• Say No to Shipping Ban of all animals in NY bill A04611
    Agriculture Committee Members, I oppose bill A04611. This bill has broad sweeping negative impacts on many animal interest groups including farmers, bird breeders, reptile keepers, mammal breeders, and more. New York Assembly Bill 4611 (A04611) was introduced on February 4. This bill seeks to ban the shipping of all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. This included shipments within, into and from the state (both import and export). Per the bill, shipping via any “mail carrier” will be banned so that includes the commonly utilized overnight services from major carriers such as FedEx and UPS (for verified shippers). A04611 was assigned to the Assembly Agriculture Committee. Fines can be $1,000 per violation. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal introduced the bill and she sits on the assigned Agriculture Committee. The Committee members must be made aware of the broad sweeping repercussions of this bill and informed of the many shipping regulations, restrictions, and safeguards already in place. Please allow me to inform you regarding the many regulations already in place to protect animals. Stringent policies are already in place by shipping companies, as well as various federal and state animal welfare laws. First, mail carriers already prohibit the shipment of many animals. The United States Postal Services (USPS) prohibits the shipping of mammals, most birds, turtles, and snakes. The United Parcel Service (UPS) does not allow shipments of mammals, birds, or snakes. Other companies have various restrictions and certifications. For example, FedEx requires that you have a Live Reptile Certification in order to ship live reptiles. If a carrier does allow for the shipment of certain live animals, there are stringent policies and laws in place. These include but are not limited to: Containers must meet construction standards; Proper ventilation; Veterinary health certificates and inspections; Use of heat/cold packs during certain weather conditions; International Air Transport Association (IATA) standards; International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) standards; Labeling requirements; Internal packaging requirements; The federal Lacey Act. Not only are all of these regulations already in place, but shipments are required to be done as timely as possible. When reptiles are shipped, they are delivered to the carrier or picked up late in the day and then delivered early the following day. The travel time is always less than 24 hours, and typically closer to 12 hours. Animals also are not shipped during temperature extremes as various thresholds for animal safety are applicable (too hot/too cold). The shipping of live animals is a serious matter, is not unregulated, and is not taken lightly by either the shippers or the carriers. For those who do ship animals, protections and safeguards for those animals are numerous. I hope you oppose and stop A04611. It is a misguided bill attempting to fix a problem that does not exist due to so many protections already existing. A04611 is bad for New York, the residents, and the animals. Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. Have a good day. Bill Text February 4, 2021 Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Agriculture AN ACT to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to prohibiting the shipment of certain live animals by postal mail The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The agriculture and markets law is amended by adding a new 2 section 382 to read as follows: 3 § 382. Prohibition of the shipping of live animals by postal mail. 1. 4 It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, partnership or corporation to 5 mail or offer for mailing a live animal by postal mail into or within 6 the state of New York or from the state of New York to points outside 7 the state of New York. As used in this section, "live animal" shall 8 mean any mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian. "Postal mail" shall mean 9 mail that is processed and delivered by the United States postal service 10 or other mail carrier. A person, firm, partnership or corporation shall 11 be considered to have mailed or offered for mailing a live animal in 12 violation of this section when such person, firm, partnership or corpo- 13 ration causes such live animal and applicable postage or shipping fee to 14 be physically placed in the possession of the United States postal 15 service or other mail carrier. 16 2. A violation of this section shall be punishable by a civil penalty 17 not to exceed one thousand dollars. Each such violation shall be deemed 18 a separate violation with respect to each animal mailed or offered for 19 mailing. 20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately Sincerely,
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    Created by Tara Canning
  • Stay Woke: Decriminalize Drug Addiction
    The "war on drugs" has led to a the incarceration of millions of Americans with at least a million more incarcerated every year. Many of these people are drug users with an addiction and punishing them with jail or prison time will not break the addiction, but treatment might. In some states, a first time offender can get 10 years in prison for simple possession while in other's, one can get a 20 year sentence for possession. A decade in jail for having an addiction is not the right answer. Our families are being torn apart by drug addiction, and harsh prison/jail sentences are not helping to resolve the problem. Addiction can be defeated with treatment, not prison.
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    Created by Thereasa Black
  • Lack of COVID vaccine for independent healthcare workers
    In California cases of COVID are rising at a rapid and dangerous pace. However, the California Department of Public Health has not published(nor made available to local health departments ) a roadmap to vaccinate outpatient healthcare workers who are not affiliated with a hospital. The vaccine rollout has been slow and unfortunately has left out a very large number of front line workers. These healthcare workers include primary care and specialty physicians, nurses, non-physician mental health providers, dentists-and their staff. Outpatient healthcare providers are often the first to assess and treat patients with COVID-19. They have been working to prevent hospital emergency rooms from becoming overwhelmed during the pandemic. Yet independent offices are being ignored and left to fend for themselves. Outpatient providers who have contacted the California Department of Public Health regarding this issue were told to contact their county, who in turn advised them to contact the state Health Department. Local hospitals when contacted have advised physicians to contact their county and that they can only vaccinate their own staff. Other states have created DOH vaccination sites where any Tier 1A healthcare worker can schedule themselves to be vaccinated without a prior invitation. All California Tier 1A healthcare workers must be vaccinated immediately, regardless of inpatient or outpatient work settings and REGARDLESS of hospital affiliation. We are all exposed to COVID-19 daily and each of our contributions are equally important in combatting the pandemic.
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    Created by Prerana Sangani
  • Re-Opening of Side Letter for Nurses
    We need to be present to plan for a safe-reopening of our schools. We need to provide vital training, medical care and support for our students and staff at the school sites. We cannot be removed from the care of our patients to assist in a business endeavor that is discouraged by the scientific community and the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. We have an obligation to our patients and this Sideletter violates this obligation, forces us to go against our duties as credentialed school nurses and as licensed registered nurses.
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    Created by Amber Trudgeon
  • End non-emergent surgery during lockdowns
    This is important as people are dying everyday and the numbers are spiking yet the hospitals again are brining in non-emergent patient which take up beds. We only have a finite amount of hospital beds and why are we using them in ways that work against the pandemic and resources needed.
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    Created by Chris Snell
  • Tennessee Nurse's Wage
    It doesn't matter what city or state you are in, nurses all deal with the same day-to-day challenges. When we encounter people at the hospital its when they are feeling their worst, they're scared, and some don't know how to express what they want so nurses are their advocates. The state of TN's average wage for a nurse in the hospital setting is 32% below national average (mind blowing). When I make this point people say "well the cost of living...". In reality, yes there's no state tax and the cost of buying a home is cheaper. Everything else is relatively the same. Another point I'd like to point out is the minimum wage in TN is $7.25 and a new grad nurse (in the Knoxville area) is started at $19.05/hour. That's a $11.80 difference. The state of CA's minimum wage is $13 hour and starts their nurses around $54/hour - a $41 difference. How are you going to justify that being equal due to the "cost of living". How do you justify a Target employee in Knoxville starting at $15/hour to a Registered Nurse starting at $19.05?? On top of the pay not being justifiable, we don't get holiday pay nor compensation if we end up getting COVID-19. Things need to change, nurses need and should to be paid much better than they are in the state of TN. Please help support us in making efforts to change this and receive the compensation we deserve.
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    Created by Corina Basso
  • President-elect Biden: Keep your promise to the Black community. Don’t nominate Rahm Emanuel.
    Rahm Emanuel‘s decisions and policies as mayor had a disproportionate and racist impact on Black communities, and his agenda aided corporations and the wealthy at the expense of working Chicagoans. To aid his re-election campaign in 2015, he suppressed video footage of the 2014 murder of a 17-year-old Black child, Laquan McDonald, by Chicago police. He made history by closing 50 public schools across Chicago, primarily in the majority-Black South and West Side communities of the city—the most school closures at one time in any school districts in the nation. During his first year in office, his administration shut down half of the public mental health clinics across Chicago. Soon after taking office, he eliminated the city’s Department of Environment, and as a result, environmental regulation dropped considerably. Communities of color throughout Chicago have borne the brunt of this decision, and thousands of people (primarily Black families) have been exposed to chemical hazards and irritants as a result. And while his administration was consistently slashing public services and utilities, the city funded the construction of a brand-new, $95-million police academy on Chicago’s West Side. The Department of Transportation has unions representing over 38,000 employees at the federal and national level. As mayor of Chicago, in addition to closing 50 schools, Emanuel repeatedly attacked public unions by supporting legislation that would make it harder for teachers to strike, laid off hundreds of school staff, and threatened to lay off hundreds of city employees in order to privatize some city services. Emanuel served big business and corporate interests throughout his time as mayor, and his decisions disproportionately harmed working families and communities of color. We have no reason to believe that he’d act any differently as a member of President-elect Biden’s Cabinet. President-elect Biden is taking office during a time of deep, overlapping crises. His administration will need to be bold, ambitious, and transformative and will need to speak to the needs of everyday people, and he needs to stand up for Black communities, as he said he would last month. His appointees must reflect that vision. Rahm Emanuel's track record is an affront to everything we voted for—especially to Black Americans—and he should have no place in the new administration.
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    Created by Mary Drummer, MoveOn Political Action
  • Later Start Time for Middle and High School Students at DPS
    I am a parent of two Denver Public Schools middle and high school students. My children’s health, happiness and social and academic successes are important to me as they are for all parents. Transitioning into the teenage years, their bodies naturally adjust to staying up later and sleeping in (when given the opportunity) yet they still need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night.  The current early morning start times in DPS are detrimental to their success as students and threaten their overall health.   Quality and quantity of sleep matter at all ages, but sleep is especially critical for teens. Growth and development occur during sleep and adequate sleep leads to improved attention span, attitude and overall improved health and wellness. What’s more, lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can have detrimental effects on the immune system and are tied to higher levels of stress. According to sleep specialist Wendy Troxel, a behavioral and social scientist with Rand Corp., “Research consistently finds inadequate sleep in teens is associated with increased risk of mental and physical health problems, including depression, suicide and obesity. It also creates problems with their concentration, memory, and ability to learn.” I understand that transportation logistics propose a hurdle to making schedule changes. However, we know that several other large, metro-area districts, as well as large school districts across the country, have successfully transitioned to a later start time for teens. During this unprecedented time, we have the opportunity to work solve these logistical problems and to create transportation schedules that support later start times for our middle and high schools when they return in-person learning. This petition requests that DPS create a new schedule for middle and high school students by implementing later start times to begin in the 2021-2022 school year. The science and social benefits are well documented, but here some articles that highlight important aspects of changing to a later start time:     https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/schools-start-too-early.html https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2018/02/three-reasons-to-consider-later-school-start-times.html https://www.nationaljewish.org/conditions/health-information/multimedia/facebook-live/why-do-teens-sleep-later https://www.rand.org/blog/2019/08/im-a-sleep-specialist-heres-how-i-prepare-my-two-teenagers.html https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/10/among-teens-sleep-deprivation-an-epidemic.html Show your support to implement later start times by signing this petition!
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    Created by Heather Manone
  • Justice for inmates at ECI
    This is very important because our loved ones are possibly going to get sick and not make it home to their families, wife’s and children by the prison spreading the virus and treating them as if they are not human.
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    Created by Ashley Congo
  • Save El Paso, we are Texas too.
    This is important because people are dying from the out of control spreading of Covid-19 and there is no plan to recover set in place.
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    Created by Teresa Gutierrez
  • Dr. Fauci, Resign and Speak Your Mind!
    If Trump is re-elected, many more people will die. If Biden is elected there will be a Federal response to the pandemic that will be based in science and thereby effectively save people that Trump's malignant neglect will condemn to death. Your current position on the Task Force leaves you beholden to the President and forces you to blunt your warnings to the American people. But as in other epidemics, silence = death! As directed by the Hippocratic oath, by basic ethics, and by your evident compassion for the plight of all peoples, you cannot continue in this compromised position. You can't control Trump, but plain speaking directly to the American people will save thousands of lives. We call on you to resign and speak your mind plainly and without equivocation.
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    Created by Dan Lloyd
  • Public Notice from University of Chicago Medical School Faculty and Alums
    We alumni, faculty and current students of University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, wish to make it known that we believe that medical science conflicts with several claims made and opinions expressed by Scott Atlas, class of 1981. At Pritzker, when we shift from lectures to clinics, a White Coat Ceremony is held, emphasizing honesty, integrity, ethics, compassion, and scientific rigor. These values are instilled in us throughout our tenure in medical school, and without them it seems one would neither be admitted nor permitted to graduate. For this reason we are shocked and dismayed to see an alum acting in such a way as Dr. Atlas. We do not support his policy recommendations that he says are backed by science. It is difficult to come to a positive conclusion about his motives when his incorrect statements fall so directly in line with a president that flouts science on a regular basis. Specifically, based on current scientific data, we support: 1) The use of masks to decrease the spread of SARS-CoV-2; 2) The use of extensive testing/tracking/surveillance strategies as a way to track COVID and prevent spread; 3) The closing of schools, institutions, or communities in cases where the spread exceeds the ability of the hospital system to care for those falling ill; 4) The use of personal and community-wide measures in addition to vaccines (if approved) to control spread as opposed to allowing spread without such measures. In all, we feel abandoned by our colleague, who is spreading false information to the world through the willing platform of news agencies and the president. We seek a future where science will stand for itself, unpoliticized, for the greater good of the people. Sincerely, The Students, Alumni and Faculty of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
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    Created by Judy Shatkin