We the people would like the US Department of Justice to investigate whether W. Mitt Romney violated US criminal laws as a result of his misrepresentations in SEC filings regarding his roll at Bain Capital between 1999 until 2002.

An innovative plan is needed to combat high unemployment and huge deficits in the western nations. Also the world is experiencing serious environmental distress. Since many of our problems are globally caused, why not a global solution: The UN Earth Core,

Congress is completely broken, overly partisan and basically doing nothing to help Americans because they are too focused on re-election. I propose term limits of 2 terms for House of Representatives and 1 term for Senators. In order to get Congress behind this law, those currently serving can be grandfathered out of the term limits requirement, but anyone new must adhere to term limits!

We the students of the Philadelphia High School for Girls are demanding the reinstatement of our counselor to our school. The counselors are a vital and integral part of our health and well-being. They are our college guidance as well as people that we can go to when we need to have a private and confidential conversation. This relationship takes time to build and maintain. Ms. Sheriff is an important member of our school community.

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SIGN 9 This bill (SB 9) requires some out-of-state corporations to pay tax on NM income.

Northwest Missouri State University is one of many universities across Missouri that will be implementing a new operating model due to budget cuts to higher education. Because the Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Computing is located in and funded by Northwest Missouri State University, this institution has also found it necessary to implement a new operating model in order maintain its same standards of excellence while accomplishing a stated mission. For Northwest Missouri State University, this implied taking such measures as laying of 20 employees, merging departments into 11 instead of the previous 19, and cutting a degree program, among others. For the Missouri Academy, this implied leaving 3 positions vacant and increasing the amount of tuition paid by domestic students by approximately $5,000 or more precisely from paying 20-43% of the total cost of education to paying 48-71% of the total cost of education at the Missouri Academy. This will prevent the Missouri Academy from offering the excellent education it provides to those students who are not of good financial standing. Governor Nixon stated in the 2011 Summit of Higher Education "the performance funding formula should be the basis for allocating future funding increments to the institutions [of higher education]." With this in mind, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the Missouri Academy and the reasons why it should have funds allocated for it by the state government. The Missouri Academy has two goals: 1. Prepare students for continued success in higher education in the areas of science, mathematics, and computing. 2. Provide a solid foundation of education, integrity and quality and thus, to enable its graduates to have a lasting positive impact on society. This school accepts students both domestic and international from 10th grade at their traditional high schools and seeks to fulfill these goals with students from all over Missouri. This state-wide mission is one that benefits Missouri, not just Northwest Missouri State University, and should therefore receive more support from the state. The evidence for this lies in the success of the students who come to this institution. All Missouri Academy alumni graduate with a Northwest Missouri State University GPA of 2.5 or greater. The majority of each class from 2005 to 2011 maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above. At least 86% of the graduates from the Missouri Academy from 2005-2011 have met college readiness benchmarks in Reading, Mathematics, Writing, and Science, compared to less than 30% of other Missouri students meeting the same standard. Approximately 100% of Missouri Academy graduates matriculate to four-year institutions, and of these graduates 67% matriculate to Missouri universities. The remaining students go on to a wide diversity of universities including Harvard University, Yale University, the United States Naval Academy, and many other prestigious institutions. Throughout all of this, the Missouri Academy emphasizes community service, campus participation, and integrity and quality be displayed by the students in attendance. The Academy has completed all of these accomplishments with students above and below the poverty line. This institution has maintained high standards of education since it was created in 2000. The institution requires only $700,000 to maintain its previous model of operation which has been shown to result in very good graduate statistics. The FY 2012 General Revenue Available Spending demographics allocated $790 million for higher education. This is clearly enough to cover the operation of the Missouri Academy, which has been shown to integrate high school students across Missouri into higher education with great success. It is believed, then, that this funding should be set aside for the Missouri Academy by the Missouri state government in order to allow all Missouri students to be able to partake in this excellent education no matter their financial status.

President Lee Myung Bak Cheong Wa Dae 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongno-gu Seoul, Republic of Korea Dear President Lee: As concerned members of the international community, we urge you to stop construction of the naval base on Jeju Island, which Gangjeong residents have vehemently opposed by protesting daily and risking their lives and personal freedom. Since plans for the naval base were announced five years ago, 95% of Jeju residents have voted against the base and used every possible democratic means to block its construction. Yet their protests have fallen on deaf ears in your government. We share the residents’ outrage that the South Korean government is willing to sacrifice the safety of the island residents in order to build this U.S. missile defense outpost as part of a provocative strategy to surround China. Jeju residents refute the claim that this naval base will improve the Korean peoples’ security; they know it will further destabilize the Asia-Pacific region and make the island a prime target for military retaliation. The Jeju people's resistance to the militarization of their island stem from the April 3, 1948 massacre when up to 80,000 civilians – many of their family – were slaughtered by ROK troops during a democratic uprising. In 2006, the late President Roh Moo Hyun officially apologized for the massacre by designating Jeju the “Island of Peace.” This naval base violates your government's commitment to the people of Jeju and their desire for peace. Citizens of other countries have visited Gangjeong and are in steady communication with its residents. We are deeply concerned about the health and safety of several peace activists, including Professor Yang Yoon Mo and Sung Hee Cho, who were on 60-day hunger strikes and arrested for nonviolent protest. The elderly Professor Yang is now hospitalized, and Ms. Cho remains behind bars, facing up to five years in prison. We are alarmed that another activist, Brother Song, was recently beaten unconscious when he tried to prevent a construction vessel from pouring concrete onto the coral reefs. By authorizing the use of violence against nonviolent peace activists, you undermine your government’s reputation and give the world cause to question your commitment to South Korea’s hard-won democracy. Famed for its extraordinary beauty and pristine environment, Jeju is home to three designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites and one of 28 finalists for the New 7 Wonders of Nature. It perplexes us that, despite First Lady Kim Yoon-ok’s efforts for the "Jeju, for New 7 Wonders Campaign," your government is jeopardizing Jeju’s chances by allowing the construction of this naval base. By dredging the Jeju coastline to accommodate U.S. Aegis destroyer warships, the South Korean Navy and Samsung Corporation are already threatening the island’s soft coral habitat and rich marine life. Not only is Jeju’s Joongduk coastline where dolphins migrate to from Alaska in the summer, its waters are famed because of the hundreds of Korean women, haenyeo, who dive for seafood and kelp, key staples of the Korean diet. In 2005, The New York Times featured a story about these extraordinary women divers. The naval base will destroy the waters that haenyeo and fishermen depend upon for survival. It has already displaced Gangjeong citrus growers whose lands have been confiscated, greenhouses demolished, and fruit trees uprooted. Gangjeong villagers are not deceived by the ROK Navy’s false claims that the base would have minimal impact on the environment, and neither are we. They know that the base imperils their community, their livelihoods, and Jeju’s natural ecology. We stand with the residents of Jeju in their nonviolent protest to protect not only Jeju’s rich marine ecosystems and their way of life, but also peace in this increasingly fragile and militarized region in the world. We demand that you act immediately to stop construction of the naval base on Jeju. Sincerely,

Office of Governor Ned Lamont State Capitol 210 Capitol Avenue Hartford, CT 06106 Dear Governor Ned Lamont, We appreciate the care and energy you have put into the governing of our state of Connecticut and the leadership you have given us. It is a sad, unprecedented time for our state and many of the decisions you have made helped to flatten the curve with the new coronavirus. We applaud the choice to shut down the schools and all non-essential businesses until it is safe to reopen. We are especially grateful that the hair industry was amongst the first to shut down and noted that you thought of the risks with the industry. We are writing to express many pressing, urgent concerns shared by thousands of people in our state right now. We really feel that the May 20th opening date is not appropriate to reopen ALL salons and barbershops. It is questionable how the beauty industry could be lumped up with the first-to-open businesses in the phased reopening process. The salon services are purely cosmetic and are non-essential for our existence, though while not in a pandemic they are very much desired and encouraged. This industry gives employees no choice but to work in close proximity to clients, sometimes for hours at a time. It is not simply a walk-in and walk-out operation as are stores where you have your mask on, you distance, and you leave. Salons don’t let you stay at far distances. This lack of distance puts people in grave danger of contracting this deadly virus. Yes, you can implement PPE and offer things such as masks and gloves. But gloves hinder how stylists perform the cutting of hair! Most stylists will not be able to cut hair wearing gloves correctly or easily. Masks can help reduce, but do not eliminate transmission of the virus. Allowing customers to have a cloth mask is something we will have to live with because there is a national shortage of the medical-grade masks, but not requiring an N95 or similar medical-grade mask for the staff is terrible and will not boost the level of protection they should require. It has been shown the cloth masks aren’t nearly as effective in blocking transmission. At this point our state cannot even acquire the proper level of PPE including the medical-grade masks (which should go first to medical workers) we will need to safely operate the salons and so opening for May 20 is unreasonable. We cannot practice the safe distancing in our salons of 6 ft., and a combination of that with cloth masks that simply do not offer the best protection, you are creating a recipe for disaster. Also, if the virus is spread through contact and stylists have direct contact with the client through the entire appointment, the virus will wind up possibly transferring to the clothing of the stylist, then from the stylist to the next client in the chair. And what is to be said about the hair trimmings that seem to find their way all throughout a salon? The virus is found in oil secretions on the scalp which travels through the hair when combed, the hair literally goes all over the place as it is trimmed. The smartest course of action is to put a hold on the industries which spread the virus more quickly. Many other countries who prolonged the social distancing measures and limited certain businesses from reopening too quickly have seen the best success in bringing their coronavirus levels all the way down where people start to trust going back into the businesses again without the threat level there. Opening hair salons and barbershops are basically the same as opening the nail salons which were pushed back from opening on May 20. They are not ready and we are not ready either; same risks! We need better contact tracing in order, more testing as well. Our testing capabilities need to rise quite a bit to improve who we allow into the business. The virus levels need to go significantly lower. We are not there yet based on current reports. Therefore, it may prove to be foolish to open salons and barbers as soon as May 20th. Let us wait until Fairfield County, and our state in general, is no longer a hotspot, let us wait for the numbers of COVID-19 cases to really come down and the hospitalizations as well. We need to be properly stocked with the sanitation supplies and PPE. Salons are non-essential, they are luxury services, and the clients will always return once we are opened back up in a safe environment. A trim of the hair can wait, a color can wait, our health must come first and foremost. Guarding our client’s lives and their families’ lives, as well as guarding the staff and the staff’s families’ lives are essential. Please keep this industry in lock-down until we are further from the peak or we may wind up with more death and more illness. We appreciate your time and welcome any comments, thank you again for your consideration. Sincerely Yours, The Concerned Residents and Hair Care Industry Workers of Connecticut

On Oct 10, 2021, the Freedom To Vote Act was up for a vote “to debate” and 100% of Republican Senators voted NAY to even debate it so the act has been shelved. We need to get it back on the Senate floor for debate and enactment. 70% of US voters are FOR the Freedom To Vote Act (85% Democrats, 67% Republicans, 54% Independents). We, the people, must speak up in order to get things done in this country. Sign now to let your elected officials know if you are FOR the Freedom To Vote Act. There is also a Sign if you are AGAINST the Freedom To Vote petition as it is important to hear from everyone to be truly representative. Share this broadly!