Last night I heard Texas State Representative Jodie Laudenberg say, as she rationalized legislation that would deny victims of rape and/or incest the right to any pregnancy termination services, that Rape Kits in the emergency room will take care of the “problem”!!! When I heard that junk science I decided – we must call out this punitive legislation that has no scientific basis and is targeted at women because our Legislature thinks women should just “sit down and shut up.” Senator Wendy Davis is going to stand on floor of the Texas Senate today and filibuster this overreach by a ideological and opportunistic Governor and his band. She will be speaking until after midnight in order to block passage of this legislation. In her words, “The partisan State leaders in Austin don’t speak for Texas women and their families – they are acting on behalf of extreme and narrow special interests. That’s why, with your help, I am going to take the microphone on the Senate floor and turn it over to you. So give me direction and let me be your voice. Tell me, if you were speaking to the Senate, what would you say about the dangerous partisan attempts to hurt Texas women and their families? Please stand with me and share your story. Over the next few hours and for as long as it takes, I will be your voice speaking on the Senate floor.” Sign this petition – which we will deliver – and send Senator Wendy Davis your stories! http://wendydavisforsenate.com/standwithwendy/

Earlier today, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which required some states and localities (mostly in the South) to obtain preclearance from the United States Department of Justice before implementing changes to voting laws and procedures, is unconstitutional, in effect rendering the Section 5 preclearance provision of the VRA inoperative and making it much harder to enforce the VRA. These days, deliberately disenfranchising ethnic minorities from being able to elect the public officials of their choice has become commonplace in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the Deep South. It is now time for Congress to re-write Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act so that all states and localities of the United States would be legally required to obtain preclearance from the United States Department of Justice before implementing changes to voting laws and procedures.

I am a survivor of domestic violence/abuse. My situation is a bit unique, because I am an American, but I was living in India while this occurred. I felt trapped, isolated, and helpless. Helping women internationally is a must. WE are responsible for educating and empowering women across the globe. WE need to let them know they are never alone.

Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who will be retiring as chancellor of City University of New York (CUNY) as of July 1, 2013, has illegally scrapped the governance plan of Medgar Evers College at CUNY. The scrapped 1972-ratified governance plan had 23 students that served in various capacities. This move by the chancellery and the CUNY Board of Trustees will have a disastrous effect on the democratic process of Medgar Evers College and effectively silence students' voices.

In 2010, Veronica's son, Damian, accidentally broke his ankle while in the care of a babysitter. Like any mother would, Veronica immediately took him to the hospital for medical care. The police investigated both Veronica and the babysitter, and the babysitter wrongly accused Veronica of being responsible for the accident. Child Protective Services investigated the situation and found no evidence to press charges against Veronica. But due to the Secure Communities program, which is implemented in her home state of Texas, she was sent to a detention center by ICE anyway. After her family paid a $1,500 bond release, she began a long and arduous struggle to stop her deportation. In desperation, Veronica hired an attorney to defend her case whom she later found out has had his license revoked twice. Although she felt he was not representing her case effectively, her immigration judge denied her the right to hire another attorney. Veronica has lived since 2002 in San Antonio, Texas, where she is a valued member of the community, with strong ties in her church. She works hard as a waitress to provide a better life for her son, who has a speech delay and needs special treatment. Veronica has no criminal history and represents no threat to her community or to this nation. Veronica has received an order of voluntary departure from ICE with a deadline of August 1. If Veronica is forced to leave the country, she will be separated from her whole family and will have to take Damian to a country he doesn't know, away from their family and community in Texas, or risk never seeing her son again. Please sign and ask Norma Lacy, ICE public advocate in San Antonio, Franciso Venegas, deputy field office director, and Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, ICE public advocate, to grant deferred action and stop the deportation of Maria Veronica Ayala (A# A200595406).

The people who have seized undemocratic control of Chicago Public Schools are destroying neighborhood public education and the lives and futures of Chicago's schoolchildren. Over the last eight years, as a recipient of national, state, and district teaching awards, I have taught some of the highest-need students in our city. In the face of horrendous violence and a lack of school resources, we educators of Chicago have taken back our union and fight every day to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Chicago's young people. But it is not only educators - parents, students, and community members have all joined this fight for educational equity and justice for all students. Together, we have changed lives. But the mayoral-appointed Chicago Board of Education has undermined all of our efforts to improve our schools. On June 26, 2013, the Board will hold its June meeting, the first meeting since voting to close 50 schools mainly in Latino and African American neighborhoods and since informing school principals of 20% cuts to school-level funding. Many of the schools targeted for closure are relatively high-performing and have reasonable class sizes. The board is taking out a multi-decade loan to cover the additional costs of closing these schools. The budget cuts come despite last year's surplus in the budget, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in school money to private development projects. These decisions ultimately will result in the destruction of the education of nearly 400,000 students in the city of Chicago. Individual young people will be killed in our streets as a result of the choices the board is making.

This company stubbornly refuses to pay a hail's damage claim. Mr. JJ washington refused to correct this situation, and his allegiance is to support liars. (Ivy Scott, Craig Thrower, Dee Stone, Claudia Janka)

Families at certain social economic levels are trapped in a Texas public education system that has data proving the statistical correlation between public school disciplinary practices as a fast track entry to the criminal justice system. A statewide study was performed which shows alarming disproportionate and excessive suspension practices of school administrators. Texas state legislators have failed to hold school districts accountable to addressing their disproportionate suspension practices toward minorities, at risk youth and students with disabilities.

Politicians won't talk about climate change and the media won't cover it - they are lying by omission by not telling us what we need to know. In fact, ABC, CBS, and NBC covered climate change in 2012 only 12 times combined. With your help, Globalsolutions.org is going to push climate change into public discussion and raise awareness. We're then going to get the US to do something about climate change because we can't be a world leader on sensible climate policy if we don't have a track record of our own.

In less than 2.5 hours, the Senate will be voting for cloture (to close debates, followed by a series of more votes this week) on the bipartisan Senate bill, with a final vote by the Senate on Thursday or Friday. We believe the following measures must be included in any immigration reform package. We urge you to fight to require all border patrol agents to wear lapel cameras and grant greater authority to the newly-created Border Task Force. As New Yorkers, we are here to support you to get these critical fixes into the bill

My name is Matthew Fuemmeler, and I am the owner and operator of "The Boiler Monkey," Albuquerque's first and only mobile restaurant built into a converted bus. I work as a food truck, offering crepes and coffee to the citizens of Albuquerque. Unfortunately, I have been targeted several times by parking enforcement, who have stated I am not allowed to park on public roads during working business hours, because my bus is over 90 inches wide. However, many of the other operating food trucks in town - as well as service vehicles, hummers, delivery trucks, mobile health clinics and more - are also more than 90 inches wide, and from those whom I've worked with and talked to, none of them have received this ticket or been told of this rule. Obtaining continuous parking tickets as well as being asked to move during my hours of operation severely impacts my ability to run my business and maintain a steady income. Designating certain areas for food trucks such as outside Tractor Brewery on Tulane by changing or amending current legislation on food vending and parking on public streets would increase food truck tourism and industry within the city. As small business owners trying to bring creative cuisine and opportunities into our communities, we hope you can understand and support our cause.

Every summer, hundreds of veterans head to Bristol Bay, Alaska to earn a living as commercial fishermen. It's not easy work and it separates them from their families -- again -- but in this tough economy it pays well and takes care of things back home. Unfortunately, two foreign mining companies with connections to the Koch Brothers are trying to dig a mine near the Bay that would destroy these jobs and lay waste to the environment. Because of our unique voice as veterans and military-family members, we were asked to take action on this issue. It was a no-brainer. Sign our petition today.