PETITION: CTT offer to allow for full USPS tracking of US inbound registered mail. Dear CTT Postal Service of Portugal, We are kindly asking you to redefine your tracked offerings concerning international outgoing registered mail to the USA. Who we are? We are a community of Portuguese crafters and online shops with over 50% of our sales going to the US market. We ship several thousand parcels of sold goods to our private customers in the USA, and are sending you this request due to the continuous problems with deliveries to the USA. What is the issue? Registered airmail tracking numbers (with barcodes) do not appear in USPS tracking systems. CTT only allows us to track up until leaving the country. If USPS continues to not scan the tracking numbers the packages will simply disappear. We don't even receive a message stating that it has arrived in the US. We need to provide proof to our customers that packages have arrived in the US. We are experiencing a huge growth in claims, refunds and negative feedbacks from our US customers and as result we keep loosing business and you too will loose business. We pay the highest possible form of shipping CTT offers, yet it is not supported by USPS systems as seen in this notice on their website: ************************************************************************ International Registered Mail Tracking Suppression of Import Registered Mail Effective October 1, 2015, the Postal Service™ will no longer offer visibility for international import Registered Mail™ items unless International Posts have upgraded to offer their customers U.S. Postal Service® products that come with visibility. The International Posts which have upgraded to offer their customers Postal Service products that offer visibility are listed here: https://about.usps.com/pos.../2015/pb22424/html/info_002.htm ************************************************************************** How will we know when the recipient receives the package? How will we know if the recipient signed for it? How will we know if a notice has been left or unclaimed? How will we know it there is a delay? What do we ask: We would kindly ask you to become compliant with the USPS registered airmail tracking system even if that means the cost to ship Registered mail piece from Portugal will increase significantly. That will allow the USPS to scan packages as soon as they arrive in the US. Would like this information to appear on your website so that all your customers and our customers in the US could have access to this information. If this information does not appear CTT will inevitably receive thousands of customer services complaints and requests to "Reclamações" to search for lost Registered mail, which CTT will have to compensate. We would like all our clients to have a clear understanding that our packages have actually left Portugal and are waiting to be processed in one of the USPS sorting facilities on the US territory. We really hope for your understanding and cooperation. Thank you very much for your time, From the Portuguese online sellers, self employed small businesses, crafters, regular registered mail senders of gifts and of course many thanks from our recipients in the US. * * *

Senators have introduced the “Railway Safety Act of 2023” to address some of the concerns about rail safety that resurfaced after the disastrous Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The bill calls for stronger safety standards for all trains carrying hazardous materials and also expands those standards to trains not currently subject to high-hazard flammable train, or HHFT, regulations (like the train in East Palestine). We need this legislation to pass swiftly in the Senate, so it can go to the House, and then Biden's desk. People deserve protection and regulations so that railroad workers are able to feel safe at work, and residents feel safe knowing trains passing by their communities will be less likely to derail. A second train derailed in Ohio just a few days ago. We don't have time to waste to take widespread action towards rail safety. Photo Credit: The New York Times

Please join me in advocating for raising the Federal Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers. I have watched my mother work her body to exhaustion for over thirty years, never making more than $2.13/hour. She has been afraid of retribution if she advocates for herself. The plight of the average server is often overlooked when we talk about issues with minimum wage even though the tipped worker minimum wage has not increased in 32 years. I am sick and tired of having this vulnerable segment of the working population left out of the conversation. Please join me in championing those without a voice.

As short-term rentals increase, residency decreases.* Short-term rentals drive up the cost of living. Short-term rentals deplete the availability of long-term rentals. Regulations on short-term rentals are becoming common in Texas cities and have been upheld by courts.** Short-term rentals are expected to continue to grow in number by 20-30% annually.*** 20% of Marfa's housing is currently short-term rentals with more being built as you read this.**** * From the Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vacation-rentals-in-the-desert-e63eb21e (this article is behind a paywall, but an audio file is available at the top of the page without a login). ** Information provided by Texas Neighborhood Coalition *** Statistics provided by Granicus **** Information gathered from Granicus and the Presidio County Appraiser

It's going to destroy the article. It's going to destroy the world, our world. It's going to destroy future generations, It's going to destroy everything we need more people to sign it we are going to die we need to take action the isn't much time left please just listen to me, Listen to us all. Please I beg, Spread awareness, Do everything you can please I don't want to die I'm just a kid I don't want to lose everything my home, Please help.

In 2018, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule, which had required rail companies to upgrade brake systems on trains carrying certain hazardous materials. Norfolk Southern was among a group of rail carriers who opposed this regulation and that contributed more than $6 million to Republican lawmakers in the 2016 election -- the most contributed by the rail industry to one party in over two decades. But that’s not all! Norfolk Southern has spent nearly $80 million on lobbying efforts over the last 25 years, including opposing two-person crew requirements on every train -- a safety measure that workers say is vital to limiting train derailments and that the Trump administration again rejected. In allowing the industry to regulate itself, the Trump administration said “that no regulation of train crew staffing is necessary or appropriate for railroad operations to be conducted safely at this time” and said separately, “the expected costs of requiring ECP brakes would be significantly higher than the expected benefits of the requirement.” It’s up to us to hold greedy corporations accountable to workers and to communities across the country.

ExxonMobil just crushed the record for the most profitable year in the history of the ENTIRE western oil industry. They netted $56 billion in profit in 2022!1 The fact that this happened the same year gas prices went through the roof makes it very clear what exactly was going on. The White House has now twice called out the oil industry for price gouging consumers2,3 and it’s time for Congress to respond by passing the Windfall Tax. Sign the petition: We need a Windfall Profits Tax! In 2022, ExxonMobil set a new record for the most profitable year in the history of the western oil industry. ExxonMobil isn’t the only one exploiting consumers, fossil fuel companies across the industry saw historically massive profit margins. The combined industry profit this year is almost $200 billion!4 Instead of investing these massive profits into lowering prices, corporations have been sending it to their shareholders in the form of stock buybacks. This is all a result of disgusting greed and exploitation. The oil industry took advantage of the war in Ukraine and public anxiety around inflation to jack up gas prices. CEOs at ExxonMobil and Shell are drenched in obscene profits while regular working people have been crushed by soaring prices. Congress must pass the Windfall Profits Tax. Sign the petition: We need the Windfall Profits Tax! Big oil corporations have price gouged and profiteered off the War in Ukraine and inflation anxiety. Now they are swimming in record-breaking profits. Windfall Profits Tax, NOW! Sources: 1. Reuters, “Exxon smashes Western oil majors' profits with $56 billion in 2022,” January 31, 2023. 2. The Guardian, “Biden accuses oil companies of ‘war profiteering’ and threatens windfall tax,” October 31, 2022. 3. Reuters, “White House blasts Exxon over historical $56 bln annual profit,” February 1, 2023. 4. Reuters, “Exxon smashes Western oil majors' profits with $56 billion in 2022,” January 31, 2023.

Railroad workers have warned people in power that a disaster of this magnitude could happen without stricter rules and safety measures on trains. We need the Department of Transportation to take this seriously and force companies to use braking technology that will save lives. Right now, most train companies, including the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in Ohio, use braking technology from the Civil War (yes you read that correctly). The evacuation order was lifted last week and residents have been returning. But since then, there’s been a growing number of reports about people experiencing a burning sensation in their eyes, and animals rapidly falling ill in East Palestine. It could happen to any of us, as trains carrying these chemicals and freight ride past our communities and cities daily. We need to make the right investments to save human lives and protect workers. Photo Credit: MSNBC News

After years of inaction, the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act means the US finally has a fighting chance at meeting our climate goals. But the IRA is just the start -- now we have to do the hard work of implementation, everywhere. Cities, including San Francisco, have a critical role to play to ensure we get to net-zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, San Francisco is already behind. While we have an ambitious Climate Action Plan (CAP), Mayor London Breed, who proudly introduced the CAP in 2021, has been surprisingly reluctant to actually commit funding to carry it out. In the last two budget cycles, she included $0 for implementing the CAP in her budget proposals, and it was only through heroic efforts by advocates to the Board of Supervisors that any money was restored. This year, the San Francisco Environment Department (SFE) is requesting $7 million for staffing and programs essential for achieving the CAP on schedule. This is a minuscule amount in the city's overall $14 BILLION budget, and yet we will need to fight tooth and nail for the funding. Mayor Breed has still not committed to SFE's request, and now is the time to let her know that another snub to climate funding is simply not an option compatible with maintaining a livable planet. The climate crisis impacts the city in countless ways. It is a public health crisis, and funding climate initiatives will improve residents’ and the planet’s health. Such initiatives are also critical to address environmental justice and equity issues in San Francisco and improve the lives of underserved, lower-income, and BIPOC communities. Climate initiatives will attract more businesses and tourists, create jobs, and elevate the status of San Francisco as a world-class city. President Biden and Democrats nationwide have campaigned on climate, and won, proving that it is a winning issue. Mayors around the world are leading on aggressive climate policies in their cities. It's time for Mayor Breed to show that she is a serious leader who recognizes that climate action is the path to a livable, equitable, and rejuvenated San Francisco, by committing to funding $7 million for SFE in her 2023-2024 budget.

Last week’s circus on the House floor was an absurd means to an inevitable end: Kevin McCarthy is the new Speaker of the House. This week, the McCarthy era began with a grossly predictable assault on federal spending. The first vote of the Republican controlled chamber is to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which successfully passed in the House.1 They specifically want to undo recent investments made to the IRS designed to strengthen the agency’s ability to crack down on millionaire, billionaire, and corporate tax cheats. In other words: they want to issue handouts to their wealthy donors. Sign the petition: the US Senate must reject House Republicans' attempt to undermine the IRS for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Who will benefit from a weakened IRS? Notably Donald Trump. His recently released tax returns expose a strategy of overseas bank accounts and manipulative real estate evaluations that effectively allowed him to dodge taxes.2,3 This is exactly why Democrats included an extra $80 billion in funding for the IRS in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.1 To go after ultra-wealthy tax cheats like Trump. Republican’s response has been to paint the I.R.S. investments as “militarizing the IRS” and creating “hordes of armed IRS agents” that would target small businesses and working Americans.4 They pretend to be serving the interests of working Americans when really, they’re just following the classic GOP playbook of catering to the ultra-wealthy. This hypocritical fear mongering is also on display in the name of their bill, “The Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.” A more appropriate name might be something like “The Millionaire, Billionaire, and Corporate Taxpayer Protection Act.” Claiming their legislation will help working Americans when in reality it will only benefit the top one percent is about to be the status quo for the McCarthy run House. We need to rely on the Democrat-run Senate to hold the line and prevent this harmful legislation from becoming law. Sign the petition: Tell the US Senate to reject House Republicans attempts to defund the IRS! Sources: 1. NY Times, “House Republicans Vote to Rescind I.R.S. Funding,” January 9, 2023. 2. The Independent, “Trump had foreign bank accounts in China, UK and Ireland as president and one year paid more foreign tax than US,” December 30, 2022. 3. CNN, “Key takeaways from six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns,” December 30, 2022. 4. Reuters, “Fact Check-The IRS is not hiring thousands of armed agents, job ads show opening for specialized unit,” August 17, 2022.

Thousands of vulnerable individuals are at risk to lose Telehealth for psychotherapy as of February 28, 2023, as noted in detailed letter above. It should not be a choice between risking grave illness versus psychotherapy, whether patients or therapists. It should not be a choice between being poor and having access to psychotherapy through Telehealth.

In the last three years, nearly 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 100 million more have become ill. This huge, unnecessary price increase for the Moderna vaccine would have devastating impacts and will cause needless deaths and severe, long-term health challenges for so many due to millions of Americans not being able to afford the vaccine. It will make the vaccine unavailable and inaccessible for many millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans (especially low-income people, people with disabilities, and communities of color) who won’t be able to afford it. How many people will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these life-saving vaccines? In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much-needed vaccine is unconscionable. The COVID-19 vaccines were jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. government agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and the federal government, who directly provided $1.7 billion to Moderna for research and development. If Moderna more than quadrupled the price of the vaccine, it would make it unaffordable to the very residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible, not to mention the fact that this decision will make the vaccine inaccessible to countries across the world. That is not acceptable. It will also have a significantly negative impact on the budgets of Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs that will continue covering the vaccine without cost-sharing for patients. It will cost taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars, and the outrageous price boost will increase private health insurance premiums. And in the midst of the worst public health crisis in the U.S. over the last two years, Moderna made over $19 billion in profits and used those profits to provide incredibly extravagant compensation packages to the CEO and other top officials at the company. The Moderna CEO even became a multi-billionaire as a direct result of Moderna’s COVID vaccine, and several Moderna chairmen, co-founders, and investors are now billionaires, too. Let’s be clear: The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect our health and lives, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires. This is why we are urgently calling for Moderna to NOT increase the price of the people-funded COVID-19 vaccine!