Parents for Public Schools of Syracuse has been urging our elected officials to make school funding equitable for more than 10 years. With an ever decreasing tax base and an increase in the number of children living in poverty, the inequity has reached crisis proportions. The Syracuse City School District is dependent on the state for the majority of the school funding and the residents do not vote for a school budget. It’s time to take the politics out of education funding and start equalizing the funding between poor and affluent districts.

North Carolina's citizens have been subjected to a monopoly in energy, and Duke has been at the center of it. In spite of having one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, the citizens were subjected to an unjustified 7% rate increase as bulled through by a political supermajority in our state capital. Not even a year after, Duke's own internal irresponsibility towards their customers and their environment was revealed--and we were asked to fit the bill. This is unethical, dishonest business--and our citizens and environment deserve better. Duke should pay for their own lack of maintenance and oversight, as any other business would be expected to.

Poverty can be reduced by raising the wage. It diminishes dependence on federal programs such as food stamps(SNAP). The private sector is required to help lower income workers instead. Raising the wage puts more money into the economy.

Millions of pounds of arsenic-laced coal ash rushed into the Dan River last month, near Eden(!), North Carolina, because Duke Energy ignored danger warnings and regulators looked the other way. The disaster in the Dan River is the inevitable result of mixing coal ash with cold cash. For years, Duke Energy has spent millions on political donations and lobbying to avoid more expensive pollution controls that protect public health and the environment. Duke Energy took a big risk – and its stockholders should pay the price, not the customers. The price tag to clean up all Duke’s coal ash dumps in North Carolina will likely exceed $1 billion. Duke must be held accountable, and so must the politicians who accept its money and its excuses. Democracy North Carolina’s research shows that Gov. Pat McCrory’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns benefited from $1.1 million in Duke political donations – the most from any corporation. Gov. McCrory is talking tough now, but he’s prospered in a political culture that accepts corporate cash and pollution. Duke has a new Chief Executive Officer – Lynn Good. She could do “good” and put the company on a new path for clean energy and clean government. She needs to know she’s being watched. Sign the petition to CEO Lynn Good to demand that Duke clean up its act!

Senator Jeff Klein is the biggest obstacle to the progressive agenda in New York State. In 2012 New Yorkers elected a Democratic majority in the NYS Senate. Jeff Klein, claiming to be an "independent Democrat", abandoned the Democrats and made a self-serving deal with the Republican minority, transforming what should have been a powerless Republican minority into wall of obstruction. By standing with the Republicans, Klein bears responsibility for blocking the progressive agenda on countless issues -- a minimum wage increase, strengthening tenant protections, financing Mayor de Blasio's plan for Universal Pre-K, campaign finance reform, protecting women's rights and a ban on hydro-fracking to name a few. Jeff Klein has not acted like an "independent" Democrat -- he has empowered Republicans, and joined their obstructionist agenda. Oliver Koppell, throughout your public service career many have called you an independent Democrat. We applaud your independence. We even applaud those times some of us may have disagreed with you. We trust your history of independent, progressive Democratic leadership. You should run to defeat Jeff Klein and give progressive New Yorkers back the State Senate. Original Signers (all residents in the 34th Senate District of NYS): Dart Westphal / Margaret Groarke / Barry Soltz / Susan Moscou / Jack Marth Mollie Welsh Kruger / Alex Kratz / Elena Mora / John Kruger / Robert Jackson

We can't make the Honduran orphanage do what is right but the US has the opportunity to step in and rectify it. With almost 200,000 orphaned children in Honduras and less than a handful adopted per year, Honduras refuses to process the adoption so that we can bring them to the US. They simply say that they don’t need to be adopted because we are their legal guardians and that is sufficient. However, the US Embassy in Honduras will not issue an immigrant visa nor will they allow them to visit us until they are adopted. It's a catch-22 that only the Secretary of State can resolve. There is no possibility of getting the adoption finished in Honduras due to existential corruption and an uncaring bureaucracy. The US embassy under State Department rules will not issue a travel visa until the adoption is finished. Only the Secretary of State can make an exception and grant a travel visa. Once in the US, we can easily adopt them due to their status, ie, they have been legally abandoned and we are their legal guardians. When my half-brother abandoned these girls to the state orphanage IHNFA, they were 6, 9 and 10 years old and were not in school. They are now 10, 13 & 14 and have reached educational parity because of their hard work and the opportunity we gave them in Honduras, but they need a real home with us and not just with a caretaker in the most dangerous country in the world (2012 UN Report). After 4 years, we have run out of options in what we thought was going to be a temporary arrangement. This petition is to ask the Secretary of State John Kerry to approve of the legal exception he is authorized to do under US law. To instruct the US Embassy in Honduras to issue visitor visas so they these children who are legally abandoned, who have no parents and whom we are their legal guardians, may come to the US and live in our home which they deserve.

PLEASE WRITE YOUR AFFILIATION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION We are Illinois faculty members who strongly oppose Illinois Senate Bill 3017, proposed legislation that aims to curtail the constitutional right of all academics to determine for ourselves the scope of our academic associations. SB 3017 would prohibit Illinois public universities from using State aid to fund an academic entity, or even fund a professor’s membership or travel to attend a meeting of an academic entity, that “has issued a public resolution or other official statement” supporting or engaging in boycott. The legislation was proposed in direct response to the decisions of the American Studies Association (ASA) , the Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS) , and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAIS) to endorse an academic boycott of Israel. The legislation would impose the views of elected officials on Illinois universities. This bill aims to punish academic advocacy in the form of a boycott on an issue of public concern because some members of the Legislature disfavor the viewpoint expressed. In doing so, it opens the door to government interference in any academic speech activities on important political issues. The legislation violates academic freedom rights as guaranteed by the U.S. and Illinois Constitutions. SB3017 proposes to impose a political litmus test by which legislators dictate to universities which boycotts by academics are appropriate. Under the U.S. Constitution, “free speech is not a right that is given only to be so circumscribed that it exists in principle but not in fact.” For this reason, the government may not withhold funding in order to suppress “dangerous ideas.” We strongly oppose legislative attempts to put a strait jacket on the manner in which faculty associations exercise their academic and professional judgment. We urge our elected representatives in the Illinois General Assembly to reject Illinois Senate Bill 3017.

There is too much incompetence in the field of phlebotomy. There is currently no rules governing the practice of phlebotomy in this state. Currently the only requirement is to complete a program that takes, in some cases, less than 6 weeks and no laws governing those who complete it. At present, even a CNA is required to take a state skills exam and be held to a higher level of standards and they perform no invasive procedures. Phlebotomy is a skill that is invasive in itself and those that practice the skill should be held to a uniform standard throughout the state

Closing Heritage Heights directly effects all WNYers. It will effect our community, our jobs, our schools and our economy.

To provide many people, like my sister who is now battling breast cancer for a second time, the legal means to obtain medication that would allow her to eat and become healthy enough to battle this disease without throwing up after every meal while removing the fear of losing their jobs causing them to be without health care and benefits while they fight to recover.

Climate change is the greatest threat we face and the time we have when we can effectively deal with is short, the U.N. panel gives us about 15 years. The solution favored by economists is a market based solution that gradually raises the price of fossil fuels until green energy replaces it completely. Scientist say we can do this in 20 years with current technology but we need to start yesterday. For more info on solution on solution options try; the Carbon Tax Center, the Brookings Institution or Citizens Climate Lobby.

I believe students have the ability to make changes big or small. It would bring more money in for Platte Canyon and it would allow for one more activity for our youth. Activites are hard to come by in our small community. Keeping kids active has been proven to keep kids out of trouble.