I would not expect McDonald's to offer me a year of free hamburgers (converting into a paid subscription for suspect hamburgers the following year) as compensation if they served me a hamburger that gave me a lifelong bacterial infection. Yet apparently this is essentially what Experian and Equifax have offered us in recent massive data breaches. A HUGE conflict of interest! It is time we demand Congress to act on our behalf for sensible data breach regulations: Within the first week after a notification of a data breach, a fraud alert should automatically be enabled on behalf of all affected customers. If the breach involves credit or core personal information (SSN, drivers license, financial, or health information), the option to enable an indefinite fraud alert should be offered for free without the requirement of waiting for an identity theft event. Any breach that involves core personal information entitles victims to complimentary credit freezes and thaws from all vendors indefinitely, without the requirement of waiting for an identity theft event. If there are processing costs associated with enabling these features at other companies, the company responsible for the breach shall be held liable. Any data breach involving core personal information requires a minimum of [10 years] of free ID and credit monitoring service chosen by the consumer from a marketplace. If the consumer was previously the victim of a data breach, an additional [10 years] of complimentary monitoring services will be added to their existing service. Build upon the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act and redesign annualcreditreport.com to handle adding, removing, and thawing credit freezes and fraud alerts across all credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, ChexSystems, Innovis, etc.). http://www.lessismoreorless.com/2015/11/19/applying-common-sense-to-data-breach-response/ https://medium.com/@lessismoreorless/stop-drop-freeze-rinse-repeat-the-equifax-edition-ea201e8ef0fa http://www.lessismoreorless.com/2015/11/18/stop-drop-and-freeze-part-2/ https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/mandate-companies-provide-consumers-basic-identity-fraud-protections-following-data-breaches

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is back in business. The Commission has had the authority to approve natural gas pipelines for the past 30 years and has only rejected one pipeline in all of that time. Earlier this year, the five-member panel was down to one commissioner. Without a quorum, they couldn't approve any pipelines. Trump's first two rabidly pro-fossil fuel nominees were confirmed by the Senate, just minutes before the August recess, re-establishing the quorum. For more than a year, hundreds of organizations have been calling on Congress to investigate FERC's track record of approving pipelines and several well-documented abuses of its power and bad policies. We'd hoped that Congress would take advantage of the lack of a quorum and use that time for the investigation, but they failed to act. Recent federal court decisions back up some of the issues we've raised. For instance, NY's environmental regulators rejected a pipeline FERC approved. They didn't have sufficient information to issue the required permits, yet FERC had already approved the pipeline and had allowed the company to fell trees for the right-of-way using eminent domain. The court found in favor of the NY regulators and the project was killed. Now, things have gone from bad to worse. Both the House and Senate have been proposing legislation to support Trump's dirty energy agenda that would actually expand FERC's authority. The House has already passed a couple of bills. The Senate energy bill, S. 1460, has not yet been passed and we'd like to keep it that way. The bills order other regulators to give deference to FERC's decisions, speeds up approvals of Liquefiled Natural Gas export facilities, and more. Please sign our petition calling on Congress to declare a moratorium on pipeline approvals, reject Trump's dirty energy bills, and support new legislation in the House and Senate that would put us on a path to renewable, sustainable energy solutions.

We are all affected as we could loose these species altogether. This is not right.

The devastating impacts of climate change are impacting millions — violent hurricanes, out of control wildfires, debilitating droughts, massive floods, warming oceans, altered growing seasons, and more. The frequency and severity of events like these will only increase if climate change is not addressed in a meaningful way. We need to move America off fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy if we want to keep a livable planet – and we need to do it quickly. The good news?  Representative Tulsi Gabbard just introduced the Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act (OFF Act), which would transition us to 100% renewable energy by 2035, with 80% happening by 2027. The OFF Act also ends subsidies for fossil fuel companies, places a moratorium on fossil fuels projects, stops oil and gas exports, and promotes environmental justice and a just transition. Urge your member of Congress to support and co-sponsor this urgent, groundbreaking bill. It's our future on the line — and we need bold action now.

UPDATE: We are now in conversation with the managers of Biofuel Oasis to educate them on the cruelty of using animals and hope to work with them in stopping the sale of baby chicks. -- Biofuel Oasis is a Berkeley-based biodiesel store that also sells baby chicks for people to purchase and raise for their eggs. This raises many ethical concerns including: male chicks - who are useless to the egg industry - being killed on the day they are born; hens bred to lay so many more eggs than they naturally would leading to painful and deadly health issues; hens who no longer produce as many eggs being dumped on sanctuaries because they are no longer considered “useful”; killing animals who value their own lives and want to live. Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) organizers reached out to the owners of Biofuel Oasis to request a conversation about this practice in an attempt to come to a mutually beneficial agreement. In response to the concerns raised by DxE organizers they stated via email “Our customers would most likely continue to buy eggs from a grocery store if they did not have fresh eggs provided by the chickens in their backyard. Many of our customers love their chickens dearly, give them an abundance of love and affection, and keep them after they are past their egg-laying years until they die of natural causes [...] We order chicks from a local hatchery. Our hatchery’s roosters and older flock go to agencies that rehabilitate wildlife; they become food for those animals.” It is not true that the only options available are buying eggs from grocery stores or raising chickens for eggs in your backyard. Millions of people choose to not eat eggs and this number is growing every day as more people become aware of the ethical issues with eggs. Sanctuaries and other rescuers receive constant requests to take in “spent” hens or roosters from people with backyard chickens. And, whether male chicks are ground up alive or suffocated (as it the practice in most hatcheries) or fed to other animals, the result is the same - thousands of dead baby birds. The bottom line is that animals are not property. They are individuals who should not be bought and sold as commodities. Exploiting them for their eggs and flesh reinforces their property status, causes them pain, and leads to the death of millions every year. Please tell Biofuel Oasis to stop this practice immediately and keep their focus on providing sustainable fuel to Berkeley.

For the first time in five years, Connecticut voters like you have the opportunity to weigh in on Connecticut's comprehensive energy strategy. With America facing more devastating impacts of climate change, it's time to call for a clean energy future that serves our economy, our families' health, and our climate. Governor Malloy's draft Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES) lacks commitment and misses the mark on building a bright energy system. Public comments close Sept. 25. Sign now to let Governor Malloy and his staff know that you're ready for Connecticut to go big on clean energy. In a recent poll, more than 3 in 4 Connecticut voters said they support expanding the use of solar energy. Across all demographics and party lines, supermajorities of Nutmeggers support transitioning to a clean energy system that benefits public health, reduces electric bills, and spurs a clean economy that creates jobs and local investments. The CES can be improved to deliver on that promise - one that the vast majority of Connecticut families and businesses believe in.

Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, announced that she wants to strip away protections for sexual assault survivors on college campuses. Secretary Devos is siding with rapists over sexual assault survivors on campus and that is outright dangerous. When 1 in 4 women on campus are assaulted during their college careers, it is a national crisis. But we can still stop her. She is currently taking comments from the public before these new rules are finalized. You can be sure rape apologist groups like the National Coalition for Men are mobilizing on sites like Reddit to submit comments. We have to make sure more of us speak out than them. Can you submit a comment now?

Better living conditions!

Credit-reporting giant Equifax recently disclosed that, in the summer of 2017, hackers gained access to the personal information of 143 million of its consumers. The hackers obtained names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, and, in some cases, even credit card information. Equifax's response to this cyberattack is appalling. The company was at first only offering a free, one-year credit-monitoring service and then it gets to profit from its despicable behavior by offering the service for a fee. Equifax needs to be held accountable for their actions; that's why the company needs to provide an unlimited, free credit-monitoring service to all those who are impacted by the recent security breach.

The Supreme Court was horribly wrong in their Citizens United decision that there can't be any limits on corporate spending in political campaigns. But Justice Scalia did get one thing absolutely right when he said we need disclosure or else “democracy is doomed”. AB 249, the California DISCLOSE Act, will strike the biggest blow yet against the secret money unleashed by Citizens United, by requiring initiative ads to clearly show their real top 3 funders so everyone knows who’s trying to buy their vote. AB 249 faces its final votes next week. Republican Assemblymember Dante Acosta is a crucial vote. Please sign and share to ask him to vote “Yes”!

Next week, the Senate is expected to debate and vote on the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA]. The House version of the NDAA, passed in July, includes a prohibition proposed by Rep. Warren Davidson [R-OH] against U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen, [1] which has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world [2] that is killing a Yemeni child from preventable causes every ten minutes. [3] Most analysts don't think the war can continue without U.S. participation. But the current Senate version of NDAA doesn't include the Davidson prohibition. If the Senate doesn't pass the same language as the House, it will be much harder to protect the House NDAA Davidson prohibition against the war in House-Senate conference. Urge Bernie Sanders and your Senators to prohibit U.S. participation in the Saudi war in Yemen in the Senate NDAA by signing our petition. References: 1. http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41278-us-house-votes-to-block-us-participation-in-saudi-war-in-yemen 2. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx? 3. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2017-04-25/secretary-generals-opening-remarks-yemen-pledging-conference

The Supreme Court was horribly wrong in their Citizens United decision that there can't be any limits on corporate spending in political campaigns. But Justice Scalia did get one thing absolutely right when he said we need disclosure or else “democracy is doomed”. AB 249, the California DISCLOSE Act, will strike the biggest blow yet against the secret money unleashed by Citizens United, by requiring initiative ads to clearly show their real top 3 funders so everyone knows who’s trying to buy their vote. AB 249 faces its final votes next week. Republican Assemblymember Heath Flora is a crucial vote. Please sign and share to ask him to vote “Yes”!