Petition Coalition Roundup, 12/31/14 - Domestic Policy Edition

Join the "Petition Coalition" by following these links and signing those that you agree with!

A steep drop in federal funding for food assistance programs means that more and more people are relying on soup kitchens and food pantries just to stay alive. Sadly, more than thirty American cities have instituted laws making it illegal for good samaritans to feed the hungry and the homeless. That's right: in some parts of the country, you could get arrested for handing out sandwiches. Call on the mayors of these municipalities to lift this senseless and heartless ban: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4753

Senator Tom Harkin is about to retire, but his longtime quest to strengthen and expand Social Security won't die with his exit, since Senator Sherrod Brown has taken the proverbial baton from him, saying, “With even middle-income seniors relying on Social Security for at least two-thirds of their retirement income, it’s critical that we advance the Strengthening Social Security Act – expanding benefits, strengthening the program’s future, and making retirement more secure for all Americans." Tell your members of the Senate to stand with him: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6405/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=10708

One of the federal regulators taxed with overseeing antitrust investigations of Comcast is so chummy with the company's SVP that she was invited to attend the Sochi Olympics and had dinner where they discussed inside information about the company and the Department of Justice. Tell the DOJ that this kind of relationship shouldn't be allowed between investigators and their subjects: http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4794

The for-profit prison system sucks up over $50B taxpayer dollars every year in the U.S., and due to lobbying for harsher and harsher penalties, is directly responsible for both the huge increase in prison populations over the past two decades as well as the longer sentences doled out by judges (many of whom are elected with the help of campaign donations from the very penal corporations who benefit from their draconian sentencing). Now it's been revealed that a for-profit detention center in Texas has played host to repeated instances of rape perpetrated by the very people who are supposed to be guarding detainees. Tell the Department of Homeland Security to launch an immediate investigation into the many reported rape cases at Karnes County Residential Center: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/Karnes_ck

Thanks for fighting the good fight, and for all the little ways you change the world!