On December 14th, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection began accepting comments on proposed revisions to the state’s oil and gas regulations. The PA DEP’s Environmental Quality Board is also conducting 7 public hearings during the 60-day comment period that ends on February 12th. Currently, communities in 38 counties are being fracked, yet the EQB is only holding hearings in 7 counties, including 2 where no fracking is occurring. Meanwhile, the most heavily impacted counties, like Bradford and Butler are being passed over. We are calling on the DEP to add hearings in every county being fracked. In addition, the 60-day comment period is far too short. Proposed rules like these demand ample time for comment. Rules on similarly important matters have been subject to comment periods anywhere from 120-days to six months long. The short comment period also impacts the scheduling of the hearings. The first hearing is scheduled for January 7th, the second day of the first full work week of the new year. All seven will be held within 17 days during one of the most difficult travel months of the year. No alternate dates have been provided by the DEP, nor have they stated a process for cancelling and rescheduling meetings due to weather. Does the DEP really want to hear from you? Sure doesn’t seem that way! Demand that the DEP do its job and listen to your comments and concerns. Tell them to add hearings so people, some whose lives have been turned upside down by fracking, are heard. Tell them to extend the comment period so that these proposed rules receive the proper scrutiny. We risk nothing by taking our time to get this right; we risk everything by rushing.

Amid all the alarm about NSA and other government agencies spying on US citizens, we have ignored that fact that it all starts with data collection by private sector companies. This data hoarding, largely without the consent or knowledge of most users, poses a threat to our freedom and autonomy, regardless of whether NSA is using it. The very existence of such data on such a scale is a permanent risk to a free society.

Because i have a spouse in the state of georgia and i think it would help me and him and other familys to have conjugal visits with there family memebers..

The Leuser Ecosystem is home to the densest population of orangutans remaining anywhere in the world and is the only place where orangutans, tigers, elephants, rhinos and sun bears live in the same forest together. The people of Aceh have long fought to protect the Leuser Ecosystem as it also provides them with clean water for downstream irrigation, agriculture and food production and helps avoid soil erosion, flooding, landslides and pest outbreaks. Massive palm oil companies are pushing hard to open this pristine ecosystem up for mass clearing in order to plant palm oil plantations. Local activists and community members are being joined by scientists and conservationists around the world to call for protection for the Leuser. And protection comes down to one man, Governor Dr. Zaini Abdullah, who can nominate the Leuser as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Some successful petitions on the White House petition site have received no official response for a very long time. The least they can do, if they provide a site like that, is to make prompt responses.

December 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, one of the world's strongest and most effective wildlife protection laws. Unfortunately, just at this time when we celebrate four decades of success with the ESA, a bill that could rightly be called the “Extinction Act” has been introduced by anti-environment lawmakers in the House and Senate (H.R. 3533 / S. 1731). This bill would gut the ESA and put imperiled species at greater risk. This bill would harm imperiled species by: - Automatically removing them from the lists of endangered and threatened species after five years, whether or not they've recovered. - Letting politics win over science by requiring that state governors give their consent before species in their states can be listed under the ESA, and requiring a joint resolution of Congress to approve the listing of species as threatened or endangered. - Undermining citizens' ability to enforce the ESA in court and to help protect imperiled species by filing citizen listing petitions.

Citizens United was a disaster. It opened the floodgates for corporations to write big checks to fund right-wing special interest attacks, helping them pour $719 million into the 2012 elections. The question is, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to stuff this "corporations are people, elections are auctions, democracy is for sale" mess into the Dumpster of Bad Ideas? Here's how: A constitutional amendment that puts power back in the hands of the people. The actual, human people. Sign the petition to join me in calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. - Al Franken

Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, unemployment benefits that help millions of long-term unemployed workers and their families will expire. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that failing to act will cost the economy $37.8 billion and 310,000 jobs. Denying jobless aid isn't just economically reckless -- it's morally wrong. Congress doesn't have much time to act before the first wave of workers is affected. That's why we need to let Congressman Peter Roskam know that his district supports extending a lifeline to long-term unemployed workers.

Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, unemployment benefits that help millions of long-term unemployed workers and their families will expire. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that failing to act will cost the economy $37.8 billion and 310,000 jobs. Denying jobless aid isn't just economically reckless -- it's morally wrong. Congress doesn't have much time to act before the first wave of workers is affected. That's why we need to let Congressman Randy Hultgren know that his district supports extending a lifeline to long-term unemployed workers.

This week, the beloved vice principal at Eastside Catholic School in Washington state was ousted after he got married to another man. Sadly, similar incidents have been happening at Catholic schools across America. But this time was different, because hundreds of high-school students walked out of class and held a rally outside to demand that the Catholic archdiocese reinstate their vice principal. The students' courageous protest is already making headlines. Students at other schools are holding their own protests in solidarity and alumni are threatening to withhold their donations. It's time for the Catholic Church to make good on Pope Francis' words by changing its unjust and discriminatory employment policies.

The difficulty and time it takes to be paid for services rendered is UNACCEPTABLE and needs IMMEDIATE RESOLUTION! Early Steps Providers owed THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS are unable to pay mortgages and other bills, buy Christmas presents, carry full work caseloads, pay taxes, etc as a result of these issues. These are billing issues the Providers have not caused, and should therefore not be penalized to resolve them by spending countless UNPAID hours begging Med3000 for our money!

This petition was started by alumni from Eastside Catholic High School. After we started this, we were happy to hear of an earlier petition the current students at Eastside began, which can be found here: https://www.change.org/petitions/united-states-conference-of-catholic-bishops-change-the-roman-catholic-church-s-stance-on-gay-marriage It's time for a doctrinal change in the Catholic Church and its position on homosexuality and marriage. In the words of Pope Francis, "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" The churches stance on homosexuality is medieval, and it's policies are not following in the teachings of Christ, Pope Francis or our basic human rights to chose who we love. Eastside Catholic should take a stance to protect one of their own over this unjust policy, and reinstate Mark Zmuda immediately.