Tongva and Acjachemen tribal nations, environmentalists, and community members have been struggling to protect and preserve the Los Cerritos Wetlands for decades. These wetlands, at the mouth of the San Gabriel River on the east side of Long Beach, were once a vast estuary that supported the large Tongva community of Puvungna. Due to flood control measures, oil drilling, industrial, commercial, and residential development much has been lost, and what remains (the best salt marsh in Southern California) is now under assault from Beach Oil Mineral Partners, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, and other public and private entities supporting their project. Our immediate goal is to stop the extraction of 200 million barrels of oil from beneath the Los Cerritos Wetlands. The Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration and Oil Consolidation Project puts public safety and the environment at risk. 120 new wells will be drilled immediately adjacent to the Newport Inglewood Faultline, new pipelines will transport oil over the fault, and oil and wastewater will be stored and processed on site. Beach Oil Mineral Partners expanded oil operation will introduce dangerous slant drilling and water injection methods to extract oil and to reinject wastewater under the wetlands and surrounding areas. BOMP's wetlands "restoration", funded by selling pollution credits, will introduce toxic soil and water into our healthy salt marsh.

We recently moved here from CA and were shocked by the real estate taxes. While Chicago is supposed to be “cheaper” than California, the property taxes are insane and driving people out of there homes, out of the state, and preventing businesses (I.e. Amazon) from relocating here. Our government needs to find new ways of raising funds without punishing the residents or find ways of refinancing the pension burden which is killing this city’s economic viability.

Dear Colleagues, As educators, we seek to do what is right for the children entrusted to our care each and every day. We are there for them, with love, empathy, and a desire to see them succeed. We do this in ways seen and unseen, and we do it consistently. That’s why we as MCEA Board members are deeply concerned about the events surrounding the tobacco attestation implementation. What has occurred over the past week has been very troubling, and we believe demonstrates a lack of empathy and understanding for educators, their time, and their pay. It is in stark contrast to the actions we take each and every day, for the benefit of this community’s children. We seek to do the right thing and expect that each and every paycheck will accurately reflect the earnings of our wholehearted efforts. We depend on those earnings to support ourselves, our families, and our children, where each and every dollar we bring home matters. So when so many of us learned that we had been assessed a charge, after completing the attestation, we were shocked. And yet, in these days, we have gone about our work, doing the right thing for children, trusting that we will be made whole. Some of us attested before a window was open, although we were never notified that we had completed the task too early to count. Others of us attested although a technical issue said we had not. As educators, we sought to do the right thing, with honorable intent and were met with the most unpleasant news of a paycheck less than we had earned. The right thing to do here is to immediately return the deducted dollars to all of those impacted. The right thing is to demonstrate care and empathy for those who care for our children. And collectively, we expect the right thing will be done. Our strength comes in our collective voice, and we will now exercise that voice through this petition. In it, we will join one another and make clear to our employer that whether we were impacted or not, an injury to one is an injury to all. We appreciate and honor the selfless work you do. We know that collectively we can right this injustice. The MCEA Board of Directors David Airozo Valerie Coll Brian Donlon Justin Fauntroy Henoch Hailu Josh Halpren Heather Hunter Christopher Lloyd Susan Loftus Cindy Lotto Jennifer Martin Glenn Miller Lauren Moskowitz Phyllis Parks Robinson Doug Prouty Dionna Ricks Java Robinson Nikki Woodward

The citizens of Maryland prefer renewable energy sources because fossil fuels are harmful to life.

Because of the potential real dangers of an oil spill and danger to South Carolina’s economy.

This will be closing the only Sam's club available within a 100-mile radius of our town. This is totally uncalled for and will hurt a lot of the members!

Adult citizens of Arkansas should have access to buy, sell, possess, and or grow not only this wonderful preventative medicinal herb, but to utilize all the benefits of hemp without threat to their lives from this overreaching government.

It’s been over 100 days since the GOP leadership in Congress let the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expire. With short-term patches and some creative budgeting, they’ve managed to limp funding along, but the time is up and the health and well-being of our children is at stake. Leaders from both sides of the aisle have agreed to a full 5 year extension of CHIP. They just have to stop playing partisan politics with children’s health and pass it! On January 19th, Congress will vote on a new spending bill and it must include long-term funding for this critical program. Children’s health can’t afford to wait; and short-term funding patches don’t cut it when it comes to providing reliable health coverage for children and pregnant women. The uncertainty this creates is inexcusable and puts the health and well-being of women and children at risk. Some states have already begun notifying families that their coverage could end. Moreover, states are not able to plan their budgets with funding still uncertain for CHIP. States can’t rely on limited patchwork funding and families can’t afford to go without coverage for their kids.

Is Trump trying to bring on end times? Why is the CDC preparing us for nuclear war? Why is Putin preparing for WWIII? It’s time someone stepped in to stop this madness. We will not go quietly into “end times”. NO NUCLEAR WAR.

Our votes and opinions have fallen on deaf ears long enough. It’s time for the people to take back the country and Elect our Presidents with A Popular Vote by The People.

The current program in place put 94 percent of the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) off limits for drilling. That changed January 4, 2018. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke decided to open up over 90 percent of the OCS acreage and over 98 percent of undiscovered oil and gas resources. Secretary Zinke is quoted as saying “Responsibly developing our energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf in a safe and well-regulated way is important to our economy and energy security, and it provides billions of dollars to fund the conservation of our coastlines, public lands and parks”. Yet this statement denies the ugly truth of offshore drilling. And that truth is this: It causes pollution, more human health issues (particularly respiratory), oil spills (of which only 10 percent has been recovered) devastates ocean life (and thus us as well) and causes more extreme weather events according to the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council). The NRDC also states that offshore drilling contradicts climate science, threatens coastal communities and directly goes against the clean energy solutions the American public favors. Instead of being concerned that “the U.S. remains a global leader in offshore energy development” as Katharine MacGregor, Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management states there needs to be actual concern for the health of the American people and the earth we all share. We are sadly taking so many steps backward environmentally with the Trump administration this past year that it’s dizzying. How much more do you think our environment can take? Has the recent uptick in extreme weather taught the current administration nothing? How many more lives and homes need to be destroyed before they get the point that climate scientists might just be telling the truth? Don’t be fooled. There is no such thing as environmentally sound or safe offshore drilling. The Draft Proposed Program (DPP) includes 47 potential lease sales in 25 of the 26 planning areas-including 19 in Alaska, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, 9 in the Atlantic Region and 7 in the Pacific Region including right here in the Washigton/Oregon Area. There have been no offshore sales in our region since 1984. Help me fight to keep it that way. Let’s work together to send a strong message to this administration that we will not tolerate making our already near dire situation worse. We are ready to make positive environmental changes in solidarity not just for ourselves but for our children and future generations. Let’s be the tide of change we wish to see in this nation.

Vermont is a forward thinking state and recognizes the value that migrant workers, refugees and immigrants bring to our state's economy. VT is one of 12 states that test and issue drivers licenses regardless of your immigration status. It's important that they feel safe sharing their personal information with the DMV and are not painting a target in their backs for ICE to find and deport them. To this end I am asking the Vermont legislature to write a law protecting that data from federal meddling.