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.

Pass proactive legislation, policies, & all relevant laws to protect women with medical conditions (PCOS, dermatology, hormonal illnesses etc) for whom oral contraception is prescribed & allows them to have any quality of life including working. This is irrelevant to the alt-right as is it’s entirely unrelated to sex or birth control. (I’m willing to testify about this or give depositions on my PCOS & birth control pills being of no relevance for years since I came out as a lesbian. It is essential to my functioning. It will cost the country I unfathomable fiscal & sociological amounts to allow the recent anti-abortion & birth control Christian groups have attacked & must be protected at a state and federal levels of law, and federal circuit/district courts as well as the SCOTUS should be obliged to protect it as well as policy from the other branches of govt and sources of law , wherever possible .

It is terrifying to think that a justice on the Supreme Court could be both a perjurer and/or an attempted rapist. Our government has lost its checks and balances

Clean water is our right but Trump’s Interior Secretary wants to massively increase oil and gas drilling off our coasts, endangering our coastal communities with increased risk of oil spills. Friends of the Earth demands congress hold Ryan Zinke accountable! It is time to #FireZinke

This summer, Florida saw some of its most intense toxic algae blooms yet. There's a reason these blooms are getting worse: Governor Scott rolled back the water protections that used to help keep them at bay, and he's refused to take action to stop the agricultural pollution that fuels them. And now Floridians are paying for it in the form of contaminated, algae-laden water and coasts, massive wildlife die-offs, and big economic losses. Demand that Governor Scott and the Legislature act to restore our water protections, stop the pollution fueling the algae blooms, and clean up our already polluted water! It's time our elected leaders represent Floridians, NOT Big Ag special interests, and fix this water disaster plaguing our state.