More midwives with the right skills, equipment and support would save 1.3 million newborn babies and 350,000 mothers every year around the world. We are calling on global leaders to invest more in midwives and health workers with midwifery skills in the right places, at the right time, with the right education, the right support and the right pay.

Residents on Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island in South Korea have been organizing nonviolent protest to stop the construction of a massive naval base which will destroy their community, way of life and rich marine ecosystem women sea divers, fisherman and farmers depend on for their livelihoods. Due to its natural beauty and pristine environment, Jeju is a finalist to become one of the "New 7 Wonders" in the world.

Update - 7/22/2011: Today, the Minnesota government re-opens, and Minnesotans can finally get back to work. Sadly, Republicans chose millionaires over Minnesota’s future. They insisted that tax hikes for the richest Minnesotans be off the table. But your pressure played a vital role in stopping GOP plans to erode critical public services, take away Minnesotans’ workplace rights and put tens of thousands in the private and public sector out of work through mass layoffs. And because of the huge public outcry, Gov. Mark Dayton was also able to put more Minnesotans back to work with his jobs and infrastructure bill. Because of GOP legislators’ continued insistence on protecting millionaires, Minnesota’s revenue shortfall will continue over the next two years. Ultimately, the only way we will truly solve Minnesota’s revenue shortfall and build a better state is for the richest to finally pay their fair share in taxes. We know the public is on our side. And with your help, we are confident that this is a fight we can win. To stay up-to-date on our work, "like" the Minnesota AFL-CIO on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mnaflcio and follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mnaflcio.

Every day, thousands die because they cannot get replacement organs. Every day, thousands of useful, life-saving organs are destroyed. Changing the wording of the law from a default of "no" to a default of "yes," can double or triple the number of organ donors. With today's medicine, nearly any healthy part of a body can be used to save other people.

The "War on Drugs" in it's 34 year history has not only failed, but failed spectacularly. While we test factory workers and store clerks and such, public officials are exempt. Who can cause more harm than the people who spend trillions of dollars of taxpayer money, and send our children off to war? ALL public officials should be subject to drug testing, the more important you are, the more often you get tested. Test Congress, Supreme Court and President & staff at least daily. No more GUI (Governing Under the Influence!) If we're going to have a drug ware, lets at least do it sensibly.

Yesterday government bureaucrats gave the go-ahead for Gov. Cuomo to lift the statewide ban on hydrofracking*. They want him to keep it banned in some places, like New York City's watershed, but not in others. We need to keep the ban in place everywhere. If fracking isn't safe enough for NYC, then it shouldn't be safe enough anywhere else in New York either. *Hyfrofracking is a dangerous technique used to extract natural gas from rock formations and is associated with chemical and carcinogenic contamination of drinking water.

Congressional Incumbents should not be paid if they are effectively working for special interests and not their constituents. The constituents should be able to petition to redirect the offender's pay to an election fund.

The major cost of electoral campaigns is the cost of TV and radio advertising. The airwaves are a public resource, owned by the people of the United States. Radio and TV licensees should only receive a license for about 90% of the 8760 hours in year. The rest should be reserved for electoral campaigns and should have little or no cost associated. This would take the big money out of electoral campaigns thereby making them more equitable, fair and democratic and removing a primary root of corruption from the American electoral system.

The reputation and image of Mexico is under attack by a negative corporate media campaign focusing almost exclusively on drug violence and US immigration issues. Relentless coverage of these problems is only increasing xenophobia, stoking racism, polarizing politicians, ruining international commerce, and imperiling the relationship between the US and Mexico. The world needs to hear the positive news of Mexico--which vastly eclipses the negative in relevance but not in coverage--to inspire these countries to work together to solve their mutual problems.

Mayors For Peace is a movement of cities worldwide calling for total abolition of nuclear weapons. The idea was first proposed in 1982 by the then-mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, Takeshi Araki. Mayors for Peace now includes 4,732 cities in 150 countries, including half of all capital cities and all capital cities of nuclear powers except Washington, DC and Islamabad. 160 are in the U.S., including Boston, Hartford, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Mayor Bloomberg has not signed up NYC to become a Mayor's City of Peace. Please sign the petition to encourage Mayor Bloomberg to make NYC a Mayor's City of Peace. For more information, check out Mayor's for Peace: mayorsforpeace.org Brooklyn For Peace: brooklynpeace.org Email: [email protected] Phone: 718-624-5921

Ohio's drinking age was once 16, then raised to 18 after Prohibition, then raised again to 21 to comply with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which tried to curb drunk-driving fatalities by cutting off 10% of Federal Highway Funds to Non-Compliant States. This does not take into consideration that Men and Women can be enlisted or drafted into the Armed Services and therefore fight and die for one's country at 18 - yet cannot get a drink? Also, since the 1980s the law has made Binge Drinking/Alcoholism/Addiction among 18-21 year olds worse, by treating otherwise mature adults like children, by forcing them to hide their drinking like criminals, glamorizing an otherwise mundane and ordinary activity. Wise parental guidance has been transferred, ironically with the help of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, from parents to the Federal and State Government. This is also a stifling of state commerce, by limiting sales of alcohol to legally, official adults, 18-20. And the U.S. is the only western country whose drinking age is not 18.

Liberals live the "do like I say not like I do" life, and need to be reined in at every opportunity so our country can be saved from them. Every American who believes in equality, and justice should sign this petition.