Forty-five million Americans hold a whopping $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. Eight million of those individuals have defaulted on their loans. Before the coronavirus pandemic, a person defaulted on their student loans every 26 seconds. According to the New York Times, eight million people have slipped into poverty since May. With many people unable to pay for even basic necessities for themselves and their families, millions will likely be unable to make their student loan payments. Without bold action, the massive burden of student loan debt threatens the economic security of borrowers and the country as a whole. The coronavirus pandemic is not only a once in a generation health crisis, but also now a catastrophic economic crisis. Lost wages due to furloughs and layoffs will impact families for years to come. The labor shocks this pandemic is causing will increase federal student loan defaults. Borrowers in default may have their tax refunds seized or wages garnished at a time when they can least afford it. In the short term, cancelling student debt in response to the coronavirus crisis will bring relief to 45 million people with student loans and stimulate the economy when it is needed most. It will also allow borrowers to purchase the necessities their families depend on including food, housing, and critical healthcare. In the medium and long term, a student debt cancellation stimulus can help mitigate the continuing economic costs of this crisis. Student debt cancellation can boost GDP by up to $108 billion a year and add up to 1.5 million jobs per year. Since the federal government owns an overwhelming majority of student loans, the president has the power to cancel these debts. Tell your Senators to co-sponsor the Schumer-Warren resolution, which urges the President to use executive authority to cancel student loan debt.

October 14, 2020: Today the United Farm Workers (UFW) and UFW Foundation (UFWF) filed a lawsuit against Trump's Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. On September 30th, the Department of Agriculture took an unprecedented step toward reducing farm worker wages. They announced the unilateral decision to eliminate the data collection that is the only national source of information that allows the Department of Labor to determine and set guest worker wages. Without this information, the wages of all domestic farm workers could be adversely impacted. You can stand with farm workers by signing their petition to USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue. For over 100 years USDA has consistently used this method to collect data about farm labor and wages. The federal Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), determines the minimum rate that must be paid H–2A workers to avoid undercutting the wages of domestic farm workers. The AEWR rate is higher than the minimum wage in all 50 states -- often significantly. To put it in perspective, in states like Utah and Wisconsin, wages could fall by as much as $7 per hour. Even in California, workers stand to lose almost $2 an hour. The USDA gave no rationale for this change and did not make it available for public comment. In addition, they did not consider the incredible harm this move would have on farm worker wages and did not explain why they chose to eliminate it even though many states and federal entities rely on this information. This lawsuit is critical. The wage loss could amount to thousands of dollars to workers who are barely making both ends meet. These wage decreases will create a ripple effect, ultimately resulting in many US farm workers being paid less. And the fact that they are trying to cut the wages of these essential workers in the middle of a pandemic is outrageous. Stand with us in stopping this travesty. THE UFW & UFWF filed a lawsuit against Sonny Perdue today, but let's also show him that Americans care about the people who put food on our tables and will not accept this change. Sign our petition to Sonny Perdue now.

Because we are the eyes and ears of every Nurse. The nurse only know what we tell them. We should have compact certifications just as like The LPN, LVN and Rn's.

As families return to work as the state moves through the four phases, childcare is ESSENTIAL to ensuring the workforce is able to restart. Families with young children NEED our support! Lack of access to child care impacts first responders and front line workers - they NEED our services more than ever! Child care NEEDS an IMMEDIATE influx of equitable grant monies, distributed on a PER CHILD basis - based on licensed capacity - not an arbitrary tiered system that does not take our real expenses into consideration. Issues that appeared to be temporary, e.g. front line teachers and directors becoming ill and sites shutting down, at the onset of this public health emergency, are now causing permanent damage to the early education system. The cost of purchasing personal protection equipment (PPE) and reducing group sizes has further impacted how many children can access services. Without adequate capacity, children will not have access to care and parents will be unable to go to work. Immediate state intervention is needed to stop the COVID-19 pandemic from pushing the child care industry to economic collapse.

As Maui County residents, it has become clear to us that the Governor has not done a sufficient job to mitigate and plan for COVID-19. We appreciate that our Mayor and County Council have been concerned and making efforts to protect Maui and keep us safe. We feel the current plan to welcome back tourists is very dangerous to our residents, as the state is not prepared to reopen safely. The single test plan will allow too many positive cases to slip through, and we have already seen how a few cases quickly and exponentially grow beyond what can be controlled or managed with our limited medical and public health resources, including contact tracing. We understand that our economy needs to reopen, but if we do not reopen SAFELY, we will find ourselves in the position of having to shut down again just in time to miss out on the winter holiday travel season. Meanwhile, we risk having our caseload grow and overwhelm our ONLY hospital. Why should allowing mainlanders to vacation here without the hassle of a quarantine take precedence over making it safe for our keiki to have in person school, sports, and extracurricular activities. The current state plan will hurt our keiki, our kupuna, and our hospitality workers.

The Trump administration is considering adding more sanctions on Iran. Existing sanctions are already hurting the ability of people in Iran to access critical healthcare in the face of COVID-19. The pandemic has killed more than 27,000 and the country is once again shut down in the face of a new and terrifying COVID wave. These new measures would only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis the Iranian people are currently facing. Maximum pressure has meant maximum failure. Urge Secretaries Mnuchin and Pompeo: No new sanctions on Iran!

On January 1, 2021, I will be 77 years old. For most of my early life, I had but a passing interest in politics. That dramatically changed with the murder of President John Kennedy on November 22, 1963! A few weeks later, after I saw Life Magazine’s detailed color pictures of the Zapruder film showing the President’s head and brains being blown BACKWARD after being shot in the face, and NOT being shot from behind – as declared fact by the Warren Commission Report – I began my personal search to find out who, why, and how my government was intentionally lying to all of us then, and forward to this very day. Initially, since there was no Internet for the first three decades, my search was slow and labor intensive. However, with the advent of the Internet, my searches became much more productive. I attempted to find answers relating to politicians, other governments, the CIA, the Mafia, bankers, etc., and was about to give up on finding a satisfying answer until, about a dozen years ago, I found and read an article titled, Beware The Psychopath, My Son. After reading that article, I came to the forehead slapping realization that for all of those years I was expecting to find my answers among groups of people and all the while it was the commonality of the mental composition – of specific powerful men WITHIN those groups! It was the key which almost instantly answered so many more questions than I had ever even begun to consider. It answered political questions, economic questions, legal questions, historical questions, sociological questions, racial questions, religion questions, media questions, sexism, rationalizations for wars and so much more! I have spent the last decade confirming and expanding on my “discoveries” and last year I began what has become a three webpage explanation for all to read, absorb and then hopefully help usher through Congress a very specific bill into Federal law. So now, I would sincerely appreciate any feedback, criticism, questions, support and/or – at least pass this short introduction along to someone who may find it of interest. -- Note: The above mentioned article, upon which all of my studies are based, is the first link on the first webpage listed below. That link begins with, “Research studies have shown …”. www.rushtopower.net www.rushtopower.net/action.html BONUS: www.rushtopower.net/reset.html Respectfully, Terry Sneller aka, Tarry Faster [email protected]

Americans consume almost 3 billion pounds of chocolate each year. We enjoy our favorite chocolate brands, like Hershey's, Snickers, Milky Way, and Twix, but most people do not know about the exploitative origin of these products. Shockingly, most of the chocolate products consumed in America are made using child slave labor. For too long, multinational chocolate producers have relied on child slave labor to harvest the millions of tons of cocoa beans needed for chocolate. In West Africa, tens of thousands of children are enslaved on cocoa plantations and forced to harvest cocoa beans in unsafe, exploitative working conditions, with little respite, and meager pay. We demand that this injustice must change. We cannot allow companies like Mars and Nestle to claim they value black lives when their supply chains are riddled with human rights violations and slave labor in West Africa. We need to join together and make our voices heard to stop this outrageous humans rights violation. Sign our petition to demand that companies like Mars and Nestle stop using child slave labor in their chocolate products! Image credit: Washington Post, "Cocoa's Child Laborers." June 5, 2019. Whoriskey, Peter and Siegel, Rachel. Photos by Salwan Georges.

At the end of September 2020 in Chicago 3,210 people have been shot and 551 have lost their lives to gun violence and we don't want to lose one more person but especially our children. Please use your voice to let city council that they need to prioritize saving lives and investing in healing. We can't wait for another 3 years before substantive change happens. The time to act is now and we have to pass the Peace Book ordinance. The Peace Book is the opposite of the Gang Book. The Peace Book is a regularly-published book (as well as a website and an app) that provides a resource directory identifying wraparound services and job opportunities with the purpose of reducing youth incarceration. The Peace Book suggests diversion programs and ways to further implement restorative justice practices inside schools, courts, and juvenile detention centers. It documents the inequality that contributes to intergenerational poverty and trauma and proposes solutions. It describes models and instructions regarding how to curate neighborhood-based peace treaties. It identifies Peace Keepers in each ward who have the experience and relationships required to conduct peace negotiation and violence interruption. And it proposes remedies to gun violence, including but not limited to free drug treatment centers, trauma centers, trauma-informed schools, mental health care clinics, standby psychiatrists or therapists, restorative justice, community centers, transformative justice, fair housing, food justice and economic justice.

Many of these dog owners take advantage of the designated areas in Sunset Park during off-leash hours. Off-leash areas offer the opportunity for dogs to exercise and interact with other dogs. This produces well­-behaved, non­-aggressive dogs that add a positive aspect to the community. Many owners are not able to go to the park areas for a variety of reasons. Some work during off-leash hours, some are concerned with going to the park when it is dark, and some are unable to walk far from home. The community needs a fenced-in area for unleashed dogs that is able to stay open during the day. We are not asking for a brand new area to be built just for us. Just the allowance of using one of the gated areas that no one uses.

As a peninsular state surrounded by water, and filled with miles of Everglades wetlands, we, of all states, should be making the greatest effort to reduce our waste. Florida’s coasts, wetlands, springs and marine life support tourism and have helped the state amass great wealth year-round. We need to protect the greatest natural treasures of this state. Ban single-use plastic bags for good. Let’s be the 9th state to do so, alongside California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont.

How Sidewalks Would Improve our Community: • Would provide sidewalk access to two entrances of Rock Creek Park Paths (Parkvale Rd and Manorvale Rd) • Provides sidewalk access for students walking to Earle B Wood Middle School and Rock Creek Valley Elementary School and the Earle B Wood Park on the school’s grounds • Provides sidewalk access to Bauer Driver Community Recreation Center • Would allow sidewalk access (via Rock Creek Park Path) to Tikvat Israel, and Twinbrook Baptist Church • Provides sidewalk access to Bus Stop (Bus 48 Line) at intersection of Greenspan Lane and Bauer Drive • Allows sidewalk access to Rock Creek Village center grocery stores/restaurants • All three roads are being used by drivers from outside the neighborhood as a short cut around Rock Creek Village Center and associated traffic • There have been car accidents from speeding cars on our street already. • We have an active community with seniors, kids, bikers, pedestrians, and dog walkers all currently in the street and increasing the risk of a serious accident.