Aloha! Hawaii’s First Congressional District—urban Honolulu— is one of the most Democratic districts in the country. It gave Barack Obama 70% of the vote in both 2008 and 2012. The district was long represented by a member of the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus, Neil Abercrombie, who is now Governor. For the last two terms, the district has been represented by a member of the conservative New Democrat Coalition, Colleen Hanabusa. She’s leaving the seat, which provides a good opportunity to again install a progressive. In a crowded race, there is only one candidate who has pledged to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus—Honolulu City Councilmember Stanley Chang. Chang is a former student of Elizabeth Warren at Harvard Law School and says he wants to go to Congress to work with her on a progressive, populist future for America. He will protect the right to choose, fight climate change, seek to label GMO food and protect civil liberties. Stanley is a great candidate. But he hasn’t been in office long, and he’s currently losing to veteran politician Donna Kim, a Democrat who’s much more conservative than Hanabusa and out of touch with the district. Kim opposes LGBT equality and has a mixed record on ethics, labor and the environment. This district deserves much better. This isn't Louisiana or Utah; we don't have to settle for a conservative Democrat in this seat. It’s time for local and national progressive groups to rally behind Stanley before the Aug. 9 primary. We the undersigned urge everyone in Hawaii and the rest of the United States who considers themselves a progressive to join us in endorsing Stanley Chang for Congress! Mahalo!

I started a commentary about this program on Animal Planet's Facebook page and have received over 3,500 supportive comments. This also spawned a MoveOn petition demanding the show be cancelled. I would like to reach everyone who signed that petition (over 6,000 at last check). If you could alert them to this petition, this one will receive broad support.

My family attends Global Youth Charter and the Principal is shutting down the sports program. There will be no sports program next school year. We should be concerned about this because the kids will no longer be able to play sports and will no longer have an after school activity to prevent them from getting into trouble. Canceling the sports program is a huge mistake to take away from these kids who want to play, who want to show their school spirit, and even be able to put it on their college applications that they played Varsity sports.

Harris County's expensive and invasive plan removes 80 percent of the vegetation from the banks of Buffalo Bayou in an area as wide as 100 feet from the water's edge in places. It will artificially channelize and change the course of the bayou, damage two dozen critical wetlands and kill hundreds of trees, some of them more than 100 years old, on both banks of the bayou, in Memorial Park and in the Hogg Bird Sanctuary. Many of us have long enjoyed the shady beauty and mystery of the forest using the hiking and biking trails in Memorial Park, which is already losing more than half its trees to the drought. Our serene, slow-moving, distinctly southern Buffalo Bayou is also a Texas Parks and Wildlife paddling trail, and if this "demonstration" plan is implemented, eventually there will be no more bayou wilderness to enjoy. A riparian forest cannot be replaced. The wild banks will be stripped, excavated, graded, landscaped, and planted with Bermuda grass. Harris County has already identified other parts of Buffalo Bayou where it plans to use this destructive and controversial bank "stabilization" method. We need to stop them now. The deadline for comments is June 30. Please add your own personal comments about what bayou means to you with your signature.

President Obama is under pressure to deepen U.S. military involvement in Syria's sectarian civil war. But as President Obama recently said, “Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we’ve just gone through a decade of war at enormous cost to our troops and to our budget?” In particular, President Obama is under pressure to approve the transfer of "manpads," or shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons, to Syrian insurgents. Transfer of these weapons to Syrian insurgents, who are fighting alongside groups affiliated with Al Qaeda, would increase the risk of terrorist attacks against civilian aircraft throughout the region, including in Israel. U.S. transfer of these weapons to Syrian insurgents would also violate international law, and undermine international agreements against the proliferation of these weapons that were initiated by the United States. Urge President Obama and Congress to resist pressure for deeper U.S. military involvement in Syria's sectarian civil war by signing our petition.

For almost an entire century, Adopted Adults have been denied access to their medical history, their culture, their genealogy and ancestry and the answer to the age-old question - "Who Am I" -- this not only affects them, but it also affects their children and their children's children.

As a Southern California resident, I know all too well how easy it is to get in the wrong lane - on either side of the border - and end up somewhere you didn't intend. This young former Marine had just moved here from another state and was driving at night in a borrowed truck. He ended up in the wrong lane and had no choice but to enter Mexico, where he attempted to turn around and come home immediately. When he truthfully answered questions at the border about having weapons, he was arrested. There is no reason for Mexico to be holding him, except to gain political leverage with the U.S. It is clear that he did not intend to commit a crime. Andrew Tahmooressi has already spent more than a month in a Mexican prison. The 25-year-old machine gunner was diagnosed with PTSD after his two deployments to Afghanistan, and was receiving treatment at a local VA hospital. But since his arrest in Mexico, his family and friends fear the worst. One likens his current situation to the conditions experienced by a POW, and worries about the effect of the confinement on his mental health. He should be released immediately.

Rising seas and stronger storms pose a very serious threat to much of coastal Louisiana. Our local and state governments have done very little, if anything, to address the climate crisis.

For the duration of Mr. Spivakov's concert at Harvard's Sanders Theater, Harvard's self-proclaimed adherence to the restrictions imposed on power structures by the 1st Amendment was apparently suspended in favor of the norms of modern-day Russia, where suppression of opposing views is the every-day reality. Harvard University Police, hired by the organizers of the concert, zealously enforced these restrictions-- just like in Russia, any items, such as flowers or fliers, featuring the colors of Ukraine's flag (blue and yellow) were not allowed in the theater, and a member of the audience who asked Mr. Spivakov an unflattering question was arrested on charges that came apart at the seams in court the very next morning. However, even though he is a Harvard alumnus, he is still and indefinitely barred from setting foot anywhere on his alma mater's campuses. If you'd rather this didn't become the norm at Harvard or elsewhere in civilized world, please sign our petition.

I have done several petitions through MoveOn.org. I have learned that getting an email out to past signers is invaluable and that sending one on a weekend seems to work best. That's why I composed an email over 24 hours ago. It was in response to Governor Corbett's Friday afternoon announcement that he is opening more of our state forest land and, for the first time, our state park land to fracking. We need lots of signatures and need them right away. The email has still not been approved. References in it are now out of date. I can't edit it and can't find out when it will be approved. I'm losing valuable time. So what appears in my inbox today? An email from MoveOn suggesting that I email past signers. It's ridiculous. I'm asking MoveOn to 1) let me revise my email to update it, 2) approve the revised email promptly, and 3) take the extra step of sending it to their list to help me make up for lost time.

Voting is a sacred right. Only 13 other states make voting as hard as Pennsylvania does. I trudged the dirt roads of Mississippi 50 years ago to secure voting rights and I don't like to see Pennsylvania in the bottom rung today. We need early voting and no-excuse-necessary absentee voting. This will enable thousands of Pennsylvania voters whose jobs, family responsibilities or other life circumstances prevent them voting on Election Day, to exercise their sacred right to vote. Tell our Pennsylvania elected officials and candidates for office in this November’s elections that they need to take a stand for early voting - today! If you've had a hard time getting to the polls tell us your story in the comments section.

AFTER HEARING THE FATHER OF ONE OF THE VICTIMS, NAMED MARTINEZ, SAY HE NEVER COULD BELIEVE IT COULD HAPPEN TO HIS SON AND IT IS TIME WASHINGTON STOPPED BEING AFRAID OF THE NRA AND THINK OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY, NOT THEIR OWN POLITICAL GAINS!!!