Starbucks' new CEO has a chance to turn the company around and treat workers with respect. Let's call on him to act! Starbucks, like so many corporations, is doing everything in its power to keep workers from winning their union and a fair contract. They know when we stand together, we're more powerful and can win the respect we've earned.

It's a cruel and ongoing bill that can take the lives away from trans people in the state of Florida who are diagnosed with breast cancer.

You can send a message to your Representative today! Do you know if your Representative supports trans rights? They need to hear from you no matter what: https://go.peoplepower.org/letter/sports-ban/

For nearly three decades, Fox News has operated as a divisive right-wing propaganda outlet, misleading millions of Americans away from reality and toward racism, lies, and unfounded fears. Fox has proven time and time again that the network is not a legitimate news outlet. From spreading QAnon conspiracies to anti-COVID vaccine rhetoric to pushing anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, Fox has shown that they will spout hate and lies to push their political agenda and gain viewers. Each time Democrats in Congress appear on Fox News, even with the good intentions of breaking through to Fox's audience, they continue feeding the illusion that Fox is a credible news source, and Fox uses that credibility to promote dangerous disinformation. Nothing has exposed Fox’s lies more than the multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits they are facing from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Recent filings prove that Fox News executives and leading anchors knew that Trump lost the election, but they promoted the Big Lie to protect ratings and profits. Now, after Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment on his Fox "News" show in a pathetic attempt to convince his viewers that January 6 was not a violent insurrection, Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted that he won’t go on Tucker Carlson’s show until he “admits to his viewers live on air that he has been lying to them about the 2020 elections and about what happened on January 6th.” On his show, Carlson claimed the insurrectionists were “peaceful,” and “orderly and meek … sightseers.” But we know the truth. January 6 was a violent, criminal conspiracy led by Donald Trump to forcibly overturn the 2020 election results. More elected officials should follow Sen. Schumer's example. It’s time for Congressional Democrats to come together and refuse to appear on Fox News until they set the record straight and tell the truth about the 2020 election and January 6.

The transgender people of Tennessee have done nothing but live their own lives not hurting anyone and probably being more kind than 78% of non-transgender people

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid provide safety and security for the millions of seniors, families, and veterans who rely on these benefits to retire, access health care, and feed their families. Speaker McCarthy and the House Majority are threatening to force a catastrophic economic default unless their extreme demands to gut these overwhelmingly popular and hard-earned benefits are met. Their willingness to hold the economy hostage and make working people pay the price is nothing short of extreme and dangerous. Default would devastate individual Americans and communities of color across the country. After a lifetime of hard work and paying in, 48.6 million seniors rely on Social Security assistance every month to pay their bills. Nearly 64 million seniors rely on Medicare for their health coverage. More than 84.8 million Americans receive life-saving coverage through Medicaid. The entire country will suffer if our economy defaults. The majority of the House GOP supports cuts to essential programs. The Republican Study Committee, which includes 75% of House Republican members, released a budget for 2023 that would take measures to reduce or eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and SNAP benefits – voucherizing, means-testing, cutting funding, and imposing stricter requirements to gut coverage for millions of Americans.

PETITION: CTT offer to allow for full USPS tracking of US inbound registered mail. Dear CTT Postal Service of Portugal, We are kindly asking you to redefine your tracked offerings concerning international outgoing registered mail to the USA. Who we are? We are a community of Portuguese crafters and online shops with over 50% of our sales going to the US market. We ship several thousand parcels of sold goods to our private customers in the USA, and are sending you this request due to the continuous problems with deliveries to the USA. What is the issue? Registered airmail tracking numbers (with barcodes) do not appear in USPS tracking systems. CTT only allows us to track up until leaving the country. If USPS continues to not scan the tracking numbers the packages will simply disappear. We don't even receive a message stating that it has arrived in the US. We need to provide proof to our customers that packages have arrived in the US. We are experiencing a huge growth in claims, refunds and negative feedbacks from our US customers and as result we keep loosing business and you too will loose business. We pay the highest possible form of shipping CTT offers, yet it is not supported by USPS systems as seen in this notice on their website: ************************************************************************ International Registered Mail Tracking Suppression of Import Registered Mail Effective October 1, 2015, the Postal Service™ will no longer offer visibility for international import Registered Mail™ items unless International Posts have upgraded to offer their customers U.S. Postal Service® products that come with visibility. The International Posts which have upgraded to offer their customers Postal Service products that offer visibility are listed here: https://about.usps.com/pos.../2015/pb22424/html/info_002.htm ************************************************************************** How will we know when the recipient receives the package? How will we know if the recipient signed for it? How will we know if a notice has been left or unclaimed? How will we know it there is a delay? What do we ask: We would kindly ask you to become compliant with the USPS registered airmail tracking system even if that means the cost to ship Registered mail piece from Portugal will increase significantly. That will allow the USPS to scan packages as soon as they arrive in the US. Would like this information to appear on your website so that all your customers and our customers in the US could have access to this information. If this information does not appear CTT will inevitably receive thousands of customer services complaints and requests to "Reclamações" to search for lost Registered mail, which CTT will have to compensate. We would like all our clients to have a clear understanding that our packages have actually left Portugal and are waiting to be processed in one of the USPS sorting facilities on the US territory. We really hope for your understanding and cooperation. Thank you very much for your time, From the Portuguese online sellers, self employed small businesses, crafters, regular registered mail senders of gifts and of course many thanks from our recipients in the US. * * *

Senators have introduced the “Railway Safety Act of 2023” to address some of the concerns about rail safety that resurfaced after the disastrous Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The bill calls for stronger safety standards for all trains carrying hazardous materials and also expands those standards to trains not currently subject to high-hazard flammable train, or HHFT, regulations (like the train in East Palestine). We need this legislation to pass swiftly in the Senate, so it can go to the House, and then Biden's desk. People deserve protection and regulations so that railroad workers are able to feel safe at work, and residents feel safe knowing trains passing by their communities will be less likely to derail. A second train derailed in Ohio just a few days ago. We don't have time to waste to take widespread action towards rail safety. Photo Credit: The New York Times

Brewer wrote in an op-ed that “employees expect to bring their entire identity as people to work, and not to compartmentalize their values and keep them separate.” But by siding with anti-abortion politicians in these 20 states, they are taking sides against many of their employees, since majorities of Americans support abortion rights and the continued availability of medication abortion. We can't let anti-abortion politicians bully private businesses into withdrawing medication.

Please join me in advocating for raising the Federal Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers. I have watched my mother work her body to exhaustion for over thirty years, never making more than $2.13/hour. She has been afraid of retribution if she advocates for herself. The plight of the average server is often overlooked when we talk about issues with minimum wage even though the tipped worker minimum wage has not increased in 32 years. I am sick and tired of having this vulnerable segment of the working population left out of the conversation. Please join me in championing those without a voice.

We must remember that the majority of voters support safe and legal abortion access. Voters in states such as Kansas, Kentucky and Montana overwhelmingly supported abortion rights in ballot measures last year. We cannot let misogynistic Republicans in the pockets of anti-abortion extremists overturn the will of the people! It's bad enough that the conservatively-stacked Supreme Court stripped us of our constitutional right to abortion. Now, Republicans are going after a safe, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication for early pregnancy abortion that's used in more than half of all abortions in the United States. Abortion pills such as mifepristone have been FDA-approved and safely used by customers for over 20 years. Last month, the Biden administration approved retail pharmacies such as Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS to dispense the pills as part of a larger plan to protect abortion access and reduce maternal mortality. Threats from Republican attorneys general to keep these pharmacies from dispensing the pills have chilling effects on multiple fronts. Not only are they putting customers' lives at risk, but they are also controlling private businesses, customers' lives, and our democracy. U.S. pharmacies must not give in to GOP bullying and fascism and to protect their customers' right to abortion care!

As short-term rentals increase, residency decreases.* Short-term rentals drive up the cost of living. Short-term rentals deplete the availability of long-term rentals. Regulations on short-term rentals are becoming common in Texas cities and have been upheld by courts.** Short-term rentals are expected to continue to grow in number by 20-30% annually.*** 20% of Marfa's housing is currently short-term rentals with more being built as you read this.**** * From the Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vacation-rentals-in-the-desert-e63eb21e (this article is behind a paywall, but an audio file is available at the top of the page without a login). ** Information provided by Texas Neighborhood Coalition *** Statistics provided by Granicus **** Information gathered from Granicus and the Presidio County Appraiser