Ron DeSantis, Florida Republicans, and Vertol Systems didn’t stop with the Martha’s Vineyard flight. In June, 36 Latin American migrants were deceived and promised work, housing, and food if they agreed to be flown to California on a chartered flight organized by Vertol Systems. And just last month, DeSantis floated the idea of flying Haitian migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Enough is enough! We have to stop these flights before it’s too late. The migrants who were trafficked to Martha’s Vineyard have since sued Vertol Systems, and a federal judge has allowed the lawsuit to proceed and said that there was evidence to support that the migrants were targeted because they were Latinx. The federal judge recognized these sham flights as a political stunt asserting that DeSantis was exploiting migrants "in a scheme to boost the national profile of Defendant DeSantis and manipulate them for political ends,” and ruled that the treatment of these migrants was "extreme, outrageous, uncivilized, intolerable, and stunning.” It’s shameful that instead of treating asylum-seekers with the due process, dignity and care they deserve, Vertol Systems and Republican governors like Ron DeSantis are exploiting them and using them as political pawns. These are not isolated incidents. They are deliberate actions relentlessly carried out by anti-immigrant Republicans. It’s completely unacceptable, and there is no excuse for Vertol Systems to continue profiting off of deceived migrants. They must stop organizing the flights NOW. Will you take action and sign the petition?

More than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7. And according to the U.N. and world humanitarian organizations, this catastrophe is going to rapidly become a man-made famine because the Israeli government continues to block critical humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. The United Nations’ World Food Program estimates that at least 300 trucks are needed to enter Gaza every single day here on out to be distribute food to meet the most basic of needs for civilians. and distribute food to meet only the basic hunger needs. Organizations have been trying to enter Gaza for months to meet the needs of civilians and have been blocked at every step of the way. Recently the Israeli security cabinet approved the opening of the Erez crossing with the Gaza strip for the first time since the October 7 attack, but that’s not nearly enough to account for the mass devastation that has already happened to more than 33,000 civilians in Gaza. We acknowledge that humanitarian aid will be life-changing for people on-the-ground, but a lack of security and instability will still consume the region and the civilians. The humanitarian needs should be met first, followed by an immediate ceasefire to create and sustain peace for all.

Protecting and expanding our freedom to vote. Drawing congressional districts to ensure fair representation for all. Reducing the influence of Big Money in politics. Combatting partisan election subversion. By advancing policies like these in the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, we will be able to achieve rapid progress on the issues we care about most. It is what will give us the power to organize for better workplace rights, restore and expand abortion access across the country, pass laws to stop oil and gas companies from polluting the Earth for profit, force pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug costs, finally put an end to the NRA's control of gun laws while kids are killed in schools, and more. These policies will ensure our elected officials and elections work for the people, not just the wealthy, well-connected few and big corporations. We all deserve a say in the decisions that impact our lives and futures. It is time to end the dominance of big corporations and Big Money in our politics, rid our communities of partisan-gerrymandered maps, and dismantle barriers erected to keep Black, Indigenous, young, and new Americans from voting. We must come together to demand that Congress pass the Freedom to Vote Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to make the promise of democracy real for all of us. PHOTO BY ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

At a time in American history when the names of those who propagated racist policies are being removed from parks, monuments, and public places and spaces being removed from public places and spaces in California and nationally, We call upon the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to honor a living civil rights icon Earl Ofari Hutchinson and his father's legacy as a fighter for open and fair housing by renaming Reuben Ingold Park Earl Ofari Hutchinson Park.

Not only is Mr. Bryan an amazing person just in general. He is one of the very few teachers today who still absolutely give their all to his children in his class, and every other child in that school as a matter of fact, Bryan is there to feed their minds and teach them, there is not one child in that school that doesn’t absolutely adore Bryan , because of his work ethics his ethics as a human being and his teacher ethics bring back Bryan immediately!!

The Comstock Act—if enforced—is a law that prohibits the mailing of contraceptives through the mail. If the GOP wins the presidency this November, Donald Trump could enforce this law, which is still on the books though it's long been unenforced—and therefore restrict access to medication abortion, as well as other contraceptives. That's right: It's a backdoor to an abortion ban—as well as an attack on birth control, which the right wing has its targets set on—and the Supreme Court is handing Donald Trump the key. Repeal the Comstock Act NOW! Stop anti-abortion extremists' efforts to push a nationwide medication abortion ban and to limit access to birth control and other reproductive health care.

TikTok is a place where millions of Americans have gone to find community, education, to grow their small businesses, and to organize on issues that affect our communities. It should not be banned. Members of Congress are claiming that banning TikTok is an issue of national security and data privacy, meanwhile little has been done to pass a comprehensive data law that protects us from all social media companies. In 2018, it was revealed that a data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team harvested 50 million Facebook profiles of American voters. This was one of Facebook’s biggest data breaches ever, and the data was used to build a software program that influenced the 2016 election by targeting them with political advertisements. TikTok shouldn’t get singled out when privacy, data tracking, and data harvesting is an issue with ALL social media platforms. After members of Congress in the House of Representatives voted to pass a law to ban TikTok, it was revealed that some of those who voted for the TikTok ban may own $29 million to $126 million worth of stock in TikTok’s competitors like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snapchat. This means that many of the same politicians who voted for a TikTok ban would financially benefit from a TikTok ban. It’s unacceptable. A TikTok ban would also harm small businesses. Over 5 million small businesses have TikTok accounts and TikTok generated $14.7 BILLION in revenue just last year which created over 224,000 U.S. jobs.Banning TikTok could be financially devastating for millions of people across the country. The truth is, data privacy is a huge issue. Companies track our data, our conversations, the things we view on social media platforms and use it to target us, and then sell our information to third parties all the time. But this isn’t just a TikTok issue. It’s a Big Tech issue. And just banning TikTok won’t fix it. Only passing strong national privacy legislation will truly protect us and our data. And together, we can demand it. In the meantime, we must come together to ensure that members of Congress don’t avoid the real issues at hand and that they don’t violate our free speech by banning TikTok. Will you take action now and sign the petition?

At the state level, Republicans have been eroding child labor laws across the United States within the last year—which has mainly looked like shifting guidelines on work hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds. In the past fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour division reported 835 cases of child labor violations affecting 3,876 minors, and 688 minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation, a 283% increase from nearly 10 years ago in 2015.

 The Department of Labor has called for employers to follow national labor law, but the department’s wage and employment division remains understaffed to take up cases to hold employers accountable, with the list only growing from shifting guidelines.
Many Republican-led state legislatures copy and paste their state-led strategy. If it happens in one state, it has the potential to be adopted by another—to the detriment of working people everywhere. In 2024, news of Republican dedication to tearing down and taking away any benefit working people have is commonplace. There's a reason for this: It's yet another part of Republicans' larger desolate vision for the future of America. Another push from the same MAGA Republicans who routinely try to rob senior citizens of Social Security, restrict access to domestic and social programs, and block Medicaid expansion This is part of a long-term plan to make labor cheaper while empowering corporations and CEOs to undermine workers' rights simultaneously.
The impact of these laws is just going to negatively impact children, particularly children of migrants who are often forced into the workforce early because of circumstances out of their control. The push to roll back these standards is just beginning, and we need to stop it in its tracks now. Image Credit: More Perfect Union

Having backpacks in class is a way to make everything more organized and it’s faster to go to classes

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary committee voted to subpoena Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow as part of an ongoing ethics probe into Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito … but then never issued the subpoenas. It’s been over two months. What’s the hold up? Around the initial vote, Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley promised messy, vendetta-filled retaliation if Democrats voted to subpoena their conservative allies. Leo is the chief architect of the right-wing Supreme Court and Harlan Crow is a billionaire GOP mega-donor and close friend of Clarence Thomas. Democrats must continue their SCOTUS ethics probe and issue the subpoenas for Leo and Crow. Leo and Crow’s shady involvement with SCOTUS and certain conservative justices has been heavily reported on, and must be officially investigated. A recent ProPublica expose revealed just how central Leo is to the right-wing’s domination of United States courts. From his post atop the conservative legal think tank The Federalist Society, Leo guided Supreme Court appointments under Bush Jr. and Trump, organized luxury trips for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, oversaw well over $1.6 billion in funding for right-wing dark money groups, and much more. Then there’s Crow. Over more than two decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly accepted luxury trips virtually every year from GOP mega-donor, and billionaire Dallas businessman, Harlan Crow without disclosing them. Between the two of them, Leo’s injection of huge sums into our legal system has led directly to our current right-wing court that’s gutted our reproductive rights, decimated environmental protections, and more. And Crow’s involvement with Thomas raises extreme ethical concerns. Senate Democrats must continue their investigation into Supreme Court corruption and hold Leo and Crow accountable. Sign the petition to Senate Democrats: Issue the subpoenas for Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow. Investigate the extent of corruption on the Supreme Court!

Good samaritans should not be punished.

On top of protecting the reproductive freedoms of every person in Alabama, there's a moral duty to ensure that reproductive access continues across the United States, and this decision will not stay in a bubble. Over and over, we have seen conservative state legislatures copycat one another’s reproductive health care policies. The outcome from this case will affect fertility treatments and reproductive health care across the country. Your personal beliefs are your own, but using your own individual ideological beliefs to limit the medical care and bodily autonomy for all is unacceptable. This decision is based in an ideological and unscientific definition of personhood, and it will have long-term impacts if we do not fight back and reverse it soon.