We need to stop ignoring the Heroin/Drug epidemic in this State/Country. We need more Drug Rehab Centers for people that can't afford to pay for one and without lengthy waiting lists. We also need to change the law so that we can have our addicts committed to rehab when their unable to make those decisions themselves. The Pharmaceutical Companies need to contribute to this cause with all the Billions they've made off of sick/weak people. Addiction is a disease and we need to treat it as such. We can't wait! We're losing our loved ones on a daily basis due to this disease. We need to wake up to this epidemic!! We need CHANGE!! Please don't ignore this.

Art Pope and his family for generations have strategically placed their bargain stores in low income and minority neighborhoods. Now Art Pope is using the same millions he made off of the poor to help elect GOP legislators that enact policies that adversely affect the poor in North Carolina.

Indiana deserves long-term solutions to energy supply, and not at the expense of our natural resources. Indiana need not contribute to the further despoiling of the environment. The economy needs to grow through renewable energy (wind, solar, water), not extraction of fossil fuels.

The U.S. Senate will be voting on a bill to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over three years. The bill would also increase the tipped minimum wage, which has been $2.13 an hour since 1991. Huge majorities across the political spectrum support an increase in the minimum wage. It's good for workers, good for local businesses, and it's the right thing to do. Tell Senators Cornyn and Cruz: it's time to raise the minimum wage.

Senator Elizabeth Warren says that secret corporate political spending is “fundamentally wrong. It undercuts the basic notions of corporate democracy, and ultimately all of democracy.” Stand with Senator Warren—demand that the SEC require disclosure of secret corporate political spending. Citizens United opened the door for corporations to inject unlimited money into our politics—but the Supreme Court assumed it would all be disclosed to shareholders and the public! Instead there’s been an explosion of dark money in our elections. Without a disclosure rule from the SEC, corporations can spend entirely behind closed doors. That’s why a record breaking 660,000 comments have called for the SEC to act to require disclosure of corporate political spending, from investors, public officials, securities experts, and citizens like you. Americans overwhelmingly oppose the rise of secret corporate political spending and understand that the SEC must act now to stop this new threat before even more dark corporate money floods our elections. However, SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White rejected these appeals and removed the rule from the SEC’s 2014 agenda. She’s getting pressure from powerful business groups who prefer to use shareholder money to exert political power without any accountability. Stand with Senator Warren and tell the SEC to act on the corporate political disclosure rule now! It is up to us to let the SEC know we need the corporate political disclosure rule back on their agenda to stop secret corporate political spending.

As the catastrophe at Fukushima worsens, Japan's State Secrets Act threatens to cut the flow of vital information. We ask Ambassador Kennedy to oppose this act so the world might know what is happening at Fukushima and how to respond.

I feel that the government is targeting the wrong people to deport. American is built by its immigrants moving into this country and enriching it with its diversities. If we force families to split and destroy hard working people by sending them away, what message is America sending. Deport the immigrants that have committed crimes out of the country, not heard working people that have done nothing wrong but sought refuge in us when they were in need.

The Boston Globe reports: 'As Santa streaks through the sky this Christmas Eve, Rudolph merrily guiding the way, he will be flanked by some new and unusual companions: a jet-fighter escort, bristling with missiles. That is the twist that — to the dismay of at least some child advocates — the US military has chosen to put on this year’s version of its traditional animated tracking of the yuletide journey. The popular program, without the jet escort, reached 22 million people last year and generated tens of thousands of phone calls from kids and their parents around the country. The mock mission allows families, either by calling or logging on, to get “real-time” updates on Old St. Nick’s global trip to bring holiday cheer to girls and boys. This year’s updated segment, now previewing on the military’s website, depicts Santa soaring over snow-capped peaks with military aircraft keeping pace on either side. [...] But as the word gets out, the plan is taking flak. Some say the Pentagon appears to have lost its way by introducing destructive weaponry to the otherwise jolly image of Santa setting out from the North Pole. Up to now, the most threatening aspect of Santa’s flight had been lumps of coal. “Children associate Santa with gifts and fun and everything else that is positive about Christmas,” said Allen Kanner, a California child and family psychologist and cofounder of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. “They are associating this with the military in children’s minds. It is completely out of line.”' [...] http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/12/02/pentagon-tracking-santa-with-new-twist-armed-jet-fighters/aFYyrQhOjNlZw9OnsKSWQM/story.html Urge Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to cancel Pentagon plans to give Santa a military escort of armed fighter jets. Christmas should be a time of peace. The Pentagon shouldn't use Christmas to recruit children for war.

I don't like that we are being forced to enter our personal information into a facial recognition database in order to get a driver's license. There should be a right to opt out. I would like to see how many people are against this dangerous violation of privacy. Is your state putting your face into a facial recognition database? 37 states now use their facial recognition in their DMV database. 26 of those allow law enforcement access to the DMV database. See this site to see if your state is one of those that has facial recognition (if your state is not on the list, remember: You're next): http://www.lossofprivacy.com/index.php/tag/facial-recognition/

Fast-food jobs pay so little that 52 percent of the families of front-line fast food workers need to rely on public assistance programs, costing taxpayers nearly $7 billion a year. Even at 40 hours a week, more than half of front-line fast-food workers are forced to rely on public assistance to cover basic needs like food, rent and healthcare. Compared to the overall economy, fast-food jobs are twice as likely as other jobs to pay so little that workers are forced to rely on public assistance. We know that workers put their money right back into our economy. Increasing fast food workers’ wages to $15 an hour will not only help struggling families in community make ends meet, it will also spur economic growth. When fast food workers win, this will help lift up all low-wage workers, and improve our entire economy.

The Family Court System and The Child Support Bureaus allow parents to get too far behind on their payments. Six (6) months is a reasonable amount of time to allow for financial emergencies to be rectified. The current system allows too much time to elapse which allows the offending parent to get thousands and thousands of dollars in arrears on both child support AND medical/dental bills. The current system puts an undue financial burden upon the custodial parent to pay $150.00 to file against the offending parent to bring the case back to court. The Family Court System should be the ones to enforce a their own Court Order. The violating parent is in CONTEMPT OF A COURT ORDER. Give 1 week for the arrears to be satisfied at the amount of 1/4 total monies due to the custodial parent or be immediately incarcerated. The Family Court System should then set up a payment program to keep the offending party remain current , as well as additional payments to satisfy the arrears. Make the offending party work not only for their cost of being incarcerated but satisfy their debt to their children. The American taxpayer now must fill these gaps with other government programs and that places an undue burden on the taxpayers to cover food stamps and medical care for these children. We deserve relief from dead beat parents who make children and don't pay their fair share. My daughter is a dead beat parent. She has three "new children" and scoffs at a past court order to pay for her oldest 3 children. I do this for my oldest three grandchildren and all the other children who do without because of a system that doesn't work! Thank you for any and all support you can give. Together, we can change an unjust system and bring back personal responsibility to parenthood in the United States of America.

ALEC’s primary purpose is to influence legislation at the state level, yet for years it has disclaimed on its tax returns spending a penny on lobbying. As the Guardian reported, last summer ALEC informed legislators and corporate lobbyists that it has incorporated a new organization to seek non-profit status under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. In so doing, ALEC appears to acknowledge that the allegations of tax fraud in complaints from Common Cause, the Voters Legislative Transparency Project, and Clergy Voice, supplemented by evidence provided by the Center for Media and Democracy, helped spur this incorporation. These latest revelations about ALEC in the Guardian add weight to the argument that ALEC primarily operates like a trade group for its corporate funders, backing the bills sought by corporate lobbyists and buying lawmakers’ trips to meet with those lobbyists about bills.