"Researchers calculate that 55% of all littering is done intentionally by people who drop or discard products."...During a one-time sweep of Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, Adopt-a-Highway volunteers picked up 192 tons of trash in one day. The quantity filled 16 Mn/DOT tandem trucks and represented approximately 6,000 filled trash bags." http://www.dot.state.mn.us/adopt/litterfacts.html

I live out in the country where everything is zoned for Agriculture. But we are being taken over by MotoCross tracks. Our peace and quiet that we need for our livestock is being taken away by dirt bikes and ATV'S roaring around at 107 to 115 DB. The noise and the dust is very harmful to the livestock that we are raising.

Over 100 days after Superstorm Sandy hit Governor Christie said he doesn’t have time “to ponder the esoteric question of the cause of the storm.” Sadly, there’s nothing to ponder. As New Jersey’s own state climatologist put it, there’s nothing esoteric about it. Hurricanes are nothing new, of course. But global warming supercharges storms, as warming ocean waters fuel more powerful storms and rising sea levels result in more damage to our Shore. We could use the governor’s leadership to help us reduce the pollution that’s behind global warming and extreme weather. Instead, Gov. Christie has pulled us out of the landmark Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to cap pollution from power plants; raided almost $700 million from New Jersey’s clean energy programs; and killed the largest mass transit project in America. Add your voice. Sign the petition and ask him to lead on global warming.

I have a grandparent with terminal cancer. I know that had he lived his life differently in terms of diet, he could have prevented this disease and perhaps extended his life a little longer. He is still alive,but my family is playing the waiting game.

"Right to work" and paycheck deception legislation under consideration in the Missouri legislature would put our safety at risk by silencing the voices of our state's teachers, nurses and firefighters. This legislation would put a chokehold on working families’ participation in our state's political process and further tilt the balance of power in favor of wealthy corporate interest groups. Tell your representative that enough is enough. Stop attacking your opponents. Stop trying to silence Missouri's everyday heroes. And start working to create jobs and a better future for our state's middle-class families.

The Legislature has passed a bill to eliminate collective bargaining as a constitutional amendment. As a state employee, who is a teacher working at a state school; I do not feel safe without the support from KSDNEA, Kansas School for the Deaf National Education Association. Without KSDNEA, I will lose my advocacy rights. I need the support from KNEA to ensure that my rights are protected.

Military type assault weapons were developed for use in a war-time situation. High capacity magazines serve no useful civilian purpose. These weapons and clips are designed to end as many lives as potentially possible.They have no place in our streets or in our schools.

Late in 2012, Facebook began using "promoted posts" in both business pages and personal accounts, forcing you to pay money to actually have a majority of your friends or fans see your posts. If your business has 1,000 "likes", it now requires $25/post just to have all 1,000 of your fans see that particular post. For larger businesses, it can cost thousands of dollars for a SINGLE POST to reach the majority of your fanbase! With a personal account, to reach 80% of your friends, you must now pay $7/post. If you have 500 friends and DON'T promote a post, less than half will actually have it show up in their newsfeeds. For both business and individual/personal pages, you should NEVER have to pay any amount of money for your friends or fans to see what you post. Businesses already can pay for new fans through targeted marketing. They should NOT have to pay to reach the fans they already have! As this trend increases, the majority of your newsfeed will be taken over by corporate advertising.

Late in 2012, Facebook began using "promoted posts" in both business pages and personal accounts, forcing you to pay money to actually have a majority of your friends or fans see your posts. If your business has 1,000 "likes", it now requires $25/post just to have all 1,000 of your fans see that particular post. For larger businesses, it can cost thousands of dollars for a SINGLE POST to reach the majority of your fanbase! With a personal account, to reach 80% of your friends, you must now pay $7/post. If you have 500 friends and DON'T promote a post, less than half will actually have it show up in their newsfeeds. For both business and individual/personal pages, you should NEVER have to pay any amount of money for your friends or fans to see what you post. Businesses already can pay for new fans through targeted marketing. They should NOT have to pay to reach the fans they already have! As this trend increases, the majority of your newsfeed will be taken over by corporate advertising.

Colorado has seen an unprecedented boom in gas drilling, much of this using potentially risky production techniques such as fracking. Living communities all across the state have been significantly impacted and many heavily damaged by these activities. The San Luis Valley is well known for its agriculture, ranching, and tourism activities such as hunting, fishing, and outdoor sports. Its vital watersheds are critical for life in the San Luis Valley and south through New Mexico and Texas. The high water demands that accompany drilling and production are counter to the need to conserve our limited water resources especially in this protracted drought. We demand that the Commissioners of the six counties of the San Luis Valley recognize the unique characteristics of this valley and place a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling in and around the San Luis Valley.

I wait tables at a busy restaurant in New York. It's unfair for me to have to plan my finances around the generosity of customers. Waiters and waitresses deserve a guaranteed commission from every transaction.

Every spring, thousands of teachers across New York City are pulled from their classroom, and their teaching responsibilities, to grade standardized tests. Rather than pay qualified professionals outside of school hours to do this tedious work, NYC schools, teachers, and students are forced to bear the burden of preparing for, administering, and finally grading these tests. Although many parents are aware of the great deal of time lost preparing for and administering standardized tests, many do not realize that students continue to lose valuable instructional time after the test, when their teachers are pulled for days and weeks at a time in order to grade for the city. Here are some facts that you may not know about standardized testing in New York City: *Schools are obligated to send content-area teachers to grade the tests, and to pay for substitutes to replace each teacher while they are gone. One typical middle school is obligated to send 8 English teachers to grade, for five days a piece, and 4 math teachers, for 6 days each. At a price of $150.00 per substitute per day, that school will pay $9,600 out of their limited budget, just to cover missing staff who has been pulled to grade exams. *Much of the recent controversy over a new teacher evaluation plan has centered around the use of student test data to rate the effectiveness of teachers. Simply put, most educators don't believe that standardized test data should be used to judge the effectiveness of teachers and students, although many bureaucrats disagree. Ironically, pulling teachers from their classrooms to grade tests sends a contradictory message - if teachers are so vital to a child's education that they can be ranked and graded according to test scores, then why can they be pulled from their classrooms for upwards of 5 days, and replaced by non-certified substitute teachers who know neither their curriculum nor their students? *Pearson Education, Inc. is currently in possession of a 5-year, $32 million contract to administer standardized testing in the state of New York. Their contract also includes an inside track to selling curriculum and textbooks within the state. A cloud of controversy has shadowed both the circumstances of this lucrative contract and the content of the actual tests, many of which received negative publicity in 2012 for their ambiguous and confusing wording and answers. These tests were developed completely independent of NYC public school teachers and their classrooms; yet the onus and price of grading them rests squarely upon the shoulders of public schools and their teachers. In a public school such as my own, the large population of special education students is serviced by a team of trained educators. My class has two teachers, one certified in special education, so that we can align curriculum and work in small groups to meet the needs of all students. Each year, when I am pulled to grade standardized tests for a minimum of five days at a stretch, I am replaced by a substitute who is not certified in my content-area, and does not know my students or the curriculum. Students whose teachers are pulled to grade often end up engaging in inferior classwork, watching movies, and generally slacking off while their classroom teachers are off grading tests, whose data is used to determine everything from the success of their principal to whether they will pass seventh grade. As a teacher, my job is to instruct and administer to the needs of my students, not grade standardized tests. Teachers, schools, and students should not be obligated the bear the burden of excessive standardized testing. Please leave teachers in the classrooms with their students, where they belong.