Many US families still have significant savings in our accounts and have our Dependent Care facilities closed due to Covid 19. I would hate to see our hard earned savings go to waste due to a March 15th deadline. I know I'm not alone. This simple change could help a lot of families once Dependent Care facilities are safe to open and keep our children safe again.

Members of congress broke their oath to protect and defend the US Constitution.

I am a vegan myself and it's hard to spread my palate in fast food restaurants because there's so little bit of options for people like me that are vegans to actually grab a fast meal in the nearby fast food places. It's easy for meat eaters to have more options around fast foods to grab and go. Unlike vegans or plant based foods it's much more time consuming and hard to figure what to eat and where to go. Not only for those who are vegan but those wanting to slowly transition into this diet, more options will help fix that issue. The options that are vegan/plant-based are more expensive than the foods that contain meat. This is important because it's easier to get an unhealthy meal for cheaper than a healthy one which is more expensive. Many people continuing to eat bad when going to a restaurant can increase their chances of catching a disease or an illness. When you eat meat especially from restaurants people don't know what they're made of. Sustaining this unhealthy food choice doesn't help you get better but actually worsen your health. More options that are less expensive will expand much more healthier outcomes. Having more plant-based/vegan options will also decrease the animal abuse that is created because of big food corporations that use their meat. People claim to love animals and not do anything to hurt them but will continue to eat foods that contain meat and animal products. The cheaper the foods that sustain meat and restaurants that continue to give meat are more chances to get these diseases and illnesses like cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. Helping the community with their health and safety is important to any human being. These are also more ways to help save the plant. A quote I found said, "How good it is to eat AMAZING food, be healthy, save the planet & cause no harm to animals!" This explains the many things having a more vegan/plant-based diet can do to not only you and animals but to save the planet. Also, instead of having those who are vegan/on a plant based diet, have to substitute their foods when out and about in dine-in restaurants, they should already be able to pick out from multiple options in the menu. Caring about everyones health, animals and the planet will help the world become more successful and more enjoyable for everyone and not just one part of people. I hope to get people's attention on this to expand their knowledge on what they might not know or give them a little more understanding behind the big corporations and health problems this can cause. When sending the link to my petition and explanation to my social media and real life friends/family, those friends and family will support my petition and repost my link to get more people's attention and hopefully have more people agree and want to sign my petition.

This is important as people are dying everyday and the numbers are spiking yet the hospitals again are brining in non-emergent patient which take up beds. We only have a finite amount of hospital beds and why are we using them in ways that work against the pandemic and resources needed.

A cornerstone of American democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. The impact of an outgoing president's refusal to respect the will of the people by sowing division and doubt in our election will have long-lasting effects and should not be legitimized.

It doesn't matter what city or state you are in, nurses all deal with the same day-to-day challenges. When we encounter people at the hospital its when they are feeling their worst, they're scared, and some don't know how to express what they want so nurses are their advocates. The state of TN's average wage for a nurse in the hospital setting is 32% below national average (mind blowing). When I make this point people say "well the cost of living...". In reality, yes there's no state tax and the cost of buying a home is cheaper. Everything else is relatively the same. Another point I'd like to point out is the minimum wage in TN is $7.25 and a new grad nurse (in the Knoxville area) is started at $19.05/hour. That's a $11.80 difference. The state of CA's minimum wage is $13 hour and starts their nurses around $54/hour - a $41 difference. How are you going to justify that being equal due to the "cost of living". How do you justify a Target employee in Knoxville starting at $15/hour to a Registered Nurse starting at $19.05?? On top of the pay not being justifiable, we don't get holiday pay nor compensation if we end up getting COVID-19. Things need to change, nurses need and should to be paid much better than they are in the state of TN. Please help support us in making efforts to change this and receive the compensation we deserve.

This is an attempt by the city to divide the Westside by removing a key neighborhood (El Rio Acres or Barrio Subaco) from Ward 1 and placing it in Ward 3, which currently has no council representation. Tucson's westside has a history of unity in struggle against the city plans (like privatization of public parks) and this is an attempt to dilute the strength of the neighborhoods. Their stated plan is to redistrict these neighborhoods and afterwards to notify the residents that they have been moved. Barrio Hollywood Neighborhood Association and the El Rio Coalition and others oppose this underhanded move. Please support the westside and oppose the city redistricting plan as proposed.

It is important because the Trinity Management Council guides the multi-million dollar Trinity River Restoration Program that is designed to restore Trinity River fisheries. Liam is uniquely qualified to serve as Trinity County’s representative to the TMC. Few people know the Trinity River and its citizens more than Liam. He and his wife have owned and operated the Douglas City store for 23 years, never closing for even a day. He has been a licensed, bonded and insured guide on the Trinity River for 30 years running Trinity River Outfitters Fishing Guide Service. He has guided over 3,000 river trips, with over 20,000 man hours on the river. Liam was president of the Trinity River Guides Association and represented fishing guides as a member of the former Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG) to provide public input to the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP). Liam is working hard to reform the TRRP and its funding priorities through the newly formed Friends of the Trinity River in order to improve our decimated salmon and steelhead fisheries. Liam has been meeting with the current TRRP Executive Director and his staff on a regular basis over the last several months in order to improve communication and understanding. District 1 Supervisor Keith Groves has served as the Board representative on the TMC for several years. While we respect Keith’s intelligence and opinion, we do not feel that he adequately represents Trinity County’s interests in restoring the Trinity River. Keith is very knowledgeable on water issues, but it is clear that he does not have a passion to see the Trinity River’s fisheries restored. We have not seen him as an agent of change for the TRRP. The Board or the public rarely if ever hear reports from him on what the TRRP is doing or how the Board might take positions on water issues of concern to all of us. To the best of our knowledge, the Board of Supervisors never even protested the dissolution of the TAMWG and the end of public involvement in the TRRP. At the September meeting of the Trinity County Fish and Game Advisory Committee, Keith chastised the Committee for being concerned about issues such as the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir, suggesting that they work instead on restoring yellow legged frogs in the Trinity Alps. This is the kind of argument that we hear from the Westlands Water District. It does not demonstrate a collaborative attitude about protecting and restoring the Trinity River. This effort is not intended to undermine the Board Chairman’s prerogative, but is of such great concern to us that we feel it is appropriate to inform the Board of our desire for Liam to represent Trinity County. Therefore, we respectfully support appointment of Liam Gogan as the primary Trinity County representative on the TMC.

Rahm Emanuel‘s decisions and policies as mayor had a disproportionate and racist impact on Black communities, and his agenda aided corporations and the wealthy at the expense of working Chicagoans. To aid his re-election campaign in 2015, he suppressed video footage of the 2014 murder of a 17-year-old Black child, Laquan McDonald, by Chicago police. He made history by closing 50 public schools across Chicago, primarily in the majority-Black South and West Side communities of the city—the most school closures at one time in any school districts in the nation. During his first year in office, his administration shut down half of the public mental health clinics across Chicago. Soon after taking office, he eliminated the city’s Department of Environment, and as a result, environmental regulation dropped considerably. Communities of color throughout Chicago have borne the brunt of this decision, and thousands of people (primarily Black families) have been exposed to chemical hazards and irritants as a result. And while his administration was consistently slashing public services and utilities, the city funded the construction of a brand-new, $95-million police academy on Chicago’s West Side. The Department of Transportation has unions representing over 38,000 employees at the federal and national level. As mayor of Chicago, in addition to closing 50 schools, Emanuel repeatedly attacked public unions by supporting legislation that would make it harder for teachers to strike, laid off hundreds of school staff, and threatened to lay off hundreds of city employees in order to privatize some city services. Emanuel served big business and corporate interests throughout his time as mayor, and his decisions disproportionately harmed working families and communities of color. We have no reason to believe that he’d act any differently as a member of President-elect Biden’s Cabinet. President-elect Biden is taking office during a time of deep, overlapping crises. His administration will need to be bold, ambitious, and transformative and will need to speak to the needs of everyday people, and he needs to stand up for Black communities, as he said he would last month. His appointees must reflect that vision. Rahm Emanuel's track record is an affront to everything we voted for—especially to Black Americans—and he should have no place in the new administration.

I am a parent of two Denver Public Schools middle and high school students. My children’s health, happiness and social and academic successes are important to me as they are for all parents. Transitioning into the teenage years, their bodies naturally adjust to staying up later and sleeping in (when given the opportunity) yet they still need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night.  The current early morning start times in DPS are detrimental to their success as students and threaten their overall health.   Quality and quantity of sleep matter at all ages, but sleep is especially critical for teens. Growth and development occur during sleep and adequate sleep leads to improved attention span, attitude and overall improved health and wellness. What’s more, lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can have detrimental effects on the immune system and are tied to higher levels of stress. According to sleep specialist Wendy Troxel, a behavioral and social scientist with Rand Corp., “Research consistently finds inadequate sleep in teens is associated with increased risk of mental and physical health problems, including depression, suicide and obesity. It also creates problems with their concentration, memory, and ability to learn.” I understand that transportation logistics propose a hurdle to making schedule changes. However, we know that several other large, metro-area districts, as well as large school districts across the country, have successfully transitioned to a later start time for teens. During this unprecedented time, we have the opportunity to work solve these logistical problems and to create transportation schedules that support later start times for our middle and high schools when they return in-person learning. This petition requests that DPS create a new schedule for middle and high school students by implementing later start times to begin in the 2021-2022 school year. The science and social benefits are well documented, but here some articles that highlight important aspects of changing to a later start time:     https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/schools-start-too-early.html https://www.rwjf.org/en/blog/2018/02/three-reasons-to-consider-later-school-start-times.html https://www.nationaljewish.org/conditions/health-information/multimedia/facebook-live/why-do-teens-sleep-later https://www.rand.org/blog/2019/08/im-a-sleep-specialist-heres-how-i-prepare-my-two-teenagers.html https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/10/among-teens-sleep-deprivation-an-epidemic.html Show your support to implement later start times by signing this petition!

I am a parent of a 1st grade and 2 pre-k students. Remote learning cannot replace the in-person learning experience for our youngest students, and it is hurting them academically and socially. On top of that, it has put an enormous burden on parents. We need to maximize the opportunity for live instruction and interaction with peers. Tell PS130 to include Fridays in the 2 cohort hybrid learning plan.

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been named Ambassador to Japan, but he hasn't yet been confirmed for the position. Emanuel had an absolutely disastrous record as mayor between 2011 and 2019. His decisions and policies had a disproportionate and racist impact on Black communities, and his agenda aided corporations and the wealthy at the expense of working Chicagoans. To aid his re-election campaign in 2015, he suppressed video footage of the 2014 murder of a 17-year-old Black child, Laquan McDonald, by Chicago police. He made history by closing 50 public schools across Chicago, primarily in the majority-Black South Side and West Side communities of the city—the most school closures at one time in any school districts in the nation. During his first year in office, his administration shut down half of the public mental health clinics across Chicago. Soon after taking office, he eliminated the city’s Department of Environment, and as a result, environmental regulation dropped considerably. Communities of color throughout Chicago have borne the brunt of this decision, and thousands of people (primarily Black and Latinx families) have been exposed to chemical hazards and irritants as a result. And while his administration was consistently slashing public services and utilities, the city funded the construction of a brand-new, $95-million police academy on Chicago’s West Side. As mayor of Chicago, in addition to closing 50 schools, Emanuel repeatedly attacked public unions by supporting legislation that would make it harder for teachers to strike, laid off hundreds of school staff, and threatened to lay off hundreds of city employees in order to privatize some city services. Emanuel served big business and corporate interests throughout his time as mayor, and his decisions disproportionately harmed working families and communities of color. There's no reason why he should be rewarded with a public office, especially one in which he is representing the United States on a global stage. We are asking that President Biden withdraws Emanuel's nomination—and we're also calling on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote to oppose it.