The Department of Justice announced that it is cancelling its contracts with private prison companies because of dangers and abuses outlined in exposés and a recent official government report(1). However, the majority of federal private prison contracts are actually held by the Department of Homeland Security for its sprawling immigrant detention facilities. While private prisons make up 8% of the prison population, they made up 62% of immigrant detention in 2014(2). In the wake of the Dept. of Justice announcement(3), the stock price for the main private prison companies plummeted. But they've told shareholders that immigrant detention is a stable investment and a growth industry. The Department of Homeland Security even has plans to open a NEW detention center to house transgender detainees in Texas. But all of those immigrant prisons are also dangerous and riddled with abuses. 12 people have died just at a single Corrections Corporation of America facility, the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona. Conditions there prompted a call for a Congressional investigation after a suspicious "suicide" last summer(4) and there are multiple demands for investigation into four sexual assault cases where guards are accused of abusing detainees. What is true about the findings of private prisons under the Department of Justice is true in immigrant detention under the Department of Homeland Security only at a larger scale. As long as private prisons exist, they'll just be recycled between government agencies. With the Department of Justice moving to end its contracts, private companies today will be looking for new customers and the Obama administration needs to make sure that DHS and no other government agency will be their clients. As we push for an end to immigrant detention, sign to remove the profit motive from detention. Background: 1. Inspector General Report on Private Prisons https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2016/e1606.pdf#page=2 2. The Problem With The DOJ’s Decision To Stop Using Private Prisons https://thinkprogress.org/the-federal-government-is-not-actually-ending-private-prisons-40e8c8dbf976#.uz5q79a4c 3. The Dept. of Justice Will Stop Using Private Prisons http://www.vox.com/2016/8/18/12536310/private-prisons-bureau-of-prisons 4. The Strange Death of Jose de Jesus http://latinousa.org/josedejesus/

I feel that allowing various groups to give a 3 minute inspirational message at the city council meetings would help my lovely city be more tolerant. Certainly allowing only the Baptists to give invocations is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that it plans to reduce, and ultimately end, its use of privately operated prisons. While the Department of Justice decisions will impact 13 privately operated federal prisons, it does not affect the over 100 of privately operated prisons that the Department of Homeland Security uses to detain undocumented immigrants. This means that the Department of Homeland Security will continue to use the same private prison operators over which the Department of Justice expressed "safety and security" concerns - subjecting thousands of immigrant detainees to the inhumane conditions of prisons owned by corporations like Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, and the Management and Training Corporation. Private prisons have a well documented history of abusive practices and human rights violations, which the Department of Homeland Security often disregards. What is worse, private prisons often cut critical services, programs, and resources just to maximize their profits - leaving detainees without medications or other essential needs. If we want to stop private prison corporations from abusing and profiting from the incarceration of human beings, then we need all federal agencies to end their use of private prisons. We demand that the Department of Homeland Security decline to renew its contracts with private prison corporations!

City commissioners have this to say about this offer. " These are the people, who brought us the Emergency Manager law, who brought us the disaster in Flint, who brought us Detroit Public Schools, who brought us the seizure of public land in Benton Harbor.” Your signature is opposition to stop the next plan to privatize our local communities, and that you stand with the local community.

Incredible! Republican leaders who complain about "rigged elections" are trying to do exactly that in North Carolina by making it harder for African Americans and students to use early voting. Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, sent instructions to Republicans who hold the majority on all 100 county boards of elections to "make party line changes to early voting." He specifically told them to close early voting sites on Sunday, remove them from college campuses, and open more in Republican areas, according to his emails obtained by the Raleigh News & Observer. More than half of N.C.’s voters used early voting in 2008 and 2012; it was even more heavily used by African Americans and young voters. Closing sites and reducing hours will mean longer lines and discouraged voters on Election Day. Fortunately, many Republican members on county election boards are ignoring Woodhouse and obeying their oath to serve all voters. But in Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and many other areas, they are opposing Sunday voting where it was used in the March primary. The reduced early voting plans of these counties will come before the State Board of Elections on September 8. The State Board has the power to restore them and repudiate the deliberate anti-black, anti-youth strategy of Republican Party leaders. Sign the petition to ask Mr. Grant Whitney Jr., board chair, and other board members to restore early voting on Sunday afternoons and on campuses that were recently eliminated or opposed by Republican county election boards. Last month, the federal Court of Appeals overturned a state law it said would suppress voting; we can't let local officials do the same thing with weak or discriminatory early voting plans for November.

The incarceration of immigrants has skyrocketed under President Obama, allowing the private prison industry to rake in massive profits by locking up immigrants in facilities where they often face abuse, violence, unsanitary conditions, and lack of proper medical care. The Department of Justice is phasing out the use of private prisons, saying that they are less safe, less secure, and less effective. But the Department of Homeland Security – which incarcerates immigrants - handing out most of the federal government's contracts to private prison companies, is continuing business as usual. The DOJ’s decision is important because it shows that the Obama administration is starting to acknowledge that mass incarceration is out of control and that imprisoning people for profit can't be justified. But unless we push President Obama to do more, it won't make a difference for thousands of immigrants locked up in for-profit dungeons.

In the 2012 election, registered voters from Tillicum turned out at a 10 percent lower rate than the rest of Pierce County. Voters from this community have expressed time and again that having a ballot box in their neighborhood will make it much more likely that they participate in our democracy. We need a ballot box in Tillicum now.

1. We vehemently oppose a site that destroys our valued wetlands and some 10,000 year old fens. The Town of Mountain Village failed to disclose to the EPA and the Army Corps that there are 2 rare fens adjacent to THD's proposed site. Both the Town of Mountain Village and THD failed to disclose to the EPA and the Army Corps that THD will destroy or seriously impact wetlands that are protected under an EPA management agreement. 2. We want a location that has access to all as equally as possible-including Ophir, Norwood, Placerville, Sawpit, the Town of Mountain Village and the Town of Telluride. 3. THD has failed, and refused outright, to provide a reliable study of financial feasibility for the new medical center with projected demographics and healthcare needs, most likely because it knows that the projected demographics and healthcare needs will not support a 40,000 square foot facility. THD has failed to consider the affect a large, new, publicly funded medical center would have on the existing local, privately owned, small health oriented businesses, including pharmacies and physical therapists. 4. There are viable and practicable alternative sites to the proposed location in Mountain Village and the alternative sites will have minimal environmental impacts. We, the signatories of this petition, ask the Telluride Hospital District Board of Directors to work with San Miguel County, the Town of Telluride, the Town of Mountain Village, EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers and others to find a site that meets with the above, in order to serve ALL members of our communities equally and respect our precious environmental habitat.

Louisiana is in a state of emergency, and the Red Cross is calling the recent flooding the worst U.S. natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy. Yet, on August 24, the Obama administration is planning to sell off an area the size of Virginia for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. This fossil fuel auction is set to take place in the New Orleans Superdome, just an hour's drive from Louisiana cities and towns that have just been ravaged by unprecedented floods. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and stop treating the Gulf Coast like a sacrifice zone. In the midst of a climate-fueled disaster, which will most gravely impact those already marginalized in our society, moving forward with this auction is a terrible idea. Selling fossil fuels at the New Orleans Superdome–the site of one of the most visible and tragic instances of climate injustice in recent memory–is nothing short of insulting. In this moment, we need to stand with Gulf communities who have been resisting the fossil fuel industry for decades. President Obama can allow the fossil fuel industry to carry on with business as usual, or he can stand with Louisiana residents who are living under a state of climate emergency. He can’t do both. We are calling on President Obama to cancel the upcoming fossil fuel auction and stop new offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico altogether.

The recent flooding in Louisiana is the country’s ‘worst natural disaster’ since Superstorm Sandy. Yet, in a disastrous move that will put millions of Gulf state residents at risk and threaten the fight to combat climate change even further, the Obama administration is planning to auction to the highest bidder nearly 24 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil and natural gas exploration and drilling. The Obama administration calls this lease sale part of its “continued commitment to safe and responsible domestic energy production,” but there's nothing safe or responsible about opening an additional 23.8 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. These leases will go up for sale on August 24, so we need to act now to stop any further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico once and for all.

Everyone deserves to know who is spending money on our elections -- it’s the only way for voters to know who is trying to influence our views and our elected representatives. This November, South Dakota voters will have the chance to make that right to know a reality -- when they vote on Measure 22, a package of democracy reforms that includes full public disclosure of political donors. But the Koch brothers and their big-donor network are bankrolling a big-money effort against Measure 22, buying ads and hiring staff to turn voters against these common-sense solutions that an overwhelming majority of Americans support. The Kochs are notorious for spending big to promote their agenda -- but this goes one step further. In attacking Measure 22, the Kochs are opposing common sense reforms to create a democracy that represents all of us -- preserving the Big Money status quo that benefits them. The fact that the Kochs are fighting so hard to keep their political spending a secret should tell you something. Transparency is a necessary first step if we want to have a government that represents all of us, and not just wealthy donors like the Kochs. The Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, currently before Congress, would set strict disclosure requirements on any individual or corporation that spends money to influence elections. Disclosure gives voters the information they need to hold secret donors and elected officials accountable. That’s why the Koch brothers and their allies are fighting so hard against it -- and that’s why Congress must immediately pass the DISCLOSE Act.

Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants "murderers" and "rapist," and has since deployed similar attacks targeting women, Muslims, and most recently veterans and their families. Donald Trump has only intensified his vile attacks on minorities and people of color. Trump has insulted the parents of a fallen military veteran on national television and stated that a federal judge could not be unbiased because of his “Mexican heritage.” With full knowledge about Trump's racist comments and policies, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has chosen to support Trump - despite promising his constituents that he would govern in a non-partisan way. Lenny Curry was elected serve and protect the residents of Jacksonville, not to further his political career by supporting a racist like Donald Trump. It is unacceptable for Lenny Curry to put his political ambitions ahead of the residents of Jacksonville, especially at the expense of supporting one of the most extreme and dangerous presidential candidates in recent history. Lenny Curry needs to put people befor politics and revokes his support for Donald Trump!