The Florida Legislature is meeting today to vote on privatization of Medicaid. This will have a serious detrimental effect on those who rely on these programs for health care. In addition, this may be the "pilot program" to privatization of other programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Over the last two decades there’s been a steady shift in the tax burden in Philly from the rich to the poor. Business taxes have been cut for giant corporations, including many that aren’t even located in Philadelphia. The wage tax has been cut in a way that makes benefits bigger the richer you are. Meanwhile City Council has repealed a wage tax cut for the working poor. Also the sales tax has increased to 8%, badly hurting ordinary working people. And property taxes have increased 3 times since 2010. Those hikes have hurt poor homeowners and have been passed on to tenants throughout the City. Next year homeowners and tenants may get hit by another big tax increase while many of the biggest commercial property owners like Franklin Mills and Liberty Place actually get tax cuts. The large non-profit universities and hospitals –- like Penn, Temple, Drexel and the big hospitals—get the biggest breaks of all. They own many of the 10.3% of tax-exempt properties in Philly, a proportion larger than in any other US city, and they will continue paying nothing, not even for commercial activities and properties that they rent out for profit. The Mayor and Council must shift the burden of taxes away from poor and working people to make big business, and big “nonprofits” pay for the services that all the city residents need.

NO

Hundreds of student athletes struggle every year to meet GPA requirements due to the time and energy spent at practice, team feeds and games. It is unnecessary for these students to take gym classes because if athletes can make the cut for a sports team, it is obvious that they are also capable of completing a physical education course as well.

The air quality problem in Northern Utah gets worse every year. We want the legislature to act to impose tighter air quality regulations.

Many students in the future will be affected by this poor decision.

We who study, teach and work on college campuses are personally affected by the potential of the legislation (Texas state lawmakers filed Senate Bill 182) involving guns on college campuses. Firearms and education should not mix. College campuses are places of learning, not places for guns and gun vaults.

I depend on both coverage to live a decent life. Social Security & Medicare.

Loyalsock State Forest is the heart of Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains Region, and provides thousands of visitors amazing hiking, canoeing and camping experiences. But now, Governor Corbett is on the verge of allowing gas companies to drill it. This would be the first state forest opened to dangerous gas drilling in over two years, violating the spirit of a moratorium on leasing state forests to drillers and potentially leading to more drilling in our state forests in the next few years. If the governor allows Anadarko, a Houston-based gas company, to drill in Loyalsock, the park’s land would be torn up and vulnerable to pollution. In fact, Anadarko has already been cited for over 150 drilling violations in Pennsylvania and is already surveying lands for drilling around some of the best hiking paths. With a decision expected in the next two months, we need to mobilize thousands of Pennsylvanians to fight for Loyalsock. Tell Governor Corbett and his Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR): “Keep drilling out of Loyalsock State Forest.”

Over the past few months, outsourcing and subcontracting at Stanford Hospital and Clinics (SHC) has threatened the jobs of dozens of workers. SHC has recently laid off over a dozen janitorial workers and plans to lay off more by the end of this year. At the School of Medicine, SHC laid off thirteen of its original thirty-eight housekeeping assistants. Of the remaining twenty-five workers, sixteen have been given provisional employment until October 2013 (at which point they will most likely be laid off), and nine have been converted to “float workers” with no guarantee of permanent employment. These layoffs have forced severe work speed-ups and paved the way for jobs to be outsourced to a subcontractor, despite the fact that subcontractors on campus consistently provide fewer benefits, lower wages, and worse working conditions. SHC also maintains that it cannot find positions for the “float pool” workers despite continuing to hire workers through subcontractors and temp agencies. In addition, workers at the Clark Center, a research facility affiliated with SHC, have also experienced cuts starting in November 2012. Six of the nine Clark Center janitors no longer work directly for SHC, and were instead hired by the subcontractor UGL. The process of being laid off and subsequently re-hired in virtually the same positions meant that they lost their seniority and benefits, experienced significant pay cuts and are now required to do even more work. For example, one worker who has worked at the Clark Center for over a decade had his salary cut by over a third after being hired by UGL. In addition, some workers were offered part-time jobs with SHC, but the part-time status meant a significant pay decrease and lost benefits. These recent events follow a longstanding pattern at SHC and other Stanford facilities of subcontracting services in order to release Stanford of responsibility for maintaining safe and abuse-free working environments. UGL Unicco and Flagship Facilities & Services (another subcontractor) have gradually taken over the services of many Med School and Stanford Hospital buildings for four years now, reducing the number of direct hires. In addition, and perhaps more insidiously, since 2007, SHC subcontracted management of housekeeping assistants to Sodexo, Inc., a company internationally notorious for labor abuses. Managers employed by Sodexo have increased workloads, liberally fired workers, and implemented excessive surveillance. Sodexo managers have mandated speedups so steep as to make it impossible for workers to properly sanitize hospital rooms, making the hospital unsafe for workers and patients alike. Overall, subcontracting has reduced the quality of services provided at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, made jobs insecure and working environments abusive for workers. Please sign this petition to halt the recent surge of subcontracting and demand security for the jobs of the remaining direct hires.

If there is a Sequester, the congress & senate should also lose their pay. What's done to the police, teachers, etc. should also be done to the law makers. Let them have their pay with-held also.

Call the Governor and help hgin change his mind about hea;th care for the homelesss, poor and needed wisconsin residents.