact the Authority has found it reasonable to close the small hatch in his cell door. The Authority has also tried to force-feed him and has coerced him into being photographed with items of food at his side. Mr al-Shami has lost 40 kilograms in weight. His blood tests - run at a private clinic at his own expense - show severe anaemia and a malfunctioning of the kidneys. We believe that his life is in danger. Muhammad Sultan started his hunger strike on January 26, 2014 when his imprisonment was renewed repeatedly with no charges and no evidence. He was taken from his home on August 27, 2013, when the police broke into the house to arrest his father. They did not find the father but they took the son. Mr Sultan is now on day 105 of his hunger strike. He has lost over 45 kilograms in weight, his blood glucose is down to 40. He is in danger of death through haemorrhage or a diabetes coma. Two men who have not been convicted - in fact one of them has not even been charged - are about to die in an Egyptian prison. It is urgent that you do not to allow this crime to take place. We ask that both men be transferred immediately to hospital preparatory to their urgent release. The international community places itself firmly in support of Egyptian citizens who have been trying to secure the fair and humane treatment of detainees.

ELYSA receives no public money to support costs related to the operation of the athletic fields used by our three primary youth sports, Baseball/Softball, Football/Cheerleading and Soccer. All of these facility costs are absorbed by the individual sports and ultimately passed on to the families who participate in them. These facility operating expenses cause East Lake registration fee’s to be consistently higher than neighboring sports organizations who benefit by some level of public support. At 30 plus years old, the original complex is in need of major repairs and upgrades. With no public source of funding, needed repairs cannot be accomplished through registration fees alone. In addition, the sport of Lacrosse is becoming extremely popular and its demand by East Lake residents is going unmet.

I am a renewable energy entrepreneur and someone who wishes to leave an environment and climate that I have enjoyed my entire life to my children and their children's children. I want this debate and the people of this country to have spirited discussion and solve problems based on factual evidence and not along ideological lines and talking points put forth by corporate players with short term economic interests at heart. It is time to move this topic forward, and since our politicians are unwilling or unable, we must again turn to the press to report more factual information and less unsupported opinion.

WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS DISTURBING US AT OUR HOMES EARLY IN THE MORNING ON WEEKENDS...ONLY TO HAVE MEMBERS OF DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS TO PREACH AND QUOTE THEIR BIBLE PASSAGES!! YOU WOULD NEVER SEE JEWS, CATHOLICS OR MUSLIMS DOING THIS..NOR WOULD YOU SEE QUAKERS, AMISH OR WICCANS!!...YET WE ARE CONSTANTLY AWAKENED BY PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT CHURCHES AND OUR PRECIOUS REST DISTURBED!! SOMETIMES THE MEMBERS OF THESE CHURCHS BANG ON OUR FRONT DOOR ALARMING US EARLY ON SATURDAY MORNINGS!! THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!! WE LIVE IN ELMONT NY AND HAVE BEEN PUTTING UP WITH THIS PREACHING FOR YEARS!!! WE WANT IT STOPPED! this affects everyone in nassau county ny...ps i am no longer in catholic school....ENOUGH!

Tired of government getting involved in things that don't concern them. They need to worry about our budget, healthcare, the wars overseas, etc, etc, etc, instead of the Redskins name!

Republican governors across the country have been changing course and accepting federal Medicaid dollars. They know why it’s important, and they know that the public wants them to do it. Unfortunately, Gov. McCrory still refuses to budge. If North Carolina continues to rejects these funds, more than 318,000 North Carolinians will have no access to affordable health care. Tell Gov. McCrory to accept federal Medicaid dollars and protect the 318,000 North Carolinians that would benefit.

Election day has been problematic for people because those who work must get to the polls prior to or after their workday. This increases lines and waiting times and decreases people's ability to vote. Voting Day must be a Federal Holiday so everyone has an equal opportunity to make it to their polling stations and vote.

American citizens pay twice for drugs. Taxpayers help fund drug research and development through the NIH. Then US taxpayers pay a second time by paying higher prices for new drugs, unlike citizens of the UK and Canada who benefit from government negotiations with pharmacies. We keep hearing about the US FISCAL crisis. Why not recover some lost money and help pay for more NIH funding, defray the costs of the ACA, expand GME and fix the SGR!.

To prove we need my case looked at further. I'm not guilty, and I trusted State Police and I'm being put through something no one should go through. I have medical problems that have continuously occured since the rape. Please help me.

To raise awareness and garner support from the agricultural community for Hawaii Flour Mill to remain open.

Many online petitions ,with thousands of signatures ,have been presented to Facebook.. and still they will not shut down sadistic graphic image sharing of wolves and other predator wildlife.The followers of these pages laugh and mock photos of killed animals. The world does not need to be held emotionally hostage from concern,and terribly disturbed , by a these obscene people,,, our youth should not have to be exposed to such horrific violence of our nature involuntarily thru a very public place as Facebook! is, Shut down these terrible pages now Facebook!!!!!