They are using Black people as test subjects at disproportionate rates. They claim it is because these countries have high numbers of Covid-19, despite having European nations, and the U.S take the lead in Covid cases. This has been seen before in history. Look to the Tuskegee experiment. Look to the experiments performed on enslaved people in the U.S. History is repeating itself. Black people are not guinea pigs.

This is important because the City Council took a sacred site away from the historic aboriginal Tribe of El Dorado County and gave it to the Sutter County Tribe just as the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors did in 2004. The Upper Broadway site belongs to the Wopumnes Tribe with over 150 years of history in El Dorado County. This is their sacred site that they have been protecting for over 100 years. On April 16, 2020 the City of Placerville bull-dozed the site without CEQA review and without warning. The City claims they gave notice in their 2018 MND but the site was obscured from the construction activities so there was no need for the Tribe to reveal the site. On June 23, 2020, item 12.1 on the City Agenda, the Placerville City Council, in an unprecedented act of insensitivity and amidst much support of the historic tribe, decided to ignore the Wopumnes request to allow them access to their sacred site to monitor study and construction activities. Instead the City Council decided to give the Wopumnes sacred site to the Sacramento-Verona Band (who arrived in El Dorado County in 1980, owns Redhawk Casino and calls themselves (SSBMI)). The City did exactly what the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors did in 2004... they gave the Wopumnes' sacred site away to the Sacramento-Verona Band, an out of town group from Sutter County. The Citizens of El Dorado County say "Not in my town. Placerville City Council, give the Wopumnes back their sacred site so they monitor construction and study activities, and bring in UC Davis to do the dig, Collect, Study and Care for the Wopumnes Tribe's artifacts.

Stanley watson was wrongfully convicted for a murder he didn't commit. He was only 17 years old at the time and he deserves a second chance, also a responsible opportunity for release...There were truly a miscarriage of justice, witnesses were threatened and harassed to testify against Mr. Watson. All we want is for the courts. The governor Stitt and the state of Oklahoma to realize they have a innocent man in prison and to release him without prejudice. For he has already served 20 years of his life.. We need and demand justice..

Tom Tiffany is not a team player! He is concerned about Tom and what Tom wants ONLY. It is time to get rid of Toxic Tom and protect Wisconsinites. It is time to show FULL Support for the Governor Wisconsinites elected. It is time other politicians respect and work with the man WE the Citizens of Wisconsin elected. Mr. Tiffany is only one example of those who refuse to work with officials that Wisconsinites elected. This is unsafe for Wisconsin. We need a government that works together for it's citizens.

In the Kentucky primary election that occurred yesterday, several hundred voters were locked out of the KY Expo Center right at 6 pm, barring them from their right to vote. The only reason they were allowed inside is because both US Senate Democratic Nominees, Amy McGrath and Charles Booker, filed injunctions with the Jefferson County Circuit Court to open the doors and allow those waiting in line outside to vote. Charles Booker filed a second injunction to keep the polls open until 9 pm, and was denied. Kentucky's current election law states that polls are to be closed at 6 pm with the precinct election sheriff identifying the last person in line to be the last voter. This early closing time prevents many working people from getting to their polling place in time, especially if they work far from their home precinct. Restricting voting hours to end at 6 pm is voter disenfranchisement, aimed specifically at working-class citizens and people of color, who are more likely to be working in the service industries where there is little flexibility to leave one's shift to go vote. In the case of this last primary election, there was only ONE polling place for all of Jefferson County/city of Louisville -- where there are nearly 1 million residents. At 6 pm the traffic to get into the KY Expo Center was nearly an hour long. Voters were parking and running up to the doors to make it in time, only to find they had been locked out. With the coronavirus crisis continuing indefinitely into the future, we can only assume that our state and county will choose to have a singular polling place for the November general election. We MUST URGE our KY state officials, Governor Andy Beshear, Secretary of State Michael Adams, KY Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, and KY House of Representatives David Osborne to EXTEND voting hours to at least 7 pm, if not until 9 pm. That last hour is critial in expanding access for voters who cannot leave work in time to get to their polling place.

It's not just COVID and police brutality exposing racism in America. Black homeowners in Detroit are being overtaxed on top of these other injustices. We’ve all seen headlines about Detroit homeowners being overcharged $600 million dollars in property taxes. No community should be hit with such unjust bills and least of all a city with 40 percent of residents struggling in poverty. Detroit has one of the highest property tax foreclosure rates of any city since the Great Depression. A recent University of Chicago study shows that, even after Mayor Duggan tried to fix the problem, the City is still overcharging the lowest valued homes. These are deep, systemic problems that a task force should investigate, propose solutions to end the practice and help make the community whole. Governor Whitmer has proven that she can get the job done with COVID and is with us in the movement against police brutality. Now it's time to do the same for property tax injustice. We call on her to create a task force to investigate and stop unfair property tax practices and keep Detroit homeowners in their homes. Sources: https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/evalrespropertytaxasdetroit20162018.pdf https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucilr/vol9/iss4/3/ http://www.californialawreview.org/print/predatory-cities/#_ftn18 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/opinion/coronavirus-cities-property-taxes.html

We have been closely following the development of a large encampment of unhoused people in Powderhorn Park, and the attempts by the Minneapolis Parks Board to deal with the situation. We support the Board Resolution 2020-253 passed at their meeting on June 17, 2020 in which the Board committed to allow the encampment to remain temporarily while working to find housing for the unhoused people there; and called on local and State government to increase funding to address this crisis. During the June 17 meeting, it was clear that the Park Board has no funding or expertise available to address the crisis presented by a large encampment of unhoused people during a pandemic and in the wake of an uprising centered just a few blocks away. David Hewitt, the Director of Hennepin County's Office to End Homelessness, testified that it will not be easy to find housing for the residents of the Powderhorn encampment, that the County's resources are already maxed out by the rapid adjustments that were made due to the pandemic, and that there is little or no capacity to address the needs of this encampment. Al Bangoura, Superintendent of Minneapolis Parks, stated that he is attempting to work closely with the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness, but also stated that that no state or local government agency has committed any funds to assist the Park Board to keep the residents of the encampment safe or to find them appropriate housing. Parks Commissioner Lionel French stated that he believes Governor Walz needs to get involved, and we agree. We therefore are petitioning you for your intervention in this matter.

America faces an emergency on three primary fronts: a public health pandemic, economic insecurities, and long-standing structural and institutional racism. Working families need job security, economic stability, and freedom from systematic oppression. That is, we must address the racial barriers from COVID-19 and the racial oppression that African Americans and people of color are facing. Furthermore, we must stress the importance of the HEROES Cares Act. So, please sign on and join us for this tel-town hall Wednesday, June 24th, at 6:30 pm, for the tel-town hall call-in number (866) 976-6355. Speakers for this event will be NC Senator Erica Smith-Ingram Dr. Michelle Laws- Department of Health and Human Services Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin Action NC member Tarsha Gunn

On 5/29 and 5/30, Virginians outraged by recent police murders and systemic racism took to the streets of Richmond. The police met this unrest with violence, tear-gassing protestors and nearly running people over with a police vehicle. As in dozens of other cities, there was significant damage to both private and public property. Some protesters also defaced symbols of white supremacy with anti-racist graffiti. The next day, Mayor Levar Stoney called in the National Guard and imposed an 8 pm curfew for the city. That night, protesters took to the streets once more. At around nine o'clock, RPD interrupted an otherwise peaceful protest by firing tear gas into the crowd. They pursued and arrested 233 people, some of whom were not protesting and were unaware of the curfew. Police transported these individuals to the Richmond City Jail where they were kept in a hot poorly ventilated bus, some for over twelve hours. The full litany of abuses they suffered at the hands of police is too long to list here (for more see @nomoniker on Twitter). Over the course of the night, law enforcement officials sexually harassed protesters, failed to adequately address medical and psychological crises, dismissed concerns about COVID-19 exposure, and regularly denied arrestees water—all for behavior that should NOT HAVE BEEN CRIMINALIZED in the first place. More arrests were made on the second night of the curfew. More recently, on 6/14 and 6/15, protestors were maced and gassed by police in riot gear outside the precinct. On 6/14 Michaela G. Hatton, a 22-year-old protester with a master’s degree in social work from VCU, was targeted by RPD and charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer and conspiracy to incite a riot. Michaela lost her job because of the arrest. Despite the numerous calls to drop charges against protestors, the City has taken NO substantive action to reject police repression and violence. Let's all pressure Commonwealth's Attorney Colette McEachin, Mayor Stoney, and Richmond City Council to protect the people they supposedly serve. We demand that our elected officials work to ensure that ALL chargers against protestors are dropped immediately!

The Washington Redskins exposed their hypocrisy recently while tweeting out on #BlackoutTuesday in support of #BlackLivesMatter while continuing to profit off of a racist and derogatory name—Redskins—and a caricature logo of Native Americans. Borne out of a genocidal past, the term “Redskin,” is a word dripping with contempt, racism, and a quite literal reference to blood; advertisements were placed in newspapers on behalf of governments and institutions perpetuating the genocide of indigenous peoples using this term—for example, from the The Winona Daily Republican in Minnesota: “The State reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory. This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth.” While the team may claim that the term is used to honor the purported Native American ancestry of its one-time coach William “Lone Star” Dietz, the team knows full well that the name was changed to Redskin to avoid issues with the Boston Braves baseball team. Further, after an investigation, Dietz was found to have fraudulently posed as indigenous—the name of the football team only dishonors in many ways. Snyder argues that the term is one of honor and of benign origins—it is not. Native American leaders and peoples have been fighting to have the name changed across society, and have succeeded but in this one place. Since 1898, the term has been defined as one used contemptuously. If the Washington Football Team had to change the fight song for racist illusions, why not change the name? To claim that the term “redskins” honors Native Americans defies logic—no one would think to claim that, for example, a football team named for the confederacy honors African Americans. Other teams are named after animals (Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears), after numbers (San Francisco 49ers), or after empowering, flattering, mythic characters (New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans). In short, a racial slur has no place in the NFL's lineup. Academic studies continue to show that the name and mascot do not honor Native Americans; to the contrary, the term leads to “lower self-esteem, lower community worth, less capacity to generate achievement-related possible selves, and greater levels of negative effect” amongst Native American youth, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and oppression. The term, with its contemptuous nature, further builds a gap between native and non-native cultures, contributing to intergenerational trauma and continued racism. Leaders, historians, psychologists, and social scientists have concluded that “Native mascots are part of a much larger web of phenomena that contribute to oppression faced by Native Americans and thus it seems clear that these mascots should be eliminated.” While it should be clear, some people seem to be unwilling to see the continued consequences. Everytime the Washington team takes the field, the Redskins name conjures images of brutality. The Washington Redskins, the NFL, the media, and sponsors must discontinue profiting off of a racist trope. Native Americans are not mascots, they are people and are still here. Daniel Snyder cannot continue to muzzle and whitewash a people and history. Words have power. Symbols have power. It is time the media and sponsors cease their complicity in this cultural genocide, and stand with justice—boycott the name until the name changes.

Recently, our Village has lost another valuable employee amidst allegations of harassment and retaliation within Village Hall. While the details have been shared with some board members, over the course of the last month and a half there has been no action by the board to improve the employee relations within our Village Hall. At this point, we, the residents of the Village of Lakewood, believe all parties need a cooling off period and to have a fair and independent review of the facts of these complaints. We want action from the Board that says we value our staff, all of the staff, and I want transparency in the process so that we can all have trust that this is not opening the Village up to any legal action on behalf of the Village Employees.

Survivor has produced 40 successful seasons over 20 years by telling the stories of people who represent a wide array of human experience within the context of a game of social strategy, physical challenges, and survival. Representation matters. One of the most important ways we can embrace our diversity and evolve is to represent that diversity responsibly, equitably and fully. A commitment to the afore-mentioned actions would have a huge impact and move us toward a more fair, just, and equitable society.