Let's hold Texas legislators feet to the fire on fracking.

Marriage equality for Pennsylvania

On January 11, 2013, facing trumped up felony charges and potentially decades in prison, my beloved partner, Aaron Swartz, made the tragic choice to end his life. He was only 26. We need you to help us learn more about why this happened -- and help make sure it never happens to anybody ever again. Aaron faced 35 years behind bars for the nerdiest alleged crime in history – downloading too many academic journal articles. Aaron had authorized access to all of these articles through a nonprofit online library called JSTOR. Two years ago he was accused of downloading 4.8 million of these academic articles at once. He never distributed the articles or used them for anything, and he reached a private settlement with JSTOR (the supposed victim here) – who even publicly asked prosecutors to drop the criminal charges. But US Attorney Carmen Ortiz and prosecutor Steve Heymann decided that the best use of the US government’s resources were to throw the book at Aaron. I believe that they recklessly persecuted an innocent man because they thought it would advance their careers. I also believe that there may have been serious irregularities, possibly even violations of Aaron’s constitutional rights, in the way that they pursued the case and hounded him to his death. But I can’t prove any of that right now – and that’s where I need your help. Join me in calling on Congress to conduct a full nonpartisan investigation into the events leading up to Aaron’s death. The law treated Aaron like a dangerous criminal, but everyone else knew a different Aaron, the real Aaron; he was an innovator, entrepreneur and social justice advocate who co-authored RSS 1.0 (the web’s format for sharing and distributing content) at age 14, co-founded the social news website Reddit and led the fight to stop SOPA and PIPA -- the bills that attempted to censor the internet. He wanted to reform our criminal justice system and keep the internet free and open. The case hung over our entire relationship – we started dating just weeks before Aaron was indicted. I believe Aaron was innocent of any crime and would have been acquitted at trial, but the stress and the exhaustion and the uncertainty finally became too much for him to handle. Aaron will never have the chance to prove his case to a jury of his peers, and his family, his friends and I will never get him back. But we still have the chance to do some justice for Aaron with a full investigation. Congressmen Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings have taken the initial step of writing a letter to the Department of Justice, and have already indicated that they're considering launching an investigation, but it's not a done deal yet. Please join us in encouraging them to proceed: We hope that a nonpartisan and thorough airing of the facts can help yield the policy shifts we need to make sure that agents of the law use their power to uphold justice -- rather than engage in destructive witch hunts like the one that befell Aaron. Sign the petition to Congress: Fully investigate the prosecution and death of Aaron Swartz and make sure prosecutors can never abuse their power this way again. We can never be made whole, but we also believe that we can find some peace in an investigation. We also hope that we can prevent this kind of abuse from happening to anyone else again. We know that’s what Aaron would have wanted in the wake of his death. Thank you, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, partner of Aaron Swartz

-Re-structure Corporate; Bank; CEO contracts -eliminate 'other or extra special financial favors' -create Economically Regulatable structures for all companies both national and international -with these three entities paying their fair share of (US) taxes as well as having to reveal their contracts abroad would foster the stabilization of world finances and world wide environmental recovery

The price a person pays for there property is what it should be worth,any equity that is gained should not be taxed until it is used.The value of ones property should not be increased due to increases in the selling price's of neighboring properties

It is now time that we honor those fallen Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers who gave their lives for peace while serving as members of the U.S. lead Multi National Peace Keeping Force in Beirut, Lebanon. Sincerely, Cpl. Gregory M. Young Veteran B Co. 1/8, 24th Marine Amphibious Unit Beirut, Lebanon 1983

Currently only the legislature can pass Medical Marijuana Laws. The only way to be heard is to contact your local representatives. We need current laws for a modern world. Change the structure of our legislative process to include the people. Allow the issue to be put to a vote for all Kansans to decide.

We firmly believe that carrying concealed firearms is a right that should be reserved on college campuses only for duly initiated law-enforcement officials.

The citizens of Warrington township and surrounding areas are opposed to the building of a Walmart in our town and urge our legislators to take every step possible to preserve this land in a way that preserves the beauty of Bucks County.

True Transparency in Judicial Selection to promote real merit based appointments to the Bench. We claim that our system is merit based, but political insiders and persons with narrow experience and limited tenure abound.

This petition would require restaurants and bars to recycle glass, aluminum and plastic beverage containers. This is an industry that goes through hundreds of pounds of glass,aluminum and plastic, which end up in trash sites. This is incredibly irresponsible. The U.S. recycles 28% of its waste. The U.S. beverage recycling rate is only at 35%. The U.S. is the largest consumer of aluminum soft-drink and beer cans, but only recycles about 54% of aluminum cans. Glass, which saves about a ton of natural resources when a ton of glass is recycled, can be reused without any loss in purity or quality, and can reappear back on store shelves within thirty days. There are many benefits to recycling glass, such as reduction in carbon dioxide emission. However, under 30% of glass is recycled in the U.S. California has proved a leader in recycling glass, with 80% of its glass recycled. Many praise bottle bills, which give consumers financial incentives to recycle. Plastic products, which can be continuously reused for decades, yet usually only live to serve one purpose before thrown in the trash, pose the biggest problem to our environment in terms of beverage products. Not only does the reckless disposal of plastic products, usually bottles, pollute our oceans and coastlines, plastic bottles floating in the ocean can also serve as vessels for invasive species not native to certain environments. Furthermore, plastic that ends up in our landfills, can leak harmful chemicals into our soil, which can later contaminate drinking water sources. While there has been a 1.7% increase of recycled plastic bottles in 2011, the U.S. only recycles a little under 29% of plastic bottles, which is not nearly enough. Mandating restaurants and bars to recycle beverage products alone will not solve our nation's recycling problem,but it is a good start that will bring about productive changes and noticeable benefits. As a nation that prides itself on being a "leader", or "super power," its about time to start being the world's leader in energy conservation and innovation.

I'm a lifetime cyclist, now 60, with a neck injury that makes Boulder's big hills -or distances over 5 miles- quite painful. I plan to soon buy an electric bike, which "levels the playing field" for what I think is the actual majority of people, including me. Boulder is now re-doing its highly restrictive electric bike laws to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I could spend my time seeking disability status but I want EVERYONE possible to use these 40-60 pound energy sippers when practical instead of the average 3,400 pound car. You get as much or little exercise as you want and don't arrive sweaty or exhausted. It's fun and can rehabilitate bodies weakened by age, injury or a sedentary lifestyle. If you use an ebike for half your usual driving mileage (14,500 mi/yr for the average American), a good $3000 model will pay for itself in saved gas in about 3 years. Indications are that they use 1-2% of the energy an average car does, far outdoing the 80-90% reduction in fossil fuel usage that climate scientists say we must accomplish, fast.