I've been in northern Alberta before the demand from US & multinational oil companies made it feasible for the oil barons to rape the land. I've seen the pictures since. Not pretty. But it is DRIVEN BY CORPORATE GREED. The State Dept report says: "Approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project ... is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States." But that is UNTRUE. Not only would a denial send a strong message to Big Oil, it would protect OUR farms, OUR communities, OUR water, OUR air, OUR children. If Obama REALLY wants to lead our country against global warming, he will REFUSE to approve this pipeline.

Last election secretive out-of-state non-profits connected to the Koch brothers funneled $15 million of dark money into California. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Californians deserve to know who is influencing their elections. SB 27 will make sure billionaires and corporations can't hide behind secretive non-profits. It requires any group spending $50,000 in California elections to reveal exactly who gave the money. It is a key step before passage of the California DISCLOSE Act (SB 52). The final Assembly vote on SB 27 could come any day. Join Progressives United and the California Clean Money Campaign and sign our petition today demanding that Assembly members vote YES to close the dark money loophole.

Herakles Farms is a US agribusiness company who wants to plow through swaths of natural forest in Cameroon’s South west province and convert the area into a palm oil plantation. They have little regard for local laws, the local environment and - least of all - local communities, who have depended on the land for generations. The palm oil plantation be bad news for people. It also threatens the habitat of the chimpanzee. This forest is worth more to the people of Africa and future generations if it is left standing. Tell the people behind this reckless project to walk away and put their money somewhere else.

Rezoning the Union County school district may provide a temporary solution to the overcrowding in our community schools, however, it is just a temporary solution with continued population growth. Help support school choice and tuition free charter schools in Union County. Ballancrest Charter Academy will be strategically located to alleviate overcrowding and offer parents another choice for their children's education. Please sign this petition to support school choice in Union County and forward this petition to your friends and families!

Chicagoans deserve to know who controls our city services. We don’t want to make the same mistakes as we did when we outsourced our parking meters. Now parking meter rates have skyrocketed and taxpayers have no say in our own parking policies for 75 years. And despite this experience, the city continues to privatize services – from clinics to call centers. The PTAO will make sure the parking meter fiasco doesn’t happen again. The PTAO will give decision makers and the public all the information they need before a service is outsourced and ensure that the city of Chicago and Chicago residents benefit with better services and a more accountable government. Tell Mayor Emanuel that we support passage of the PTAO.

In his State of the Union, President Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 – an idea popular among many Republican, Independent, and Democratic voters. Shenna Bellows will deliver this petition to Rep. Susan Collins demanding she give 96,000 Maine residents a raise by supporting a minimum-wage increase. Can you sign this petition?

This petition is about the future of public education in Philadelphia

I am the Veterans Services Coordinator at North Shore Community College. We currently have 14 Veterans enrolled in school under the VRAP program for the spring semester which ends 5/12/2014. Many of these veterans count on the VRAP to subsidize their living expenses while in school. If the VRAP payments stop mid-semester, it would put many of these veterans into an extreme financial hardship.

An arcane Texas law allowed John Peter Smith Hospital to override a family's decision to remove a brain-dead woman from life support––because she was 14 weeks pregnant. After months of struggling with Texas courts and the hospital to respect her predetermined wishes, the family was finally able to put the mother and unborn fetus to rest––ending the torment this family has endured. But this hellish nightmare isn’t over. The grieving husband has begun to receive medical bills for his wife’s unwanted and contentious treatment. Overzealous sanctity of life laws to protect unborn children have forced the living members of this family-father and young son–to endure emotional stress and now financial hardship. Sign the petition demanding that this family not be held accountable for medical bills the state and hospital racked up––urge them to foot the bill and address this law immediately.

On January 30, I saw and read an article about a Pennsylvania man who duct taped his dog's muzzle as well as front and back legs. I hear about animal abuse a lot but for some reason this story chilled me to the core. The worst part about this story is the lack of punishment. The judge in this case, Joseph Kameen, is still allowing this cold, heartless man to own another animal because there was no prior history of abuse. This man ultimately wanted to end this dog's life with a firearm. We need to bring nation wide attention to the fact that regardless of history or no history, ANIMALS ARE FAMILY, which means they need to be treated like family! WE ARE their voice. WE ARE their hope. WE ARE their protectors. Please help me to stand up for harsher penalties!

Utilities companies are pushing the California Public Utilities Commission to change the rules on an important credit for solar panel owners. Stop utility companies from making solar more expensive. When families produce electricity with solar panels on their homes, they get an important credit on energy bills. This reduces our dependence on fossil fuels by making solar energy accessible to more people. Opportunities and incentives for families to “go solar” are essential to scale up the kid-safe, climate-safe energy we need to fight climate change. The California Public Utilities Commission is reviewing the rules on net metering, the credit given to customers with solar power when they give back the extra energy their solar panels produce to the electricity grid. Utility companies want to change the rules to give people partial credit for this electricity. But, people who installed solar expected the rules to be consistent for the 30-year life of their systems. Our kids deserve a clean energy future. When my sons ask how we’re acting to protect our climate, I want to confidently tell them California is creating -- and keeping -- policies that support and increase solar power. Standing up for families who invest in clean energy is one clear way to move toward the kid-safe, climate-safe energy solutions we need. California families who invest in rooftop solar should be able to expect long-term bill savings the entire time their solar system is producing clean energy. Don’t let utility companies hurt families who invest in solar by drastically reducing this credit.

When President Obama gave his state of the union, he called for raising the minimum wage to give working Americans a chance to make a living wage. Senator Toomey said that he does not support the president or raising the minimum wage. Toomey said, "The fact is, [raising the minimum wage] prices people out of work." No one who is working should live in poverty. The current minimum wage is not a living wage, it keeps over 1 million hard-working Pennsylvanians in poverty, and does not take into account the rising costs of supporting and feeding a family. As a society, we must do better, we must provide a basic standard of living and a pathway to economic mobility. That is why, if elected to Congress, I will continue the fight that I started in the Pennsylvania legislature to raise the minimum wage and tie it to an annual cost of living adjustment so that we never have to have these fights again.