Representative Paul Ryan just released the latest version of his budget, once again proposing to slash lifelines for the poor and middle class. Worse yet, Marquette University, a Catholic institution, gave him an award for public service -- selling tickets and sponsorships to the swanky luncheon for up to $25,000. It's one thing to recognize an elected official's public service and invite him to speak. But it's quite another for a Catholic university to trade on Paul Ryan's popularity with the super-wealthy to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, flouting Pope Francis' words about trickle-down economics and service to the poor. Instead of accepting this money and effectively endorsing Ryan's worldview, Marquette should donate the money raised at this luncheon to the poor.

Walgreens is the nation’s largest drugstore chain. Its business is all about promoting and supporting health and wellness, including its own families, friends and neighbors in Springfield, Illinois, where the company is based. In 2013, testing[1] of items bought from Walgreens found, among other things, high levels of lead in decorative beads, and high levels of phthalates in out-door folding chairs. Lead can cause brain damage,[2] while phthalates, an endocrine disruptor, can produce adverse reproductive impacts such as low sperm count, and even cancer.[3] While Walgreens has taken some steps to address certain environmental and public health risks, such as launching the "Ology™" Brand of Healthy Home Products that is free of phthalates and other risky chemicals, what about all the other products it carries? It has yet to adopt a chemical policy to work with their suppliers to reduce, eliminate, or safely substitute the Hazardous 100+ chemicals identified by the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition. How can the company in good conscience continue to sell products that could contain dangerous chemicals that could actually cause harm to their clients? Walgreens needs to be a good neighbor and help protect Illinois families... and ALL families! Sign the petition and tell Walgreens: No more toxic products! [1] http://www.healthystuff.org/retailer-walgreens.php [2] http://saferchemicals.org/toxic-chemicals/lead.html [3] http://saferchemicals.org/toxic-chemicals/phthalates.html

As constituents of Henrico and parents of former and prospective Book Bowl team members, we are devastated that Book Bowl was cancelled without any community input. Book Bowl reaches and addresses the needs of MANY and creates a positive and supportive "team" for those kids who may not have other forums for team competition.

I am starting this petition because we feel that we deserve a college basketball game brought back to the main gaming systems. NCAA College Basketball is a very demanded game and would be very fun and would in the end, be bought by a lot of people. I hope that you consider making this game for all of us.

If we allow people to pay for election results we have lost our ability to be heard. The country becomes a plutocracy instead of a constitutional republic. It then will be legal to bribe politicians and to make it harder for the justice system to protect the citizens.

From the OWH: The Nebraska School Activities Association has asked a state champion from its speech contest to change the content of his poem before recording it for a television program. The student won a first place medal at the state high school speech tournament last week reciting poems about gender identity. The association, however, has deemed the poems too controversial to be featured in a public TV broadcast highlighting the best performers at the competition. Michael Barth of Gordon-Rushville High School performed poems titled "Swingset" and "Same Love," according to Rhonda Blanford-Green, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association.

Individuals who are denied health insurance affects all citizens through increased hospitalization and other medical costs. Our state will thrive more when all of our citizens are cared for. Please sign this petition and send a message to Columbia.

Colorado is a pro-choice state. Attempts to take away women’s rights to make their own health care decisions have been overwhelmingly rejected by the voters of Colorado--twice. But ironically, that success has led to a new problem: politicians who have attacked women’s reproductive rights for their entire careers who are suddenly trying to hide from their past.

Only .4% of the Department of Health and Human Services budget goes to the Adult Protective Services Department. In January there was 3000 cases and only 112 APS agents in the entire state of Michigan. A member of my family had a large part of her savings stolen due to telephone fraud and exploitation. Several of her elderly neighbors have been neglected or abused by family members and caretakers. We want abuse, exploitation, and neglect investigated and eliminated for this vulnerable adult population. Help the governor and state legislature see that we care what is happening to our elderly. More money needs to be invested into this population. Please don't hesitate sign our petition today your future depends on it.

We want to start this petition to show the state that we are concerned about the proposed changes to West Virginia IDD Waiver Manual that limits any person from working more than 40 hours a week with a waiver participant. This will affect our families by limiting care givers even more and in turn affect the individual by not having enough consistent staff.

Young kids are killing themselves on a drug that so easily accessible to kids..with the misrepresentation that it is all natural ..I have had personally seen that effects of it. I had a perfectly healthy teenage nephew who smoked daily because of easy it was to get.Now Atleast once a week his in the hospital because something is wrong with him, anything from heart attack to stomach ulcers, to things brawling inside him...And just last week my daughters mom had to bury her son at 20 yrs old from suicide.from what we believe was from effects of excessive smoking of the drug spice..And all though there is not enough evidence showing that this drug does cause brain damage, or suicidal tendencies.the reality is young kids everyday are either dying or put in mental.So until we know more about it and the long ten effects..It is are responsibility to protect our children...

As a result of two disastrous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, our fragile democracy is at risk of turning into a full-blown plutocracy. In the 'McCutcheon v. FEC' case, the Supreme Court recently permitted super-rich individuals to dole out as much as $5.9 million every two years to political candidates and parties. The limit had been $123,000, which -- at more than double the median U.S. household income -- already gave the 1% far more than their fair share of “influence” over elected officials. And now their power has been multiplied almost unimaginably. This ruling does for the hyper-wealthy what a 2010 ruling -- the infamous 'Citizens United v. FEC' -- did for corporations. That travesty of jurisprudence saw the high court rule that corporations can exploit First Amendment rights, where were intended for actual human beings, to spend literally as much money as they want promoting or attacking (and of course it’s usually attacking) political candidates. Together, these two dumbfounding and wrong-headed rulings make it a certainty that politicians will become far more beholden to deep-pocketed funders than they already are. The democratic ideals that form the very foundations of our nation could disintegrate around us. Unless . . . we fight back by mobilizing nationwide support for a constitutional amendment to overturn 'Citizens United' and 'McCutcheon' and to prevent the Supreme Court from misreading the First Amendment as granting billionaires and Big Business unlimited power to control our elections. Take the critical step today of adding your name to the petition right now.