Zoo official have failed to expand the elephants' living area with the money they received from a 2008 bond issue. What have they done with the bond money designated for this purpose? Elephant exhibits and breeding programs are profit driven exploitation and it is time overdue for the Oregon Zoo to close its exhibit and retire the elephants to a sanctuary. With strong evidence from scientists, animal behavior experts and responsible animal rights organizations, it is no longer debatable whether captivity contributes to serious physical and emotional problems for elephants. IT DOES.

McDonald’s acknowledged that worker strikes and social media campaigns (hey, that’s us!) “can adversely affect us,” and that increased focus on income inequality could mean they have to raise wages. Wow, how’s that for confirming our campaign is working? We can’t stop now. We won’t stop now. We have to keep the pressure on. If you think it’s high time McDonald’s raised their workers’ pay, add your name to our thank you letter and share it far and wide after you have.

I would like to see the entirety of our Congress use their legislative powers to reverse the Supreme courts decision on citizens united, thereby starting to remove big money from our political apparatus. Our government should be for the people not just rich elitists. We the peoplewant our voices heard, and we shouldn't have to pay for it. End Citizens United now!

Income Inequality affects us all, at all levels of society. I am starting this petition because I think this is something we can do in my city, New York City. My hope is that it will inspire other cities, state legislatures, then federal governments to do so. For more information, see: http://www.100to1.io/

I am appalled by this inhumane practice.

Meet Daniel Bonilla Maldonado. Daniel came to the United States in 2005 in order to escape extreme economic hardship and gang persecution in Honduras. Daniel has had steady employment for the past 9 years and lives with his wife and children including a US Citizen son. In 2012, Daniel was the passenger of a car that was stopped by police for a broken tail light. Though a background search on Daniel revealed no criminal record whatsoever, Daniel was arrested, along with the driver, and suffered abusive language, poor treatment, and ethnic slurs by the police officers. Daniel was transferred to ICE custody, where he was detained for 25 days before being released. After over a year of legal battles with expense but inadequate legal representation, he was denied a stay of deportation and ordered to report to ICE bi-weekly. Daniel says that he would be afraid to call the police, even if he was the victim of the crime. “After all that’s happened, I've lost faith in the strength of justice in this country. If I can be arrested for simply riding in the passenger’s seat of a car, surely I can be arrested for being a mere victim.” The TRUST Act would stop local law enforcement from turning people, like Daniel, over to immigration and help to restore the trust between immigrant communities and the law enforcement institutions they need to rely on for protection. Support the Maryland Law Enforcement TRUST Act Vote FOR HB 29 and SB 554

When I decided to go work for a nonprofit environmental group, I did so in part because the government promised to forgive the balance of our loan debt if I worked in a public service (NGO) job for 10+ years. This made the corresponding dip in income palatable. With it came lower monthly payments (based on income), but the tradeoff was that we would accrue much more interest over time. This was okay if the government was going to forgive the debt. Based on that promise from the government, I declined a job at a law firm and went to work an environmental non-profit dedicated to river restoration. Now, President Obama is proposing a change that would penalize me for making the decision retroactively. The changes would increase my monthly payments by 5X, and would revoke the loan forgiveness promise that I relied upon, and instead cap it at an unreasonably low level. These changes make the prospect of having children, buying a house, or continuing public service career paths very difficult. President Obama's proposing this change under the auspices of reducing the cost of higher education. But instead of requiring higher education institutions to limit tuition levels (to qualify for federal loans), or imposing the risk of default on those schools, he's chosen to impose the penalty on students, and those dedicated to missions that serve the public interest.

It's time to help everyone continue to live this American dream and enjoy life adding better pay and providing a cost of living allowance would be helpful to those that have maintained a positive employment, then the employer would allocate on special needs basis or job strength.

Maryland’s workers deserve a fair wage! Vote for SB 331 and HB 295 raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016! We believe that to strengthen our State we need to strengthen our workers. While corporate profits are at an all-time high our families are being left behind. The current minimum wage of $7.25 keeps our working families in poverty. By raising the minimum wage we can help provide the boost to these families deserve while supporting local business and creating job opportunities. A recently published report by the National Women’s Law Center stated the importance of a higher minimum wage and a higher tipped minimum wage to ensure fair pay for women and members of our community. Vote for SB 331 and HB 295!

See ten pages of reasons under Preface of document linked. Thank you.

It is time for parents to stand up against the unfair forcing of children into high stakes testing situations. Testing is a multi-billion dollar industry. Our government, subject to powerful lobbyists and money, can’t be counted to stop this epidemic. There is NO evidence that these tests accurately measure a child's knowledge. There are numerous real variables, such as poverty, which have much higher significance on a child's success rate. High-stakes standardized test are a boondoggle, created to enable cynical developers to privatize our childrens' education-- for profit. We believe that parents have a constitutional right (under the 14th Amendment) to protect their child however they feel necessary. To protect our children from the madness of standardized testing, we must be free to exercise our parental rights to opt-out, free of any fears that there could be punishments inflicted on their children, their teachers or their schools.

The level of fossil fuel pollution (chiefly CO2) in the atmosphere is already affecting the planet's climate. The prospects for coming generations do not look good. A universal response is needed if we are to stop this dangerous trend. To get everyone on board in reducing the amounts of fossil fuels they use, the government should get involved by providing economic incentives like this fee/dividend combination. The fee/dividend would penalize the greatest users of fossil fuels and reward those who used little. Everyone would be involved trying to maximize their economic advantage by minimizing the fees they paid. Each individual would try to use less fossil fuels.