It is wrong to continue to celebrate Columbus. He and those that followed after him raped, enslaved, and attempted to exterminate the native Taínos. He also did not discover anything. It was already discovered by the native peoples.

If the candidate with the most delegates does not get to run as the Democratic nominee for President, and Superdelegates give it to a less popular candidate , it will fracture the Democratic Party. This will likely keep Trump in office for four more years, and we cannot let this happen!

It is often difficult to see when stopped on Thurston at Nevada because of cars parked along the road. I have personally narrowly avoided accidents at this intersection because I thought it was clear, but there was a car coming down Nevada that I could not see. A 4-way stop would make this intersection much safer and less stressful to cross.

Our democracy is more important than Facebook’s profits. This year’s US presidential elections are in jeopardy—in part because global tech giant Facebook refuses to take responsibility for the lies, hate, and disinformation that are being spread using its platform. Facebook refuses to take down advertisements by US politicians that feature even the most blatant falsehoods. It freely allows microtargeting that directs disinformation at vulnerable communities that is hidden from everyone else. And its efforts to stop the spread of toxic lies and hate are too little, too late. Please join us to say enough is enough! Facebook must immediately prevent its platform from being used to spread disinformation and divisiveness that could disrupt our elections. We’re urging Facebook to: STOP THE LIES IN POLITICAL ADS Facebook should fact check advertisements placed by politicians and political campaigns. In other words, it should hold these political ads to the same standards it applies to advertisements that are not placed by politicians. As Facebook employees said in an open letter to company leadership, “Misinformation shared by political advertisers has an outsized detrimental impact on our community.” If you or I lied in an advertisement on Facebook, it would immediately be taken down. PROHIBIT POLITICAL AD MICROTARGETING Right now political campaigns can target their ads so precisely that they can pinpoint them to reach specific voters. The problem with this, according to former Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub, is that “false and misleading messages may be disseminated in a way that does not allow people with conflicting information to counter those messages, because they won't see them.” Facebook already restricts targeting for industries with a history of discrimination, like housing. They should do the same with political ads. REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE TRYING TO DISRUPT THE 2020 ELECTION All businesses can refuse service to a person who violates their policies. Restaurants usually require patrons wear shoes and shirts. Facebook should require that users refrain from using the platform to disrupt the 2020 election. They can do this by implementing terms of service or acceptable usage policies that require users to follow certain rules about how Facebook can be used. AND MORE ... We need to reform Facebook to protect our democracy and our civil society. Facebook’s own employees have put forward an excellent set of recommendations that include spending caps for politicians and observing silence periods free from political advertisements before elections. Another strong set of recommendations was put forward by Change the Terms, which focuses on how the platform can enforce an acceptable use policy to prevent Facebook from being used to incite hate, fear and abusive behavior. Finally, a number of organizations make the case that the Federal Trade Commission should break up Facebook, which now has unprecedented power to decide what news and information billions of people around the world see every day. For more information, go to www.protestfacebook.org.

Our representative democracy has always experienced a peaceful transfer of power. According to reports from our U.S. intelligence community, there are current efforts to undermine our election by a foreign state. If we allow Election Day to come and pass, the very integrity of our elections may come into question. If it does, the foreign state may have accomplished their mission to divide us and advance their own interests with "elected" officials of the U.S. government in the future. Furthermore, policies that will affect our daily lives will come to pass and may affect, our education, health, economy, and our national security.

Our democracy is for sale. Superdelegates may be tempted to take dark money donations to vote for billionaire-sponsored candidates, denying true representational democracy to their constituents.

We are entering an incredibly perilous time for our democracy. The signs of creeping authoritarianism, and indeed, fascism, are everywhere. Robert Reich has pointed out that anti-democratic leaders and forces control every branch of government. In the last several days, we had, 1. Trump order the firing of Vindman and his brother; 2. Trump boast that he did this in retaliation; 3. Trump tweet suggest that the military consider disciplining Vindman; 4. Trump influence the Justice Department to change a sentencing recommendation for a Trump friend; 5. 4 AUSAs resign over the politicization of DOJ; 6. Trump boast about his power over DOJ; and 7. Trump intimidate and threaten an Article III Judge. I may be missing more, but each one of these is, in my view, a "triggering event" that should prompt an immediate and vitally necessary response to defend our democracy. As Masha Gessen teaches us, we cannot count on our institutions to save us. Instead, we must save them. There are no guardrails as our democracy careens toward the abyss, and we the people are the ultimate bulwark. The frog is nearly boiled, and the temperature is ratcheting up fast. We need leaders who have the megaphone, the institutional clout, and the organizational heft to help us take to the streets. We need MoveOn to do the thing it has done so well in the past and for which it is so well-suited: mobilize us before it's too late!

New York University has a serious problem with civic engagement and voter turnout. If the University is truly committed to student enfranchisement, NYU must designate Election Day a University Holiday. Currently, the NYU Law School, Columbia University, Fordham University, and Barnard College all designate Election Day as a holiday. Students should not be forced to balance school, work, and family in order to exercise their right to vote. This policy would help to address many of the issues in voter turnout which the University currently faces. According to a 2016 Tufts University report, New York University's voter turnout rate lags behind the institutional average by 2.6% and behind all private research institutions by 5.3%. Election Day off would have an immediate impact on accessibility, and it would meaningfully prioritize voting and civic engagement on-campus. NYU is among the largest private universities in the country. According to the 2018 student fact sheet, 12,022 undergraduate students are permanent residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. This means that 45% of the undergraduate student body lives in proximity to their voting districts and would be immediately impacted by the passage of this resolution. Even more students from elsewhere in the United States choose to register in New York during their undergraduate career. We must come together as a community and urge President Andrew Hamilton to publicly support the University Senate Resolution to Designate Election Day as a University Holiday.

Representative Garcia stated, in a public forum, that "...in the Constitution of the United States (if) they are found guilty of being a socialist member you either go to prison or are shot,” which is neither true nor becoming of a public servant of your stature. "They’re enemies of the free state,” he continued. “What do we do with our enemies in war? In Vietnam, (Afghanistan), all those. What did we do?" With these quotes, he demonstrated that he lacks the critical thinking skills and moral rectitude to represent Montanans in any capacity. Further, he disgraced our state on the world stage. Most seriously, he incited violence among his constituents for political purposes. This is a perilous time for our nation, in which political partisanship has taken priority over good governance and civility at every level. We the people must stand up to those who would see this trend continue, who would brand their constituents, indeed their neighbors, as enemies of the free state for nothing more than expression of their political views. The statements made, and doubled down on, by Representative Garcia are an alarming escalation of this violent rhetoric and he must be held accountable for them. Only pressure from the people of Montana can compel him to take responsibility for his actions, so please join me in condemning him publicly. By acting together in the interests of our state and our communities, we can begin to change the ugly course our politics have taken.

The POST Act addresses the long-unmet need for civilian oversight of NYPD surveillance practices, particularly the acquisition and deployment of novel, highly-invasive technologies. For years, the NYPD has built up an arsenal of spy tools on the public tab while trying to block public notice and debate. These tools not only include the so-called “gang database,”[1] but also items like facial recognition, IMSI catchers (so-called “stingrays”), and automated license plate readers that can monitor a vehicle’s location throughout the city.[2] These tools threaten all New Yorkers' privacy, but they pose a particularly potent threat to our immigrant communities and New Yorkers of color. Unchecked, the growing use of surveillance technology threatens to obscure and automate racial inequalities under the guise of unbiased computer systems. And too often, these systems create a risk of information sharing with federal agencies, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). For example, the NYPD has contracted for years with the private firm Vigilant Solutions, which operates a national database of over 5 billion license plate data points. Shockingly, in recent years, we learned that Vigilant Solutions was not just contracting with local police departments, it was also contracting with ICE. This is the vendor that the NYPD uses to record countless New Yorkers’ license plates per day, and we do not have an accurate understanding of how the NYPD may be sharing license plate data with ICE. Even worse, the NYPD relies on Vigilant Solutions’ artificial intelligence to map out social networks, label New Yorkers as “criminal associates,” and create databases based on the company’s unproven algorithms. This is just one example of countless surveillance tools that requires a systematic solution. The POST Act is not just a comprehensive response, but also a modest one. The NYPD can continue using these tools by complying with limited protections against waste, discrimination, and misuse. In fact, the POST Act would be one of the most limited surveillance reform bills in the country, especially when viewed in comparison to San Francisco’s and Oakland’s oversight legislation, which also contain outright bans on facial recognition technology or to Massachusetts’s proposed state-wide moratorium on facial recognition. Additionally, many of the jurisdictions require legislators to approve each and every surveillance system their municipality buys, unlike the POST Act, which only requires public notice. The measure is not just widely supported by your City Council colleagues, it’s even endorsed by the New York Times.[3] The message is clear: civilian oversight of surveillance enhances the public’s trust in police departments and public safety. After a hearing before the Public Safety Committee in December, thirty-two City Council members and the Public Advocate have now signed on as POST Act cosponsors. The time is now for a vote of the full City Council. [1] https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2019/7/23/the-nypds-gang-database-a-new-age-of-stop-and-frisk [2] https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2019/9/26/domain-awareness-system [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/opinion/nypd-post-act-surveillance.html

The store is fantastic, and Summerville deserves great food at a fantastic price!

Without proper regulatory oversight, SD becomes a safe haven for untrained and unqualified practitioners. Patients deserve the right to know that their practitioners have proper training, education, professional ethics, board certification, and ongoing training that ensures that they receive the highest quality care. Acupuncture has been proven to be an effective and affordable treatment option for chronic pain, opioid use/abuse, PTSD/depression/anxiety, and acute pain conditions. The practice of acupuncture is currently being utilized within the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, large medical centers, and, most recently, has been adopted into Medicare coverage for the treatment of chronic low back pain. In South Dakota, the VA Healthcare System has already contracted with several private acupuncture practices around the state for many years to provide quality, non-pharmacological treatment to thousands of veterans in need. In states that have recently adopted acupuncture practice acts, the state has seen a nearly immediate increase in the number of professional acupuncturists moving to the state and contributing to commerce, as well as expanding access to treatment for the residents. Acupuncture regulation is good for state economic growth and development, as well as direct patient care. Please tell SD legislators that it is time to save South Dakota acupuncture!