Currently there are bills in the Hawaii State Legislature proposing to decriminalize and make it easier to use Marijuana recreationally. Passing such a law would endanger the general public due to increased use and abuse of Marijuana. The potential for the increase of drivers under the influence of Marijuana causing accident with serious injuries or death is likely occur. Any bill or law passed to allow decriminalization of Marijuana must include strict penalties for those who abuse Marijuana to the point where their judgement and senses are impaired. Standards as to how to determine when a person is physically or judgementally impaired must be established, simular to that of Intoxicated driver by alcoholic beverages. Before any laws are passed there should be clear and exact guidelines as to levels of THC in blood that would cause impairment, testing procedure and standards of evidence collection and strict penalties for those convicted of impairment.

The climate crisis is no longer a myth. From unpredictable and severe storms, crop failure, drought, and flooding, to rising tides, drowning islands, and thousands of acres of forests on fire....we need strong climate legislation from the U.S. government. Now. The fossil fuel industry is rampantly mining and drilling more of the antiquated (dinosaur) forms of fuel that have been largely responsible for the planet's current climate crisis. We can do better! This February, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced The Climate Protection Act of 2013 (S.332) and The Sustainable Energy Act (S.329). These acts need co-sponsors from as many Senators as possible in order for them to reach the Senate floor for a vote, and then to advance to the House for their vote. We can do this. According to Sen. Sanders his climate change legislation would help business,create jobs, and save billions of dollars on disaster relief. "The price that America can not afford to pay is the price of doing nothing to reverse global warming", he states. Please sign this petition to let your lawmakers know that we are serious about national climate legislation and that as voters we are watching them. Thank you. P.S. Nothing says -' we are serious and we vote' - than a personal visit with your lawmaker. Consider getting friends together to visit them at their district offices when they are back home in your area. Ask your Senators to co-sponsor S.329 and S.332. Inform your House Reps that you expect action from them on this as well. You can find out when your lawmakers are back home for recess at: http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/one_item_and_teasers/2013_schedule.htm Find your lawmakers home offices at: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

If the furloughs are not stopped, every Civilian Service employee at every military hospital will be cut 8 hrs per week which will drastically reduce patient access to medical care which already is critically less than what is needed. Our military service men and women, their families, and retirees have made great sacrifices and deserve the health care they have earned, and nothing less. Our patients will then have to seek the medical care they need elsewhere which will cost at least 1.5 times the cost for their care if provided at the military hospitals by Civilian Service employees. Repeal the sequester, stop the furloughs!

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. Notified residents of Foundation House in Federal Way WA that they would be charged $150 per year for a computer enviornment that was set in place in late 2012. Residents were not asked if they were interested, and were told there would be no cost to them, in fact the facility used the new computers and wi-fi as an enticement to prospective residents.

This is a petition to targeted members of the United States Congress asking them to support sensible gun safety legislation.

The Mattawa Community is petitionin the City to please bring back the soccer goal posts that were removed from the community park. Playing soccer at the park was one on Mattawa's main community envolvements, taking the posts away took a piece of the Community away from this city.

Indiana has the fourth-largest number of out-of-state college students in America. Like all such students, they're allowed, constitutionally, to vote either at home or at college. But now a member of the Indiana House has introduced HB 1311, prohibiting out-of-state students from voting in Indiana's elections. This is an unconstitutional effort to suppress the vote, so HB 1311 must be rejected.

The legislature has attempted to enact a medical MJ law in New York. There are many thousands of New Yorkers, myself amongst them. who have total & permanent disabilities which will end only with out deaths. We pay our taxes, obey the laws. We've needed relief from the pain and suffering our disabilities have caused us since the 1960s that this wonder drug will bring. In the absence of equal protection & equal Justice before the laws of New York which a medical MJ law would bring us, we are routinely Discriminated against by employers prejudiced against us. We need the dignity that regular employment will afford us now more than ever due to the creeping hyperinflation which the Federal Government has allowed by permitting the Federal Reserve to over print currency thus devaluing the buying power of our dollars. For those of us especialy who are retired, that bad monentary policy seeks to make Social Security into a poverty program. We disabled citizens all have a right to work, and a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. New York is a right to work State. We ask only for what is owed us: the freedom from hunger, freedom from fear which were amongst FDR's 4 Freedoms. It is even more unjust to war against injured people as it is against nations. We and the natural medicine we need to relieve our suffering are not the issue. It's the injury of the injustice of keeping us from our legitimate medicine which is the issue. Ignorance, prejudice, indifference are not a just basis to perpetuate the privation we experience. We petition to have the medical profession determine our right to prescriptions, not cops.

I have been in the Auto Repair and Towing Business for 14 years and the unsafe conditions of most vehicles is appalling! We are 1 of 10 States in the US that does not implement Yearly Safety Inspections. Yearly Safety Inspections not only provides protection for our loved ones, it also boosts the economy. Most citizens of the state are tired of paying property tax over and over again on the same vehicle. With payment of an inspection fee and necessary repairs, the customer has something substantial they can see and touch.

I have been in the Auto Repair and Towing Business for 14 years and the unsafe conditions of most vehicles is appalling! We are 1 of 10 States in the US that does not implement Yearly Safety Inspections. Yearly Safety Inspections not only provides protection for our loved ones, it also boosts the economy. Most citizens of the state are tired of paying property tax over and over again on the same vehicle. With payment of an inspection fee and necessary repairs, the customer has something substantial they can see and touch.

I am a parent, a tax payer, a resident of Walden, NY for over 50 years and a graduate of the Valley Central School District, the State University of New York and Villanova University.  I  believe that the greatest investment any of us in this room has made in our lives is the investment in our education.   First of all thank you for meeting with us today.  Two nights ago as our Board of Education struggled to decide the fate of an elementary school where children have been nurtured and educated for over 90 years due to an 8.1 million dollar shortfall, the Superintendent of our school district publicly referred to our belief that we may be heard in Albany as “the opiate for the masses.” This was no doubt a statement that reflects the frustration of watching a school district and a community taken apart by devastating cuts to programs and staff after ten years as Superintendent of Schools.  On January 2, 2011, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in his inauguration speech  “Too often government responds to the whispers of lobbyists before the cries of the people”.  We are here today in the hope that you will hear our cries and that you may respond to our voice.   New York State has a constitutional obligation to provide the funding for the opportunity for a sound basic education to every one of New York’s sons and daughters.  Three months ago Governor Cuomo proclaimed himself the children’s lobbyist announcing that he was taking on a second job.  He has arrogantly championed his program for education reform.  But since 2010 over 50 schools in New York State have closed – the vast majority under his governorship.  In addition, districts across the State have been stripped of offerings such as sports, music, language and art.  I am not sure whose children he is the lobbyist for but the reason I am here today is to inform you that I am firing him from that second job.  I am here as a parent to lobby for my own daughter because it is not acceptable to me that she will be offered an education of inferior quality when she begins school than I received from the same school district over 30 years ago and what’s more, my wife and I will not permit her to be placed at an educational disadvantage to help benefit the political aspirations of an ambitious governor.   You will not find a town named Valley Central on a map of New York State but it exists as a community as sure as any that can be found.  Fifty years ago, the villages of Maybrook, Walden and Montgomery and outlying area united forming Valley Central, a public school district that today is more than 4,500 students strong.   Historically we are a rural district and have prided ourselves on being conservative and fiscally responsible to tax payers. Although there have been additions, the newest of the seven buildings in our district was built in 1969.  For decades the school district advertised to voters that the cost per pupil was at or near the bottom of the list when compared to every school in the Mid Hudson Valley.  Travel within 30 minutes in any direction from our district and there are state of the art high schools and million dollar athletic complexes but other than a swimming pool made possible by large donations from the community,  our district looks pretty much the same as it did in 1969.     And what was the prize for fiscal responsibility?  Gap Elimination -  a formula that reduced our state aid somehow based on the assumption that the relative wealth of our community exceeds the amount of school tax needed to fund our programs.  The solution?  Raise taxes to reduce the Gap Elimination penalty.  But as you know this puts our district in a choke hold because Governor Cuomo has enacted a 2% tax cap that really isn’t 2%.   This cap cannot be pierced without a super majority vote, a regulation that may not have constitutional validity.  As a result, the Valley Central Board of Education is faced with closing at least one elementary school, cutting kindergarten, art, music, library, all sports and extra-curriculars, class sizes of over 30 students even at the elementary levels and cutting the jobs of talented teachers – some with 6 or more years of valued service.  And this still will not close the 8.1 million dollar shortfall without depleting the fund balance and/or raising taxes.     I have three basic requests that I ask today. The first is that you restore the Gap Elimination Aid Adjustment loses. This regulation that originally was proposed as a one year adjustment has continued for the past three years at a price to the Valley Central District of over 5 million dollars each year, directly contributing to our 8.1 million dollar shortfall.   If you are unwilling or unable to restore those loses and insist that the State is meeting its obligation to adequately fund our district, my second request is that you remove the handcuffs from our community and give us a fair and constitutional opportunity to fund our schools locally by suspending the super majority requirement until our tax rate can be incrementally raised to the point where you have determined is appropriate for the relative wealth of our community and reinstitute the cap at that time.     The third request is that you reduce the restrictions on the districts Employee Benefits Accrued Liability Reserve funds (EBALR) so that it can be accessed to help preserve these cuts that will cripple our schools and eventually destroy our district.     It has been said that the greatest of all evils is the destruction of hope.  If none of these options are viable I need to ask you today what hope are you willing to give to the children of the Valley Central School District?  Are you willing to promise anything other than a multi-million dollar short fall and more cuts in the years to come?  If that is the case, it is obvious that the Governor’s  real vision for educational reform is to have the line for the Principal’s office next to the line for the window for motor vehicle registration....

I own a repair shop in Myrtle Beach, SC for 14 years. There are too many severely, unsafe vehicles on our roads. The automobile owners pay a meager Property Tax, therefore, they have no accountability for causing pollution or when an accident occurs due their unsafe vehicle.