Despite a $600 million surplus in the state's School Aid Fund, Republicans have voted to decrease funding to K-12 by a total of over $700 per pupil to pay for an 86% tax break to businesses. It is an indirect assault on the Teachers' Union and other public employee unions done in the most cynical way -- by making children pay.

Washington State's proposed budget will slash 1.6 to 1.8 billion dollars from education. Schools will close, classes will get larger, programs will be cut, teachers will lose their jobs, recruiting high quality teachers will be even more difficult, and students will not receive the education they need to compete in today's market place. As schools and education deteriorates, our communities will as well. There are no plans to restore these cuts once they are in place. Washington students will suffer for years. We are denying our children their future, and our communities will suffer even more.

Call on Congress to invest in America by getting our Federal and local governments to purchase goods made in USA! No more American flag lapel pins, worn by Congress, made in China! For things that are not made in America, we need to invest in what is necessary to make them. Incentivize companies to manufacture goods and hire employees right here in America. It creates millions of jobs. It invests in education. It makes our tax dollars work for us and keeps our tax dollars circulating in our own economy. Every tax dollar our government spends on products should be invested in purchasing goods made by workers right here in America!

Today, Democratic Senator Herb Kohl announced that he is retiring from the United States Senate after 24 years as a Senator from Wisconsin. Former Senator Russ Feingold is a natural to step up and run for Senator Kohl's seat. He is an experience Progressive Champion having served for 18 years in the United States Senate and is respected by members from both major parties. During this time of strife and party division, he is needed now more than ever. Please sign the petition to urge Senator Feingold to run for Wisconsin's open seat for the United States Senate in 2012.

The Young Progressives, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political organization, is calling on fellow Wisconsinites to reelect Russ Feingold back into Senate for 2012.

Russ Feingold should run for the US Senate in Wisconsin in 2012. We need his strong, principled progressive voice back in Washington, fighting for working Americans and holding big corporations accountable.

Increasing the usage of electric cars as a replacement to gasoline driven vehicles..

Governor LePage wants to cut all state support for MPBN - 20% of their overall budget. This relatively small amount of money enables Mainers in the farthest reaches of the state to get their news and entertainment through radio and TV. More info here: http://www.mpbn.net/Home/DefendandSupportMPBN.aspx#bottom

The Michigan House Republicans recently approved an amendment to the House bill on education funding written by Rep. David Agema. The amendment proposes that the state subtract 5% from the state funding of any university that offers health insurance coverage for employees who live with another adult outside of marriage.  During a time where public education operates under increasingly difficult financial constraints, ideologically driven legislations have even less of a place in educational policy than ever. The amendment violates the autonomy of public universities and is thus a direct attack on academic freedom.  Moreover, the amendment’s clear intent to divide the academic community is deeply immoral. Targeting unmarried couples, and by intent particularly gay and lesbian families, at a time where every public poll shows significant majority support for civil unions flies in the face of the country’s commitment to equality. Americans, as a rule, do not want the government to tell them how to conduct their private lives.  Middle class families already suffer from the rising cost of college tuition. If the amendment passes, the loss of funds may well contribute to an even steeper rise, thus penalizing all Michigan families in the interest of an obsolete sexual morality Americans have rejected resoundingly.  The bill still needs to be reconciled with the Senate version. Please petition the Michigan Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, to oppose this nasty piece of legislation.

The Center for American Progress reported recently about the US Department of the Interior’s plan to lease public lands in the state of Wyoming that would provide big coal companies with 758 million tons of coal. Interior will also decide this year about leasing public lands that would provide coal companies with an additional 1.6 billion tons of coal to burn and pollute our atmosphere. In light of the urgent plea by the world’s best climate scientists to rapidly phase out coal, we are calling on President Obama and Secretary of the Interior Salazar to halt the leasing of any new public lands to coal companies.

To effect the changes needed to reclaim our democracy we need to defeat Corporate America’s attack on our freedoms, and the best place to start is by making sure corporations, or any other organizations, do not enjoy the rights of "natural people"; it is the key to all of the others. This is not a Conservative, Liberal, Libertarian, or Independent question; it is about preserving the America our forefathers fought so hard to create, and the legacy we have been entrusted to pass on to our kids. Put simply, if a few corporate power brokers own our politicians, and anonymous dollars are more powerful than votes, the great masses of Americans, including you and I, lose their right to “Government by and for the People”. To effect change, we all have to focus on this core issue. The unbelievable power and influence of big banks and other large corporations, their ownership of the majority of our news outlets, and the massive abuses some engage in, is that core. Together, we can counteract this financial power base with the power of our voices, and return control of our government to “real people”. Rather than continuing to allow both isles of Congress and the Supreme Court to legitimize the “power of the dollar”, together we can force them to re-focus on our rights as “natural people”. With this single step, everything else we need in order to regain the American dream becomes possible, and it all begins by passing a Constitutional Amendment that simply says "Corporations are not People". So I created a petition to our House of Representatives & Senate, as well as President Obama, which says: "It is my belief that Corporations are not People, and that a Constitutional Amendment making that simple statement should be enacted." Please step up and help protect our freedoms by signing the petition, and forwarding it to as many of your friends as you can. With your help we can all win!

Tar sands oil is the dirtiest fuel in the world, and its corrosive nature makes pipeline ruptures more likely. But Canadian oil company TransCanada is asking the State Department for a permit to pump it through our backyards. Here in Montana, we are already seeing impacts due to proposed road expansions to make way for trucks carrying “mega-loads” through wild, scenic and recreation river corridors and wild places -- roads that also disrupt daily life in nearby communities. Tell Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to reject the permit for Keystone XL.