Pennsylvania's new voter ID law will require voters to show valid photo ID at the polls at this fall's election for president and state and local offices. Pennsylvania does not have a voter fraud problem. Requiring voter ID at the polls will mostly hurt women, the poor, the elderly, and people of color.

Victims of "legitimate rape" can't get pregnant because a woman's body will shut down and prevent the pregnancy. Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) actually said that–in other words, he's saying that if a woman does get pregnant, she must not have been raped. Even scarier? He's running, and leading, in the race for Missouri Senate. What he said was bad, but it was hardly a gaffe or poor choice of words. In 2011 he and Rep. Paul Ryan led the push in the House of Representatives to redefine rape as "forcible rape" to further restrict rape survivors' access to abortions. As a state senator, Akin questioned whether anti-marital rape laws would be abused by women in messy divorces Anyone who doesn't understand basic biology and tries to create more hurdles for rape survivors seeking justice doesn't belong in the United States Congress. Sign the petition calling Rep. Akin to resign right away.

With the death of William Ware, the need for improved pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in the Rengstorff Park area has become abundantly clear. While Great Streets Rengstorff Park has a larger vision streets safe for bicycle, pedestrians and cars we are currently working to add bicycle lanes to Escuela Drive. This street receives heavy use by bicycles due to it's location near Rengstorff Park, the Senior and Teen Centers, the Day Worker Center and Community Gardens. We hope you will sign this petition as a good beginning for improved safety for the Rengstorff Park area.

74 years ago, American workers won the right to minimum wage, overtime pay, and at least one day of rest each week. But domestic workers were excluded from these basic protections because back then, the black women who cleaned, cooked, and cared for children were considered second class citizens. Our country has come a long way since 1938, but our labor laws haven't kept up. For 74 years, domestic workers have been denied the basic labor rights that so many American workers take for granted. It's time to end this shameful legacy and bring our nation's labor laws into the twenty-first century!

GOP leadership put Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) on the House Science Committee. This is the guy who says women can't get pregnant from "legitimate rape"(?) He's also said the federal government should not subsidize school lunches for poor children. What a great spokesman for GOP social Darwinism, as well as scientific ignorance.

This petition is about ending military aid to Israel. All of us in the US, as well as in Israel and the Occupied Territories, have been adversely affected by our financial support of Israel's Occupation. It mortgages our children's future to support an illegal Occupation while damaging our reputation, and further endangering our troops, in the Middle East.

I am befuddled that someone in our government has made such a ridiculous claim. Rep. Akin should be nowhere near the US Government nor should he have any involvement in the decision making processes for the American people.

Any Honorably discharged veteran who has a severe disability that he or she claims was in the line of duty based on evidence should be automatically covered by the veterans administrations pension and not have to keep coming up with new and different proof every time the government manufactures a new " code" or regulation that continuously denies the veterans and there are many many who are denied ligitamate claims. The US government screws over its veterans who have done their duty and served their country honorably and all the money spent trying to keep veterans poor and unable to hire the qualified lawyers who can and will take them to court and let the public see to what extremes are gone to in order to deny benefits could be used to pay up what is owed to honorably discharged disabled veterans and to shame the us government to the deserve they earned in doing so. Our government supports and spends billions to "HELP" countries rebuild and support that we spent billions to destroy in wars and do so with the money stolen from our own veterans. Its so so true that a few rule so many in our "progressive" country. We all will be working to build a country for someone else soon, very soon.

College graduates today are facing unbearable high levels of student loan debt. Spread over 10 to 30 years of payments, these loans are preventing young college graduates from being able to afford to purchase a home. The current system is killing the American dream of home ownership. By making all federally funded student loan repayments pre-tax, more young families will be able to experience the satisfaction of home ownership. Future generations are now less likely to attend college due to fear of unemployment and unimaginable student loan debt. Don't let the United States become the land of broke, uneducated, and homeless.

Pass a law to prohibit public officials from ever working or receiving any kind of compensation or contract direct or indirect from Lobbying firms after their service as public officials.

U.S. military women soldiers in record numbers have been raped by fellow-soldiers, often officers. They currently do not receive the help they need--financial, psychological, and physical--including abortions, if they become pregnant and choose not to carry to term the fetus of a rapist. They deserve our help and respect for their work to protect U.S. interests at home and abroad.

The La Times would increase their base if they expanded their coverage of Orange Co. to rival the Orange Co. Register.