In August 2018, Cruises to Nowhere, LLC moored the 135-foot Jacks or Better 1 casino boat along Lazaretto Creek at the base of Tybee Island’s only, structurally unsound bridge (per a 2016 Georgia Department of Transportation study), along a WWII-era dock, and at the picturesque gateway to this charming and unique gem of coastal Georgia. Based on research found in U.S. Coast Guard records; inquiries to GDNR; quotes from the owner and general managers of the boat found in media; review of Tybee’s own codes; and other means of investigation and determination, we, the residents, cite the following risks and concerns as our reasons for asking Tybee Island’s Planning Commission and the Tybee City Council to refuse the Jacks or Better 1 Lazaretto Creek site plan and deny the business license to Cruises to Nowhere, LLC.: 1. Previous casino boats have not been good partners: Diamond Royale/Sun Cruz VII casino boat owners (Diamond Cruise Casino, LLC and Marine Charters, LLC), general manager and captains were indicted for operating an illegal gambling business on board. In 2014, Tradewinds Casinos’ the Escapade docked at Bull River ran aground on a sandbar on its maiden voyage, stranding passengers for 16 hours, and left town only 14 months later. 2. While a combined figure of fewer than 150 passengers and crew was given to the Planning Commission on August 20 by the ship’s captain and Lazaretto Creek property owner, substantial documentation exists through quotes from the boat’s owner and his general managers that the capacity is as high as 500. 3. Traffic from those boat passengers will potentially add hundreds of cars simultaneously at the dangerous intersection of Old Highway 80 and Highway 80—with drivers who are possibly impaired crossing against traffic at night. The injury risks are real, in addition to serious backups. 4. The boat is moored near the base of the Lazaretto Bridge. In 2016, Georgia’s DOT gave this bridge a safety rating of only 41.4%/100 and scheduled it for replacement. The boat at 135’ and its weight could potentially damage the bridge in rough weather. There is also a question about whether it can fully clear under the bridge in king tides or other exceptional conditions. 5. Jacks or Better 1, since its purchase by its current owner in 2010, has a long history of serious safety infractions cited by the U.S. Coast Guard—most of which are listed in 2017, indicating many years of neglect including rotted fire hoses. A “marine casualty” is cited in 2013, and it hit a channel marker in Galveston in 2017, for instance. 6. Tybee Island makes the fifth mooring of Jacks or Better 1 in only eight years; the boat has not remained anywhere for more than two years (previous ports include Mayport/Jacksonville, FL; Little River, SC; Aransas Pass, TX; and Galveston, TX). These brief stays do not demonstrate that Tybee residents should have confidence that Cruises to Nowhere is a reliable Tybee business and community partner. 7. The boat poses a threat when arriving and departing to recreational boaters, kayakers, jet skiers, and paddleboarders with its wake. 8. The environmental impacts of this boat are as yet unknown; the owners have offered no plans for fuel storage, waste removal, etc. We don’t know if any equipment on the boat will interfere with the safety of dolphin, manatees or any other wildlife, or if there will be significant chemical impact on the marshes from the boat or the additional cars parked.

The overwhelming amount of animal homelessness our world is facing is equal parts prevalent and preventable. Our society could illuminate the issue if everyone would agree to simply do their part.

We have lived with chicken farms but this massive explosion of houses concentrated in a few areas is dangerous to our health and water sources. Most of us live on water wells, which are showing contamination and some drying up. Families can't cook outside on their porch or have birthday parties when the pool has debris and feathers and the "farmer" burns dead chicken carcasses on the fence line. They are building too many, too close to each other and neighbors fence lines. Many of us do not have access to county water systems. What will we do without water? Please fund the USGS study, stop construction until there are scientific facts to support the foreign corporation from depleting our water. Simmons Foods does not have science to come in and colonize the land and waters of the Cherokee Nation citizens and neighbors. Shame on Simmons family.

CRC Public Relations is the leading PR firm working on the Kavanaugh confirmation. Recently the firm smeared and framed an innocent man, a Maryland middle-school teacher, to defend judge Kavanaugh against the accusations of attempted rate. Amazon, Disney, General Motors and Microsoft all use CRC Public Relations and are currently listed as clients on the firms website. CRC Public Relations has grossly violated the public’s trust. Amazon, Disney, General Motors and Microsoft must cut ties with this unethical organization immediately! ------------------------- Sources https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/21/ed-whelan-kavanaugh-tweets-pr-firm-836405 http://www.crcpublicrelations.com/Clients.aspx

Over the last 4 years I’ve been privy to information and the proceedings of a clear case of wrongful conviction and overcharging. Under our last state attorney, these things were quite common and it was well known. I campaigned for our new state attorney, but there’s one case still lingering, and it seems the prosecutor who handled that case, is very reluctant to let the truth about how religious beliefs can effect the outcome of a trial for LGBTQ community members. In the case in question, weeks after a guilty verdict was handed down on a 23 year old gay male, the jury foreman on that trial, a Pastor of a local WELS Lutheran Church, was spoken to on 2 separate occasions, both recorded in affidavits and audio as saying such things as: “ Sodom and Gammorah was God’s final judgement on Homosexuality”, “ we must go to war against homosexuals and knock them down whenever they try and stand up “ , “ Homosexuals are intrinsically evil and possibly demonically possessed “, and possibly most importantly that he believes as a Pastor, it’s his job to make sure homosexuals don’t hurt anyone else. He also professed in one affidavit that the Supreme Court Justices that have forced same sex marriage upon us will be judged by God for their decision. This quickly became an issue with the young man’s Appeal Attorney, William Sheppard. William had fought the State of Florida’s Attorney General in the Florida Supreme Court and won Same sex marriage rights in the State before it ever became the law nationwide. The young man served a prison sentence for the crime that never happened and is finally home. Yet the issue with Juror #4 has never been resolved. It can’t be. Because the State Attorney’s office located in Jacksonville if delaying it and fighting that resolution tooth and nail every step of the way. William filed a motion to bring that juror into the courtroom and hold a hearing in which the judge could then decide based on the jurors answers to inquiries, whether or not their had been bias by the most important person in the deliberation room that day. The judge understood the issues someone’s religious beliefs might present in being fair and impartial and he granted us the right to bring the juror to a hearing. The State immediately went to work delaying the process, and asked for reconsideration of the judge’s decision. The second hearing was held 3 weeks after the first. The state prosecutor presented virtually the same arguments. None. Just that he intended to possibly fight it. He was again denied, and the defense was allowed to subpoena the juror. 12 days later, the Prosecutor filed another motion for reconsideration along with a motion to halt all proceedings and he filed an appeal to the 1st District Court of Appeals, where the motion to question the juror will most likely languish for a minimum of 2 years or die altogether and be forgotten. This issue has come up in two other cases in Florida already and been ruled in favor of the defendant. Why is the 4th circuit afraid of? What are they trying to suppress? Jury bias when recognized has been a big trial issue throughout the years and has always been corrected as swiftly as possible. The first job of a prosecutor is to seek truth, not hide bias.

We have a system of law which the GOP is ignoring. Why should any witness be allowed to refuse to testify-either they know the truth or they are afraid they will lie to Congress under the penalty of perjury. In order for the hearings to be fair and just, we should DEMAND subpoena be issued for Judd and any witnesses wanting to be heard should be allowed to do so

Midway is a wake-up call for local and state governance. After decades of development motivated by budgets of state and local governments, and by short-term profits of land developers, we are dealing with wildfires, floods, volcanos. earthquakes, drought, poverty and homelessness. Our infrastructure is overburdened and overwhelmed. We have low-wage employment, poor healthcare and education and unmanageable housing cost. Midway is the poster child for bad land-use planning. We must begin to plan and develop with respect to needs, priorities and vulnerabilities of communities. Midway is a moment of truth.

I am starting this petition to veto SB 901. Governor Brown has until September 30, 2018, to sign or veto it. Sign the petition and ask him to please veto SB 901. Nobody should be able to burn someone's home down and then make the homeowner pay for it. SB-901 allows Edison and PG&E to recover "costs and expenses" for 2017 wildfires by increasing consumer rates. It must be vetoed.

Beginning in 2014, DxE activists have undertaken multiple undercover investigations of Whole Foods suppliers, exposing what they call criminal animal cruelty at farms that include Diestel Turkey Ranch, Pitman Family Farms (Mary’s Free Range Chicken) and Petaluma Farms. The investigations have led to thousands of complaints against Whole Foods on social media and protests across the country against both Whole Foods and its parent company, Amazon. Rather than have an honest conversation about the animal cruelty happening at their farms, Whole Foods has resorted to suing the activists who are exposing the truth and is even asking for a restraining order to keep these activists from asking any more questions at Whole Foods. Activists who expose the truth should be rewarded not punished. Ask Whole Foods CEO John Mackey to drop the charges and tell customers the truth!

The City Park rides are scheduled to close at the end of this month, and there is no plan in place to save or replace the rides. We have all grown up riding these rides, and they are a piece of Iowa City history, and we would all hate to see them go. We would like our children and children of future generations to be able to enjoy these rides as we did growing up.

I have had to move because of the issue of secondhand smoke, and my daughter and I are still affected by it in our new home. Non-smokers have a right to enjoy their property and dwell inside their home without someone else's smoke in it. This petition is to address secondhand smoke from affecting someone else's property and home.

If Mark Judge does not testify, the hearing to decide Judge Kavanaugh's moral fitness to sit on the US Supreme Court will be a sham. Demand that everyone in the room at the time of the alleged attempted rape be called to testify at the hearing. Demand Mark Judge be subpoenaed to testify.