Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, with a population of over 80 million; it is the second most populous country in Sub – Sahara Africa. More than eighty five percent of the country‘s population lives in rural areas. The current Ethiopian government has involved itself in religious affairs by violating the constitutional rule of religion-state separation. The government engaged itself notoriously in Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Muslims affair, threatening and embezzle Muslims Ethiopians in the country, torturing and imprisoning journalists and opposition politicians and agitating one ethnic group to rise and attack another one. Now they step up their attack on those of us who live in abroad. The Ethiopian government officials are almost all of them engaged in corruption. We the committee members of community representative, here file the grievance of Ethiopians on the current government for the last twenty years to the government of US. These grievances accuse are substantiated by the statements of international human right organizations like Amnesty International, Human right watch, Ethiopia based Ethiopian human right council, other civil organizations and individuals testimonies. The current ruling party of Ethiopia came to power by beginning of 1990’s following the eve of the collapse of communism party by international support with the hope to bring democracy to the country. During this time coalition government formed by different political parties by signing the charter of transitional government. In doing so they promised the Ethiopian people and international community to establish democratic rule in the country. But soon after, the ruling party started to break the charter promises on the first election, by harassing, intimidating, arresting and killing the election candidates, voters and members of opposition parties. The arrests were mostly in undisclosed locations to facilitate torture and systematic elimination such as putting the detainees to hunger, denying them medical attention when they are sick and hiding them from any press. The consequences were wide irregularities in election processes and many parties were forced to withdraw not only from elections but also from transitional government itself. This pressure of the government on opposition party came from the fact that the ruling party sees opposition party not as political opponent but as an enemy. Since the failure of communism party TPLF’S EPDRF the current ruling party became the only party that ruled the country at any cost for the last Two decades. The current ruling party continued its destabilization techniques of few remaining opposition parties or opposition leaders such as Dr Merara Guddina in the country by criminalizing them through written and unwritten rules as well as forcing them to be confined within the capital Addis Ababa controlling and limiting their access to people in different regions or towns. These inactive opposition parties and few presses were allowed numerous times in the capital Addis Ababa to use them as a show case to the world diplomats in Addis Ababa to disguise government’s true dictatorial nature. The current government of Ethiopia is not constitutional or democratic government as it is demonstrated by no limit of power, two of the three branches of the governments are controlled by executive body, no independent judicial system; hence no check and balance. The existing constitution had consciously designed to ensure the hegemonic aspiration of the rulers than building democratic institutions. Even though theoretically the constitution of Ethiopia guaranteed all human rights, practically there are no basic human rights in the country, no right to lead a peaceful life, no right to freedom of speech, no right to practice a religion of choice, no right to get information and no right to organize, no right to elect or to be elected. Independent voices are not tolerated including jamming of voice of America. Journalists are imprisoned or forced to exile. The current government involves itself in religious affairs by violating the constitutional rule of church-state separation, for instance, the Ethiopian Orthodox church pope was assigned by the government which is against the rule of the church. Furthermore, states sometimes threat religious institutions through land grabbing or even burning the institutions. A country’s old Waldiba monastery in north western part of Ethiopia is the case where nuns are said to be harassed and bitten by the government security forces. Northern part of Ethiopia is known for housing ancient churches and monasteries some of which are under the list of UNESCO’S world heritage site. On the other hand, the government engaged itself notoriously in threatening Muslims in the country. The ruling party has been attempting to impose teachings of a new religious sect known as Al-Ahbash on Muslim community. The government has been trying to institute this new religious sect through national council of Islamic affair which supposed to be run by the people themselves. In response, Muslim citizens requested to stop the unconstitutional religious interference by creating committee of seventeen members that represent Muslim community to negotiate and formally file the complaint and demands of the Muslim community. After the complaint filed rejected and negotiations had failed by the ruling party, the Muslim community started protesting peacefully requesting in what they considered to be unconstitutional government interference to impose new religious sect on Muslim community, attempt to determine the makeup of the supreme council of Islamic affair and to take over and control the public school and mosque called Awalia. Since July 13, 2012, Ethiopian government forces have arbitrarily arrested hundreds of Muslims at Addis Ababa Awalia and Anwar mosque, wallo and Arsi provinces. Many of them subjected to torture, harassment, assault and kill...

Yes, I've been affected. I feel I am the victim of a nasty employer and am paying for her disgruntled position. I'm a non paid care-giver. I also work part-time. I'm an underpaid worker, and get paid every two weeks...my take home pay goes to my bills and I barely have funds to get to work the following week. I have a set plan with AT&T, and somehow, my phone bills are escalated to 50 to 100 dollars over the original plan...I'm not much of a talker except with my family and my 90 year old mother and family whom are upset that they haven't been able to get in touch with me since my service has been interrupted. I've spent longer than an hour on the phone with AT&T, made arrangements with them to pay my bill. Gave them access to my account in which they claim they couldn't access...and then AT&T tried to claim I hadn't paid my bill since February...I have records and bank statements saying I've paid. AT&T are constantly tacking on fees and charging me for 'over'data usage and it's making it difficult to have them as a consumer. Since I've acquired their services 2 years ago, it's been nothing but constant calls to them without much satisfactory results, except more payments to them out of my pocket that I can't afford.

Citizens of the United States are at serious risk of widespread contamination of their drinking-water aquifers and water wells from fracking and the leaking of oil-pipelines. Our environmental situation is so precarious, I find it difficult to think about anything else!

My name is Jessie Rose and I am an avid sports participant and I, as well as many other students, want Coach Kowalski to stay the last year of his son's High school career here at Shelbyville High.

"Slamming" is the practice of forcing people onto mailing lists without their explicit permission. The purpose of this petition is to ask MoveOn (SignOn) to add an opt-in checkbox that lets petitioners decide whether or not they want to be added onto mailing lists for MoveOn, MoveOn PAC, and SignOn when they sign petitions. SignOn's current policy is to add all petitioners onto these various mailing lists, with the understanding that "you may unsubscribe at any time." This isn't sufficient, especially in cases where someone wants to sign a petition relating to sensitive subjects (e.g. domestic violence) and doesn't want to receive confirmation emails and additional campaigns related to that same subject. SignOn and MoveOn: Please allow us to participate in democracy without obligating us to participate in your mailing lists.

On Mar. 5, Rep. Drew Springer of Muenster, Texas filed HB 2416 to stop Austin and other cities from prohibiting plastic bags. The same bags we use to help us move groceries for a few minutes end up polluting our environment for hundreds of years. They sit in landfills, litter streets, choke wildlife and clog our streams. This is why Austin, Brownsville, Fort Stockton and South Padre Island have passed ordinances restricting single use plastic bags. Banning these wasteful bags and making the transition to reusable bags will significantly cut down on the amount of trash our cities produce, protect wildlife and keep our waterways cleaner. We support Texas cities' responsible choice to ban disposable bags. Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute our environment for hundreds. It just makes sense. The Legislature should reject this bill and let cities decide for themselves how to handle solid waste.

The most amazing thing just happened. The Obama Administration finally admitted the truth of what we’ve been saying all along: giant Wall Street banks have become too big to prosecute. In testimony on Wed, March 6, US Attorney General Eric Holder – the nation’s top cop – said, “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them … I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."[1] Exactly. Now we understand why the Obama Administration has failed to bring criminal charges against a single major Wall Street bank or executive for systemic fraud that brought down our economy. When the Attorney General openly admits that the most powerful members of society won't be prosecuted for even the most egregious of crimes, we are in deep trouble as a nation. Remember that we gave Wall Street bankers $700 billion in TARP bailouts and $2.5 trillion in investments, loans, and guarantees to shore up their business (and outrageous bonuses) [2] on the theory that letting them collapse would create a generation-long Depression. In return it seems fair to demand accountability for the actions that brought us to that point. Now it turns out the Administration never had any intention of seeking accountability. That’s why we’re demanding an immediate end to this unconscionable policy that puts the wishes of Wall Street 1%ers above the well-being of working families, most especially those hardest hit by the criminal actions of these very same people. The Campaign for a Fair Settlement has been pushing hard during the first hundred days of President Obama’s second term for real accountability for the Wall Street criminals who stole our homes, savings, and pensions and destroyed our economy. We think this is the only way he’ll secure his legacy as a champion of justice for the millions of homeowners, taxpayers and retirees harmed by Wall Street criminals. This revelation makes this all the more urgent. Stand up and demand Pres. Obama take immediate steps to break up the big banks and prosecute the criminals who used them to destroy our economy. It’s break up time. Now or never.

Many of us have noticed that A-B Tech often remains open while other schools and colleges in Buncombe County deem it unsafe to do so due to inclement weather conditions. A community college with a rigid attendance policy, prepared to tell their students, staff and faculty when they must be present, should be equally prepared to tell those students, staff and faculty when they are not required to be present. People's safety matters.

My petition is for affordable housing for what I consider the "lower middle class" in NYC. Landlords and rent guidelines are so biased. If you earn over $40,000 you're usually disqualified from affordable housing lotteries. You have no other choice but to waste money on broker's, security deposits and at least 1st months rent. Rents are sky rocketing in NY and after paying $1,300 or more in rent along with other rising costs in New York we hardly have any money left over for anything else.

Spur MA legislature to support our Governor.

a better deal for Minnesota residents

Education, economy, the environment. Last I checked we were free. Give us back our jobs so we can provide for our families and so kids are bot starving to death.