Over the last two years, since the pandemic began, America’s roughly 700 billionaires grew their fortunes by $1.7 trillion, or 57%. They are now worth a collective $4.6 trillion―one-third more than the bottom half of American society. A billionaires income tax proposed by President Biden in his newly unveiled budget and also by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), would tax billionaires’ wealth gains each year, just like workers’ wages are taxed each year. The President’s plan would raise at least $360 billion and Sen. Wyden’s plan would raise at least $550 billion. This new revenue would help working families afford healthcare, childcare, eldercare, education, housing and more.

Even as the price of gas per barrel is well below recent records, gas prices remain high.1 That’s because oil and gas companies are gouging consumers, and taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to rake in as much profit as possible. Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill that cuts to the heart of the problem: corporate profiteering. The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax will stop price gouging at the pumps by forcing oil and gas companies to share their recording-breaking profits with consumers.2 This can’t wait, tell your elected officials to pass this bill and stop gas price gouging. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to tax oil and gas companies and stop price gouging at the pumps! Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bill would take on price gouging. The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax would tax the big oil companies and also go a step further: by using that revenue to give Americans a rebate to offset how much soaring gas prices hit people’s pocketbooks. If oil and gas companies had their way, every major news event would trigger unnecessary gas price hikes at the pumps, and squeeze new record profits out of the hands of everyday Americans. We have to put a stop to this. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to tax oil and gas companies and stop price gouging at the pumps! Sources: 1. Newsweek, “Oil Prices Are Dropping — Will Gas Prices Go Down, Too?,” March 14, 2022. 2. Truthout, “Warren Says Democrats Are Working on a Bill to Tax Big Oil’s Windfall Profits,” March 9, 2022.

The CannaJustice Coalition leading this work in VA is proudly partnering with Minorities for Medical Marijuana and Morring Law firm here in the Commonwealth to push this message forward. Legalization can be a way to dismantle the War on Drugs or re-activate it. As the number four reason for deportation and the reason why many are barred from housing, education and employment, we must legislate legalization that makes the public feel safe, and ensure police are not targeting them for a legal substance. As of August 31, 2021, the state is responsible for incarcerating 570 people for 599 marijuana-related offenses. There are 229 people incarcerated with a non-drug related Most Serious Offense (MSO), 331 people incarcerated with Drug Sales MSO and 10 people incarcerated with Drug Possession MSO with their families sooner. There are even more of our loved ones on community supervision due to marijuana that need to be set free from surveillance. Cannabis expert, Shaleen Title, explains that this a crucial and vulnerable moment for the future of the cannabis market. While states are making historic progress creating paths for small businesses and disenfranchised groups, larger companies are expanding, consolidating, and lobbying for licensing rules to create or maintain oligopolies. Federal legalization will only accelerate the power grab already happening with new, larger conglomerates openly expressing interest. Left unchecked, this scramble for market share threatens to undermine public health and safety and undo bold state-level efforts to build an equitable cannabis marketplace and reduce the impact of disproportionate policing. Virginia must recognize our role in protecting our people but also our place in the federal legalization conversation that stands up to exploitative businesses and demands an equitable return for those impacted by the racist War on Drugs.

From Russia to Saudi Arabia, oil dictators are helping to turn our planet into a giant war zone and climate disaster. But even as the Biden administration works to stop Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. also arms and protects every single oil monarchy across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia's monarchy has been America's top weapons customer. Meanwhile, the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have led a brutal war of starvation and bombardment in Yemen. To make matters worse, the Saudi and UAE rulers are literally refusing to take President Biden's phone call. Meanwhile, global gas prices could drive a worldwide recession while these dictators and Western oil companies make a hefty profit. It is time for the U.S. to stop investing in oil dictators who are helping to drive a global climate crisis. President Biden must stop supporting the brutal oil monarchies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and every other U.S.-backed autocrat across the Middle East. Source: 1. "Saudi, UAE leaders declined calls with Biden amid Ukraine conflict: report," The Hill, March 8, 2022.

For decades spanning several councilmembers and prosecutors, the Detroit Shoreway has tried time and again to frame American Food Market as a cause for drug distribution within the community yet despite numerous police raids and injunctions have found no evidence for these claims. As of March 4th, 2022, Councilwoman Jenny Spencer and the Cuyahoga prosecutor's office of Michael o'Malley chose to enact a nuisance law rarely used in history as a new tactic to shut the store down temporarily. They claim it is the responsibility of the store owners to enforce laws surrounding drug trafficking happening near the store or else suffer the consequences for other people's actions. It is the duty of law enforcement to patrol the neighborhood from crime, not small business owners.

Insulin prices are far too high, and they're impacting working-class families every day. For many people who live with diabetes, the cost of insulin is a matter of life or death. The high cost often leads to lethal rationing, and with this bill, we have the opportunity to save lives across the country. Congress needs to side with President Biden, Senator Warnock, and Joshua Davis—not Big Pharma—and lower the cost of insulin!

The most crippling sanctions on Russia would halt its export of oil & gas--a staggering 60% of its export revenues--but these items are off the sanctions table due to Europe's reliance on Russian gas and the impact that higher oil prices would have on the global economy. European homes and offices have been replacing gas-fired furnaces with electric heat pumps for years, but European manufacturers cannot keep up with demand. With the stroke of a pen, Biden could require American manufacturers to increase electric heat pump production and export these units to Europe, thereby helping Europe fast track its transition away from Russian gas and opening the door to much tougher sanctions. While it would take time before Europe is ready to inflict that crippling blow to Russia, the marketplace impact would be instantaneous, adding enormous pressure to Putin. Additional benefits: - The American production ramp would create high-paying manufacturing jobs here in the US. - Production at greater scale would reduce prices, removing adoption barriers here in the US. - Yes, replacing gas-fired furnaces with electric heat pumps increases demand for electrical energy, some of which is produced by gas-fired thermal plants. But everyday, the European grid grows greener as less expensive wind and solar generation and battery storage continue to shut down fossil fuel plants. Additional information: - This petition is based entirely on an excellent essay by the great American environmentalist, journalist and founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, titled "Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom", February 28, 2022, which can be read here: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/heat-pumps-for-peace-and-freedom?utm_source=url - According to Ari Matusiak, the CEO of the non-profit Rewiring America, Europe and the UK have 75 million homes dependent on Russian gas for their heat. - Per McKibben's article, and according to energy leaders in Europe, the European grid as it is today can handle the adoption of 50 million heat pumps. - Per McKibben's article, the "Defense Production Act was used most recently by President Trump to mandate production of ventilators and President Biden, on his second day in office, to mandate production of decent masks."

The IRS wants taxpayers to provide credit history and submit to facial recognition just to access their tax information online. They’ve hired a third party company called ID.me to verify user identity even though it’s common knowledge that facial recognition technology has racial and gender biases. Anyone who cares about privacy and racial justice should be up in arms. That’s why we’re pressuring President Biden to end the contract between the IRS and ID.me. Sign the petition: Demand President Biden end facial recognition at the IRS! ID.me’s verification process is so invasive that a technology reporter at Gizmodo felt “sufficiently creeped out” and refused to finish it.1 If ID.me is allowed to continue working with the IRS then every tax filer will have to give over personal information – like photo IDs and access to consumer credit reports – just to access their tax information online. But this gets much worse! The CEO at ID.me got caught lying to journalists about how it uses facial recognition2 and admitted that the company uses Amazon Rekognition, which is well known to have racial biases. The IRS already 1) has enough of our sensitive income information, and 2) is scarily underfunded. They shouldn’t be spending more of their resources on an untrustworthy third party vendor who wants to scoop up more of your information and subject you to racist facial recognition technology. The Treasury Department is already asking the IRS to reconsider this contract, but President Biden can end this private contract with the stroke of a pen. That’s why we’re taking the issue directly to him. Sign the petition: Demand President Biden end facial recognition at the IRS! Sources: 1. Gizmodo, “IRS Will Require Facial Recognition Scans to Access Your Taxes Online,” January 19, 2022. 2. Axios, “ID.me CEO apologizes for misstatements on IRS facial recognition,” January 27, 2022.

Nobody plans to bury their murdered child – it’s among the worst possible unexpected expenses, yet thousands of Illinois families are paying it. They are depending on your help during some of the most tragic and painful times of their lives. We look forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to ease some of their pain.

Google is aggressively pursuing the Pentagon’s Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract, despite turning down a chance at a similar contract a few years ago. At the time, they said the contract would violate their AI principles of not developing technology that causes harm. That’s still true: Developments in military technology have meant ever-more devastating weapons, drone warfare, and unfettered surveillance. Google employees are expressing serious concerns about the ethics of this contract, and we agree. Sign the petition to join us in urging Google not to work with the Pentagon!

The undersigned People of Pittsburgh join together to DEMAND that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh abide by our Home Rule Charter and take immediate action to repeal this outrageous, illegal pay grab. We stand for the rule of law and transparency in government!

Under the highly contagious Omicron Covid variant, Amazon should be making testing easier for employees in order to stop its spread. But the world’s largest employer is failing their workers by stopping free onsite warehouse testing and scaling back paid leave from two weeks to one. Sick workers are scrambling to find free testing and support from Amazon.¹ Tell Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO (who replaced Jeff Bezos last July), to reinstate free Covid testing, longer quarantining, and sick days for their workers. Amazon is making billions off the pandemic. The tech giant, with profits that rose over 220% during Covid,² can afford to reinstate onsite testing. This isn’t the first time Amazon has brazenly risked public health and their workers’ lives. In November, Amazon settled a case with the California attorney general over claims that it concealed Covid-19 case numbers. As part of the settlement (still subject to court approval), Amazon must notify workers within 24 hours of new Covid cases and notify local health agencies within 48 hours.³ But if workers are struggling to get tests or test results, then Amazon doesn’t have anything to report — and infected employees could keep on working and spreading the virus. Take action now. Sign the petition to tell Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, to stop risking lives and reinstate free warehouse Covid testing for their workers. Sources: 1. “Ailing Amazon workers struggle to find Covid tests themselves,” NBC News, Jan 13, 2022. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/ailing-amazon-workers-struggle-find-covid-tests-rcna11942 2. “Amazon's profit soars 220 percent as pandemic drives shopping online,” The New York Times, May 12, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/technology/amazons-profits-triple.html 3. “Amazon settles claims it concealed Covid-19 cases from workers,” CNBC, November 15, 2021. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/15/amazon-settles-claims-it-concealed-covid-19-cases-from-workers.html