Inclusion We first urge you to approach the problems that face our country using an intersectional equity lens. Challenges compounded by race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability are present at every level from health care to housing to climate change to education. Addressing these needs must be at the center, not the sidelines, of our government’s policy goals. We also point to Senator Warren’s—and Secretary Castro’s—practice of bringing activists with direct knowledge of and experience with these needs to the table. We ask that you not only follow that example and use these on-the-ground experts to help shape your policies, but also that you appoint them to key roles in your administration. Personnel is policy. Corruption Senator Warren framed her campaign around dismantling the corrupt channels that perpetuate structural inequity and prevent any meaningful reform. Your plan to establish the Commission on Federal Ethics aligns with Senator Warren’s proposed U.S. Office of Public Integrity, which would oversee efforts to restore transparency to our government. We ask that you go further: support a ban on professional lobbying by any former president, vice president, cabinet secretary, federal judge, or member of Congress. We ask also that you make passage of a constitutional amendment to limit campaign contributions—nullifying Citizens United—a top priority. We must have trust in our government, and that begins with ensuring our officials and elections cannot be bought. Immigration We applaud your commitment to a moratorium on deportations during your first 100 days as president, but further action is needed to eliminate the cruelty and abuse perpetrated in the name of immigration enforcement. We need comprehensive reform of our immigration justice system, and we must start with decriminalizing immigration. To prevent future abuses, we urge you to commit to the establishment of professional, independent Article I immigration courts, and to provide access to counsel in all immigration courts. You have condemned the horrific actions of the Trump administration at the border. We urge you to adopt Senator Warren’s plan for a Department of Justice task force to investigate and prosecute all reported crimes committed against detained immigrants. Student Loan Debt The rising cost of tuition across the country means that many students are crushed by student loan debt—and it’s impacting our entire economy. Black students are particularly affected: they are more likely to have federal student loans and owe more than their original debt 12 years after finishing college. We are supportive of public service, but strongly believe that across-the-board college loan debt reduction is the best approach, especially for those with increased barriers (poor and working-class students, students with family obligations, and working students). We ask you to adopt Senator Warren's approach and cancel student loan debt through executive action, immediately enabling 95% of student loan debt holders to pursue their dreams. Universal Child Care Universal child care is an investment in working parents. It provides millions of children with access to quality care and early learning. It also creates millions of well-paying jobs for child care workers and early education teachers, many of whom are women of color. Research shows that every dollar spent on quality early education saves seven dollars in the long run. We encourage you to adopt Senator Warren’s plan, which mandates that universal child care be free to any family that earns less than 200% of the federal poverty line. Crucially, the plan also establishes a partnership between the federal government and local providers to offer a network of early childhood options—including child care and preschool centers—to every family. Equality for Americans with Disabilities You have a strong history advocating for Americans with disabilities through your work on the ADA, the ADAAA, IDEA, and VAWA. It is critical that you collaborate with disability rights leaders and advocates moving forward to form a comprehensive disability rights plan. We ask that you use Senator Warren’s plan for Protecting the Rights and Equality of Americans With Disabilities as a model. This includes our ask that you to commit to combating discrimination in the labor market and workplace, ending the subminimum wage, fully funding the Office of Disability Employment Policy, improving SSI and SSDI programs, breaking down barriers to marriage, providing national paid family and medical leave, improving critical elements of the long-term services, and supporting coverage to enable the right to live in the community. We also urge you to protect the civil rights of all Americans with disabilities, including decriminalizing poverty, addressing language deprivation for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and enforcing the ADA everywhere that it is applicable. We urge you to work with the disability rights community to incorporate key priorities relating to employment, housing, opioid medications, disaster preparedness, healthcare, education, equity in criminal justice, deinstitutionalization, and other key civil rights issues into your platform. Wealth Tax These plans have a price tag. We believe in fiscal responsibility—every American should pay their fair share. We believe ultra-millionaires, who benefit most from our country’s infrastructure, should invest a little more in our country. Therefore, we ask you to adopt Senator Warren’s two cent wealth tax, which requires those Americans lucky enough to have vast fortunes to pay a two cent tax on every dollar of net worth above $50 million. Over 10 years, this tax will raise an estimated $3.75 trillion that we can reinvest in working families by supporting education, childcare, family leave, and more. --- We invite you to join us in signing this letter to Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden.

The G20 is the annual gathering of representatives of the world's largest economies. It is shocking that the Saudi dictatorship is hosting the G20 summit this year. Saudi Arabia is using this year's G20 to hide its horrible record of war, repression, and climate destruction. No one should participate in the Saudi G20 or any other Saudi-led event until the Saudi dictatorship fully embraces the following demands: 1. Freedom at home: Saudi Arabia must free women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, end all internal repression, and release all prisoners of conscience. 2. End the Yemen war: Saudi Arabia must stop killing Yemeni civilians, lift the blockade on Yemen, and endorse a full ceasefire. 3. Cease its global repression: Saudi Arabia must stop targeting global dissidents and allow a full investigation of Saudi crimes, including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. 4. Stop creating Middle East instability: Saudi Arabia must stop pushing for war with Iran, end its war in Yemen, and stop opposing democracy movements in the Middle East. 5. Climate crisis: Saudi Arabia must stop driving the global climate crisis through its destructive fossil fuel exports. No one should participate in the Saudi G20 or any other Saudi-led event until the Saudi dictatorship endorses and implements these demands.

The coronavirus is threatening to become a major global pandemic, with the number of confirmed cases growing inside the United States. So who are Donald Trump and his administration’s top officials most concerned about right now? Giant corporations. When asked by Congress if a future vaccine will be guaranteed to be affordable for all Americans, Trump’s head of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar--a former drug company lobbyist--refused to commit. Instead, he suggested that private pharmaceutical companies’ ability to profit would come before the health needs of the people. This is outrageous and the Senate must act immediately to ensure that all of our families will be able to access and afford any future vaccine. .

The coronavirus is threatening to become a major global pandemic, with the number of confirmed cases growing inside the United States. So who are Donald Trump and his administration’s top officials most concerned about right now? Giant corporations. When asked by Congress if a future vaccine will be guaranteed to be affordable for all Americans, Trump’s head of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar--a former drug company lobbyist--refused to commit. Instead, he suggested that private pharmaceutical companies’ ability to profit would come before the health needs of the people. This is outrageous and he must resign.

As NBA superstar Kevin Durant recently said, "[M]arijuana is marijuana... I feel like it shouldn’t even be a huge topic around it anymore.” But it is if you're an NBA player. Players face a 5 game suspension for using marijuana -- even if the player lives in one of the 11 states (plus D.C.) who've legalized recreational usage or the 33 states (plus D.C.) where medicinal use is allowed. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver takes pride in being the most progressive sports league in the U.S., but suspending players for using marijuana--medically or recreationally--is out of sync with that forward-leaning image. NBA players generate $8 BILLION for the league's owners, and the players deserve the right to use marijuana without being punished for it. League commissioner Adam Silver can -- and should -- change this immediately. Sources: 1. "Kevin Durant thinks weed ‘shouldn’t even be a huge topic’ for NBA anymore," New York Post, Feb. 27, 2020 https://nypost.com/2020/02/27/kevin-durant-thinks-weed-shouldnt-even-be-a-huge-topic-for-nba-anymore/ 2. "How the NBA Makes Money," Investopedia, updated Sep. 24, 2019 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/071415/how-nba-makes-money.asp

Our democracy is more important than Facebook’s profits. This year’s US presidential elections are in jeopardy—in part because global tech giant Facebook refuses to take responsibility for the lies, hate, and disinformation that are being spread using its platform. Facebook refuses to take down advertisements by US politicians that feature even the most blatant falsehoods. It freely allows microtargeting that directs disinformation at vulnerable communities that is hidden from everyone else. And its efforts to stop the spread of toxic lies and hate are too little, too late. Please join us to say enough is enough! Facebook must immediately prevent its platform from being used to spread disinformation and divisiveness that could disrupt our elections. We’re urging Facebook to: STOP THE LIES IN POLITICAL ADS Facebook should fact check advertisements placed by politicians and political campaigns. In other words, it should hold these political ads to the same standards it applies to advertisements that are not placed by politicians. As Facebook employees said in an open letter to company leadership, “Misinformation shared by political advertisers has an outsized detrimental impact on our community.” If you or I lied in an advertisement on Facebook, it would immediately be taken down. PROHIBIT POLITICAL AD MICROTARGETING Right now political campaigns can target their ads so precisely that they can pinpoint them to reach specific voters. The problem with this, according to former Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub, is that “false and misleading messages may be disseminated in a way that does not allow people with conflicting information to counter those messages, because they won't see them.” Facebook already restricts targeting for industries with a history of discrimination, like housing. They should do the same with political ads. REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE TRYING TO DISRUPT THE 2020 ELECTION All businesses can refuse service to a person who violates their policies. Restaurants usually require patrons wear shoes and shirts. Facebook should require that users refrain from using the platform to disrupt the 2020 election. They can do this by implementing terms of service or acceptable usage policies that require users to follow certain rules about how Facebook can be used. AND MORE ... We need to reform Facebook to protect our democracy and our civil society. Facebook’s own employees have put forward an excellent set of recommendations that include spending caps for politicians and observing silence periods free from political advertisements before elections. Another strong set of recommendations was put forward by Change the Terms, which focuses on how the platform can enforce an acceptable use policy to prevent Facebook from being used to incite hate, fear and abusive behavior. Finally, a number of organizations make the case that the Federal Trade Commission should break up Facebook, which now has unprecedented power to decide what news and information billions of people around the world see every day. For more information, go to www.protestfacebook.org.

Our democracy is for sale. Superdelegates may be tempted to take dark money donations to vote for billionaire-sponsored candidates, denying true representational democracy to their constituents.

Chicago House and Social Service agency serves some of the most marginalized populations in Chicago. Communities that are experiencing homelessness, communities that are impacted by HIV and Trans women and Gender expansive communities. Chicago House Chief Financial Officer Andrea Peoples was arrested on January 6, 2020 by Chicago Police Department and Cook County State’s Attorney office charged her with felony theft. Andrea Peoples and two other “high level” employees defrauded Chicago House and Social Service Agency out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This crime has put the clients, employees and community members at risk for losing access to housing, medical care, HIV prevention, legal, and case management. We can no longer put fiduciary trust in a group of people who did not sound the alarm as this robbery to our communities took place. We need new leadership that can be accountable and transparent to the communities it serves. Former Planned Parenthood Executive Charged With Theft https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/former-planned-parenthood-executive-charged-with-theft/9a813075-5073-4b83-9900-0b19ae5c867f

The truth matters. Accurate and fact base news empowers all Americans. These conspiracy theories are Russian Conspiracy theories intended to tear our nation apart. Help us unit our country with by sponsoring fact based news.

The very integrity of the United States and the Presidency are at stake. Our core values are being challenged and wrong is wrong. Period.

The ticket scalping industry has grown into an intolerable size that is seriously impacting the entertainment market. Fans, mostly teenagers, face skyrocketing prices that are often multiple times of the original price, with constant incidences fake tickets even. I am a student in China, and what just happened to me recently has awakened me to realize the severity of this problem in the ticket market right now. My favorite celebrity is hosting this concert in Shanghai, which I had been planning to go for months. I saved up a lot of money and finally got my parents to agree by studying really hard. I was really excited for this concert, however, when the tickets were out it was just impossible for me to get one from the website (大麦网) even with the help of my friends. All of the tickets were in the hands of ticket scalpers, and were sold almost 10 times as high. The original prices for about 480 yuan were about 4000 yuan, which was almost 10 times as high!!!Later, we found that the ticket scalpers had retrieved most of the tickets with machines called bots, which were much faster than human hands and allowed the scalpers to steal most of the tickets from fans. Further, most of the ticket-selling websites have not even installed CAPTCHA to identify machines from humans, which is what allowed most of the tickets sold to go into the hands of scalpers. We have to stop the ticket scalpers from breaking our hearts and devastating our dreams. There is no way to do this if we do not UNITE and say NO To this !!! Stop ticket scalping by enabling companies to install CAPTCHA !! 黄牛票一直是一个极其严重的现象，对文化传播，市场经济，和社会方面造成了极大的影响甚至于说困扰。人们对于黄牛票的报道从来都是暧昧不清，从未得到实质性的解决方案或态度。粉丝们，大多还只是青少年，常常面临着狂涨的价格无能为力。此外，常常还有粉丝因买到假票损失惨遭。 我是一名高二的学生。最近发生在我身上的一件事让我严重意识到了黄牛的严肃性。我一直喜欢的明星要在上海办演唱会， 我期待了超级久，也拿出了自己之前存的奖学金和红包钱存着。为了这件事我挤进了年级前十名，终于让父母同意我去了。我感到非常兴奋，但是，当晚抢票时我怎么也抢不到。得知所有的门票都在黄牛手中后，我带着最后的希望去咨询黄牛，却发现门票售出了近十倍的高价，从最初的价格约480元飙升到了足足有4000元，几乎是原来的10倍!!!! 后来，我与一些朋友调查发现黄牛们都会使用抢票机器（bots）在网上抢票。因为这些机器比人类的手快得多，他们由此才得以抢走走大部分门票，并且狂抬价格。此外，大多数售票网站甚至都没有安装CAPTCHA来区分人类和机器，这才使得黄牛得以抢走绝大部分的门票。 几年来黄牛市场已越发张牙舞爪，价格也越来越夸张。我们不能再无动于衷了。只有一起抵制黄牛，我们才能捍卫我们作为消费者的尊严，才能不让更多像我一样的人被喜欢的人的演唱会拒之门外。所以，求求大家了，我们一定要让票务平台在他们的系统上安装CAPTCHA,阻止黄牛。

This show caused so much harm to the health of contestants and viewers alike by perpetuating weight stigma. Since the show went off the air, we have research related to how weight stigma and yo yo dieting actually harms people in larger bodies. Additionally there is research from prior Biggest Loser contestants indicating long term negative effects: Participants not only gained the weight back due to a slowing of the metabolism but that participants had increased leptin levels that causes extreme hunger: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html From The National Association of Eating Disorders: “Weight stigma, also known as weight bias or weight-based discrimination, is discrimination or stereotyping based on a person's weight. Weight stigma can increase body dissatisfaction, a leading risk factor in the development of eating disorders.” https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/weight-stigma From Abbys Kitchen: DANGEROUS SECRETS FROM THE BIGGEST LOSER & MY PETITION TO MAKE IT STOP “A study published in the Journal of Obesity suggested that watching even one episode of the Biggest Loser increased hateful weight bias among viewers! This is particularly concerning to me when there are children watching, as it’s easy to sense and duplicate the disgust for fatness when they see it in their peers or even themselves.”https://www.abbeyskitchen.com/nutrition-dangerous-secrets-biggest-loser-my-petition-make-i/ From Today’s Dietitian: January 2018 Issue The Health Impact of Weight Stigma By Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, CD Today's Dietitian Vol. 20, No. 1, P. 24 “The health risks of weight discrimination are consistent with the observed effects of racial discrimination.8,35” Being the target of weight stigma increases the risk of poor mental health outcomes,36 including depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and eating disorders. These associations happen regardless of BMI, so it's unlikely that body weight itself is a cause.8” “Harrison says. "The majority of the clients I've treated for disordered eating cite bullying or shaming for their weight by parents, peers, coaches, or health care professionals as the initial trigger for their issues with food." https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0118p24.shtml