To prevent needless deaths in our state. First, the pandemic is ongoing and we have no leadership from our governor. Second, Governor Lee was aware TN law enforcement along with the majority of Tennesseans were against this gun law.

Veterans are not receiving the medical care and benefits they’ve earned. Stop sending vets to rubber stamp clinics and provide exam results.

Recent events in Boulder have brought the issue of sensible gun control to the forefront of our public discourse again. I live in the small city of Louisville in the Boulder/Denver area. Several months ago, I was in the Louisville King Soopers when a young man appeared in the store conspicuously wearing a very large handgun and not wearing his mask. Many shoppers noticed this person but were not about to mention the mask issue given the gun. I do not believe store owners and their employees should be put in the position of confronting someone wearing a gun to enforce other rules. Additionally, it was clear that patrons in the store were uncomfortable with the situation -- not a good thing for a business. The State of Colorado enacted a preemption of local government efforts to control some aspects of gun ownership. The courts upheld the Denver bans based on the urban nature of Denver and the inherent interest of the City of Denver to protect its citizens. The front range is basically one big urban area now and as demonstrated by the shooting in Boulder, like COVID-19 we are one big community. If the state won't pass reasonable gun control laws, we can try getting it done city by city even if the courts eventually need to get involved.

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.

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.

There is a reason the Center for Disease Control made the guidance for Phase 1C of the COVID-19 vaccine roll out to include people aged 16 - 64 years with underlying medical conditions and disabilities, which increase the risk of serious, life-threatening complications and death from COVID-19. However and despite this guidance, in recent weeks thirty states de-prioritized these people in COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the name of efficiency and equity. It is common sense to prioritize vulnerable Americans. In the past twelve months, over half of a million people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. 94% of these were Americans with comorbidities. The guidance is not just that of the Center for Disease Control. An analysis by FAIR Health, in collaboration with the West Health Institute and Johns Hopkins' Marty Makary, found that COVID-19 patients with developmental disorders are the most at risk of dying, followed by those with lung cancer and intellectual disabilities, regardless of age. And now, recent studies from leading immunologists in Boston show mutations are incubated in autoimmune disease patients, creating strains that are sometimes undetectable to testing and impervious to current COVID-19 treatments. Studies from John Hopkins found that people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s can catch the virus. Some develop severe and lasting symptoms, particularly if they have comorbidities or underlying conditions (such as obesity, diabetes, or high blood pressure (hypertension)). Data from one study shows that of more than 3,000 adults ages 18 to 34 who contracted COVID-19 and became sick enough to require hospital care, 21% ended up in intensive care, 10% were placed on a breathing machine, and 2.7% died. The majority of these patients had comorbidities. This in-hospital mortality rate is lower than that reported for older adults with COVID-19, but approximately double that of young adults with acute myocardial infarction. And the data is there in other parts of the world—the United Kingdom recently announced that sixty percent of their COVID-19 deaths were those with disabilities. In Australia, disabled people are five times more likely to die. Unlike the UK and AU, the United States does not collect data the same way it collects data on race or gender identity, meaning the 94% could be a low figure. Unfortunately, the majority of state vaccine rollout plans are based on state data. However, many states do not track numerous underlying conditions and disabilities within their health departments as they do other demographics such as race, age, and gender. But we know now that these are individuals at risk for bad outcomes and death from COVID-19; second to age is an underlying condition and disability such as developmental disabilities. To make matters worse, “disability activists, chronic illness advocates, and people with disabilities and underlying conditions have pointed to three main failures in inequitable vaccine rollouts: eligibility lists that do not include all those who are considered high risk; states that have not prioritized people with disabilities; and websites or vaccination sites that are not accessible, as author Cecilia Nowell wrote in her article "This women-made tool could help get more disabled people vaccinated" in The Lily. We implore the National Governors Association to re-prioritize those in thirty states who are vulnerable and have a disability. We demand vulnerable and disabled people are included in phase 1C of ALL states' vaccine rollouts, that vaccine sign-up and sites are accessible, and that states provide a choice of vaccines to those with conditions or disabilities who require choice due to their unique medical needs. Sign our petition to tell the National Governors Association to stop ignoring the vulnerable and disabled Americans and demand equity in COVID-19 state public health plans. Re-prioritize them for vaccination in the thirty states that have de-prioritized them by including them in Phase 1C. We will update you on our upcoming letter to the National Governors Association that will include this petition and other actions you can take as the campaign develops. Please stay tuned. Sincerely, Vulnerable Advocates Collective https://bit.ly/vacpact The Vulnerable Advocates Collective, or VAC Pact, is a group of activists dedicated to amplifying the voices of the vulnerable people and disabled people erased from the equity conversation. Full Plain Text Petition with Works Cited: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bma65ujyZAygUQcJ11ZEtHDi1Soh7Wc9_zKJtmT8J4M/edit?usp=sharing