Drug corporation Novartis is profiteering off taxpayers and children with cancer. Novartis announced plans to price its new cancer drug, Kymriah, at $475,000 per treatment. But American taxpayers invested over $200 million in the basic science behind the drug. What Novartis is doing is tantamount to extortion. But we can stop it. We're holding Novartis accountable. We're demanding Americans do not pay twice for a drug they helped invent. We don't have huge bank accounts like pharmaceutical corporations—but we have each other. We have our voices. Let's stand together and use them. Add your name to this critical petition now.

I would not expect McDonald's to offer me a year of free hamburgers (converting into a paid subscription for suspect hamburgers the following year) as compensation if they served me a hamburger that gave me a lifelong bacterial infection. Yet apparently this is essentially what Experian and Equifax have offered us in recent massive data breaches. A HUGE conflict of interest! It is time we demand Congress to act on our behalf for sensible data breach regulations: Within the first week after a notification of a data breach, a fraud alert should automatically be enabled on behalf of all affected customers. If the breach involves credit or core personal information (SSN, drivers license, financial, or health information), the option to enable an indefinite fraud alert should be offered for free without the requirement of waiting for an identity theft event. Any breach that involves core personal information entitles victims to complimentary credit freezes and thaws from all vendors indefinitely, without the requirement of waiting for an identity theft event. If there are processing costs associated with enabling these features at other companies, the company responsible for the breach shall be held liable. Any data breach involving core personal information requires a minimum of [10 years] of free ID and credit monitoring service chosen by the consumer from a marketplace. If the consumer was previously the victim of a data breach, an additional [10 years] of complimentary monitoring services will be added to their existing service. Build upon the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act and redesign annualcreditreport.com to handle adding, removing, and thawing credit freezes and fraud alerts across all credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, ChexSystems, Innovis, etc.). http://www.lessismoreorless.com/2015/11/19/applying-common-sense-to-data-breach-response/ https://medium.com/@lessismoreorless/stop-drop-freeze-rinse-repeat-the-equifax-edition-ea201e8ef0fa http://www.lessismoreorless.com/2015/11/18/stop-drop-and-freeze-part-2/ https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/mandate-companies-provide-consumers-basic-identity-fraud-protections-following-data-breaches

UPDATE: We are now in conversation with the managers of Biofuel Oasis to educate them on the cruelty of using animals and hope to work with them in stopping the sale of baby chicks. -- Biofuel Oasis is a Berkeley-based biodiesel store that also sells baby chicks for people to purchase and raise for their eggs. This raises many ethical concerns including: male chicks - who are useless to the egg industry - being killed on the day they are born; hens bred to lay so many more eggs than they naturally would leading to painful and deadly health issues; hens who no longer produce as many eggs being dumped on sanctuaries because they are no longer considered “useful”; killing animals who value their own lives and want to live. Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) organizers reached out to the owners of Biofuel Oasis to request a conversation about this practice in an attempt to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. In response to the concerns raised by DxE organizers they stated via email “Our customers would most likely continue to buy eggs from a grocery store if they did not have fresh eggs provided by the chickens in their backyard. Many of our customers love their chickens dearly, give them an abundance of love and affection, and keep them after they are past their egg-laying years until they die of natural causes [...] We order chicks from a local hatchery. Our hatchery’s roosters and older flock go to agencies that rehabilitate wildlife; they become food for those animals.” It is not true that the only options available are buying eggs from grocery stores or raising chickens for eggs in your backyard. Millions of people choose to not eat eggs and this number is growing every day as more people become aware of the ethical issues with eggs. Sanctuaries and other rescuers receive constant requests to take in “spent” hens or roosters from people with backyard chickens. And, whether male chicks are ground up alive or suffocated (as it the practice in most hatcheries) or fed to other animals, the result is the same - thousands of dead baby birds. The bottom line is that animals are not property. They are individuals who should not be bought and sold as commodities. Exploiting them for their eggs and flesh reinforces their property status, causes them pain, and leads to the death of millions every year. Please tell Biofuel Oasis to stop this practice immediately and keep their focus on providing sustainable fuel to Berkeley.

We are asking Facebook to adhere to their policy of trying to make as safe a community as possible, and not inadvertently help stalkers use Facebook rules as a way to ban some members for political or personal reasons. Please, Facebook, protect your members and do not help stalkers harm them. Facebook has been banning longtime members who have never been a problem, based on stalkers who repeatedly report years' old posts and comments. These posts plainly did not violate Facebook "community standards" or else they would have been removed immediately after they were first posted. Stalkers can clone a victim's page and suffer no consequences, as has been done to Bev Jo Von Dohre. She repeatedly has asked Facebook that whoever cloned her page and whoever is reporting her from years' old posts (which she likely already removed) be blocked from seeing her, but Facebook ignores her. We've been told that it is likely a hired team is targeting a number of Facebook members so that as soon as they return after a 30-day ban, they are again reported en masse and banned. (The stalker(s) could also be people who have been removed from moderated groups for making abusive or threatening comments, and so is on a vendetta, but it seems more systematic than that.) The reported posts are often years old. No matter how many hours of work has been spent removing anything possible, going back 6 years, nothing stops the reporting of what used to be acceptable. So, in my case, I am locked out almost permanently. Soon after I return, the stalker(s) report me again and I am locked out for another 30 days. Meanwhile, I've been unable to return friends' messages or comment when a friend has died (which happened a few days ago) or otherwise participate in the community. This is happening to a lot of targeted women. I have over 900 friends and am prevented from contact with them. It's terrible that friends often don't know and so think I am ignoring them. I moderate several groups, which are now suffering from not having moderation and those asking to join again are made to feel ignored. Last year, the rules said the reported posts had to be "recent," which would eliminate this kind of stalking, but that Facebook rule is being ignored now. I have asked repeatedly for Facebook to block the stalker(s) since they know who they are, but get no direct response. When there has been a response, it's like a form letter and never about what actually is happening. I even went to Facebook headquarters, was assured there would be help, which of course did not happen, and then the stalking and false reporting continued. This is will be increasingly happening to Facebook members since stalkers and harassers have found a way to use the rules against other members as a way to almost permanently ban them. Please ask Facebook to stop helping stalkers target and ban members for no legitimate reason. (Some members have even been banned for using their own chosen name for their identity.)

When will Wendell Weeks of Corning leave Trump's advisory council? Why does he want to be associated with a President who can't even properly denounce white supremacy and Nazis? Wendell, as a former Corning resident, and as someone who had a family member in an executive position at Corning, I implore to do the right thing and distance yourself from this administration. This is not the reputation you want for the company or city of Corning.

A free and open press is a constitutional guarantee that will be taken away from millions of people if this merger is allowed. I live in an area where 4 stations will be controlled by Sinclair, who is already requiring stations to be less independent and more controlled by running "required segments" with a particular political view.

On February 28, 2017, without due notice or due process, RadioAvenueRadio.World, previously broadcasting as KVRU Rainier Valley Radio, was forced out of their studio by South East Effective Development (S.E.E.D) where they had been broadcasting globally on KVRU.org. Attempts to resolve this breach of trust amicably and professionally have been rebuffed, ignored and denied. Additionally, S.E.E.D has not shared with the public that their FM license for 105.7 is in jeopardy.

If Sinclair Broadcasting Group's plan to buy Tribune Media, Co. is successful, the reach of its racist news coverage will be dramatically increased. This is about protecting freedom of the press and standing against corporate consolidation of our local news outlets. Sinclair has a blatant history of Islamophobia, allowing its newscasters to make racist statements everyday in its uniform "Terrorism Alert Desk," which has notably used Muslims as synonymous with terrorists in its reports. The Terrorism Alert Desk is a Sinclair "must-run" that is produced centrally by the company and airs every single day across Sinclair outlets, whether or not there is something to report on.

President Trump and Republicans want to slash Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Disability Insurance to fund even more tax breaks for the super rich. The last thing we need is to make the tax code even more rigged in favor of billionaires and corporate insiders. We say: Not one penny in tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations.

Sonny Perdue is now the Secretary of Agriculture. That means the future of organic farming is in his hands. He has a long history of working with Big Ag and has deep ties to industry insiders. We need you to make sure he hears from the American people, not just his Big Ag friends. He needs to know his job is to protect and support organic farming. Tell Sonny Perdue: Protect organic food and farming!

Despite R. Kelly's decades-long documented coercion and sexual manipulation of young Black women, including countless civil suits and a trial for 14 counts of child pornography, he's never faced legal or financial consequences. In fact, RCA has relished in the publicity and intentionally popularized an image of R Kelly as a palatable sex symbol rather than the sexual predator he is. His well-documented pattern of grooming and abusing young girls didn't stop him from selling over 60 million albums and he's even currently on an extended national tour.

Thousands of Nissan auto workers in Canton, Mississippi—80 percent of whom are African-American—have had enough. They endure dangerous working conditions, bullying by management, punishing production demands, and long hours. That’s why Nissan workers will soon vote on whether to unionize, despite underhanded interference from management. The company is already waging an incredibly hostile campaign of intimidation and pressure against union supporters. Nissan has union representation at every one of its 45 manufacturing plants around the world, except for the three plants in the American South. Southern workers should not be denied the rights that all other Nissan workers around the globe can exercise. This campaign of intimidation and pressure from the company must end. Tell Nissan to stop standing in the way of its workers’ right to unionize!