Fifty-three percent of homeowners in North Carolina live in what is known as "homeowner association" with certain By Laws they have to abide by when they purchase a home. Each homeowner pays monthly dues usually from $100.00 to $300.00 a month for the upkeep of our properties. What is now occuring throughout the nation and in North Carolina is much abuse towards good homeowners by uneducated newly elected board members over such associations who are negligent to do their jobs and pick on any requesting homeowner. The board would not submit the financials to me. When I finally got them, I discovered the loss of thousands. I went to our District Attorney and he would not do anything. I went to our Attorney General and his office said he does not cover homeowner asassociation problems. I live on disablity. My 80 year old parents and I were hit with a slander lawsuit for my complaints as to why I could not get a copy of the non profit corporate financials. The board hid behind what they sued us for saying I "harrassed" them with emails of complaint. Many homeowners who owe only $70.00 in HOA dues are foreclosed on. The HOA board charged me $85,000.00 in this bogus lawsuit with only a one week's notice to court against my $1,033.00 a month disability. Please sign a Petition to stop this abuse and form new enforcement laws for board members with penalites and a property manager's licensing bill.

I am irritated that every rational green initiative starts in California first and that they now,along with Australia,New Zealand,and S.Korea,are beginning a cap and trade system,while our legislature occupys itself with thinking small.I suggest that we replace our regressive state income tax system with a carbon tax on oil,coal,and natural gas,adjusted upwards yearly as,like good Yankees,we all try to invest in energy upgrades,solar roofs,hybrid and electric cars so that we can have our neighbor who doesn't do this pay our carbon tax.This will spur local investment and put us ahead of those states taxing income,investment,and payroll.

I'm currently a senior at the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the nation. Many of my fellow classmates, including myself, received the John and Abigail Scholarship which covers tutuition for any public state college in Massachusetts. My parents were so happy for me, until they found out that the scholarship only covers 7.5% of all costs. Tuition is frozen at any state school, but fees are drasitically rising. How are students supposed to get a decent job if they cant afford a decent, quality education? The John and Abigail Scholarship is just one of many of these kinds of scholarships around the United States. We need the current legislature to do something about this- have the scholarship cover fees AND tuition, or just fees, or have the scholarship even cover private schools as well. Please help!

The next time you hear phrase 'shared sacrifice' or 'austerity cuts', keep in mind that the recent fiscal cliff deal missed a large source of much-needed revenue -- closing corporate tax loopholes. With the upcoming budget and sequestration matters coming before Congress, here's a chance for them to begin making changes. Large, multinational U.S. corporations and wealthy individuals have avoided paying taxes in the U.S. by taking advantage of tax haven schemes such as the Dutch or Double Irish Sandwich that costs the U.S. Treasury an estimate $150 billion dollars yearly. This, in turn, places the burden on the middle class and small businesses who cannot take the same advantage of the tax code and enacts a very real cost for regular taxpayers who are told austerity cuts to state and local budgets are necessary, increases the national debt and leaves taxpayers, such as you or I, on the hook to pay for the tax subsidies corporations and the top 2% enjoy. Chances are you will have paid more in taxes last year than companies such as Google, Exxon, GE, Wells Fargo or Verizon. It's time to put the 'share' in 'shared sacrifice' and for these companies and wealthy individuals to pay their fair share.

Our public schools are staggering under massive state budget cuts. Students in Pennsylvania have lost almost 20,000 of their teachers in the past two years. Our kids have lost music, art, library, languages, tutoring programs, full-day kindergarten and more. Our children are sitting in classes with 35 and even 39 students. In 2007, the state Legislature's own study found it was underfunding pubic education (especially in poorer school districts) by more than $4 billion and committed Pennsylvania to a six-year plan to fix the problem. But in 2011, the Legislature shamefully betrayed that commitment and cut close to $1 billion from our schools. Then last year, the governor and Legislature locked in those cuts for a second year, compounding the damage. And this year, even with a small increase in funding, Gov. Corbett proposes to mostly continue the compounded cuts while threatening to tie any increase to the pension crisis and alcohol sales, rather than providing leadership to find real solutions to this issue. This cannot stand. Public education is a public good. We need adequate, equitable, and sustainable funding for public education now! More info: yinzercation.wordpress.com

The mentally ill are legally prevented from protecting themselves from outright bigotry and hostility everywhere in our society. I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder. Unfortunately, no law, federal or state, protects me from overt and directed hostility in the work place. Not even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives a damn. In effect, the EEOC is a partner of the very crimes repeated every day by employers. 25% of Americans, almost 80 million people, suffer from a mental illness. If you don't stand up, who will? What family member are you willing to sacrifice?

HD2959, if enacted, could have the potential to dramatically reduce disposed waste and recover millions of tons of valuable materials to use as feedstock for new products in Mass., saving money and resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and creating many jobs. The bill requires that all residents, businesses and waste haulers comply with the existing bans on the disposal of recyclable materials from their point of generation.

Urge General Thein Sein, President of Myanmar to amend the 2008 Constitution with democratic principles and fairness.

During the Obama campaign, we heard many horror stories from people who were unable to get Voter IDs because they lacked birth certificates, were given incorrect info by PennDot employees, were unexpectedly and illegally charged for IDs at PennDOT, were too old, poor, or disabled to get to PennDOT, were confused by constantly-changing State Department rules, had a name on their PA driver's license that differed from the one on their birth certificate, did not want to give up their out-of-state driver's license while attending a PA college, or were harassed for a variety of other ridiculous reasons designed to discourage those who traditionally vote Democratic. We should be ENcouraging people to vote, not DIScouraging them. Time to get Voter ID off the books in PA, once and for all!

I am a disabled American who has to take opioids to relieve my back pain. I've had five surgical invasive procedures and I am sick and tired of the side effects of the opioids. I wish you, governor Scott would legalize medicinal marijuana. I need help, as do millions of other people in our great nation.

All new and existing massage therapy facilities in East Longmeadow, MA are being fined $250 by the town planning board. This law came about due to another business claiming to be practicing massage therapy and allegedly soliciting prostitution with expired permits and licenses and are currently still open and operating. This fine should be revoked and the real people involved in this behavior should be punished, not everyone else.

Governor Brownback proposed even more tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.