The GA legislature and Governor have enacted a shameful law to restrict voter access to polls and to inflict pain on people trying to exercise their democratic right to vote. It is cruel and unusual to make it a crime to provide someone with a cool drink while waiting hours in line. Coca-Cola should take a brave stand against this assault and stand up for democracy as an iconic American company.

Over the last year, the COVID crisis has hit Texas especially hard, and its effects are far from over. In fact, around 1.3 million Texans are reported to be behind on rent, and about 40% of Texas adults are still having trouble covering usual household expenses. If the American Rescue Plan hadn’t passed, millions of Texans would’ve been thrown into even deeper economic insecurity. Without its survival checks, expansion of unemployment insurance, funding for state and local government (to make vaccines more accessible and for safe schools reopening plans), or expansion of the child tax credit, there’s no telling how much more economic pain Texans would have suffered. Because of the ARP, over 11 million Texans received direct checks, and over $27 billion went to our state and local governments to prevent essential worker layoffs and to aid vaccine production, and $13 billion went to help schools reopen faster. This is having direct impact in Texas and everywhere—and will help us all recover with greater health and economic security. In our time of greatest need, Sen. Cruz voted against these provisions. He let down his constituents, and must resign immediately.

Over the last year, the COVID crisis has hit Florida especially hard, and its effects are far from over. In fact, over 900,000 Floridians are reported to be behind on rent, and over a third of Florida adults are still having trouble covering usual household expenses. If the American Rescue Plan hadn’t passed, millions of Floridians would’ve been thrown into even deeper economic insecurity. Without its survival checks, expansion of unemployment insurance, funding for state and local government (to make vaccines more accessible and for safe schools reopening plans), or expansion of the child tax credit, there’s no telling how much more economic pain Floridians would have suffered. Because of the ARP, over 10 million Floridians received direct checks, and over $17 billion went to our state and local governments to prevent essential worker layoffs and to aid vaccine production, and over $7 billion went to help schools reopen faster. This is having direct impact in Florida and everywhere—and will help us all recover with greater health and economic security. In our time of greatest need, Sen. Rubio voted against these provisions. He let down his constituents, and must resign immediately.

The media and many irresponsible politicians are completely failing to meet this moment in history by focusing on a symptom of a global economic and health crisis -- families and unaccompanied minors at the U.S./Mexico border -- rather than its root causes. Recently asked by President Biden to lead "the administration’s efforts to deter migration to the southwestern border by working to improve conditions in Central America," Vice President Kamala Harris can help turn things around by -- among other things -- prioritizing COVID-19 vaccine access for Central America and other countries immigrants are currently fleeing from in this time of a global health and economic crisis. No matter how many oversimplified anecdotes journalists collect, or public officials that say it, pretending that people risk their lives and leave everything they know just because a President in a different country is a "nice guy" has to be one of the most ridiculous stories our pandemic has produced yet. To suggest that either talking tough, more enforcement, or the further criminalization of immigrants is a solution to this crisis is not just irresponsible (we now have decades of data that prove the opposite) -- it is also dangerous. This is dangerous not just for immigrants and their countries of origin, who bear the brunt of this harmful thinking, but really for all of us in the U.S. and around the world when our best shot at a better future right now is directing every spare resource we have towards stamping out COVID-19. With VP Kamala Harris leading these latest efforts, she has a real opportunity to help send this message, to save lives, and to economically assist Central America and the world by prioritizing vaccine access for all. If enough of us sign-on and share this, we'll help give her the support she needs to do so. With dueling health, economic, and climate crises -- vaccine access isn't the only thing Central America and immigrants need right now -- but it could be the beginning of the spark needed to start moving towards a world where people migrate out of want, and not out of need. That's our only chance at ever stopping the negative effects associated with immigration. Until then, we need to take this moment in history as another reminder that we can't wall off our problems. Viruses know no borders. We either liberate ourselves together or not at all. Any journalist or public official that thinks otherwise is failing all of us.

Recently: - A Delaware State trooper arrested a third-grader over the theft of $1 - A 5-year-old with ADHD was charged with “battery on a police officer” in California - A Florida officer arrested a 6-year-old girl and zip-tied her hands The National Juvenile Justice Network recommends 14 as the minimum age for prosecution. But in most states -- 30 total -- there is no minimum age for at all prosecution. That means little kids who can’t read, write, or understand the concept of a crime can be prosecuted. And these ridiculous prosecutions disproportionately impact Black kids. In North Carolina, for example, nearly half of complaints are against Black children despite them being 22% of the population. This creates a school-to-prison pipeline that starts before kids even know what a “prison” is. We must end the school-to-prison pipeline and stop arresting and prosecuting little kids!

In this era when congressmembers and state legislators war with each other over the quality and fairness in the administration of elections, one statement on which all sides can agree is that all elections should be free, equal and open. In fact, 30 state constitutions, including North Carolina, California, and South Carolina mandate that all elections should be free, with 18 of these states also stating that elections should be “equal” or “open” and 15 of these states mandating that no "civil or military power shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage". Sadly, despite being the birthplace and resting place of civil rights advocates past and present, from Martin Luther King Jr. to John Lewis, and despite having the youngest state constitution as of 1983, Georgia's state constitution does not yet provide for such a basic expectation that our right to free suffrage shall be free and shall not be intimidated or suppressed by civil or military force. We need an amendment to the Georgia State Constitution mandating free, equal and open elections so that voters have a constitutional standard by which we can judge the integrity of elections administration, redistricting and other aspects of elections law in the State of Georgia. References: https://www.ncsl.org/research/redistricting/free-equal-election-clauses-in-state-constitutions.aspx https://www.commoncause.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FreeEqualOnePager-9.4.19.pdf http://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/free-and-equal-elections-a-new-state-constitutionalism-for-partisan-gerrymandering/

Alex Jones is a far-right conspiracy theorist profiting off a huge fake news empire via his InfoWars website, talk shows, and consumer products, who personally "helped jumpstart" the January 6 insurrection. Which is why it's completely unacceptable that Amazon sells Jones' merchandise and dietary supplements, even going so far as to host his online storefront. Facebook, Apple, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Spotify, and PayPal have all banned Alex Jones for hate speech violations. Amazon forced Parler, a far-right social media platform, offline by suspending them from their AWS hosting platform after the January 6 insurrection, ultimately causing Parler to go into hibernation for months. And yet, Amazon is fine collecting their 15% off of Jones' Super Male Vitality Natural Stamina Liquid Drops and other unregulated so-called nutritional supplements. It's time for Amazon to pull the InfoWars Store and stop profiting off of hate speech peddler Alex Jones.

Ever since the launch of the Safe Travels program in October 2020, Maui County has been struggling with rising COVID 19 cases endangering the health, safety and economic recovery of the residents and businesses in Maui County. Since December 24, 2020, Maui County has been experiencing the highest per capita case counts in the State. The last few weeks Maui County has also had the highest testing positivity rates in the State. A Special Committee composed of public health experts including local DOH staff and other medical professionals, small business owners, County officials and nonprofit partners could help Maui bring its COVID numbers down, prioritize effective public health and safety expenditures, improve public information and enforcement of mask use and other safety protocols, streamline the vaccination process and accelerate the overall recovery process for the County. Unlike any private COVID task forces convened by the Mayor, a Special COVID19 Committee authorized by the County Council would be an open and transparent policy advisory body that is subject to public meeting and records laws.

This type of racist witch hunt is diametrically opposed to US values and interests: It is unjust, plain and simple, because it targets people based on their ethnicity rather than any evidence of criminal behavior. It validates and exacerbates racist attitudes toward Asian Americans. It undermines the spirit of openness and collegiality that has made US S&T research and development the envy of the world. President Biden: You cannot say you oppose racism toward AAPI people while your Justice Department carries out a national campaign of racial profiling and harassment of AAPI people!

Currently there are intense racial disparities in the incarcerated population. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 4 out of every 10 people incarcerated in the state are African American men- ten times the imprisonment rate for white men (CA Democratic Caucus, 2021). This happens because systemic racism and bias are prominent within the legal process and criminal court system. Racism impacts every step of the criminal justice system from policing to the courtroom to incarceration and even after release (CA Democratic Caucus, 2021). This bill addresses these disparities through granting defendants the right to equal justice by filing for a motion at trial or following a conviction if the defendant experienced discrimination by an attorney, judge, juror, law enforcement officer, or expert witness (A.B. 256; League of Women Voters of California, 2021). It also provides retroactive relief to those who have previously endured racial disparities in charges, convictions, and sentencing (Kalra et al., 2021; League of Women Voters of California, 2021). Plus, implementation of this bill will decrease court and correctional annual spending by reducing the proportion of minority races currently incarcerated and soon to be incarcerated due to the intentional biases (Kalra et al., 2021). A.B. 256, 2021 Annual, 2021 Reg. Sess. (California 2021). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB256 CA State Assembly: Democratic Caucus. (2021, January 15). Assemblymember Kalra announces new california racial justice act for all. CA State Assembly: Democratic Caucus. https://asmdc.org/press-releases/Assemblymember-kalra-announces-new-california-racial-justice-act-all League of Women Voters of California. (2021, January 15). Support the racial justice act for all, ab256. https://lwvc.org/news/support-racial-justice-act-all-ab-256 League of Women Voters of California. (2021, January 28). Racial justice act community implementation. https://cavotes.org/racial-justice-act-community-implementation Kalra, A., Kamlager, Rivas, R. Santiago. (2021). Assembly bill 256: California racial justice act for all [Fact sheet]. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.naswca.org/resource/resmgr/files/2021lld/AB256FactSheet.pdf

The absences of long-term care coverage in Medicare is one of the biggest, and most tragic omissions in the care it pays for. Without this change in Medicare coverage, long-term care recipients and their immediate families are forced to liquidate everything they ever owned to pay for care, until they are so impoverished that they become eligible for Medicaid. Care facilities currently are notoriously fraught with nightmarish inadequacies, as Medicare's own review process, as well as state level reviews, demonstrates, and this is true throughout the US. Making them dependent upon Medicare for funding will impose accountability on them and result not only in more people who need it getting care but in all patients who need such care getting a high standard of care.

My daughter Amaya could not easily sit down to take a biology quiz like her White classmates because proctoring software would not “recognize” her as a person. She took the test at noon with sunlight streaming through her window, and turned on all the lights in her room. It still didn’t work. She tried 10 times. She literally had to shine an LED flashlight in her face before the software would allow her to take the quiz. This type of bias piles additional stress and anxiety onto kids of color who are already dealing with the challenges of remote learning, and it tells them they don’t belong. During remote learning, thousands of schools have paid billions for proctoring software that will watch kids via their computers to ensure that they aren’t cheating. However, this type of facial recognition software is notorious for not working well on people with dark skin because the companies that develop the product mostly test it on white people. The consequences for children of color can be devastating -- higher stress, unfounded accusations of cheating, and a clear message from their school that they aren’t welcome. And it's not just students of color. Students with facial tics or differences, neurodivergent students, and students with anxiety have all been discriminated against by online proctoring software. As a special educator who has worked in elementary education for years, I know the harm this will do to kids. Please join me in urging Secretary Cardona to support equity in education and reject the use of invasive, racially biased online proctoring software in K-12 schools.