Ben & Jerry’s is in court protecting their decision to stop selling ice cream in occupied Palestinian territories, after a betrayal by their parent company, Unilever. To appease the Israeli government, Alan Jope, CEO at Unilever, authorized a backroom deal to sell the franchise to an Israeli company – essentially overriding Ben & Jerry’s decision. Sign the petition: tell Unilever to stop its betrayal of Ben & Jerry’s and Palestinian human rights. Ben & Jerry’s made the human rights-affirming decision in 2020 to stop doing business in occupied Palestine, following a decade of grassroots organizing and campaigning by Palestinians and allies across the globe. In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s finally went public with their decision — after a particularly brutal Israeli military assault on Gaza which killed over 200 people — and during a huge surge of international support for Palestinian freedom. Now, a year after Ben & Jerry’s public announcement, their parent company, Unilever, has made a backroom deal to sell ice cream operations to the Israeli licensee rather than honor Ben & Jerry’s decision to respect Palestinian lives.

On June 27, Jayland Walker was pulled over for an alleged “traffic and equipment violation.” Eight Akron Police Department officers shot at Jayland more than 90 times in seven seconds. Jayland suffered 60 gunshot wounds. Then the same officers who murdered him handcuffed his lifeless body. The police bodycam footage reveals eight cops killed a Black man while five officers stood by and watched. Our hearts break for Jayland’s family and the Akron community. Jayland was a young man with a family and a bright future, a human who deserved to be treated with dignity. Instead, Akron police murdered him. The officers who fired more than 90 shots at Jayland are on paid administrative leave. As we mourn and turn our outrage into action, this moment requires us to recognize a painful truth: The police murder of Jayland Walker is not an anomaly. We’ve been here before. • In South Carolina, Walter Scott was stopped by police for a non-functioning brake light. • In Michigan, Patrick Lyoya was stopped for improper vehicle registration. • Just outside Minneapolis, where police murdered George Floyd, Daunte Wright was pulled over for minor traffic violations and an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. All of these Black men were murdered by police during routine traffic stops. In a country where armed, militarized police are the response to every incident and crisis — and Black people are viewed as threats, not human beings — Black people aren’t issued tickets or citations; we receive death sentences. Now, as Jayland’s family and neighbors take to the street to demand justice, the Akron Police Department has initiated a terror campaign against protesters and journalists. From tear gas and rubber bullets to false imprisonment, Akron police have waged war against people demanding justice for Jayland as demonstrated by the violent arrests of Bianca Austin, the aunt of Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake Sr., the father of Jacob Blake. Police terrorism continues to target Black and Indigenous communities. And when people stand up to protest police brutality, cops douse them with chemical weapons and beat them with batons. This is who the police are, and dehumanizing and terrorizing Black people is what they’re paid to do. The murder of Jayland Walker and the violent police response in Akron are just the latest cruel examples of what happens when elected officials prioritize policing over investments that actually keep communities safe. That’s why we’re standing with The Freedom BLOC to demand Akron’s elected officials: 1. Protect protesters: Immediately end the use of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. 2. Stop arresting protesters and free those who have been detained: Immediately release all protesters from jail, expunge their records and remove all fines and fees. 3. Create and fund an unarmed traffic enforcement unit for routine traffic stops. 4. Invest in community-led public safety solutions. Invest in what keeps Black communities safe, including reparations, housing, public transportation, food security, health care and community-controlled public safety alternatives. According to Mapping Police Violence, Black people are 4.9 times more likely to be killed by police than white people in Ohio. And when we protest police violence, we become the next target of police brutality. We must take action to end this vicious cycle.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's outrageous and harmful ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden has reportedly caved to a demand by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to appoint an anti-abortion extremist to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench. The federal judges below the Supreme Court are the only ones protecting reproductive rights at this point, and we can't afford even one new anti-abortion jurist on the bench. We cannot imagine a more out-of-touch move at this moment. Women overwhelmingly backed Biden over Trump in his bid for the presidency, and now he is taking our votes for granted and using us as bargaining chips. Let's take a look at the record of Chad Meredith, the Kentucky attorney Biden is considering awarding a lifetime position: Meredith has devoted much of his career to defending abortion restrictions in the Bluegrass State, including a controversial law on the books that requires doctors offering abortions to conduct fetal ultrasounds while playing audio of the heartbeat and giving vivid descriptions of the image. Meredith is also a member of the radically conservative Federalist Society, which also counts in its rolls anti-Roe Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The fact that Senator Mitch McConnell wants Meredith on the federal court bench is all we need to know about Meredith's fitness for the job. We are a resolute NO on this appointment. Tell President Biden he must not consider Chad Meredith or any anti-abortion extremist for our courts!

Join others and demand state legislatures stop violating the rights of their citizens. A majority of Americans support access to abortion and state laws must reflect that. Let your voice be heard!

Amazon and the rest of corporate America want to reap the benefits of appearing pro-reproductive rights without actually having to stop their donations to candidates actively passing abortion bans. Companies across various industries—from AT&T and Disney to Amazon—have donated to Republicans and extremists for years including Republican governors who are now signing abortion bans into law. Amazon released a statement that “team members should get the care they need" and have offered to reimburse their staff for travel. But that’s simply not enough to combat an issue they’ve contributed to. Amazon has the opportunity to actually support their staff, by ending all donations to Republican and right-wing extremist candidates that will support abortion bans and limit worker’s rights across the country.

These organizations aggressively lie to teens in their most vulnerable moments – telling them abortion is dangerous, that ultrasounds or other procedures are required when they aren’t, and that local clinics don’t have appointments available when they do. This creates a significant public health risk. Some experts estimate abortion bans will increase maternal mortality in women and girls of color by 33%, the same population most likely to see abortion services from a deceitful center. By profiting from these centers’ advertisements, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are spreading misinformation about critical health issues to vulnerable kids.

Ketamine works for Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, Bi-Polar Disorder, and other mental health disorders. It stops suicide cold, in just a few hours. Clinicians have been administering these infusions for many years. It is safe and effective. The initial course of therapy is six infusions over three weeks, and costs up to $500 per infusion. People on Medicare and Medicaid typically have low incomes and many cannot afford the cost because CMS has not approved it for coverage. It is immoral to have Americans resorting to suicide when there is medication therapy that can help! The medication should not be out of reach because of cost. Many other FDA-approved drugs are routinely used off-label and approved by CMS. Ketamine is FDA-approved. Ketamine is safe. Ketamine SAVES LIVES!

The right to an abortion has been proven to lower the risk of death and injury. San Antonio must be dedicated to protecting the safety of its people. San Antonio must continue to honor the rights of pregnant people to bodily autonomy and private medical decisions.

Trump knew his supporters were armed when he urged them to “fight like hell” and march on the Capitol, Cassidy Hutchinson alleged in her damning testimony at last week’s January 6th hearings. It’s clearer than ever: Trump and his cronies engineered a violent attempt to overturn President Biden’s rightful victory and they nearly pulled it off. Unless Congress takes action to protect our democracy and our voting rights now, the far right is all but certain to try to pull off another coup in the future. We need new laws governing the certification of elections — now.

Years ago, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources contracted with a private corporation to put oil & gas well records on its cloud via a database called EDWIN. DCNR staffers scan the records that are uploaded. The database and all of the work to populate it is funded with your tax dollars. The data in the EDWIN are critically important to people who are tracking issues related to oil & gas development. They should not have to travel to a DCNR office in Pittsburgh or Middletown or submit requests to receive individual records to avoid paying $5,500 dollars to access public information. One of those people is Laurie Barr, who I have worked with for many years. She doggedly tracks orphaned and abandoned wells in the state. There are hundreds of thousands of those wells dotting the state that have never been plugged and are leaking climate-killing methane unchecked. One academic researcher who toured the state with Laurie called some of the wells she found 'super-emitters' of methane. Laurie has spent her own money on gas, tolls, and hotels to make the 5 hour trip to Pittsburgh just to access the data she should be able to access for free from her home computer. Please sign my petition to tell the DCNR to eliminate the outrageous fees that only serve to restrict access to critically-important public information.

People should join this campaign for change because it presents a paradigm shift, environmentally, for the United States. Currently, our society channels water from every rainfall to be drained away. This causes dehydration of the land withheld water. Every hard surface produces rainwater run-off. These are places where rainfall could previously sink into the ground. We cannot remove every hard surface, like roofs and roads, so we must invest in managing that run-off more naturally to allow more water to soak into the aquifers. One more time, too often too much fresh water or storm water is directed into rivers and waterways before it can soak into the ground. Many of us have seen the pipes that discharge at incredible rates, and still don't seem to be enough to capture our ever-growing hard surface footprint. These pipes must be discharged before the natural environment and given spaces within the cities, towns, and farms to seep into the soils of the landscape. Every town and region will be different based upon rainfall and geologic boundaries. Securing fresh water resources for our environments will then increase the availability of fresh water for human use. Remember the power of the beaver, that is who and what we must encourage and replicate now.

On June 27, eight officers fired more than 100 shots at Jayland Walker. Over 60 of them struck his body, and he was killed instantly. Currently, the Akron Police Department and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations are examining this horrific incident. We know that Jayland was unarmed when he was killed—despite what police claim, and that his murder fits a pattern of racially-charged killings of Black people by police. Local organizers in Akron, including the Akron NAACP, are calling for an independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. Ohio elected officials must use their platforms to call for a DOJ investigation, as well.