The rapid development of fossil fuel resources in the western U.S. and Canada has resulted in numerous proposed fossil fuel infrastructure projects through the West Coast. These fossil fuel infrastructure projects pose significant risks to the health and safety of people and their environment, and threaten the livability of their communities. Coal, oil and gas carried out of Northwest ports would carry as much carbon annually as five Keystone XL pipelines. Given the urgency of the threat posed to Tacoma and to our global environment, we urge you to act on this issue now by pledging to build no new fossil fuel infrastructure.

The rapid development of fossil fuel resources in the western U.S. and Canada has resulted in numerous proposed fossil fuel infrastructure projects through the West Coast. These fossil fuel infrastructure projects pose significant risks to the health and safety of people and their environment, and threaten the livability of their communities. Coal, oil and gas carried out of Northwest ports would carry as much carbon annually as five Keystone XL pipelines. Given the urgency of the threat posed to your city and to our global environment, we urge you to act on this issue now by pledging to build no new fossil fuel infrastructure.

The rapid development of fossil fuel resources in the western U.S. and Canada has resulted in numerous proposed fossil fuel infrastructure projects throughout the West Coast. These fossil fuel infrastructure projects pose significant risks to the health and safety of people and their environment, and threaten the livability of their communities. Coal, oil and gas carried out of Northwest ports would carry as much carbon annually as five Keystone XL pipelines. Given the urgency of the threat posed to your city and to our global environment, we urge you to act on this issue now by pledging to build no new fossil fuel infrastructure in the City of Vancouver and its adjacent waterways.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE and if a Veteran served his country during peace time they were still combat ready. Therefore they should receive the same opportunities as a Veteran who served during war time. Currently veterans who served during peace time are being denied certain opportunities because of the time period they served. This is not fair and can be changed with the approval of The Veterans Equality Act. Let the Governor know we the people want the bill approved so all veterans with honorable discharges can be treated equal. Veterans who served during peace time made themselves available to defend and serve our country and deserve the same treatment as those who served in war time. LEST WE NOT FORGET FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE.

The western world is fighting terrorist forces and bringing civilization to people in need of it- so they claim. But the west is rapidly moving towards a minutely managed totalitarianism, of which dictators like Assad and Netanyahu can but dream. Break security organizations before they are too big to fail!

This will give the American people the ability to trust what they are buying, who they are electing to office and news reports. Along with a number of other things that will help them in life. It is hard to know what is true in the media today.

There are 52 detainees at Guantanamo Bay who have never been charged with any crime and have been cleared by all levels of government for transfer, meaning they have been found to pose no security threat to the U.S. or the world. Most of these detainees were cleared for transfer in 2009 but have remained at the facility because of complications with returning them to their home countries. Their continued and indefinite detention is a violation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and human rights treaties to which the United States is a party. The U.S. Congress refuses to accept these cleared detainees onto our own soil because the American people have been misinformed on the subject and continue to believe that all detainees at the facility represent “the worst of the worst.” The Obama Administration, which is working to close the facility, is sending ambassadors around the world asking for sanctuary for these detainees in other countries. We as a country need to step up and take responsibility for our own mistakes; if these detainees are no security risk, as the government asserts, we should be ready to accept them on our own soil. Progressive, informed U.S. cities must take the lead on this, if the U.S. Congress will not. If this resolution passes, it will be a victory for human rights law and will send a message to our own community that we do not subscribe to Islamophobic fears based on ignorance and misinformation. It will promote a more inclusive city that is welcoming to people of all backgrounds, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Other cities have already passed such resolutions: ◦ Berkeley, CA resolution: http://www.nogitmos.org/berkeleytresolutionclosingguantanamo ◦ Amherst, MA resolution: http://www.nogitmos.org/proclamationunitednationsinternationaldaysupportvictimstorture ◦ Leverett, MA resolution: http://www.nogitmos.org/resolutiontownleverettmaassistsaferesettlementclearedguant%C3%A1namodetainees

As corporate fracking and gas pipeline proposals proliferate across the region promising jobs and cheap energy, the reality of the situation is that almost all of the fracked natural gas expected to transit our state will be shipped overseas, and very few permanent jobs will be created. Pipelines are dangerous, often exploding and leaking. Pipelines devalue land and hurt local farmers and forests. Our political leaders need to act decisively in the interest of the land, the wildlife, the farmers and the people. Join members of the Sierra Club, the Charlottesville Center for Peace & Justice, Wild Virginia, Appalachian Voices, and Friends of Nelson County in telling the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council to adopt a resolution banning new pipeline construction in their areas! [This petition was created by Kirk Bowers and Evan Knappenberger of the Charlottesville Center for Peace & Justice.]

The USA has been EXTRAORDINARILY NEGLIGENT in dealing with the problems it caused by dropping 240 million bombs on Laos without even declaring war. (The last time the USA declared war was in 1941.) The donations the USA makes to the clean up effort are miniscule. Pathetic is a word that comes to mind. You need to have a head honcho, office space in Vientiane and a few secretaries and that eats up most of the funds so there is precious little left over for actual cleaning up of the 80 million unexploded bombs. I would like to set up a bomb clearing project in Laos using HeroRats as used by apopo.org in Mozambique and now Cambodia to sniff out unexploded ordnance.

The people of Lebanon are experiencing an environmental disaster that is manmade. It is the result of governmental apathy and corruption. There is no government in the country and the infrastructure, what there is of one, is crumbling. The immediate problem posed by the lack of sanitation in the country is not just the stench of the accumulating garbage but this poses a real threat to the environment and also vermin are infesting the entire country. Malaria, cholera, typhus to name but a few, are ravaging Lebanon and the long term effects could eventually have a global impact as Lebanese people travel out of their country. This toxic situation can no longer be ignored.

This is important because it will allow for expansion of benefits to all recipients of Social Security and will in turn increase our GNP.

This would get rid of the life time positions that they have now and would force them to listen to their constituents.