Increasing the annual amount of money a retiree can make or eliminating the restriction all together. With the changes of medicare/medicaid receiving less benefits and deductions are more, plus the way the economy is going,retirees should at least have the opportunity to make more money.

Recently there are has been a push by Kentucky Republicans to force Kentucky Schools to teach creationism in science classes to indoctrinate what is "faith"and "religion" based dogma as potential truth. My daughter Emily does not need to be assaulted with the "faith" of others insisting a religious myth is true. Public school is not about indoctrinating faith and this needs to be halted. This indoctrination of faith imposes on the sanctity of families to instill in their children that families system of beliefs and means of discerning truth.

We want Speaker Boehner to take action and denounce Representative Todd Akin's recent comments. In case you missed it, on television 8-19-12, Rep. Akin said that victims of "legitimate rape" hardly ever get pregnant and that "if it's legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Rep. Akin has since said he "misspoke," but he continues to believe that women should be forced to carry and give birth to babies that are the result of rape. As speaker of the House, John Boehner should denounce Akin's outrageous "legitimate rape" comments—and he also has the power remove Rep. Akin from the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

With all the national attention on undocumented immigrants, USCIS seems to be getting behind on their paperwork. Hundreds of US Citizens trying to immigrate their families, spouses, and fiances are forced to wait while government workers are backlogged under paperwork. It's time we bring some attention to legal immigration and get things moving. No US Citizen or legal immigrant should be separated from their loved ones any longer than necessary. The current promised processing time for most application is five months and many applications are exceeding 12 months and still outstanding. And that only accounts for the time applicants wait for their petitions to be initially viewed. It can take many months after that until a visa is granted. In the past, some applications were processed in 90 days or less. What's the holdup?

Discrimination against a person for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender is wrong. The City of Pocatello should enact a Human Rights City Ordinance to protect all its residents from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. An all-inclusive and welcoming city fosters economic progress and good relations among city residents, which is essential to the growth and vitality of the city's neighborhoods and businesses.

As TV screens appear in more waiting areas nationwide, captive audiences are prime targets of mis-information. Recently, select Shell gas stations have appeared with a TV screen embedded in each pump, showing a smattering of sports and ads plus, news blurbs from FOX news. This Big Brother type of brainwashing is insidious and alarming.

To avoid disclosure, billionaires are laundering their campaign donations through so-called 'social welfare' nonprofits (in IRS language, 501c4's). These organizations are tax-exempt and don't have to disclose the names of donors, supposedly because they are charitable, but in reality many of them exist for the purpose of electioneering. That means we the taxpayers are giving a free ride to the wealthy corporations and individuals who are buying our government, while we can't even find out who they are. The IRS could stop this practice by applying strict rules, but they are dragging their feet, saying they 'plan to look at' the problem sometime. We need transparency NOW.

We recommend the City of Alexandria conduct a traffic study at the intersections of Cameron and North Payne Street, as well as Cameron and North Fayette Street, to examine, evaluate and implement traffic calming initiatives at these locations.

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!