The Recovery School District, an agency of the Louisiana Department of Education, currently controls seven schools in Baton Rouge called the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone. The RSD is using one of these schools, Prescott Middle School with a seating capacity for 1,000 students, as an administrative building. The children of the East Baton Rouge School System need this facility back as a school to ease overcrowding among middle schools. As background, the RSD took over these schools because the schools were deemed “failing” by the Louisiana Department of Education. Parents were then given the choice of sending their children to schools run by the RSD or choosing another school run by the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. The student capacity of the seven RSD schools is 6,285. According to an RSD count conducted several months ago, there are 2,633 students attending these schools, indicating that the vast majority of parents in the seven schools chose another school run by the EBRPSS. It is incredibly inefficient for all of these school buildings to remain in the hands of the RSD when the majority of their former students have exercised choice and chosen to remain with the EBRPSS. In light of the state’s budget situation and the frozen funding for public education, the tax payers of Louisiana and East Baton Rouge Parish need to know our education officials are doing every thing they can to use resources efficiently. Even the drafters of the RSD recognize the need to keep as much money as possible in the classroom as demonstrated in the following section of the Louisiana law that created the RSD: “Except for administrative costs, monies appropriated to the Recovery School District that are attributable to the transfer of a school from a prior school system and monies allocated or transferred from the prior system to the recovery district shall be expended solely on the operation of schools transferred from the prior system to the jurisdiction of the district.” La R.S. 17:1990(3)(a). The consequences of this inefficient use of space by the RSD are particularly acute among middle school students since two of the RSD schools are middle schools. Of the 15 middle schools in EBRPSS, two have exceeded their capacity, one is at full capacity and four are within fifty students of being at capacity. This problem will only get worse as there is currently 486 more fifth graders going into middle school for the 2012-14 school year in the EBRPSS than there are eighth graders leaving. We urge the RSD to give this school building back to the EBRPSS. There are at least 2,652 empty desks at their other schools that could be turned into administrative space. The Superintendent of the RSD, Patrick Dobard, says he is committed to ensuring that “every student in Louisiana has access to a high-quality public school.” Mr. Dobard can demonstrate this commitment to parents across the EBRPSS by giving us back Prescott Middle School.

My friends & I go to the local Arcade to socialize, relax, get updated on news, have lunch, play games & we have a very enjoyable time. Do not let the Lobbyists shut them down! Remember, your job is to help us who voted you in, not the lobbyists!

Preserve good jobs in America! The FCC recently approved the merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS, the country's respective fourth and fifth largest wireless providers. CWA has been fighting to keep good jobs at home ever since T-Mobile closed seven call centers last summer, displacing more than 3,300 workers. And MetroPCS currently outsources 100 percent of its customer care, billing, payment processing and logistics operations.

We, the Wal-Mart customers, are asking and requesting that all Wal-Mart stores, supercenters, and businesses no longer carry, stock, or sell any assault guns firearms or any bullets magazine clips that will hold and fire over 20-bullets and rounds.

Some MN state legislators tried to promote common-sense gun bills but were thwarted by NRA opposition, and crucially, by a lack of leadership on this issue at the top--from Governor Dayton, Speaker Thissen and Majority Leader Tom Bakk. We need to spur these leaders to speak out in support of true gun violence prevention legislation and to make sure that their caucus sticks together on this. At a minimum, this legslation must include UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND CHECKS. Polls show that this is what the majority of Minnesotans want!

Bangladeshi Hindus are being murdered, raped and tortured without any protection from Bangladeshi government. Source: http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-bangladesh Luckily, our own government has enormous influence to diplomatically pursuade other governments to take corrective actions, to emphasize and elevate incidents of human rights violations to global human rights organizations - among many other peaceful diplomatic means. Please join me (a naturalized citizen of the USA who was born in Bangladesh, and who has served in the US Air Force as an active-duty enlisted military personnel) to solicit the attention of our elected leaders in taking actions to address the blatant and on-going human rights violations in Bangladesh against the very peaceful and law-abiding Hindus.

All Texans should be healthy.

There are Minnesotans who wish to: • consume whole raw dairy from grass-fed animals • visit the small-scale family farms • meet the farmer that grows their safe, high-quality food Our Minnesota Constitution recognizes these inalienable rights, however the Minnesota dairy statute (32.393 Limitation on Sale) unjustly restricts this right with the stipulation that the raw dairy be obtained “at the place or farm” and only “occasionally.” In addition, this statute discriminates against those who can’t drive to the farm, either due to financial or physical reasons, even though raw dairy is an already legal food that is proven to be safe and healthful. We are asking for Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota to “un-do” these stipulations to allow farm-to-consumer deliveries (home delivery or mutually agreed upon drop site) and on a regular basis. It is important to reverse these laws that negate our inalienable rights as free American citizens and keep families from being able to obtain a food of their choice.

The 2013-2014 NYS Budget ignores the need for public school funding. Governor Cuomo has made school aid "not guaranteed," as it comes with prerequisite strings attached. Likewise, the tax relief and initiatives for the middle class is not appropriately addressed to all middle class citizens.

What Representative Clark and Senator Eaton propose is simple: modestly increase the tax on alcohol and devote the funds to sober schools, supportive housing, DUI courts, treatment, domestic violence programs, and similar needed services and programs. Help Olmsted and other Counties get DUi & Drug Court. The current cost of alcohol to our state is 5.06 billion annually. House Bill 885/ Senate Bill 902 would increase taxes by 3.5 cents for a can of beer, 3.8 cents for glass of wine, and 10 cents for a shot of liquor.

I do not understand why some of our elected officials are allowed to get away with calling social security and medicare as entitlement programs. I have contributed to the for 50 years They are not entitlements What are entitlement programs: 1) congresspeople and senators get pensions for life even if they only serve one term. Lets end this now 2) Congresspeople and senators have great health insurance paid by the US government This is an entitlement program Let them pay like most other people

Currently, S.55 is stuck in the State Senate Appropriations Committee. This bill would set up a task force to study state government banking and financial activities and determine if the present way of performing them is the best that can be done or if there are better ways of conducting these activities in a manner that will better benefit the state and its citizens. Many state government agencies currently do business with several financial institutions that engage in questionable activities. One of the possible outcomes of the study by the task force as currently configured in this bill is determining how much risk our public money is placed under by continuing to do business with these systemically important (AKA Too Big Too Fail) financial institutions. One example of possible risk is Citigroup’s efforts to unload its investments in shipping companies which are losing money. Citigroup is the lead administrator of the state municipal bonding program. There is also some evidence that there are efforts at the federal level to turn deposits at these big institutions into property of the banks which could be used to bail them out in the event of failure of any of these banks resulting in the possible loss of these deposits to the depositors. It is very important that the Senate Appropriations Committee acts promptly to release S.55 so that this very important study can be undertaken. Signatures to this petition will be sent directly to members of the Appropriations Committee. Please sign this petition as soon as you can and thank you for your efforts. State/Public Bank Committee Jim Hogue, Chair http://vtpublicbank.com