Senator Ted Cruz tied glitches pn the Obamacare website with email scamming, and then made a crude reference to Nigerians. We consider that a gratuitous insult.

Cruelty to marine life.

My name is Tammy Timm and I am urging the Nebraska legislature to revise the grandparent rights statute in Nebraska. (Nebraska Revised Statute 43-1802) While Troxel V. Granville addressed the weight that should be given to fit parents as it pertains to their ability to raise their children, it did not address the legalities of who has standing to bring suit in such cases. The Nebraska statute currently states that grandparents have standing to file for visitation rights if the parents have started the process of, or are divorced, if one parent is deceased, or if the parents were never married and paternity has been established. It does not, however, take into consideration the rights of grandparents (as legally defined in Nebraska Revised Statute 43-1801) whose children are married, yet separated, and may never decide to start divorce proceedings. In the Nebraska State Constitution Article I-3, it states that "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, NOR BE DENIED EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAWS." (ALL CAPS added for emphasis.) Given this, it seems to me that the wording of the grandparent rights statute does not fully give equal protection. Grandparents who meet the current criteria can begin the process to protect, via the law, the relationship that they have with their grandchildren, while other grandparents who do not meet these criteria, are being denied that same protection. Nebraska has the right, and the duty, to see that all of it's citizens are treated equally under the law. One can not provide relief under the law for one set of grandparents while denying a subset within that same group, equal relief. Especially if each set has equally maintained a legitimate relationship with the child, and in some cases, if the excluded subset has played closer to a parental type role with the grandchild, above and beyond what those who are currently protected have done. I am not asking that we seek to overturn the Supreme Court decision regarding how judges must weigh grandparent rights against the rights of fit parents to make decisions about the raising of their children. I am merely asking that Nebraska gives equal access and protection to all grandparents, at a minimum, so they may present their case to the court for a decision. I believe that this can be achieved by making a revision which eliminates wording that divides grandparents into subsections based on the martial status of their children, which is well within the rights of the Nebraska legislature to do. If interested, you will see my personal story below. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ While the focus is on providing legal protection to all, here is my personal story, which was what led me to get interested in grandparent rights: In my personal case, I have always had a significant relationship with my grandson. He is 17 months old currently and I have never gone longer than a week without seeing him (until recently), he has lived with me without his parents being here, lived with me with his parents being here, I have provided financially for his needs when his parents were unable to do so, I have taken him to medical appointments, but most importantly I have always provided him with a loving relationship that was stable. The parents separated and after a visit with the father, he refused to return the child to the mother and cut off contact with her. Shortly after that, he agreed in writing, to allow me a visit with my grandson. Then a few days after that, he also cut off all contact with me, leaving me without the visitation he had agreed to. Neither parent has started divorce proceedings, nor does it appear that either will in the near future. Now, every day that goes by where I have no legal recourse is a day he can use against me as not having an ongoing relationship with the child, thereby hindering my ability to be granted visitation rights in the future, should legal recourse become available to me. My sole interest is in what is best for the child, and it would seem, that given the chaos surrounding his parents current situation, which is between the two of them and something I don't wish to be in the middle of, that continuing a personal relationship with someone who has been a significant, stabilizing, positive individual in his life, would be in his best interests. I am only asking for the legal opportunity to present those facts in a court of law. **UPDATE - My grandson was returned to my daughter and I paid for the attorney to file for divorce. I now have an ongoing relationship with my grandson. I would like to help others. If you are in the Nebraska or nearby surrounding areas, please visit our FB page https://www.facebook.com/NEgrandparents/

Dear Friend; Enough of the partisan dysfunction! I'm tired of the games of chicken and of the costs of political war. Relationship building and collaborative problem solving are needed for us to address the big challenges that we face today and in the future. MoveOn does remarkable work enabling us to stand up together to oppose wars, environmental threats, and to stop further harm to our already sketchy social safety net. And when our elected leaders do not reflect our values, we work to elect leaders that do. But not all the country is Progressive and Congress is a place where many viewpoints are represented. Can MoveOn members also work to address the deep polarization in politics that undermines our ability to work for our common good? Will you join me in signing the following? "I pledge to help our leaders and our communities to engage in respectful dialogue and to look for ways to solve problems cooperatively. Doing this, we can create better answers to all the challenges we face." Sign this pledge and tell two friends you've signed. We will provide everyone that signs this pledge with opportunities to contribute to creating a more civil political culture. I'm a co-founder of MoveOn. In January of this year I co-hosted a Living Room Conversation about crony capitalism with a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. The conversation was fun and enlightening! We learned that all of us agreed that the war on drugs is a failure, that we all think there are too many people in prison, and that none of us think banks should be able to gamble with our money, enjoy the profits when they win, and be insured for their losses. There were so many things we agreed about! My Tea Party friend and his friends are smart caring people. That said, we don't agree on everything. For example, we can't talk about fracking because the facts my conservative friends believe about fracking are quite different than what I believe. In fact if I believed what they believe, I'd think fracking was great too. Not having shared facts and a shared narrative is disastrous for democracy. Shall we reweave our communities and demonstrate to our leaders and media we can "Heal the Heart of Democracy" to quote the title of Parker J. Palmer's book on the subject? Please join me in exploring how we might help create new dynamics in D.C., in the media, and in our communities that are respectful, and in so doing, realize our hopes and dreams. Joan Blades Co-founder MoveOn.org, MomsRising.org and LivingRoomConversations.org 1. Parker J. Palmer, "Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit" http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Heart-Democracy-Courage-Politics/dp/0470590807 How do we remain "open hearted" so that we can engage constructively with citizens that hold different views of the challenges we face? 2. http://www.livingroomconversations.org/2013/01/moveon-founder-tea-party-figure-meet-sf-chronicle-article/ 3. Living Room Conversations were developed with the goal of sparking civic culture change by fostering the respectful engagement of people with diverse viewpoints. They are an unfacilitated structured conversation form. Intended to enable people that would not typically talk to get to know each other while having a conversation about an issue where they hope to find common ground or even an issue that might otherwise feel dangerous to discuss. All the conversation requires is two friends with differing views to agree to co-host a conversation about an agreed upon subject. Each co-host then invites two friends to join the conversation- friends and friends of friends. Everyone must agree to abide by 6 simple ground rules that ensure respectful listening. The first conversation follows a conversation format that enables hosts and guests to get to know each other. Typically they discover that they share many key values and like each other. Once this connection is established they hear each other in a much more caring way.

The Postal Accountability & Enhancement Act of 2006 requires the USPS to pay forward health benefits 75 years in advance over a period of 10 years. This is something that no other government agency or corporation has to do. It has caused decrease in service and closure of post office and processing facilities. It has generated a 5 billion dollar tax which the taxpayers are paying in the form of decreased service and employment. The USPS is no no longer able to continue its long standing practice of hiring large numbers of veterans for career jobs. This assault on the USPS is designed to lead to privatization of the post office. This would end up in higher costs and decreased service to rural areas. It might also mean we lose our door to door delivery of mail. This could pose hardship on many elderly and disabled. We cannot lose our valued postal delivery service. PAEA of 2006 should be repealed.

As a resident of Seattle, I do business with and speak to folks making minimum wage in this city every day. These are the workers who prepare food, serve in retail sales, clean offices and homes, take care of the elderly and disabled and perform many additional jobs that make our city work. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics national numbers, 25% of these folks are parents, three-quarters are over 20 years old, and over half are the primary wage earners in their households. As a matter of basic fairness, these responsible workers should be paid at a minimal level that allows them to live in the City of Seattle. Currently there is no such guarantee. Even though Washington State's minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum, the State minimum is still below the very basic minimal costs of living Seattle for even a single person. For those with a child to take care of, the situation is worse: a singe parent with one child would need to work over 80 sate-minimum-wage hours every week to support the basic needs of her family. (see more on these statistics here: http://livingwage.mit.edu/places/5303363000) Let's establish a City-wide minimum wage that begins to correct this injustice. If you work here, you should be able to live here!

Anthony is a 20 year old male, who works,drives,and attends college. He has passed the fire academy and EMT physical and cognitive tests. He was born with a birth defect that affects his right eye and it cannot be treated. His doctor has signed off that he is 100% capable of doing his job as a fireman/emt since his left eye from birth has learned to work for both eyes. If you met him you cannot tell anything is different and he is fully capable of doing anthing. Anthony was recently hired as a firemen and then fired a day later because of the NFPA regulations to have 20/20-20/40 vision. This regulation needs to be changed to help people with birth defects that CANNOT be corrected. Please sign if you agree that the regulations should be changed and help us help people like Anthony.

Timberline Stables and its management have been commited to bringing the gift of horses specifically to troubled and struggling youth, as well as the general public. The owners have continually provided support and networking to surrounding businesses and helped turn a struggling small town resort community into a viable place for business. They support programs for Troubled teens like Applewood house and The Journey both pioneered by Q & A associates of Canaan Valley, WV. They recently opened a new restaurant called Deerfield to help support these fantastic programs and bring jobs to Canaan Valley only to be told by Timberline Four Seasons Resort and Lodge AFTER opening their doors that if they were going to open a Resaurant they were no longer welcome to run the horse program on their property because they feared it would take away business and compete with the thriving lodge restaurant. PLEASE help me save this wonderful farm so that it can continue to enrich the lives of so many people!

Gov. Abercrombie has pulled the nominations. GOOD WORK!!!

Transient lodging services in non-hotels endanger their users and harm New York City. Unlike hotels, these services offer no effective recourse for property damage or personal injury and promote accommodations that lack basic fire safety and security systems. Using so-called shared economy websites results in breaking New York State law. These services encourage landlords to create illegal, ad hoc “hotels” in residential buildings where an influx of visitors may decrease building and tenant safety, and may violate: • Zoning laws • Condominium, co-op board and rental management rules • Fire safety codes and noise restrictions New York City tourism is a $55BN industry generating $3BN in city tax revenue and employing over 356,000 New Yorkers. So-called shared economy websites siphon city tax revenue and encourage: • Landlords to withhold available rental properties • Disruption of residential neighborhoods • Absentee apartment ownership • Illegal rental of “rent controlled” properties Despite their popularity, short-term lodging services do not protect their users nor benefit the communities they claim to support. Stop illegal room rentals now.

We oppose Walmart taking away from our community. We support more responsible commercial business.

Here in America, more than 16 million children live in poverty. During these hard economic times, America's children are some of the most vulnerable and hard hit by this rough recession. Children who are hungry can't concentrate in school because they are too worried about their next meal. Congress has the power and the duty to make sure that every child in America is fed; however, they have only cut benefits for SNAP. Please stand with Fair Share by signing this petition to support more funding for SNAP.