Women's sports are winning BIG right now. The 2024 NCAA women's championship game between Iowa State and South Carolina was the most watched basketball game in history. Yet, women basketball players aren't getting properly rewarded for their excellence. After this year's tournament—for the first time ever—the NCAA will award $65 million to participating women's conferences based on the performance of their teams. That's less than HALF of the men's teams $220 million in payouts. While $65 million may seem like a lot, it's a drop in the bucket when compared to some estimates that put the women's team's valuation at $112 million. These payouts provide critical funding to team operations throughout the year for things like scholarships for student-athletes, upgrading training facilities, covering team travel expenses and more. Gender inequality has been baked into the NCAA from the very beginning with media rights agreements and revenue models that have always prioritized men's basketball. A gender equity report in 2021 revealed the NCAA spent a whopping $35 million more on the men's basketball tournament than the women's. And for decades women's teams couldn't even use "March Madness" branding for their tournament. The current system perpetuates the sexist myth that women's sports are less valuable. Women players are showing the world that they are powerful, talented athletes that deserve the same recognition and attention that male athletes have been receiving for decades. We have to show institutions like the NCAA that women deserve to be paid for their talent. Sign the petition to demand that the NCAA address gender pay inequity NOW and increase payout amounts for women basketball players.

The Comstock Act—if enforced—is a law that prohibits the mailing of contraceptives through the mail. If the GOP wins the presidency this November, Donald Trump could enforce this law, which is still on the books though it's long been unenforced—and therefore restrict access to medication abortion, as well as other contraceptives. That's right: It's a backdoor to an abortion ban—as well as an attack on birth control, which the right wing has its targets set on—and the Supreme Court is handing Donald Trump the key. Repeal the Comstock Act NOW! Stop anti-abortion extremists' efforts to push a nationwide medication abortion ban and to limit access to birth control and other reproductive health care.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary committee voted to subpoena Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow as part of an ongoing ethics probe into Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito … but then never issued the subpoenas. It’s been over two months. What’s the hold up? Around the initial vote, Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley promised messy, vendetta-filled retaliation if Democrats voted to subpoena their conservative allies. Leo is the chief architect of the right-wing Supreme Court and Harlan Crow is a billionaire GOP mega-donor and close friend of Clarence Thomas. Democrats must continue their SCOTUS ethics probe and issue the subpoenas for Leo and Crow. Leo and Crow’s shady involvement with SCOTUS and certain conservative justices has been heavily reported on, and must be officially investigated. A recent ProPublica expose revealed just how central Leo is to the right-wing’s domination of United States courts. From his post atop the conservative legal think tank The Federalist Society, Leo guided Supreme Court appointments under Bush Jr. and Trump, organized luxury trips for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, oversaw well over $1.6 billion in funding for right-wing dark money groups, and much more. Then there’s Crow. Over more than two decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly accepted luxury trips virtually every year from GOP mega-donor, and billionaire Dallas businessman, Harlan Crow without disclosing them. Between the two of them, Leo’s injection of huge sums into our legal system has led directly to our current right-wing court that’s gutted our reproductive rights, decimated environmental protections, and more. And Crow’s involvement with Thomas raises extreme ethical concerns. Senate Democrats must continue their investigation into Supreme Court corruption and hold Leo and Crow accountable. Sign the petition to Senate Democrats: Issue the subpoenas for Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow. Investigate the extent of corruption on the Supreme Court!

Good samaritans should not be punished.

Country music is Black history. Country music, like many, many other genres, was invented by Black people, but racism, gatekeeping, whitewashing, and erasure in country music actively prevents Black artists from getting credit and being celebrated for their work. But this is not new. The latest? Beyoncé dropped two new country singles “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” and it wasn’t long before the racism, revisionist history, and gatekeeping began. First, Apple Music categorized the songs in the “Pop music” category when the songs are clearly country. And when fans started requesting Beyoncé’s new songs at their local country stations, many of their requests were rejected. One station, KYKC, even responded to a fan’s request saying “We do not play Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station." The country music industry must finally reckon with its own racism and anti-Blackness, celebrate the roots of country in Black history, and celebrate Black artists reclaiming a genre they birthed. A study discovered that out of 11,000+ songs played on country radio from 2002 to 2020, only 3% of those were from Black and brown artists, and of that 3%, only ⅓ were from Black and brown women. That means that Black and brown women represented only 0.001% of songs played by country radio over the course of 18 years. It’s outrageous, but unfortunately, unsurprising. This has to end NOW. The banjo, one of the central instruments in country music, originated in Africa and was brought to the United States by enslaved African people. White people then appropriated the banjo and began using it for minstrel shows, where they would wear Blackface and mock Black people and Black culture. It's disgusting and dehumanizing. This led to the rise of hillbilly music as a marketing category, which became associated with a white, rural, Southern audience. That’s when “race records” were created to segregate Black people out of the genre that they created, and music executives refused to let Black folks record songs that they deemed to be “hillbilly,” purposefully white-washing the genre even further. This history of country music shows how Jim Crow segregation harmed Black country music artists then, and still harms them today. Black music artists like Beyoncé are reclaiming country, a genre that was theirs to begin with. And we need to be in solidarity with them and challenge the status quo to pave the way for Black people to get a seat at a table that they created. We can’t sit idly by and watch this continue. Getting the country music industry---from radio stations to awards to other prominent artists---to honor Beyoncé’s new songs as country is just one small step to bringing about change. But with Beyoncé being the biggest artist in the world, this is an opportunity for us to keep pushing, educating, and fighting for change, and the impacts of our advocacy will pave the way for other Black country artists for generations to come. Will you take action now and sign the petition?

Country music is Black history. Country music, like many, many other genres, was invented by Black people, but racism, gatekeeping, whitewashing, and erasure in country music actively prevents Black artists from getting credit and being celebrated for their work. But this is not new. The latest? Beyoncé dropped two new country singles “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” and it wasn’t long before the racism, revisionist history, and gatekeeping began. First, Apple Music categorized the songs in the “Pop music” category when the songs are clearly country. And when fans started requesting Beyoncé’s new songs at their local country stations, many of their requests were rejected. One station, KYKC, even responded to a fan’s request saying “We do not play Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station." The country music industry must finally reckon with its own racism and anti-Blackness, celebrate the roots of country in Black history, and celebrate Black artists reclaiming a genre they birthed. A study discovered that out of 11,000+ songs played on country radio from 2002 to 2020, only 3% of those were from Black and brown artists, and of that 3%, only ⅓ were from Black and brown women. That means that Black and brown women represented only 0.001% of songs played by country radio over the course of 18 years. It’s outrageous, but unfortunately, unsurprising. This has to end NOW. In 2016, Beyoncé performed at the CMA awards and invited The Chicks to join her on stage to sing “Daddy Lessons.” The incredible performance was met with backlash from racist conservatives who said Beyoncé wasn’t “country enough” and didn’t belong. They felt the need to “protect” the genre from artists like Beyoncé (who has always been country). The day after the performance, fans noticed that there was no mention of Beyoncé, The Chicks, or their rendition of “Daddy Lessons” on the CMA website or social accounts, despite posting other performances from the night before, which made it seem like they were caving to the backlash from racist conservatives. Around 4:35 p.m after fans called them out, they finally shared the performance on its page. The CMA has a chance to make this right. Will you sign the petition to demand that they invite Beyoncé to perform at this year’s awards? The banjo, one of the central instruments in country music, originated in Africa and was brought to the United States by enslaved African people. White people then appropriated the banjo and began using it for minstrel shows, where they would wear Blackface and mock Black people and Black culture. It's disgusting and dehumanizing. This led to the rise of hillbilly music as a marketing category, which became associated with a white, rural, Southern audience. That’s when “race records” were created to segregate Black people out of the genre that they created, and music executives refused to let Black folks record songs that they deemed to be “hillbilly,” purposefully white-washing the genre even further. This history of country music shows how Jim Crow segregation harmed Black country music artists then, and still harms them today. Black music artists like Beyoncé are reclaiming country, a genre that was theirs to begin with. And we need to be in solidarity with them and challenge the status quo to pave the way for Black people to get a seat at a table that they created. We can’t sit idly by and watch this continue. Getting the country music industry---from radio stations to awards to other prominent artists---to honor Beyoncé’s new songs as country is just one small step to bringing about change. But with Beyoncé being the biggest artist in the world, this is an opportunity for us to keep pushing, educating, and fighting for change, and the impacts of our advocacy will pave the way for other Black country artists for generations to come. Will you take action now and sign the petition?

In addition to the companies that have unleashed the technology the enables deepfakes, hosting and cloud computing providers like Amazon have continued to provide the infrastructure needed to run large websites specializing in non-consensual deepfake porn, even though the harm they;re doing has become clear. They, too, are part of the problem. Normally, when a company releases products that cause unexpected harm, they’re responsible for fixing it. Like when Toyota found it had cars on the road with faulty gas pedals that could result in crashes, or when Samsung got reports of Galaxy smartphones overheating and catching fire, they recalled their products. Tech companies releasing, distributing, and hosting content generated by cutting edge AI technology should not be an exception. Now that deepfakes have become a major media story, you have Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, saying “we have to act,” while not specifying or committing to real action—and with most other tech leaders remaining completely silent. There are good conversations in the AI safety community about what the best approaches are for reining in deepfakes, but until the tech companies at the root of the problem act, it will be meaningless. Some parts of solving the problem are harder than others, but there is plenty that can and should be done right now: - AI companies (like Microsoft) should stop releasing software that has been shown to create harmful, non-consensual deepfakes, until they can prove that it is safe. - Social media platforms (like Facebook and Twitter/X) should take much stronger steps to detect deepfakes; freeze accounts that appear to have distributed harmful, non-consensual deepfakes; and permanently ban those that have been determined to have done so. - Cloud providers (like Amazon) should drop large websites that are clearly and overtly in the business of creating and distributing non-consensual deepfakes. Congress is now working on The DEFIANCE Act of 2024, which would make it a crime to produce and distribute non-consensual deepfake images, audio, and video–an important part of what’s needed and which Sexual Violence Prevention Association has recently started a campaign to support. But Congress has yet to hold accountable the tech companies that are at the core of the problem, and that control the means of production and distribution of deepfakes. These companies have poured billions into the technology that makes deepfake creation and sharing possible. It’s time they prioritize addressing the harms they’ve created as a result, and invest in making such technology safe from causing harm. Until they can demonstrate that a baseline level of safety has been achieved, with no one in the future being subjected to what Taylor Swift and others currently are experiencing, these companies need to do all that’s in their power to stop the harm created by the spread of non-consensual deepfakes.

We need to take a stand and help those who have been assaulted. They matter and we need to help make a safer community. So many do not speak up because its painful and justice does not prevail.

Why was Congressman Trone so dismissive, insulting and ignorant in his interaction with Dr. Marsha Adebayo at a recent MLK event. She asked to talk to him about the Bethesda Road Moses African Cemetery and efforts to reclaim the land to memorialize the lives of enslaved and post-emancipated African Community. Instead of engaging, he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and a turn of his back saying" who cares about that little cemetery?" I care about that "little Cemetery," and I don't care to have a person with David Trone's historical ignorance and dismissiveness towards African American struggles influencing our community. The people in the "little cemetery were human beings and they deserve respect. Most of those buried in the "little" cemetery were children who were kidnapped, raped, murdered and worked to death in Bethesda, Maryland. Why are we still debating whether Black Lives Matter? We need the community to speak out against Congressman Trone's statement. David Mott - retired union organizer, Poor People's Campaign, Montgomery County Contact: bethesdaafricancemeterycoalition.net

Help us Now! Over 600,000 Californians will lose access to UC Health Systems, including cancer patients, children and countless others in critical need due to a contract dispute between Anthem aka Elevance and UC Health. Human lives are at risk while Anthem refuses to act in good faith and agree to standard levels of care. Please end this dispute NOW before anybody dies.

We, the rank-and-file nurses of California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, and National Nurses Organizing Committee, understand the power of collective action. Around the world, the Labor movement has fought for and with oppressed and marginalized communities for decades. Our Union brothers and sisters have stood hand in hand with oppressed and marginalized people in their fights for equality: from the U.S Civil Rights movement to ending Apartheid in South Africa. Since October 7th, 2023, the relentless bombing of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has resulted in more than 22,000 people killed and more than 52,000 are injured, in addition to thousands who are missing and feared dead under the rubble, 305,000 residential homes have been destroyed or damaged, 339 educational facilities are damaged, 197 places of worship have been damaged, and 26 out of 35 hospitals are not functioning. More than 300 healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, and civil defense rescuers, have been killed as well leaving an already fractured medical infrastructure with less resources and healthcare professionals to assist in caring for critically injured civilians. We have seen the news of Israel using Artificial Intelligence to bomb the press where over 100 journalists have been killed along with many of their family members, to bomb mosques and churches, and historical monuments–to erase any history of the Palestinian people. We are witnessing a genocide unfolding in real-time. As nurses, we follow the nursing code of ethics. The ethics we live by have four main principles: autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence. To call for the liberation of the Palestinian people, and to demand that the Union stand beside the Palestinian people, is deeply rooted in our nursing code of ethics. Palestine deserves to live free from this endless violence and displacement from their native land. We have committed our lives to these principles, and so long as we have a collective voice, we will demand a Free Palestine. Our call for Palestinian Liberation is an extension of our commitment to justice, and if we are silent, we are complicit in the genocide. We hope that CNA/NNU/NNOC stands with us in unwaveringly supporting the liberation of the Palestinian people, because doing so is imperative to our Union’s anti-imperialist, racial justice values that we claim to uphold. <p>Check out <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CI_eTB_cFVg135HX_xUS6UCXqxz_kc9OsRJArwJDRjM/edit?usp=sharing/" target="_blank">these actions that you can take now.</a>.</p> Before you sign, please consider exploring these actions that you can take now. http://tinyurl.com/unfp1 In Unity, Union Nurses For Palestine

it’s important because our school dress code is unfair, i should not be getting dress coded for showing my belly button or my shoulder.