A teen and her mother in Nebraska face criminal charges for allegedly self-managing an abortion, and social media and tech giant Facebook has provided some of the evidence that led to their arrest. Prosecutors have obtained and are using private Facebook messages to demonstrate the teen was seeking pills to end an unwanted pregnancy. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Republicans claimed they weren’t interested in prosecuting people who are or were pregnant, yet local authorities are charging the teen and her mother. And despite Big Tech’s claims to support abortion access, Facebook is helping criminalize these people seeking abortion care—and many more people who want to practice autonomy over their lives or simply seek health care. The fact is that abortion access advocates and privacy experts had been warning us about this—that following the right-wing Supreme Court's overturning of Roe, our digital info could be used by authorities to track our pregnancies, support forced births, and criminalize us. Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other tech giants collect endless data, creating digital trails about our health and behavior. And as they've shown, authorities will seek this information out and tech companies will provide it. It’s not enough for them to say they support abortion access, or even that they'll provide staff with resources to seek out abortion care. These companies need to act. - They need to stop collecting and monetizing the data that invades our privacy. - They need to allow users to control and delete their digital identities. - They need to refuse to comply with requests that compromise our health privacy. - And they need to stop backing right-wing politicians who have pushed abortion bans and laws that criminalize pregnant people, their families and their medical providers.

This is costly not only in the monetary cost, but also in the damage done to our democracy and eroding faith in our elections. Such allegations are leading to violence and further division in our country. This must be stopped.

Republicans, who have won the presidential popular vote only once in the last 34 years, have engaged in a concerted effort to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing extremist judges, who have stripped us of our rights over and over again. And though the Respect for Marriage Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, 157 House Republicans voted against it. That’s right: 157 Republicans voted against protecting interracial marriage and same-sex marriage. And ONLY 5 Republicans in the U.S. Senate have publicly said they would vote to pass the bill. It’s unacceptable, but part of the Republican agenda has been to relentlessly attack the LGBTQ+ community. Republicans have not minced words: Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (who is up for re-election in November) said that voting to protect interracial and LGBTQ+ marriage equality was a “stupid waste of time.” And when Indiana Republican U.S. Senator Mike Braun was asked if he would be okay with the Supreme Court leaving the question of interracial marriage to the states, he said “Yes.” It’s disgusting. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, LGBTQ+ couples and families have been anxiously rushing to the courts to get married, completing second parent adoptions with their partners, worrying about whether or not their partners and families will be covered by their health insurance in the future, and so much more to protect their families from these attacks. It’s heartbreaking. No one should have to worry that their rights (that so many have fought and died for) will be stripped away at the hands of corrupt, illegitimate, and unelected Supreme Court justices that do not represent the people. The U.S. Senate needs to act before it’s too late. It’s time to pass the Respect for Marriage Act to protect interracial and LGBTQ+ marriage NOW.

As Citizens of Cobb County, Georgia, we are horrified and alarmed by the increase of deadly shootings involving assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in our society. These deadly weapons have been used by individuals to ambush people, including children, causing death and severe injury to large numbers of victims in mere moments. The ammunition for assault weapons shred human flesh and decimate bodies beyond recognition. These weapons of war and mass destruction should not be available to purchase. Retailers have the power to decide what merchandise they sell. They do not have to include assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in their product offerings to be successful, profitable operations. THUS, WE REQUEST THAT ALL RETAILERS IN COBB COUNTY IMMEDIATELY AND PERMANENTLY STOP SELLING ASSAULT WEAPONS AND HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES

The real estate developers are a powerful force in NYC, but the people of Brooklyn don't back down in the face of a threat to our communities.

We are partnering with other organizations across the country to gather signatures on this petition started by Greenpeace. Please add your name to this petition to send the strongest possible message to President Biden. The climate crisis is already changing life as we know it. Devastating climate impacts are displacing millions of people each year. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to extract from public lands and exploit communities of color for profit. Declaring a Climate Emergency would be the beginning of the end to the era of fossil fuels and climate destruction. By using his executive powers, President Biden can repair the harm caused by environmental racism and deliver good-paying union jobs, justice, and clean energy for all. Families from Washington state to Florida are already starting to feel the severity of the climate crisis. In the United States and around the world, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor people are the first to feel the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and predatory exploitation. By declaring a Climate Emergency, President Biden can begin to utilize the “whole-of-government approach” to begin solving the biggest existential threat that we have ever faced.

Water is a basic human right. At a school that demands academic excellence, it is hypocritical that no water is provided for paying students. Dehydration negatively impacts academic performance and focus. How can we perform if we are not given the basic tools in order to do so. We are also in school for the HOT summer months with no AC in the classrooms as well. Water is something that should AT LEAST be provided considering the tuition we pay to attend this institution.

The Luther Burbank Center for the Arts claims, on paper, to be committed to serving Sonoma County’s diverse community, “taking meaningful actions to welcome and center the voices that often need to be heard, [and] furthering the community dialogue around equity, oppression, active inclusion and privilege in everything we do.” [Source: https://lutherburbankcenter.org/about/general-information/diversity-equity-inclusion/] If any place, particularly a nonprofit, commends itself for its upstanding diversity, equity and inclusion, it should be held accountable by those standards in all its actions within the community it serves. By allowing performers like Dave Chapelle to use their space as a platform for blatantly transphobic and harmful content, the LBC contradicts the values asserted in their DEI statement and directly contributes to the violent rhetoric LGBTQIA+ people are forced to deal with every day. By giving discrimination the stage, the Luther Burbank Center sends a message to all of Sonoma County that prejudice, harmful language, and stereotypes are cause for laughter and celebration. On Wednesday, July 20th, Minneapolis’ First Avenue theater listened to community outcry and relocated Dave Chapelle’s performance to another venue. By aiming to move Chapelle’s Sonoma County performances, we build upon the message which First Avenue has sent: transphobia will not be tolerated in our community or beyond. The LBC is supposed to stand for our community, not for profit! By signing this petition, you raise your voice against the normalization of transphobia in our county and stand as an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community.

As I write this, the clock that indicates how much time we have left to avoid a 1.5 degree temperature increase is about to roll over from 7 years, 0 days, 00:00:00 to 6 years, 364 days, 23:59:59. In spite of this, and the fact that the majority of Pennsylvanians want to see their government act on climate, our state government continues to take us in the wrong direction, approving more fossil fuel and petrochemical development while pushing for huge investments in false climate solutions promoted by the fossil fuel industry. Among them are technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage and Blue Hydrogen, initiatives like turning western PA into a Hydrogen Hub, and specific projects like Nacero, Encina, and KeyState. Our clock must serve as a permanent reminder that our government needs to break its ties with the industries responsible for the ever-shortening amount of time it counts down and take swift, bold, and just action on climate.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade requires bold action. It is important for the Surgeon General to issue a letter to every American household giving them complete and accurate information about medication abortion, to increase knowledge and availability of this safe and effective process.

All people should have the fundamental freedom to control their own body. This is the beginning of stripping away other essential rights. We need to stop it now.

Ben & Jerry’s made the human rights-affirming decision last year to stop doing business in occupied Palestine, following many years of local grassroots organizing and global campaigning. Now, a year after Ben & Jerry’s public announcement, their parent company, Unilever, has made a backroom deal to sell ice cream operations to the Israeli licensee rather than honor Ben & Jerry’s decision to get out of occupied Palestine and respect Palestinian lives. Sign the petition: tell Unilever to stop its betrayal, and stop profiting from illegal settlements. In a bold move, consistent with its founders’ values, Ben & Jerry’s has sued Unilever for essentially going against the company’s values.¹ Unilever isn’t the only corporation breaking international law and putting profit over human rights in occupied Palestine. The United Nations lists over 100 businesses that profit from Israel’s illegal and violent occupation.² Global human rights organizations, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, have meticulously documented the harm and dispossession Israel’s settlements continue to bring to Palestinian communities.³⁴ The UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israel’s B’tselem, and Palestine’s Al-Haq all call for corporations to stop doing business in the settlements and stop supporting the devastation of Palestinian lives. Let Unilever know it’s time to follow their lead, and respect Ben & Jerry’s decision. Sign the petition to Unilever now. Sources: 1. “Behind the fight between Ben & Jerry’s and its owner, Unilever.” The New York Times, July 7, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/business/ben-jerry-unilever-israel.html 2. “U.N. Publishes List of Firms Doing Business With Israeli Settlements,” The New York Times, February 12, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/world/middleeast/un-israeli-settlements-companies-list.html 3. “Israel's apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity,” Amnesty International,” February 1, 2022. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/ 4. “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” Human Rights Watch, April 27, 2021. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution