"I will not negotiate over whether or not America keeps its word and meets its obligations. I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States. This country has worked too hard for too long to dig out of a crisis just to see their elected representatives here in Washington purposely cause another crisis." - Pres. Barack Obama, 9/15/13. House Republicans are aiming to destroy Obamacare and other parts of our already frayed safety net by holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage. To his great credit, President Obama is refusing to negotiate with them, and is instead demanding an increase in the debt ceiling with no strings attached. Sign our petition thanking President Obama for refusing to negotiate with Republicans over the full faith and credit of the United States, and urging him to stay strong.

Many of us grew up near a local motorsports arena of one sort or another. We had parents, or other authority figures, in our lives that directed us toward becoming involved in motorsports as a way to keep us out of mischief and trouble. As unexpected benefits of our involvement with racing, we learned many life-long skills like responsibility, time management, and money management. We also learned fabrication skills, and vehicle repair and maintenance skills. Also, we were held to a higher standard in our academic performance. If we didn’t do well in school, we didn’t race. I dare say that countless high school careers were salvaged as a result of the desire to race. Racing requires discipline and dedication. A person only gets out of his/her racing experience what he/she puts into it. The work ethic achieved from successful racing carries over to daily life and makes for a well-rounded individual. Many of us have grown up to become involved in the automotive industry as a result of the years of our youth developing these skills. Some of us developed professional careers in motorsport from our grassroots racing experience. Unfortunately, the youth of Valencia County do not have this opportunity. Our children grow up in this community with very little to keep their minds, and hands, occupied. Aside from school sports, our youth have too much time and not enough local activities to keep them on the straight and narrow path. Valencia County needs more activities, like motorsports, to give our children the best start possible in life. Far too many of our young people get involved in drug use, or other illegal activities, as a result of boredom. The Valencia County Speedway will help keep our children on the right track! Before Valencia County Speedway can become a reality, a zoning change must be approved. The proposed site for the speedway is 10 miles West of I-25 off of State Highway 6. Please know that the proposed speedway is not a business venture. It is simply an endeavor to provide services to this community. The proposed speedway will host family-oriented events. Alcohol possession and consumption will not be permitted at the facilities. The proposed events will be on Saturday afternoon/evenings during the late-Spring and summer months. As such, there will likely be some use of lighting for the track surface and the track facilities. However, any lighting used will be facing toward the ground, not toward the night sky. The use of lights at night will be minimal and will not have any significant impact to the surrounding area given the topography of the land and the positioning of the lights. As with any motorsports activity, there will be some amount of noise generated but, as with the lighting, the noise will not be significant to the surrounding inhabitants of the area. The amount of dust generated by any activities at the site will be minimal as the entrance road and facilities will be outfitted with crusher fines and the track surface will be packed clay. A very high percentage of racing participants are Valencia County residents. For too long, these local motorsports enthusiasts and their families, and friends, have been forced to travel to other cities in New Mexico, and other states, to pursue their racing ambitions. These people take their money with them as they travel elsewhere to pursue their passion. That money can stay in Valencia County, and further benefit the citizens of Valencia County, if the Valencia County Speedway is built. It goes without saying that the construction of any facility changes the land but, in this instance, the benefits derived by the citizens of Valencia County far surpass any disadvantage involved with the construction of the facility. Please show your support to have our own local motorsports facility.

Because I am disgusted with the incompetence of our so-called Representatives. They are wasting our time and tax revenues by stalling and avoiding doing the work of the people while remaining comfortable, insured, fed and privileged. They are killing the greatness of America. My son, who is actually doing his job for the government every day, will be furloughed and he and his family will be deprived of his salary by a government shutdown and congress will not feel a thing. It is an outrage.

I have heard of many car accidents at the Intersection of Springfield Avenue and Constantine Place in Union County New Jersey. I have asked the head of Public Works Joseph Graziano for help and he has been great. There is only so much he can do. I would like this intersection to be made safer through the use of lights and increased signage, and more police activity.

It is critical for the people to speak up and let Congress know that we will hold them accountable!

Imagine that you were in charge of designing your city’s parking for people with disabilities permit program. You’re doing this because you care about the plight of physically or mentally handicapped people and empathize with the challenges they face each and every day of their lives: you’re proud to do something that will make their lives just a little bit easier. In the interest of streamlining the experience – and because you have faith in the honesty and integrity of people – you decide not to require permit applicants to furnish actual proof that they have a disability let alone one that would actually benefit from a shorter distance to a destination: you trust that applicants need the wheelchair they’re sitting in or truly are on the Autism Spectrum. You’re not naïve enough to think that there won’t be less scrupulous people who take advantage of your kindness and generosity, but at the same time you recognize that the bad apples make up only a small percentage of all the applicants and what you’re doing helps makes the lives of so many people better even if just a little bit. Now imagine that a news outlet catches wind of a particular set of scammers who not only gloat about how they gamed the system but also do it with a distasteful amount of pride. Naturally readers are upset at the reckless abandon with which these jerks cheated their way to a parking permit. Beyond the need to handle the public relations issue, you want to find a way to discourage people from abusing these privileges. So how do you go about doing this? One way would be to strip away the benefits: if there isn’t much of an advantage to have the permit, then it won’t be worth the scammers’ while to go through all the subterfuge to obtain one. The flip side of this approach is that the exponentially larger population of people for whom this permit makes a real difference is also affected, and they’re the people you were trying to help in the first place. The more logical strategy is to be more ardent in vetting the people who are applying for the permit. It’s not beyond the realm of reason to request that people who want to participate in the program make a tiny amount of effort to provide documentation of their very real need for such accommodations. Disney Parks & Resorts recently announced that, in response to the justified criticism and outrage from their loyal fans who read a New York Post report earlier in the year that “wealthy Manhattan moms” hired a disabled guide from Dream Tours Florida at a rate of $130 per hour in order to be able to use Walt Disney World’s Guest Assistance Card to bypass the lines for attractions, they would cancel the GAC program effective October 9 in favor of a new Disabled Assistance System that will work much like the current Fastpass program that all park guests are entitled to use. This is the same approach used in the first option from my hypothetical scenario. Disney is stripping away the benefits of the program so that those with more money than morals have no incentive to pay a handicapped person to pretend to be their friend and those who have no qualms about renting a wheelchair to appear to be physically challenged gain no time saving advantages in exchange for having to sit in that chair all day long. At first glance, this seems like a great solution to resolve the issue at hand. Indeed, many people who have endured the often excruciatingly long lines at Walt Disney World and Disneyland applauded this as a fair compromise that levels the playing field as it were for non-handicapped people. “Why should people who are disabled get to experience more attractions than the rest of us?” they ask. “Everyone should get to go on the same number of rides!” they declare. The thing is that the Guest Assistance Card is not – and has never been – about allowing those who are physically or mentally disabled to cram a vacation’s worth of fun into a single day at a Disney park. The reason that many of these guests need the program in the first place is because they are unable to move as fast as, stand for as long a time as or tolerate as much waiting in line as a typical person. While a more able bodied guest could probably enjoy the park for a good eight or nine hours – if not from opening to closing – a person who needs the GAC program likely is not going to have the stamina or capacity to do that: very often the time savings is key to being able to experience as much as a person who isn’t handicapped. My son Alexander is a 6-year-old boy on the Autism Spectrum. He has a condition known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, which in his case includes a severe cognitive impairment that almost guarantees that beyond never being able to learn things as effectively as most other children Alexander will assuredly never be able to understand why he cannot get on the giant plastic representation of his favorite flying elephant right away, why he has to return in an hour when said elephant is right there in front of him, what an hour even is, and why when he does return he still needs to wait in line some more. Furthermore, his coping mechanism for sensory overload of sights and sounds (in this case not just from the park itself but from other guests as well) is very often an exasperated meltdown that involves some combination of screaming, kicking, running, rolling on the floor, and lashing out, but don’t mistake this for the actions of a spoiled child. With the Disabled Assistance System, we likely would only be able to enjoy a small handful of rides and shows at Walt Disney World in a day. Alexander doesn’t have the endurance to be able to last a full day in that sort of environment, and we unfortunately wouldn’t have the option to stand in other lines to enjoy additional attractions while waiting for a reserved time slot like people who can utilize the Fastpass system do. The playing field certainly wouldn’t be level for us or almost any other family...

It is important that a school community be a democracy. As a school we accepted the move to the William J Gaynor building, but we never could have predicted the current situation. Even putting aside things like weapons (the vast majority of students at the other schools would never carry a gun to a fight, but it only takes one), the general attitudes between TBLS Discipuli and the students of the Lyons and Green Schools are far from ideal. There has been inappropriate touching and even cat-calls. We are ALL uncomfortable with this situation. And we want change.

My child and a host of family members attends Trenton Central High Main .Our children's well-being should be our top priority ,and this school has been in need of repairs for far to long.

Our environment, community and security is at risk when it comes to Tugboat Companies that escort Cargo Ships and Fuel Oil Barges within the busy Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach California. Some Tugboat companies choose to severely reduce crewing levels on Tugboats to only a 2 person crew while escorting Cargo Ships and transporting Barges loaded with thousands of gallons of fuel oil used to fuel ships for their next leg of their voyage. While performing these complex tasks, some companies choose to operate with only 1 Captain onboard the tugboat by his or herself to navigate our busy harbors, while the Deckhand boards the Fuel Oil Barge to serve lookout duties and provide the Captain valuable information about any impeding traffic or other hazards while navigating inside our busy harbors. This practice of leaving the Captain on the Tugboat alone is a recipe for disaster. A engineer or equivalent should always remain on Tugboat during these operations, thus reducing the risk of a environmental hazard and danger to the crew members. Please tell these companies to stop endangering our community, environment and port security, and put safety first instead of profit.

Shirley Skinner is a soon to be 80 year old inmate in Illinois. Her only crime is protecting her granddaughter and great granddaughter from a hostile intruder who happened to be in a custody battle with her granddaughter. The local sherrif originally treated this as self defense but other local people got involved and Shirley was charged with murder. Even though a wonderful group of students and their professor from DePaul University have been working for more than two years to get this case reviewed, we have all been unsuccessful. We are now petitioning Governor Quinn for clemency so Shirley can spend the last years of her life with her family. However, this case has become so political we fear the petition will not be successful unless there are hundreds and perhaps even thousands of people who are willing to work with us in getting Shirley heard. Please see Facebook: Save Nanny - for additional information.

The elected officials trying to overturn a lawfully passed piece of legislation that was upheld by the Supreme Court, and the States who are refusing and/or attempting to interfere with the implementation of the Affordable Healthcare Act, are guilty of violating federal laws. First, they are guilty of rebellion or insurrection against the laws of the United States. Second, they are guilty of conspiring to hinder or delay the execution of a law of the U.S. By violating these law, which I've copied below, they can be fined, jailed, and forbidden to hold public office. What I want to know is why they are allowed to continue their efforts that can harm the financial standing of this country and cause harm to so many Americans? Current through Pub. L. 113-31. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.) Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States. Current through Pub. L. 113-31. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.) If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

Fracking is inherently dangerous. Negative effects of fracking that have been proven in other states include everything from water contamination, air pollution, methane release contributing to Global Warming, decimated national forest lands, residents and livestock getting sick, wildlife deaths, earthquakes, radioactive waste, truck accidents and rural lifestyles being degraded. The IL Dept. of Natural Resources is formulating rules for fracking at this time, they will be published soon. We, the concerned residents of Illinois, request public hearings on this dangerous extraction method so that our concerns will be heard by our state government and acted upon before fracking is allowed to harm our environment or our neighbors.