Devastating videos of Israeli forces attacking Muslim Palestinians praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan began to proliferate on social media late last week. In one such video, Palestinian women in the mosque are seen screaming and running from stun grenades fired by Israeli soldiers. This is in one of the holiest places of worship in one of the holiest months for Muslims around the world. Israeli forces injured hundreds of Palestinians, including medics treating injuries nearby, and the Israeli government has used airstrikes, rockets, and rubberized steel bullets to inflict violence against any resistance from the Palestinians. These troubling videos followed the decision of the Israeli government to forcibly evict families from the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Although the Israeli Supreme Court stepped in to pause the evictions, this is part of a larger decades-long pattern of forced evictions, home demolitions, and displacement of Palestinians. The violence that started in Jerusalem has continued and spread, leading to massive unrest in the region and the worst escalation of violence in seven years between Israel and Palestine. Potential increased military action will only exacerbate the current situation with daily air strikes by the Israeli military in Gaza, Hamas launching over a thousand rockets to Southern and Central Israel, and growing violence on the streets already plaguing communities across the region. Morally courageous American leaders, including a slew of members of Congress, have already come out in support of the Palestinian people and called for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the Israeli policies of occupation and displacement of Palestinian families. The Biden administration must immediately do the same by leveraging its longstanding relationship with the Israeli government to call for an immediate ceasefire. In contrast, Biden and top cabinet officials seemingly offered support to the Israeli government to continue its policies precipitating the current crisis. In a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden offered “unwavering support” for Israel’s “right to defend itself,” and made no mention of Netanyahu’s responsibility in inflaming and perpetuating violence as a political ploy to distract from his own diminishing power to govern. The United States even blocked the UN Security Council’s attempts to reduce tensions between Israel and Palestinians. With nearly $4 billion a year in U.S. military aid to Israel, the Biden administration has a responsibility to hold the Israeli government accountable. Before more violence ensues, the U.S. government must denounce the recent violence and call on the Israeli government to stop forced evictions, mass arrests, and other policies meant to harm and escalate tensions. We urge the Biden administration to forcefully advocate for an immediate ceasefire before many more civilians -- who will disproportionately be Palestinian --lose their lives.

We are tired of being continuously disrespected by the BOE when we get into negotiations each year. The BOE and their negotiation team seem determined to belittle us and ignore our very real concerns and well-reasoned solutions. We all know that the BOE could work with us on these issues, but instead, we are treated as an impediment to their plans. We could read through previous emails on negotiations or even clips from BOE meetings to show that we are not trusted to help guide our district to success, but more than their words, we can see it in their actions during negotiations. Why do we have to fight every year for steps and tracks? Shouldn't that be a given? Why are we not trusted to create lesson plans and manage our classrooms? We are highly certified and degreed professionals, right? Time and time again, the BOE shows through their actions that we are not worthy of respect. Therefore, we offer the following statements to clearly communicate to the BOE that it is time for a shift in how we are treated. Educator Voice WE wholeheartedly disagree with how the district treats us and we believe that if we come together, we can convince the BOE and the wider community that we should be helping to lead the way for our schools to succeed. TOGETHER, we can work for the good of our students, our schools, our communities, and even ourselves. TOGETHER, we can begin to make our voice heard. WE BELIEVE in an open, democratic process in providing an effective voice for the professionals working in our schools. WE BELIEVE that educators can contribute quality ideas to reduce the need for substitute teachers through positive incentives instead of punitive measures like the attendance matrix. Learning Environment WE BELIEVE in the ability of educators to be knowledgeable of their students' needs, capable of producing meaningful lessons, and critical to the success of every student in our district. As a result of this belief, we cannot support actions by the BOE to allow different schools the ability to impose various restrictions and conditions on our pedagogy. WE BELIEVE in our right to protect the learning environment for all our students, and we recognize the need for using effective supports and interventions to enable those students to return to the classroom as soon as they are ready for the learning environment, but we reject any proposal by the BOE that restricts our ability to use our professional judgment to temporarily remove a student when they are disrupting our learning environment. Compensation WE BELIEVE that we are not subject to a moral obligation to work for no compensation. To suggest otherwise, further exemplifies how the BOE does not respect us as individuals with needs and desires outside of our career. WE BELIEVE that educator compensation as reflected in the salary schedule should at least keep pace with inflation which it has not since 2010. WE BELIEVE UTW’s compensation proposal is fair and just.

So many people don’t have access to sufficient internet which disproportionately effects poor people, people of color, people in rural areas. Students have been meeting at fast food restaurants to do homework and attend classes, in parking lots of libraries and town halls. Anyone who is without good internet access is at a major disadvantage for so many things like access to information, education, health care, government services, essential goods.

Police brutality against African Americans in the United States of America has gone beyond reproof. It is beyond time for there to be sensible legislation that affords African Americans the same rights and privileges that American citizenship offers other Americans. We have witnessed: Little to no repercussions for police officers’ blatant murder of African Americans; Perjury in court and/or to grand jury, where officers grandstand on their “fear” of African American citizens they are called upon and paid with taxpayer dollars to protect and serve; A lack of de-escalation techniques employed when interacting with African Americans; No repercussions for individuals who fraudulently call police on African Americans that lead to the harassment and, in most instances, murder of our beloved people. This is highly unacceptable and intolerable. We believe that, in every instance, life should be preserved, which is in accordance with our right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as dictated in the Declaration of Independence and our 14th Amendment right to “due process under the law.” In cases regarding African Americans, we are rarely afforded that constitutional right. We believe that the colors of our skin should not be weaponized against us and should not come with an automatic guilty verdict. The legal right to “equal protection of the laws” is also a right that is afforded to us under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. However, in cases regarding African Americans, we are rarely afforded that constitutional right.

Unless the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intervenes, decades of progress recovering wolves in the region will be lost. The state's wolf population will be reduced to the threshold triggering protection under the Endangered Species Act. Last year Idaho received more than $18 million in federal funding for wildlife-management projects. The promise of these funds incentivizes states to enact sound conservation policies that benefit all wildlife. And a state becomes ineligible for these funds if it passes legislation contrary to the conservation purposes of the Pittman Robertson Act and other federal laws. Please ask the agency to disqualify Idaho from receiving federal funding for wildlife management unless the state immediately repeals its wolf-extermination legislation.

Each year, $3,800,000,000 of our tax dollars are invested in Israel's oppression of Palestinians. The U.S. provides Israel with unconditional diplomatic support and military funding, and Israel uses U.S. backing to act with impunity: stealing Palestinian land, entrenching its apartheid regime, and prolonging its blockade on Gaza. Our tax dollars are funding Israel's crimes against humanity while here at home we are told there is not enough money for Medicare for All, minimum wage, or public infrastructure —all of which have a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown communities. Our demand is simple: stop bankrolling ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and start investing in health and safety for all. We should have a say in how our tax dollars are used. Let's heed the call of Palestinians demanding safety and freedom. Sign the petition to demand the following: - End U.S. military funding to Israel: The bombs are weapons Israel uses on Palestinians are funded by our taxpayer money. Demand that your Congressional representative supports H.R. 2590, which calls an end U.S. funding of Israel's oppression of Palestinians. - Hold Israel Accountable: Demand that Congress support sanctions on Israel until complies with international law and puts an end to its apartheid regime. - Uplift Palestinian Calls for Freedom: Demand that Congress center those most harmed by violence and oppression—the Palestinian people— and support their right to resist Israel's ethnic cleansing. Answer their demands for freedom, justice, and safety.

Some people would like to preserve Atco Raceway as a treasured landmark. To those people, I would say that it is a nostalgic idea for preserving a place that generations have enjoyed. To all people who get their drinking water from wells in the surrounding area, whether Atco Raceway is preserved as a landmark or not, we cannot and should not allow the asphalt to be pulled up and replaced with gravel. As reported in The Pine Barrens Tribune by Mr. Thomas J. Stalba, Jr., of Hammonton, NJ, "Now they (IAA) are trying to convince the board and the community that they are a 'used car establishment' that should be able to tear up paving and put 6,000 recently wrecked cars, and the fluids remaining in them, on a bed of gravel with a water table that is as little as 1.7 feet below the surface of the ground on top of the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, right next to the Mullica River watershed, in the heart of the Pine Barrents." Carl Miller, as quoted in The Pine Barrens Tribune, who said he has participated in drag racing since the late 1960s, "called allowing cars in disrepair to be parked on gravel 'a terrible idea' that would allow chemicals to seep directly into groundwater with little possibility of containment." Car liquids, such as gasoline, antifreeze, brake fluid, and even oil do not have the chance to pool under a vehicle if there is gravel underneath. Do the residents of Atco, NJ know that they are responsible for their clean drinking water? Visit these two state sites: https://www.nj.gov/health/ceohs/documents/pw_faq.pdf https://www13.state.nj.us/DataMiner/Search/SearchByCategory?isExternal=y&getCategory=y&catName=Certified+Laboratories IAA states that they have millions of dollars in insurance should well water become contaminated. How would the homeowner know if his well water was contaminated? He would have to use a NJ state certified testing center that would cost thousands of dollars. Then do a second test just to be sure that the chemicals we are drinking now are "within allowable limits." Then it is our responsibility to make every effort to fix our own wells. The cost to do this would be thousands and thousands of dollars each year for each homeowner. When I moved to Atco almost 30 years ago, we were presented with giant carbon tanks placed inside the laundry room by the State of NJ. We were told that the blueberry field at the end of the road had sprayed pesticides on the plants and the pesticides made their way into the water table in "amounts that exceeded what was allowable." You see, we are still drinking water with contaminants already. We just cannot afford to test our well water annually, as the State of NJ recommends. Why then are we allowing the very obvious poisoning of our water table to occur? If you believe this is an injustice, if you want to keep your loved ones safe, if you want to stop what is so obviously wrong from occurring, you will sign this petition to stop this from happening immediately. Then tell your neighbors to sign as well. We all deserve clean drinking water. We certainly pay enough in our taxes for this "privilege." Thank you for listening.

The stealing of land, the demolitions of homes, and farm land belonging to Indigenous Palestinian Arab populations in the region of Palestine/Israel. The segregated Apartheid system, and Illegal Occupation of Palestinian land. The violations by the I.D.F. of basic Human Rights to the Palestinian Populations.

John Lewis fought for Civil Rights throughout his entire life. He was one of the "Big 6" organizers for the March on Washington, the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 60s, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011. Congressman Lewis marched, sat in, and did whatever he could to push forward the cause for civil rights. His legacy still impacts the US and the world today. John Lewis took his fight to Congress on behalf of the people of Georgia, where he represented Georgia's 5th Congressional District for over 20 years. He worked to ensure all Georgians were taken care of and our university should honor the late John Lewis with the naming of the John Robert Lewis Green, which will be known to students as the "Lewis Green" or "John Lewis Green". Tell the KSU administration to support this proposal and naming of the green after the late John Lewis by signing this petition.

First Class Mail continues to provide an affordable and secure method of communication for millions of Americans. The Delivering for America Plan diverts resources and equipment away from letter processing to prioritize package services. This betrays the mission of the Postal Service to be a vehicle for communication that binds the nation together chasing profits for the private companies that are proposed to handle mail in the expanded implementation of Surface Transfer Centers. Diverting mail outside the Postal network is already creating service delays and increasing the incidents of lost mail as the Postal Service no longer maintains custody of mail throughout the delivery process. Individuals, small businesses, and local governments rely on First Class Mail to exchange information and ideas, receive remittance payments, or issue legal notices. Allowing Postmaster General DeJoy to bull doze the implementation of these changes past the public will forever alter the network that has been built to provide the excellence that has become synonymous with First Class. Do not settle for adequate when the opportunity for excellence is still attainable. Demand more!

The Facebook Oversight Board just made a major decision that exposes serious flaws in the way that Facebook operates. And if we want the social media giant to make real changes to protect its users -- we must speak out right now. The Oversight Board has officially upheld Facebook’s decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account. But board members gave an important caveat: they found that making the suspension “indefinite” was inappropriate -- and within six months, Facebook must decide whether to ban Trump permanently or let him back on the platform. The simple fact is: we did not have to get to this point, had Facebook just implemented thorough civic integrity policies -- and committed to strongly and unilaterally enforcing them. But before, during, and after the 2020 election, Facebook constantly looked the other way when Trump and other bad actors abused the site to spread lies and amplify hate speech. Disinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms has silenced voters, weakened trust in our civic institutions, and even incited real-world violence -- like the horrific January 6th attack on our Capitol. But Facebook has yet to show that it’s up to the task of consistently using its policies to protect its own users For the sake of our democracy and the safety of the American people, Facebook must strengthen its civic integrity policies and close dangerous loopholes -- like the exception that allows political figures to put blatant disinformation in their ads. And the platform must stop relying on its Oversight Board -- a wholly inadequate body that is accountable to Mark Zuckerberg, not the public -- to make its content moderation decisions. Plus, Facebook must start vigorously enforcing the policies it has already put in place to protect voters. That means consistently applying misinformation labels to inaccurate posts, cracking down on groups that glorify violence and amplify conspiracy theories, and more. It’s time to demand better from this powerful social media giant. If you believe that Facebook must be held accountable for failing our democracy -- and must commit to protecting it going forward -- add your name today.

Even before the pandemic, 1 in 7 Nevadans did not have health insurance. Layoffs and business closures have made this problem worse. We must take action and pass the Nevada Public Option to ensure that every Nevadan has better access to affordable, quality healthcare. A public option would save Nevada families on their premiums and out-of-pocket costs by leveraging the state’s bargaining power to negotiate lower prices for healthcare services and prescription drugs. A public option will increase the amount of compensated care in rural Nevada, providing much needed funding for our state’s rural hospitals. The Nevada public option will lower insurance premiums and help more Nevadans get the critical care they need, when they need it.