We, the undersigned, are asking Bellevue City Council NOT to move ahead with plans to destroy our wildlife corridor.

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Thousands of vulnerable individuals are at risk to lose Telehealth for psychotherapy as of February 28, 2023, as noted in detailed letter above. It should not be a choice between risking grave illness versus psychotherapy, whether patients or therapists. It should not be a choice between being poor and having access to psychotherapy through Telehealth.

In the last three years, nearly 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 100 million more have become ill. This huge, unnecessary price increase for the Moderna vaccine would have devastating impacts and will cause needless deaths and severe, long-term health challenges for so many due to millions of Americans not being able to afford the vaccine. It will make the vaccine unavailable and inaccessible for many millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans (especially low-income people, people with disabilities, and communities of color) who won’t be able to afford it. How many people will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these life-saving vaccines? In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much-needed vaccine is unconscionable. The COVID-19 vaccines were jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. government agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and the federal government, who directly provided $1.7 billion to Moderna for research and development. If Moderna more than quadrupled the price of the vaccine, it would make it unaffordable to the very residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible, not to mention the fact that this decision will make the vaccine inaccessible to countries across the world. That is not acceptable. It will also have a significantly negative impact on the budgets of Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs that will continue covering the vaccine without cost-sharing for patients. It will cost taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars, and the outrageous price boost will increase private health insurance premiums. And in the midst of the worst public health crisis in the U.S. over the last two years, Moderna made over $19 billion in profits and used those profits to provide incredibly extravagant compensation packages to the CEO and other top officials at the company. The Moderna CEO even became a multi-billionaire as a direct result of Moderna’s COVID vaccine, and several Moderna chairmen, co-founders, and investors are now billionaires, too. Let’s be clear: The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect our health and lives, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires. This is why we are urgently calling for Moderna to NOT increase the price of the people-funded COVID-19 vaccine!

The United States government has hit the debt ceiling, which is the amount of money it is allowed to borrow. Without raising the debt ceiling, the federal government cannot pay its bills. We risk a global financial crisis, 6 million Americans losing their jobs, and devastating families who rely on lifesaving benefits. Instead of governing for the people, MAGA Republicans are holding our economy hostage at the expense of the working people who uphold it. Under McCarthy’s cowering leadership, they are refusing to vote to increase the debt ceiling—something they’ve done hundreds of times—unless major cuts are made to Social Security and Medicare. Instead of making the wealthy few pay their fair share in taxes to help fund the government, Republicans want to fill the pockets of the rich even more. This is their latest attempt to execute their decades-long agenda of gutting these programs under the guise of reducing spending. Millions of Americans, many of whom are already living paycheck to paycheck, rely on these programs to protect their livelihoods and families. Congress should work together to focus on strengthening and expanding popular programs like Social Security and Medicare that make our lives better. Millions of people will suffer and some will even die as a result of this callous greed. McCarthy traded everyday Americans’ health and survival to be speaker of the House. By conceding to the far-right Freedom Caucus’s demands, he committed to prioritizing tax cuts for the rich while gutting the programs that keep our families and communities able to survive. Our lives depend on fighting to save Social Security and Medicare. Congress must pass a clean debt ceiling increase immediately. Photo Credit: Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty

As a lobbying group working at the local, state, and federal levels on issues affecting aging Americans, retired Americans need AARP’s political influence to assist in repealing the GPO and WEP.

George Santos deceived his constituents to win a seat in Congress – and we can't let him remain in public office. Santos lied his way into office, inventing stories about his family background, work experience, education, values, and identity – even going so far as to capitalize off of tragedies like the Holocaust, the PULSE nightclub shooting, and 9/11. But national Republicans are rewarding his deceit – seating him on two committees. Kevin McCarthy even justified his actions by saying that “a lot of people” have lied about their resumes while running for office. This defense is simply ridiculous. George Santos lied about nearly every aspect of who he was – and deceived every single one of his constituents to gain power. If we don’t set a clear precedent now that this kind of dishonesty and corruption do not deserve to hold elected office, we’ll be giving a free pass to candidates to lie their way into public office – regardless of who they hurt in the process.

I am Ember–a National Delegate from Northern California. I am also a queer person. I am concerned about the National Convention taking place in Florida, due to the recent rise in homophobic, transphobic, and racist legislation occurring Florida. Girl Scouts has been working to be a more inclusive organization, and this is very contrary to that ideal–bringing Girl Scouts of all identities to a place that doesn't embody that value and is an unsafe environment. When a state passes bigoted policies, it empowers people with those beliefs to act on their beliefs, which endangers Girl Scouts going to Florida. Bringing people–especially en masse– supports the Floridian economy and tells them that their policies and actions are acceptable and that there are not consequences. Girl Scouts' event going to Florida shows immediate disregard for queer and trans members' safety, needs, rights, and humanity. In order to amend this, I believe Girl Scouts must move the 2023 National Convention and Phenom out of Florida. Girl Scouts must take action (not just in words) to protect queer and trans attendees through, but not limited to: transportation from airports to the sites for safety, LGBTQ+ safe break rooms, and gender inclusive bathrooms at hotels and other centers. Girl Scouts can do better; Girl Scouts must do better. Girl Scouts prides itself on being a youth oriented and led inclusive organization, and listening to and acting for the needs of their membership on this issue is crucial to demonstrate this.

We need to show Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk that there will be a price to pay for reinstating Trump. We who believe in and support democracy need to show that we are in the majority, and that we will boycott these platforms and their advertisers should Donald Trump once again reign as an agent of destruction through his domination of their platforms.

Donald Trump is planning his big return to Facebook and Twitter – and I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this is for our democracy. The last time Trump was on these platforms, he abused his massive online megaphone to incite the violent January 6th insurrection. Bipartisan investigators in Congress even called his social media vitriol “rocket fuel for extremists”. And now, he plans to bring the hateful rhetoric that he’d been forced to reserve for fringe, far-right pages like Truth Social back to mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook. No one – especially Trump – should be allowed to use Twitter or Facebook to lie and incite violence. At a minimum Facebook and Twitter must fact-check Trump and hold him to the same standards as everyone else. More importantly, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms must enforce and strengthen their policies to combat disinformation, hate, and other harmful content. Our democracy cannot afford more lies and hate-fueled violence that go unchecked on social media.

In 2020 the homeless population in America was almost 581,000 people. It is estimated to be much worse in 2023. These people are ALL US citizens which means this is really a bad problem. Some areas are worse than others and the quantity of people who are able bodied and willing to work is diminishing because of systemic issues like malnutrition and psychological damage equivalent to PTSD. These concentrations actually work out well for creating programs that are focused in the areas that need it the most. We have the technology and resources today to build self-sufficient systems that operate just like other small businesses and quite literally solve the homelessness problem for our country. What seems like an impossible problem is within our grasp if we just choose to address it and have an intention to make our world better with this action.

~19,000 people in Wyoming would receive basic healthcare access from Medicaid expansion. Two-thirds of these folks work low-income jobs that don’t provide health benefits. These are ranchers, farmers and small business employees—many struggling in jobs without health benefits. Our rural hospitals are also struggling to serve their communities, because they lose millions providing services to people with no insurance. By expanding Medicaid, thousands of Wyomingites get access to affordable healthcare, rural hospitals get the funds they need to stay open, and millions of federal tax dollars come back to Wyoming, where they belong. All of our neighboring states have expanded Medicaid successfully. In Montana, it has greatly helped their economy, healthcare industry, and state budget. We need to do this too! Wyoming residents all pay federal income taxes. Those taxes go on to pay for expanded Medicaid services in 38 other states, but not Wyoming. It’s time to bring our tax money back to Wyoming to support our people and economy here.