Our soldiers go to war to fight for our freedom and do so in every climate imaginable. The most recent conflicts have occurred in deserts with extreme temperatures of heat during the day and cold in the night. A Bradley tank in Iraq and Afghanistan can reach internal highs of 130 F on summer days and fall to sub zero in winter evenings. The equipment on our tanks has air conditioning and so should our soldiers.

It is unacceptable that a sleeping child be murdered in her home while police disregard information that a raid should not take place because children are present. It is especially abhorrent and regrettable that the raid took place at the wrong address, that a film crew was present, and that noise and light explosives were used presumably to create a theatrical environment. We demand the conviction of Officer Joseph Weekley and a formal apology from the State of Michigan for these actions that lead to the shooting death of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.

Oregon voters are hamstrung when it comes to funding schools and other vital services. Under Oregon's Measure 5, an artificial limit on local revenue for schools and services - called “compression” - means that even if voters approve temporary levies to fund their local schools and services, taxes cannot exceed the arbitrary and outdated Measure 5 limits. As a result, schools receive only a fraction of the voter-approved funding. Even worse, neighbors with the same assessed value on their house can pay completely different amounts into the levy. And even worse? A vote to raise funding for, say, the public library can mean a cut in funding for schools or other services. It's absurd. House Joint Resolution 8, a proposed amendment to the Oregon Constitution, would allow voters to approve local option levies above Measure 5 limits to pay for better schools, public safety, health care, and human services. And under HJR 8, these new voter-approved levies would be paid by all property owners equally based on their assessed value. The logic is simple: If voters want to pay for better services, they should be able to have their say at the ballot box and not have arcane laws and arbitrary one-size-fits-all caps stand in the way. Representative Jules Bailey (D-Portland)

New York state agencies are in the process of permitting several new gas-fired power plants such as the CPV Valley Energy Center in Orange County. These plants would be fueled by fracking in Pennsylvania and predicated on fracking in New York. This is the wrong road to take if we want a viable and sustainable energy policy that advances us toward 100% usage of renewable resources. Fracking is an inherently dangerous industrial process that is devastating communities in Pennsylvania as well as in New York, through its related infrastructure. We are opposed to the sale, transportation, and use of fracked gas. We demand that all New York state public officials as well as state agencies reject this project that depends on and facilitates fracking.

After recent devestating storms, Milford's local business need to be a priority over outside, big businesses. Recently, Milford Board of Education gave an out of area, big business, the contract to teach driver's education at our two public high schools, Jonathan Law, and Joseph A. Foran. The big business offered the board more money per student than we did and now they will be potentially taking 80% of business away from our family's top local driving school. Jim Richitelli (whose own kids went through our driving school), told us that we are "very qualified," however, they would not favor our local business since we offered less money per student than the big business offered.

The goal is to have one male and one female Senator and to have most districts double in size and have one male and one female House Representative.

Palm oil cultivation, especially the ones that destroy old rain-forests is the biggest agricultural contributor to green house gases. Global warming knows no borders and the damage that is done in foreign countries, is directly affecting America today in extreme weather.

Ask NYPD to press hate crime charges against Clinton Stable Park Horse Owner who made racist and homophobic remarks http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-carriage-drivers-racist-and-homophobic-outburst-startles-NYC---VIDEO-162843886.html

The Electoral College is a failed premise that needs to be abolished. Too much is weighed on swaying certain states and not enough on popular vote.

End the cruel industry in NYC that reflect the city's apathy and corruption

It's odd - we citizens are increasingly monitored more and more closely in our daily lives while monitoring the health of our precious natural resources and the creeping environmental harm to them is being scaled back and decreased by our legislative and regulatory bodies under the pressure and influence of big corporate interests and powerful elitists. Several chain retailers now charge many of us higher prices for their merchandise simply because we will not succumb to their card system to take our personal information and monitor us for the rest of our days on the earth. This is not true feedom - and it's a sad legacy if without saying a word, we accept it as our future.

Yes, someone I care about lives on less than 800 dollars a month. She can't afford to pay rent and utilities and buy "luxuries" like soap and toilet paper or able to afford to do laundry. Many of the poor aren't dirty because they want to be. It cost money to stay clean. She goes hungry at least 1 week out of the month. She can't afford to buy the healthy foods she needs for her diabetes and heart problems. It's a life of pain, terror, misery and feeling degraded for those in America who are truly too sick, disabled, and/or too elderly to be able to work no matter how much they wish they could.