Scott County has been losing much needed employees due to higher pay rates in other counties. There is a shortage every where and Scott County needs to show their respect and appreciation to/for their dedicated employees by providing fair, just and competitive wages.

Walmart is a great place to find a wide array of low-cost essentials among other things. However, recently it has caught my attention that Walmart stores are still selling MyPillow brand pillows. I like Walmart for the quality products I get for a specific price point. With the CEO of MyPillow supporting the capitol insurrection and the lies about election fraud, I’m disheartened by Walmart’s refusal to cease the sales of these products. I worry that allowing CEOs to lie publicly and spark unnecessary discourse about our democratic elections. Hopefully with enough signatures, we can let Walmart know that we’d like to continue shopping at their stores, but not while they sell products who’s profits go towards overturning a democratic election.

Responsible customers and those listening to recommendations from Health Care Professionals are being penalized by escalating Premiums driven up by AntiVaxers.

Every year, dictators and foreign governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars to manipulate American politics and bend U.S. foreign policy towards their interests. As America's largest arms customer, Saudi Arabia's monarchy spends vast sums in the U.S. every year to promote the idea that their dictatorship should be a U.S. ally. Meanwhile, the Saudi dictatorship does everything in its power to block freedom and reform at home. Saudi Arabia's rulers jail and kill peaceful critics, torture women's rights activists, bomb civilians in Yemen, and intervene against democracy across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia's current dictator, Mohammed bin Salman, is no exception. Ed Newberry of the U.S. lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs is one of many unethical lobbyists who have worked as registered foreign agents for Saudi Arabia's dictatorship. But he and his firm are the only ones who still represent the very Saudi office that was directly involved with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Newberry's bloody contract began with a payment of $1.2 million via Saud Al-Qahtani, the head of the Saudi Center at the time. Al-Qahtani has been sanctioned by the US government for his role in murdering Khashoggi. His Saudi monarchy center was also named in a recent US intelligence report on Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi's murder in Turkey by Saudi agents, which stated: "The 15-member Saudi team that arrived in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 included officials who worked for, or were associated with, the Saudi Center for Studies and Media Affairs (CSMARC) at the Royal Court." Help take our country’s politics back from the brutal dictators who want to bend our fragile democracy to their will. Demand that Ed Newberry and Squire Patton Boggs stop working for Saudi Arabia's dictatorship. Urge Ed Newberry and Squire Patton Boggs to cancel their contracts with Saudi Arabia's dictatorship and the so-called Saudi Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court (CSMARC). SOURCES: 1) "Edward J. Newberry, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs,” https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/en/professionals/n/newberry-edward-j 2) “Top Lobbying Firm Is Still on the Payroll of Saudi Center Implicated in Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder,” Mother Jones, March 3, 2021, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/top-lobbying-firm-is-still-on-the-payroll-of-saudi-center-implicated-in-jamal-khashoggis-murder/ 3) “Amendment to Registration Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended,” received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit, U.S. Department of Justice, March 1, 2021, https://efile.fara.gov/docs/2165-Amendment-20210301-140.pdf 4) “Short Form Registration Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended,” received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit, U.S. Department of Justice, September 20, 2016, https://efile.fara.gov/docs/2165-Short-Form-20160920-634.pdf. 5) “Assessing the Saudi Government's Role in the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi,” Office Of The Director Of National Intelligence, February 11, 2021, https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Assessment-Saudi-Gov-Role-in-JK-Death-20210226v2.pdf 6) Saud Al-Qahtani: Saud al-Qahtani Helped Kill Khashoggi, Tortured Prominent Activist https://dawnmena.org/saudi-arabia-saud-al-qahtani-helped-kill-khashoggi-tortured-prominent-activist/

I'm not the only single mother who has suffered at the hands of Kathy Stein's repeated injustice and abuse of power.

It is unconscionable that we have a building named after this man. Although symbolic, I think that this change will send a strong message that there is a new era of justice in the USA.

America should not be in the business for forever wars. The 20 year military occupation cost over $2 trillion and approximately 241,000 lives and ended as it began - with Taliban control of Afghanistan. That money went to the bloated Pentagon budget, defense contractors and the ultra-wealthy instead of our communities to fund schools, roads, and health care. Dropping bombs and waging violence does not bring peace. The House has already repealed the 2001 Authorization of Military Force (AUMF), and now it is on the Senate to act. The AUMF gives too much authority to the president to engage in military conflicts without Congressional oversight. Add your name to prevent future forever wars and demand the Senate repeal the 2001 AUMF.

Thousands have evacuated from Afghanistan and are now looking to make a new life in the U.S. They came with few possessions and need support from the government as they resettle. The U.S. has a responsibility to welcome as many people as possible, since we contributed to the humanitarian crisis with our 20 year military occupation. This includes waiving the $575 humanitarian parole application fee, adding Afghanistan to the Temporary Protected Status program, giving unaccompanied minors immediate parole status, and ensuring resettlement agencies have the funds they need to support the increased number of refugees. Sign now to demonstrate the public supports welcoming Afghan refugees and ask President Biden to act.

We've seen what power the Supreme Court has over what happens in our country. The most outrageous example is the ruling on Texas and its basic ban of all abortions. This is just the beginning of Republicans taking control of the country state by state with the assistance of Trumps nominees. He did irreparable damage already while president and with the help of his Trump Republicans, is still moving our country toward religious control over not only women, but the LGBTQ+ community. How soon will it be before they have control over all aspects of how each and every person in this country lives? Do you want to wait until you are the next person or group they come after? We moved into the 21st century and people with a 19th century mindset is slowly taking over the country. How are we to compete in such a world? We'll lose the respect and backing of each and everyone of our allies. We are the country that's supposed to be representative of how the world should be. We are no better than the Taliban when it comes to the rights of our Mothers, Sisters, Aunts and Nieces. As a gay man, we have fought for equal rights, not more or better rights, just what everyone else has naturally. Am I as your friend, brother, uncle, nephew or son to be treated like I'm not human because of my sexual orientation? Am I to return to being denied human rights? In the 70's in Pittsburgh, PA, I witnessed first hand the not so perfect police protection for gays and lesbians that straight white men and women have. I personally witnessed two of Pittsburgh's finest come into a gay bar, go to the bar, get alcoholic drinks and handed an envelope with money in it. That was our protection. Protection not to be harrased or arrested. The owner, when I wanted to protest begged me not to do so. My mother, at the age of 91, walked myself and my husband down the isle. She was a devout Mormon and yet she loved me unconditionally. When the law passed she made this comment: Better hurry and do it before they changed their minds. Well, she wasn't far off. I believe this is where we are headed and without the support of the gay community and those who love us, we may just end up where we were in the 70's and before.

We need to protect the rights of women that has been fought and won by those women before us. Our constitutional rights are being torn away from us with forced pregnancy and birth. Women have a right to choose. Roe v Wade gave us that right.

This petition is a companion to a sign-on letter organizations are invited to sign. Find the letter here. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfywuN-6wKXEOW2Zwqy5dHmhIt2XtwlHxJ2AgiQaA8KRPk8yQ/viewform Here's an excerpt: Kurt Klapkowski, Director of the Bureau of Oil and Gas Planning and Program Management at DEP, told the Council, “We have to be able to defend our decisions with data. And that was the attempt, with working with Penn State, that's what we were attempting to do was to develop that data to be able to have a program that we could go to the Environmental Hearing Board and the Commonwealth Court and Supreme Court under the constitution and under the statutes that we administer, that would be defensible.” He continued, “I don’t think we would have any objection to working with [the Council] and the Legislature to try to figure out a way to develop that data. I think we're hopeful that the study that we funded and expect to have finished will provide data that will allow us to have a program that we can defend in court. But that's really the bottom line for us, I mean we can only exercise the authority that we’re given within the limitations that we have and that's what we're attempting to do.” The study he refers to is the PennState study expected to be completed by the end of the year. A growing body of peer-reviewed research has consistently demonstrated that road spreading of drilling waste damages the environment and poses risks to public health. As is the case with virtually all peer-reviewed research on oil & gas drilling, the trajectory has been one that has broadened and deepened our understanding of impacts already occurring and potential risks, not one that has reversed our thinking in any way. Spending taxpayer dollars in the search for data to support your intended policy shift is an unacceptable professional and ethical breach of your duty to the Constitution you swore to uphold. DEP must halt any plans to develop regulations that would allow road spreading of drilling waste. Instead, the DEP must ban road spreading of drilling waste under any circumstances.

Because everyone makes mistakes. If those people who messed up have changed wholeheartedly and completed their time served and haven’t been in trouble since, they deserve their rights to be restored. To gain their life and freedom back. To be better than they were before.