Last week I learned that my 19 year old cousin had been kicked out of her home by her own mom, for no reason other than she could no longer collect child support on behalf of my cousin. Beyond that, I learned that my cousin's mother also refuses to help my cousin co-sign her FAFSA paperwork so that my cousin can claim financial aid and attend a Virginia state college to earn a degree. My cousin sought support from my uncle, a bus driver who claimed just over $30,000 in earnings in 2011. My uncle helped her fill out the necessary paperwork to see what financial aid my cousin could receive to attend Radford or any other school in Virginia. She was awarded $5,000 - a generous gift, but not enough to cover the nearly $20,000 per year cost to attend Radford or other Virginia colleges. I find this outrageous. I graduated from Godwin High School in Richmond, VA in 2005, and opted to attend an out-of-state school in South Carolina. My tuition cost to attend an out-of-state school was approximately $25,000 per year, and I was lucky to have the financial support of my parents and their help to secure my own loans to pay for school. Many students choose to study at a school in their home state, simply because they are unable to afford the cost difference between attending a state school and a school in a different state. Now you're telling me that I could've chosen USC or Radford and still graduated with nearly the same amount of student loan debt? That's insane. Moreover, some states in the U.S. offer an incentive to ANY high school student who graduates with a particular GPA, or who excel in a Math or Science related field. In South Carolina, that's known as the LIFE scholarship. In Georgia, it's known as the HOPE scholarship. I don't know off the top of my head, but I can imagine there are similar programs in other states as well. I could be wrong, but I don't know of a program that exists like this that is funded by the state of Virginia and is accessible to all Virginia high school students. I appreciate and understand the immense challenge that our legislators face in balancing our state budget, but investing in our students and allowing them a clearly defined path to attend a Virginia state school will pay off handsomely in the future of our state. It's a remarkably daunting task to choose what services and programs to cut or fund, but I can't support legislators who choose to make access to affordable education seem impossible for good students like my cousin, who feel like they're on their own. She knows she will have to work hard. She knows she will likely need a full time job while studying full time. She knows all of this, but she wants more than anything to create a better situation for herself than the one she finds herself in right now.

Western Oregon BLM manages 2.6 million acres of public forests - some of the greatest temperate conifer forests in the world. Western Oregon BLM forests surround our communities. People live next to BLM forests, we recreate in BLM forests, and we get our drinking water from BLM forests. There are currently two major developments on Oregon BLM forests. 1) Legislative proposals to manage large portions of BLM forests for the sole purpose of timber production and 2) The Obama Administration has initiated the process of creating a new management plan for these special public lands. Your voice is needed.

Should we the people pay our taxes for outlandish Congressional health and retirement benefits the likes most of us will never see? Why hasn't the press asked every representative of Congress this question?

People are missing the big picture and it should be made known to everyone. The Republicans have said repeatedly they would like to get rid of Social Security and Medicare. If any one that votes does not want to collect their Social Security OR Medicare vote Republican. BRING THIS TO EVERYONES ATTENTION, SEEMS LIKE PEOPLE FORGET THIS..

This petition is an effort to convince Governor Heineman and heads of Nebraska Universities to lower tuition costs statewide. By lowering tuition costs we can open up educational opportunities to disadvantaged students and ease the student loan debt for those post-college.

My petition is about how obamacare has directly benefited me, as a 33 yr old full time employee, who got very sick because of a very rich man's actions. I never had insurance because I never had a job that even bothered to offer it to me, although I have been employed since I was 18. I am healthy, with no real reason for a primary care physician or healthcare, just like everyone else my age.

Being a parent that has painstakingly struggled financially, health wise, and not being able to see my children as stated in Divorce Decree. Issues are that Kershaw County in SC has for 10 years not enforced my ex-husband to abide by court order to allow visitation as stated in the Decree. Being the non-custodial parent, I have had to deal with non-communication from the ex-spouse, not seeing my children as ordered, calling DSS for abuse and neglect in the home toward my children, bullying of my special needs child (I called the school to address), welfare checks by local police and no support to enforce ANY and ALL rights I have as a mother. The Court has shown absolutely NO justice regarding the children, only to put all fault towards me as a non-custodial parent.

WE ARE INTERESTED IN SIGNING A PETITION ABOUT THIS ESSUE SO ALL KIDS GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO COLLEGES EDUCATION AND NO FAMILY WOULD END ON DEBT

In 2008, candidate Obama indicated that his administration would rely on scientific results when promoting new legislation. But this promise has been broken countless times especially regarding drug laws, which he now won't even talk about since his policies contradict known science. It's time to "go scientific"!

Governor Lynch and the governors of our state colleges: please lower the tuition at New Hampshire state colleges and universities so that families are not priced out of an education for their children.

We want Governor Mary Fallin and the leaders of the state's university system to lower the cost of tuition at our state colleges—so that working families can send their kids to college without taking on massive debt.

Let the insurance companies become aware that paying for medical services is their reason for being in business. Not making the consumer pay more for the services, while C.E.O's give themselves huge bonuses.