Plastic bags are a menace to our ecosystem. Barely recyclable, almost all of the 3,000 bags used in this country per second are discarded. Once discarded, they either enter our landfills or our marine ecosystem.

Maine's U.S. Senators, Susan Collins and Angus King, will be major figures in the debate about immigration reform this year. We need Senator Collins and Senator King to support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants currently living in the United States without documentation. Many of these immigrants have lived in this country for more than a decade and have come to America to seek a better life for their families. They are Americans-in-waiting who are ready to fulfill the requirements of our citizenship process: to study English, pay taxes, and continue to contribute to our economy and community. We need a new approach to immigration that keeps families together and provides a path to citizenship.

It's simple. Separation of chuch and state. If these right-wing churches want to push politics, make them pay by removing their tax exempt status. I am so tired of hearing how a person's right to choose his or her religion is above my fundamental rights as a citizen of this great country. By allowing churches to preach politics from their pulpits, they infringe on my rights and should have to pay taxes. They want to "vote" by opening their mouths and telling their congregations who to vote for and what to support, they need to pay with their pocketbooks, just like the rest of us.

Let's encourage our legislators to work within a timeframe by not rewarding poor work habits.

I have been billed $20,000.00 per night at a hospital for their facilities charge. That does not include the anesthesia or the surgery. In his recent Time article, Steven Brill explains the reasons for the exorbitant bills. About 60% of personal bankruptcies are due to health care cost. The price gouging is not only unfair but immoral.

We have not raised the minimum wage in Hawaii in seven years. While our cost of living is higher than almost any other state, our minimum wage is behind 19 other states. Our people have a hard time getting by and most work two jobs. Raising the wage floor will help a lot of families do a little better. In addition to the wage itself there are two other important issues addressed by this bill: We are concerned with talk about not fully including tipped workers in this increase. The so called "tip credit" is unfair to restaurant workers who make up a big portion of Hawaii's work force. Second we'd like to make sure the wage keeps pace with inflation in the future and we want to include an automatic increase tagged to inflation.

Veterans with Disabilities having their claims being decided in an office with VA care providers in less than 10 minutes. If you have been in since the age of 18 and there wasn't anything wrong with you going in, and now for all of those years; why does it take them over two years to come up with a decision. when all they have to do is check your DD214 to see how many times you have been deployed, and where you have been deployed and the type of combat badges you have. After all is said and done the Veteran still has to file and appeal trying to prove that this is service connected, WHY???

The right to vote is essential to democratic government. Those who pass laws to take that right away under the guise of "protecting" legitimate voters are actually trying to subvert democracy. They should be voted out of office.

GMOs in our food were first available to the public in 1996. That is when I began to get sick. We deserve to know what the food we are eating is made from, especially when it can poison our health. What good is any other reform if future generations won't be around? This is critical to the health of our nation and our world—the future of our human community depends upon it. Come on, New York!

I am asking you to Repeal of Section 115 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 prohibited Sates from providing Food Stamps (now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to convicted drug felons unless the State passes legislation to extend benefits to these individuals. This Act denies benefits disproportionately to one group of people with convictions and not others. I want a change to the laws and offer equal rights for Formerly Incarcerated Persons that have served all of their time so that they can contribute to society, work, find housing and not be a continued burden on their families. People can steal millions from banks and are eligible for benefits if needed, they can steal from this agency and are only banned for a period of time. People can murder and be eligible for assistance, but they could have not ever received benefits if they have a drug offense and are ineligible for these benefits if they need it during their lifetime. Who are the people that are targets of this discrimination? **Drug charges and convictions disproportionately affect African American and Hispanics. All people with prior convictions should be made whole citizens after they have served their time, they should have the opportunity as any other citizen with rights afforded by the Constitution of the United States to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We believe that is being denied to them.

we need our post office strong and working

Due to the sequester, the armed forces have decided to eliminate educational benefits for active duty personnel. This benefits those that are serving and provides a platform for employment upon discharge.