First the Florida GOP described the “Don’t Say Gay” bill–HB 1557–as legislation that would protect parents’ rights in education. But now Governor DeSantis’ press secretary has exposed the real agenda behind this egregious bill. In a recent Twitter post, the governor’s spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, accused the bills’ opponents of being groomers of young children (aka pedophiles), going so far as to single out Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a legislator of the utmost integrity. In earlier controversies, Pushaw called the Archbishop of Miami a liar, blamed Democrats for organizing a Nazi rally to hurt the governor, and harassed members of the media for reporting factual information.

Insulin prices are far too high, and they're impacting working-class families every day. For many people who live with diabetes, the cost of insulin is a matter of life or death. The high cost often leads to lethal rationing, and with this bill, we have the opportunity to save lives across the country. Congress needs to side with President Biden, Senator Warnock, and Joshua Davis—not Big Pharma—and lower the cost of insulin!

Equality Florida released this statement in response: Governor DeSantis' spokesperson said the quiet part out loud: that this bill is grounded in a belief that LGBTQ people, simply by existing, are a threat to children and must be erased. He chose Pushaw to speak his mind to the public. He owns this unbridled hatred. This same bigoted insinuation has long been been used to stigmatize our families, justify denying us the ability to adopt children, and is being used to justify the tracking of transgender children by government agents in Texas and threats to imprison their parents. Make no mistake — this is a tacit announcement from the Governor that he supports the true intent of the Don’t Say Gay bill: the erasure of LGBTQ people.

New recreation centers have been built all over Denver county but none included a therapy pool that’s mainly used by the disabled and senior community. I was born and raised in Denver and actively over the years have seen this recreation center neglected. The City & County of Denver has held numerous meetings trying to close this center without avail. Each time the community has said that this is important to the community, disabled, seniors and those that must rehabilitate, due to lack of other physical therapies. Again the therapy pool is malfunctioning and the sauna has been closed for weeks. This problem is unexceptionable by any standards and must be addressed.

West Virginia Senators have already passed a controversial new bill, and they don’t want you to notice. SB 498, the Educational Gag Order bill, bans West Virginia schools and universities from teaching the complete history of America. Now this censorship bill is headed to the WV House, and it could be moving to the Governor’s desk as soon as next week. Simply put, politicians are trying to inject culture war politics into the classroom. Tell the West Virginia House to VOTE NO on the Educational Gag Order bill when it comes on the House floor, because all students—no matter their color, background, or zip code-–deserve an age-appropriate education rooted in facts. With less than 5 days left in the West Virginia legislative session, we have to make our voices heard loud and fast so this bill doesn’t become law. Because of political maneuvering, NO parents, students, or teachers were allowed to testify against this controversial bill in the Senate. We believe the House will also try to rush the Educational Gag Order bill through their chamber. If we don’t stop this bill, West Virginia will make banning history the law of the land. If passed, the Educational Gag Order bill leads us down a slippery slope. If we ban teaching slavery, will we also ban teaching our children about Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln? The Educational Gag Order bill also bans teaching that individuals should feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” due to their race or sex. In practice, this means teachers will simply skip talking about certain parts of history to not risk breaking the law––and our kids will lose out. This is censorship, and it is un-American. The Educational Gag Order bill ensures that our children will be unprepared to think critically and independently when confronted with the challenges of the real world. 
 The reality is that politicized education decision-making is wrong and gives politicians—not parents or teachers—the power to decide what our kids learn. Please add your voice and sign our petition: Tell the West Virginia Legislature to VOTE NO on Educational Gag Orders and allow schools and universities to teach ALL of history—not just the parts that politicians want your children to learn.

This year, it’s the IRS that made a mistake. When the IRS announced that they wanted taxpayers to submit to facial recognition technology just to access their tax information, the backlash from the public and politicians in both parties was swift! As a result, the IRS suspended it’s contract with ID.me, their facial recognition vendor. But that’s not enough. They could quietly reinstate that contract, or another one like it, anytime they’d like. That’s why Senators Roy Blunt and Jeff Merkley introduced the No Facial Recognition at the IRS bill – and in a deadlocked, divided Congress, it’s already got bipartisan support. We need to speak out now to help it become law. Sign the petition: Tell your member of Congress to pass the No Facial Recognition at the IRS bill! Facial recognition isn’t just creepy and invasive, it’s been well documented to have racial and gender biases – meaning that women and people of color have a harder time being accurately recognized by the software. No American taxpayer should have to jump through this unnecessary high-tech hoop just to access their tax information online. Especially when the technology itself has trouble telling women and people of color apart from each other. It’s telling that the No Facial Recognition bill already has bipartisan support in a bitterly divided Congress. The message is clear: emerging technologies, like facial recognition, are a Wild West, and without regulation could lead to dystopian consequences. Together, activists caused an uproar over the IRS’s use of facial recognition earlier this year. Now we must build on this momentum and make sure the IRS can’t do anything like this in the future. Sign the petition: Tell your member of Congress to pass the No Facial Recognition at the IRS bill!

Amazon wants to build a new HQ in South Africa by bulldozing over sacred indigenous land.1 And just like when Amazon tried to build a new HQ in New York City, local activists in Cape Town are pushing back. Amazon didn't choose a sacred indigenous site by accident. They know it has historical, cultural and environmental significance.2 They just want to destroy and build on it anyway. But since Amazon is a US company, they're particularly vulnerable to grassroots pressure here in the US. You can show your solidarity with indigenous activists in South Africa by calling on your member of Congress to denounce this new Amazon headquarters. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to denounce Amazon's plan to build a HQ on sacred indigenous land in South Africa! The indigenous land sits on the banks of the Liesbeek River where in the year 1510 Khoi peoples successfully fought back Portuguese intruders. The area is still a source of pride and cultural heritage for the Khoi, which also survived decades of oppression under Apartheid. But now Amazon wants to bulldoze it and build a sprawling campus. Over 50,000 residents in Cape Town signed a petition opposing the construction, but Amazon is pushing ahead anyway. That's why folks on the ground there are asking for your help! If US elected officials publicly denounce this HQ project, Amazon will face an international political and PR nightmare. Activists here in the US successfully blocked an Amazon HQ in New York City. Together you can show solidarity with indigenous activists and help block this new Amazon HQ in South Africa. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to denounce Amazon's plan to build a HQ on sacred indigenous land in South Africa! Sources: 1. Reuters, "Heritage dispute engulfs site chosen for Amazon's new African HQ," June 3, 2021. 2. Africa News, "Controversy over the location of Amazon African headquarters in Cape Town," May 14, 2021.

By its nature, urban design will reflect a community’s values. And a city that prioritizes cars will grow to lookquite different from one that values walkability.  In the same way, a city’s design can go further still—to express the compassion of its people. “The true measure of any society,” Gandhi said, “can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” And by this measure, Lincoln’s design today falls well short of Lincoln’s compassion. The benches we’ve placed downtown use bars to discourage loitering. They’re an example of what’s known as “hostile architecture.” They send a message to Lincoln’s homeless and most vulnerable: You are not welcome to rest here. It is a brand of civic unkindness that is considered, designed and executed with the explicit motive to exclude and harass. In disinviting the poor and the weary, hostile architecture invites shame.  In major cities across the country, people are coming forward to reject such designs. They’re demanding urban spaces that reflect openness, compassion and inclusivity. It’s important to note that dismantling hostile architecture doesn’t seek to, as some critics claim, encourage panhandling or increase homelessness. On the contrary, it is about creating public spaces that are hospitable to civility and interaction. It is about supporting the vital work of homeless service providers in their outreach to people and families. (Their work, by the way, can be far more successful absent the obstacles of hostile architecture.)  Lincoln is a wonderful city, and a welcoming one. Lincolnites deserve a downtown that is as welcoming as its people. It’s time to remove the bars on Lincoln’s downtown benches. Rather than attempt to hide our poverty, let’s embrace a downtown that highlights the richness of our values.

Jeff Bezos’s new yacht is so large that the Dutch city of Rotterdam was considering partially dismantling an historic bridge and national monument to accommodate it. Meanwhile, the United States still lacks adequate funding for education, healthcare, childcare, climate resiliency, and more. The surplus wealth that allows Bezos to think he can trample over entire municipalities abroad must be placed in service of the public good instead. Congress needs to pass a wealth tax on the ultra-wealthy!

Riverside Hospital has systematically and consistently failed to provide adequate staffing on all units leading to patients experiencing delayed or missed care, missed activities and interventions, and delays in admissions. Riverside Hospital has an obligation to its staff and community to provide the best care possible, not the most cost-efficient care possible. RN morale is at an all-time low and nurse mental and physical health is in jeopardy as they are not able to provide the care that their patients need and deserve. With the current staffing conditions RNs are “triaging” their responsibilities, potentially leading to serious consequences. The current unsafe staffing conditions will only worsen as our colleagues consider retirement or resignation in order to find better staffing and working conditions with other employers.

The most crippling sanctions on Russia would halt its export of oil & gas--a staggering 60% of its export revenues--but these items are off the sanctions table due to Europe's reliance on Russian gas and the impact that higher oil prices would have on the global economy. European homes and offices have been replacing gas-fired furnaces with electric heat pumps for years, but European manufacturers cannot keep up with demand. With the stroke of a pen, Biden could require American manufacturers to increase electric heat pump production and export these units to Europe, thereby helping Europe fast track its transition away from Russian gas and opening the door to much tougher sanctions. While it would take time before Europe is ready to inflict that crippling blow to Russia, the marketplace impact would be instantaneous, adding enormous pressure to Putin. Additional benefits: - The American production ramp would create high-paying manufacturing jobs here in the US. - Production at greater scale would reduce prices, removing adoption barriers here in the US. - Yes, replacing gas-fired furnaces with electric heat pumps increases demand for electrical energy, some of which is produced by gas-fired thermal plants. But everyday, the European grid grows greener as less expensive wind and solar generation and battery storage continue to shut down fossil fuel plants. Additional information: - This petition is based entirely on an excellent essay by the great American environmentalist, journalist and founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, titled "Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom", February 28, 2022, which can be read here: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/heat-pumps-for-peace-and-freedom?utm_source=url - According to Ari Matusiak, the CEO of the non-profit Rewiring America, Europe and the UK have 75 million homes dependent on Russian gas for their heat. - Per McKibben's article, and according to energy leaders in Europe, the European grid as it is today can handle the adoption of 50 million heat pumps. - Per McKibben's article, the "Defense Production Act was used most recently by President Trump to mandate production of ventilators and President Biden, on his second day in office, to mandate production of decent masks."

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is celebrated for abolishing slavery, but what if we told you slavery is still legal? There’s actually an exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment that allows slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. Today, more than 150 years since its passage, incarcerated people — many of whom are Black and brown — are forced to work for little to no pay. Incarcerated people who refuse to work are often beaten, denied visits and calls from loved ones, put in solitary confinement, and even denied parole. BUT, there’s hope! In the last 3 years, three states have ended this exception in their state constitutions and truly abolished slavery. In 2018, Colorado became the first state since Rhode Island — the only state to have fully abolished slavery prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment — to end the exception and abolish slavery. Utah and Nebraska followed in 2020. In all three states, the ballot initiatives were the result of unanimous, bipartisan legislative votes. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the social awakening of many people across the U.S. to the horrifying reality of anti-Black racism, more than 20 states are organizing to abolish slavery in their state constitutions. Tennessee, Vermont, Oregon, Louisiana and Alabama will all be on the ballot this year and several others are expecting to be. The time to act is now.