Independent Beauty Professionals rely on the income from clients. We cannot perform a service online. While the beauty industry is deemed “Non essential”, the ability to practice our craft is very ESSENTIAL to our livelihood. We are facing a grave financial hardship. Most self employed beauty professionals have not yet received any sort of financial assistants. These licensed professionals are trained in sanitation, disinfection and client safety for more hours than any grocery store associate. Sacramento beauty professionals are licensed by the state of California and should be able to serve customers with guidelines set in place. Allowing us to practice safe services would also decrease the potential providers offering home services by giving them a safe controlled clean environment to see clients.

This week millions of Americans should be getting their stimulus checks in their bank accounts. But some may never see that money -- because the Trump Administration is allowing big banks to take it away. Congress excluded government debt from the stimulus checks, but did not explicitly ban private debt collectors and banks from seizing an individual's stimulus money and applying it to existing debts. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown asked the Treasury Department to write rules banning banks and debt collectors from taking the stimulus checks away from Americans. The American Prospect revealed that the Treasury Department is telling banks they can seize those checks. We cannot allow Wall Street and the big banks to undermine these desperately needed economic stimulus funds. This money is designed to help people pay their rent and put food on the table. We have to stop the banks from taking that money away from people who need it.

The Labor Department recently announced that another 6.6 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Total unemployment claims over the past three weeks of the coronavirus chaos is nearly 16.8 million people. This amounts to about 5% of the US population who are now out of a job—and that's only those who have formally applied for benefits. The actual number of newly unemployed people is likely much larger and will continue to increase in coming months. Many people who are laid off due to COVID19 won't find work for a very long time, maybe never because some jobs lost today won't be coming back. People will need time and resources to learn and develop a new skill. By ending the $600 per week additional unemployment assistance too soon, we will certainly be dooming people to tragic futures. This will have far reaching ramifications. We need to look out for each other during these unprecedented times. Please let's help each other save and serve those who are in most need. Extend the COVID 19 Emergency $600 per week additional unemployment assistance well beyond July 31, 2020, until at least December 31, 2020 and longer if necessary.

It is important because COVID-19 has shattered what was our students' normal daily lives. Many of them do not possess the tools needed in their homes to complete their school work successfully.

We are longtime GE employees and proud IUE-CWA union members who know that we and our co-workers can make a real difference during this crisis by producing ventilators, but GE has failed to act. We are calling on President Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to require GE to start producing ventilators at its underutilized facilities immediately! We have the skills necessary to make ventilators and GE has the manufacturing capacity, but instead of producing this desperately needed equipment the company has announced massive layoffs of its workforce and GE factory space is sitting empty. GE is partnering with other corporations to jumpstart ventilator production because its existing GE Healthcare production plant is now running at capacity. Meanwhile, thousands of Americans are dying every day. We need more companies producing more ventilators in more locations now, and the quickest way for GE to do that is to put its skilled workforce and excess capacity to work. Workers like us are ready to start producing ventilators to help our country get through this crisis and save lives. President Trump must act now to require GE to do the right thing and start producing live-saving ventilators immediately. Please join this fight and sign our petition.

Coronavirus has spread to over 50 Amazon facilities across the country. Amazon delivery lead Kathy Knight said "I'm worried that I have infected 1000 people in the last three days." She and her 22-year-old son, who is also an Amazon driver, are awaiting test results for COVID-19 after her son began showing symptoms. Amazon workers across the country have been organizing strikes and actions demanding safer working conditions and paid leave. Instead of protecting workers, Amazon fired one of the worker organizers, Christian Smalls, and planned to smear him with a racist PR campaign. Thousands of workers are packed together with few protective measures in Amazon facilities. Workers report that Amazon is refusing to shut down and properly sanitize warehouses, that Amazon is not providing gloves and masks, is not adhering to social distancing measures, and isn’t being honest about the risk of infections in its facilities. Jeff Bezos has already hired 80,000 new warehouse and delivery workers during this pandemic without doing enough to protect workers. Health experts say that if we are not successful at slowing the spread of COVID-19, as many as 1.5 million people may die in the U.S. alone. If Jeff Bezos continues to risk the safety of Amazon workers, their families, and neighbors, COVID-19 could spread even faster around the world. The Squad is pressuring Amazon and leading the way in Congress--but we need more congressional support to take federal action if we’re going to slow the spread of COVID-19 across all Amazon facilities. Jeff Bezos is riding this pandemic out in comfort while Amazon profits from coronavirus. We can’t wait for Jeff Bezos to prioritize the health of our communities. We urgently need your voice now. Tell Congress to investigate Amazon’s unsafe working conditions and shut down unsafe warehouses.

Once the worst of the pandemic is over and it is considered safe to travel, there will be a tremendous backlog of people applying for passports and renewals. This will hurt the travel industry even more than it is hurting right now, not only here, but all over the world. Also, many people have to travel on business. Many of them can't work remotely.

DEMOCRACY: We are in the middle of a Democratic Primary. 27 states have not yet voted 43% of delegates are still available COVID-19: We are living in an unprecedented time where a global pandemic is testing the nation and revealing the deep flaws in our system. Record-breaking numbers of people are applying for unemployment. Millions are losing their jobs and their employment-tied healthcare. Millions are at risk of being evicted. This is the precise time for people to have a voice in how America should move forward beyond this world-changing crisis. Regardless of the path we take, life as we know it will fundamentally change. PATH FORWARD: We still have a choice. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have very different visions for how to proceed through this crisis. Let the American people hear them and make this very important decision before the remaining states cast their votes. Give us the debate we deserve.

Small businesses are the engine of our economy. In many communities small businesses are the largest employer and the lifeblood of the community. We create meaningful jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurs to thrive. By unilaterally requiring that your small business clients have pre-existing lending relationships with Bank of America you are putting up unnecessary roadblocks to saving jobs and saving communities from devastation. Worse, this practice may even be discriminatory, as it may impact black, Latino, Asian, and Native American business owners disproportionately, who are more likely to have been denied access loans due to historic and current red-lining practices and institutional racism. The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to provide forgivable loans to Small Businesses to keep people employed during this time of emergency. In determining clients of Bank of America's eligibility for these lifeline loans, you have instituted an unnecessary pre-existing lending client requirement that is preventing many desperate smaller businesses and nonprofits from even applying for PPP. We all need to come together at times like this, not put up barriers to resources. You have the power to eliminate this arbitrary requirement and we ask you to step in and address this issue with the urgency the present emergency demands.

Like most kinds of porn, inspiration porn is exploitative, unrealistic and harmful for disabled people. Imagery of individuals "overcoming" the disabled body serves only to de-value those of us who cannot for the enjoyment of those who never had to. This is particularly gross given that this imagery is being used to increase shareholder profits for Hyundai, a global corporation that did $91 billion in sales last year. In the time of COVID-19 this also means a very real chance of disabled people being denied life-saving treatment because of the mere perception that their lives are less valuable than a “healthier” person.

Health care and other essential service workers have become sick and some may die over the lack of preparedness, even though these masks were changing hands and flying back and forth between countries since January of 2020

This week, Politico reported that there is “contentious debate” over whether or not companies should be allowed to use taxpayer money from the relief funds to lobby Congress. This is utterly absurd. Any companies receiving federal relief money must be banned from using it to lobby Congress. The lack of a strict ban on using relief funds to lobby Congress was a gaping hole in the original stimulus. Congress must act urgently to close this loophole. Source: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2020/04/01/corporate-america-might-need-more-money-from-congress-786576