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.

Dear Sen. Mitt Romney, Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Burgess Owens, Rep. John Curtis, Rep. Blake Moore, and Rep. Chris Stewart, An email was send out to Utah residents by the Division of Services for People with Disabilities earlier this month, that said NO NEW STATE FUNDING was allocated this year to help people get off of the wait-list for the Medicaid Waiver. Last year, the same thing happened because of the pandemic. This is devastating because almost 5,000 disabled Utahns are on this list and in desperate need of services. It is a huge blow to the Autism Community because many of us have been on the wait-list for 5+ years. Early intervention for the Autism Community will save our state money in the long run. Our kids are missing milestones while neglected parents try to "figure it out" all alone. This is counterproductive and we need a change now. This will also create thousands of jobs in Utah! The HCBS Access Act will address the Autism Community's biggest issue head on. But, we are in desperate need of adequate services for all disabled people in Utah. To those of us on the waiting list, we know that this neglecting people with disabilities is Utah's biggest shame. Not meeting the needs of people with disabilities seems to go against the core values of the majority of Utah citizens. According to an article titled "Waiting Lists May Be Eliminated For Disability Services Provided By Medicaid" in Disability Scoop, "A draft bill unveiled this month known as the HCBS Access Act would require Medicaid to provide home- and community-based services to EVERYONE who is eligible and establish a minimum set of services that states must offer. The bill is also designed to help states create a network of providers and workers to deliver such supports." WE NEED THIS! The decision earlier this year to put zero funds toward getting disabled people off of the waiting list has broken the hearts of your constituents and we need you to step up to the plate and bring this bill home. We deserve to live our best lives and we need your help to do that. Disabilities are non-partisan and this bill should be, too. Please join U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., along with Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio in drafting and voting for this bill. We are counting on you! Sincerely, Utah Citizens Advocating for Autism *Rep. Chris Stewart is not going to be sent this petition since his email address is not available to the public. To send him your thoughts and feelings, contact him through his website at https://stewart.house.gov/contact/

"Thank God these weren't around when I was 13 but also... how are teens supposed to learn to accept themselves with this sh*t?". - Demi Lovato, apologizing to her TikTok fans for using unrealistic beauty filters. Demi is right. TikTok -- immensely popular with teen girls -- has multiple types of beauty filters that let young people change their skin tone, jaw structure, facial features, body shape and more. The result is images that are more computer-generated than real -- doe-eyes, poreless skin, chiseled jawlines, and emaciated stomachs. These filters create an impossible standard for young girls forming opinions of themselves and send girls an unmistakable message that they are “not enough.” TikTok should immediately disable all beauty filters for teen accounts to support healthy and realistic standards for teen girls. It’s clear these filters fuel depression, disordered eating….TikTok knows exactly what it is doing.

Amazon controls the majority of America’s book distribution but fails to do what every other major publisher does: sell e-books and audiobooks to public libraries where kids can access them for free on apps. Amazon doesn’t just sell books, it publishes them -- including thousands of books for kids and teens and many award-winning titles. However, Amazon has refused to sell any of their e-books or audiobooks to public libraries. Shame on Amazon for undermining libraries in order to sell more books. Amazon has raked in hundreds of billions during the pandemic, with CEO Jeff Bezos 80% richer than he was a year ago! To put it mildly, the pandemic has been a windfall for this company and its CEO. Children, on the other hand, have had school and their entire lives shut down. They need access to books more than ever. Tell Amazon to stop stonewalling America’s libraries and give kids access to books

The rule change is a huge benefit for self-employed people. They can now use their gross income from their Schedule C to determine the final loan amount in the 2nd round of PPP funding. However, not allowing for the rule change to be retroactive to those who already received their 2nd round money is absolutely unfair. This decision is affecting tens of thousands of self-employed people whose only mistake was to apply and receive their 2nd round of PPP money before the rule change. A CNBC article: "How just a few days cost some small businesses thousands on their PPP forgivable loans explains the issue thoroughly.

Nuestros hijos disfrutan jugando y compartiendo todos los días en los parques de la Urbanización, y los consideramos una de las cosas que más nos gusta de nuestra comunidad. Los parques se han convertido en un punto de encuentro para nosotros, un lugar donde nuestros hijos crean nuevas amistades y muchísimas memorias. Ahora durante la pandemia, las breves salidas al parque son quizás el único entretenimiento que podemos ofrecerle a nuestros hijos. Queremos un lugar donde nuestros hijos estén seguros y disfruten.

We call to replace or alter the seal due to problems over the imagery, and most notably by modern day connections of lynchings to the African American community. The noose disrespects thousands of African Americans that where lynched and is becoming more and more of a symbol of violence against black people.

If we allow this traffic will increase through our quiet neighborhood. Non Glenaire residents will begin using the street access and our once quiet neighborhood will become a busy thoroughfare.

The Atlanta mass shooting that resulted in the death of eight people -- six of whom were Asian American women -- again proves that Americans can no longer wait for action against gun violence and hate. In 2020 alone, as though the pandemic weren't already too much to bear, gun violence rose dramatically with over 19,000 people killed in shootings and firearm-related incidents. Tragically, who is harmed by gun violence has long been determined by race, ethnicity, or gender. Asian American women -- and everyone -- deserve to feel safe. While we mourn the Atlanta shootings, we must also fight the explosive combination of guns, racism, and misogyny to reduce the likelihood of such tragedies ever happening again. The U.S. House recently passed gun legislation to tighten up background checks on gun sales, and now it’s up to the U.S. Senate to turn it into law. Tell the U.S. Senate to act against gun violence now and pass universal background checks.