CONTRACT FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM We, the American people, promise to defend and advance a simple ideal: liberty and justice... for all. Americans who are willing to work hard and play by the rules should be able to find a decent job, get a good home in a strong community, retire with dignity and give their kids a better life. Every one of us – rich, poor or in-between, regardless of skin color or birthplace, no matter their sexual orientation or gender – has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is our covenant, our compact, our contract with one another. It is a promise we can fulfill – but only by working together. Today, the American Dream is under threat. Our veterans are coming home to few jobs and little hope on the home front. Our young people are graduating off a cliff, burdened by heavy debt, into the worst job market in half a century. The big banks that American taxpayers bailed out won’t cut homeowners a break. Our firefighters, nurses, cops and teachers – America’s everyday heroes – are being thrown out onto the street. We believe: AMERICA IS NOT BROKE. America is rich – still the wealthiest nation ever. But too many at the top are grabbing the gains. No person or corporation should be allowed to take from America while giving little or nothing back. The superrich who got tax breaks and bailouts should now pay full taxes – and help create jobs here, not overseas. Those who do well in America should do well by America. AMERICANS NEED JOBS, NOT CUTS. Many of our best workers are sitting idle, while the work of rebuilding America goes undone. Together, we must rebuild our country, reinvest in our people and jump-start the industries of the future. Millions of jobless Americans would love the opportunity to become working, tax-paying members of their communities again. We have a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis. To produce this Contract for the American Dream, 131,203 Americans came together online and in their communities. We wrote and rated 25,904 ideas. Together, we identified the 10 most critical steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream: 1. INVEST IN AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE. Rebuild our crumbling bridges, dams, levees, ports, water and sewer lines, railways, roads and public transit. We must invest in high-speed Internet and a modern, energy-saving electric grid. These investments will create good jobs and rebuild America. To help finance these projects, we need national and state infrastructure banks. 2. CREATE 21ST-CENTURY ENERGY JOBS. We should invest in American businesses that can power our country with innovative technologies like wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal systems, hybrid and electric cars, and next-generation batteries. And we should put Americans to work making our homes and buildings energy efficient. We can create good, green jobs in America, address the climate crisis, and build the clean energy economy. 3. INVEST IN PUBLIC EDUCATION. We should provide universal access to early childhood education, make school funding equitable, invest in high-quality teachers, and build safe, well-equipped school buildings for our students. A high-quality education system, from universal preschool to vocational training and affordable higher education, is critical for our future and can create badly needed jobs now. 4. OFFER MEDICARE FOR ALL. We should expand Medicare so it’s available to all Americans, and reform it to provide even more cost-effective, quality care. The Affordable Care Act is a good start and we must implement it – but it’s not enough. We can save trillions of dollars by joining every other industrialized country – paying much less for health care while getting the same or better results. 5. MAKE WORK PAY. Americans have a right to fair minimum and living wages, to organize and collectively bargain, to enjoy equal opportunity and to earn equal pay for equal work. Corporate assaults on these rights bring down wages and benefits for all of us. They must be outlawed. 6. SECURE SOCIAL SECURITY. Keep Social Security sound, and strengthen the retirement, disability, and survivors’ protections Americans earn through their hard work. Pay for it by removing the cap on the Social Security tax, so that upperincome people pay into Social Security on all they make, just like the rest of us. 7. RETURN TO FAIRER TAX RATES. End, once and for all, the Bush-era tax giveaways for the rich, which the rest of us – or our kids – must pay eventually. Also, we must outlaw corporate tax havens and tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. Lastly, with millionaires and billionaires taking a growing share of our country’s wealth, we should add new tax brackets for those making more than $1 million each year. 8. END THE WARS AND INVEST AT HOME. Our troops have done everything that’s been asked of them, and it’s time to bring them home to good jobs here. We’re sending $3 billion each week overseas that we should be investing to rebuild America...

Tell your Senators that H.R. 6082 does NOT belong in the Senate’s opioid bill package. This bill threatens the health and safety of every person who has received or will receive diagnosis or treatment for a substance use disorder.

I've heard this from nurses, an people in General. That the people that don't need help get all the help there is, but the ones that really need Help don't.

Jeffrey Schoon a single father sits in a low security federal prison as his terminaly ill 17 year old son Bret Schoon is in the University of Iowa Hospital alone battling cystic-fibrosis for his life alone because the Warden will not take his dad to see him. Jeff robbed a bank without a weapon to care for his terminally ill child, and take him to Disneyland after police harassment shut down his metal recycling business.

DO NOT PASS HB-294-AN ANTI-VOTER BILL THAT IS RESTRICTIVE TO VOTER ACCESS TO FREELY CAST THEIR VOTES.

Please tell the GOP and Tea Party that the poor and unemployed are also patriotic Americans who also believe in freedom and love our country just as much as they claim to --- but just as during the Great Depression, many of our government "leaders" have been treating the poor and unemployed with complete and utter disrespect. Now they want to starve us too, with cuts to food stamps.

This is a campaign/petition that's got one day left at Causes.com. It's a letter to the POTUS on behalf of chronic pain patients who are being denied opioid pain meds. Pain Drs are leaving In Droves! Pain can kill and we need support. We need to inform our government of the difference between dependence and addiction!

We believe Edward Blankenship was wrongly convicted and want his case reopened.

Les invitamos a agregar su nombre a la siguiente carta publica, para la verdad y justica para Jorge Luis Montes Hernández. (English below) CARTA PÚBLICA DESDE LOS MONTES DE MARIA El Carmen de Bolívar, 2 de abril de 2017 Los campesinos y campesinas del Proceso Pacífico de Alta Montaña de El Carmen de Bolívar, Montes de María, nos dirigimos a la opinión pública para contarles la grave violación a los derechos humanos, que sufre el líder social JORGE LUIS MONTES HERNANDEZ, y pedir la solidaridad de todos los sectores de la sociedad en su caso. 1. JORGE LUIS MONTES HERNÁNDEZ, es un campesino de la Alta Montaña de El Carmen de Bolívar, a quien reconocemos como Coordinador de la Caminata Pacífica de la Alta Montaña de Montes de Maria realizada en abril del 2013, quien se encuentra detenido desde el 9 de septiembre de 2013, como represalia por su papel de líder social en el territorio. 2. Esta Caminata Pacífica, en la que nos movilizamos más de mil campesinos exigiendo condiciones de vida digna, reparación integral en nuestra condición de víctimas del conflicto armado, y la recuperación del cultivo de aguacate en la zona, tuvo como resultado un acuerdo de 91 puntos asumidos por el Gobierno Nacional, Departamental y Municipal, que incluyó compromisos en materia de educación, vías, salud y proyectos agrícolas, entre otros, que han sido objeto de seguimiento a través de Asambleas, Mesas Técnicas, y Comités. 3. Luego de 3 años de reclusión, el pasado 7 de marzo de 2017, el Juzgado Primero Penal del Circuito de Cartagena, condenó injustamente en primera instancia a nuestro líder JORGE MONTES HERNÁNDEZ, a 39 años de prisión por la presunta comisión de los delitos de rebelión y homicidio, por hechos ocurridos el 1 de agosto del 2000 (17 años atrás). La investigación nunca se conoció, y solo "apareció" luego del fortalecimiento del liderazgo personal de Jorge, y el de la organización social a la que pertenecemos. 4. La condena tiene como soporte principal los testimonios amañados de reinsertados de grupos ilegales recibidos por el extinto Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) en el 2007. Como lo conoce el país, el desaparecido DAS es una vergüenza nacional que fue liquidado por haber sido instrumento del narcotráfico y el paramilitarismo. 5. Rechazamos esta condena que se produce en momentos en que el país y Montes de María trabajan en la construcción de una paz territorial estable y duradera, en la que se estimule la participación ciudadana, la incidencia política de las comunidades, y la acción colectiva para la transformación social. 6. Reconocemos a JORGE MONTES HERNÁNDEZ como el líder social, víctima de montaje judicial y PEDIMOS a la Jurisdicción Especial de Paz (JEP) que esclarezca los hechos que injustamente se le imputan, se conozca la verdad y sea restablecido su derecho al buen nombre. 7. Solicitamos a la opinión pública, a los defensores y defensoras de Derechos Humanos, a los organismos de control, y a toda la ciudadanía, ACOMPAÑARNOS en el seguimiento al caso de JORGE MONTES HERNANDEZ, EXIGIR con nosotros un análisis probatorio sin manipulaciones que reconozca que el objeto de la detención ha sido el de socavar la fuerza de nuestro movimiento social, y en consecuencia se ordene su LIBERTAD INMEDIATA. We invite you to add your name to this public letter for truth and justice for Jorge Luis Montes Hernández. PUBLIC LETTER FROM THE MONTES DE MARÍA El Carmen de Bolívar, April 2, 2017 We, the campesinos of the Peaceful Process of the High Mountain of El Carmen de Bolívar, Montes de María, want to inform the public about the grave human rights violation that the social leader, JORGE LUIS MONTES HERNANDEZ is suffering and request solidarity from all sectors of society regarding his case. 1. JORGE LUIS MONTES HERNÁNDEZ, is a campesino from the High Mountain of El Carmen de Bolívar, who we recognize as the Coordinator of the Peaceful March of the High Mountain of Montes de María which took place in April 2013, who currently is detained and has been since September 9, 2013, as reprisal for his role as social leader in the region. 2. This Peaceful March, in which we mobilized, in total more than a thousand campesinos, demanding conditions for a dignified life, full reparation as victims of the armed conflict, and the recuperation of the avocado tree, led to an agreement of 91 points that were to be assumed by the National, Departmental, and Municipal Governments, which included commitments to improve education, roads, healthcare, and agricultural projects among other things, all of which has continued to receive follow-up through Assemblies, Technical Boards, and Committees. 3. After 3 years of imprisonment, the past 7th of March of this year, the First Criminal Court of the Circuit of Cartagena, unjustly condemned our leader JORGE LUIS MONTES HERNANDEZ, to 39 years of prison for allegedly committing the crimes of rebellion, and homicide,...

We want physical barriers and vegetative filters to be a leading concern in all roadway design and maintenance. We want this because traffic pollution is associated with: 1) Preeclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnant women), which can result in organ damage and even death of mother or child (Pereira, et al., 2013). 2) Reduced fetal growth as well as increased post-birth weight gain, making it a possible contributor to the obesity epidemic (Fleisch, et al. 2015). 3) Autism (Volk, et al., 2013). 4) Attention problems like attention deficit disorder (Perera, et al. 2012a). 5) Lower I.Q.’s in children (Perera, et al. 2009). 6) Anxiety, and depression in children (Perera, et al. 2012b). 7) Inner ear infections (Brauer, et al., 2006). 8) Flexural eczema (a skin condition) (Lee et al. 2008). 9) Decreased kidney function (Lue et al., 2013). 10) Asthma (Oyana and Lwebuga-Mukasa 2004, Lwebuga-Mukasa, J. S. 2003, and Lwebuga-Mukasa, J. S., 2004) 11) COPD, and bronchitis (Lindgren, et al., 2009). 12) Childhood cancer (Heck, et al., 2013 and Ghosh, et al., 2013) 13) Lung cancer (Raaschou-Nielsen et al., 2011). 14) Breast cancer (Hystad, et al., 2015). 15) Prostrate cancer (Parent, et al., 2013). 16) Lower cognitive function and cognitive decline in the elderly (Tonne, et al. 2014). 17) Cardiovascular disease leading to premature death (Brook, et al. 2010). References: Baldauf, R., Thoma, E., Khlystov, A., Isakov, V., Bowker, G., Long, T., & Snow, R. (2008). Impacts of noise barriers on near-road air quality. Atmospheric Environment, 42(32), 7502-7507. doi: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.05.051 Brauer, M., Reynolds, C., & Hystad, P. (2013). Traffic-related air pollution and health in Canada. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'association Medicale Canadienne, 185(18), 1557-1558. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.121568 Brook, R. D., Rajagopalan, Sanjay, Pope, rd C. Arden, Brook, Jeffrey R., Bhatnagar, Aruni, Diez-Roux, Ana V., Holguin, Fernando, Hong, Yuling, Luepker, Russell V., Mittleman, Murray A., Peters, Annette, Siscovick, David, Smith, Jr Sidney C., Whitsel, Laurie, & Kaufman, Joel D. (2010). "Particulate matter air pollution and cardiovascular disease: An update to the scientific statement from the American Heart Association." Circulation 121(21): 2331-2378. Finn, D., Clawson, K. L., Carter, R. G., Rich, J. D., Eckman, R. M., Perry, S. G., . . . Heist, D. K. (2010). Tracer studies to characterize the effects of roadside noise barriers on near-road pollutant dispersion under varying atmospheric stability conditions. Atmospheric Environment, 44(2), 204-214. doi: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.10.012 Fleisch, Abby F., Rifas-Shiman, Sheryl L., Koutrakis, Petros, Schwartz, Joel D., Kloog, Itai, Melly, Steven, Coull, Brent A., Zanobetti, Antonella, Gillman, Matthew W., Gold, Diane R., & Oken, Emily (2015). "Prenatal Exposure to Traffic Pollution: Associations with Reduced Fetal Growth and Rapid Infant Weight Gain." Epidemiology 26(1): 43-50. Fujii, E., Lawton, J., Cahill, Y. A., Barnes, D. E., Hayes, C., Spada, N., & McPherson, G. (2008). Removal Rates of Particulate Matter onto Vegetation as a Functionof Particle Size; Final Report to the Breathe California of Sacramento Emigrant Trails Health Effects Task Force and Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. Ghosh, J. K. C., Heck, J. E., Cockburn, M., Su, J., Jerrett, M., & Ritz, B. (2013). Prenatal exposure to traffic-related air pollution and risk of early childhood cancers. American Journal of Epidemiology, 178(8), 1233. Heck, Julia E., Wu, Jun, Lombardi, Christina, Qiu, Jiaheng, Meyers, Travis J., Wilhelm, Michelle, Cockburn, Myles, andRitz, Beate. (2013). Childhood cancer and traffic-related air pollution exposure in pregnancy and early life. Environmental health perspectives, 121(11-12), 1385. doi: 10.1289/ehp.1306761 Heist, D. K., Perry, S. G., & Brixey, L. A. (2009). A wind tunnel study of the effect of roadway configurations on the dispersion of traffic-related pollution. Atmospheric Environment, 43(32), 5101-5111. doi: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.06.034 Hystad, P., Villeneuve, P. J., Goldberg, M. S., Crouse, D. L., & Johnson, K. (2015). Exposure to traffic-related air pollution and the risk of developing breast cancer among women in eight Canadian provinces: A case–control study. Environment International, 74(0), 240-248. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2014.09.004 Lindgren, A., Stroh, E., Montnémery, P., Nihlén, U., Jakobsson, K., Axmon, A., . . . Institutionen för kliniska vetenskaper, L. (2009). Traffic-related air pollution associated with prevalence of asthma and COPD/chronic bronchitis. A cross-sectional study in Southern Sweden. International journal of health geographics, 8(1), 2-2. doi: 10.1186/1476-072X-8-2 Lue, S.-H., Wellenius, G. A., Wilker, E. H., Mostofsky, E., & Mittleman, M. A. (2013). Residential proximity to major roadways and renal function. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 67(8), 629. Lwebuga-Mukasa,...