On July 22, 2020, the Department of Labor & Industries announced the launch of a new spoken language interpreting scheduling system with Interpreting Works starting in Fall 2020. The Department of Labor & Industries is requesting that all interpreters enroll now. This is a real-time listing of available interpreting jobs located in proximity, accessible through mobile devices or a home PC. It also syncs jobs assignments with calendars and provides electronic invoicing for PROMPT PAYMENT. Who is responsible for paying the Language Access Providers? The Department of Labor & Industries or Interpreting Works? Under RCW 41.56.113 (2) “This Subsection (2) applies only if the state does not make the payments directly to the language access provider. Upon the authorization of a language access provider within THE BARGAINING UNIT and after CERTIFICATION or RECOGNITION of the BARGAINING UNIT’S exclusive bargaining representative, the state SHALL require through its contracts with third parties that” a. The payment of monthly union dues as certified by the secretary of the exclusive bargaining representative be deducted from the payments to the language access provider and transmitted to the treasure of the exclusive bargaining representative. Labor & Industries is implementing SSB 6245 affecting language access providers without a Collective Bargaining Unit in place. The state of Washington introduced a House Bill 2691 as amended by the Senate in the 2020 regular session relating Collective Bargaining for Language Access Providers, Approved by Governor Inslee on April 2, 2020. This amendment gives the right to language access providers from the Department of Labor & Industries under RCW 41.56.030 to have a “Bargaining Representative” for collective bargaining to a lawful organization. The Scope of collective bargaining for language access providers is limited solely to: 1. Economic Compensation such as the manner and rate of payments, including tiered payments. 2. Professional development and training. 3. Labor-management committees. 4. Grievance procedures. 5. Health and welfare benefits; and other economic matters. The “Exclusive Bargaining Representative” of language access providers in the unit specified in (a) of this subsection shall be representative CHOSEN IN AN ELECTION conducted pursuant to RCW 41.56.070. Governor Inslee, Interpreters Rising is a labor movement organization that encourages the practice to have a collective bargaining unit, the practice to organize, the practice to unionize. The Department of Labor & Industries is acting unilaterally without a bargaining representative to represent language access providers. Such action constitutes a violation of our labor rights. Due to the unprecedented nature of the Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis, Labor Organizations have not been allowed to hold group campaigns or union card signing events as we are observing and adhering to social distancing guidelines set forth by your office. However, Labor & Industries Language Access Providers deserve the freedom to choose their representative by election. The right to fair working conditions, and the right to Unionize! We are calling on you to please take prompt action and delay SSB 6245 from taking effect until June 30, 2021.

Our Constitution is being ignored. An authoritarian, nondemocratic order of life in America is being prepared just before the election. This threatens the concept of democratic elections

The US Military has been using esports and live-streaming recruiters playing video games on sites like Twitch.tv to recruit. Military recruiters from the Army, Navy and Air Force pose as “esports athletes” and hang out with young children with the ultimate objective of increasing recruitment. The military collectively spends millions on promotions for these recruiting efforts, with some single-site or single-org partnerships exceeding millions. On Twitch, there are no meaningful safeguards to restrict the military from using and exploiting these parasocial relationships with people under 16. Recruiters often use video game tournaments in schools as recruiting mechanisms to target children as well. Additionally, recruiters take advantage of the poor seeking steady income, the vulnerable longing for stability, and the undocumented living in fear because of their citizenship status. Now, at a time when all those factors are magnified by a pandemic that has left half the country out of work and over 30 percent unable to afford their housing payments, conditions are ripe for recruiters to prey on anxious youth. They abused this dynamic by employing murky “giveaways” until Twitch recently told them to stop.

So that we still have a Democracy and have laws protecting protestors and press and not fall into an authoritarian regime and fascism. Thanks so much, Mateo Zapata Zachai

Mr. Lindbergh contributed to the US not entering WWII soon enough. He said the Jews were one of three current world problems. He also said one thing people couldn't discuss was the 'Jewish problem.' A city that wants to appear accepting, wants socially conscious businesses to be founded or re-locate there, and wants to tackle hate doesn't welcome people to their environs via Mr. Lindbergh. As to their rationale that Lindbergh did x, y, and z, Germany created the first jet. Does that mean we ignore everything else they did back then? Dr. Mengele might have had redeeming qualities. I wouldn't suggest pointing that out.

Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen heavily armed federal troops controlled by Donald Trump descend on Portland: snatching peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters off the streets and putting them in unmarked vans. They tear-gassed, beat, and shot protesters with “less lethal” rounds, injuring several and almost killing one. Portland’s mayor and city council, Oregon’s governor and state legislators have denounced Trump’s authoritarian tactics and called on the feds to leave. Now, the president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), John Catanzara, is helping bring Trump’s goons to Chicago. Catanzara—who has had more than 35 official complaints against him, and been suspended 6 times—sent a letter to Trump asking him to send federal agents to “bring civility back to the streets of Chicago.” Just days later, Trump announced that he’s sending troops to Chicago and other cities across the country, and he referenced the Chicago FOP’s letter to him to help justify it. Trump is attempting to create a national, federal police force that operates in secret and is accountable only to him, not to local communities or their elected officials. With outrage erupting at these plans, the Trump administration is claiming the officers they’re sending to Chicago and other cities are there to fight violent crime, not to crack down on protesters like in Portland. But Trump and his allies in the FOP (and other police unions) are blaming a rise in violent crime on a climate of hostility to police, saying that federal troops are needed to “restore order.” Trump’s enthusiasm for using law enforcement to target his political enemies is clear. He’s been practicing in Washington D.C. and Portland, and now he wants to bring the same repressive federal police to Chicago and other cities. It’s a direct power grab, and a dog whistle to the violent racists in Trump’s base that crave violence against protesters and people of color. It’s likely a preparation for using these same federal forces to suppress the vote and steal the election in November. And now, police unions are going over the heads of their own police chiefs and mayors to invite Trump’s federal police into their cities, to collaborate with them in a violent crackdown on peaceful protest and dissent. The national FOP is strongly supporting Trump’s move (while defending Catanzara and helping him attack Chicago’s mayor). The president of Portland’s police union had a friendly meeting with Trump’s Director of Homeland Security to discuss the federal agents there—without the knowledge of Portland’s chief of police, and while Portland’s leaders were calling for the feds to leave. The ACLU is suing the Trump administration to stop his federal agents from attacking journalists in Portland, and the National Police Association filed a legal brief against the ACLU and in support of Trump—arguing that police need to be able to use violence against journalists and legal observers. It is long past time for Chicago’s political leaders to refuse to negotiate or work with the FOP in any way. Chicago’s FOP is notorious for attacking, intimidating, and threatening activists and political leaders who get in their way. It takes extreme measures to undermine reform and block accountability for violent and abusive officers. Chicago’s FOP and other police unions have long promoted violent, unaccountable, and authoritarian policing on the local level. Now they are inviting in federal troops to help escalate violence and repression against those who are challenging the police and demanding change in Chicago. They are signing up to work with Trump—a would-be totalitarian dictator—as he sets up a secret, nationwide, personal police force. It’s incredibly dangerous, and we can’t allow it to go unchecked. Join us in calling on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Chicago city council, and other leaders to denounce the FOP and refuse to negotiate with them on any aspect of police accountability and reform until they drastically reverse course.

Donald Trump is the antithesis of every value upon which the New York Yankees community is based, and has gone out of his way many times over to offend, dehumanize, and harm the very people upon whom the organization depends, both players and fans. He has no business stepping foot through the stadium doors, let alone onto the mound in a position of honor.

The Selectboard has an inconsistent process for allowing public comment which does not give residents clear opportunities and avenues for communicating their perspectives, lived experiences and concerns about what is happening in our community. By instituting a regular process for public comment at Selectboard meetings — something that is common in most other communities — Belchertown's leadership will be supporting the democratic process and helping to facilitate necessary dialog between residents and elected officials.

To protect the health of teachers, students and community members and create equity for all students regardless of wealth.

The people of Salem, MA deserve decentralized rehabilitative justice system built on community and protection.The police stands against this, born out of the desire to control and patrol slaves, built from the enslavement of Black and Indigenous people alongside the destruction and abuse of the indigenous community, all the while enforcing the power of the powerful few who strive to benefit themselves instead of the community they press themselves upon. Systemic racism was built within the laws of this country sustaining itself as a prevalent issue within our community and unless we start listening to the voices and demands of the Black revolutionaries that have bled for these changes since the birth of these countries, the system will perpetuate into a cycle of destruction. The abolishment of our modern police institution is the only progress towards achieving proper justice and equality within our criminal justice system; police reform cannot provide the justice we seek. Reform has historically been very limited when it comes to changes and often further induces harm while maintaining the current power structures that this country holds. Police brutality against Black individuals stems from the branches of institutionalized racism that have led to prolonged socioeconomic issues affecting the Black community. We, Solidarity Northshore and community members that sign on to this petition believe that the Racial Equity Task Force’s purpose of “identifying short- and long-term reforms” and “developing an action plan to achieve greater racial equity in our community” is misguided and fundamentally flawed. Our current system of policing, which kills, controls, and contains Black, Brown, and poor people, is working exactly as it was designed. It cannot be reformed to be better. We reject the notion that there are no immediate, actionable goals that the City Council can initiate using their already present power to change policy and divert funding from the police using our demands.

Citizens may be reliant on available credit in order to stave off eviction or put food on the table.

Right now, unidentified federal agents are on Portland’s streets targeting, tear-gassing, beating, and illegally arresting protestors in an OUTRAGEOUS overreach of federal authority. These forces are cobbled together from a number of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, acting with impunity and without cause. The last three years have shown how far Trump is willing to go to maintain and increase his hold on power — and how DHS can be used to achieve those ends. What’s happening in Portland, and what’s being threatened in other cities, is nothing less than the post-9/11 national security state being turned on regular people exercising their constitutional human rights. Luckily, you can’t wage a war that you can’t pay for. And Trump’s timing couldn’t be worse: the House may vote on a DHS appropriations bill next week. Add your name now to demand Congress refuse to pass this bill without a COMPLETE withdrawal of these agents and a bar on ANY funding that would support Trump’s secret police force.