Progressives have been sidelined by the DNC for far too long. The people have spoken and they favor progressive politics. We will not allow our party to be taken over by never Trumpers. We believe in healthcare as a human right, a wealth tax, criminal justice reform, and so does America. We refuse to be pushed aside.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started and restaurant dining rooms throughout town began to close for safety, Meritage Hospitality was the very last quick service restaurant (referred to as QSR from this point on) to close their dining room doors to the public. Less than one week after local restrictions were altered to allow for dining rooms to be open again Poplar Bluff Missouri’s location 5009 was reopened for dine in orders; requiring all crew to wear face masks and gloves but applied no restrictions to patrons of the restaurant. Steps have been taken to make the customers feel safe and slash the possibility of crew spreading any germs to them but the staff of the restaurant is put in danger constantly with the only protections in pace for them being a plastic barrier in front of the register which customers often will stand to the side of to better hear the cashier and refuse to maintain a 6 foot distance from the order taker. Meritage has jumped the gun by allowing people back in their restaurant putting all their employees in danger, blinded by the profit to be had by being among the only restaurants with open dining rooms. As of this petition being written on 8/10/2020 only 2 other QSR establishments have opened their doors to the public again; with no plans to open before December or even this year. Just over 4 weeks into the dining room being open store 5009 has already tested with a positive COVID-19 case. The confirmed cases for the county have been rapidly increasing every day for weeks with over 500 cases between 7/28 and 8/8 alone. Every day that the dining room remains open your employees are at higher and higher risk of becoming infected and passing it to family and friends. The response to the positive test has been the dining room closing for the remainder of the week before reopening on Monday 8/17. By closing the lobby for these few days Meritage is acknowledging the safety increase that restricting the public to the pick up window brings, but also shows how little they care for the well being of their staff by making it last only one week. One week for the employees to be safe. One week for the staff to not have to worry about passing COVID-19 to the ones they love, but Meritage only sees a week of reduced profit. No amount of money is worth strengthening the spread of an infectious disease through a community, especially not a Frosty. The only responsible response to a clear indication of unsafe working conditions with an open dining room should be to reinstate the restrictions that limit customers to the pick up window to limit direct contact with crew and patrons; the current precautions are nothing short of laughable in the face of a global pandemic.

Biodegradable plastics have existed for years. My time working at both Starbucks and Coffee Bean showed me the amount one single store throws away in a day. My heart breaks for the landfills full of plastic, the animals and environment we destroy and ultimately ourselves. If Starbucks switches cups and straws alone to biodegradable plastics imagine how many lives we save. Banning straws did nothing and is ablist! Don’t be fooled by recycling! All the recycling would go into the same dumpster as the trash, and most places in the US say they recycle but it ends up in a landfill. STOP THE WASTE - CHANGE TO BIO DEGRADABLE PLASTICS NOW. Starbucks claims to be at the forefront of innovation, I believe if they make the switch others will follow suit!

It is important because of the current Covid crisis because families are having to keep children at home and do school online and because monopolies and collusion between corporations that compete with each other is illegal and destroys the very foundation of a free market.

Airsoft is an honor and integrity based sport that brings out all walks of life. We come from all over to gather together to play a game where we use toy guns to shoot each other with 6mm plastic BBs. Airsoft players come from all spectrum of our society and plastic warfare unites them on the field Airsoft has shown to help overcome some biases and grievances and create strong cohesion and friendships on the field. These connections form strong bonds between players and squads from all different ideologies to work together. Due to the nature of our sport, where we dress up like army men and play with guns that look extremely realistic, airsoft players know we have to be careful in our communities. A common saying is "We are one bad accident away from being heavily regulated or banned in a state." Airsoft as an industry tends to tread lightly and do a lot of self policing on safety concerns. It is rare that the airsoft community will step up to say that a field should be shut down. Especially in the time of Covid-19 with fields and companies shutting down, the last thing that airsoft players want to have is another field shut down. Which is why this petition should be taken seriously. Raptor Airsoft has a long history of being combative with customers and players. It is well documented that the owners have little interest in customer service, instead only look to make a profit. There are a lot of complaints about getting a defective guns from Raptor, and they refused to refund or replace the item. Raptor has fired a female admin for simply being female. Then Raptor banned anyone who knew that admin, including one of their sponsored players. Raptor banned an entire team just for wearing a rainbow flag patch, and threatened to ban a large group of people at the Northern Watch event because they were wearing that patch. Raptor Airsoft ignored the state orders to shut down all non essential businesses. (While Airsoft is life, it is not essential.) Raptor Airsoft was notified on April 18th at 10:31AM that 3 players from the Miami area were coming to their field to play. These three players had tested positive 2 days before for Covid-19. Instead of asking who these players are, the caller was berated for attempting to shut Raptor Airsoft down. The owner said if we did not like it to call the police. The sheriff's deputies were called and went to Raptor Airsoft to find more then 10 people on the field, people were not wearing any form of PPE masks, and were closer then 6 feet apart. In multiple social media photos, players were seen with no face masks and standing right next to each other. Environmental Concerns: There are several environmental concerns that should cause Raptor Airsoft to be shut down. 1: Raptor Airsoft does not sell or enforce bio BBs on the field. Considering that their property is adjacent to the Ocala National Forest, this should be mandatory. While playing along the back side of their property people were shooting at players in front of the forest but a lot of the BBs missed and went into the Ocala National Forest. Since several companies make bio degradable BBs at very close to the same price as regular plastic BBs, this should already have been a policy. Instead, Raptor Airsoft only sells plastic BBs. Since birds can mistake the BBs for food, it is important for the BBs to be biodegradable and not just plastic. 2: The owners of Raptor Airsoft allow illegal dumping on the property. The video can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKa5AegfBNE The owner, Juan, has a long history of not caring about environmental concerns going back to 1990. He continues to dump illegally on his property. This environmental impact could contaminate the ground water and potentially the aquifer that feeds the natural springs all across the area. The owner, Juan, even got severe burns because a can of paint he was burning in a pile exploded on him. 3: Raptor Airsoft hosts milsim (military simulation) events. At these events people use various pyrotechnics, including smoke grenades. Since Raptor Airsoft buries its trash on property, the chemicals in these smoke grenades can leak into the soil and ground water. Impact to infrastructure: Another major reason to deny any permit to operate Raptor Airsoft is the impact to the roadways leading up to Raptor's field and surrounding areas. Since Raptor Airsoft hosts milsim events, it is not uncommon for heavy machinery to be used for events. At Operation Northernwatch, an event that happened in December of 2019, there were 3 Humvees and a functioning decommissioned tank used at the event. The tank was transported in on a semi truck and the weight of just the tank was 15 tons. Considering the road was still wet and soft from rain, it caused some damage to the dirt road leading to Raptor Airsoft. The damage to the road could have been more extreme if the tank had driven down the road and not the semi-truck. Simply put, the road will not last against the constant traffic to the field. We implore the Lake County Commissioners to please deny any permits for Raptor Airsoft. They have shown to be bad actors for decades now, ignoring state and county laws by operating illegally. Since they continue to violate county laws, at this time they should not be allowed to remain in business. We hope you take this petition to heart and deny all permits. Thank you and stay safe.

Right now your internet provider is based on what company has laid internet lines that go to your residence. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and all of the rest of those internet companies have a gentleman's agreement to not invade each other's space so that they don't have to give customer service because they know that you can't shop internet providers. All the government has to do is declare internet a public utility and make it so that internet companies have to share the lines that run internet to your house, and you would have the ability to pit one internet provider against another, and they would actually have to do their jobs to a satisfactory level in order to retain you as a client. This would improve internet speeds and the cost of Internet. We live in a capitalist society, and these companies should be competing with the best speed, the best customer service, and the best prices in order to retain you as a customer. As it stands, they can charge you what they want, and they can jerk you around for hours, days, weeks and weeks on end without providing a resolution because they know you have no options. This must end.

CSAM is a global crisis that exists in every corner of the internet. Increasingly, these horrific images feature very young children --infants and toddlers -- and are growing more violent and extreme. The coronavirus pandemic has created an explosion of CSAM, with reports increasing 400% over the past few months. Last year tech companies made 17 million reports of CSAM. Of those 17 million, Amazon made 8. Other big companies made hundreds of thousands to millions of reports, but Amazon, with the third of the internet they control, only made 8 reports. By failing to find and report CSAM, Amazon is hurting kids and creating a safe space for child predators to buy, sell, store, and share these illegal images. Amazon's refusal to report CSAM is part of a growing trend of big tech companies pushing the full responsibility of keeping kids safe online onto parents -- many of whom are now in the impossible position of working, parenting, teaching, and policing technology all at the same time. Tech companies like Amazon are making billions off families, and they must share the responsibility to keep kids safe. By proactively searching for and reporting CSAM photos and videos, Amazon could save thousands of children from abuse and revictimization. Parents across the country are demanding Amazon do their part to keep kids safe online by finding and reporting CSAM.

Donald Trump is the antithesis of every value upon which the New York Yankees community is based, and has gone out of his way many times over to offend, dehumanize, and harm the very people upon whom the organization depends, both players and fans. He has no business stepping foot through the stadium doors, let alone onto the mound in a position of honor.

After an influx of revealing stories submitted by students who have been abused and traumatized by Greek organizations and their members at USC, it has come to the attention of USC's student body that these organizations are doing much more harm than good to our community. A recent study has grounded these perspectives in data, and those involved and uninvolved in Greek life at USC have shown us that empty promises and reforms are no longer tolerable. College is an introduction to adult life for many students, and Greek life acts as a precedent for how students should behave socially after they finish their time at USC. The normalization of sexual assault, white supremacist ideals, and gender or sexuality-based discrimination have no place in our students' first steps towards adult independence. The world around us is progressing rapidly, but by choosing not to stand with the abolishment of IFC and Panhellenic Greek organizations, USC will be left behind in social evolution.

The NRSC has taken hundreds of thousands from Occidental/Anadarko Petroleum, the company responsible for the 2017 Firestone home explosion. The claim that Gov. John Hickenlooper did not levy a fine against Anadarko is false. An 18M fine was levied against Anadarko after a nearly three-year investigation into the tragedy initiated by Hickenlooper's administration. The NRSC is using donations from Occidental/Anadarko to finance an ad making false claims about the response to the Firestone home explosion over the objections of the survivor of the tragedy. This almost incomprehensible act of hypocrisy and malice toward the victims of negligence by the oil and gas industry cannot be allowed to stand. The NRSC must take this ad down and apologize to Erin Martinez.

Emergency Action Needed NOW! Please sign my petition and share it with your networks. But don't stop there. Call, tweet at, fax, and email PA state legislators to tell them to vote NO to HB732. Here's the background. Are you angry when you read the stories about corporations getting all the stimulus cash while the people struggle to put food on their tables and avoid eviction? A version of it is about to happen here in PA, but you can stop it. On Monday morning, the Senate will amend HB732 to include the provisions of a bill Wolf vetoed, HB1100. The provisions give HUGE subsidies to companies planning projects like the Shell Cracker plant. If you get any email blasts from environmental organizations, you read about HB1100 when it was making its way through the legislature. You probably also read about how the environmental community thanked Wolf for his veto. It was all theater. Wolf used his veto as a bargaining chip to get some changes added to the legislation. At the time, he said, PA needed “to promote job creation and to enact financial stimulus packages for the benefit of Pennsylvanians who are hurting as they struggle with the substantial economic fallout of COVID-19.” He said the bill was not “responsible use of the Commonwealth’s limited resources." Here's what was really happening. Even as Wolf was threatening to veto the bill, Dennis Davin at the Department of Community and Economic Development was signalling that Wolf was willing to negotiate. "DCED Secretary Dennis Davin said at a February budget hearing that he didn’t think the bill needed to be dumped entirely, just that 'it could be developed a little differently.'” All of the terrible provisions of HB1100 are in the amendment to HB732 that will be introduced, voted on, and sent to the House for a concurrence vote on Monday morning without putting any of those provisions through the legislative process. Funny how fast the legislature can move when they're shafting you. Wouldn't it be great if they could work that fast to help you through this economic crisis? You tell your legislators that you're watching them and will have this vote front of mind when you're in the voting booth.

On campuses across the country—Maryland, Ohio State, Clemson, LSU, Kansas State, and more—dozens of student-athletes are testing positive for coronavirus as they begin training for Fall sports. It's becoming clear that in order to protect students and staff, Fall sports must be postponed. More and more college conferences and schools are postponing all Fall sports, and the NCAA needs to provide leadership to protect their students during this pandemic, instead of letting money drive their decision. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) generated $867 million in 2019, but it can't put profits ahead of the safety of their student-athletes. The major conferences that make up the NCAA are making plans to get football players and other student-athletes back on the field to make sure money from its lucrative television and marketing deals isn't lost. This is dangerous to the players who will have to come in close contact with their teammates and opponents at a time when American professional sports are struggling to start-up. Two teams from Major League Soccer had to drop out due to COVID outbreaks among players and paid professional players are deciding to opt-out of NBA and MLB seasons because of concern for catching the coronavirus. The National Junior College Athletic Association is expected to move its Fall sports to the Spring this week, and last week, The Ivy League canceled Fall sports. Colleges like Morehouse have done the same, canceling Fall sports to protect their students. It's clear that postponing Fall sports is the only responsible decision to make. As the U.S. continues to grapple with a pandemic that doesn't respect city or state borders, the NCAA needs to do what's right and make sure college athletes aren't put at risk so that NCAA and their partners can make millions. SOURCES: "National Junior College Athletic Association expected to move football season to spring," July 12, 2020, ESPN espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29452386/national-junior-college-athletic-association-expected-move-football-season-spring "Ivy League Places All Sports on Hold Until January," July 8, 2020, The New York Times nytimes.com/2020/07/08/sports/ncaafootball/ivy-league-fall-sports-football-coronavirus.html