Dear friends, My name is Moose Weatherman, and I am a service connected disabled veteran. I served almost 6 years in the US Navy, as a nuclear reactor operator onboard a US Navy nuclear submarine, the USS San Juan, (SSN-751). I graduated from the US Naval Nuclear Power School in Orlando, Florida. I was honorably discharged and medically retired after an accident irradiated me and left me with thyroid cancer in 1989. Today, I have recovered from my illness, and I am a senior pilot for a major international airline. I have flown from the Pacific Northwest to Tokyo many times, and will resume flying those routes in the near future. Because of my education and experience as a nuclear reactor operator, I follow with great interest and concern the situation unfolding at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, located less than 150 miles northeast of Tokyo. My fellow citizens, I believe that while the seriousness of the ongoing and worsening situation at Fukushima is just starting to be noticed by the major media outlets, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the Japanese Government continue to downplay, procrastinate and actually mislead the world about the continued leakage from the plant, and more importantly, about the status of the three destroyed and melted-down reactors, and the leaking and rubble-filled spent fuel storage pool at reactor 4. The reactor "coriums," or melted reactor cores, for reactors 1, 2 and 3, have breached containment and are in the subterranean water table below the plant, as evidenced by the radioactive effluent from the plant into the ocean, and the steam rising from the shattered reactors, 2 years after the initial accident. The spent fuel pool at reactor 4 is precarious at best, and threatens to release 14,000 times the radioactivity released by the Hiroshima bomb... and that pool is leaking water continuously. The imminent destruction of the reactor 4 spent fuel pool will be the worst nuclear disaster in human history, and will make much of Northern Japan uninhabitable. These are the assessments of many leaders of the world's scientific community, not mine. Though today, years after my service ended, I can not claim to currently be an expert in the field of nuclear engineering, I do have enough education and experience to know that if the situation continues to follow it's current path of deterioration, millions of people.. including many of us in the Pacific Northwest, will die or be sickened. Our economy will be devastated as seafood becomes inedible, rain becomes toxic and crops will be radioactive. Friends, I urge you to educate yourself on the situation, and to petition the United States Government to move to intervene immediately to stabilize the situation at Fukushima. The Japanese Government has washed it's hands of the situation. At first, the GoJ allowed TEPCO (now bankrupt) to make all decisions and efforts at the plant, which they did in a meager and ineffective, financially constrained way. Today, they pledge to step in; however, Japanese Prime Minister Abe seems interested only in the continuation of the lie that won Tokyo the 2020 Olympics... namely, that all radiation is contained, the situation is under control, and there is no danger. While there is widely ranging opinion on exactly how bad the danger is, there is consensus among the brightest minds in science today that TEPCO and the Japanese Government have badly mismanaged the crisis, are lying on a daily basis, and that the situation is incredibly serious and becoming more grave on a daily basis. I urge you, my fellow citizens, to pursue intervention. The fate of millions of lives depend on whether or not the situation is stabilized. Syria, al Qaeda, the war on drugs, the economic crisis... none of it is as important as stabilizing Fukushima. Because if Fukushima goes, none of the rest of it will matter. Yours very respectfully, Captain James "Moose" Weatherman

Two children of a close friend of mine have been suffering from the devastatingly painful and crippling affects of Chronic Lyme disease for more than 13 years primarily due a succession of medical doctor misdiagnosis's for over 5 years. More needs to be done to educate not only doctors but the public to consider Lyme as a cause of symptoms such as unexplained muscle and/or joint pain, headache, stiff neck, fever, chills and swollen lymph nodes. If left untreated or under treated Lyme disease can and often does become a chronic disease that leaves its victims mere shells of their former selves and all the while experiencing random and intense bouts of pain, nausea, dizziness and fatigue.

Arguing for a drastic cut to the food stamp program (SNAP) Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) had said, "If you're a healthy adult and don't have someone relying on you to care for them, you ought to earn the benefits you receive. Look for work. Start job training to improve your skills or do community service. But you can no longer sit on your couch or ride a surfboard like Jason in California and expect the federal taxpayer to feed you." Here's a message to Rep. Tim Huelskamp from millions of long-term unemployed Americans (including the 99ers and older workers) who are no longer counted in the unemployment rate, as well as the other 11.3 million jobless Americans who are still being counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Dear Mister Congress Man Huelskamp: As you very well know, because of very strict "means testing", SNAP benefits are not just given away to anyone who applies for them. Americans who receive food stamps don't have incomes to meet a basic standard-of-living. They either have low-paid jobs, are unemployed, or are elderly (and/or disabled) and rely on a small Social Security income (People such as your friend Jason are a tiny minority). You know all this, or at the very least, you should. Obviously you like to use anecdotal stories from Fox News to back up your arguments and use tainted studies from right-wing think tanks to enforce your ideological beliefs. But please try to expand your intellectual horizons a little more. As a representative of THE PEOPLE, try to see both sides of the food stamp debate. As for most of us, we did earn our food stamp benefits --- many of us have worked and paid taxes for 30 years or longer before being laid off during the Great Recession. And we have looked for work (for the past 5 years) since the mass layoffs. In case you're incapable of doing simple arithmetic, there still are not enough jobs (and even if there were, would you hire Jason?) And speaking of jobs, how many job bills have you voted for or introduced to Congress, and how many have you voted against? And please, tell us where 11.3 million (counted) unemployed Americans can sign up for job training? Most of the corporations that you represent no longer offer on-the-job training; and any form of government-sponsored job training would only defeat your purpose of "smaller government". You said "improve your skills", but please tell us --- what specific skills do 11.3 million unemployed Americans need to fill 3.7 million job openings? The "lacking job skills" argument has been proven to be a corporate myth to expand the guestworker program to hire more foreigners (for less money) in an already over-saturated job market --- a labor market that already pays stagnant wages. And besides, we already have plenty of skills. College graduates (saddled with debt) and those with advanced tech and engineering skills, are still working at places like Walmart and McDonalds (if they're lucky). Either that or they're unemployed. And if people like you and others hadn't allowed for the outsourcing of all our good-paying jobs with "free trade agreements" --- and also stopped insourcing foreign workers with H-1B visas --- maybe then we'd have enough jobs for everyone (jobs that paid a "living wage"). And maybe then, all us "takers" wouldn't need any "government hand-outs" from all the other hard-working Americans who were lucky and managed to keep their jobs. Also, most of us do not ride surfboards. And we also don't "expect" that you personally would have to feed us (just like we don't expect the churches to bail out the big banks) --- but it sure would be nice to eat food after we've exhausted all our resources while looking for all those non-existent jobs that you keep ignorantly babbling about --- jobs that you never helped to create. Instead, you and your ilk repealed Obamacare 40 times! Talk about a waste of time, how moronic is that? Maybe it's people like you who should first be drug tested before collecting your government check. So who's the real pimple on the posterior of our society? Blow-hards like you Mister Congress Man Huelskamp, who receives $174,000-a-year (as a government worker) from hard-working American taxpayers for doing little-to-nothing; or the poor and unemployed people like us, who might only receive a measly $150 a month to eat? And most people who do work pay Social Security taxes on 100% of their earnings (50% of all workers only earn $27,000 a year or less). You however, do not --- your Social Security taxes are "capped", as well as for your wealthiest political donors --- those who earn millions of dollars every single year with capital gains and don't pay any Social Security taxes at all. And they also pay a lower tax rate than does a factory worker who's only earning $40,000 a year in hourly wages. So who is it that's really "gaming the system" --- people like you and your corporate sponsors, or people like us (who are poor) and were forced out of work --- and now need food stamps just to eat? We think it's very repugnant and tasteless that you and your God-fearing Tea Party brethren find it so easy to hurl insults at the abject poor (calling us drug addicts, cheats, alcoholics, liars and lazy), while collecting your "unearned" campaign donations at swanky fundraisers from your "upper-class" supporters --- because if it were not for them, you'd have no class at all. Especially while everybody else is paying for your generous salary, your healthcare insurance and for your congressional expense accounts. And that also includes those who receive an unemployment check, because they too have to pay federal income taxes (depending on their annual adjusted gross income at the end of the fiscal tax year). Mister Congress Man Huelskamp...why don't you do millions of struggling unemployed Americans a really big favor: Either introduce a REAL job bill (without any earmarks, pork, or any other unrelated amendment --- such as more tax cuts for the ultra-rich)...

I, and many others, have pre-existing conditions that will cause insurance companies to find us not eligible for insurance or charge a really high premium for healthcare. It's time for the people to speak instead of insurance lobbyists.

Like me, over 40 million Americans live within 30 miles of a nucear waste storage site, and 116 million Americans live within 50 miles of a waste storage site. Sign this petition that tells the NRC to require that radioactive waste be stored in much safer, more secure concrete and steel dry casks. Also you can attend an NRC meeting by finding locations here: http://1.usa.gov/16kxqx1 Like the nuclear reactors themselves, spent nuclear fuel storage pools contain large amounts of radioactive material. An accident or terrorist attack resulting in a rapid loss of cooling water from a pool could lead to a fire and the release of a massive quantity of radiation—with potentially grave human, environmental, and economic consequences. These pools have become de facto nuclear waste storage sites. Rather than invest in dry casks, plant owners continue to fill them to well beyond what they were designed for, creating unnecessary risks for Americans. Simply put, spent fuel pools are overcrowded and incredibly dangerous if electricity "goes out." Concrete and steel dry cask storage, on the other hand, are so much safer and do not require electricity because they are passively cooled by natural air flow. The dry casks at the Fukushima plant in Japan, for example, went relatively unscathed after the March 2011 disaster there. Independent experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists and elsewhere agree that radioactive waste that has cooled sufficiently should be transferred to dry casks. Even the Sierra Club said that "Overcrowding in irradiated/spent fuel pools is an unacceptable risk to the public. Hardened on-site casks should become the choice for storage." As the waste must eventually be transferred to dry casks in order to be shipped offsite, why not demand that this happen sooner rather than later and improve safety right now?

We need a comprehensive approach to Syria that can serve as a peacemaking, prosperity-building model for the region. We need to break the endless cycle and horror of sectarian violence and dictators holding power through terror and genocide. The German Marshall plan offers a model that can be followed in Syria. Join me in proposing that our national and global leaders adopt and enact a visionary solution.

After pressure from Big Oil & Gas, the Environmental Protection Agency shut down three different investigations into fracking-related water contamination in Dimock, PA, Pavillion, WY, and Parker County, TX. I’m from Scranton, PA, a town just down the road from Dimock, where whistleblowers revealed that the EPA shut down its investigation despite its own preliminary findings (based on 4.5 years of data) that fracking had caused “significant damage” to drinking water. It's outrageous, and we have to make sure the EPA re-opens these investigations and provides residents with safe drinking water. Next Wednesday we will deliver these petition DIRECTLY to the EPA with residents who have been directly impacted. Please help us build our voice louder than Big Oil & Gas.

Instead of working to expand the middle class, House Republicans passed a temporary budget that would defund Obamacare and maintain deep cuts to education, job training, and other vital services. Soon, the Senate will vote whether to pass the House budget as it is or modify it so that Obamacare is funded. That's why we need Senator Mark Kirk to stand with the people of Illinois, not extremists like Sen. Ted Cruz who would risk our nation's fiscal security to defund Obamacare and gain political leverage.

On the heels of a dismal 50 of 50 state ranking in the latest "Kids Count" report, RISE an innovative school idea is not approved by the Public Ed., Department. The “Kids Count” report ranks children on 16 different indicators of well-being; from education to health, to poverty and family life. However, RISE a proposed school to deliberately teach students skills on how to succeed like confidence, persistence, and resiliency (CPR) along with the essential cognitive abilities, the powers that be do not recommend such a school to be approved. Please sign the petition to show the support and need for a deliberate dual purpose education model and that our outdated education model just isn’t working for a great majority of our students Thank you, Eppie Lopez www.risenm.org

Health care costs are spiraling out of control. The legislative branch is in charge of finding a solution and is insulated from the effects by having the best health care insurance paid for by US taxpayers. It is time to level the playing field.

My husband Fred Martinez and his co- worker Higinio Gonzales were killed by a drunk driver in Wichita Kansas, I feel that the owners and servers of alcoholic beverages, in a establishment should also be held accountable. To this date they cannot be held accountable for over serving there patrons Kansas has on average 18,500 auto accidents a year involving alcohol, which resulted in 154 people being killed, and approximately 6,100 more being injured. I feel this is a very important law, and I think it would help cut down on drink driving.

"Many of the curbs in New York do not have cutouts or are in disrepair. I use a wheelchair and am often unable to go where I want to go. I think of the disabled vets who deserve access and our deepest respect."