Tell your reps: Support bill to fund doubling of SNAP dollars at farmers markets

SB1245, the Arizona-grown fruit and vegetable incentive bill, is in budget discussions. Arizona legislators will most likely finalize the budget within the next few days, and we need your help as we urge them to keep SB1245 a priority.

This bill to fund doubling of SNAP dollars at Farmers Markets is a win for Arizona families, creating more opportunity to eat healthy local produce. It's a win for Arizona farmers growing and selling fresh, healthy produce (generally organic). It's a win for the Arizona economy -- more dollars supporting our local food system.

Fill out this form to ask your Representatives and Senators to make this important bill a reality for Arizona's farmers, families, and future. Because this process in now moving quickly, we ask that you send your email as soon as possible.

Click here to learn more about the budgeting process, and please stay tuned for any further updates and calls to action!

Take action to support Arizona farmers, families, and local economies! Send an email with one click to ask your legislators to fund #SB1245. #LetsGrowAZ

https://mobilize4change.org/fXWPUfz

Meanwhile at capital hill...

Republicans Are Trying to Sneak Through Cuts to Food Assistance into the Farm bill. 

Please, Sign Public Letter to President of TEP

Sustainable Tucson is a non-profit, grass-roots organization that builds regional resilience and sustainability through awareness raising, community engagement and public/private partnerships. Our members focus their action, advocacy and research through working groups addressing the unprecedented challenges of our time, economic meltdown, population pressures, climate change, and resource depletion.

Sustainable Tucson would like to invite you to join the other community organizations in signing a public letter to David G. Hutchens, President of Tucson Electric Power Company asking TEP to transition more quickly to clean energy and to forgo installing the 10 gas-fired RICE generators.

Sustainable Tucson is greatly concerned about TEP’s unambitious goal of transitioning to 30% clean energy by 2025. TEP is proposing modernizing the Sundt Generating Station by replacing two 1950's era steam units with ten natural gas-fired combustion engines. These RICE units would create significant greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, the project expects to cause an increase in emissions of carbon monoxide, particulate matter (fine particles PM2.5 and coarse particles PM10) and volatile organic compounds.

Renewable energy, supplemented by energy storage systems, is a better option for many reasons. The Arizona Corporation Commission strongly urged TEP to turn in this direction.

Our advocacy team and other community members have been actively fighting the permit process for installation of the RICE units. Member Duane Ediger worked with Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter and Sustainable Tucson to draft a public letter to the president of Tucson Electric Power Company.

The letter begins:

We need electricity generation that will leave a legacy of environmental recovery and take us off the path of harm. We implore you, together with all utility managers, to reduce and eliminate fossil fuel-burning plants from your energy mix as quickly as possible. We call on you to use the best and most recent data as you reconsider your current Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and its reliance on natural gas. Your next IRP should focus on clean renewable energy and energy efficiency rather than fossil fuels in order to ensure that the next seven generations of Pima County residents and the surrounding communities have a chance to enjoy, treasure, and protect the beauty of our Sonoran Desert free of the pollution caused by fossil fuels. We urge you to start immediately in the heart of Tucson by installing solar plus storage at and near the IGS. (Irvington Generating Station.)

Please join Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, Sustainable Tucson, The Green Party, Arizona Interfaith Power and Light and many individuals and organizations in calling on TEP to act for the well-being of present and future generations.

http://renewnow.us/

Sincerely,
Jana Segal
Sustainable Tucson Core Group

Petition to Homeland Security Secretary: Stop detaining immigrants seeking asylum

The petition to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reads: "Stop detaining immigrants seeking asylum." Add your name: Donald Trump's cruel administration is slamming the door on asylum seekers and locking them up. This needs to stop now. A caravan of women, children and families escaping political persecution and gang violence in Central America who are seeking asylum in the United States just arrived at the southern border, and Trump is treating them like military combatants. He has threatened to lock them up upon arrival and even deployed the National Guard to defend the border.1 This is a blatant attempt by Trump to manufacture a state of emergency on immigration to militarize the border and rally support for his wall. We cannot sit by while his cruel administration threatens and imprisons people seeking asylum. Tell Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: Stop detaining asylum seekers. Click here to sign the petition. The United States once welcomed the "tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free." In Trump's America, people could lose their families and freedom for seeking refuge in the United States. From 2010 to 2013, DHS granted parole to asylum seekers in the Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Newark and Philadelphia regions 89 percent of the time. Since Trump took office, that number has plummeted to four percent.2 Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents have: Jailed a mother and her 7-year-old daughter seeking asylum and fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. ICE held the daughter in a youth shelter thousands of miles away from where it detained her mother for months.3 Locked up a mother and her 11 and 3-year-old children fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. ICE refused to give the mother any information about her children's' whereabouts for more than a month.4 Imprisoned a father and his infant son seeking asylum from El Salvador. ICE detained the infant son hundreds of miles away from his father.5 The right-wing Roberts Supreme Court recently ruled to allow the federal government to detain immigrants indefinitely. That ruling means DHS could keep asylum seekers behind bars for months and even years as their cases move forward in court.6 And it's already happening. The Salvadoran infant asylum seeker is now with his mother. His father is still locked up in the United States despite following all procedures for seeking asylum. That is unacceptable. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for illegally detaining asylum seekers with credible cases in order to deter others from seeking asylum.7 Now, it's up to us to keep the pressure on. The more signatures we gather, the brighter the light we shine on the Trump administration's attacks on asylum seekers and its blatant attempt to exploit a caravan of refugees to militarize and wall off the border. Tell DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: Stop detaining asylum seekers. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/protect_asylum?t=7&akid=28311%2E3130208%2Eslieex - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Elliot Spagat, "Central American asylum seeking caravan reaches US border," The Washington Post, April 26, 2018. Alan Gomez, "Asylum seekers sue Trump administration over prolonged detention," USA Today, March 15, 2018. John Burnett, "To Curb Illegal Immigration, DHS Separating Families At The Border," NPR, Feb. 27, 2018. Michael E. Miller and Jon Gerberg, "l‘Where’s Mommy?’: A family fled death threats, only to face separation at the border." The Washington Post, March 18, 2018. Kate Morrissey, "Asylum-seeking fathers separated from children by ICE," San Diego Tribune, Dec. 4, 2017. Domenico Montanaro, Richard Gonzales and Nina Totenberg, "Supreme Court Ruling Means Immigrants Could Continue To Be Detained Indefinitely," NPR, Feb. 27, 2018. Maria Sacchetti, "ACLU sues Trump administration over detaining asylum seekers," The Washington Post, March 15, 2018.

Stop Another Flint: Tell Congress to Protect Our Communities from Toxic Lead Pipes

It’s time for Congress to put families first and ensure you and your family have access to safe drinking water. Your health depends on it.

"I don’t trust the water. It could be five years from now, and I’ll still never drink this water."

That was Ariana Hawk talking about Flint’s water last week after Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced he was ending free bottled water for Flint residents. She’s right not to trust the water. Ariana’s children developed rashes after being exposed to the lead-contaminated water, and 11 people died from Legionnaires Disease.

Flint is just the tip of the iceberg. Over 10 million U.S. homes still get their water delivered by lead pipes, just like the ones that sparked the crisis in Flint four years ago. It’s time for action!

Sign the petition to Congress: Does your community have access to safe drinking water »

This week marks the four-year anniversary of the Flint water crisis, and while state and city officials might say the crisis has ended, Flint doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s going on in our country.

Even in cities like Youngstown, Ohio, we do not know that sources are safe to deliver water to homes, schools, and public buildings. Some places, like small rural communities, might not even know that their water is unsafe because testing is not as consistent.

After Flint drew the national spotlight, those responsible were held accountable and people started paying attention to their water infrastructure. But millions of Americans continue to drink, cook, and bathe in water that’s delivered to their homes by toxic lead pipes and is unsafe.

Send a message to Congress that you, your family, and your neighbors should not be putting their lives at risk by drinking water »

- Lori D'Orazio, ReBuild USA

Now help the children in Flint by signing the EDF's petition:

Tell Congress: Enough delay. It's time to address the Flint lead crisis, and act to protect all Americans from lead.

For the Love of Tucson: Sign the Community Letter to the President of TEP

Looking ahead to a bright future for Tucson. 

"We are looking ahead, as is one of the first mandates given us as chiefs, to make sure and to make every decision that we make relate to the welfare and well-being of the seventh generation to come.”
-Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons

Climate change is real and it is progressing faster than scientists first predicted. We aren't talking about some distant dilemma. The devastating impacts are already being felt around the world. In Tucson, we are experiencing record temperatures - every year hotter than the last. There is no more time to waste. We need to get carbon dioxide below 350 ppm immediately.

Sustainable Tucson is greatly concerned about TEP’s unambitious goal of transitioning to 30% clean energy by 2025.  TEP is proposing modernizing the Sundt Generating Station by replacing two 1950's era steam units with ten natural gas-fired combustion engines.  These RICE units would create significant greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, the project expects to cause an increase in emissions of carbon monoxide, particulate matter (fine particles PM2.5 and coarse particles PM10) and volatile organic compounds.

Renewable energy, supplemented by energy storage systems, is a better option for many reasons. The Arizona Corporation Commission strongly urged TEP to turn in this direction.

Our advocacy team and other community members have been actively fighting the permit process for installation of the RICE units. Duane Ediger took a week off of work to study the TEP's permit to see if it met the Pima County code. With the help of the Sierra Club, Duane uncovered some inconsistencies that he shared with the community so we could submit relevant comments to the Pima Department of Environmental Quality. 

While awaiting a response, Duane worked with Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter and Sustainable Tucson to draft a public letter to David G. Hutchens, President of Tucson Electric Power Company.

The letter explains that:

We need electricity generation that will leave a legacy of environmental recovery and take us off the path of harm. We implore you, together with all utility managers, to reduce and eliminate fossil fuel-burning plants from your energy mix as quickly as possible. We call on you to use the best and most recent data as you reconsider your current Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and its reliance on natural gas. Your next IRP should focus on clean renewable energy and energy efficiency rather than fossil fuels in order to ensure that the next seven generations of Pima County residents and the surrounding communities have a chance to enjoy, treasure, and protect the beauty of our Sonoran Desert free of the pollution that fossil fuels cause to our water and air. We urge you to start immediately in the heart of Tucson by installing solar plus storage at and near the IGS (Irvington Generating Station.) 

Please join Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, Sustainable Tucson, Arizona Interfaith Power and Light and many individuals and organizations in calling on TEP to act for the well-being of present and future generations.

Please consider sharing this with people and communities who might also like to sign.

http://renewnow.us/

Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Petition to Congress: "Block and resist any attempt by Mick Mulvaney and Donald Trump to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by changing its structure or funding." Add your name: Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is the one Wall Street watchdog completely devoted to protecting Americans from the predatory and abusive financial industry. So of course Donald Trump wants to destroy it. Trump’s agent of destruction is Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the CFPB, who previously tried to eliminate the agency he now heads. And Mulvaney just asked Congress to radically restructure the CFPB to put it under Trump’s thumb, setting up a massive fight.1 CREDO members stood with Sen. Warren to fight for the creation of the CFPB and to defend it, and now our voices are needed once again. Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump destroy the CFPB. Click here to sign the petition. Mulvaney has called the CFPB “a sick, sad joke” and requested a budget of $0 for the entire agency.2 Mulvaney has already curtailed the CFPB’s desperately needed payday lending rule, giving a massive handout to predatory and exploitative payday lenders who intentionally trap people in cycles of debt with interest rates in excess of 300 percent.3 Now, his official report to Congress asks legislators to make major changes to the watchdog’s structure. Mulvaney wants Trump to have more power over who leads the agency and to force the agency to beg right-wing Republicans for funding instead of having an independent funding base from the Federal Reserve. Also on Mulvaney’s wish list is giving Republicans in Congress veto power over any new rule that watchdog puts out.4 His overall goal is to remove the political independence that the agency’s creators, like Sen. Warren, thought so essential to it being able to fight Wall Street. We can’t let that happen. Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump destroy the CFPB. Click here to sign the petition. If you want to know why Donald Trump and Republicans are so desperate to destroy the CFPB, just take a glance at its record: In less than six years the CFPB extracted $12 billion from corporations and returned it to a total of 29 million defrauded Americans. Most of that money was paid in large sums, as in 2015 when the agency forced two debt-buying companies — Encore Capital Group and Portfolio Recovery Associates — to pay $79 million in refunds and penalties to tens of thousands of people the companies had fleeced. The CFPB has also engaged in policymaking, issuing new rules for home-mortgage lenders in 2013 that took aim at banks’ pattern of intentionally lending money they know borrowers can’t repay, at high interest rates. In 2016, the agency also instituted new guidelines for payday lenders in an attempt to stop loan sharks from targeting desperate people boxed out of traditional financial services due to debt and bad credit.5 CREDO members and progressive allies have successfully defended the CFPB in the past, but now we are needed once again. We cannot let Trump give Wall Street a massive victory. Tell Congress: Don’t let Trump destroy the CFPB. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/mulvaney_cfpb?t=8&akid=28270%2E3130208%2EuZPAWD - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Bess Levin, “Trump official lays out point-by-point plan to screw over consumers,” Vanity Fair, April 3, 2018. Meagan Day, “The Bankers’ Coup,” Jacobin, April 2018. Levin, “Trump official lays out point-by-point plan to screw over consumers.” Day, “The Bankers’ Coup.” Ibid.

For the sake of the planet, tell Scott Pruitt to RESIGN NOW

The petition to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reads: "American taxpayers will no longer condone your corrupt administration, bankroll your expensive trips or tolerate the dismantling of our environmental protections to help your industry cronies. Resign now." Add your name:

Scott Pruitt has to go. Every day, another news story breaks about Pruitt's corrupt dealings as Trump's anti-environmental EPA administrator. He is ruling the EPA as his own personal fiefdom – taking first-class flights, using government resources for personal gain and giving away favors to his friends. Meanwhile, as Pruitt's ethical violations are making headlines, he is continuing to quietly scrap every rule that stops polluters from destroying our health and environment. Tell Scott Pruitt to resign. Click here to sign the petition. In hardly more than a year on the job, Pruitt has already made a name for himself by: Taking shady favors from lobbyists. Pruitt rented his Washington condo from an energy lobbyist's wife for an outrageously low price, then approved a pipeline project for the lobbyist's client.1 Wasting taxpayer funds on luxury travel. Taxpayers have spent more than $163,000 on Pruitt's first-class flights, charter flights and a ride on a military jet. The EPA even looked into getting him his own private jet.2 Giving giant, unapproved raises to favorite staffers. Pruitt used an obscure law to get around the fact that the White House rejected pay increases for two staff members he brought from Oklahoma. He gave them raises of 33 and 52 percent.3 Using EPA staff for personal errands. Pruitt assigned an EPA staffer to help him find housing during work hours and on the taxpayer's dime.4 Dismantling environmental protections to help out his industry friends. Newly released emails document Pruitt's long history of coziness with industry polluters.5 The biggest scandal of all is Pruitt's willingness to sell out our climate's future and our clean air and water to funnel money back to his corporate cronies. As one news story put it, the "'Most Blatantly Corrupt Trump Official' award is so close Scott Pruitt can taste it."6 New revelations about his ethical violations continue to break as he tears apart the agency he is supposed to lead. Even some congressional Republicans have started calling for Pruitt to step down.7 Enough is enough. Scott Pruitt has to go. Tell Scott Pruitt to resign. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/resign-pruitt?t=7&akid=28000%2E3130208%2EeE5Hq4 - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Eric Lipton, "Pruitt had a $50-a-day condo linked to lobbyists. Their client’s project got approved." The New York Times, April 2, 2018. Margaret Hartmann, "EPA Mulled Leasing a Private Jet, and Other Scandalous Scott Pruitt Revelations," New York Magazine, April 4, 2018. Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, "Top Pruitt aide at EPA also shopped for housing on his behalf," Washington Post, April 2, 2018. Ibid. Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson, "Thousands of emails detail EPA head’s close ties to fossil fuel industry," The Washington Post, Feb. 22, 2018. Bess Levin, "Most Blatantly Corrupt Trump Official' award is so close Scott Pruitt can taste it," Vanity Fair, March 30, 2018. Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Josh Dawsey, "EPA’s Scott Pruitt faces intensifying scrutiny, criticism of his ethics decisions," The Washington Post, April 3, 2018.

Business owners! Entrepreneurs! Sign the letter to save NET NEUTRALITY

Do you own your own business, or know someone who does? Whether you are a local shopkeeper or a tech entrepreneur, a plumber or dog walker, the internet needs your help – right now!

Small and medium sized businesses will be devastated if Comcast and Verizon end net neutrality. Big Cable wants to create fast lanes and slow lanes on the internet based on who can pay them the most, making it impossible for many businesses to compete with the big guys.

This is urgent: Congress may vote very soon on the CRA resolution to overturn the FCC’s disastrous repeal of net neutrality. There’s still a few more members of Congress we have to convince to save a free and open internet. That’s where you come in.

Add your name: Click here to join more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and sign on to the small businesses for net neutrality letter.

Members of Congress take business owners from their districts very seriously – especially small businesses. We need to help them understand that net neutrality is an important reason why small businesses can compete in a global marketplace.

Just ask Jennie Stewart, an Alaska entrepreneur and founder of CustomMousePad.com:

“In 2002, when Yahoo was the Web’s main search engine and Amazon still mostly sold books, I founded a family-run Alaska-based e-commerce company selling custom mouse pads.

Over the last 16 years, our company has created custom-printed merchandise for more than 23,000 customers in Alaska, nationwide and internationally, including Hilton Hotels, Chevy, NBC, PBS and even the Alaska state government. We employ 30 people.

We’ve only been able to do that thanks to net neutrality, which has been the law and state of the internet since we started. But the FCC’s December vote to repeal all net neutrality protections, once in effect, threatens to wipe out our business.”¹

If we can show Congress that the majority of business owners support net neutrality, along with 86% of Americans², we will stand a much better chance of winning the votes in the Senate we need to save the open internet.

If you are not a business owner, no sweat! You can still help by forwarding this email to someone who is. We will be delivering the letter to Congress on May 2, and our goal is to get many thousands more businesses to sign on before then, so we need as much help as we can get in finding supporters.

Send a message to Congress that small business supports net neutrality. Join 3,000 businesses and sign our letter today.

- Carli Stevenson, Demand Progress

Sources:
1. Juneau Empire, “Sen. Murkowski, Don't vote for the FCC's Net Neutrality Repeal,” April 16, 2018.
2. Public Consultation, "Overwhelming Bipartisan Public Opposition to Repealing Net Neutrality Persists," April 17, 2018.

#SAVENETNEUTRALITY

Submit a public comment: TELL THE EPA - RESTRICT THE USE OF GLYPHOSATE

Scott Pruitt and the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are now accepting public comments on their proposed reapproval of the pesticide, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. If the EPA reapproves glyphosate, it will enable chemical companies to sell this toxic pesticide for another 15 years. Now’s your chance to tell EPA to restrict the use of this hazardous weedkiller!

Best known as the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, glyphosate is the chemical cornerstone of GMO-based agriculture. In fact, over the past two decades, Monsanto’s ubiquitous Roundup-resistant GMOs have made glyphosate the most-used pesticide in the history of the world. And that’s bad news for all of us.

Public Health

• The world’s leading cancer authorities have classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen¹. Farmers who use glyphosate are particularly at risk of getting the immune system cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• We are all encountering more glyphosate thanks to GMOs.  EPA estimates that our exposure to glyphosate residue in foods has quadrupled over the past 25 years, with 1-2 year olds far more highly exposed than adults.

Endangered Species

• Glyphosate poses an existential threat to monarch butterflies and their epic migration by wiping out their host plant, milkweed, from farm fields throughout the Midwest².
• Roundup is incredibly toxic to frogs, and is likely contributing to the worldwide decline in amphibians³.
• Glyphosate and its breakdown product are regularly found in surface waters, air, rainfall and soils throughout the U.S.

Agriculture

• Sprayed in large quantities on Roundup-resistant GMOs, glyphosate has become a leading culprit in drift-related injury to traditional crops not resistant to Roundup.
• Glyphosate released from the roots of GMOs can harm beneficial soil bacteria and promote the growth of soil fungi that cause plant disease.
• Overuse of glyphosate has also triggered an epidemic of glyphosate-resistant weeds, one of the greatest challenges for U.S. agriculture since the boil weevil.  The industry’s response to these “superweeds” is to introduce “next generation” GMO crops that can be sprayed with additional pesticides to kill the glyphosate-resistant weeds, causing unprecedented damage to neighbors’ crops and wild plants⁴, a lose-lose proposition for farmers and the environment.

Despite these significant health, environmental, and agricultural consequences, EPA is poised to reapprove glyphosate for the next 15 years!Tell Scott Pruitt and the EPA how important it is to NOT approve glyphosate without serious restrictions needed to address its many threats!

-The Center for Food Safety

_________________

References:

1. https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/glyphosate-faq_64013.pdf  

2. https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/monarchs-in-peril-one-pager--copy_82788.pdf  

3. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1434/ML14345A564.pdf

4. https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/blog/5063/how-monsanto-is-devastating-thousands-of-farms-across-20-states#showJoin

Tell broadcast television networks: Don't ignore the climate crisis

The petition to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS reads: "Increase real coverage of climate change, including its link with extreme weather and the policies needed to slow the climate crisis." Add your name:

In 2017, 79 percent of climate change coverage on broadcast television networks was about one topic: Donald Trump.1 Not the latest climate science. Not the extreme weather events already happening all around the world. The vast majority of coverage focused only on Trump's climate change denial and his steps to drag us backwards into the coal age. Thanks to this terrible coverage, almost 90 percent of Americans don’t know that there is a scientific consensus on global warming.2 When news programs don't inform Americans about the climate, we all lose. Until the media starts doing its job, we won't be able to build the political will to win the fight against climate change. Politicians at every level will be free to continue ignoring the issue and continue with the destructive policies that created this crisis. Tell broadcast television networks: No more climate silence. Click here to sign the petition. The media accountability group Media Matters for America recently published a study looking at climate coverage in 2017 on broadcast television networks ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox. Not only was 79 percent of the total climate coverage about Trump, but Trump dominated virtually all of the coverage on Sunday news shows – 94 of 95 minutes.3 News programs regularly mention that Trump rejects the reality of climate change without discussing the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is not only real, but that it is an urgent problem driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Programs also ignore the links between climate change and extreme weather events, public health and national security.4 The climate crisis is getting worse, and it's happening frighteningly fast. Sixteen of the 17 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.5 Last year was the third year in a row that scientists recorded a record winter low in Arctic sea ice, and scientists also found record low sea ice in the Antarctic. 6 Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing again after being flat for three years.7 The news media has a responsibility to report accurately on the biggest environmental threat facing the planet. Having a climate change denier in the White House is no excuse to ignore the issue. In fact, Trump's dangerous policies make accurate climate coverage more critical than ever. Tell broadcast television networks: No more climate silence. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/broadcast-climate?t=7&akid=28213%2E3130208%2EKPWUBo - Brandy Doyle, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Kevin Kalhoefer, "How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2017," Media Matters for America, Feb. 12, 2018. Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna, "Almost 90% of Americans don’t know there’s scientific consensus on global warming," Vox, July 6, 2017. Kalhoefer, "How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2017." Ibid. NASA, "Climate change: How do we know?" accessed March 30, 2018. Chelsea Harvey, "The top seven climate findings of 2017," Scientific American, Dec. 29, 2017. Ibid.

Tell Congress: Don’t give Donald Trump a blank check for war

Tell the Senate: "Don’t give Donald Trump a blank check for war. Vote no on the Corker-Kaine AUMF." Add your name:

Last week, Donald Trump launched an unauthorized and unconstitutional attack on Syria. Now some senators want to give him a blank check for global, endless war.1 It's not just that Trump bombed Syria without congressional approval. He is a reckless xenophobe who is building a war cabinet, wants to destroy the Iran deal and has a terrifying attraction to nuclear weapons. Congress should be doing everything it can to rein him in, but instead Sens. Bob Corker and Tim Kaine just introduced a brand new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that would give Trump room to wage war wherever, whenever and against whomever he wants. Congress may vote on this dangerous resolution as soon as next week.2 That's why CREDO is joining our friends at Win Without War to make our massive opposition heard now. Tell the Senate: Don’t give Donald Trump a blank check for war. Vote no on the Corker-Kaine AUMF. Click here to sign the petition. Congress passed the current AUMF in the days following 9/11. Presidents Bush and Obama used it to justify warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, the lethal use of drones and more.3 CREDO has been working with progressive champion Rep. Barbara Lee to repeal that AUMF for years. With Trump in the White House, there is even more reason to repeal it, and even more reason not to pass a new AUMF that would take us further in the direction of endless war. The Corker-Kaine AUMF doesn't fix what's broken with the 2001 AUMF and could serve to further embolden Trump. It codifies that the United States is at war with “terrorism” anywhere the White House deems we should fight.4 Just as Presidents Bush and Obama did before him, Trump can interpret this terrifying AUMF as a blank check to wage war against ISIS and several other “terrorist” organizations across the globe in whatever way he deems necessary – including the massive deployment of ground troops in Iraq or Syria. The Republican extremists in Congress are already enabling the worst of Trump's dangerous impulses. The proposed AUMF would make it even easier for them to abdicate their constitutional responsibility to determine when, and if, we go to war. We have to speak out now and stop this AUMF before it gains traction. Tell the Senate: Don’t give Donald Trump a blank check for war. Vote no on the Corker-Kaine AUMF. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Trump_AUMF?t=7&akid=28215%2E3130208%2EqzPzyH - Kaili Lambe, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Elizabeth Goitein, "The Corker-Kaine Bill Would Codify, not End, the Forever War," Defense One, April 17, 2018. Karoun Demirjian, "Senators release bipartisan proposal to reauthorize use of force against non-state groups," The Washington Post, April 16, 2018. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, “Barbara Lee Introduces Legislation to Repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force,” Sept. 30, 2010. Bob Corker, "Senators Propose Legislation To Update Authorities Used To Fight Terror Abroad," April 16, 2018.

Tell Congress: Pass the Marijuana Justice Act

The petition to Congress reads: "End the war on drugs. Pass the Marijuana Justice Act." Add your name:

With five percent of the world's population, but a quarter of its prisoners, the United States is at a crisis point. Our criminal justice system is in desperate need of reform and it's up to us to fix it. Nearly half of the country's federal inmates are poor people of color in prison on drug related convictions.1 Democrats Sen. Cory Booker and Reps. Barbara Lee and Ro Khanna have introduced legislation that would set many of these prisoners free. The Marijuana Justice Act would put an end to the racist War on Drugs by legalizing cannabis nationwide and expunging all federal convictions for possessing or using it.2 Progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders just added his support for this bill.3Speak out now to urge every Democrat and Republican of good conscience to follow his lead. Tell Congress: End the war on drugs. Pass the Marijuana Justice Act. Click here to sign the petition. Public support for legalizing marijuana is at an all-time high. Two-thirds of Americans are in favor of ending prohibition. The Marijuana Justice Act is the most far-reaching marijuana reform bill that has ever been introduced in Congress. It would:4 Legalize cannabis nationwide. Expunge all federal convictions for possessing or using cannabis. Fund libraries and job training programs in communities torn apart by the racist War on Drugs. Cut federal funds for prison construction in states where marijuana arrests have disproportionately affected people of color and poor people. Nine states and Washington D.C. have already legalized cannabis use for adults and have allocated marijuana revenues for social good.5 In Colorado, Oregon and Nevada, cannabis revenue funds public schools and bullying prevention programs. Oregon, Washington and Alaska are funding alcohol and drug treatment programs and basic health care. California and Massachusetts will use their revenues to revitalize low-income communities of color torn apart by high drug arrests and incarcerations. If cannabis becomes legal nationwide, local government won't be the only ones benefiting. The Marijuana Justice Act legalizes cannabis and also goes one step further by radically reforming our criminal justice system. A 2013 ACLU study found that police were four times more likely to arrest and imprison Black people for marijuana possession than white people, despite similar rates of use.6 The majority of people currently serving time in prison for cannabis related convictions are Black and Brown. This important bill would give many of these prisoners their freedom and prevent millions of people from ever entering the country's broken criminal justice system. Tell Congress: End the war on drugs. Pass the Marijuana Justice Act. Click here to sign the petition. Former Speaker of the House John Boehner, who fought marijuana legalization for years, recently changed his position and announced that he had joined the board of directors of a major marijuana corporation.7 He is just the latest in a long line of wealthy white conservatives who now see legal cannabis as big business and want to profit from it. The Marijuana Justice Act will make sure that legalizing cannabis helps right the wrongs of the failed War on Drugs, not just line the pockets of corporate shills like Boehner. Reforming our criminal justice system and passing legislation to end the War on Drugs won’t happen overnight, and certainly not in this Congress. But building momentum can start now and make a big difference. Will you add your name? Tell Congress: End the war on drugs. Pass the Marijuana Justice Act. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/marijuana_justice?t=8&akid=28201%2E3130208%2EWNyPZD - Nicole Regalado, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Federal Bureau of Prisons, "Inmate Statistics: Offenses," March 24, 2018. Jordain Carney, "Booker introduces bill to legalize marijuana," The Hill, Aug. 1, 2017. Benjamin Fearnow, "Bernie Sanders joins Cory Booker's Marijuana Justice Act to federally legalize weed," Newsweek, April 19, 2018. Carney, "Booker introduces bill to legalize marijuana. Drug Policy Institute, "From Prohibition to Progress: A Status Report on Marijuana Legalization," Jan. 22, 2018. Dylan Matthews, "The black/white marijuana arrest gap, in nine charts," The Washington Post, June 4, 2013. Daniel Victor, "John Boehner’s Marijuana Reversal: 'My Thinking on Cannabis Has Evolved,'" The New York Times, April 11, 2018.