At $7.25 per hour, New York’s minimum wage remains decades out of date. With growing numbers of New York State residents relying on low-wage jobs to survive, too many workers do not earn enough to afford basic expenses. The Senate and Assembly should pass legislation raising the minimum wage to $8.75 per hour and indexing it to rise automatically with the cost of living each year. Raising the minimum wage is politically popular and morally right. Eighty percent of New York voters support raising the minimum wage.

Taking away our deduction on homes, so the wealthy can keep there tax break, is morally wrong. We need that deduction to make ends meet, with keeping a home fixed up. These deductions affect future home buying as well

WE MUST RESIND " STAND YOUR GROUND " IT IS AN EXCUSE FOR MURDER !!

This petition is an attempt to attain equal parental rights for fathers and equity in child custody for both parents and, most importantly, guarantee what should be the right of every child to have equal access to both parents. The push pull of unbalanced rights can often serve as a detriment for children of divorced parents. I have been affected by the prevalent gender bias displayed by many courts, and it in no way has benefited my daughter. It is for what is in her best interests, and what she should have a right to, that I started this petition.

Make it a law, not an option, for all veterinarians and animal shelters to scan every single animal that comes to them on each visit for a microchip, whether or not that animal is admittedly a stray or feral, even if it's brought in as a pet by the owner. This helps people who have lost or stolen pets have their pets rightfully returned to them without worrying they will go home with someone who took them, be 'adopted', or be euthanized. Even if it's with the rightful owner, it ensures no one else has micro-chipped their pet, or if it has one that it is still there, on record, in the right place, and still works properly.

Southern California Edison has never been forthcoming about the hazards of nuclear fall out from this ill-designed plant. It is a danger to all life in Southern California. We need more solar and wind energy, and not another dirty, unsafe nuclear power plant.

The NM School for the Arts has proven itself academically and artistically over the last 2 1/2 years, and has funded the arts portion of the school curriculum entirely through private funding for three school years. Senate Bill 164 seeks to amend the original legislation establishing this public/private charter school to allow the school to apply for available funds (not public education funds, other available public funds), beginning July 2013, in the state budget. At present, the school is prevented from even asking. This legislation would allow future requests, which could be approved, denied, or modified on a case by case basis. This school is the only school of its kind in the State of NM and, in three short years, has achieved a remarkable number of awards and achievements (http://www.nmschoolforthearts.org/about/awards-and-achievements/). The bill was passed by the Senate Education Committee, and now heads to the Senate Finance Committee. Please support the arts in NM and at the NM School for the Arts by contacting your state legislators on both the House and Senate education committees (House - Mimi Stewart, Christine Trujillo, Alonzo Baldonado, Nathan Cote, Nora Espinoza, David Gallegos, Stephanie Richard, Jimmie Hall, Dianne Hamilton, Rick Miera, Dennis Roch, Tomas Salazar, and Sheryl Stapleton; Senate - John Sapien, William Soules, Craig Brandt, Lee Cotter, Bill O'Neill, Michael Padilla, John Pinto, Pat Woods, and Gay Kernan). You can also contact the legislator who has introduced the bill, Nancy Rodriguez, to express your support. Also, please contact the senators in the finance committee who will hear this matter next (John Arthur Smith, Carlos Cisneros, William Burt, Pete Campos, Carroll Leavell, Howie Morales, George Munoz, Steven Neville, and Sue Wilson Beffort).

Plenty of dogs are running away from home and becoming lost. Losing a dog is a traumatic experience for an owner, and is equally traumatic for drivers who hurt a dog or hurt themselves avoiding the dog. Developing programs to assist and inform dog owners in the community on proper dog caring at home and about stray dogs are essential for peace and safety.

Americans rely on media to make political informed decisions. England requires media to tell truth, so should the U.S.A.

Many Americans are unable to afford a small home as they cannot afford the current building requirements. While it is feasible to build a small home with solar for under $30k including property, it is currently illegal to do so without costly unnecessary non-green systems, doubling the cost adding an additional $15k - $45k to the cost pricing the home out of reach for potentially millions of Americans.

Please withhold all funding to The Boy Scouts of America until they end discrimination of all American citizens.

curtailing gun ownership. I realize this is much broadeer than most petitions presently pending, but I believe thsi is needed. Easy? Certainly not. Possible, probable. Needed defionitely there are mor innocent people killed by handguns every year.