I have watched my family and friends work so hard without getting ahead.

Many of us who live in the coastal resort areas of South Carolina, like Hilton Head, and Charleston, rely on out-of-state tourism revenues. We feel that allowing concealed firearms into places that serve alcohol is a recipe for tragedy. We also believe that posting "no guns allowed" signs in restaurant windows sends the wrong message to visitors, and will have a negative impact overall.

I would love to see the minimum wage increased. While in graduate school, I did substitute teaching(not minimum wage), beauty consultant(min.+ small percentage for making the owner rich), and waitressed for min.+ tips. My daughter is a delivery driver, minimum wage and she has to pay her own gas. Pizza Hut is lucky to have a driver with a math degree. Many teacher's aids in schools do not make the minimum, they make less than the substitutes. Many companies do not even allow their workers to work full time, so they don't have to pay benefits. Most people have or are looking for a second job to make ends meet. LET'S BE FAIR! :)

According to its 2013 Annual Report, “As a leader in the healthcare industry, Johnson & Johnson is committed to supporting the development of sound public policy in health care.” Yet the company opposes state governments’ efforts to make pseudoephedrine a prescription drug, as it was until 1976. Pseudoephedrine is used to manufacture methamphetamine. Since Oregon and Mississippi removed pseudoephedrine from the over-the-counter category, methamphetamine production in those states has fallen by 96% and 99.5%, respectively. The other 23 states that have tried to pass similar legislation have been stymied by the efforts of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), a lobbying and public relations firm. Johnson & Johnson is one of the biggest supporters of this organization. Drug companies earn about $605 million a year on the sale of pseudoephedrine. The failure properly to regulate these sales costs society much more. A 2009 study by the Rand Corporation concluded that methamphetamine abuse costs the nation between $16 and $48 billion annually. These billions are paid by the public for jails, hospitals, police and foster homes to address the consequences of methamphetamine abuse. Since drug companies that benefit from these sales are not paying for the negative health and social impacts of their product, the public is in this sense subsidizing these drug companies' operations. As a stockholder, I am appalled that my company chooses to make money from easy access to a drug that leaves children burned and dying, facilitates crime and domestic abuse and leads to ruined health. Mississippi and Oregon have shown that making pseudoephedrine available by prescription only substantially mitigates the terrible consequences of methamphetamine abuse. Johnson & Johnson’s support for efforts to defeat this sensible legislation is not the “love” it advertises; it truly tarnishes the image of Johnson & Johnson.

A package of harmful bills attacking access to women’s health care just passed the Alabama House and is poised to be debated in the Senate. These bills were designed to block access to abortion at any cost -- and it's clear that legislators haven’t gotten the message: People don’t want politicians to interfere in a woman’s personal, private decisions. Meanwhile, Alabama is facing budget shortfalls and lack of funding for education. We need to politicians to focus on the issues that impact all Alabamians, and not these dangerous bills. Act now to tell Alabama Senate leaders to reject these unnecessary and unacceptable bills.

Under one provision of a tax bill in Congress, businesses would no longer be able to take one-time tax deductions for all of the billions and billions they spend on marketing. A top advertising industry lobbyist said it was "a dreadful idea." So we know it would be effective. With advertising spending expected to increase, just in the U.S., to $160.8 billion in 2014 -- much of it targeting children, promoting unhealthy foods and products, or encouraging over-consumption -- closing this loophole that incentivizes excessive marketing would be a much-needed reform. Business expenses such as rent and utilities are immediately and fully deductible because at any moment in time they are essential to being in business. But because money spent on advertising can pay off over many years, this reform would require tax write-offs for advertising to be spread out over time as well. The reform is projected to increase federal tax revenue by $169 billion over the next ten years. That's revenue that could help fund important education, health care and other government programs.

Restricting a citizen's right to vote goes against every thing that our Democracy stands for and the reasons given for these changes are completely unjustified.

My name is Carmen Navarrette, and I have been a loyal and hardworking employee of McDonald's for more than nine years. While I was at work last week, I had a severe diabetic episode and ended up throwing up. Because I was feeling so sick, I asked my manager if I could go home and rest. Instead of offering to help me, he said that I could not go home and should just put a bullet in my head. This is just one example of the type of verbal abuse that McDonalds workers like myself are subjected to on a daily basis. The workers of McDonald's are standing up and demanding an end to the severe verbal abuse that we have had to endure over the years. We should be treated with respect and dignity, not as if we are expendable. If you believe that McDonald's should be a safe working environment for ALL workers then sign on to this petition and stand with the workers of McDonald's!

On February 3, NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was forced to withdraw a draconian bill that would have undermined academic freedom and free speech. His bill was designed to punish any state-funded college or university in NY that had used any of that money on activities related to groups that support boycotts of Israel. But enough pressure was put on Speaker Silver to force his withdrawal of that bill. But Speaker Silver quickly issued a revised version of his bill, titled A. 8392A. There is one difference between this and the earlier version: previously a college could have lost its entire state funding for a year if they had used any of their state funding on groups that support boycotts of Israel. In the new version, the college would only lose the amount of money actually spent on such activities. (1) This bill is opposed by the American Association of University Professors (2) and the New York affiliate of the ACLU. (3) In its legislative memo, the NYCLU noted that changing the means of punishing free speech doesn’t make the bill any less an unconstitutional attack on free speech. Regardless of how one feels about boycotting Israel, it’s the First Amendment right of academics to support or oppose such resolutions, and it’s their First Amendment right to participate in professional associations that support such resolutions. Urge New York legislators and Governor Cuomo to oppose Sheldon Silver’s attack on free speech by signing our petition. References: 1. The link to the full text is here: http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A08392&term=&Summary=Y&Text=Y. 2. “AAUP Opposes Anti-Boycott Legislation,” http://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-opposes-anti-boycott-legislation 3. "Legislative Memo: In Relation to Withholding State Funds from Public Universities that Support Academic Associations that are Engaging in Boycotts," NYCLU, February 10, 2014, http://www.nyclu.org/content/relation-withholding-state-funds-public-universities-support-academic-associations-are-engag

On January 17, 2014 a former student of mine took her own life. Madison Holleran was a freshman at U Penn, and she was also an extremely talented runner on U Penn's track team. Her suicide left a void in the hearts of so many people across the United States. This law would allow us to keep Madison's legacy alive, and help other young adults from choosing suicide as a way of escaping the pressures of college expectations.

With the state of the Internet as so we are being denied our RIGHTS to fully communicate without the PERMISSION of the Internet holders! Even our E-Mails are be Denied at will! Our voices are being Silences! Our freedom being withheld by the Owners of the Web! This practice is Going against the Ruled and Regulations of Internet Use!

If peace was more profitable than war we would not have many conflicts. So many decisions in congress seem to lack diplomacy while supporting the profits of war, this is wrong and an unethical way to spend our tax dollars. What goes around comes around, he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Implements of war, weather we are directly involved in a conflict or not, should be limited to cost of production. The U.S. should not be arms dealers.