When families expecting a child post to pregnancy websites like BabyCenter, they might not know that ICE is watching them. That’s because ICE contracts a data broker to scrape thousands of social media sites, gaming platforms, and even financial apps like CashApp. Why does ICE need to know when your baby is due, what video games you like to play, or where are you planning your next vacation? ICE doesn’t need this personal information about us, but because there’s a legal loophole, they can and do get access to a lot of our online activity. Congress must act now to close the Data Broker Loophole. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to close the Data Broker Loophole! ICE can reach into our personal online activity because they don’t do the spying themselves. Instead they contract out shady third party data brokers who do their spying for them and then give them wide access to everything they find. You’ve likely never heard of these companies, but they’ve probably already know a lot about you. For instance, ShadowDragon, the data broker ICE uses that scrapes data from BabyCenter. ShadowDragon doesn’t stop at pregnancy websites. According to their own internal videos and events, they scrape data from all the major social media platforms; gaming platforms like Fortnite, XBOX, and Playstation; review sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor; messaging apps like WhatsApp; even financial transaction apps like CashApp. The Fourth Amendment right against illegal government search and seizure needs to apply to the internet. That’s why Congress needs to act now to close the Data Broker Loophole. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to close the Data Broker Loophole! Sources: 1. 404 Media, “Inside ShadowDragon, The Tool That Lets ICE Monitor Pregnancy Tracking Sites and Fortnite Players,” September 18, 2023.

YOU COULD BE THE NEXT HOMEOWNER TARGETED! The Board of Supervisors are targeting Twin Lakes homeowners to seize our shorefront for more public access even though there six public areas on North Twin . NOTE: In this instance, homeowners have made tens of thousands of dollars of improvements to the shoreline, their property and have contracts with the DNR to have private access to the shoreline. This could cause a devaluation of their property, increased traffic and noise as well as all liability defaulting to the landowner.

In order to distract from twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former President Trump’s criminal charges and their own failing party, Republicans are pushing for impeachment—despite zero evidence or proof of wrongdoing. Impeaching President Biden is part of the GOP’s insidious strategy to distract voters, vilify Biden, and pave the way for Trump to take back the White House in 2024. Trump has even been pushing his close allies to impeach Biden, directing the entire charade from the sidelines. House Republicans have wasted taxpayer dollars combing over 12,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records, reviewing thousands of reports, and conducting witness interviews—without a shred of evidence to back up their false claims. Yet they have continued to mislead, lie, and push for impeachment for their own political gain. MAGA Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, are threatening to hold our government hostage, refusing to vote for funding to keep our government running unless the House moves forward with bogus impeachment efforts, among other outrageous demands. And their corrupt and misguided efforts are being endorsed by the Republican party, which continues to cower and cave to its most extreme, right-wing members at the expense of countless Americans. Speaker Kevin McCarthy has even gone so far as to open an impeachment inquiry—without a House vote.

Right-wing billionaires have invested tens of millions to capture the Supreme Court. They've worked with Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to pack the court with conservative justices. They've funded cases to overturn abortion rights, shatter precedent, and strengthen corporate power. And as has become clear due to recent blockbuster revelations, these billionaires have lavished gifts on conservative justices including Thomas and Alito—who have not disclosed these gifts for years or recused themselves from cases where there would be an apparent conflict of interest. Furthermore, Justice Thomas's wife—conservative superactivist Ginni Thomas—has helped create and advise these networks of conservative donors and advocates. Yet Justice Thomas has never recused himself from cases involving her work—including cases around Donald Trump's efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election, in which Ginni Thomas was directly implicated. Despite hundreds of thousands in gifts, rampant conflicts of interest, and a historically low level of public trust in the integrity of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts has refused to act. And while Democrats in Congress have held the first hearings about a judicial code of ethics for the Supreme Court, they have not gone far enough, while Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, Crow and others have dismissed congressional efforts to rein in the court. Our senators need to use their power to rein in the corruption of the Supreme Court and take meaningful steps to restoring its balance and integrity. It is Congress's authority and responsibility to act. Democrats hold a majority and need to use the power of their committee chairs to hold sweeping investigations into corruption and finally move forward a comprehensive ethics reform bill for a vote. It will take far more to fix the right-wing capture of the court and deal with the epidemic of the influence of Big Money. We need to expand the court to rebalance it, to pursue impeachment of corrupt justices, and to pass other reforms that restore the integrity of our judicial system. Sweeping investigations and a vote on ethics reforms are steps that are important—and within the power of today's Democratic majority.

The right-wing Republicans driving the agenda of the House of Representatives are threatening to shut down the government. This means that essential services—from making sure our drinking water is clean to keeping our national parks open to ensuring Social Security checks go out on time—could be in jeopardy. There have been federal shutdowns in the past. They hurt the economy, they punish federal workers, and they take a toll on Americans across the country. Why would the so-called Freedom Caucus and the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene want this? To push their radical-right agenda with a wish list of demands they know there's no legislative mandate or popular support for. Their demands range from making our immigration system more abusive to stopping the government from holding Trump accountable for his attacks on our democracy to voting on an absurd impeachment of President Biden. Their goal is to prevent President Biden from being able to govern—and to demonstrate that they don't think the federal government should function. We know better. And we know how many services and programs we rely on. That's why we're asking all members of Congress to say no to a politicized, partisan, reckless agenda to shut down the government. Credit: CNS/Reuters

This is important to the longevity of our community and to ensure a balanced and fair approach to the handling of city business, contracts, services, and resources that interface with the people in the city of Cordele. This move will allow us to bring needed oversight to the operation of our local government.

It starts with a handful of people and small businesses that the state government thinks it can cut out and run out of business, but where will it stop? They can not be allowed to get away with unfairly competing with small business in the state and causing more problems.

The political leaders who participated in the Insurrection—including the intimidation of election officials, the fake elector scheme, and the January 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol—must be held accountable and prevented from engaging in future attacks on our Democracy. The forces of political violence, disinformation, autocracy, and bigotry that drove the 1/6 Insurrection continue to pose grave threats to our country today. And while many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol have been held accountable, the vast majority of political leaders who actively undermined our Democracy and our Constitution have not. A large number of those individuals are current office holders or candidates for office. Barring or removing Insurrectionists from office is one important step toward preventing future attacks on our Constitution and laws. The U.S. Constitution is clear on this question: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment declares that anyone who previously held public office and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States is disqualified from holding future office unless two-thirds of Congress removes that bar. State and Federal officials have the power—indeed, the obligation—to uphold the 14th Amendment based on documented facts.

In recent months we’ve seen record numbers of flight cancellations and skyrocketing ticket prices. The way the airlines mistreat passengers and workers alike makes clear: big airline corporations have too much power already. 
We’re tired of paying up for unexpected and hidden fees. While lower-income Americans are already struggling to pay bills, corporations (like Delta, JetBlue and American Airlines) are racking up and expecting record profits. 
 It's time to subtract junk fees from our lives! We've had enough. The time for us to finally tackle corporate greed is now, and this is just the beginning. If you're tired of corporations increasing their fees and lining corporate executives' pockets, sign the petition!

Only sign this petition if you care about this beautiful planet and how we want to leave it for our future generations.

https://ruskcounty.org/supervisors https://youtu.be/9MZ3Lk1Hz5Q (Watch from about 9 minutes to 24:15) https://fb.watch/mkC5U7xVz2/?mibextid=Nif5oz

Under the fairness doctrine, any news organization was required to provide content on political issues from both parties (or if there was a third party, their viewpoint as well). If you are a Gen Xer, you remember the show Point, Counterpoint on PBS. Instead of making a blanket statement or series of statements on a buzzword issue, evidence was required to back your position, and more importantly, all news organizations were required to allow the opposing viewpoint an equal amount of time - hence the word "fairness" - on their news segment. The Fairness Doctrine also required that news media report errors in their reporting, and to provide corrections to anything that was potentially misleading whether in print or on the air. The Fairness Doctrine was enacted shortly after WWII and it was designed to combat three things. The prevalence of "yellow journalism" where papers would print wild and crazy stories only to incite emotions off of half truths, or frankly just falsehoods with the altruistic goal of simply selling more importantly sell newspapers. These newspapers were printed on cheap paper, that yellowed, which is where we get the term "yellow journalism". The second was to combat the monopoly newly formed television and radio networks had on the news, and their potential to abuse that monopoly to skew information that was provided to the masses to a narrative that the media companies wanted to present to the masses. This law was designed to ensure the media could not use their power to persuade their audience to behave the way they wanted. The third was that in the wake of WWII, we realized the power of news media when we looked at what happened to the German people prior to and during WWII. The Germans were nationalized by Hitler’s media machine that spewed hate, lies and propaganda that allowed the Third Reich to exist and thrive; the people of Germany, because of the propaganda allowed the atrocities of the Third Reich to happen. We passed the Fairness Doctrine to ensure that the news media in this country would not be able to do the same to our people. We wanted our people to make informed decisions, not decisions based upon emotion, or fear about issues that were insignificant, or easily rebuked. The Fairness Doctrine was repealed by President Reagan, and the once mundane news networks became exciting. The first household name that benefited from the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was a man named Rush Limbaugh. Using the removal of this law, he was able to present news, and information in a one-sided and biased format, without providing information about why his viewpoint may be biased, or even completely incorrect. He used this to his advantage and amassed a massive following and a fortune spreading his one-sided viewpoints. Some of his stories were credible, others were completely misleading. I use Limbaugh only because he was a household name. Both parties benefited from the repeal of this legislation. Likewise, even though Reagan's administration repealed the Fairness Doctrine, it was not party based, and both parties benefited from this law's repeal, as they could use the media to push their own agendas. Think about watching Fox News for a day and then watching MSBNC. They push stories and commentary that is one sided, a lot of which would completely fall apart if they had to present a counterpoint. The media companies, and this is perhaps the real reason the Fairness Doctrine was repealed wanted this as well. They could sell fear on stories and issues that again sounded very scary when you presented one side, but when the other side was presented, the story would fall flat. They could sensationalize the news, and well, make more money. Reagan’s repeal of the Fairness Doctrine likely had more to do with his former acting career and his Hollywood influence more than anything to do with political parties. The Fairness Doctrine prevented misinformation from being spread by actual news organizations. It prevented the spread of nationalistic ideology, and more importantly it required that the news media accurately report on stories that they covered, present facts that were verifiable, and provide an opportunity to discuss an alternative viewpoint. We need to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine to hold our news media accountable. This will stop sensationalizing the news and give the common voter in this country access to honest, reliable information.