For more than a year Russia's war in Ukraine has produced a horrific loss of life and destruction of humanitarian and economic infrastructure. More than one million Russians have voted with their feet, evading the draft by choosing self-exile, similar to Americans who fled to Canada and Europe during the American war in Indochina.. This statement was created by the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee. Our purpose is to honor the protests and the activists that helped end the US war in Indochina and to share lessons for the present. www.vietnampeace.org

Catastrophic flooding has left one-third of Pakistan underwater and devastated the country’s healthcare, education, and agricultural infrastructure. 1 in every 7 Pakistanis has been impacted by the flooding. This has displaced 7.9 million people, impacted more than 33 million people, and killed at least 1,600 people and counting. After record flooding, the UN health agency warned that the country is on the verge of a public health crisis as millions suffer from waterborne diseases. Relief agencies have warned that the wait for the water to recede could last at least six months. Pakistan emits less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, but it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis. [https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/30/asia/pakistan-climate-crisis-floods-justice-intl/index.html] While the United States sent some relief in monetary aid, this is simply not enough to counteract the impact of the climate crisis that Pakistan is not even responsible for. Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and Special Student Status (SSR) are humanitarian protections that have benefited numerous foreign national groups in the U.S. over the past few decades. Pakistani nationals and students should not be excluded from this humanitarian relief. **Sign this petition to demand President Joe Biden and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas designate Temporary Protective Status for impacted Pakistanis and protect Pakistani nationals already working and studying in the United States.** We also urge the Biden administration to enact policies that communicate a more serious commitment to support Black and Brown working communities, here and abroad, that are disproportionately impacted by climate disasters. The humanitarian crisis facing ordinary Pakistanis is unthinkable. Millions of people lack access to food, clean potable water, or safe shelter and have lost their ability to work the lands impacted by the floods in a country where agriculture is the predominant source of livelihood. The hit to the agricultural sector threatens a severe food crisis. There is not enough dry land to properly bury those killed due to the floods. To make matters worse, over 1.1 million houses have been washed away, an estimated 18,000 schools have been destroyed, and millions of Pakistani mothers and infants face increased risks to life and health. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can designate a country for TPS if the country is experiencing ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. TPS allows its beneficiaries to stay in the U.S. during the designation period and receive work permits. It is lifesaving, blanket protection that allows people from a designated country to remain in the U.S. while conditions in their home country make a safe return impossible. In addition to these more immediate demands, we believe that longer-term action is urgently needed. Governments can no longer ignore their responsibilities to fortify communities vulnerable to global warming, center safe pathways for migration as essential climate adaptations, enact stronger legislation to eliminate carbon emissions, increase mitigation efforts, and implement equitable climate finance like the Loss & Damage Finance Facility being discussed under the UN Convention on Climate Change. **While longer-term commitments are needed to support Black and brown communities disproportionately impacted by climate disasters, the best thing President Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Mayorkas can do right now is to use programs like TPS and SSR to provide relief and respite for impacted Pakistanis.** A designation of TPS and SSR would allow Pakistani immigrants, including students, the ability to work in the U.S. and provide relief to their families back home while bolstering the larger economy. Sign this petition to request relief for impacted Pakistanis. – Coalition partners: Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Communities United for Status and Protection (CUSP), Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), and Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) – Banner image credit: Guardian/Husnain Ali/AFP/Getty Images – For more context, read these reflections from Pakistanis directly impacted by the floods. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/opinion/pakistan-floods-flood-crisis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/world/asia/pakistan-floods-food-crisis.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/world/asia/pakistan-floods-dadu-sindh.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/03/opinion/environment/floods-in-pakistan-climate-change.html https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/scale-of-destruction-due-to-pakistan-floods-nearly-incomprehensible https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/climate/pakistan-floods.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/world/asia/pakistan-floods.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/climate/pakistan-floods-global-warming.html

Federal prosecutors just recommended that Steve Bannon be sentenced to six months in prison and fined $200,000 for refusing to answer questions before the January 6th House Committee. Tens of thousands of Common Cause members like you spoke out last year and demanded that Bannon face consequences for trying to evade accountability and obstruct the Committee’s investigation. Now, we’re seeing results – and we need your voice once again. When the January 6th House Committee subpoenaed Bannon as part of its investigation in September 2021, he refused to testify, forcing Congress to hold him in contempt. Now, at his sentencing this Friday, he’ll have to face the consequences for trying to bury the truth. Bannon is just the latest in a long line of Trump cronies who must be held accountable for their blatant attack on our democracy. We must not let this sudden momentum go to waste. Add your name if you agree: anyone who put their loyalty to Trump above our democracy and the good of the country by trying to overturn the 2020 election must be held accountable.

Catlin Gabel fully relies on energy produced outside of school, which means a lot of money is being spent on electricity, and some of those energy sources may not be very sustainable. Solar panels are a great energy alternative as they can reduce electricity costs in the long term, emit less carbon, and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Using solar panels can typically decrease the cost of electricity bills by 15-25%, and they pay for themselves after 6-10 years. After only 3 years, solar panels pay off their carbon debt, and become completely carbon neutral for the rest of their lifetime, which is at least 25-30 years. Even in cloudy Portland weather conditions, solar panels can generate electricity, as they can work using both direct and indirect light. All of these reasons make solar panels a great investment for our school, and will allow us to work towards a better future!

Recently, Kroger and Albertsons announced plans to merge. Together, Kroger and Albertsons own dozens of chains, including Safeway, Vons, Harris Teeter and Fred Meyer and reach a combined 85 million households. The new mega-deal would have a huge impact on grocery shopping in America and almost certainly put more rural towns and Black and Latino neighborhoods in cities at risk of becoming ‘food deserts’ as more local grocers are driven out of business. The National Grocers Association, which represents small retailers and wholesalers, said the merger would put smaller competitors at an “unfair disadvantage” and increase “anticompetitive buyer power over grocery suppliers.” Please join us in demanding that the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division block the Kroger and Albertsons $25 billion merger.

Earlier this year, the FBI searched Trump’s Florida resort and recovered over a hundred stashed White House documents, some of which were classified and contained national security information. Soon after, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into Trump’s multiple potential violations of federal law. But every step of the way, the ex-president has tried to interfere with, slow down, and discredit this crucial investigation. First, he demanded that a “special master” – or a third-party individual who’d be tasked with reviewing the seized documents – be brought on to stall the proceedings until after this fall’s midterms. Now, he wants the Supreme Court – and the three justices that he himself appointed – to help gum up the process even further. Trump should not get any special treatment. The DOJ’s investigation into his potentially illegal conduct must be thorough and unobstructed.

This is very important and we all need it.

Due to people are getting sick from mold , preventing people who work from home to make living!

Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has demonstrated over and over again he’ll prioritize profit over ensuring USPS accomplishes its key functions. When it comes to the fundamental right to vote, we can’t trust DeJoy to do the right thing. That’s why Congress must pass the Election Mail Act, legislation that would codify Americans’ right to vote by mail and get their votes counted. Sign the petition: Congress must pass the Election Mail Act, legislation that would require USPS to offer First-Class mailing service for all ballots at no cost to voters! In the midst of DeJoy’s Great Consolidation of the US Postal Service, the need for laws protecting mail-in voting is greater than ever. If DeJoy shutters facilities and cuts the USPS workforce, as planned, he’ll be jeopardizing Americans’ right to get their votes counted — especially in rural areas. President Biden and Congress need to be countering DeJoy’s austerity plans at every step of the way. Right now, Congress can stand up to DeJoy on the urgent issue of voting rights. The Election Mail Act includes vital safeguards such as ensuring voters don’t have to pay to return mail-in ballots; making sure USPS postmarks ballots, and states count them on time; protecting absentee voting; and preventing USPS from making operational changes within 120 days of an election. These reforms must pass now! Sign the petition: Congress must pass the Election Mail Act, legislation that would require USPS to offer First-Class mailing service for all ballots at no cost to voters!

We are in the middle of a deep and growing housing and homelessness crisis. While we are devoting unprecedented resources toward helping people move from the street into housing, we also have to make sure that those people don't lose their housing and slip back into homelessness because they can't afford the rent. No one should ever receive a $400 rent increase. Poor people living in city-subsidized affordable housing should never receive a city-sanctioned $400 rent increase. A $400 rent increase is not "affordable", by any metric. In 2012, the city incentivized developers to produce over 1800 of "MULTE" units, giving up millions in property tax revenues and waiving development fees that would otherwise go toward our parks, roads, street lighting and sidewalks. In exchange, developers agreed to set aside some of their units to be "affordable". We don't know why the city decided to exempt MULTE landlords from the policy limiting affordable housing rent increases to 5%. But we know they have the tools to fix it. We don't know why the city hasn't increased relocation amounts since 2016, but Median income (and hence affordable rents) have increased by 45% over the same time period. We know that they are okay with MULTE landlords increasing rents by this amount, so we trust they will agree to increase relocation payments as well. We don't know what the city was expecting when they only required affordability for 10 years, or what they thought would happen to low-income people living in those buildings when they expire and get $1000+ rent increases. But we know they have the tools to fix this now. Winter is coming. If the city doesn't act, urgently, more families will be sleeping outdoors. The city talks big about addressing homelessness and "anti-displacement". Now is the time to act.

There are people in jail right now for the “crime” of not realizing they’d lost their right to vote. Take Pamela Moses – whose story sparked national outrage when Tennessee officials gave her six years in prison for voting without realizing that she’d been disenfranchised by her past felony conviction, even after officials told her her voting rights were restored. The charge was later abandoned after Moses won a new trial – but it’s far from the only case. Just this summer, Therris L. Conney got one full year added to his jail sentence – after officials inaccurately told him he could vote while serving time in a county jail. The unjust reality is that when it comes to voting errors, those who are least able to mount a defense are punished more harshly. As a result, poor and Black people in the U.S. are punished more harshly for lesser violations than wealthy white retirees. That’s NOT how our democracy should work. We need to fix these inconsistencies in our legal system – and get rid of the racist felony disenfranchisement laws that put people in these precarious situations. We shouldn’t be incarcerating people for good-faith efforts to participate in democracy. It’s time to fix our system so that ALL of us get the say we deserve in our democracy – and no one is put in jail for an honest voting mistake.

We need a thorough, unobstructed investigation to determine what kind of threat Trump’s mishandling of these White House files posed to national security. But ever since the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump and his defenders have thrown everything they can at the wall to distract the public and prevent the investigation from moving forward. This includes Trump’s outrageous efforts to include a “special master” in the investigation, which made headlines last month. Trump likely hoped that this third-party individual, who would be tasked with reviewing the seized documents, would be able to block the DOJ investigators from seeing some of the materials. Trump also tried to make sure that the special master’s work would keep the investigation from moving forward until AFTER this fall’s midterm elections. And even though he wasn’t successful in that effort, and the files are now under DOJ review, it’s clear he won’t stop these schemes until he is forced to. If you agree that Trump shouldn’t be able to delay or manipulate the DOJ’s investigation into the documents he stashed at Mar-a-Lago, add your name today.