Shut down ACS and DCF. The fact is we don't need them. We have police for this.

After Ald. Ed Burke was indicted for corruption, he stepped down as chair of the City of Chicago Finance Committee. Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants Ald. Patrick O'Connor to replace Burke. 1. City Council should choose the chairs of committees. 2. O'Connor engaged in reprehensible, racist attacks on Ugo Okere, a Nigerian-American candidate challenging O'Connor during an October 16, 2018 candidate forum.

My petition is to save the dogs around the world from being put to sleep for things not in their control. They should have the same rights as humans. Humans get second chances all the time, yet these dogs from dog fighting cases have no rights and are put to sleep immediately because of their bloodlines because the type of dogs they normally are (pit bulls). These dogs need to be safe, and I'll do anything in my power to keep them safe. If these dogs can be saved, then they should be, and yes if the dog is not safe to be around then that's another story, but when a dog is put into a ring with a dog that will do anything to kill it, then it will do anything to survive, just like a human. Most of these dogs come out and they are loving animals and can be put into a loving home. Even if they don't get along with other dogs, they can still find a home; these dogs are given up on too fast.

I am an MST veteran who experienced retaliation, homelessness, and PTSD due to MST. The MST community is the most underserved and vulnerable class of veterans. Leading most of us to commit suicide. The most PTSD claims come from MST. The most suicides do to PTSD are MST. Homelessness affects MST veterans at 2x the rate. In every category, MST veterans are at the highest risk, yet no one is changing the laws. Our Bill of Rights provide protections for MST Veterans around the Nation!

This petition is about the Equality Act, a piece of legislation that would dramatically amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to explicitly include anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. As someone who is bisexual, this is personal for me. I don't deserve to be discriminated against for being bisexual.

I am a UNC Alumna, an NC tax payer, an Orange County resident, and a committed anti-racist organizer. Enough is enough with the "Lost Cause" narrative that cemented the Jim Crow era. Silent Sam is gone, no resources should be wasted on enshrining the statue.

Across the nation, states are taking action to create increasingly independent commissions that remove partisan considerations and politics from their redistricting processes. They are doing so because they understand that independent commissions lead to more competitive districts, which are ultimately healthy for the functioning of our democracy. In an inexplicable move, New Jersey is poised to reverse course, and instead, increase the exact measures that experts agree lead to greater gerrymandering. SCR45/ ACR60 would change the NJ Constitution so that: 8 of the 13 members would be directly appointed by Senate and Assembly legislative leadership, and no less than 4 MUST be legislators themselves. This could result in upwards of 12 out of 13 committee members tasked with drawing legislative districts being either beholden to or actual legislators themselves! Ties the hands of the independent, non-partisan, court appointed tie-breaker, relegating their role to no more than a checklist prefect. Establishes and mandates the precedence of a mathematical model, that while seemingly fair on paper, is not rigorous enough to prevent unjust manipulation of the formula by parties with vested interest. We stand united in the belief that SCR43/ ACR60 are un-American and destructive to our democracy. We demand legislators reject this proposal, and protect the integrity of our elections.

Indiana is currently one of only five states in the United States that do not protect its residents against hate crimes. A hate crime is a prejudice-motivated crime committed by a perpetrator against a person or persons based on race, religious affiliation, gender preference or gender identity. In addition to psychological distress and/or physical injury or material damages sustained by the victim, a hate crime conveys a message of intimidation, hatred, and terror to the entire group. As a result, members frequently feel isolated and vulnerable. Hate crimes can also lead to factionalism or divisions within communities. It’s no secret that in recent years, extremists have been emboldened, and Abigail Hauslohner of the Washington Post states, “Hate crimes in the nation’s 10 largest cities increased by 12 percent last year, reaching the highest level in more than a decade, according to a report released [in May] by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino.” For this reason, it is urgent that a hate crime (or bias-crimes) bill with aggravated penalties be introduced and voted into law in Indiana. Indiana legislators need to know now that you want groups targeted for hate crimes to be protected from violence by law! Please sign the petition to urge that state representatives act immediately to introduce hate crime legislation that includes aggravated penalties to Congress and work to their utmost ability to get said bill passed into law.

To maintain peace and prosperity in Liberia, Liberia must continue meditation processes in which the victim, the offender, and the other individuals or community members can actively participate in the mediation and resolution of past grievances. To continue restorative dimensions of their work, the TRC has created a Reconciliation Unit, which has engaged traditional religious leaders and solicited their views on the way forward for Liberia. We want a peaceful resolution.

** Here's how you can help: Call DA Wagstaffe to demand justice for Chinedu Okobi: (650) 363-4636. Office hours are M-F 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm PT** Statement from Ebele Okobi, the victim’s sister. Two days ago, I watched the police videos of my brother’s October 3 murder. They were shocking, not just because I sat next to my mother as we watched my little brother getting tortured to death in broad daylight while he begged “Someone, please help me!” and cried out “What did I do?”. They were shocking because they contradicted, in every single particular, the statement that the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office released and to which San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe referred in multiple news outlets after my brother’s murder. They were shocking because the District Attorney, his investigators and the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office have had access to these videos for weeks and have done nothing whatsoever to hold Sergeant David Weidner and Deputies John DeMartini, Alyssa Lorenzatti, Joshua Wang and Bryan Watt accountable. They were shocking because District Attorney Wagstaffe has allowed statements that he knows to be false to remain in the public record. They were shocking because my brother’s mental illness had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his killing. The video of my brother’s murder starts out with a dash cam view of my brother, walking calmly down the sidewalk, carrying bags. It’s notable, because the view shows other people walking-it’s broad daylight, so there is nothing particularly interesting or sinister about a man walking down the street, holding bags, heading somewhere. He is dressed normally, and doesn’t look disheveled or as if he’s in crisis. The deputy driving the car says something like who is this guy, and then speeds up to get alongside my brother. Lie #1: According to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office and District Attorney Wagstaffe’s statements, my brother was “running in and out of traffic”. My brother was not walking in and out of traffic when the deputy noticed him. He was walking on the sidewalk, as people do. Based upon the audio of the first deputy who made contact with my brother, that deputy was also not responding to any calls about anyone “running in and out of traffic”, so there was no basis to stop my brother other than what that deputy saw. The video shows the deputy was driving down the street, noticed my brother walking down the sidewalk from about a block away, and decided to stop him. When the deputy pulls up alongside my brother, he shouts at him and asks him what he’s doing, tells him he needs to question him. My brother quietly answers (it’s inaudible), and then walks to the intersection, looks out for traffic, and crosses the street. At that point, the deputy calls in a Code 3. A Code 3 means “Emergency, send back-up.”. Lie #2: At no point was the deputy in danger, there was nothing about a man crossing the street at an intersection that was an emergency. He was in a car, and my brother had crossed the street away from him. The deputy, within 2 minutes of having seen my brother, has dramatically escalated a situation that didn’t need to even be a situation and has then lied about being in danger and there being an emergency, which he knows will result in other deputies coming in hot. The next cut of the video shows my brother, as he has crossed to the other side of the street. The first deputy speeds across the street to cut him off, another police car speeds up in front of my brother. Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti charges out of the car. At this point, my brother drops his bags and puts his arms up in the air. Deputy Lorenzatti rushes into him, he twists to the side and moves his hand up to avoid being hit or to avoid inadvertently hitting her. They grab him, rip off his jacket. He tries to run, asking, “What’s wrong? What did I do?” That’s when Deputy Joshua Wang tased him. My brother falls in the street, on his back, crying. He has the presence of mind to keep his hands in the air, even as Deputy Wang holds the taser and continuously sends volts of electricity through his prone body. He is not fighting, just crying in pain. I will never forget the visual of his hands, waving above his head, open, begging. He begs them to take the taser prongs off of him. He tries to pull them off himself. Lie #3: My brother never attacked any of the deputies. He did not assault anyone. My baby brother, as big as he was, didn’t even defend himself. The deputies keep shouting at him to turn over on his stomach. They electrocute him again. He screams. At no point does anyone tell him why he was stopped, what they think he has done, whether or not he is under arrest. When there is a break in the torture, my brother staggers to his knees, tries to run away. A deputy pulls out his baton, strikes, they tase him again. My brother goes down. At some point, my brother tries to run across the street, they chase him, they tase him, they pepper spray him, they jump on top of him while he is prone. There is audio of Sergeant Weidner saying “Stay on top of him, stay on top of him, stay on top of him.” Someone asks if my brother is still breathing. Sergeant Weidner keeps cheering them on, telling them to stay on him until they have crushed the life out of him. Someone shouts “I see blood!” Then it’s over. My brother has clearly died, right there on the sidewalk, in broad daylight. One of the deputies immediately declares it a crime scene. A deputy asks another, solicitously, if he wants water. Killing my brother is thirsty work, apparently. What not a single one of those deputies does is give my brother CPR. None of them tries to help him. They express no shock or remorse at the fact of his death. It’s all very casual. They prop his body upright, like an over-full trash bag. His head hangs forward, airways occluded. No one follows even the most basic life-saving procedures. There is no mercy or compassion for my little brother. If they...

It’s no secret DJT and the GOP want to strip the LGBT Community of what little rights we have. Please keep the LGBT Protections in NAFTA to help our continent be as accepting of our treasured diversity.

A damning new report from The New York Times revealed that Facebook executive Joel Kaplan is leading a smear campaign targeting Color Of Change and other civil rights groups critical of the company. Facebook has been seeding right-wing hit pieces and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories based on racist tropes in response to our efforts to ensure the safety of Black users on the platform. Kaplan hired a Republican public relations firm for the express purpose of undermining Color Of Change and other organizations who have held them publicly accountable for their harmful practices. Facebook’s choices fed into the same far-right conspiracy theory that resulted in a pipe bomb in George Soros’s mailbox, along with a slew of hit pieces against our organization and staff by Breitbart and other outlets that cater to dangerous figures. Through this investigative journalism we’ve learned that while we sat across the negotiation table with Facebook for years, Facebook’s leaders were giving oxygen to the worst anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of white nationalists to undermine our work. We have been working for years to ensure the safety of Black users by demanding protections for Black leaders doxxed by white supremacists on Facebook; working to ensure Facebook has transparent and just moderation policies; and demanding that Facebook put an end to racially targeted digital voter suppression. While we were operating in good faith to protect our communities, Facebook and Joel Kaplan were using the hateful tactics of the same far-right actors they were enabling on their platform. As long as Kaplan is working at Facebook, we cannot trust Facebook to combat hate on their platform, address online voter suppression efforts and disinformation campaigns, or properly conduct the public civil rights audit currently under way. Demand Facebook immediately fire Joel Kaplan for his role in leading a racist and anti-Semitic smear campaign against Color Of Change and other civil rights groups