The Ohio legislature is half way to approving oil and gas drilling in any or all of its' state parks. The bill is on its way to the Ohio Senate. This type of degradation of public lands has already become a disaster in Pennsylvania. State parks belong to the people not the energy industry.

Today large businesses have unfair economic advantage over small businesses. Yet small businesses are major contributors to jobs, innovation and community economics. We petition the federal government to enact laws and regulations to ensure that small businesses have the same costs as large businesses in the following areas: 1. Percentage tax paid 2. Per capita health care 3. Shipping costs such as FEDEX and UPS

Cheltenham Area Residents for Equality (CARE) is working to enact a local Human Relations Commission ordinance in Cheltenham Township to guarantee basic human rights to all without regard to race, color, sex, religion, ancestry, genetic information, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, familial status, marital status, age, mental or physical disability, use of guide or support animals and/or mechanical aids. We hope you'll support our efforts. We CARE! For more information go to www.cheltenhamcares.blogspot.com

We ask congress to repeal the ill-conceived "Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act". This act can force our K-12 public school systems, through coercive requirements, to provide access to: Updated - "Old Language"- (one of the most discriminatory groups left within the United States), "New Language"- (a group that continues to discriminate and allow chapters within its organization to continue to discriminate; important improvement has been made; still a way to go yet) under definitions or circumstances that we believe are far too generous, and intellectually unsound, especially when one considers the educational mission of our K-12 public school system and the documented discriminatory harms towards the LGBT student body/community that continue to occur. The areas in which the Boy Scouts of America discriminate, updated 5/24/13, is in their membership/participation criteria for Scout leadership, i.e. sexual orientation/religious affiliation/beliefs and Scout membership/participation, i.e. Religious affiliation/beliefs. Updated 8/19/15 - they remain an unacceptably discriminatory organization as they continue to allow individual chapters to discriminate based upon issues of sexual orientation, in regards to leadership positions. The BSA also continues to discriminate related to exclusionary membership policies based upon a person's religious orientation. This act provides material support to a group that embraces discriminatory processes not in keeping with the higher standards of our public educational systems, and has been, and may continue to be, a contributor to higher drop-out rates, harassment and unacceptable levels of discriminatory cultural bias in our K-12 Public Schools. We believe our K-12 Public School campuses should be discrimination-free zones. Repealing the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act would give these school districts back the tools they gained during the civil rights era, tools they lost after the passage of this "Act"... Tools they were using effectively right up to the point the government took these tools away... Tools used in a manner supported by decades of legal/supreme court decisions... Legal precedent that was thrown out into the street with the passage of this "Act"... Legal precedent that must be restored to their former prominence. Our Public Schools must be places of education, not propagandization. We find that this ongoing hypocrisy related to membership/leadership participation/selection is unhealthy and its intellectually dishonest basis, in our opinion, continues to undermine the very foundations of Scouting.

CONTROVERSIAL ANTINUKE MEASURE CALLS FOR LEGISLATURE TO START EMINENT DOMAIN AGAINST WIDELY MISTRUSTED OWNER-CORPORATION OF AILING NUKE PLANT. WIDE VOTE MARGIN SHOWS PEOPLE READY TO TAKE THE GLOVES OFF The measure, approved 2387 to 1826 in Brattleboro last November, was submitted by the group EMDOVY (eminent domain over Vermont Yankee), proposes the state legislature study eminent domain in order to force the nuclear power plant near Brattleboro to close and fully pay its cleanup costs. For eminent domain the state must evaluate the plant, subtracting the cleanup as a liability from the value of the plant. With an honest evaluation of the cleanup, and the plant set for closing, the plant’s owners could even end up owing money to the state. As things stand now the owner of VY, Entergy Corporation, has written the only public assessment of the cleanup costs, and Governor Shumlin, who wants to "hold Entergy's' feet to the fire" on cleanup costs, will have no fire unless the legislature begins the study of eminent domain. The cleanup funds for similar plants were underestimated by five hundred million to one billion dollars each and the owners were allowed to pass these costs to the ratepayers. Bob Stannard, an antinuclear lobbyist in Montpelier, says “It is very clear that Vermont taxpayers will be on the hook if no citizen action is taken.” Recent court rulings, notably Kelo vs New London, CT, have upheld the application of eminent domain for economic benefit as opposed to general public utility, as is conventional in the taking of land for reservoirs, and roads, etc; and so this case could be taken as a precedent to protect the economy of Vermont from the threat of VY's immense cleanup costs. It may also develop into a useful tool for communities to use against abusive corporations. On September 8, 2010 the Superior Court in Newfane ruled that the Brattleboro selectboard had illegally removed the resolution from the town ballot. The Brattleboro board had recently failed to stop another citizen initiative and was resoundingly rebuked in a special election on that matter. The court's decision was not only an advance for the anti-nuclear cause, but according to EMDOVY attorney Paul Gillies the court’s specific interpretation of case law would reverse an undemocratic trend of Vermont selectboards blocking public initiatives. After the court decision the Brattleboro selectboard board relinquished its right to appeal the decision and agreed to put the measure on the ballot. At the same meeting EMDOVY spokesman Kurt Daims announced new legislation for the town to effectively to divest itself of the nearby power plant by purchasing electricity only from renewable sources like the widely available CVPS program Cow Power. With the wide margin approving the EMDOVY resolution, the Nuclear Divestment proposal had good momentum at the representative town meeting in March and was placed on the agenda for November as an ordinance. Together EMDOVY and Nuclear Divestment take the offensive against nuclear power. Contact Kurt Daims, Spokesman 802 257 4995 Sally Shaw, technical expert 413 863 4992 Paul Gillies, attorney for civil rights issues 802 223 1112 x 103

The House, and Senate, are our servents, we do not have a monarchy.Time they share some of the burden we middle class carry in these hard times.

How ridiculous is it that we have BILLIONS to spend on wars, and nothing but severe budget cuts for Americans.

Senior Home Owners are hit hardest by Real Estate Tax increases. They dutifully paid their taxes during their earning years but because of the weak economy, many were forced into early retirement with Social Security as their main or only source of income. Even with the Senior Real Estate Freeze and Exemption policies, annual R/E tax increases to them of 15% are not uncommon. Current assessments can equal more than 30% of a senior’s Social Security income while all seniors have not had a COLA increase in 3 years. In Bensenville, IL R/E taxes were raised astronomically for the school budgets even though thousands of Bensenville families were displaced outside the school districts due to the O’Hare airport expansion. They actually raised taxes for schools even though there are less students to teach. This is an example of extreme government greed that hurts seniors the most. It’s time to stop penalizing those who can afford it the least before they are forced into foreclosure. Stop the government from stealing the quality of life Seniors have earned. Give Seniors a break and remove them from the tax rolls entirely. They’ve earned it.

For the last 30 years, churches have been more and more political, telling their parishioners who to vote for, what issues to vote for, etc., all the time growing wealthy on tax-free donations. The Constitution assumes that churches will be apolitical, small organizations: but today they are corporations, and, like all corporations, they should pay taxes.

Congress has been focused on transfering medical costs to seniors rather than reducing the total cost. Negotiating drug prices, just like the Canadian government does would save medicare, medicaid, other federal and state health programs Billions of dollars.

Only 3 more states are needed to make the Equal Rights Amendment part of the U.S. Constitution, and HJR 47, recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, will clarify that the 1982 deadline is eliminated. Let's urge Congress to cosponsor HJR 47. To start over on ERA would require 38 states to ratify and take another lifetime.

The Illinois Legislature is currently considering SB512 - a measure that would break the promise of a secure retirement to workers who have paid into the pension system and have worked for years on the front lines to improve our communities. We stand with workers across Illinois in calling on our legislators in Springfield to honor their commitments to public employees and vote "No" on SB 512.