Boundary Stone, a local restaurant in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC, tweeted out a petition opposing a minimum wage increase for tipped workers. Many people who live off of tips can't afford basic necessities. Tipped employees in DC make $2.77 an hour. This is too low. Boundary Stone should apologize for taking this public stance and should voluntarily raise the wages for their tipped employees. To learn more about what it's like to live off of tips, here is a great video from the Restaurant Opportunity Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc_8uDr-ce0 Boundary Stone's tweet is here: https://twitter.com/BoundaryStoneDC/status/402856058005114880

This holiday season, a Walmart store in Canton, OH is having a food drive. How nice. Except this food drive is for its own employees. Yes, you read that correctly. Walmart pays so little that a charity food drive seems like a good idea. But this is just the latest illustration of the poverty wages Walmart pays its employees. Clearly, it's time for Walmart to start paying it workers a wage they can live on. Sign our petition to Walmart Chairman S. Robson Walton, demanding Walmart start to pay its employees a living wage. Walmart's shady employment practices are well known. Instead of paying employees enough to eat, Walmart pays them so little that many qualify for food stamps. Instead of giving them a good health plan, Walmart pays them so little they qualify for Medicaid and food stamps. This is how Walmart uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize astronomical profits for its owners, the Walton family -- a family which is currently worth as much as the bottom 30% of American families combined. Having a food drive for your own employees illustrates Walmart's shameless labor practices. Sign our petition to Walmart Chairman S. Robson Walton today, demanding Walmart start to pay its employees a living wage. Thank you, Erin Wagner Digital Director Progressives United Progressives United was founded by former Senator Russ Feingold in February of 2011 to combat the corrupting influence of corporate money in our elections and government.

The Montgomery County Public School Superintendent Joshua Starr has proposed to change the schedule of “bell times” (begin and end times) for all schools to accommodate a later start time for high school students. There are several options on the table that propose to end the elementary school day and even middle school day well after 3:30. (For children being dismissed as late at 4:00, this means getting home or settled into after-care no sooner than 4:30pm leaving very little time before sunset.) The proposal cites the benefits for health, well being and safety of high school teens as the primary reason for this change. The proposal does NOT however consider the effects of a later end time on elementary school students or young middle school students. The negative effects on a later end time for elementary school students, young middle school children and families include: -The CDC recommends that children should get a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Currently students get only 30 minutes of recess during school hours. (And that is only on warm and sunny days. MANY days in the winter months the kids are kept inside all day with no active recess.) Ending school later robs the opportunity for additional outside play, after school sports activities or any other outdoor exercise. -The American Academy of Pediatrics has recognized the importance of unstructured play in children's daily lives. They have stated that even children who are benefiting from structured academics "still need some free unscheduled time for creative growth, self-reflection, and decompression and would profit from the unique developmental benefits of child-driven play." A late end of school day takes that time away from children. -Teachers and research state that time of day has a direct effect on young kids including how well they can pay attention, discipline issues and learning in general. Kids are ready to learn early but naturally tire out in the late afternoon. -Elementary school children and young middle school children generally go to bed much earlier than high school children. A later end time leaves very little time at the end of the day which impacts: -Family time: the same amount of time will be spent on homework, dinner, baths, etc. so family time will suffer. -Homework: children who are overtired at the end of the day from having a compressed schedule will resist the evening activities including homework and family responsibilities. VISIT MCPS WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/belltimes/index.aspx PLEASE ALSO EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS DIRECTLY TO MCPS: [email protected]

$665 million. That’s how much Oregon taxpayers will fork over in the next two years for corporate tax subsidies intended for economic development. And what are we getting in return? Jobs? More revenue? Investments in communities? We don’t know because state officials won’t tell us. With the stroke of a pen, Governor Kitzhaber could bring Oregonians the transparency they deserve. Powerful interests want to keep these deals a secret, but we can get the Governor to act if we keep up the pressure. That’s why he needs to hear from you.

The fields at Bristol Central are not sufficient. They present a safety hazard and disadvantage for both teams. It's time that we get a facility that supports our hardworking and dedicated athletes.

Boeing is flying high as one of the most successful corporations in the world, raking in billions of dollars each year. The company's CEO, Jim McNerney, has been rewarded handsomely for these record stock prices with a $265,575 pension every month. On top of this, just last week Boeing extracted another $9 billion in tax breaks from our legislature. Boeing is following the 21st century playbook for greedy corporations around the country. They divide us and force states to compete against neighboring states to offer the biggest tax breaks and the weakest environmental protections. They blackmail workers with threats of moving to another state or country with lower wages and weaker benefits. Then Wall Street bankers reward greedy CEOs with huge paydays and golden parachutes for expertly rigging the system against working families. When the machinist workers rejected Boeing's demands on Wednesday, they rejected this broken economic system and stood up for all working families. We need to stand with the Boeing workers and tell the Boeing executives to build the 777X here without holding Washington hostage!

Everyone who cares about functioning government should support rules reform for judicial confirmations. No other President has seen such fierce opposition to D.C. Circuit judicial nominees. If Republicans are determined to break the system, we need new rules to prevent that.

The majority citizens of St. Louis Missouri and East St. Louis Illinois want Metro to pay its African American subcontractors who successfully complete Metro projects. Metro pay its non-minority prime contractors that they have referred to as poor performers. In my case, Metro paid an out-of-state prime contractor who never showed up to perform its contract work (for over eighteen months). Metro terminated them for non-responsiveness. But, Metro refused to pay its local African American subcontractor it retained after terminating the above mentioned prime contractor. Metro's contractor referred to the subcontractor as "a very good subcontractor", and advised Metro to pay its subcontractor who performed one hundred percent of the contractor's work in addition to performing extra work requested by Metro for it's six hundred million dollar "High Speed Cross County Extension Light Rail" project. Metro calculated and admitted that it owed the local African American contractor over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But, Metro have refused to pay the local African American subcontractor until the subcontractor produced a contract with Metro for performing the work. Metro willfully never prepared a contract or a change order for the local African American subcontractor, after it terminated its prime contractor, even after repeated requests from the local African American subcontractor to do so. Tell Metro to pay its African American subcontractor for work it completed under Metro's orders, supervision, approval, acceptance and which it continue to benefit from, and to end slavery against the bi-state (St. Louis Missouri and East St. Louis Illinois) African American community.

As someone born and raised in Hawaii, I have seen our homeless population grow over my lifetime. We need smart and effective policies to ensure that we are creating solutions and NOT treating people like criminals.

The students of Booker T. Washington High School have been getting ill due to mold exposure at school since August 2013. The APS Board of Education has voted to relocate students of another school who are not facing a major health hazard into a new location; however, despite pleas by students, parents and community leaders to relocate the students and teachers at Booker T. Washington to another location while the mold is remediated, the APS Board of Education has refused. The students and teachers at Washington High School deserve a healthy learning environment and the same consideration and respect that is given to other students and teachers in the Atlanta Public Schools system. In order to prevent further illness, they must be relocated NOW!

We are washing away because of the dredging on both ends of our island and the government tells us we have to let nature take its course. They are destroying the habitats of countless animals as well as destroying an entire communities livelihood. We can stabilize the coastline with natural reefs providing marine life with a place to flourish as well as building a beach for the land animals to live and grow. All of this will protect the humans that have lived here for thousands of years as well!

Our nation is continuing in the trend of disinterested voters. I think the current age gap between the first year someone decides to vote, and the first time they could have voted is too long.