Americans are working harder and harder for less and less. For the past 45 years, the federal minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living. Right now, forty percent of Americans make less than the minimum wage from 1968. While working Americans do more work every year for less pay, the wealthiest watched as their share of the total income pie grew by 275% over the last thirty years. Senate Majority Leader Reid has said he intends to take up a minimum wage increase in the Senate before the end of the year. Now is the time to stand together and call on Congress to enact a living wage and strengthen America’s middle class. Raising pay for American workers is not only the right thing to do, it will also increase demand for goods and services, creating millions of good new jobs. Big, profitable employers like McDonald’s and Walmart should learn that better wages for their workers mean millions of families will have more money to spend at their stores. It is unacceptable that the minimum wage today pays only $15,000 per year. That’s $3,000 below the poverty level for a family of three. A living wage would help working families still suffering from the effects of the recession, and would boost the economy by putting money in people’s pockets. Join me in spreading the call for a living wage.

I am a single parent with 3 children, including one who is disabled. I am currently "under water" in my mortgage loan in CA, as are many of my neighbors. Those of us who don't have Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae Loans cannot access HARP to help us refinance our home. I stand to lose my home in the near future if we cannot access HARP. Soy una madre soltera con tres hijos, incluido uno que está deshabilitado. Estoy actualmente "bajo el agua" con mi préstamo hipotecario en CA, como muchos de mis vecinos. Quienes carecen de préstamos de Freddie Mac o Fannie Mae no pueden acceder a HARP para ayudarnos a refinanciar nuestra casa. Me atengo a perder mi hogar en un futuro cercano si no podemos acceder a HARP.

As an educational consultant, at Important Steps Early Intervention agency, in one of the most underserved boroughs, the Bronx, I have had the immense pleasure of working with these families to effect change in the lives of their children born developmentally delayed. In the wake of devastating reforms to the NYS DOHMH and NYS DEPT of EDUCATION countless families are in danger of losing their Applied Behavioral Analysis/ Special Instruction/Occupational Therapy/Speech Language Pathology and Physical Therapy services. The consistent bureaucratic red tape to obtaining Medicaid Approvals, and NYCDEI addendums have made it difficult for agencies to survive in this economic climate. The reimbursement schedule has increased to a point where it can take longer than 90 days for agencies to get paid, and in turn pay clinicians for services already rendered, not including staff and business overhead. THIS MUST STOP!! Early intervention services provides the fundamental educational foundation that children born with developmental delays rely upon to have a chance of a different life. Not only do recent reforms negatively impact the lives of children, but also agencies like Important Steps, who must endure increasingly difficult financial and bureaucratic hurdles to obtain the necessary medicaid/city approvals to thrive. These critical services positively impact the lives of Bronx families on a daily basis! PLEASE HELP US TO REDUCE New York City and State APPROVAL TIMES AND REDUCE REIMBURSEMENT TIME FRAMES. WE NEED YOU TO PLAY AN INTEGRAL ROLE IN THE LIVES OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES WHO CANNOT FIGHT ALONE!!! CAN WE COUNT YOU IN? SIGN OUR PETITION TODAY!!

The fastest-growing cause of deforestation across the tropics is the massive growth of palm oil plantations. One company -- Wilmar International -- produces nearly half of the world’s palm oil. And Wilmar may be using your money to fuel its path of destruction. In the United States, palm oil is in about half of our packaged foods and cosmetics. Why? Because it’s cheap. What makes it cheap? Global companies are taking over huge swaths of land, wreaking havoc on the environment, and ignoring human rights, all in the name of keeping costs down. Among the biggest U.S. financiers of Wilmar are the nation’s largest banks, pension funds and asset managers. To save the world’s forests, we need to get our money out of palm oil.

This is a petition started by a Greenpeace member.

The Congressional Budget Office just said that the Senate immigration bill will save the federal government $897 billion over the next 20 years. Now, it's on the Senate to lower the costs of applying for legal status. No one should be left out because they can't afford the $4,000 in fees and fines to apply for legal status in the current bill.

A direct quote from Serena Williams about the Steubenville, Ohio events: "Do you think it was fair, what they got? They did something stupid, but I don’t know. I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don’t take drinks from other people. She’s 16 - why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously, I don’t know - maybe she wasn’t a virgin. But she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something. Then that’s different."

The New York Times regularly reports budget numbers with zero context. They write that a program "costs $700 billion over 10 years" or "saves $150 million" without indicating what percentage of the total that is or giving a meaningful comparison. Since most people don't have any idea that the federal government will spend $50 trillion over the next decade, these are just giant numbers--indistinguishable from one another--to most people. It's gotten so bad that the Times misreported the cost of food stamps by a factor of 10--they wrote $760 billion, but meant $75 billion--and neither the reporter nor the editors noticed; they had to issue a correction. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/us/politics/fraud-used-to-frame-farm-bill-debate.html)

I moved to New Hampshire from densely populated urban centers around Boston and New York, especially to get away from crowded, dirty cities and urban sprawl. Although am a devout environmentalist, my first view of a 400-foot wind turbine in the woods did not make me happy – it made me sick. We have very little wilderness left – we don’t need industrial wind parks in the forest.

Military Sexual Trauma, I was affected by this issue when I served in the US Army. There are veterans besides myself at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center who relive our trauma everyday.

The Portland Press Herald has recently revealed how former corporate lobbyists in positions of power in the LePage administration, including DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho, have systematically used staff intimidation, lack of enforcement and delayed implementation of environmental and public health initiatives to benefit multi-million dollar corporations including pharmaceutical, chemical, and energy companies that were recently their clients. You can read more here: http://www.pressherald.com/special/Lobbyist_in_the_henhouse_DEP_series.html

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered ingredients in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) have sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809 and H.R. 1699), in the Senate and House. Take action and tell your senators and representative to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.