As an American reading "Guantanamo Diary," I was sickened by the accounts of US-inflicted torture on Slahi and his fellow prisoners. I asked myself: "Why is he still there?' and "Why is Guantanamo still there, shaming us all?"

Discrimination of anyone is wrong. Transgender people using single-sex public facilities (including restrooms in public, workplaces, and schools) that correspond with their gender identity should not be criminalized. Guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine for using a restroom. The bill would also empower people in a single-sex restroom during any “unlawful entry” to sue the alleged interloper and owner of the facility for attorneys fees and damages. Discrimination is wrong. Let's stop this bill.

There is a pervasive pattern of racially abusive policing and profiling in Berkeley, as well as many other forms of racial inequality. On December 6, a peaceful gathering protesting police abuses nationwide was teargassed, pepper-sprayed, shot with projectiles, and beaten with batons. Mayor Bates and the City Council majority continue to put off addressing these long-term issues in a meaningful way and have postponed consideration of Councilmember Arreguin's proposals twice in the last month. The next City Council meeting is February 10, and we want Mayor Bates to know it's time for real action. All of us in the Bay Area need to come together to address these issues, since any of us could be negatively impacted by the police in a nearby city, or even in our own city because of the mutual aid agreements between cities. Berkeley has a reputation for being progressive -- we need to be leaders on these issues, rather than falling further and further behind. Read below for more background and specific actions we want to see taken. Together our voices are powerful. We can make a difference if we stand up and speak out on these issues of racial justice and freedom of speech. The 2013 NAACP report drew a clear picture of racial discrimination and disparities in Berkeley, making specific and actionable recommendations, yet Mayor Bates has not acted. Encouraging minority youth to become police officers, supporting a federal ban on profiling, and holding regional meetings on these issues may be positive steps but they are far from sufficient. We want real action HERE and NOW in Berkeley. 1. Conduct a Police Review Commission investigation into the actions of the police on December 6, when peaceful protesters – including reporters and the elderly -- were teargassed, beaten with batons, pepper-sprayed, and struck with projectiles. 2. Support the national demands put out by Ferguson Action. 3. Freeze now, and then abolish, the use of teargas, projectiles, and over-the-head baton strikes in crowd management and ban military weaponry and equipment in the Berkeley Police Department, and require that mutual aid agencies meet Berkeley’s standards of conduct. 4. Ban physical assaults on members of the media. 5. Create a broad community process to address the pattern of profiling and racially abusive policing in Berkeley as well as inequities in housing, employment, education, and health faced by African-Americans. 6. Ban undercover officers from covering their faces, and enforce the ban on uniformed officers covering their badges. 7. Strengthen the Police Review Commission to the full extent allowed by state law. 8. Press for independent prosecutors to investigate and prosecute crimes by police. 9. Enforce the implementation, at long last, of the Fair and Impartial Policing policy including demographic data collection, and make the first round of data public, with an analysis by race, by August 1. 10. Review recommendations in People's Investigation of In-Custody Death of Kayla Moore, including extension of mental health services to replace police as first responders in mental health crises.

Last summer, following Deming PRIDE's annual pageant, a group of LGBTQ customers entered their local Denny's looking to celebrate another successful pageant. But, "they sat for more than 45 minutes without being offered drinks, given menus, or provided service of any kind." Supported by the ACLU and New Mexicans across the state, those customers have filed discrimination complaints. It's unacceptable (and illegal) for corporations to refuse service on the basis of sexual orientation, or gender identity. Denny's should be serving up hot cakes not slurs.

This petition is about discrimination. After a meal, some people will use the public bathroom to brush their teeth, especially if they have braces. This is allowed. But, in Burien, Wa., an ordinance was created implying that the homeless are not allowed to brush their teeth in a public bathroom. Oral Hygiene is very important to our health, by taking care of our teeth we all prevent many problems, including some that lead to death. Emergency hospital visits have risen 40% in regards to dental problems. By not allowing homeless people to brush their teeth, many could end up in the emergency room and some will inevitably die from oral diseases. It is inhumane to allow some patrons to brush their teeth in a public bathroom and not other patrons. This is blatant discrimination against people who happen to be homeless.

Gerawan workers are excited. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board (LAUSD), who contracts to purchase Gerawan’s products, is taking a stand for their rights. On February 10, the LAUSD Board will vote on a resolution asking its procurement office to inform the board about Gerawan Farming’s compliance with fair labor practices before any contracts with this vendor are brought to the board for approval. Can you sign the Gerawan workers’ petition in support of this resolution? Gerawan workers will deliver the signed petition when they testify in Los Angeles on February 10th. This vote will be held while an administrative judge in Fresno continues to preside over the months long state hearing regarding alleged flagrant labor law violations by Gerawan Farming Inc. The school board resolution “calls upon Gerawan Farming to comply with state and federal laws, including labor relations…and to immediately implement the agreement issued by the neutral mediator and the state of California.” The proposed LAUSD resolution vows to ensure “that agricultural vendors and suppliers be in compliance with all local, state and federal laws, including the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.” It also requests that the district’s “Procurement Services Division report back to the board updating Gerawan Farming’s compliance with fair labor practices before any contracts with this vendor are brought to the board for approval.” The Los Angeles City Council and Berkeley City Council both passed similar resolutions.

In my home state of Idaho you can: lose your home, job, and be denied emergency services because someone SUSPECTS that you hold a gender or sexual identity that they disagree with. It's time for codified bigotry to end. If Idaho won't do the right thing, maybe they will do the fiscally prudent thing.

The foreskin is not a birth defect. Circumcision is a permanent amputation of normal, healthy, sensitive tissue that serves important physiological functions and without which normal sexual performance and sensation can be impaired. During the 19th century, circumcision was promoted as an effective remedy for a host of ailments including but not limited to rheumatism, epilepsy, asthma, skin cancer, insanity, and venereal disease. But it was as a remedy for "masturbatory insanity" which was believed to result from masturbation or "self-abuse" that circumcision was most widely promoted by its supporters during the 19th century. These are the historical and pseudo-scientific roots of routine infant male circumcision as it is practiced in the U.S. today. Yet this petition is not about banning circumcision. It is about banning forced circumcision. It is about ending the practice of denying men the right to choose for themselves whether to be circumcised. There is no right more basic nor more important than the right to control one's own body. Forced infant circumcision violates that right. It is a human-rights violation because it deprives infants, boys and men of the right to determine what is done to their bodies. The campaign to end involuntary circumcision, like its sister campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation, is based on the simple idea that each individual, regardless of sex, has an innate right to control his or her own body. Thus, the effort to ban routine infant male circumcision is part of a greater human-rights struggle in the broadest sense. It is a crucial part of the effort to create a world in which all people's rights - infants, girls, boys, women, men, and intersex individuals - are respected.

The Teaneck Holocaust Memorial Committee has been working for 2 years to get a Holocaust Memorial created in Teaneck. We believe that it is important to create a Holocaust Memorial in the Township of Teaneck to memorialize those who perished in the Holocaust and establish a place for the community to use for reflection and education about the tragedy of genocide and the lessons of tolerance. We believe that time is of the essence as each year the amount of Holocaust survivors is dwindling and soon there will be none left to bear witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. After doing extensive searches in the town, we furthermore believe that Brett Park (River Road at the intersection of Winthrop Road) is the best choice to establish the Holocaust Memorial due to its accessibility to the community, available parking and visibility from River Road. Since the land in question is vacant, nothing will be displaced and this memorial will bring meaning and sanctity to the park and to the Township.

In 2006 Mr. Gould (my former employer) brought many false allegations against me in order for my Top Secret Security Clearance to be suspended because my wife who was ill and pregnant (my son was born with Autism) at the time wanted me to return from Iraq. Mr. Gould wanted me to stay in Iraq but I left with his blessings after he saw I was not going to stay ( my family comes first and this was an emergency) but Mr. Gould was so upset he began retaliating against me with bitter lies. Judge Leonard of the Department of Hearings and Appeals finally gave me an appointment to appeal my case in 2009 (although I started the documents for the hearing in regards to my suspended Top Secret Clearance in 2006, whatever happen to due process) but he did not abide by Executive Order 10865 which is detailed below. In response to Greene, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10865 on February 20, 1960. Executive Order 10865 requires a hearing in which contractor employees would be given the opportunity to appear before the decision-maker to confront and cross-examine witnesses and attempt to rebut the Government's case. Not all cases go to a full hearing because a clearance Applicant has the choice of having a hearing or having the case determined on a record composed of only documentary evidence. I chose to cross-examine all people who brought charges against me and was under the impression they would be at the hearing but they were not. When I appealed the decision of Judge Leonard to the Department of Hearings and Appeals I was again denied my clearance based on the two false allegations by Mr. Gould, but I could not prove them to be wrong because Mr. Gould was not at the hearing, where I could cross examine him and prove not only the 25 other false allegations he told on me which were thrown out by Judge Leonard were indeed lies but also the only two allegations (false allegations by Mr. Gould) which Judge Leonard saw as being reason enough to deny me my clearance. I have five children and a wife who have suffered tremendously because of Mr. Gould false allegations and Judge Leonard decision not to follow Executive Order 10865. Knowbody is above the law and for 25 false allegations to be thrown out during a Top Secret Clearance Hearing in itself is an injustice because in order to receive a clearance you have to be honest and truthful throughout and Mr. Gould has a Top Secret clearance for his company and he continues to work for our Government which is an insult to our Justice and Security System.

It has been over 3 years that no one could go to the "Pihana Kalani Heiau" in Waiehu, Maui. This Heiau has been in many of Maui's families' care since its birth, which were still under Maui's Native Families who have spiritual and genealogical connections to its Chiefly Lineages, many of which are connected to our Native Families. Some of our Native Kanaka of Maui have their "Piko" or "Umbellical Cord" placed there. I for one have mine placed there and can't attend momentarily, along with our Kupuna. It is very frustrating trying to uphold family traditions such as these and not be able to practice or visit a landmark of our forefathers. The Department of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR) needs to open its "public access" to accommodate Spiritual Practices, Cultural Observance and Traditional Dances, as well as the many tourists who visit our islands. Please help us attain this goal to restore daily public access to the "Pihana Kalani Heiau" in Waiehu, Maui by signing this petition.

I believe strongly that if every citizen voted we would truly be a democracy rather than a plutocracy.