On January 13, 2011, The Abington Township Board of Commissioners made history by voting down a Non-discrimination Ordinance. For the first time in Pennsylvania, a suburban municipality failed to pass a civil rights law. The ordinance would have protected all people who live, work, or conduct business in Abington. By a vote of 10 against (Commissioners John Carlin, Carol DiJoseph, Carol Gillespie, Wayne Luker, Bill Lynott, Peggy Meyers, James Ring, Robert Wachter, and Dennis Zappone) to 5 in favor (Commissioners Ernie Peacock, Les Benzak, Michael O’Connor, Steven Kline and Lori Schreiber), the audience was tearful as the ordinance failed to pass. Please become a civil rights champion to ensure that everyone in Abington is protected against housing, employment, and public accommodation (e.g. being served in a restaurant) discrimination. Our township's reputation, property values, educational system, children's safety, and citizenry are at stake. We're all in this together!

Pledge your support for NYS Senate bill S542. If enacted, this bill would require public high schools and colleges in New York State to provide voter registration forms and changes the minimum age for pre-registering to vote to 17.

Maine does not currently have a recall process. We, the citizens, should allow ourselves the opportunity to have our voice heard.

Please do not repeal the 38-year tradition of Election Day Registration or add a new requirement to present a photo ID every time you vote. Maine has had 2 cases of voter fraud in more than three decades, and our elections run remarkably smoothly. There is no need to roll back our voting rights simply so Gov. LePage can get re-elected.

THE DAWG HOUSE RESTAURANT LOCATED AT 440 HIGHWAY 36 IN HIGHLANDS NJ IS ASKING EVERYONE FOR THEIR SUPPORT. THEIR LANDLORD COMMITTED FRAUD AND IS SELLING THERE BUILDING TO QUICK CHEK CORPORATION. THE DAWG HOUSE HAS ONLY BEEN OPEN FOR ONE YEAR AND ARE FIGHTING A LEGAL BATTLE AGAINST THEIR LANDLORD AND QUICK CHEK CORPORATION. QUICK CHEK IS RESPRESENTING THEIR LANDLORD IN TRYING TO GET THE OWNERS OUT OF THEIR LEASE TO PUT A GAS STATION. PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION AND STAND BY OUR SMALL BUISNESS OWNERS.

Charter schools in New York State are fundamentally changing the way that our children learn. For the first time kids who otherwise wouldn't, are being given the tools and support to learn and the chance to succeed. The parents in these schools are profoundly thankful and yet some special interests and politicians are doing everything that they can to block progress. We want to tell our state leaders to stop fighting to keep open schools that have already failed, using a nineteenth century model, and start fighting for a twenty first century solution.

The State of Texas already lags behind the majority of other states when it comes to graduation rates, test scores, and producing an educated workforce. But the Governor of Texas has chosen to focus energy on his pet causes such as making abortions more difficult to obtain and targeting Hispanic citizens with his "Sanctuary Cities" legislation. The Governor instead puts the burden on local communities by suggesting additional taxes and lay-offs. State Senator Wendy Davis took a stand on the last day of the 2011 legislative session by filibuster and prevented the budget bill from passing before the midnight deadline. Instead of taking the opportunity to allow for more public discussion and input, the Governor has chosen to attack Senator Davis with name-calling and threatening tactics. Please send a message to the Governor that you support any legislator's decision to focus time and discussion on education funding, and that we want him to refrain from public attacks and begin the process of building our education system back up to proper levels of funding and include Texas citizens in on that plan.

Limiting corporate political influence

The owner's of The Dawg House restaurant located at 440 highway 36 in Highlands Nj, are in jeopardy of losing there livley hood to Quick Chek Corporation. There landlord frauded the owners Dina and Scott Wolfe and they are in a legal battle to save there restaurant. Quick Chek Corporation is defending the landlord with there powerful attorney's in helping to kick the restaurant owners out and breaking there lease. Please help this family in fighting this corporate company and support the small buisness owners.

Adverse medical events and medical errors rob patients & families of quality of life and often of life itself. The facilities/doctors then in settlement attempt to "compensate" victims for damages suffered. No amount of monetary compensation can ever truly recover the extreme and needless damages suffered thru these adverse medical events. The facilities/doctors routinely impose gag orders demanding silence from victims. Malpractice lawyers and defendants reason this by saying that "compensation is in exchange for silence." The facility robbed patients & families, so the offending facilities have no right to any such "exchange." This doubly punishes victims, and further robs victims of needed healing in the form of speaking out, and reporting events as required by LAW. This draconian practice of imposing gag orders is illegal, unethical, unconstitutional, and must STOP!!! The only "exchange" that should take place is the victims' right of fair and equitable compensation for losses suffered! Victims do not owe the offenders anything! Gag clauses protect no one but the wrong-doers. The interests of business, especially harmful and dangerous business, must never be placed above the interests of the people, namely the PATIENTS it serves. Gag clauses are nothing but cowardly acts by those who are clearly afraid of the truth, and we must find alternatives within the civil justice system, or these cowards will continue to literally get away with murder, so long as the legal system plays along in the name of $. No payment for recovery of damages exempts any facility from accountability under the law. Victims should not be forced to choose between lawfully reporting events and recovering losses. Many states have implemented laws such as the NJ HEAL Law and the NJ Patient Safety Act, which require hospitals to publish adverse medical events, to create needed transparency for patient safety, and to protect the interests of the public at large. These laws mandate full disclosure and publication of medical errors and HAI's. Both CMS and Joint Commission Standards mandate full disclosure and communication of such errors. The AMA Code of Ethics also mandates honest disclosure. Despite these laws, wrong-doers continue to manipulate and bully victims by attempting to "buy" their way out of needed justice, and pretend that these horrific events never happened. No business, no matter how big, is above the law. We must ban these unfair gag clauses nationally, and find alternatives within the legal system to place heightened burden of proof of actual damages caused by a breach of confidentiality. Malpractice payments for practitioners are reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank regardless of gag clauses. I call for opening this Data Bank to the public. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi

Vermont has passed legislation to establish what is basically a single-payer healthcare program. It now needs waivers from the federal government. This is about states rights and is about the states serving as 50 laboratories of democracy, trying out new ideas. We should petition the federal government to make Vermont free.

Corporations are not people so they should not have the same rights as human beings. The Constitution needs a new amendment clearly stating that the bill of rights applies only to humans.