Petition Urges Obama to Attend Funeral of Hadiya Pendleton

The 15-year old, who performed at inauguration, was shot and killed after finishing her final exams.

What happened to Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago teen, was horrible. While taking cover from the rain, the young girl, who performed with her high school drill team at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, was gunned down in what seems to be random gunfire. The White House acknowledged her death Wednesday. “The president and first lady’s thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,” White house spokesman Jay Carney said.

But the people want more. A petition was created, urging the president to honor the brief life of the girl and attend her funeral. Carney said he had no knowledge of the petition nor of any scheduling changes. There is no word that he has addressed the petitions’ request. (NewsOne)

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Fantasy Football Group Petitions For Day Off On 'Super Bowl Monday'

Group pressure White House to declare day after Super Bowl a national holiday.

Nobody likes to wake up and go to work on Monday morning, let alone the day after Super Bowl Sunday. Lobbyist group 4on4.com Fantasy Football knows this, which why they are pushing a petition to declare the Monday after the big game a national holiday where every gets the day off.

The petition reads:

We at 4for4.com Fantasy Football petition the Obama Administration to consider declaring the Monday following Super Bowl Sunday a national holiday. By doing so, the Obama Administration can promote camaraderie among the American people, keep the streets safer for our children on Sunday night and Monday morning, promote a productive workplace when work resumes on Tuesday, and honor the most popular event in modern American culture.

So far the petition only has 2,706 of the 100,000 signatures needed for the White House to take a look at it. 

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White Houses Raises Petition Signature Requirement to 100,000

"We don't believe you; you need more people"

The White House has raised the number of signatures needed on a petition to get a response from the administration from 25,000 to 100,000. "We the People," the official online petitioning platform, has experienced huge increases in both users and petitions since it launched in 2011. Macon Phillips, director of digital strategy for the White House, said the "good problem" of having more users than expected is "getting better." But protestors may not feel that way as they're now required to get four times as many signatures in order to be addressed by the White House. Subjects vary from "Finalize Standards for Gluten-Free Labeling" to the top petition (with 321,646 signatures):  "Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group." (NBC)

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Shawty Lo Starts Petition To Reinstate Reality Show

More than 250 signatures have been signed to the petition so far.

Rapper Shawty Lo has decided to fight fire with fire after having his reality show “All My Babies’ Mamas" canceled. The 'Dey Know' rapper has started a petition to have his show, with his 10 baby mamas, reinstated on Oxygen. The show was pulled off the network after a Change.org petition received more than 37,000 supporters.

In a letter attached to the petition, the race card was pulled as a defense for Lo’s actions. The letter also cited financial hardship as a reason to reinstate the show. “Would you rather see 11 children struggle with mothers on welfare? Or watch a man support his children?” the letter asked. Kali Bowyer, a spokesman for Shawty Lo, claims that their camp has received 123,000 emails in support of the show; the petition had only received 282 supporters at the time of this post. (Hip Hop Wired)

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Local Boy Scout Council Approves Gay Scout Application

Ryan Andresen's Eagle badge application is now headed to Boy Scout headquarters.

Despite the Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) national ban on gay scouts, openly gay scout Ryan Andresen has had his Eagle badge application approved. Andresen was refused the Eagle status last year but The Mount Diablo-Silverado Boy Scout Council has since approved it; the application now heads to the BSA national offices for final approval.

Ryan’s mother, Karen Andresen, started a Change.org petition that has received more than 450,000 signatures. She said even if the BSA decides not to award the Eagle badge in the end, “this victory makes it all worth it, and gives me much hope for the future of the organization.” Ryan isn’t the first boy scout member to protest the anti-gay membership policy. Scouts and scout leaders, wanting to overturn the policy, have launched more than 50 additional Change.org petitions. (Glaad)

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