We, the undersigned, are requesting a 24/7 alternative emergency response program be established countywide in Santa Cruz. This program will consist of mobile crisis response vans staffed by a medical professional and a crisis counselor, dispatched through 911, modeled after the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) program operating in Springfield and Eugene, Oregon. Established in 1989 in Eugene, Oregon, CAHOOTS serves as a community-based public safety system providing first response to nonviolent crises. CAHOOTS mobilizes two-person teams--a medic (a nurse, paramedic, or EMT) and a crisis counselor trained and experienced in the mental health field--to respond to non-violent mental health and social service-related crisis calls, including those related to houselessness, substance abuse, suicide prevention, and interpersonal conflicts. CAHOOTS teams are unarmed and provide services such as crisis de-escalation, medical evaluation and non-emergency treatment, conflict mediation, welfare checks, and transportation to other services, all at no cost to clients. CAHOOTS has also partnered with a local food bank to serve as a mobile pantry. Last year, CAHOOTS diverted about 20% of calls that would otherwise have been handled by police or emergency medical services on only 2% of the police budget, saving the city of Eugene approximately $8.5 million in public safety spending and $14 million in emergency room and ambulance costs.

On August 9, 2019, Buncombe County North Carolina became the first county in the nation to formally implement a “Restorative Justice” sentence for a Police officer convicted of violent crimes on an unarmed black man. Former APD officer Christopher Hickman was convicted of communicating threats, assault inflicting serious injury and assault by strangulation of Asheville resident, Johnnie Rush, for crimes inflicted the night of August 24, 2017 as Mr. Rush attempted to walk home from work. We, the undersigned, believe that the Restorative Justice process outlined by facilitator Jon Powell in Christopher Hickman’s court sentencing on August 9th 2019, has thus far failed to meet its stated intentions: • “To bring in the voices from the community that have been affected by this.” • To “work within the community” to craft a plan for community service “directed toward the harm that’s been created.” We understand that the COIVD-19 pandemic placed significant and unforeseen barriers on the feasibility of genuine community engagement in the Restorative Justice process within the timeframe of Christopher Hickman’s probation. We call on the Buncombe County Court, District Attorney Todd Williams, Defense attorney Thomas Amburgey, and Restorative Justice facilitator Jon Powell to uphold the stated intentions for Restorative Justice by supporting a motion to extend Christopher Hickman’s probation for one year, or until Hickman has complied with a community service plan crafted and agreed upon with the impacted Black Asheville community.

The Deltona Corporation is attempting to purchase additional property (a total of over 1300 acres) along Rt. 41 from Hernando to Holder to build a huge Data Center. A Data Center houses vast numbers of servers to provide critical IT infrastructure, enabling data storage, processing, and distribution for businesses and online services. They are necessary to support current and future demands for storage and processing of information, and they support global financial systems, cloud services, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. They also come with their own set of problems: demands on water for cooling, increased demands on electricity, particle emissions during build effect air quality, noise from the many servers, which run 24/7, and emergency backup generators can travel several miles, interruptions to the environment and animal habitats. Both St. Lucie and Palm Beach Counties have halted the development of their data centers. Builders are attempting to mitigate some of the problems, but don't be fooled, those problems and more still exist. Because of the square footage required to build a center, rural counties with ready water access have become prime locations. They are usually peaceful, rural communities, with higher poverty rates, lower income, and fewer people to offer objections.  Do not allow Deltona and our county commissioners to inflict this imposition on the lifestyle of Citrus County. Please sign our petition and tell Deltona and the BOCC, NO DATA CENTER IN CITRUS COUNTY.

Do not proceed with your assembly line of executions. Since the modern death penalty was established in 1976, no state has attempted four double executions in ten days. And the execution drug, midazolam, is so controversial for causing botched executions that Florida and Arizona have stopped using it. Halt this cruel and unusual killing spree – it violates basic decency and is not justice.

Amend the Constitution so that elected officials at the state and federal level, can not afford themselves rights and/or privileges that the general population does not have.

Vote on March 22 to endorse the April 4 referendum campaign to save our Champaign County Nursing Home .

A restaurant is only as good as its labor practices. Bröd Kitchen owners Hugo Uys and Monette de Botton: Stop the union busting. Reinstate fired union leaders, respect workers rights, and return to the negotiating table in good faith!

Stand with civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis, and boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Stand with civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis, and boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration.

#stillwalkingout