The research is clear: adolescent sleep deprivation is directly linked to increased rates of depression, suicide ideation, drug and alcohol use, and car accidents. Sleep deprivation also undermines academic performance and increases tardies, absences and behavioral issues at school. And teen athletes who get inadequate sleep are more likely to get injured. The circadian rhythm shift of adolescence makes it difficult for the vast majority of teens to fall asleep early. When combined with too-early school start times, the result is sleep deprivation. As noted above, a start time of 8:30 a.m. or later has been shown to be the single best way to address this. To a large extent, school start times have been dictated by external factors such as bus schedules, and were established before researchers had identified the numerous risks of developmentally misaligned school hours. Healthy school start times are a public health issue and an academic issue. In California, only 21% of the state’s public middle and high schools meet the 8:30 a.m. healthy start time guideline – many start before 7:30 a.m., with students needing to wake at 6 a.m. or even earlier! We need to implement healthy start times for all of the 3-million-plus students in our public middle and high schools – not just those in districts willing to make the change of their own accord. For more information, visit startschoollater.net or join our Facebook page, Start School Later California.

According to the most current FBI reports, a white police officer killed an African American individual nearly two times a week in the United States. The Department of Justice has found a pattern of excessive force within a number of major police departments.

The wind is at our backs: Because of our grassroots pressure, House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the disastrous Republican health care repeal bill—which would have taken away health insurance from more than 20 million Americans—from the House floor. This is a huge victory. But we can't stop here. Let's make it clear that the American public does want action on health care—to expand and improve on the ACA, not slash it and take it away. Every developed nation except the United States has universal health insurance. It's time to move forward. Senator Bernie Sanders is planning to introduce a bill that includes Medicare for All, a single-payer program that would cover all Americans and reduce the cost of care. Sanders and other Democrats are also pushing for action on prescription drugs and a public option. Tell your members of Congress to support legislation to protect and expand affordable health care access for millions of Americans.

Everyone who uses the internet should be alarmed at the prospect of all our browsing and app activity being vacuumed up by the giant broadband internet providers. With only a simple majority, the Senate has already approved the rollback of internet privacy protections and the House of Representatives will vote on March 28th.

Obamacare was landmark legislation that provided health care for millions who didn't have health care. It promised to be affordable health care. Unfortunately, an insufficient number of healthy younger people didn't sign up, so deductibles and premiums went up. Some insurance companies left the insurance market. Consequently, it became unaffordable for many. From Day 1, Republicans were opposed to Obamacare and ran for election promising to repeal and replace Obamacare. It was good campaign rhetoric but hollow governance rhetoric. After seven years and with Senate and House majorities, a Republican President couldn't govern effectively. There was no plan. The American Health Care Act, intended to repeal and replace Obamacare, failed to get enough Republican votes to pass it. The far right House Republicans revolted. The concessions intended to satisfy the far right demands caused some moderate Republicans to revolt. Republicans have signaled that a bi-partisan bill might be passed. Good quality health care should be available to everyone. Health care access should not be dependent on a person's economic status. It's time for some real governance after years of malgovernance by both parities. House, Senate, and White House leadership is required. The ship of state has been buffeted by winds from the far right and far left far too long. Get it on a steady course. Put American First in action, not just words. Find the common ground needed to put America First. Update and repair Obamacare now!

This petition is about unnecessary killing of civilians in air strikes. I am not currently affected by this atrocity, but I will be if one of these countries does another 911 on us.

Americans need to know if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. The House cannot properly investigate this grave concern under the tainted leadership of Devin Nunes. We need a new chairperson who lead the investigation in a fair and impartial manner.

I know people who are suffering due to lack of healthcare. I believe that universal healthcare is the best way to take care of all of our citizens.

Pennsylvania has more Lyme an tick-borne infections than any other state, but has few doctors who treat chronic Lyme, with about 20% of patients being chronic. Insurance companies deny payment for long-term treatment, relying on infectious disease guidelines, no longer in effect, having been removed by the National Institute of Guidelines. PA doctors fear losing their licenses for treating Lyme disease long term. PA Senate Bill 100 protects doctors and requires insurance company pay for all prescribed Lyme diease treatment. The bill is in the Insurance & Banking Committee chaired by Sen. Donald C. White, who refuses to let this Bill out of committee, since he is in the insurance industry. Please contact Sen. White at Senate Box 203041, Harrisburg PA 17120-3041 at 717-787-8724 to support this Bill. If you're a PA, contact your state senator, as well, and urge him/her to pressure Sen. White to bring this bill to the full senate , where it will pass. Thank you, Peggy Boyce Furey, mother of son afflicted with chronic Lyme disease.

We are students at Marvin Ridge Middle School. We will be driving soon and this intersection is one that we will use to get to school. It is a very dangerous intersection and we don't want to have to risk our lives every day or see any more accidents happen. Two other traffic circles are going to be installed on this same road within the next 6 months. This intersection is the most dangerous one on the street but DOT doesn't have it on the schedule with the other two traffic circles. This intersection needs to be made safer immediately before someone loses their life.

Has your child or has a child you know been exposed to graphic images online? Chances are yes; the stats are shocking, more than 80% of our children have been exposed to graphic pornographic content online by the age of 11. Why are we, as a society, allowing this kind of content to be accessed so easily by so many of our children? It just doesn't make any sense. Don't let the online pornographers be the ones teaching our children about intimacy. Stand with me and say no! Let's protect our children from this inappropriate and damaging online content!

Members, Supporters and Partners of The Florida State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are calling on Governor Rick Scott to rescind his decision to remove State Attorney Aramis Ayala from the Markeith Lloyd case. State Attorney Ayala made a sensible decision about the use of prosecutorial resources in her jurisdiction. After a detailed review, she announced that she would no longer seek the death penalty in future cases. She had ample reason to come to this decision because the death penalty is an expensive, unnecessary, unreliable, and racially-biased punishment. The death penalty wastes prosecutorial, defense, judicial, and correctional resources. Pursuing the death penalty requires additional resources given the literal life-and-death stakes of the prosecution. A death penalty case necessitates additional procedural protections, lengthy jury selection, an involved sentencing phase, and an intricate appeals process. Even the possibility of the death penalty raises costs because of additional pre-trial preparation and investigation in potentially capital cases. These costs continue in prison with the need for a separate death row and the costs of execution. Given this reality, it is unsurprising that Florida spends an estimated $51 million a year on the death penalty. Florida taxpayers pay approximately $3.2 million to prosecute, convict, and execute a single person. And what for? There is no reliable evidence that the death penalty makes communities any safer. In fact, the Florida communities that do not impose death sentences have lower crime rates that those that do. Even with the additional procedures instituted in death penalty cases, Florida’s death penalty system has proven unreliable in determining who is guilty, which crimes are the worst-of-the-worst, and in complying with constitutional standards. With 26 death row exonerees, Florida leads the nation in the number of innocent people freed from death row. The courts have reduced the death sentences of hundreds of Florida death row inmates to life sentences, and Florida’s death penalty has been repeatedly found unconstitutional. The racially-biased application of Florida’s death penalty is another compelling reason not to pursue it. The death penalty is inextricably intertwined with a history of mob violence against Black people. In Florida, there is clear bias in the way the race of a defendant and the race of a homicide victim affect outcomes. Homicides involving white female victims are 6.5 times more likely to result in an execution than those involving Black male victims, and no white person has been executed in Florida for a homicide involving a Black victim. These facts provided State Attorney Ayala with a host of reasons to determine that pursuing life sentences instead of the death penalty was in the interest of justice in the Ninth Judicial Circuit. Yet, you took the extraordinary step of reassigning a case because of your personal opinion about how justice should be delivered. Numerous counties, 19 states, and 102 countries are able to provide justice without administering the death penalty. There was no “good and sufficient reason” to remove her from the Loyd case. Your decision to interfere with an elected prosecutor’s determination of local priorities is even more serious given the fact that State Attorney Ayala is the first Black State Attorney in Florida history. When 95% of elected prosecutors nationwide are white, State Attorney Ayala’s voice and leadership are important for the future of the criminal justice system. The Florida State Conference of the NAACP is deeply troubled by this unprovoked interference with her proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion. We call on you to immediately rescind your executive order reassigning the Markeith Lloyd case and to leave decisions about the pursuit of the death penalty in the Ninth Judicial Circuit to its duly elected prosecutor.