At a time of severe economic hardship for Americans living at or near poverty, cuts to housing assistance programs will only result in increasing the numbers of individuals and families becoming homeless. This is not only an inhumane policy but one that will cost taxpayers much more to fix in the long run. As someone who has benefited from housing assistance, I know how vitally important and worth saving these programs are.

There is an elementary school that is trying to get rid of a program that allows students to display talent and discover talent. If I can get enough signatures to the principal, it may change his mind.

Deregulation of Barber and Beauty Industry. This is a crazy idea. The safety and public sanitation and infection control will be endanger.

Although I believe we need a credit scoring system to allow banks to make appropriate loans and good credit customers to achieve lower interest rates, I believe there are serious problems with the current system. The following are recommendations to make the credit system more equitable: ..Do not allow credit card companies to put anything on your credit card unless specifically authorized in advance. ..Allow your credit card to automatically expire after three months of non-payment. The reason is that many people relocate to find other jobs or out of the country and items are placed on their cards and then for 6 month the penalty and interest increase. In my case an $80 credit card charge for a ride to the airport to re-locate out of the country ran up to $850 with no notification. Now the credit card company will not remove it from the credit agency even if we pay the $850. We are talking about people who have good credit but destroyed by the credit card company with not remedy leading to huge losses in potential purchasing power and a slower economy. And it seem like usury to me.

This petition is to adjust the antiquated parking ordinances of the City of Las Vegas, Nevada to reflect today's common privately owned vehicles.

The Beaverton Police have started performing police stops on innocent people "en masse" while having no suspicion of a crime, and no way to possibly suspect them of a crime, only to find 99% of the people they stopped are innocent. These people are effectively detained, immobile, and forced to show proof of their innocence against theft, under threat of being arrested if they do not show their papers... A TriMet transit ticket. Has this happened to you? If you ride the Max, chances are it has. The Beaverton Police either board the train, or they wait outside the train. Sometimes they come on in rapid swat-like fashion, and they carry GUNS, wear the complete vest/riot gear, and they really get up in your face demanding the ticket. Why should innocent people be subjected to repeated police action? It would seem like the very laws preventing the police from harassing innocent people are repeatedly being violated by the Beaverton Police. What about the constitution? The 4th Ammendment protects against unreasonable search, saying the civilians are "secure in their papers". The 5th Ammendment protects against self incrimination. The Miranda rights provide that you don't need to talk to police. They have violated all these rights. Moreover... We FEEL violated by their actions. We FEEL like our rights of interaction with police... Only if they are investigating a real crime or have suspicion about you personally... have been stripped away, and if they can do THIS... What's to stop them from doing anything? Please..... We need your help.

Illinois State Senator Ira Silverstein is trying to pass a bill whereas if you have an unpaid utility bill in the City of Chicago, they can boot your car. If your car is booted you have 24 hours to pay the unpaid utility bill and boot fee otherwise your car will be towed and impounded. Once that happens you have 21 days to pay the entire utility bill, the boot fee, the tow fee and storage fee otherwise your car will be auctioned off. As you can imagine I am pretty livid about this. How dare a STATE senator introduce a bill that (right now) only affects the City of Chicago (MOST of his district is northern suburbs, Skokie, Wilmette, etc.) and targets the least of us, our seniors living off social security, those with low income, unemployed and underemployed?! No one purposely does not pay their utilities, that is the first thing people will pay when they have the money; no one wants to be in the dark, cold or without water. With this new increase in city water, this could affect more people that we realize. It doesn’t matter if you live in a house or an apartment, if you have a utility bill, you are affected. Again, this only affects the City of Chicago, but I’m certain this is just the testing ground, it can and if we allow, will expand statewide and possibly nationwide, so you don’t need to live in the city to fight against this bill. The bill was introduced January 10, 2013 and re-referred February 28, 2013 and the bill number is Illinois SB0036.

If your degree is costing you money every month but not opening up opportunities and increasing your salary, then why not get a refund? For-Profit Universities sell their degrees on the premise of increased wages and career opportunities; however, no one imposes any sanctions on them to deliver these promises. I firmly believe 'Lemon Law', etc. should be extended to a college degree. Many Universities are making promises they can't deliver (and don't intend to), and if their product was a car, etc. they would be in court every day for false advertising, selling a lemon, and practically stealing from eager students. Counselors at a For Profit School I attended promised me (via email, advertisements, and word of mouth) ridiculous career advancements and a starting $50k annual salary; however, after completing my bachelors I am still at the same job. Nearly two years have passed, hundreds of applications completed, and all I have to show for it is a $65k plus bill which costs over $600 monthly. I am a public servant and cannot afford a home because of this raising my debt to income level too high. My story is not a new one and I am certain there are hundreds of thousands of us, if not millions. Let us return our degree and call it even. We will not claim to have a bachelors degree or even mention attending a University. We return the degree and all its merits and get our debt resolved i.e. a full refund. This is a fair proposal.

The current Newbury Road Post Office in Newbury Park, CA enjoys a central location and convenient access for customers. It is convenient for walking to as it is for driving, as it is right off the 101 freeway. Public transit is also available. Energy and time are conserved through customers' use of the current location. The new proposed location in Grande Vista is remote , with no public transportation and in an unsafe and deserted area at night.

The Chelsea School, located in the Seven Oaks/Evanswood neighborhood of Silver Spring, MD, is selling its land, with the historic pre-Civil War Riggs-Thompson house, to the developer EYA. The site plan includes a new street that will circumvent the traffic protections designed to prevent cut-through traffic to and from the Central Business District. These protections were implemented after overwhelming approval by neighborhood referendum. This street would allow cars to bypass the one-way section of Ellsworth Drive near the library. For instance, drivers coming from downtown could enter Ellsworth going north, go through the Chelsea development, and take Pershing Drive to get to Dale Drive and the Beltway – just the kind of cut-through traffic that our traffic plan was designed to prevent. Cut-through traffic to Dale Drive will increase traffic on that artery and throughout the neighborhood. EYA claims that signs restricting access will prevent cut-through traffic. However, enforcement will be difficult – how will police know which cars are driven by visitors or residents? – and it is unlikely that the police will make it a sustained priority. SOECA and the Chelsea Task Force ask that the County and EYA use a cul-de-sac with entry and exit onto Ellsworth, which would preserve the traffic control plan. The County confirms that this cul-de-sac would satisfy Police and Fire Department requirements for access, even with the large number of townhouses in EYA’s plan.

The Chelsea School, located in the Seven Oaks/Evanswood neighborhood of Silver Spring, is selling its land, with the historic pre-Civil War Riggs-Thompson house, to the developer EYA. Although developers such as EYA must comply with all State and County environmental laws and regulations, Montgomery County has thus far failed to hold EYA to these requirements. It is vital that the County ensure that trees are preserved, and stormwater runoff properly managed, in order to avoid polluting nearby Sligo Creek and the Anacostia Watershed. It is also vital that EYA strictly adhere to green space requirements on the property, and that the Riggs-Thompson house and it setting are properly preserved. Environmental site design is not being followed in this proposed development. EYA’s plans violate State and County laws that require managing stormwater by preserving natural features --- which at the Chelsea site include numerous mature trees and steep, erodible slopes --- and using sensible design techniques, such as clustered development. The County’s forest conservation law also obliges EYA to preserve all significant trees on the site unless EYA can demonstrate that preserving them creates an unwarranted hardship. We cannot understand why County officials have failed so far to impose these requirements. Instead, EYA plans to clear-cut the site, destroying 64 trees --- only a handful outside the historic property would be preserved --- and to re-grade nearly the entire area, disturbing highly erodible steep slopes and creating new slopes, including one that takes part of the Riggs-Thompson lot and comes within 30 feet of that historic house itself. The County is also ignoring the zoning requirement that 50% of the townhouse development be maintained as green space accessible to its occupants. Instead, the County allows EYA to count the Riggs-Thompson property towards this requirement. The Chelsea property has 89 mature trees, many more than 100 years old. The 63% tree canopy coverage in the surrounding neighborhood is an important part of the green ring around downtown Silver Spring, which has only 14% coverage. Trees combat global warming by helping to clean the air, and the areas around them, and their root systems are very effective at protecting Sligo Creek and the Anacostia Watershed by controlling stormwater runoff. It would be tragic and foolish to lose these benefits in order to allow EYA to squeeze the maximum number of townhouses onto the Chelsea site. We therefore urge the Montgomery County Planning Board, and all other State and local officials, to vigorously enforce State and County stormwater laws and green space requirements, and save as many mature trees as possible, on the site of the proposed Chelsea Court townhouse development in Silver Spring.

Over 300 cities (urban, suburban and rural, wealthy and poor) across America have now ended the needless killing of healthy and treatable companion animals. Ask the Governor and the State of New Mexico to support the animal life-saving event “Just One Day” by urging animal shelters across New Mexico to take a pledge not to kill any savable animals on June 11, 2013. Instead of clearing cages by euthanizing, animals will leave the shelters with their forever families. At the end of the day, the shelters will have many more empty cages than at the beginning of the day. Yet, no animals will have had to die in order to make that happen. More about Just One Day can be found at http://www.justoneday.ws