Like a cancer, there is an illness growing within our country. It’s an illness that is being nurtured by the POTUS and Republicans in Congress with tender and loving care. The coordinated effort by President Trump and his surrogates to discredit the Mueller investigation raises serious alarms. Rather than making themselves complicit in this assault on the rule of law, Members of Congress should send a clear message to the President that firing Mueller is a red line he must not cross. If Trump fires Mueller, as many now speculate is possible, the United States will find itself in a constitutional crisis—where the executive branch rejects scrutiny, checks and balances, and the rule of law in order to protect itself from accountability. The expert on government rights and wrongs is so concerned that—after a Trump-aligned member of the House, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, appeared on CNN and announced: “I call on my Republican colleagues to join me in the firing of Bob Mueller”— Walter Shaub, the former director of the US Office of Government Ethics who now serves as a senior director focusing on ethics issues for the Campaign Legal Center wrote: “Make a plan folks. Be ready to take to the streets. This is an attack on our Republic.” Taking it to the streets is always a good idea when the oligarchs and plutocrats spin out of control. That’s why the founding generation of the American experiment established First Amendment rights to assemble and to petition for the redress of grievances. But it is important, now, before a potential crisis becomes a real one, to signal what that reaction will be: a widespread public outcry to impeach President Trump. The POTUS and Congress need a wake-up call that their corruption is not being tolerated.

Banning words means banning any focus on groups of people or scientific inquiries. This ban obviously targets gay people and women and stinks of the Mengelian sort of Fascism practiced by Hitler. Rejecting LBGTs, pro-abortionists, and other diverse groups or scientific research related to them is motivated by the Christian idea of Creationism, and Trump has done this to appease this Christian Fascist arm of his party. It is a direct refutation of the First Amendment's call for separation of church and state. If this censorship stands at a major federal institution, it signals a complete breakdown of democratic principles and paves the way for rampant white supremacy, fuels racial and gender violence, as well as destroying the dynamic of scientific inquiry relative to the health of our nation.

Milstein Properties has denied a lease renewal to Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and claims to be renovating for a new theater, likely under new management. Lincoln Plaza will be forced to close in January. It is one of the last art-house cinemas left in New York City and has served a dedicated and passionate clientele since 1981. Most of the theater's customers are senior citizens on fixed incomes. Any new theater should continue the mission of Lincoln Plaza and its current operators, and cater to the New Yorkers who have kept Lincoln Plaza successful for decades.

I've been saying it as "Krogers" all my life and it'd be easier for me if the name just got changed.

President Trump has consistently bragged about his rights to pardon anyone he chooses within his inner circle who might be indicted as a result of the Mueller investigation. He is able to use this power over the heads of those who might be inclined to cooperate with the special prosecutor, but fear that said cooperation might prevent their potential pardon. Please prevent President Trump from using his power to obstruct justice by taking away his pardoning rights to members of his inner circle.

The White House and several U.S. Senators and Members of Congress have proposed to terminate our family-immigration system, the diversity visa program and severely limit the number of refugees allowed in the U.S thereby reducing the annual number of immigrants granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. by more than 50%. The over 43 million immigrants living in the U.S. are the backbone and multi-ethnic fiber of our communities giving our country competitive advantage while providing economic opportunities, freedom, safety, and stability to many who need it most. The majority of these immigrants came through our family-based immigration system. Americans hold family in the highest regard. Labels such as “chain migration” and “merit-based” dismiss the “family” altogether. These labels also seek to mask the real goals of these policies which is to phase out the number of diverse immigrants granted permanent resident status and eventual citizenship. The Diversity Visa Program allows for 50,000 permanent residency visas annually. The Diversity Visa Program, has become an integral pathway to lawful permanent residency as well as ensuring equitable migration from nations and regions with low migration rates to the U.S. In FY 2014, 22,703 Africans, 8,500 Asians, and 1,474 people from Latin America and the Caribbean were admitted into the U.S. as part of the yearly allotment of Diversity Visas. Many thriving and diverse communities in the U.S. would not exist without these immigration pathways.

As everyone should know by now the FCC has voted against net neutrality. We must take a stand to protect the people's access to internet here in Oregon from corporate greed and censorship. The best way to do this is to give regulatory power over internet service to a representative body of the people. An example of this can be seen already in Independence and Monmouth OR.

Surrounding counties such as Suwannee County, Madison County, and Leon County all have skate parks. We should build a skate park for our youth so that they have a safe environment to skate.

Donald Trump banned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from using 7 very specific words and phrases in budget reports. This latest distraction is clearly aimed at appeasing the ideology and politics of a shrinking percentage of supporters still clinging on as Trump's transphobic and anti-science base. The CDC is no place for censorship of common language for the purpose of ideology or politics.

I am starting this petition for our deer herd and for our future generations so there will be deer for them to hunt. Right now we are on track to wipe out the deer herd as a whole, as you can see in the last 5 years of deer harvest numbers each year is lower and lower.

The Trump Administration does not believe in facts because facts -- evidence -- provide proof of things that he, and/or his base, do not want to believe are true. We are all at risk if scientists and health care providers are not allowed to use the language of science and medicine. Censorship is the refuge of dictators.

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is banning hydraulic fracturing throughout the basin. If that was the full story, I’d be off somewhere celebrating, not starting a petition. Since 2010, processing of fracking waste and extraction of water for fracking outside of the basin have been prohibited. As the Commission plans to take one important step forward by turning the fracking moratorium into a ban, it plans to take two giant steps backward by lifting the prohibitions and opting to regulate both activities. The DRBC issued its draft regulations on November 30th. In the few years that I’ve been attending their meetings, I’ve seen a concerning erosion of the public’s ability to participate. The public participation process the DRBC has announced for commenting on the draft regulations is the most unjust one yet. Earlier this week, I commented at a public meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission. I told the Commissioners that the process for commenting on the fracking regulations is testing the limits of what kind of a process they can put together and still call it public. There are only two hearing dates, both in difficult to access locations in Pennsylvania. There are no hearings planned in New York, New Jersey, or Delaware. One of the locations, Waymart in Wayne County, is on top of a mountain, so it would be difficult to impossible to reach in wintry weather. They have provided no snow dates. The other is at a hotel at the Philadelphia Airport, a location that is virtually inaccessible for people in the city who can’t access public transportation to get there. To make matters worse, they are not taking written comments unless they are submitted via their online portal. You can’t even hand-deliver comments at the hearings. If you want to submit written comment or go to the Hearing without registration, you have to go through another application process and be granted permission to do so. People have to jump over one hurdle after another just to speak their mind. And then there’s this. You MUST register by December 31st to even attend one of the hearings. I’ve started this petition to help pressure the Commissioners into extending the comment period from 90 days to 180 days, add hearings, and remove the nonsensical restrictions. We want an inclusive process so that all who want to speak on one of the most important issues the Commission will ever face get the chance. Please sign our petition calling on the DRBC to create a just process that is inclusive of all of us.