Brandeis University faces a critical emergency of racial inequity that requires immediate and concrete action for greater diversity and inclusion for students, staff, and faculty of color. Past mechanisms have not brought the reforms needed. We join our voices to the protesters and urge the University to act for racial equity by implementing a plan that incorporates the concrete measures called for.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. OSC's primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing. In July 2013, a federal employee (disabled veteran) went to OSC and disclosed what she believed to be White House vetting improprieties and contract fraud by senior officials at the National Council on Disability (NCD). In March 2013, the White House appointed Jeffrey Rosen, a former NCD employee as the Chairperson of the agency. Shortly thereafter the whistleblower discovered that Rosen had a background of DUI and was previously found guilty of criminal misconduct in the agency, which led to his resignation prior to his punishment in 2007. In 1994, Rosen was stopped in Montgomery County, Maryland for erratic driving. He failed a field sobriety test and, after signing a consent form, failed a breath test. Rosen was then arrested and taken to the station house, where he signed a form that explained his rights and gave consent to a chemical test. The test registered a reading indicating blood-alcohol content above the legal limit. Rosen was given probation before judgment, fined, and ordered to attend six alcoholics’ anonymous meetings as a condition of having his conviction expunged. The question looms “did Rosen complete his meetings” because it appears that his record was not expunged and is public record online. The White House employee involved in Rosen’s vetting was hired within 30-days of Rosen’s appointment as Chairperson and was awarded a $59K pay increase despite not having any relevant position or managerial experience. Managerial experience possessed by this employee was retail experience working in Victoria Secrets. Her lack of experience caused great harm to the agency. Rosen and this employee were also involved in the contract fraud reported by the whistleblower, whereas these individuals were improperly awarding contracts without competition, extending expired contracts and using expired government funds to pay for these contracts. With knowledge of Rosen’s past misconduct, it’s hard to understand how Special Counsel Lerner entrusted him to be honest. Nonetheless, she referred these matters back to Rosen for investigation, which allowed Rosen and other responsible parties to investigate themselves. Special Counsel Lerner purposely omitted pertinent details of the facts prior to referring the matters to Rosen for investigation. And despite having an abundance of evidence to substantiate the whistleblower’s claims of audit and contract fraud, Special Counsel Lerner and her staff lied to the President and Congress in her official report. In fact, Special Counsel Lerner's three (3) page report failed to address many factual and documented issues the whistleblower raised in her comments and the use of expired government funds. Special Counsel Lerner started out lying in her report by stating that “members of Rosen’s in-house investigative team were not implicated in any way in the wrongdoings and could conduct a fair and impartial investigation." She even made defenses for the agency that the agency did not mention in it's report and made false statements against the whistleblower in order to strategically conceal the whistleblower’s official comments to the agency investigative report from the general public by not posting them to OSC’s website. Special Council Lerner had in her possession evidence from agency employees corroborating the whistleblowers claims. In an email to the whistleblower, NCD Council Member Gary Blumenthal, who was named in the wrongdoings and who was a member of Rosen’s in-house investigative team writes “I agree with you that a substantial amount of observations you have made about contracts are clearly accurate.” He goes on to say “you inherited a very problematic set of issues when you joined NCD. Federal procedures, contractual rules and internal controls were minimally respected at best.” Despite Blumenthal’s admission to contract violations, he and other members of Rosen’s in-house investigative team erroneously found no violations during their investigation. In another email, the Legislative Affairs Director “expressed her concerns and the concerns of others flagged over the last couple of years regarding the agency’s IT contract being inadequate. She stated “it was during the course of that review and contrast against solid contracts for the same services that I came to more fully appreciate the concerns the whistleblower’s been raising and how vulnerable NCD is as a result of a less than adequate original contract.” Despite having an abundance of incriminating evidence in her possession, in her report to the President and the Congress, Special Counsel Lerner states “she did not find any violations of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).” And although the Senate Help Committee was given a “sneak preview” of the reports by OSC staff, the committee was encouraged not to take action by Special Counsel Lerner. Special Counsel Lerner stalled releasing investigative findings allowing Rosen time to complete his term as Chairperson without any actions being taken against him. Rosen left office around September 18, 2015 and soon thereafter Special Counsel Lerner conveniently released her findings to the President on September 30, 2015; over two (2) years after the issues were originally reported to her office by the whistleblower. What’s more alarming is in December 2013, the whistleblower disclosed to OSC what she believed to be improprieties with the agency’s 2013 audit. The whistleblower also disclosed that agency employees were destroying incriminating contracting files. However, Special Counsel Lerner’s office took no action, not even to open an inquiry. According to Rosen “Ms. Lerner sent a letter to auditors at the com...

The unfairness of the system, the sentence given life/w out parole, enabling the commissioners to keep inmate in prison without justice. No family help, and mental stress to inmate to find help in system

Newly revealed documents show that Exxon’s own scientists were aware of and studying the dangerous impacts of greenhouse gases in the 1970s and 1980s -- until Exxon’s leadership decided to shut down the research and promote climate denial instead, in order to protect the company’s unfathomably large profits. Now Oregonians -- like all other American citizens -- are suffering from the damages of Exxon's unlimited greenhouse pollution. The unprecedented drought, fueled by global warming, has already caused billions in damages and forced widespread water cutbacks. Intense wildfires are costing the state budget tens of millions of dollars a year. Sea level rise is already harming Oregon's coastal communities. And the risks of continued global warming pollution to the state are many times greater. The Oregon Attorney General's Office should use all of the tools at its disposal to prosecute Exxon’s deliberate deception -- such as state RICO laws, Oregon’s Unlawful Practices statute (ORS 646.607), consumer fraud statutes, or any other laws that are intended to protect Oregonian citizens from deliberate corporate misconduct. The attorneys general of 46 states successfully sued tobacco companies to pay for decades of deadly deceit -- now it’s time for Exxon and the fossil-fuel industry to pay for their climate crimes.

Southern Colorado rancher Tom Davis sold nearly 1,800 wild horses for slaughter in New Mexico he purchased from the Bureau of Land Management....BLM claims no knowledge of this transaction for the slaughter of the horses. No charges are being filed for this crime. It is only right that a federal crime be appropriately paid for; what better way than to improve the Wild Horses environments in the holding pens.

Donald Trump is promoting fascism by supporting special databases and registration for Muslims. He promotes hate against anyone who is not white. This goes against every principle America is supposed to stand for. Why are our leaders, on both the state and federal levels, silent? I want to see the people we elected, who are supposed to protect our country and Constitution, speak out against Donald Trump.

In today's Family Court environment, judges often make decisions contrary to the best interest of children; at times depriving parents of their due process and reaching decisions based on personal bias. This behavior will continue as long as these public servants' power go unchecked and they continue to hide behind their judicial immunity with no oversight and no accountability.

People with heroin addictions have no place to go in Central NY for Treatment. 22,700,000 need treatment, only about 2 million get it. Our children are dying, our jails are filling up. Jails and cemeteries are not enough.

As a concerned citizen of Springfield, MO and a member of the black community, I am writing to call attention to the gross and racist treatment being hurled at Dr. Ken Coopwood, the first black VP and senior expert on diversity hired in the history of Missouri State University and our city of Springfield. Other VPs on campus, who happen to be white, earn more in salary and have better funded divisions. I have been in Springfield for over 5 years, and I met Dr. Coopwood 2 years ago at a community event sponsored by the Baha'i Faith organization. I became familiar with his work and later attended several visits to his division suite on campus over several months. Having more insight into Dr. Coopwood’s work and his ability to serve a historically hostile community, I can share news of how he has endured over recent years. I know that of late, Dr. Coopwood’s division was “repurposed” for the sake of doing higher level activity, e.g. climate study, and diversity conference, but left internal units without leadership for the change these efforts should provoke. This repurposing was stated in the Springfield “News Leader” and it caused several diversity-related units to be left without the benefit of his expertise and leadership. However, I’ve learned through students and others in the community that, in fact, staff within Dr. Coopwood’s division have been despicable and hostile towards him, even created circumstances against him which made his leadership appear to be both faulty and unethical in an effort to gain favor with senior administration. I saw for myself, when asking about his division's budget and how his staff were being utilized, that his effort to develop his staff and expand the work of his division was not being supported in any way that proved the university was serious about diversity. In fact, it appears that Dr. Coopwood’s unit and his resources have been taken away to show favor to others at MSU who were known by the president before him. We need to find out the truth. I have spoken directly to Dr. Coopwood but he needs to protect his family and therefore can not respond in depth to my questions. Nonetheless, I am starting this petition to demand that the treatment afforded to Dr. Coopwood be revealed publicly and that he be allowed to use his talent to lead the community to better race relations and equitable distribution of resources. I have the support of MSU alums as well as community people who have worked directly with Dr. Coopwood. I will ask the MSU board to investigate Dr. Coopwood’s experience since arriving in Springfield and, if need be, move this petition forward to the attention of the Governor. We can not stand by and watch a man who brought his family to our community be racially profiled as incompetent, not-valued or of no consequence in transforming our community to a better place. If any of you have interacted with Dr. Coopwood in any way, then you would know what I mean. Please join me in holding the university accountable for its treatment of the first and only black executive since 1905.

Improve Americas entire judicial system, and impose lighter sentences for nonviolent crimes!

This is part of an on-going effort to get a small donor matching system in Chicago elections. Last February 80% of City voters said yes they support such a system. This would enable more ordinary citizens to run for office and promote fair elections.

Installing Solar Arrays on all bridges starting with Metro Centric bridges, for example those 4 long bridges crossing Tampa Bay... will accelerate the promotion and production of clean energy at no cost to governments.