You think it's hard raising a toddler? Try doing it without a home! My name is Danielle Stelluto, and I am a home care worker from the Bronx, New York City who is raising two children in a shelter because I cannot find housing I can afford. Why should you care? Because I am one of 11 million residents who is still in search of stable, affordable housing. Are you searching too? While we are searching for a basic living situation, the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA), under Acting Director Ed DeMarco, has illegally withheld hundreds of millions of dollars from low-income affordable housing. Just in 2012 alone, the FHFA and DeMarco withheld more than $382 million from affordable housing, enough for tens of thousands of families to find and secure housing they can afford. Today I am urging President Obama to immediately work to ensure this funding for affordable housing, either with current Acting Director Ed DeMarco or Nominee Mel Watt. The FHFA has been violating a 2008 law that mandates that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, overseen by FHFA, contribute a portion of their revenue each year to the National Housing Trust Fund- a fund dedicated to creating housing for extremely low-income families. Fannie Mae is posting record profits, $17.2 billion for 2012 alone, but not a cent of those funds has gone to the National Housing Trust Fund. If fully funded, the affordable housing trust would create millions of low-income affordable rental homes for US residents in need. With over 11 million families and seniors in need of affordable homes right now, we cannot afford to wait any longer. The FHFA and DeMarco must stop breaking the law! I ,Danielle Stelluto, a member of the Right to the City Alliance, the National Low Income Housing Coalition and my fellow plaintiffs Angela Samuels and Rossana Torres of Miami have joined forces to file a lawsuit against the FHFA and Acting Director DeMarco to get them to contribute, as legally required, to the National Housing Trust Fund. Think veterans, seniors, and single moms like me deserve an affordable home? Well, Sign on to join us!

If your child is coerced or seduced by an Adult Sexual Predator into agreeing to have sex, the current legal statutes leave you no legal means to address the issue The statutes on sexual contact with minors in Ohio designate that it is legal for a child age 16 or older to agree to have sexual intercourse. While it is illegal in Ohio for people under the age of 18 to purchase tobacco or to vote and, a person needs to be 21 to purchase alcohol, and photos or videos of naked people of either sex under the age of 18 are designated "child pornography"....Yet, the age of sexual consent in Ohio is 16 years of age with no qualifying statements regarding the age difference of the participants. Sex between 16 year olds is a far different social issue than sexual contact between an older Adult of more than 5 years of age difference and a more than 16 but still under 18 year old teen. This leads to not only confusion and distress on the part of Teens and their Parents, it complicates legal proceedings unnecessarily. If your child is coerced or seduced by an Adult Sexual Predator into agreeing to have sex, the current legal statutes leave you no legal means to address the issue.

The US military holds 166 foreign captives at the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay. According to the latest official figures 106 are currently participating in a hunger strike in protest over their continued detention, with 45 being force-fed as of July 8, 2013.

"The stars at night are big and bright..." Texas is famous for our magnificent dark, starry nights. From teaching our kids about astronomy and the mysteries of the universe to sharing a romantic night with a loved one, our starry skies are a treasured natural wonder. But wasteful outdoor lighting from unshielded, over-lit fixtures is obscuring the night sky. This "light pollution" can disturb sleep, harm animals, create dangerous or unattractive glare, reduce safety and waste energy. There's a simple solution - shielding outdoor lighting and reflecting it back to the ground, where we want it (which then allows us to reduce the size of bulb needed for the task). For example, the Austin American Statesman reported that Austin Energy "is replacing 70,000 upward-shining streetlights with more nighttime-friendly shielded flat lights." On Wednesday, the West Lake Hills city council will consider taking action to reduce light pollution. Learn more about regional efforts to protect the Hill Country night sky at www.hillcountrynightskies.org

WE THE PEOPLE Demand THAT all of the $100 billion in annual business (give aways) subsidies be revoked and all Tax breaks for both exporting jobs, and Hiring overseas for Jobs in America be recinded !

State Representative Luis Arroyo should come out in favor of SB10, Marriage equality. The 3rd State Representative District is a culturally accepting and diverse district that includes Logan Square, Galewood, Montclare, Belmont-Cragin, and other amazing neighborhoods. Our community is clearly progressive and tolerant and we expect our State Representative to be tolerant and accepting too! For the past few months, Luis Arroyo has dodged his constituents when asked about his position on SB10. Democrat State Representative Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) voted to get the bill out of committee but would not guarantee his support on the House floor, citing his religious faith and the churches in his district as his reasons for not supporting it. This makes no sense to many people in our district. The bill itself does not force a religious institution to perform a same sex marriage or change any laws that could force a religious institution to do anything that goes against its own values or beliefs. SB10 is a simple civil law that helps many and hurts no one. This petition will show Arroyo that our district supports marriage equality and will convince him to vote yes for SB10 when it eventually comes up for a vote in the Illinois House. Representante Estatal Luis Arroyo debe salir a favor de SB10, la igualdad Matrimonio. La tercera Representante Estatal del Distrito es un distrito culturalmente receptivo y diverso que incluye Logan Square, Galewood, Montclare, Belmont-Cragin y otros barrios increíbles. ¡Nuestra comunidad es claramente progresista y tolerante, y esperamos que nuestro representante del estado sea tolerante y receptivo también!

Impeach all signers of the Grover Norquist agreement for breach of contract due to the explicit conflict between the agreement and the U.S. Constitution they swore to uphold.

David Koch, the oil and gas billionaire who has spent millions funding climate change denial, union-busting, and anti-government politicians, does not belong on the Board of Trustees at WGBH. Boston’s WGBH is the largest producer of national content for PBS, including the science program NOVA. David Koch has donated millions to climate change denial think tanks, proactively seeking to misinform Americans and undermine accurate scientific reporting. Someone with his anti-science track record should not have any role overseeing NOVA, or any other WGBH programming. Until recently, David Koch also sat on the board of WNET, New York City’s PBS affiliate. While he was on the board, WNET aired "Park Avenue", a film focused on the money, power, and inequality associated with New York's wealthiest residents, which included David Koch. Koch was offered an opportunity to write a statement rebutting the program, and WNET televised that statement immediately after the broadcast—an unheard of consideration. Not only that, the agency of public television that curated "Park Avenue", ITVS, pulled its funding from another film that featured David and Charles Koch, "Citizen Koch", apparently due to concerns that it would upset WNET and David Koch. This clear example of how Koch’s oversight can lead to journalistic self-censorship, together with Koch’s lengthy history of devoting millions to misinform Americans about climate change, can only lead to one conclusion: David Koch does not belong on the WGBH board.

We support giving the voters the right to vote on a school facilities bond this November 2013

At a time when the City University of New York (CUNY) pays an adjunct faculty member carrying a full course load as little as $25,000 per year, the university has offered former CIA Director David Petraeus $150,000 to teach a seminar next year. That is just 15-20 students. These funds surely could be better spent – to help students who cannot afford to pay the 30% tuition increase that CUNY has been implementing over five years. And it is outrageous to spend so much on one class, when some CUNY classes are so over-subscribed that students sit on windowsills and radiators because all the seats are full. CUNY has been underfunded for decades – a sad sign of our under-commitment to higher education. That means the CUNY administration needs to make every dollar count toward educating the young people of New York. CUNY’s mission is to provide a college education to the “children of the whole people,” and these expenditures of funds are an insult to the people of New York, especially those most connected to CUNY, and that mission.

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), it’s time for Congress to completely repeal it. The Respect for Marriage Act (RMA) repeals DOMA. Under RMA, if someone is legally married in any state, the federal government must recognize that marriage. It means that same-sex couples will get all of the federal benefits afforded to opposite-sex couples. Once they are married, same-sex couples will be able to get these benefits no matter what states they live in or travel to. It is common sense legislation that will clarify and legally codify the recent Supreme Court decision that overturned Section 3 of DOMA. Urge your Members of Congress to support the Respect for Marriage Act today.

Foreign nationals who risk their lives to assist the United States when we are conducting military actions in their country deserve our protection, both during and after their service. We have an obligation to do everything possible to ensure their safety and that of their families. With respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, we have not yet done enough to protect those who assisted us and some of them have already been murdered by anti-American groups. We cannot allow this to continue. Thousands of Iraqi and Afghani individuals who assisted American forces and civilian contractors are still in harm's way in their respective countries despite requesting asylum in the United States. In many instances, they've had visa requests in process for years without concrete progress or conclusion. In a recent episode of the radio show This American Life (episode #499 entitled "Taking Names"), the plight of these individuals and their families was described. Despite trying to the best of their ability to comply with U.S. visa requirements, many of them have been stuck in limbo for extended periods which has left them vulnerable to reprisals from anti-American elements in their respective countries. The episode relates the particularly heartbreaking case of an Iraqi referred to as "Omar" (not his real name) whose repeated attempts to obtain visas for himself and his family dragged on until June 2012 when he was found beheaded by unknown assailants. According to U.S. military sources and the civilian contractor who employed Omar from 2004 to 2006 in construction work, he was an excellent employee. Yet, he was abandoned and ultimately died a horrible death because he chose to assist Americans during the Iraq War. It is unconscionable for the United States to request locals to assist us and then leave them and their loved ones exposed to reprisals from anti-American groups. It should be part of the deal that we guarantee protection for them and their families both while they are working for us and afterward. Failing to provide such protection is not only morally indefensible but also poor foreign policy. If America becomes known as a country which doesn't protect those we ask to help us, how can we expect locals to assist us in future conflicts?