There is a serious shortage of affordable housing across Boston, especially in the Pondside and Jamaica Hills sections of JP, where the monastery is located. In 2021, the City of Boston committed to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, and now requires that developers analyze and account for the history of racial exclusion and segregation in any new housing development. The monastery offers an opportunity to realize fair housing principles and create housing for folks that have been historically excluded: working class, people of color, and/or people with accessibility needs. If the city allows Holland Development to demolish the monastery, they plan to develop 26 market-rate condominiums. Under the city and neighborhood inclusionary policies, we might achieve a few affordable units. However, if we can preserve the building and win a robust planning process, then there is room for more creative re-use and more affordable housing. The City of Boston and the Landmarks Commission must put the needs of the community ahead of developers. Many community members would like to see the building preserved for its historical and architectural associations with Jamaica Plain’s development, Boston’s religious history, the significance of this Poor Clare Monastery in the history of the Order in the United States, and its organizing and charitable work domestically and abroad. The parcel at 920 Centre Street is large - nearly three acres. The wider community should have a voice in the future of this prominent, large and unique parcel. In the process of responding to the owners’ demolition request, the Boston Landmarks Commission staff has also determined that the monastery building (built in 1932) itself has historical significance. The current structure and any new construction on this parcel of land must include substantial affordable housing, in line with the inclusionary zoning requirements adopted by the JP Neighborhood Council, to preserve the diversity and meet the needs of Jamaica Plain and Boston.

Right now is a time that calls for bold action. And President Biden can step up to protect abortion, too—starting by declaring a public health and national emergency around abortion and by hiring federal abortion providers and dispatching them across the country. All of us must come together now, in solidarity with everyone who seeks abortions, especially our siblings in the nearly two dozen states that have and will ban and further restrict their bodily autonomy and access to abortion. This will impact so many of us. This will harm and criminalize people who get abortions: women, trans people, and nonbinary people. And it will disproportionately impact Black people, Indigenous people, brown people, poor people, immigrants, disabled people, and young people who have historically been marginalized and faced with structural barriers, even when abortion was legal. That’s why, as a community, we have to stick together as we continue to fight for bodily autonomy and universal health care for all. Republicans, who have won the presidential popular vote only once in the last 34 years, have engaged in a concerted effort to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing extremist judges, who have stripped us of our rights over and over again. And it’s not just the Supreme Court. The GOP’s latest all-out attacks, from reproductive freedom, to bans on trans athletes, to bans on abortion at fertilization, to bans on gender-affirming care, are all about bodily autonomy–and are fundamentally connected. And Republicans have no intention of slowing down these attacks, so we have to lean into collectivism and fight back together. This is why we must demand that President Biden use all of his power by declaring a public health and national emergency around abortion and hiring federal abortion providers and dispatching them across the country. Now is the time to make sure that our elected officials receive our message loud and clear: We won’t go back.

We don’t have time to wait: abortion rights are under attack like never before, both federally and nationally. While Dems are in power, our elected officials in the Senate must swiftly abolish the filibuster—it’s an outdated parliamentary maneuver that Speaker Mitch McConnell and others have continued to abuse to halt any national progress in Congress.

Students with Disabilities need an identity center separate from Disability Services/Accessible Education because the function of this office is to meet accessibility needs and process accommodation requests, not to meet the needs of Students with Disabilities, for whom there are many. With a Disability Cultural Center, the possibility for grant funding is created, as is the ability to hire student staff, have peer-to-peer programming and advocacy, and opportunity for students to connect with others who are marginalized by exceptionally isolating circumstances.

Solitary confinement affects inmates in these three ways 1. Psychological -Inmates often experience a sense of “isolation panic” when initially put into solitary confinement -Those in solitary confinement often suffer from: depression, anxiety, psychosis and suicidal ideation -Those who have a history regarding mental health experience worsened state -The suicide rate amongst former inmates is highest among those who were in solitary confinement 2. Physical -exposure outside and amongst others is vital for “normal” brain function -lack of sensory exposure also leads to quickening memory loss -issues with long distance eyesight -Vitamin D deficiency increases risk for bone breaks and fractures 3. Societal -there is no treatment when released for trauma or solitary confinement -”Do we want people to come out better or worse than they went in” Also, Inmates that are assigned to solitary confinement during their incarceration are 3.2 times as likely to commit an act of self-harm as opposed to those who did not experience solitary confinement. Inmates that experienced solitary confinement were 2.1 times more likely to commit acts of self-harm during solitary confinement as well as 6.6 times more likely to commit acts of self-harm once outside of solitary confinement compared to inmates that never experienced solitary confinement. This study shows that Serious Mental Illness coupled with solitary confinement lead to the highest rates of potentially fatal self-harm. Solitary confinement, age, and serious mental illness overlaps showed that younger inmates were more likely to experience less lethal acts of self-harm, whereas older inmates were likely to commit more lethal acts of self-harm. Knowing this information is a clear indication of a human rights violation and we should stand to correct that. Please sign the petition in solitary to show Gov. Parson that the citizens of Missouri stand in solidarity to put human rights first.

INDICTING THESE INDIVIDUALS IS ONLY FAIR! COMMIT THE CRIME, DO THE TIME! By NOT acting, & indicting them, YOU ARE ENABLING THEM, TOO! By your inaction, you are normalizing terroristic behavior from our elected public officials. Congress has ways to deal with traitors amongst their ranks. THERE ARE LAWS TO DEAL WITH THEM! USE THEM!!!!!! CENSURE THEM! WRITE RESOLUTIONS TO EXPEL THEM! DEMOCRATS, CALL FOR THEM ALL TO BE EXPELLED! DO YOUR JOB TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC FROM FUTURE DOMESTIC ENEMIES. You took the oath, to protect us from enemies, foreign & domestic. HONOR YOUR OATH! If you DON'T indict them, they are emboldened to continue lying to the public, inciting continued violence from their supporters, & not only obstructing a Democratic agenda, but still in office, pressing for their abysmal agenda, which persecutes women, children & families across the nation. Furthermore, since they're not charged with insurrection, they can run for re-election, no problem! And continue terrorizing the country! WE CALL ON CONGRESS & WHITE HOUSE & DOJ TO DO YER JOB!!! CENSURE, CHARGE, REMOVE THESE TRAITORS FROM OFFICE, & BAR THEM FROM FUTURE ELECTIONS. I personally urge all of you to DESIGNATE THE GOP AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION! Although this sounds fair to me, probably most Americans would not agree with this measure - yet.

Our nation, our state, and our city have a crime and incarceration problem. The US incarcerates a higher fraction of our population than any other country of the world. Yet, this incarceration practice is expensive, traumatizing, and ineffective. For example, the re-arrest and re-incarceration rate (recidivism rate) is extremely high at 70 to 80 %. The underlying cause of this cycle of crime is the epidemic of trauma. More than 2/3 of us have experienced trauma, and research shows that trauma heightens our fight, flight, and freeze responses, leading to more crime and trauma. We need trauma-informed justice. This is why Connection First has developed the Connection First Restorative Justice Program (Plan). What is RJ? It is an evidence-based framework that helps to heal the societal wounds of trauma. RJ brings together those that caused the harm with those who received the harm to ask: What happened? Who was impacted? What needs were not being met during the harm? How can the harm be repaired? How can we avoid future harm? Connection First has partnered with law enforcement, the public defender, and state attorney to develop an RJ program for Leon County and Tallahassee. For more information, visit our website at https://www.connectionfirst.org, or watch this youtube video: https://youtu.be/c2UcW9fzac4 Along with law enforcement and the judicial system, citizens share in the responsibility of maintaining safety and peace. To this end, Connection First proposes to split the funding in three ways: 1/3 from the county, 1/3 from the city, and 1/3 raised by citizens. This division will ensure that no one entity has sole power over the RJ process.

Our purpose is to inform and to promote social change within our education system. We want to focus on the structure first, where the students develop and learn different behaviors and attitudes. This is a vulnerable and important time for students so, we want to advocate for better staff development and implementation of non discriminatory practice in schools. We are advocating towards mental health and trauma-informed practices to be put into schools nationwide. The students need support, not to be reprimanded unfairly with punishment.

Damning new reports show that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has concealed decades of expensive gifts he received from billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. These new revelations add a new level of corruption to Thomas's profile. We already knew that Thomas has abused his position—from refusing to recuse himself from cases regarding his wife's involvement in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election to crusading on behalf of his right-wing allies to overturn abortion access and so much more. It has become clear that his wife—longtime conservative activist Ginni Thomas—was actively urging the White House to overturn election results both leading up to January 6 and after the deadly insurrection. Thomas' failure to recuse himself from cases about January 6 warrants immediate investigation and heightened alarm. And it's only the latest in a long history of conflicts of interest in the service of a right-wing agenda and mixing his powerful role with his conservative political activism. He has shown he cannot be an impartial justice and is more concerned with covering up his wife's coup attempts than the health of the Supreme Court. Thomas—who sided with the majority on overturning Roe and removing nationwide legal protections for abortions—made it clear in that ruling what the right-wing court could do next: overturn high court rulings that establish gay rights and contraception rights. And while he carries this right-wing agenda, he accepts hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a right-wing megadonors.   Ever since his confirmation hearings more than 30 years ago, the public has questioned Thomas's ethics and behavior. His abuse of power, his conflicts of interest, and his secrecy about his financial and political ties make him unfit to serve. He must resign—or Congress must immediately investigate and impeach.

The FIRST robotics programs have long been a safe haven for students who don't fit anywhere else. They also seek to deliberately increase the diversity in the STEM workforce, believing that more voices lead to better and stronger technical solutions. This is a moment for FIRST to stand behind their Youth Protection Program and their Diversity and Inclusion policies to ensure that transgender youth in Texas or visiting Texas feel safe to participate in this valuable program.

Most people think sending money to a friend or family member in need is a personal matter, but ICE disagrees. We just found out that ICE has been collecting personal financial data on millions of people who use money transfer services like Western Union.1 ICE can use this data to try to target immigrants who send money back to their families, and potentially deport them. The federal government should never be in the business of spying on people who are just trying to financially help their friends and family. Sign the petition: Tell Congress and President Biden to ban ICE surveillance of money orders and cash transfers! For millions of people in California, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas, who recently used a money order service, like Western Union, their personal information and the personal information of the person they sent money to likely ended up in a database without them even knowing – a database that is shared with ICE and other law enforcement agencies. Since 2019, ICE used administrative subpoenas to money order and cash transfer companies like Western Union to collect sender and recipient names and addresses. This essentially criminalizes people for not having bank accounts, and specifically targets immigrant communities of all kinds for the commonplace practice of sending remittances back to family members. Once Senator Wyden started asking questions about the program, ICE shut it down.2 That’s because ICE has gotten so out of control that they don’t stop to question whether their actions are legal or not – they’re just out to hunt down, detain, and deport as many immigrants as they can. This has to stop. ICE has consistently proved that they will abuse any amount of power given to them. That’s why Congress and President Biden need to act now to specifically and permanently ban ICE from spying on people’s private financial data. Sign the petition: Tell Congress and President Biden to ban ICE surveillance of money orders and cash transfers! Sources: 1. Buzzfeed, “ICE Conducted Sweeping Surveillance Of Money Transfers Sent To And From The US, A Senator Says,” March 8, 2022. 2. Ibid.

The United Farm Workers elected farm worker leadership requested to meet with Gov. Newsom on Cesar Chavez Day. The Governor has chosen to not meet with farm workers elected by their peers. Farm workers are speaking up. A worker delegation will go to Sacramento to meet with the state Latino Caucus on March 31. Support them by signing their petition today. Farm workers will make it clear to CA's Gov. Newsom that a living legacy to Cesar is not just proclamations and holidays. It's meeting with those most impacted when making public policy decisions. It's taking decisive steps to make real change. Last year Gov. Newsom vetoed their landmark bill which would have granted farm workers the same voting options California voters have enjoyed for years. These are the same voting choices that Governor Newsom used to defeat the Republican recall in 2021, including giving people the option of casting ballots in the comfort and security of their own homes. His veto came despite huge support for the bill in both state houses. The 50 billion dollar agricultural industry has strong opposition to the bill. Farm worker Francisco Naranjo organized support for the bill last year. He is committed to making this law happen saying, "Without this law farm workers don't have a fighting chance. Growers will continue to manipulate the process and intimidate us to take away our voice. Being allowed the privilege to vote offsite would allow farm workers to make their own decision and vote for a union with its benefits without supervisors' interference." Farm workers ask people to listen to them, to join in conversation, and to help their voices be heard by those in power. Sign the petition asking Governor Newsom to sign the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act.