Riders of the Illinois Prairie Path confront a decidedly Bicycle-hostile start at First Avenue, and shortly thereafter at Mannheim Road. Both multi-lane streets should have traffic lights that bike-riders could activate, or pedestrian/bicycle overpasses. Instead we face a death-defying gauntlet of traffic.

Millions of Americans remain unemployed but are no longer being counted in the common unemployment numbers typically broadcast. By looking instead at a more reliable statistic we see a drop of 5 percentage points in the percentage of the population EMPLOYED (over age 16) occurred with the economic meltdown. That percentage dipped from 63.4% to 58.5% and has only improved about 0.3 percentage points in about the last 3.5 years. In other words, we are not making progress in re-employing millions of Americans, we are only keeping pace with population growth with our limited level of job creation. Economists Paul Krugman and Dean Baker note that our unemployed or underemployed friends and family and other fellow Americans won't get full-time jobs back for even many more years without massive fiscal stimulus to restore normal demand levels in the economy. [Further explanation added 8/23/13, 8/28/13:] We need a wide range of (non-off-shorable) investments: from infrastructure construction (roads, bridges, rail, airports, harbors, canals); to rehiring of laid-off state and local employees foolishly laid-off (due to lack of federal emergency support to states); to design and manufacture of trains, spacecraft, and defense hardware; to broad-ranging scientific and technical research. The point is to get people back into productive work in the economy, spending money to fuel an upward spiral of increasing demand in the economy as more people can then buy more goods and services to fuel hiring of more and more people to meet the increasing demand. We have a skilled, energetic, intelligent citizenry to put back to work productively.

New Zealand has for too long been ignored by Wargaming in it's popular online game World of Tanks. In light of Serb's recent statement that if enough people sign a petition, they will introduce new tanks even if they don't want to, this is our chance to correct this injustice!

Twice yearly we readjust our clocks by a whole hour, only to get back where we started. Each time I hear stories of how miserable people are from having to adjust; completely exhausted, late, stressed. Regular sleep and routines are a staple of good health, so why again are we doing this? In fact, as we manipulate the time our biorhythms are affected, even throwing our hormone production awry. Daylight Savings Time is truly going against nature and I think it's time we choose to put an end to it.

Governor Evans is a popular name in Colorado, but I feel his name should be removed from all of Colorado. Governor Evans was directly involved in the decision to kill women and children at the Sand Creek massacre. No one would want Hitler on anything, so why should we have the name of a person that committed genocide on women and children. Lets replace Evans with Silas Soule, or someone like that.

Pennsylvania is the only state in the northeast where it is legal to discriminate against LGBT people. LGBT people can be fired, denied housing, credit or even a motel room simply on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Thirteen Democratic State Representatives in PA have not signed on to HB 300, the bill to end legal discrimination against LGBT people. If these 13 joined as co-sponsors we would have a majority in support of the bill. Please send a message to all of them that it is outrageous that they are not sponsoring HB 300.

Yoville, a social networking game, is also the virtual community in which many friendships are enjoyed. The game was purchased by Zynga and the company is killing it through neglect. The game should be maintained by the company or sold to another company.

Billionaires are stealing our rights, freedoms, privileges, constitution, fair tax dollars based on income, jobs, money, education, essential resources, homes, children's futures, communications, cable, energy, salaries consistent with standard of living increases, banks, insurance, and millions of other resources tied to energy and defense contracts. The only thing more dangerous than terrorists is billionaires and corrupt politicians.

The call for the exoneration of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvy is a long overdue necessity. As the bedrock of early America’s civil rights projections the unparalleled legacy Jamaica’s first national hero cannot and should not be denied. It is no secret that highly celebrated American humanitarian giants all studied in the chambers of this great Jamaican. The time has come to make right the age-old wrong.

"Citizen Koch" was pulled from a national public television broadcast because of fear of upsetting David Koch, who has been a major donor to public television. But public television should answer to viewers like me, not billionaires like the Koch brothers - and I want to see this important documentary. Will you join the call for a national broadcast of "Citizen Koch" on Independent Lens?

While Russia disdains LGBT athletes and their supporters at the 2014 Olympics, let America express our support for them by wearing a rainbow colored symbol on our nation's uniforms. We want the American Olympic Committee to create an affirmative response to Mr. Putin's negative approach to human rights for everyone. At the Olympics, The world's children should see examples of love and acceptance rather than rejection and hate.

"Citizen Koch" was pulled from a national public television broadcast because of fear of upsetting David Koch, who has been a major donor to public television. But public television stations should answer to viewers like me, not to billionaires like the Koch brothers -- and I want to see this important documentary. Will you join the call for a national broadcast of "Citizen Koch" on Independent Lens?