To The Honorable Member of the State Senate, Sam Aanestad: You are certainly aware that our state faces a seemingly unending budget stalemate that has pushed California to the brink of collapse. Our deficits are huge, and growing daily. There must be hard decisions made to eliminate our deficit, including cuts. This much is clear. Regardless of the wide partisan differences in the legislature, I hope that a budget will be passed that will allow our state to prosper in the same way that it once did. However, the reason that I am writing you is because there is one thing that all Californian's agree upon: our system of higher education should be that which is emulated around the country and the world. But with the State's budget cuts toward our schools, including our local Butte College, how can we stand with pride alongside states and nations that fund their school systems properly? Butte College is an absolutely invaluable part of our local community, serving the lower income and middle class students who otherwise would not have been able to afford to even attend another school in our area. We have community colleges for a reason, sir, to provide the first steps to leading a happy, productive, and successful life for ourselves. When 60 percent of Butte College's student services budget is being slashed at the same time as growth at the school is accelerating at a record pace, how can we say that as Californians we care about our children or our future? So please, sir, don't cut our lifeline. Don't cut our future short. Please help to stop the cut of Butte College's budget. The next generation that passes through its halls will thank you. Please let me know how you decide to act on this important issue. Thank you,

Help UnionReview.com to get new forum technology in place on the site. I believe that if we had a better forum, more people would use it over the one that we have. I am also exploring a way for the UnionReview.com crew to start taking online actions with emails to companies, Senators and Congress members. This is a ton of money - at least the option I am looking into, and I am exploring either free or less costing stuff. There is also a need for merchandise. I have a bunch of hardhat stickers (if anyone wants one, let me know), but I am getting asked about T-shirts and hats, bags and other stuff with the UnionReview.com logo on it. I can't afford all that stuff right now to re-sell it, but eventually we'll get to that. I am in talks with a few places about setting up an online store on the site so that people can just order stuff as it comes available. That technology and manufacturing of good USA-Union-Made-Stuff ... is costly. Finally, I am working on an inexpensive newsletter that can go out from the site on a weekly basis with the Week in Review information -- and I can use some help there. I need to get a segment of the back-end of the site reconfigured with the members information -- and then get the system to push out the email. So, though times are tight and everyone is struggling to one degree or another, if you can afford anything to the cause at hand, it would be unbelievably appreciated. Here is the link to make a donation to the site.

We, the undersigned, respectfully ask the Members of Congress from the State of California to co-sponsor H.R. 2002 and S. 701, the Medicare Patient IVIG Access Act of 2009, which restores access in all sites of care to intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) to patients who rely on this lifesaving therapy. We further ask our Members of Congress to remember, while debating healthcare reform, that all patients, especially those with rare diseases, need access to all therapies prescribed appropriately by their physician and that because every patient is unique, personalized medicine must play a role in diagnosing and treating patients with all diseases.

Dear Nevada County Supervisors, On Tuesday, July 7th, you will be asked to approve the Final Environmental Impact Report and an amendment and zoning change to the Nevada County General Plan. Please vote NO on the Higgins Marketplace Project. Over 500 residents have signed a petition against the project, called and e-mail Supervisor Ed Scofield opposing this nightmare of a project. County Public Works staff has said this shopping center will make traffic worse. We, residents in South County, will be stuck with the consequences and it is not right. Please consider these facts about the project that come from all the reports the County has conducted on this project. Proof is in the pudding! 1. New Shopping Center does not solve the County's tax leakage issue. The County's economic analysis study by Bay Area Economics states that "even with the new store, the current leakage of trade area expenditure potential would remain constant; thus, the sales captured by the new store would be the result of shifting sales from the existing stores, to varying degrees, to the new store." - Bay Area Economics August 15, 2008 Draft Memorandum. Higgins Marketplace Final Environmental Impact Report. The Bel-Air market only pulls sales dollars from nearby existing stores, threatening their survival. It does not prevent sales tax revenue from leaving Nevada County for Placer County. 2. The county's economic impact report is inadequate. The County's economic report focuses on what will happen to Holiday Market, but there is no study about the impact of Holiday's closing on all the other stores in the Lake Center Shopping Center - Bay Area Economics August 15, 2008 Draft Memorandum. Higgins Marketplace Final Environmental Impact Report. Please DO NOT approve this project until a more comprehensive economic analysis is completed. 3. Higgins Marketplace will cause football fields length traffic backups. Higgins Marketplace will cause a traffic back up of over 522 feet in the mornings on Combie Road for people turning south onto RT-49. That's just under the length of one and a half football fields. The same report estimates a 497 foot back up in the evening when trying to turn southbound on RT-49. - KD Anderson & Associates, Inc., Revised Site Plan Analysis, Nevada County, April 17, 2009. With these kinds of traffic delays, this is just the wrong place for this project. 4. The developer is misleading local residents about the true traffic impacts! The project's traffic study shows an "F" level of service on Combie Road after construction. However, to give the road a "passing" grade, the developer is asking to change the definition of Combie Road from a "Major Collection designation" to a "minor arterial roadway" so it will then meet acceptable levels of service. With the new definition it would get a passing grade. This is disingenuous and misleading. Changing the definition of the road does not improve actually traffic conditions on the road. County official must not let the developer get away with this trick! - KD Anderson & Associates, Inc., Revised Site Plan Analysis, Nevada County, April 17, 2009, page 12. This project threatens existing businesses, adds more cars to an already traffic clogged part of the County and changes the rural character of South County that so many of us love. Please vote against the Higgins Marketplace Project.

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I am writing to ask you to PLEASE SUPPORT EFFORTS TO CLEAN UP FALLS LAKE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I oppose extending the deadline for rule development any longer than absolutely necessary because the state has already been given a one year extension. While maintenance of a strict time table for the development of the Falls Rules is of paramount importance, it is still not enough. I URGE YOU TO SUPPORT ANY LEGISLATION THAT WOULD PROVIDE INTERIM PROTECTIVE MEASURES, ensuring that significant steps are taken to protect and improve Falls Lake until the rules are in place. Falls Lake is the main source of drinking water for much of Wake County and provides recreation and joy to the all of the surrounding communities; the time to protect the Lake is NOW. State and local officials are well aware that the lake is polluted and that the situation is getting worse as development around the lake carries more urban, road and agriculture runoff into streams feeding the reservoir. We cannot afford to wait to put better stormwater controls in place, continuing to dig ourselves into greater environmental debt, as we develop a strategy to eliminate our existing environmental woes. Please keep the timeline for Falls Lake Rule Development to a minimum and work to find additional ways to protect Falls Lake in the meantime so that we may pass on to our children and grandchildren a legacy of beauty and health, not one of bacteria and filth. Thank you,

Rep. Biggins: I read your quote in last week's ABC 7 Chicago news story that you are considering support for the Democrats' tax increase. I am writing to tell you to vote "No" on that tax hike. In this bad economy, a tax increase is the last thing we need. The Democrats have mismanaged state government for six years, destroyed our economy -- and you're considering bailing them out with a tax increase? Tax hikes will make our struggling economy even worse. Tax increases would slow economic growth, threaten jobs and shrink Illinois workers' paychecks even further. If you give the Democrats the votes they need to pass the tax hikes, it will do immense damage to our state -- and to our Republican Party. Please vote "NO" on the tax increase.

I am writing to urge Williamson County Commissioners to make public transit a priority as soon as possible. Traffic congestion is already a big problem all over the county. Even conservative estimates of future population growth make it clear that laying more pavement will be prohibitively expensive compared public transit. It's irresponsible to continue using tax payer dollars to subsidize private car use when public transit is so much more cost effective.

TEST TEST Please help us Save The Coast by constructing a multiple lines of defense strategy TEST TEST

Dear Commissioner, I am writing to ask you to support the expansion of Leon County's anti-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. This important Human Rights Ordinance will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) residents from discrimination in housing and employment, both public and private - discrimination that fosters hate and ruins lives. We need to act now to ensure that no more families and individuals are robbed of their livelihoods or kicked to the streets. Currently 21 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Of those, 14 have laws also protecting transgender people against discrimination. That's not even counting the additional 140 cities with anti-discrimination ordinances. Don't you feel it's time for Leon County to join the ranks of municipalities that are willing to protect ALL of their citizens? The Human Rights Ordinance WILL NOT have any fiscal impact on the County. However, because tolerant communities are viewed far more favorably by both young professionals and educated people it will help stop the "brain drain" from Leon County and draw high-quality businesses to the area. It will create a volunteer Human Rights Advisory Board, to ensure LGBT issues are heard within the community. And, it will create a legal means of redress against discrimination for LGBT citizens. I ask that you support this important Human Rights Ordinance. It is imperative we protect all of our citizens' basic rights to a job and a roof over their heads. Our community can no longer afford to continue living in the 20th century. Please help pass the Human Rights Ordinance and move Leon County forward on our path of progress. Thank you. Sincerely,