The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is celebrated for abolishing slavery, but what if we told you slavery is still legal?  There’s actually an exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment that allows slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. Today, more than 150 years since its passage, incarcerated people — many of whom are Black and brown — are forced to work for little to no pay. Incarcerated people who refuse to work are often beaten, denied visits and calls from loved ones, put in solitary confinement, and even denied parole.  BUT, there’s hope! In the last six years, four states have ended this exception in their state constitutions and truly abolished slavery. In 2018, Colorado became the first state since Rhode Island—the only state to have fully abolished slavery prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment—to end the exception and abolish slavery. Utah and Nebraska followed in 2020, and Nevada in 2024.  In all three states, the ballot initiatives were the result of unanimous, bipartisan legislative votes. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the social awakening of many people across the U.S. to the horrifying reality of anti-Black racism, more than 20 states are organizing to abolish slavery in their state constitutions. Tennessee, Vermont, Oregon, Louisiana and Alabama will all be on the ballot this year and several others are expecting to be. The time to act is now.

No pedestrian on the UMass Amherst Campus should be be worried that their life is in peril because of poor lighting, inadequate crossing paths and the lack of other protective measures.

Every one of the students who were told to evict has the potential to do good in this world. And the key to unlocking that is exiling them from the Collin College Student Housing Community? That is mental! That has no place in a just society. Compassion does. And this arbitrary decision is absolutely unjust and shortsighted. Collin College is tangibly harming everyone involved in their decision to evict for a single, unprosecuted event.

Because innocent people (Russians and Ukrainians), who have nothing to do with a madman elite's decision, matter. Because Ukraine and all countries have a right to decide their own fate. Because people are dying and there is yet another refugee crisis. Because Ukraine is full of a deep, rich cultural history. Because access to facts and information matters. Because they are people.

There are currently next to no regulations on the collecting and sale of our personal data by websites and advertisers. That leaves us vulnerable to all kinds of surveillance and abuse. The Biden administration is finally taking steps towards stopping this abuse by regulating the surveillance advertising industry, but the ad lobby is gearing up for a fight. The White House and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) must resist their efforts and protect Americans’ privacy! We need protection from surveillance advertising! The FTC must resist corporate lobbyists and finally regulate the ‘interactive advertising industry’!

During the Trump administration, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner announced his plan to partially privatize Medicare coverage. Kushner tapped his former roommate Adam Boehler to pilot the program in January 2019.[1] Under the traditional Medicare program, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services directly reimburses providers for patients’ medical care. But under Kushner’s so-called “direct contracting model,” the government pays Wall Street-backed startups and private insurance companies, who in turn reimburse providers. By paying corporate middlemen to administer our public option for older Americans and people with disabilities, Kushner’s “direct contracting” model props up the corporate health care industry. President Biden can — and must — stop this attack on Medicare now. Stop enriching private corporations at the expense of our health care!

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate parents, medical professionals, and teachers among others if they are affirming trans kids as who they are, labeling it as “child abuse." We’re exhausted. Trans kids deserve the right to lead happy lives with space to pursue their dreams, regardless of where they live. A majority of Texans believe people should be able to be themselves, support their families and live freely. It’s ridiculous that trans youth continue to be threatened here in Texas and across the country by their state government, the very same leadership that’s supposed to advocate and care for them. The DFPS is already facing crisis levels in Texas, attending to credible reports of actual child abuse. DFPS doesn’t need the additional burden of investigating reports that parents seeking to affirm their child through treatment are engaging in child abuse.

President Biden has just announced his nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court. We’re encouraged to see Biden select someone with a strong record of upholding accountability in government and fighting for equity in the criminal legal system – a nominee who can end the historical shame of going more than two centuries without a Black woman on the Supreme Court. But unfortunately, we must take immediate action to ensure that Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans can't abuse their power to block her nomination, like they did to Judge Merrick Garland in 2016. McConnell has already shown that he’ll try every dirty trick in the book to rig the process and secure a Supreme Court majority that’s in line with his extremist agenda. If you recognize how high the stakes are for the future of our nation, add your name to demand a fair hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson today.

Nurses have been validated as healthcare heroes. The nurses worked through the pandemic to ensure that patients throughout the District were properly cared for.  Since 2019, the Mayor has refused to bargain in good faith with the nurses by consistently canceling negotiation sessions, refusing to bring proposals to the table and finally only offering 1% for annual raises, while approving over 2% annual raises for other DC government employees. This is a slap in the face to the nurses who sacrificed the safety of their families to ensure that District residents were properly cared for. The Mayor needs to give the nurses a fair contract that reflects our value to the patients and residents of the District of Columbia.

This is an important matter for without these folks, we would not be the United States that we know today. These are the people that make our freedoms possible, and the reason we wake up in the morning without fear of invasion or being taken over. Given the recent movement from Russia into Ukrainian territories, the United States government has mobilized troops overseas yet again, leaving the future their mental health unknown. It is only right to provide the ones who provide for us with proper repayment; proper mental health care.

On February 24, Ukrainians woke up to unprovoked attacks from Russia by land and air. Ukraine is a democracy that elects its own leaders—yet Russia's Vladimir Putin is now threatening the safety, democracy, and freedom of the Ukrainian people. Putin's decision to go to war in Ukraine was his own—and he has been using disinformation to lay the groundwork for it. It will have devastating effects on the Ukrainian people, the Russian people, and, potentially, the global economy. While the U.S. government and international allies pursued diplomatic efforts to prevent Russia's aggression, Putin has now launched attacks that will lead to death and destruction and jeopardize Ukraine's autonomy. The U.S. needs to work with international allies to hold Putin accountable, bring this conflict to an end, and support the Ukrainian people. "People protesting by the Presidential Administration" by mac_ivan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

These American children, and their parents, must be protected AT ANY COST!