The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately ravaged Black and brown communities compared to their white counterparts. The small business market is no different, as minority-owned small businesses have struggled to stay afloat during this global health crisis. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a loan program put forth by the Small Business Administration to give small businesses incentive to keep employees on payroll. However, 75% of the loan must go towards payroll — rent and utilities can only be paid with the other 25%. Minority and women-owned businesses on average have fewer employees compared to white, male-owned businesses. Many do not have employees at all. These businesses either didn’t qualify or the funds had been exhausted by the time their applications were processed. Another hurdle for minority business owners to overcome is the relationships banks already have with non-minority businesses. Banks participating in loan-forgiveness programs are more likely to issue loans to existing clients. Unfortunately, businesses owned by people of color are less likely to have commercial banking relationships. A reformed PPP should include demographic questions on loan applications to provide a better sense of who is receiving the loans and give business owners more leniency with how the loan is allocated. It is simply not enough for Congress to replenish the funds if these problems persist. Congress must take the corruption out of government relief programs and create an economy that truly works for everyone.

The Postal Service is by far the most popular government agency, with a 90% approval rating. It is one of the largest employers in the U.S., with a workforce of 630,000 people, 40% of whom are people of color. Our mail is delivered, rain or shine, six days a week, regardless of where we live in the United States. Privatizing the postal service would be a terrible blow for rural citizens. We need to stymie the Trump Administration and keep the USPS healthy and strong.

It is important that both Governors stop using fear mongering language directed at the beauty industry because they are making consumers unnecessarily afraid to return to their favourite salon or spa and preventing in home services where allowed. Governor Cuomo insists salon and barbershop professionals are non essential and Governor Newsom without any facts is spreading a lie that coronavirus started in a nail salon in California. It is irresponsible and damaging to an entire industry. Both Governors Cuomo and Newsom are preventing professionals from making an income indefinitely even though we have followed their shelter in place mandates. Many salon owners will lose their businesses through no fault of their own and never be able to reopen while leaving them in massive financial debt. This not only hurts them as a business owner but the people they employ and the communities they serve which is not limited to salons and spas. Licensed beauty professionals serve our senior communities by working in retirement and rehabilitation facility salons. We volunteer at city hospitals to bring services to patients that are not able to get to otherwise. We participate in charities, fundraisers and fashions shows. We provide services for the media and for entertainment. The disdain they have for the salon and beauty industry goes far beyond the four walls of any beauty or Barber shop and will inevitably effect every single person on both of their states if they don’t work with of instead of against us.

For me and many of these servers and bartenders as well as businesses owners , this is our livelihood. We have absolutely NO money coming in but still have to pay our state and federal taxes along with utilities, insurance, etc. Please reconsider this.

For me and many of these businesses, this is our livelihood and way of life. What happened to pro-choice? By June 6th, it will be over 60 days of us complying and with no end in site. We have the bare minimum or absolutely NO money coming in but still have to pay our state and federal taxes along with utilities, insurance, etc. Please reconsider this. We the people have right to make responsible choices and if you want to stay home, then stay home. That is your right as it our right to run our businesses, support our families, and get our staff, who are suffering the most back to work.

BIG meat and poultry companies are refusing to protect their employees! In order to protect their huge corporate profits, they are forcing their employees to make an impossible choice: either work under dangerous conditions (and thereby run the risk of infecting yourself and your family with Covid-19)-or lose your job! These companies should and must provide the necessary PPE, physical separation and testing in order to maintain a safe working environment for their employees. Until they do we should boycott their products. REFUSE TO BUY PRODUCTS FROM TYSON, JBS USA, SMITHFIELD FOOD, OR NATIONAL BEEF PACKING CO.!!!

Millions of people are either being denied any Federal CARES Act relief or having the federally issued emergency COVID-19 relief payments issued to help them and their families seized, taken, and used for other intents and purposes --- to pay non-emergency debts. This amounts to institutional and state THEFT of federal emergency relief payments made to help the people of our country during a time of global emergency and national crisis - for PROFIT and GREED. As one example, millions of divorced parents, their families and their children are having the federal emergency relief payments issued to them unlawfully treated as income and seized by the states. Their payments are being seized to pay back "child support" - even if the parents are making regular payments. The states are seizing and taking their emergency relief payments, treating the money and income - and using it to line state coffers and to enrich the states. In effect, this is allowing states to engage in criminal profiteering from the global pandemic. This is the nightmare scenario now unfolding across this country for millions of parents and their families. Parents are losing their jobs and sources of income as a result of business and government shutdowns. Millions of these parents are finding themselves unable to continue paying “child support” (in addition to being denied equal access to their children). Under normal circumstances, these parents would be able to file a motion for modification with the court and state. But our courts have shut down indefinitely because of the crisis. So divorced parents have no way to modify their support orders debts, and interest penalties mount for them each week. As they fall behind, with no access to the courts, their driver's and professional licenses can be suspended and they can be jailed (at state taxpayer expense), making it impossible for them to find new employment. When potential employers do background checks, they don’t care why someone was jailed – all they see is that the person was jailed, so why would they hire you? The state is profiteering because the federal government pays the state matching dollars for every dollar of “child support debt” the state manufactures and reports it as collecting to the federal government (See SSA Title IV-D.) You can be behind or defaulted in student loan payments to the federal government and get a CARES Act emergency relief check. You can be defaulted and behind in your IRS taxes, and get a CARES Act emergency relief check. You can be a convicted felon in jail, and receive a CARES Act emergency relief check. You can be DEAD or a foreign national, and receive a CARES Act emergency relief check. But if you are one of millions of parents who owe even a dollar of back “child support,” you and your family with receive NO CARES Act relief. This included parents who are often paying expenses for TWO households, years after their divorces were final, even if you are paying support in accordance with court orders! Divorced parents and their families and children are not second-class citizens to be unconstitutionally denied Equal Protection of our Laws. Parents married to immigrants and their families and children are also not second-class citizens to be unconstitutionally denied Equal Protection of our Laws. Millions of small business owners have received NO relief. This injustice must be corrected!

Each day, we hear story after story after story about someone who is suffering in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. In response, the Pentagon performed a series of military fighter jets flyovers across the United States in early May. But this ultra-militaristic show of force has nothing to do with COVID-19 — it won’t help people get their jobs back or get better. It’s simply a gigantic and insulting waste of taxpayer money in a moment when millions are asking for critical help and support. Our movement is built for fights just like this. When Trump wanted a tank parade, we stopped him. When his Administration tried to limit our rights to protest outside the White House on the National Mall, we fought back, and we won. We can win this fight, too, but only if we get loud now. Demand Secretary of Defense Mark Esper immediately stop fighter jet flyovers and redirect every dime planned for these shows to be spent on lifesaving medical equipment and economic relief instead.

Massage therapists provide medically necessary services for their clients including but not limited to services that: 1. Boosts the immune system 2. Help drain the lymphatic system 3. Reduces pain and inflammation 4. Improves circulation and lowers blood pressure 5. Lowers stress 6. Helps with fatigue 7. And a multitude of other benefits Many of our clients have chronic illnesses and come to us to help alleviate pain and to maintain a higher quality of life. By forcing us to stay closed, you are handicapping us and preventing us from taking care of our families as well as handicapping the thousands and thousands of clients across the state who come to massage therapists for a multitude of reasons. If a client can go to a physical therapist or chiropractor as well as get their hair and nails done (or tan or go to a gym), certainly they should be allowed to make this choice for themselves as well.

In April 2020, the state of Nevada agreed to relinquish its supply of drugs intended for executions to the pharmaceutical companies who manufactured them, as part of a settlement agreement in the case of Alvogen, Inc. v. Nevada. The state no longer has the means to carry out an execution, yet prosecutors continue to spend considerable funds pursuing the death penalty. We believe that the error-prone nature of the death penalty (nearly 1 in 3 cases have errors warranting retrial or re-sentencing), its bias against the indigent, Black people, and all people of color, its lack of deterrent effect, and the sheer cost of pursuing it should convince our leaders to put an end to the practice before cutting budgets for services that Nevadan's most vulnerable continue to urgently need, at a higher rate than ever before.

We are trained in protecting ourselves and our clients from disease. We are trained to assume every person that is in our chairs has a virus or disease that we can get. We use universal precautions each and every client each and every day. It’s wrong to choose to keep closed.

These workers are often people with limited resources who cannot risk infecting their families and communities. In exchange for their essential work, they must be protected and cared for in order for them to continue to be effective in their jobs.