Congress is considering a package of corporate tax breaks, but they’ve failed to extend needed support for working families that helps folks pay the bills, fill their tanks, buy groceries, and afford child care. With rising inflation taking a bigger chunk out of paychecks, we must demand that Congress extend help for working families before more tax breaks for big corporations.

We are partnering with other organizations across the country to gather signatures on this petition started by Greenpeace. Please add your name to this petition to send the strongest possible message to President Biden. The climate crisis is already changing life as we know it. Devastating climate impacts are displacing millions of people each year. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to extract from public lands and exploit communities of color for profit. Declaring a Climate Emergency would be the beginning of the end to the era of fossil fuels and climate destruction. By using his executive powers, President Biden can repair the harm caused by environmental racism and deliver good-paying union jobs, justice, and clean energy for all. Families from Washington state to Florida are already starting to feel the severity of the climate crisis. In the United States and around the world, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor people are the first to feel the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and predatory exploitation. By declaring a Climate Emergency, President Biden can begin to utilize the “whole-of-government approach” to begin solving the biggest existential threat that we have ever faced.

“Keep negotiating, Chuck!” That was the call of the 17 Congressional staffers who occupied Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office Monday to demand he reopen climate negotiations. “We refuse to be complicit in the enormous suffering and devastation around the world that will result from not passing climate justice policy this year,” the protesting staffers said in a statement. Senator Joe Manchin has repeatedly sabotaged President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda — but Democratic leadership must refuse Manchin’s ultimatum. Democrats must exercise their power! The Senate must pass sweeping climate legislation; and President Biden must declare a national climate emergency! The Senate must pass climate legislation that accomplishes the original goals of Build Back Better: substantive investments in renewable energy and building communities resilient to climate change. Furthermore, President Biden must use the powers conferred by declaring a national climate emergency to take the following steps towards securing a livable future: - Stop leasing public lands for fossil fuel production - Stop issuing drilling permits - Strengthen standards for water and air pollutants, especially carbon dioxide and methane - Direct the EPA to designate greenhouse pollutants as criteria air pollutants and set a science-based national pollution cap under the Clean Air Act.

Congress is finally set to pass historic legislation regulating the Big Tech monopolies — but Amazon, Facebook, and the other Big Tech companies are fighting the bills with all they’ve got. That includes Facebook’s multi-million dollar campaign spreading the lie that regular people oppose regulating Big Tech. The truth is that small businesses by and large support laws to protect them from platform monopolies — just ask Alexa. Advocacy group Accountable Tech asked Amazon’s Alexa what she thought about one of Big Tech’s favorite fibs: that the bills will hurt small businesses. Q: Hey Alexa. Will these new bipartisan antitrust bills in Congress hurt small businesses? A: No. These bills will actually spur competition by prohibiting Big Tech monopolies like Amazon from elevating their own products in their search results. These bills would level the playing field for small businesses. Even Amazon’s own AI can see through Big Tech’s misinformation. But Senate leader Chuck Schumer is delaying the vote, even though it has the votes to pass. We need them to pass tech antitrust legislation — immediately. Congress must take on the power of big tech!

Biden has been making alarming compromises with his federal judge appointments recently— like cutting a back-channel deal with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and nominating Chad Meredith, an anti-choice member of the Koch-brothers funded Federalist Society, to a Kentucky federal judgeship. President Biden’s decision to put forth an anti-abortion judge in the wake of the Dobbs ruling is indefensible. As progressive advocacy group Indivisible said in a statement, “Republicans have already stacked the federal judiciary with far-right partisans — we don’t need Democrats helping them do it.” President Biden must pick up the pace on nominating federal judges. With a Supreme Court consistently tearing down our fundamental rights, the federal courts are one of our few available protections. August recess is right around the corner. President Biden must make nominating federal judges a top priority in the next two weeks—and the Senate must swiftly confirm these nominees.

Water is a basic human right. At a school that demands academic excellence, it is hypocritical that no water is provided for paying students. Dehydration negatively impacts academic performance and focus. How can we perform if we are not given the basic tools in order to do so. We are also in school for the HOT summer months with no AC in the classrooms as well. Water is something that should AT LEAST be provided considering the tuition we pay to attend this institution.

The Luther Burbank Center for the Arts claims, on paper, to be committed to serving Sonoma County’s diverse community, “taking meaningful actions to welcome and center the voices that often need to be heard, [and] furthering the community dialogue around equity, oppression, active inclusion and privilege in everything we do.” [Source: https://lutherburbankcenter.org/about/general-information/diversity-equity-inclusion/] If any place, particularly a nonprofit, commends itself for its upstanding diversity, equity and inclusion, it should be held accountable by those standards in all its actions within the community it serves. By allowing performers like Dave Chapelle to use their space as a platform for blatantly transphobic and harmful content, the LBC contradicts the values asserted in their DEI statement and directly contributes to the violent rhetoric LGBTQIA+ people are forced to deal with every day. By giving discrimination the stage, the Luther Burbank Center sends a message to all of Sonoma County that prejudice, harmful language, and stereotypes are cause for laughter and celebration. On Wednesday, July 20th, Minneapolis’ First Avenue theater listened to community outcry and relocated Dave Chapelle’s performance to another venue. By aiming to move Chapelle’s Sonoma County performances, we build upon the message which First Avenue has sent: transphobia will not be tolerated in our community or beyond. The LBC is supposed to stand for our community, not for profit! By signing this petition, you raise your voice against the normalization of transphobia in our county and stand as an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community.

As I write this, the clock that indicates how much time we have left to avoid a 1.5 degree temperature increase is about to roll over from 7 years, 0 days, 00:00:00 to 6 years, 364 days, 23:59:59. In spite of this, and the fact that the majority of Pennsylvanians want to see their government act on climate, our state government continues to take us in the wrong direction, approving more fossil fuel and petrochemical development while pushing for huge investments in false climate solutions promoted by the fossil fuel industry. Among them are technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage and Blue Hydrogen, initiatives like turning western PA into a Hydrogen Hub, and specific projects like Nacero, Encina, and KeyState. Our clock must serve as a permanent reminder that our government needs to break its ties with the industries responsible for the ever-shortening amount of time it counts down and take swift, bold, and just action on climate.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade requires bold action. It is important for the Surgeon General to issue a letter to every American household giving them complete and accurate information about medication abortion, to increase knowledge and availability of this safe and effective process.

The language the media uses requires accuracy.

It’s not enough to hit pause on human rights violations Did you know the Biden administration has asked Israel to pause “actions in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem that could create tensions” ahead of the president’s visit to the region this week? That means they’ll play “nice” while the diplomats meet, but once the president is gone, it’s back to business as usual: occupation, evictions, bulldozers, and violence. Take Masafer Yatta — just weeks before President Biden’s first official visit to the Middle East, Israel began the largest forced eviction in the West Bank in DECADES. At least 1,000 Palestinians living in the villages of Masafer Yatta are facing eviction as the Israeli government continues its strategy of illegal encroachment in the West Bank. It’s not enough for the Israeli government to simply pause their human rights violations, and we can help put a stop to them once and for all. Usually, this kind of aggression by Israel’s government would be overlooked by the United States. But with President Biden touching down in the region today, and members of Congress already speaking out, we have a unique opportunity to push for more and to STOP the evictions and demolitions before it’s too late.

Ask yourself, would you want a slaughterhouse next to you home? Bottom line is that this slaughterhouse/meat processing facility does not belong in a residential neighborhood. It is a commercial operation and belongs in a commercial setting.