Did you know more than 20,000 Californians illegally possess more than 40,000 guns? And convicted felons can buy massive quantities of ammunition, no questions asked. California's gun laws are better than federal laws, but gun manufacturers exploit loopholes and law enforcement is under-resourced, leading to the murder of three Californians every day due to firearms.The LIFE Act stands for "Lifesaving Intelligent Firearms Enforcement." It's a package of eight bills under consideration in Sacramento.

The country's current debt is atrocious at $16 Trillion dollars. We all hate taxes and taxes getting raised. It's about time everyone pays their fair share, including churches, non-profits, and other tax exempt organizations.

Medicare Advantage, the Bush-era privatized portion of Medicare, originally cost 14% more than original Medicare, yet it produced no better outcomes. The original intent of Obamacare was to get the sticky hands of private insurance off of Medicare once more, and the Medicare advantage program funding was originally supposed to be cut by 2.2% Following a media blitz and a lot of corporate money, Medicare Advantage is now scheduled for a 3.3% increase in funding this year instead of a cut. Adding insult to injury, the insurance industry is asking for increases in deductibles on original Medicare and a tax on Medigap plans, forcing more people into Medicare advantage. We may lose Medicare by bits and pieces if we don't stop the insurance industry now!

Runaway development and urban sprawl is creating a serious environmental problem here in California. The attacks by developers on our remaining open space and rural areas is constant. California, by all studies, is already, population wise, in environmental overshoot. This exacerbates all of our other ecological problems. California is now a scene of water wars. Every new development, whether an expensive new housing development or another winery, is making things worse. California has already had 91% of its wetlands drained. It is predicted that the Colorado River could be functionally dry in about a decade. Much of California’s groundwater is in an overdraft state. The drought has caused the snow pack in California to be only 52% of normal as of April 1, 2013. The expansion of fracking, which uses a tremendous amount of water, is the newest threat to our water supply. The water that remains for each individual in the state is becoming increasingly polluted. According to the EPA, the number of rivers in California that are polluted increased by 170% from 2006 to 2010. Of its 3 million acres of lakes, wetlands and estuaries, 1.6 million acres are not meeting water quality standards. Our air is also being affected. The fact that our state is the 12th largest emitter of carbon in the world is behind our state being in the 90th percentile in air pollution in the country. California has 5 of the top 10 most air polluted urban areas in the country. Not only air and water, but much of our state’s resources are being depleted at an unsustainable level. If left unchecked, California will commit slow but steady suicide. Steps need to be taken, and the first should be to create a check on urban sprawl. If there is a genuinely good reason for us to lose even more of our rural land to development and sprawl, it should now be put up to a vote of the people in the area most affected. It should no longer just be left to the politicians and their developer allies. That is the inspiration behind this petition signed by California voters.

Seniors need to have more respect. When we retire we loose much of our income, we cannot stay in the homes we loved because of the high property taxes. The economy has been awful for many years now. We have lost our savings because of the greed of others and the government that is unwilling, or unable to do anything about it. They are either in it for themselves or they are inept. Either way we have lost out and the least they can do is stop taxing us.

Social Security is not driving the deficit, therefore it should not be part of reforms aimed at cutting the deficit. The chained CPI, deceptively portrayed as a reasonable cost of living adjustment, is a cut to Social Security benefits that would hurt seniors. There are several sensible reforms to Social Security that should be considered to help make it sustainable, including lifting the ceiling on income subject to Social Security from $113,700 to $200,000 or more, as well as instituting a 1% raise in the payroll tax rate, a rate that hasn't changed in over 20 years. Both of these reforms would go a long way toward protecting the long-term health of Social Security, but neither should not be conflated with efforts to reduce the federal budget deficit. President Obama needs to stand by his Democratic principles and fight to protect Social Security benefits.

Now that the federal government has failed to pass basic, common sense gun laws, it is up to the states to act. Governor Shumlin has said that Vermont's laws are adequate, but Vermont actually has some of the weakest gun laws in the country. We are currently lacking some of the most basic gun regulations, and the safety of Vermonters is at stake. - Vermont has the highest rate of gun deaths in New England – mostly by suicide. - Vermont has the 12th highest suicide rate in the country and the highest the northeastern U.S., the majority of which are carried out with a gun. - Vermont, despite its small size, is 16th in the nation in exporting guns later found in crimes throughout the country, and has the highest rate of exported guns per capita in the northeast. - Vermont does not require gun owners to make guns inaccessible to children, despite the clear correlation between accidental shootings and unsecured guns. - Over past 10 years, 50% of Vermont’s homicides have been domestic violence-related. In states that require a background check for privates sales of handguns, 38% fewer women are shot to death by their intimate partners. Vermont has lots of responsible gun owners, but as our laws stand now, there is hardly anything keeping an irresponsible person from acquiring a firearm and harming themselves and/or others. If the governor truly believes in a 50-state solution, he should help put Vermont on the map as yet another state willing to prioritize its citizens' safety ahead of the gun lobby's agenda. More statistics and our sources can be found at: www.GunSenseVT.org. To join the GunSenseVT e-mail list and be part of growing coalition of Vermonters in support of sensible gun laws, e-mail [email protected] with your NAME and TOWN.

Abolish Fastrak, Yes I have been affected along with a million other commuters.

Did you see the 60 Minutes episode. If you did sign this petition now. If you didn't, Louis Taylor, was railroaded for a crime he did not commit and now over 40 years later he was released only after 60 minutes exposed the injustice. The continuing injustice is that the district attorney threatened to drag him through court again all the way to the supreme court unless he pled no contest and promised not to sue for restitution. That is not justice but a Second injustice imposed on this man by a system that claims to uphold justice. This is sickening and cannot be allowed to stand.

The New York SAFE Act is a draconian gun control package that was passed without public debate or input. It infringes the Constitutionally protected rights of law-abiding citizens, interferes with commerce, deprives people of their right to use and transfer personal property, and creates unfunded mandates on taxpayers--all without preventing violent crimes or reducing their severity. The Putnam County Legislature rightly enacted a resolution opposing the NY SAFE Act, which resolution we now support with this petition.

Animal abuse is a big problem in Oregon and there is not a big enough punishment for it to be threatening to abusers. We want to make the punishment bigger so that there is less abuse. We want this for the animals, but this is for the people too. Studies show that some animal abusers go on to do abusive and destructive things that can affect the people, for example setting fires. So if we put a stop to animal abuse everyone will be safer. The law itself allows five years in prison but there is a sentencing grid that limits the punishment to 120 days maximum. We want to change the grid and make sure that the grid matches the law so abusers get the proper punishment. This is part of what Senate Bill 6 says.

Sign my petition to implement a 20% emergency pay cut, effective immediately, for all members of the Legislative Branch of the Federal Government until the Sequester is ended. Congress should cancel the sequester, but if they aren't willing to, then they should share the pain by taking the 20% pay cut. If we are taking a pay cut for their lack to responsibility to the American people, so should they.