With a 39% poverty rate, Athens-Clarke County cannot afford the longstanding NIMBY tactics practiced by a tiny coterie of political extremists. Signing this petition acknowledges the Constitutional establishment of private property and free enterprise under our democratic republic. We call on our elected officials to help businesses bring jobs to those who desperately need them, which will help take them out of public housing and off welfare.

Tri-Valley University (TVU), Pleasanton, CA, was shut down by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on January 18, 2011, and the TVU President, Susan Su, was taken into custody for fraud against the students and the U.S. government. However, in the aftermath, over 1500 foreign students, mainly from India, lost their F-1 visa status and deportation proceedings were initiated against many students. TVU was a Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP)-certified school, and students relied upon this designation in selecting this school. DHS gave these students the option to either return home or file to reinstate their F-1 visa status. Approximately one thousand students filed for reinstatement, re-enrolled at new schools, are diligently pursuing their studies, and have paid thousands of dollars in tuition fees. So many of them have used their parents’ life savings to start the process all over again of pursuing their graduate studies. Despite assurances from US officials, including Secretary Hillary Clinton, that students who played no role in the immigration fraud would be treated fairly and expeditiously, DHS recently issued Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs) reinstatement to a large number of these students, based on criteria that are known by DHS to be impossible to meet. The applications for reinstatement submitted by the students appear to have been arbitrarily evaluated and unreasonably slated for denial en masse. These notices were even issued to students who enrolled for Spring 2011 and thus never even attended TVU before it was shut down. Several students are young women and men who are the first in their families to seek higher education in another country. Denial of reinstatement will not only impact the rest of the students’ careers but it will also directly impact their families, and thereby affect thousands.

Lives are at stake. The closure of San Leandro hospital will have a drastic effect on wait times in nearby hospital emergency rooms, longer distances to travel for acute heart attacks and strokes. 400+ people will lose their jobs, and doctors will relocate their offices elsewhere. Sutter Health maintains they are losing money at this hospital, at the same time moving more profitable procedures to nearby Eden Medical Center- which they own. California State records show that Eden Hospital earned in excess of $30 million a year. St. Rose Hospital, in nearby Hayward CA has offered to take over San Leandro Hospital, and has provided financial statements to corroborate this.

Please sign this petition which will be sent to President Obama, Congress, as well as state and local committees asking them to publicly address the issue of police brutality towards citizens. This is a huge problem that must be stopped now! As citizens participating in Occupy movements all over the country practice their right to peacefully assemble and act in Civil Disobedience they are pepper sprayed, shot at with rubber bullets and bean bags, beaten, and treated violently in many other ways. We call on the president, congress, state and local committees to deal with this matter and hold officers who abuse citizens accountable for their criminal actions towards civilians.

Banks have been ignoring their own mistakes for too long. They blame their customers, twist the facts and charge what they want. As seen recently the public are on to them. Sign this petition to show them we need fairness and honesty from the people we trust with our money.

Whether our country moves toward adopting wind, solar, geo-thermal, or other ways of heating, cooling, or providing electricity for our homes and businesses , energy efficiency is key in reducing the demand for power while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs right off the batt. Homes, institutions and business account for the majority of our energy use. We need to provide incentives to businesses, public buildings, and private homes to install comprehensive energy saving measures.

With the legalization of medical cannabis in Pennsylvania, we could regulate and tax a safe way for patients in need to recieve safe or even home grown medication. We need the support of our lawmakers who have a bill waiting to be voted on, yet they do not plan to anytime soon. Help get their attention and support!

The WI Republicans want to help balance the budget by kicking 53,000 adults and children off BadgerCare. Premiums are scheduled to increase as much as 1100%. This is totally unacceptable. This will prevent people from getting cheaper healthcare earlier, and drive up costs with later expensive emergency room visits and preventable hospitalizations. Tell Gov. Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers this is unacceptable.

A bill to stop "insider trading" in Congress: Like everyone else, members of Congress should be subject to current insider trading laws. "However, current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity -- that's because members of Congress aren't technically obligated to keep that information confidential."(CBSnews.com) By Signing this petition you will let Congress know that insider trading should be illegal for all and that serving our country is more important than lining their bank accounts. Ask your representatives and Senators to pass "The Stock Act".

Many employers are overlapping schedules so that one workweek overlaps into a second workweek. Because of present labor laws on over time and what is defined as a workweek, the employer is exempt from paying overtime or from giving a day off to the employees even after they've worked for 40 hours. Many employees are working 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 full time consecutive work days without a day off and with no overtime pay.

It's time to restore the community of Imperial Avenue, If ownership of the house where eleven women were murdered has not been established, it needs to be removed. Let the healing process begin with a memorial garden in its place.

Ask the Congressional Super Committee to consider taxing the super-wealthy and tax-dodging corporations instead of cutting critical social programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. A deficit reduction proposal has been researched and prepared by Occupy Washington, DC. You can read the entire text at: