The fight for women's rights in Afghanistan is a long and ongoing battle that has taken a huge step backwards with recent Taliban control. Despite immense danger and sacrifice, the Afghan women's soccer team is working to prove progress is possible. By breaking down cultural barriers and taking the field, they are not only challenging societal norms, but they are also providing a source of hope and inspiration. The problem? FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, refuses to recognize the team. This failure means the women cannot represent their country, compete in professional matches, or receive the funding they need to pay players and staff. But that can change. After months of player protests and widespread criticism over its human rights abuses in Doha, FIFA is eager to rehabilitate its image. And with the Women's World Cup taking place in Australia and New Zealand this July, FIFA will once again be center stage — and sensitive to public pressure and protest.  Right now, FIFA’s PR machine is closely watching and listening. That means we have a crucial opportunity to call on them to use their power for good. Can you join us to support women’s rights and diplomacy by signing our petition to FIFA President Gianni Infantino?

Last week’s circus on the House floor was an absurd means to an inevitable end: Kevin McCarthy is the new Speaker of the House. This week, the McCarthy era began with a grossly predictable assault on federal spending. The first vote of the Republican controlled chamber is to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which successfully passed in the House.1 They specifically want to undo recent investments made to the IRS designed to strengthen the agency’s ability to crack down on millionaire, billionaire, and corporate tax cheats. In other words: they want to issue handouts to their wealthy donors. Sign the petition: the US Senate must reject House Republicans' attempt to undermine the IRS for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Who will benefit from a weakened IRS? Notably Donald Trump. His recently released tax returns expose a strategy of overseas bank accounts and manipulative real estate evaluations that effectively allowed him to dodge taxes.2,3 This is exactly why Democrats included an extra $80 billion in funding for the IRS in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.1 To go after ultra-wealthy tax cheats like Trump. Republican’s response has been to paint the I.R.S. investments as “militarizing the IRS” and creating “hordes of armed IRS agents” that would target small businesses and working Americans.4 They pretend to be serving the interests of working Americans when really, they’re just following the classic GOP playbook of catering to the ultra-wealthy. This hypocritical fear mongering is also on display in the name of their bill, “The Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.” A more appropriate name might be something like “The Millionaire, Billionaire, and Corporate Taxpayer Protection Act.” Claiming their legislation will help working Americans when in reality it will only benefit the top one percent is about to be the status quo for the McCarthy run House. We need to rely on the Democrat-run Senate to hold the line and prevent this harmful legislation from becoming law. Sign the petition: Tell the US Senate to reject House Republicans attempts to defund the IRS! Sources: 1. NY Times, “House Republicans Vote to Rescind I.R.S. Funding,” January 9, 2023. 2. The Independent, “Trump had foreign bank accounts in China, UK and Ireland as president and one year paid more foreign tax than US,” December 30, 2022. 3. CNN, “Key takeaways from six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns,” December 30, 2022. 4. Reuters, “Fact Check-The IRS is not hiring thousands of armed agents, job ads show opening for specialized unit,” August 17, 2022.

In the last three years, nearly 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 100 million more have become ill. This huge, unnecessary price increase for the Moderna vaccine would have devastating impacts and will cause needless deaths and severe, long-term health challenges for so many due to millions of Americans not being able to afford the vaccine. It will make the vaccine unavailable and inaccessible for many millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans (especially low-income people, people with disabilities, and communities of color) who won’t be able to afford it. How many people will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these life-saving vaccines? In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much-needed vaccine is unconscionable. The COVID-19 vaccines were jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. government agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and the federal government, who directly provided $1.7 billion to Moderna for research and development. If Moderna more than quadrupled the price of the vaccine, it would make it unaffordable to the very residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible, not to mention the fact that this decision will make the vaccine inaccessible to countries across the world. That is not acceptable. It will also have a significantly negative impact on the budgets of Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs that will continue covering the vaccine without cost-sharing for patients. It will cost taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars, and the outrageous price boost will increase private health insurance premiums. And in the midst of the worst public health crisis in the U.S. over the last two years, Moderna made over $19 billion in profits and used those profits to provide incredibly extravagant compensation packages to the CEO and other top officials at the company. The Moderna CEO even became a multi-billionaire as a direct result of Moderna’s COVID vaccine, and several Moderna chairmen, co-founders, and investors are now billionaires, too. Let’s be clear: The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect our health and lives, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires. This is why we are urgently calling for Moderna to NOT increase the price of the people-funded COVID-19 vaccine!

I am Rebecca–a National Delegate from Northern California. I am also a queer person. I am concerned about the National Convention taking place in Florida, due to the recent rise in homophobic, transphobic, and racist legislation occurring Florida. Girl Scouts has been working to be a more inclusive organization, and this is very contrary to that ideal–bringing Girl Scouts of all identities to a place that doesn't embody that value and is an unsafe environment. When a state passes bigoted policies, it empowers people with those beliefs to act on their beliefs, which endangers Girl Scouts going to Florida. Bringing people–especially en masse– supports the Floridian economy and tells them that their policies and actions are acceptable and that there are not consequences. Girl Scouts' event going to Florida shows immediate disregard for queer and trans members' safety, needs, rights, and humanity. In order to amend this, I believe Girl Scouts must move the 2023 National Convention and Phenom out of Florida. Girl Scouts must take action (not just in words) to protect queer and trans attendees through, but not limited to: transportation from airports to the sites for safety, LGBTQ+ safe break rooms, and gender inclusive bathrooms at hotels and other centers. Girl Scouts can do better; Girl Scouts must do better. Girl Scouts prides itself on being a youth oriented and led inclusive organization, and listening to and acting for the needs of their membership on this issue is crucial to demonstrate this.

Integrity and honesty of candidates for office and holders of office are of vital importance for a democracy. Mr. Santos' case for office was based almost entirely on fabrication. That cannot be acceptable for continuing in any elected office.

We believe the requested Rezoning and Land Use Designation Change are not an improvement to the General Plan, nor is this development in scale or does it fit with the identity and character of the surrounding areas. We would hope the Peoria Planning Commission and members of the City Council of Peoria will honor the original intentions of the city of Peoria’s visionaries by rejecting Simpatico’s application.

George Santos lied about his mother’s family fleeing from Nazi oppression in the Ukraine and then Belgium, fleeing from the Holocaust to Brazil, where he then immigrated to the United States. His mother’s family already was living in Brazil during the period when he said they were fleeing from the Holocaust, so this is an outright lie. The Holocaust is one of the greatest crimes against humanity to ever occur, and to the Jewish people, the Holocaust is a personal and collective tragedy. We hold the truth of the Holocaust sacred and do not accept when it is used in a lie for political gain to help to obtain political office. It has been proven that Representative Elect George Santos has completely lied about his family background, and he is neither Jewish, nor did his family flee from the Nazis in Europe. This is an unacceptable lie and we demand that he step down and not take his seat in Congress. We demand that the GOP recognize his slap in the face of the memory of the Jews who suffered and died in the Holocaust and call for him to not take his seat in the House of Representitives.

Because my daughter and so many others who defended themselves are behind bars.

The Civil War continues to be the single most divisive event in US history. References and branding that are remnants of this destructive time in our history should be considered divisive as well.

Facebook is preparing to make a decision on whether or not to reinstate Donald Trump's Facebook account. For the risk Trump poses to our public safety and democracy, we must keep Trump off Facebook. Join us in urging Meta to keep Trump off Facebook.

In 2010, Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged (which should’ve never been allowed) and now we’re all suffering: from consumer to artists to venue themselves. The only winners here are Ticketmaster and corporate influence. Ever since, tickets have been steadily raising in cost, coupled with exorbitant fees and a flawed user experience that leaves working people less likely to want to partake in the experience again. We’ve seen this so clearly with Taylor Swift tickets recently, because of the dynamic ticket system Ticketmaster has in place, the more desire there is for tickets the higher the price goes. When Taylor first announced the tour, the prices were to be capped around $499. But after the “troubles” with the queue (that Ticketmaster sent out codes for in ADVANCE), ticket prices were going up and changing as people were checking out. Third party corporations make an entire industry of scalping these tickets and buying them in waves that forces people to pay thousands of dollars to see their favorite artist. It doesn’t have to be this way. Whether you’re a swiftie or not, you know this is wrong and disappointing for people everywhere who just want to see their favorite artist. (Considering we’re also on the premise of a huge Beyoncé tour announcement, the Beyhive will suffer next unless we stop this!)

On any given day a school social worker can help a child who is engaged in NSSI (non-suicidal self-injury) receive wrap around services, assist a child experiencing homelessness with transportation to school, clothes and free meals, give a child with anxiety tools for managing a panic attack, and help a child find their voice to combat bullying. In one school week, and even in one day, all of these situations can arise, alongside countless other complicated situations that need immediate attention. Unfortunately many school districts don't provide schools with a social worker, or they may require a social worker to work at multiple schools. Understaffing means social workers have extremely high case loads and are not able to effectively support student's needs. The TEA reported there were approximately 5,308 Texas students for every one school social worker employed in our state during the 2019-2020 school year. We need a social worker at every school and funds specifically allocated to school districts to provide mental health services. Therefore, we need an amendment to the Texas Education Code to include social work services and the Texas Education Commission to directly distribute funds to school districts for mental health services.