Over the last three years, nurses and other healthcare workers have made enormous sacrifices. In many facilities, chronic unsafe staffing was already the norm when the pandemic brought a massive influx of critical patients. Nurses need more support than ever before—especially when it comes to safe staffing. There is ample evidence that nurse-to-patient ratios do save lives1—even though we’ve not yet seen the full potential of this important safety mechanism. Conversely, research shows that unsafe staffing is directly linked to negative patient outcomes. Without the backing of CDPH and full enforcement of the law, hospitals will continue to cut corners by purposefully understaffing their units, the dangerous race to the bottom in hospital staffing will continue and nurses will continue to leave the bedside. If you're a nurse or licensed healthcare professional facing unsafe staffing or other challenges in your workplace, join us! Visit https://www.seiu121rn.org/join/ to learn more. 1 Aiken LH, Sloane DM, Cimiotti JP, et al. Implications of the California nurse staffing mandate for other states. Health Serv Res. 2010;45(4):904-21. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2010.01114.x

To keep our students and citizens safe.

In 2018, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule, which had required rail companies to upgrade brake systems on trains carrying certain hazardous materials. Norfolk Southern was among a group of rail carriers who opposed this regulation and that contributed more than $6 million to Republican lawmakers in the 2016 election -- the most contributed by the rail industry to one party in over two decades. But that’s not all! Norfolk Southern has spent nearly $80 million on lobbying efforts over the last 25 years, including opposing two-person crew requirements on every train -- a safety measure that workers say is vital to limiting train derailments and that the Trump administration again rejected. In allowing the industry to regulate itself, the Trump administration said “that no regulation of train crew staffing is necessary or appropriate for railroad operations to be conducted safely at this time” and said separately, “the expected costs of requiring ECP brakes would be significantly higher than the expected benefits of the requirement.” It’s up to us to hold greedy corporations accountable to workers and to communities across the country.

Donald Trump and his associates planned, promoted, and paid for a criminal conspiracy that became the January 6 insurrection. According to the U.S. Constitution, that disqualifies him from ever holding office again. Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, the “insurrection clause,” makes clear that anyone who engaged in attempting to violently overthrow the US government after swearing an oath to protect it is barred from being given that responsibility again. In 2022, a New Mexico county commissioner who was at the January 6 insurrection was kicked out of office when a state court ruled that the insurrection clause barred him from office. And other courts upheld that the insurrection clause was relevant to members of congress, including MAGA Republican Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at Trump's rally on January 6. It applies just as well to people seeking the Oval Office. We need to fight back even harder to hold Trump accountable for his actions to damage our democracy—actions that continue today and are focused on laying the groundwork for his next coup to place him in the White House in 2024 no matter the will of the voters. State elections officials already have the authority and responsibility to bar him from the ballot. And Congress can back them up by passing legislation barring Trump from office under the Fourteenth amendment. Will you sign the petition today to join the fight to disqualify Trump from holding public office and help disrupt plans by Trump and his allies for his next coup in 2024? See the 50 other petitions across the country here: https://sign.moveon.org/efforts/disqualify-trump Sources: 1. “The Jan. 6 Hearings Are Over. These 3 Things Must Happen Now.”, The New York Times, October 14, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/opinion/january-6-committee-trump.html 2. “How the 14th Amendment Could Disqualify Trump and His Allies,“ Democracy Docket, June 6, 2022 https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-the-14th-amendment-could-disqualify-trump-and-his-allies/ 3. "New Mexico removes, bars Couy Griffin from public office," KRQE News, September 6, 2022 https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/new-mexico-judge-removes-bars-couy-griffin-from-elected-office/

Donald Trump and his associates planned, promoted, and paid for a criminal conspiracy that became the January 6 insurrection. According to the U.S. Constitution, that disqualifies him from ever holding office again. Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, the “insurrection clause,” makes clear that anyone who engaged in attempting to violently overthrow the US government after swearing an oath to protect it is barred from being given that responsibility again. In 2022, a New Mexico county commissioner who was at the January 6 insurrection was kicked out of office when a state court ruled that the insurrection clause barred him from office. And other courts upheld that the insurrection clause was relevant to members of congress, including MAGA Republican Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at Trump's rally on January 6. It applies just as well to people seeking the Oval Office. We need to fight back even harder to hold Trump accountable for his actions to damage our democracy—actions that continue today and are focused on laying the groundwork for his next coup to place him in the White House in 2024 no matter the will of the voters. State elections officials already have the authority and responsibility to bar him from the ballot. And Congress can back them up by passing legislation barring Trump from office under the Fourteenth amendment. Will you sign the petition today to join the fight to disqualify Trump from holding public office and help disrupt plans by Trump and his allies for his next coup in 2024? See the 50 other petitions across the country here: https://sign.moveon.org/efforts/disqualify-trump Sources: 1. “The Jan. 6 Hearings Are Over. These 3 Things Must Happen Now.”, The New York Times, October 14, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/opinion/january-6-committee-trump.html 2. “How the 14th Amendment Could Disqualify Trump and His Allies,“ Democracy Docket, June 6, 2022 https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-the-14th-amendment-could-disqualify-trump-and-his-allies/ 3. "New Mexico removes, bars Couy Griffin from public office," KRQE News, September 6, 2022 https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/new-mexico-judge-removes-bars-couy-griffin-from-elected-office/

Donald Trump and his associates planned, promoted, and paid for a criminal conspiracy that became the January 6 insurrection. According to the U.S. Constitution, that disqualifies him from ever holding office again. Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, the “insurrection clause,” makes clear that anyone who engaged in attempting to violently overthrow the US government after swearing an oath to protect it is barred from being given that responsibility again. In 2022, a New Mexico county commissioner who was at the January 6 insurrection was kicked out of office when a state court ruled that the insurrection clause barred him from office. And other courts upheld that the insurrection clause was relevant to members of congress, including MAGA Republican Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at Trump's rally on January 6. It applies just as well to people seeking the Oval Office. We need to fight back even harder to hold Trump accountable for his actions to damage our democracy—actions that continue today and are focused on laying the groundwork for his next coup to place him in the White House in 2024 no matter the will of the voters. State elections officials already have the authority and responsibility to bar him from the ballot. And Congress can back them up by passing legislation barring Trump from office under the Fourteenth amendment. Will you sign the petition today to join the fight to disqualify Trump from holding public office and help disrupt plans by Trump and his allies for his next coup in 2024? See the 50 other petitions across the country here: https://sign.moveon.org/efforts/disqualify-trump Sources: 1. “The Jan. 6 Hearings Are Over. These 3 Things Must Happen Now.”, The New York Times, October 14, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/opinion/january-6-committee-trump.html 2. “How the 14th Amendment Could Disqualify Trump and His Allies,“ Democracy Docket, June 6, 2022 https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-the-14th-amendment-could-disqualify-trump-and-his-allies/ 3. "New Mexico removes, bars Couy Griffin from public office," KRQE News, September 6, 2022 https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/new-mexico-judge-removes-bars-couy-griffin-from-elected-office/

Donald Trump and his associates planned, promoted, and paid for a criminal conspiracy that became the January 6 insurrection. According to the U.S. Constitution, that disqualifies him from ever holding office again. Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, the “insurrection clause,” makes clear that anyone who engaged in attempting to violently overthrow the US government after swearing an oath to protect it is barred from being given that responsibility again. In 2022, a New Mexico county commissioner who was at the January 6 insurrection was kicked out of office when a state court ruled that the insurrection clause barred him from office. And other courts upheld that the insurrection clause was relevant to members of congress, including MAGA Republican Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at Trump's rally on January 6. It applies just as well to people seeking the Oval Office. We need to fight back even harder to hold Trump accountable for his actions to damage our democracy—actions that continue today and are focused on laying the groundwork for his next coup to place him in the White House in 2024 no matter the will of the voters. State elections officials already have the authority and responsibility to bar him from the ballot. And Congress can back them up by passing legislation barring Trump from office under the Fourteenth amendment. Will you sign the petition today to join the fight to disqualify Trump from holding public office and help disrupt plans by Trump and his allies for his next coup in 2024? See the 50 other petitions across the country here: https://sign.moveon.org/efforts/disqualify-trump Sources: 1. “The Jan. 6 Hearings Are Over. These 3 Things Must Happen Now.”, The New York Times, October 14, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/opinion/january-6-committee-trump.html 2. “How the 14th Amendment Could Disqualify Trump and His Allies,“ Democracy Docket, June 6, 2022 https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-the-14th-amendment-could-disqualify-trump-and-his-allies/ 3. "New Mexico removes, bars Couy Griffin from public office," KRQE News, September 6, 2022 https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/new-mexico-judge-removes-bars-couy-griffin-from-elected-office/

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and President Biden are being petitioned by the public to stop the authorization of the bulk transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in rail cars on the nation’s railways. Based on public safety and health concerns, in 2021 DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) proposed federal rulemaking (the “Suspension Rule” RIN 2137–AF55)[1] to suspend the Trump Administration’s 2020 federal rule that lifted the long-standing ban on LNG transport by rail. Public comments and technical submissions to PHMSA during the public comment period provide broad and compelling support for the Suspension Rule and explain why the Trump era LNG rule endangers millions of Americans. The petition calls on PHMSA to first, immediately adopt the Suspension Rule and second, that PHMSA reinstate the permanent ban through federal rulemaking. Lastly, the petition insists that Special Permits for LNG rail transport be denied, including Special Permit DOT-SP 20534 for the proposed Gibbstown/Wyalusing LNG Export Project.[2] Prior to the Trump Rule, a Special Permit (Special Permit DOT-SP 20534), was issued in December 2019 for transport of LNG by rail car from Wyalusing, PA to Gibbstown, NJ for a proposed LNG export terminal on the Delaware River. It expired but PHMSA is currently considering an application for its extension. This is the first and only use in the nation of DOT 113C120W tank cars to transport LNG, which were designed 50 years ago and never used for LNG and it is the only permit to allow daily “unit-train” volumes of LNG over enormous distances (approximately 200 miles). The trains cut through many communities of color and low-income populations already overburdened with environmental injustices, including Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Reading, Allentown, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Camden and other southern municipalities in New Jersey. Transporting LNG in rail cars poses unique hazards. If there is a container breach, such as in a derailment, the super-cooled (-260 degrees F) liquid methane is released as a vapor cloud that is 600-620 times greater than the volume of the contained liquid, causing freeze burns and robbing oxygen from the air for those in proximity, which can be deadly[3]. The vapor cloud can travel miles very quickly. PHMSA’s Environmental Assessment[4] issued in 2019 describes the response to a broken cryogenic tank car as very difficult for first responders and fire companies and risks catastrophe due to the great potential for explosions and large fires. If the highly flammable gas is ignited, it burns so hot the fire cannot be extinguished and must be allowed to burn out, requiring emergency evacuations for up to two miles. A bomb-like explosion known as a BLEVE or Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion can occur with catastrophic impacts. These dangers are amplified in densely populated communities where high-speed and complete evacuation is practically impossible. These public safety hazards are the foundation for the longstanding ban on LNG transport by rail car. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Transportation Research Board (“TRB”), the agency that is charged with conducting LNG by rail research, advises that “quantitative risk analyses” have not been done and need to be performed, and that, prior to any LNG by rail activities, a safety assurance initiative be put in place and further investigation be conducted of the safety performance of the railcars that are proposed to be used (DOT-113C120W9.16). Clearly, there is no assurance that adding LNG to our railways is, by any equitable measure, safe or warranted. The recent push to increase the export of LNG by rail due to the Ukraine crisis has heightened community concerns that the desires of the gas and oil industry will overwhelm government’s responsibility to protect the public and replace dirty fracked gas with truly clean, renewable energy. Public safety and environmental health must come first. LNG is liquefied methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas (GHG) 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in heating the atmosphere on a 20-year time scale and 104 times more powerful over a 10-year period, the periods of time when scientists say we must reduce GHG emissions to address the climate crisis. Methane leaks and/or is vented in all phases of the LNG production process, including processing, storage, transport, transloading and use. In light of the high global warming potential of methane, the Biden administration has pledged to slash methane emissions. Pushing LNG onto train tracks, enabling LNG production, and stepping up gas extraction and transportation will exacerbate climate change and undercut our collective climate goals to prevent the earth’s warming. LNG transport by railcar recklessly endangers the public and risks catastrophe such as the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in February. The public health and environmental impacts from the resulting inextinguishable fires and release of vinyl chloride and other highly toxic chemicals to the air, water, and soil will not be fully calculated for some time. However, the resulting state of emergency requiring evacuation of the community, the raging fires and plumes of polluted smoke, the fish kills, and the exposure of people to hazardous pollutants is testimony that high hazard derailments do occur and the consequences can be tragic. We don’t need to add more flammable hazardous materials to the dangers our communities and environment already face from high-risk rail car transport.

You’ve already heard the news that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni Thomas was involved in the January 6 plot to overthrow our government. And that Justice Thomas refuses to recuse himself from cases related to January 6.1 But Chief Justice John Roberts also has a serious ethics conflict due to the work of his spouse, Jane Roberts. The New York Times recently reported that Jane Roberts, a legal recruiter, has earned millions in commissions for recruiting attorneys for jobs at law firms, which include firms that have cases before the Supreme Court. A significant portion of Jane Roberts' clients are senior government lawyers whom she helps place at private law firms. This is a clear conflict of interest for Chief Justice Roberts, and yet more evidence that we need a strong code of ethics for SCOTUS.2 Chief Justice Roberts has failed to recuse himself from a single case involving law firms working with his spouse. He also has not fully disclosed his wife’s clients or her earnings. Senator Durbin said that these are “troubling issues that once again demonstrate the need” for ethics reforms to “begin the process of restoring faith in the Supreme Court.”2 Public trust in the Supreme Court is already at an all time low. The Court has pursued a right-wing agenda, regularly ignoring long-standing precedents, such as in its overturning of Roe v. Wade. This year the Court will rule on another set of cases that will carry serious implications for civil rights, student debt relief, workers’ right to organize, and more. Following the revelations about the ethics violations of Justice Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts, now is the time to pass the Supreme Court Ethics Act.3 Sources: NPR, “Legal ethics experts agree: Justice Thomas must recuse in insurrection cases,” March 30, 2022. New York Times, “At the Supreme Court, Ethics Questions Over a Spouse’s Business Ties,” January 31, 2023. The Hill, “Calls grow for stronger ethics rules for Supreme Court justices, families,” October 31, 2022.

Following Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies, we are calling on the Biden Administration to enact a strong, lasting rule across federal public lands that protects mature and old-growth trees and forests from logging, allowing the recovery of old-growth forests that have been lost. These forests are essential to removing and storing carbon from the atmosphere, safeguarding wildlife, and providing clean drinking water for our communities. We are working to build grassroots pressure across the United States to ensure strong, lasting protections for our climate forests — and we need your help! Moving forward, we need to convince the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to take the threat logging poses to climate change and wildlife loss seriously. We must ensure our climate solutions match the scale of the threats we face today, and conserving and recovering our mature and old-growth forests represents one of the simplest, most cost-effective actions we can take. Please join us in calling on the agencies to fulfill the promise of President Biden's Earth Day Executive Order on forests by beginning a rulemaking process immediately to ensure our climate forests remain standing for future generations.

We don’t know the impact of the toxic chemical explosions on people’s health yet, but residents have reported experiencing nausea, shortness of breath, dizziness, and headaches. It’s also been confirmed that chemicals have spilled into the Ohio River, which covers 14 states and provides drinking water to more than 5 million people. This water basin also leads directly into the Mississippi River, a major water source in the United States. President Biden already called Gov. DeWine and said the administration would give him whatever he needed, so why hasn’t DeWine declared a state of emergency? It is critical that Gov. DeWine declare a state of emergency and formally request President Joe Biden for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) aid so residents affected by the explosion can get the help they deserve.

Residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania have been repeatedly told that they are “safe” after a Norfolk Southern train derailment caused a huge release of hazardous chemicals into the air, land, and water. Meanwhile, residents are continuing to report that they are experiencing health issues - from rashes to difficulty breathing - and are expected to navigate the emergency response and healthcare systems on their own. This needs to change. “Safe” means people can vacuum their homes without worrying about kicking up toxic pollution. “Safe” means having independent test results that examine every necessary parameter and indicate there’s no harm. “Safe” means being able to be in your home without the risk that health problems will develop months or years from now. State officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania must take transparent, proactive steps to ensure that residents are able to access the information and support that they need. We, the undersigned, call on them to immediately do the following: Provide medical monitoring. The states must monitor and track health concerns from this incident, and they must provide mobile clinics so that residents and first responders – anyone in the area who was exposed to the pollution – can access critical information about their health. Support independent environmental testing. The state must provide funds for independent environmental testing. Residents are understandably skeptical that tests being paid for by Norfolk Southern are reliable and trustworthy. Access to independent water and soil testing should not be limited to people who can afford to cover the high costs. Meet with residents regularly, in-person, on an ongoing basis. Information about this incident is complex, and more information comes out - whether accurate or not - by the hour. Residents deserve a space to have conversations with officials, to raise concerns, and to ask questions, and be given answers. Governors from both states must work immediately with the environmental and health agencies to facilitate these actions in coordination with key stakeholders within impacted communities. [This petition was originated by our allies at the People Over Petro Coalition (POPCO) and its partner organizations on the ground in Eastern OH and Western PA.] Photo credit: Ted Auch, Fractracker Alliance