Change the licensing fees structure so that they are more affordable to those communities that were hurt most by the draconian drug sentencing of the 1980s and 90s. The program in Oakland is a good start but it is not working per this article: https://reason.com/archives/2018/07/19/oaklands-weed-equity-program-not-helping In the 1920s & 30s my grandfather, along with many black sharecroppers in the Dallas, TX area, were forced to risk their lives by growing marijuana to supplement his meager sharecropping income, due to Jim Crow laws, and were prosecuted for such offenses. Fast forward to the 1980s and 90s, this country passed a number of laws that increased drug sentencing in black and brown communities that resulted in disparate jail times for non-violent drug offenders based amount and form of the drugs possessed by offenders. Today many are affected negatively by such laws and are being barred from participating in the new legal marijuana industry because they have drug convictions under the aforementioned unfair laws that were levied against them. In effect, they are being penalized twice by the very laws that we know were unfair at inception. Black and brown communities were decimated by the incarceration under laws we know now to be both racist and immoral. Therefore, California should continue to be a leader in such reforms by changing the laws in light of past atrocities, and thus allowing these communities, to be able to operate on an equal and level playing field and use the funds from marijuana sales to rebuild their lives and their communities. Additional articles that support my position: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-african-americans-marijuana-industry-20170605-story.html http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/race-and-drug-war https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/opinion/boehner-marijuana-blacks-prison.html

As people of conscience residing in Kansas Congressional District 03, we respectfully request that Representative Davids rejects the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-sponsored trip to Israel and instead accompany Representative Rashida Tlaib on her alternative trip to the West Bank. Israel denies Palestinians their basic human rights. They imprison children in a military court system, demolish Palestinian homes, subject Palestinians to checkpoints, have created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and ban millions of refugees from returning to their homes and lands. A March, 2019 U.N. report found Israel intentionally targeted unarmed children and journalists during the peaceful protests in Gaza. Anyone who travels with AIPAC to Israel will not see the reality of Israel’s military occupation. Instead, they will see only and exactly what Israel wants them to see. The purpose of AIPAC-sponsored trips is to cover up Israel’s human rights violations and continue unchecked U.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel- all at the expense of Palestinians. Two members of Congress, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have already announced they will be skipping the AIPAC trip. Please do the right thing and join them. Stand up for justice and against apartheid. Skip AIPAC’s trip to Israel and travel to the West Bank with Rep Tlaib.

As an American watching this country's acts of imperialism for so many decades, I am outraged at what I'm now seeing in Venezuela, a blatant usurpation of a sovereign country, a democratic people, a duly elected President. who we would attempt to replace with a US sycophant. We have no right to override the will of the Venezuelan people to satisfy our own greed and desire for riches and power. It is time to speak out! We can not be silent participants. We must be better than this!

Concerned about the environmental and impacts of the Simpson Oaks development project in Columbia, MD

The claim that the United States can not reunite families separated at the border is a lie. We have the technology now to quickly and easily match children with their parents via DNA technology. We must do all we can to right this Wrong and we can do that easily and quickly. We Demand that Homeland Security does that now.

Otto Warmbier death needs to be truly told and our president of the united states to stop taking other dictators words over our own intelligence agency's

Medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the US. Instead of becoming well, hospital stays are lengthened because there are not enough nurses at the bedside to do the critical work nurses do. Nurses are leaving the hospital bedside because of dissatisfaction and burnout. The public has the backs of Nurses with an 84% rating as the most trusted profession. Listen to a nurse.

We are facing the biggest crisis in our town since 1999.

Donald Trump claimed he was "proud" to "take the mantle " for setting down the government. This unprecedented, authoritarian act caused crushing economic chaos -- especially for 800,000 federal workers. Since Trump has claimed "ownership" of the shutdown, he should be held liable for the consequences, including reimbursement of the $3 billion in "unrecoverable losses" he inflicted on the country. This could become a precedent to prevent any future presidential actions that would result in clearly predictable economic damage to the nation.

I started this petition to restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to counter the bevy of Voter Suppression laws many states recently passed. VOTING RIGHTS SHOULD NEVER BE SUBJECT TO THE WHIMS OF POLITICAL PARTIES.

Middlesex Community College cannot continue to sideline students with tuition hikes. We want an affordable education, transparency regarding where our tuition dollars are going, and student voting power in the Board of Trustees to keep our administration accountable. Tuition acts as a filter of collegiate student candidates, separating out those who can afford to pay large amounts of money to attend school each year from those who cannot. It is unfair to create divides in this way and let people be disadvantaged due to their financial situation. Our demands boil down to three main points - affordability, transparency, and accountability: 1. Affordability We want a promise that tuition will not rise for the next 5 years until questions of Affordability, Transparency, and Accountability can be answered. 2. Transparency We want to know where our money is going with a clear tuition breakdown that can be understood by both students and parents. 3. Accountability Student Involvement: We want students to be involved in important decision-making that affects us. We hope to achieve this through the appointment of a student trustee who has voting power. We need Student-Administrative oversight to keep our university accountable to us.

Walmart ought to keep their disabled greeters. There are petitions for individual disabled greeters to keep their jobs, but this is a general petition for Walmart not to eliminate this position in 1,000 stores, as they have announced they will do in April. Can't they afford to help these people by giving them jobs? Don't they realize the value of the job they do?