Social media companies have turned the community power of social media into a blizzard of distraction. Instead of bringing us together, social media CEOs keep making decisions that make matters worse. Now Facebook is flooding its users with irrelevant posts that we didn't sign up for. CEO Mark Zuckerberg must reverse this decision and stop Facebook from becoming a total junkyard of useless distraction.

In Illinois, pain patients are a very marginalized and stigmatized community. Pain medicine prescriptions continue to decrease, as doctors become afraid of legal reprisal, while we have a record number of overdose fatalities. Previously stable patients on long-term pain therapy have taken their lives or, in desperation, been forced to resort to the illicit market, which has caused even more overdoses. Illinois has one of the lowest prescribing rates in the US but the 14th highest number of deadly overdoses. Recent data reveals that not a single overdose fatality is attributable to prescription pain medicine. The state agencies are substituting their judgment for doctors and destroying the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship. Many people are unaware of the toll that restrictive state policies have taken on Illinoisans. Oncologists have decreased prescriptions by 50%. Children with terminal illnesses are denied pain relief. Veterans, who became injured serving our country, have lost access to their medicine—to such an extent that suicides increased by over 1/3. Millions of Illinoisans are one accident away from being a chronic pain patient, and even palliative care and hospice specialists are turning people away because they’re afraid of legal consequences. The American Pain & Disability Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that tries to protect the pain community. We have to fight with hospitals who won't give terminally ill children pain medicine, veterans who served us but are now in terrible pain from combat injuries, and more---but we can't protect doctors and patients as they need to be protected without legislation. The current policies are harming one of the most vulnerable communities in the state. You can visit our website for more information, at www.4APDF.org. Please support HB 2046 to protect pain patients and their healthcare providers—countless lives depend on it! Sign the petition to help get this bill passed now!

Moms for Liberty's national convention will bring hundreds of dangerous extremists to Philadelphia and feature right-wing politicians who are a threat to our democracy, including Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The Museum of the American Revolution should never have agreed to host the Moms for Liberty national convention welcome reception. Employees and patrons of the museum agree and have called on the museum to cancel, with over a third of staff signing an internal petition against hosting. The rest of the convention will take place at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel. And unfortunately, this isn't Marriott's first go at enabling Moms for Liberty—they also hosted their convention last year in Tampa, Florida. Our freedom to learn—and to make decisions about what our students and children can learn—is being stripped away by concerted attacks from right-wing parents like Moms for Liberty and Republican legislators dead set on politicizing our schools. It’s no surprise that Moms for Liberty targets LGBTQ+ books and books about race and racial diversity. It's the right wing's latest tactic designed to eradicate conversations students have in the classroom around genocide, white supremacy, gender, and sexuality. The Museum of the American Revolution and Marriott must do the right thing and refuse to host Moms for Liberty.

Former President Donald J. Trump is facing 37 federal charges, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act, for stealing from and refusing to return top-secret nuclear and military documents to the government. Trump believes he is above the law, and the outcome of this federal case is critical to proving to the nation that he is not. It’s imperative that an impartial, trustworthy judge oversee this high-stakes trial. Judge Cannon is not this person. Last year, Judge Cannon wrongfully intervened in the Department of Justice investigation into Trump’s withholding of classified documents, barring the DOJ from using the seized materials in the continued investigation. Her ruling was ultimately reversed by a conservative court, citing she had no authority to intervene. She claimed to be protecting his reputation as former president of the United States, but the court responded with, “To create a special exception here would defy our nation’s foundational principle that our law applies ‘to all, without regard to numbers, wealth, or rank.’” It’s clear she did not adhere to the mandate of equal justice under the law. Despite federal law requiring judges to recuse themselves when their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or when they have “a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,” she has yet to do so. And with the stakes this high, we can’t wait any longer for a judge with integrity to oversee this trial. Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga has authority under federal law and internal court procedure to reassign a new judge to this case, one who will prioritize equal justice under the law. Photo credit: Illustrated / AP Photo / Southern District of Florida

“The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective: -service -social justice -dignity and worth of the person -importance of human relationships -integrity -competence.” (NASW) Social Work Core Competencies: Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities The links between human-animal violence have long been evidenced and recorded. The white supremacist patriarchal capitalist colonial machine objectifies and commodifies the living Earth through processes of social stratification, hierarchy, and psychological wages. Between factory farming, food deserts, social-economic inequities, health disparities, social determinants of health, environmental racism, colonial and patriarchal constructs of medicine, rape-culture, human-trafficking, drug-trafficking, wildlife-trafficking, global climate change, intimate partner violence, family violence, intergenerational abuses and traumas, urbanization, industrialization, housing injustices, genocide, displacement, and political-economic constructs of kyriarchal conglomerates of the Earth(ling) industrial complex, spawning from a culture of toxic masculinity, white supremacy, patriarchal, and imperialist senses of entitlement to the exploitation, abuse, domination, and possession of Earth(lings’) bodies, perpetuating cultures of exploitation and violence, the empirical evidence of the interconnectedness is irrefutable. The recognition of sentience and life in all beings is critical for fostering empathy and compassion for a harmonic and peaceful society and OTH animals deserve rights of their own. Several of our human clients’ main social support and sometimes only trusted social support, consists of their interspecies families. This ranges from the child who is bullied in school with little to no human friends, who cannot wait to go home to their canine family member, the cat being burned alive by the youth who feels helpless and enraged identifying with dad who is beating his mom while he is intoxicated as he learned it from his dad, and then that young person grows up to beat his partner, people experiencing poverty where there closest confidant and sometimes only confidante is their OTH companion or family member, the person who doesn’t attempt suicide and holds on, because of the love and connection they feel with their companion or family member, the examples are endless. The more-than-human world and re-connecting with our “roots” is essential for collective and individual healing, with more access to Our shared Nature as belonging to Earth, embracing values of connection, reciprocity, reverence, and compassion for all living beings. For more information on OTH animals in social work: https://socialwork.du.edu/humananimalconnection/about-institute-human-animal-connection https://www.routledge.com/Post-Anthropocentric-Social-Work-Critical-Posthuman-and-New-Materialist/Bozalek-Pease/p/book/9780367677855 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/janimalethics.7.1.0096 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10560-020-00697-x https://socialworksynergy.org/2014/12/03/social-work-beyond-human-rights/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230306868 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137372291 For more information about the links between human-animal violence: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/animal-oppression-and-human-violence/9780231151887 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742517769/Animal-Rights-Human-Rights-Entanglements-of-Oppression-and-Liberation https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-19201-2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvxhrmr1 https://burningbooks.com/products/racism-as-zoological-witchcraft http://blackyouthproject.com/three-ways-black-veganism-challenges-white-supremacy-unlike-conventional-veganism/ https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Violence-in-Ecofeminist-Perspective-Intersections-of-Animal-Oppression/Hunnicutt/p/book/9780367776916 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786606464/Critical-Animal-Studies-Towards-Trans-species-Social-Justice https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/the-link-between-animal-cruelty-and-human-violence#:~:text=Animal%20cruelty%20is%20a%20predictor,and%20sexual%20abuse%20of%20children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246522/#:~:text=Often%2C%20companion%20animals%20can%20become,43%2C44%2C45%5D. https://nationallinkcoalition.org/what-is-the-link https://vetsocialwork.utk.edu/ https://www.fordham.edu/info/20361/gss_continuing

It will help ease suffering to many families, provide more research opportunities, and give newborns / kids a chance to thrive even with a rare illness or genetic disorder

A recent State Department report details significant human rights abuses that have occurred under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s near-decade in power, including cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, unjustified arrests, and the targeting of religious minorities, dissidents, and journalists. Despite these alarming trends, the United States continues to seek to strengthen its partnership with India — and the Modi government — to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars in U.S. “security” assistance and weapons deals. We can’t let President Biden ignore India's human rights record, and that’s why we need you to speak up for peace and justice TODAY. The partnership between our two countries cannot come at the expense of turning a blind eye to India's human rights abuses. Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington yesterday, so the time to speak up is now — and luckily, you’ll be far from alone when you do. Dozens of human rights groups, more than 70 members of Congress including Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and activists here in DC and around the country are already speaking out — can you join them to call on the White House to go further toward justice and accountability?

The availability of public restrooms will create a significant change in the patterns of use of our park. While public restrooms are an amenity for those that need them, they also attract a well-known range of problems from substantially increased park usage and noise, graffiti, odors and cleanliness, loitering, potential drug use, and increases in nearby homeless encampments. There are many improvements needed in Carmel Knolls Park that are eligible for the millions of dollars of funds allocated for this purpose. We need to make sure these funds are spent wisely and where they will provide the most comprehensive community benefits for our neighborhood.

It only took one complaint and one week for a school in Miami-Dade County to restrict Amanda Gorman’s book—“The Hill We Climb”—and limit access for younger students. It was one book of several that an individual parent reported, citing that it was “not educational” and contained indirect hate speech. [1] Schools should not so swiftly censor literature based on the whims of individual parents. This is part of a sweeping trend across the country to ban and restrict books, often targeting authors and content from historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. And because of conservative laws being passed on the local and state level, it’s even easier in many places for a small but loud minority to challenge books—and win. In response to the incident, Amanda Gorman wrote: “The Hill We Climb is an inaugural poem for the world. Relocating it to older age group library shelves by its nature bars younger and equally deserving generations from accessing said moment in history.” [2] Amanda Gorman made history when she read “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration—the youngest inaugural poet to date. People of all ages deserve to have access to her work and see themselves not only in the context of that moment, but also in the possibilities of the future. They, too, can make history. We refuse to allow one parent’s opinion to limit our children's freedom to read, learn, and imagine. Join us in calling on the Department of Education and State Education Departments to add “The Hill We Climb” to every associated recommended reading list in the country and to reaffirm the values of equality and access espoused in the mission of the DOE. [3] 1. “1 complaint led a Florida school to restrict access to Amanda Gorman’s famous poem,” NPR, May 25, 2023 https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1177877340/amanda-gorman-poem-restricted-miami-school 2. Amanda Gorman [@TheAmandaGorman], Tweet, May 24, 2023 https://twitter.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1661590069982142465 3. "Overview and Mission Statement," U.S. Department of Education, Accessed June 20, 2023 https://www2.ed.gov/about/landing.jhtml Photo Source: Penguin Random House

Trader Joe's is a company that carefully cultivates a progressive reputation. But over the past few years, we have seen the company culture shift from a workplace with incredible pay, benefits, and atmosphere, to a company with increasing turnover, declining benefits, and stagnating wages. The pandemic put those changes into stark relief as “essential” workers everywhere were asked to risk their health in order to keep the economy going. These two factors—the company’s internal changes and the pandemic—made it clear that we needed to have a say in our workplace, and that a union was the only answer to that need. A union could also bring Trader Joe’s back into alignment with its own core values, the values that had made it a great place to work and shop in the first place. Even though we have won elections in four stores, Trader Joe’s continues to union bust and refuse to bargain in good faith. Recently, Trader Joe’s fired Steve Andrade, one of the crew members in Hadley, MA for completely frivolous reasons. In his termination paperwork, management claimed that a power tool belonged to Steve, and its presence in the store created a safety issue serious enough to warrant firing him. The catch? This tool didn’t even belong to Steve. In fact, the tool was at the store long before Steve started working in Hadley nine years ago. Since we won our first union election, we’ve heard from hundreds of crew members across the country eager to unionize their stores, and we are helping many of them organize right now. But instead of allowing the free and fair elections they promised their workers, or bargaining in good faith, Trader Joe’s has hired a union-busting law firm and is fighting us every step of the way. Trader Joe’s has fired union supporters, threatened and coerced workers, and continues to drag their feet at the bargaining table. We can only win when we stand together in solidarity. Can you take a moment to sign our petition to demand that Trader Joe’s stop union-busting and reinstate workers fired for organizing?

Israel Saldana and Michael Maldonado are two of many people who were either convicted when they were children, or who were given sentences way out of proportion to their crimes, or who are still in prison years after others with identical criminal histories have been released. They are two of the many who have grown and changed during their years in prison. Excessive sentences like theirs are part of the reason Wisconsin's prison racial disparities are, by many measures, worst in the nation.

It's our right It's our private property We should be able to have gardens and chickens to take care of our families