This special treatment for elite universities began when Congress passed a law allowing schools with “need-blind” admissions — meaning students’ ability to pay is not factored into their applications — to collaborate on the formulas used to determine the level of aid. In theory, this law was intended to prevent discrimination against college applicants on the basis of wealth. But in practice, eliminating price competition among 28 of the wealthiest universities in the US may have enabled those schools to cut financial aid packages without fear of losing applicants to competing schools. The policy may have led to exclusion of low income applicants, and may be driving the skyrocketing tuition costs the US has seen over the past 30 years. Since 1990, public university tuition has nearly tripled — perhaps because other schools set tuition relative to elite colleges. The DOJ must investigate the 28 member universities of the ‘568 Presidents’ Group’ for potential discrimination on the basis of income and for possibly overcharging students on financial aid hundreds of millions of dollars in total over the past 18 years!

Even if Democrats nominate and confirm the progressive Black woman Supreme Court justice this country needs, the far right will retain its supermajority on the court… and continue trumping the public interest and eroding our basic rights in the years to come. But the situation isn’t futile. Congress can pass legislation to rebalance the Supreme Court now, before Republicans have the chance to secure a Congressional majority in the midterms. It’s constitutional, it’s happened before, and it’s the only way to disrupt the dangerous path we’re on. Unless Congress acts now, before Republicans have the chance to secure a congressional majority in the midterms, the Supreme Court will keep handing down pro-business decisions for years to come.

The dangers of gathering in public spaces during a pandemic, along with the regular challenges to attending town board meetings in person due to disability or conflicting work schedules continue to keep many residents from fully participating in local government. As both the technology and the volunteers exist to implement this change immediately, we request that the board sanction, announce and facilitate such an effort forthwith.

Dogs deserve better

The US government supports seven of nine dictatorships across the Middle East. Many of these dictators -- and other brutal governments -- hire lobbyists, public relations experts and advisors to help influence US politicians and shape the American mind. Here are some terrible examples: - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's former chief of staff Nadeam Elshami is now a lobbyist for Egypt's dictator. - Former Republican US senator Norm Coleman is a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia's dictatorship. His firm, Hogan Lovells, has received almost $14 million from the Saudi monarchy since 2014. - Former Republican Member of Congress Ed Royce is also now a lobbyist for Egypt's dictator. - And former Republican Member of Congress Howard “Buck” McKeon and his firm have made over $2 million from lobbying for Saudi Arabia’s dictatorship since 2016. These former elected officials and congressional staff earn vast amounts of money supporting the very dictators and oil monarchies that make life miserable for people across the planet. US representatives and senators must refuse to meet with lobbyists, advisors, and public relations experts who work for dictators or apartheid governments. SOURCES: 1) Middle East dictatorships backed by the U.S.: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman. 2) “Egypt assembles bipartisan lobbying team for post-Trump era,” Julian Pecquet, Middle East Eye, November 11, 2020, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-assembles-bipartisan-lobbying-team-post-donald-trump-era 3) “Biden Should Stop Payment on U.S. Funds To Sisi's Egypt,” Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold, Common Dreams, February 12, 2021, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/02/12/biden-should-stop-payment-us-funds-sisis-egypt 4) “Norm Coleman: Former U.S. Senator Now Lobbyist and Agent for the Saudi Government,” Democracy for the Arab World Now, October 22, 2021, https://dawnmena.org/norm-coleman-former-u-s-senator-now-lobbyist-and-agent-for-the-saudi-government/ 5) “Egypt assembles bipartisan lobbying team for post-Trump era,” Julian Pecquet, Middle East Eye, November 11, 2020, https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-assembles-bipartisan-lobbying-team-post-donald-trump-era 6) “Buck McKeon and Firm Made Over $2 Million Lobbying for Saudi Government,” October 15, 2021, Democracy for the Arab World Now, https://dawnmena.org/buck-mckeon-and-firm-made-over-2-million-lobbying-for-saudi-government/

The IRS wants taxpayers to provide credit history and submit to facial recognition just to access their tax information online. They’ve hired a third party company called ID.me to verify user identity even though it’s common knowledge that facial recognition technology has racial and gender biases. Anyone who cares about privacy and racial justice should be up in arms. That’s why we’re pressuring President Biden to end the contract between the IRS and ID.me. Sign the petition: Demand President Biden end facial recognition at the IRS! ID.me’s verification process is so invasive that a technology reporter at Gizmodo felt “sufficiently creeped out” and refused to finish it.1 If ID.me is allowed to continue working with the IRS then every tax filer will have to give over personal information – like photo IDs and access to consumer credit reports – just to access their tax information online. But this gets much worse! The CEO at ID.me got caught lying to journalists about how it uses facial recognition2 and admitted that the company uses Amazon Rekognition, which is well known to have racial biases. The IRS already 1) has enough of our sensitive income information, and 2) is scarily underfunded. They shouldn’t be spending more of their resources on an untrustworthy third party vendor who wants to scoop up more of your information and subject you to racist facial recognition technology. The Treasury Department is already asking the IRS to reconsider this contract, but President Biden can end this private contract with the stroke of a pen. That’s why we’re taking the issue directly to him. Sign the petition: Demand President Biden end facial recognition at the IRS! Sources: 1. Gizmodo, “IRS Will Require Facial Recognition Scans to Access Your Taxes Online,” January 19, 2022. 2. Axios, “ID.me CEO apologizes for misstatements on IRS facial recognition,” January 27, 2022.

The health and safety of the Essex County Public School students, teachers and staff is of the utmost importance. Essex County Public Schools had to release students early on February 4, 2022, due to a staff shortage. Many teachers and staff members believe the learning environment is unsafe and do not want to put themselves at risk of contracting COVID-19. An Essex High School student was sent to the principal on February 3, 2022, after a teacher discovered a flyer organizing a student walkout. The flyer read, “Covid-19 is real. We lost too many lives," and asked students to walk out for 16 minutes in honor of the 16,412 people who lost their lives due COVID-19 in Virginia. A parent of a special needs student who is nonverbal and wheelchair bound, said she took her daughter out of school because of health and safety concerns. Signing this petition is important because we cannot allow elected officials to put the health and safety of our children and community at-risk. By prematurely ending COVID-19 mitigation strategies and protocols, the school district is unable to provide a safe environment for students to receive a free appropriate public education.

Nobody plans to bury their murdered child – it’s among the worst possible unexpected expenses, yet thousands of Illinois families are paying it. They are depending on your help during some of the most tragic and painful times of their lives. We look forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to ease some of their pain.

Rather than taking active steps to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, President Biden is actively expanding it. According to The New York Times, the Pentagon has begun building a new $4 million courtroom at Guantánamo where the United States plans to hold secret trials starting in 2023. That means at least another year of this ongoing national shame. It’s not only far from the closure we wanted to see, it’s working backward from it. But before ground breaks we have a moment of opportunity to remind the president of our decades-long demand: CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO. Sign now to send the president a message he can't miss: the time to shut down Guantánamo is now!

Google is aggressively pursuing the Pentagon’s Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract, despite turning down a chance at a similar contract a few years ago. At the time, they said the contract would violate their AI principles of not developing technology that causes harm. That’s still true: Developments in military technology have meant ever-more devastating weapons, drone warfare, and unfettered surveillance. Google employees are expressing serious concerns about the ethics of this contract, and we agree. Sign the petition to join us in urging Google not to work with the Pentagon!

This is extremely important because it will save lives and secure this group of amnesty seekers in safer countries that will protect their human rights. They are experiencing crimes against humanity in the refugee camp. They have a right to life, human rights, and to safety and protection from LGBTQIA genocide.

According to the Brennan Center, Arizona legislatures passed three restrictive voting bills in 2021, AZ HB 1003, AZ SB 1485, and AZ SB 1819. These bills will purge voters from voting lists and limit the time voters can fix their absentee ballots and cure their signatures. These new laws compound earlier discriminatory voting laws passed in Arizona that restrict ballot collecting and provisional ballots. The majority of voters harmed by these laws are African American, Latino and Native American voters, rural voters, and poor and low-income voters. Join us as we demand the NFL move Super Bowl LVII from Arizona due to its discriminatory voting laws in order to protect our democracy.