After striking down Section IV of the Voting Rights Act, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "...any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions." The duty of preventing discrimination in voting now falls to Congress, and our state doesn't have time to wait. Virginia's Congressmen must fix the VRA coverage formula immediately to protect the voting rights of all Virginians.

After striking down Section IV of the Voting Rights Act, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "...any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions." The duty of preventing discrimination in voting now falls to Congress, and our state doesn't have time to wait. Georgia's Congressmen must fix the VRA coverage formula immediately to protect the voting rights of all Georgians.

AARP advertising is filling dead air on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Limbaugh calls women “feminazis,” “infobabes,” “sexretaries,” and, worst of all, “sluts” and “prostitutes.” Limbaugh calls Latinos "weak," "lazy," and "unskilled." And, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin murder trial, Limbaugh even used the "N-word" and claimed it was not racist. Over 2,600 advertisers have stopped supporting Limbaugh's shows, and AARP should follow suit. While public service announcements don't pay Limbaugh, they still give legitimacy to harmful views that have no place in a civil society. Organizations with PSAs (such as AARP) should take responsibility and request their ads not air during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Other ways you can take action: Join: The Flush Rush Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/flushrush/ 
Visit: The StopRush sponsor database http://stoprush.net/rush_limbaugh_sponsor_list.php#current_a Tweet: #stoprush Twitter campaign https://twitter.com/search?q=stoprush Fact Check: Limbaugh Lie Debunking Site http://rushtruth.net Install: ThinkContext StopRush browser extension--notifies you as you browse which companies advertise on Rush http://thinkcontext.org

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.