In Massachusetts, three insurance companies have a combined market share of nearly 70% of the health insurance market. Having a meaningful number of options available to Massachusetts families is a necessary component of a health care system that can control costs. Having a public option would give Massachusetts families more choices. In addition, a public plan could operate without excessive administrative and marketing costs, high executive salaries or a need to generate profits. As a result, a public option could provide a good deal for consumers and keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers well by acting as a benchmark for affordability and quality of care. As proud as I am of the progress we've made in Massachusetts on health care, we still have a ways to go. Establishing a public option is one more step we can take to make sure that every resident has access to the best possible health care in the Commonwealth.

Everyone should be concerned about lower electricity bills and breaking up the monopoly electricity providers in Florida. U.S. Congressional FERC Order 888 dated from 1998 DEREGULATION OF ELECTRICITY in America. Remember telephone deregulation gave us the cheap phone bills we have now and electricity deregulation could do the same for your overpriced electricity bills you now pay.

Our natural resources and sacred lands are being threatened for short sighted monetary gain. When the natural gas is gone, the devastation will remain for generations. Ask yourself: "what are leaving for the next generations?"

The Marcellus shale layer is radioactive. Radon can escape every time a well is drilled. Some of the drilling and compressing chemicals are carcinogenic, toxic or neurotoxic. Thousands of industrial compounds are not tested for their risk to human health. No driller is required to reveal what chemicals they are using or when. We do not have the knowledge, testing equipment, or experience to protect our children. This highly industrial activity imposed by ACT 13 should not be allowed to put our children in harms way. No permission slips were sent home. Tell school officials, State representatives, the Governor, and the President. No Marcellus Shale risky behavior next to our schools and our children. PASS LEGISLATIVE PROTECTION NOW. NO PERMISSION GRANTED. STAY A MILE AWAY. For more information go to web site LINK Protect Our Children

This petition has been created to repeal the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Format and revert to the previous state. Many fans have shown their displeasure with this new "format". Drivers that win the championship should be skilled and consistent during all 36 races. The fans should have a voice on the sport that they love and support.

Oxfam has cut ties with celebrity Scarlett Johansson over Johansson's new role as a "global ambassador" for the Israeli company SodaStream, which is based in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank. As Oxfam stated: "Johansson's role promoting the company SodaStream is incompatible with her role as an Oxfam global ambassador. Oxfam believes that businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law." Thank Oxfam for taking this principled stand by signing our petition.

Last month, Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil trader, made a historic commitment to cut out deforestation, peatland destruction and the exploitation of human rights from its supply chain. This development has huge potential to transform the palm oil industry and the lives of people impacted by landgrabs and forest destruction. But so far, it’s just words on paper. Wilmar’s promise only matters if the company takes rapid and responsible action. Wilmar’s crimes span continents: it has much to amend. In West Kalimantan, Indonesia, one of Wilmar’s suppliers, Bumitama Agri, stands accused of destroying thousands of acres of forest and maintaining illegal plantations inside protected forest reserves. In the Kalangala Islands of Uganda, Wilmar subsidiaries have taken thousands of acres from local communities and have destroyed natural forest to grow palm oil. In Nigeria, Wilmar has acquired land that overlaps national forest reserves and community-owned lands, and has already deforested and bulldozed thousands of acres of forest and farmland. Tell Wilmar: Your promise of No Deforestation, No Exploitation, No Peat requires urgent action. And it should start now.

My daughter is 7 yrs old she has been without her father over a year because he went home to help out with his sick father and for him to have a vehicle to go to the hospitals .We are married yet he cant get back into the u.s that is why I think they need to pass this immigration bill. so my emotional affected daughter can reunite with her father. Please help

Campus harassment is a gateway crime, and creates a culture where words can escalate to physical contact and other forms of violence, including stalking, assault or rape. According to research by Cornell's ILR Institute, harassment in public space has similar emotional impacts as sexual assault or rape including a sense of self-doubt, low self-esteem/self worth, and possible feelings of despair. This can also reduce students' feelings of safety on campus, impacting their mobility including their use of campus transportation. We believe that everyone should be able to access education safely, without fear of harassment or assault.

There are still disparities in access to safe Bicycle and Pedestrian infrastructure for low-income and people of color communities like mine across the country. For example, bicycling and walking make up 12% of all trips, but over 16% of all fatalities. The fatality rate for Hispanic bicyclists is 23% higher than for white bicyclists and 30% higher for African American bicyclists. 71% of people of color agree that safer bicycling would make their community better.

It has become increasingly obvious that the wealthy and the big corporations are not paying their share of income taxes, and that our tax code system is written so they can get away without paying . This leaves it only up to the working class and middle class to pay for it all and this is totally unfair.

I need to address a situation concerning my son, and his mom regarding a summons to dispossess. Ms. Williams attempted to move out at the end of last year after her employer cut her hours as a teacher with Central Georgia Technical College. I had paid for a rented truck from U-Haul for her on my credit card, and this I have receipt of. The leasing office persuaded her that she did not have to move out. They said, “the office would work with her until she got her tax return in January of this year.” Before this fact, Ms. Williams has never been belated on her rent. She categorically decided to stay under the supposition she had fortification from the leasing office, which were unbeknownst to the owner. They placed a pre-eviction notice on her apartment; she subsequently called the employees at the leasing office, and they told her not to worry that is a standard process. This is the gist of this situation, which is an overzealous practice seeking finality instead of seeking the truth. An all too familiar process by this leasing company, and these owners has stigmatized her for future rental contracts. I wholeheartedly acknowledge the fact she has missed her January rent; however, this is predicated on a decision by the leasing office. We have two options here, either I pay her rent, and this goes away with her unscathed, and she then move out this week, or your company rescind this dispossession, and I still pay the one month rent minus the money I had to spend to rent the U-Haul with this going away quietly. I would prefer the latter! I told her to move once her apartment got infested with bedbugs, and she had to throw all of her furniture away. O.C.G.A. Section 44-7-52 states, “When tender of payment by tenant serves as complete defense. In an action for nonpayment of rent, the tenant shall be allowed to tender to the landlord, within seven days of the day the tenant was served with the summons pursuant to Code Section 44-7-51, all rents allegedly owed plus the cost of the dispossessory warrant. Such a tender shall be a complete defense to the action; provided, however, that a landlord is required to accept such a tender from any individual tenant after the issuance of a dispossessory summons only once in any 12 month period.” Paying any court cost isn’t an option towards this egregious mistake by your unprofessional staff. This is beyond the standards of the quid pro quo. Furthermore, I was on a three-way phone call with Ms. Williams. Your staffs made a racist connotation toward her that she did not understand since she was reared in Florida. I will be 51 years old this year, and I have seen this play, and it is straight out of the playbook of the racist south I saw numerous of times before in Macon, Georgia. That is the crucial motivations why I am informing the local chapter of NAACP, and notifying the H.U.D. of this horrendous racist, and discriminatory acts. Sadly, and wretchedly, this cowardly act happened in the same week we celebrated the greatest civil rights icon in this century, Dr. Martin Luther King. I thought we had moved on from these policies of hate and fear mongering. The ghost of Jim Crow is alive and well now we have to deal with his grandson, and granddaughter, James and Jane Crow; Esq, under the guise of Richard Crosby, et al! Presently, I am organizing a boycott on all social medias, moveon.org, NAACP, all African-American churches locally, and I am alerting the press in Central Georgia. Your company drew first blood, and this is our rejoinder to your racist actions. I don’t expect your company to get in touch with me because I am an African-American, and you all have high disregards for my kind of people. If you all chose to step up to the plate like a business, I can be reach at 478-262-4858. This is not going away; your company have chance to right this wrong before this ticking bomb of public relation blows up in your face.