Petition on the ban of uranium should be taken seriously. Uranium is used in making nuclear bombs powerful in destruction of lives. It can easily be transported to rogue states. North Korea sells their nuclear materials for exchange of food.

It is a conflict of interest to get our news from corporate-sponsored media the same entities who poisoned our water through fracking; the same industry that exacerbates global warming; the same industries that poison our air and water with BPA, C8, lead, radiation and glyphosate; the same industry that tells us our tax dollars won't cover universal healthcare. While in reality they go for perpetual war, bailing out banks, subsidizing the losses of corporations and cleaning up their messes.

Politicians are rarely scientists, engineers or mathematicians. These areas progress, change and discover new things pretty much daily and are advancing in complexity. The President of the United States can impact the world today and for decades to come with decisions that they may not fully understand how these impacts will be felt. They need a STEM cabinet position to help them understand, no matter what their political party affiliation.

The New York Times has descended into poorly documented reporting, usually politically biased and often hysterical. It's readership has declined as a result. Restoring credibility will not be easy. In contrast, Robert Parry of Consortium News, has established over many years the concern with careful documentation that lends credibility and usefulness to news reporting. His editorship has provided readers with close examinations of evidence, very readable in-depth summaries of many areas of news, and a variety of articles of great interest. The simplest way for the New York Times to restore credibility would be to hire Mr. Parry as its senior editor. This would stop the flood of criticism of the NYT. Mr. Parry would endeavor to provide the same level of experienced and impartial editorship that his readers now enjoy. Readers of the NYT would enjoy a greatly improved standard of reporting, and the NYT would rapidly regain credibility and circulation. *Note: This petition is based on one originally started at Change.org by John Barth.

We must honor dissenters as we honor in this case vets, and in this case because the dissenters were right, and we leave no one behind. When so many pardons are being given to convicted drug dealers, we should grant pardons to (as many) addiction experts (as possible), too. Doing the right thing is always important.

This action should be taken so that the American People know without a shadow of a doubt that the Republican Party stole the last election to gain power. This will destroy their credibility and make it much harder if not impossible for them to do the horrible things that they plan to do. They don't represent the American people and never have.

Because we see a lot of homeless people and veterans that are suffering from mental illness and they are not getting the adequate care. We see young men and women in and out of prison for nonviolent offenses.

Third parties should not be spoilers. Voters cannot strategically vote for the candidate they like for fear that victory will go to one they do not want. For government that serves the people, not the funders, it is important to widen the discussion by breaking the two party duopoly. State of Maine has voted this into law.

The Answer: To ask car shipping companies to provide cheaper shipping options, especially to our military service members. Join us to fight to lower car shipping fees for our military. We strongly support providing our military with cheaper shipping options.

“The mission of the Office of Independent Review (OIR) is to strengthen community trust in the Fresno Police Department by providing neutral, third-party review of police policies, procedures, strategies and internal investigations. The OIR works independently of the Fresno Police Department and provides the City’s leaders and the public with objective analysis of policing data, actions and outcomes” (from the City of Fresno’s website: http://www.fresno.gov/Government/CityManager/IndependentReview/default.htm). As concerned members of the Fresno community, we recognize the vital role police officers play in providing safety within our communities and the importance of cultivating trust with those they serve. Indeed, the motto of the Fresno PD is “Safety, Service and Trust.” Transparency and accountability are critical to the establishment of that trust, and the existence of the OIR ensures a systematic process of objective, third-party review of all complaints filed by citizens and all internal affairs investigations, including quarterly reports with recommendations on findings to increase thoroughness, compliance, quality and accuracy. Currently, the Fresno City OIR has been led by Richard Rasmussen, who was hired in September 2012, having just retired after serving 21+ years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Second and Third Quarter Reports of 2016 issued by the Fresno OIR are based on data provided by Fresno PD and reveal that African Americans and Hispanics are subject to more “Field Interviews” and “Traffic Stops” than their respective proportions in the population would predict. For example, although African Americans constitute only 7.7% of the population of the City of Fresno, they represent 13.2% of the traffic stops and 24.4% of the field interviews by Fresno PD--a statistically significant difference. The irony is that the same Fresno PD statistics reveal that only 3.03% and 2.42% of the Field Interviews of African Americans and Hispanics, respectively, result in arrest/detention, compared to 4.11% of the Field Interviews of whites (a statistically significant difference). Consequently, the recent OIR reports provide recommendations on how Fresno PD might build greater trust with the population served. Our most pressing issue must be to PROTECT our existing Office of Independent Review. The existence of the OIR is threatened by both 2016 mayoral candidates (Henry Perea and Lee Brand), neither of whom has expressed a long-term commitment to the OIR. Henry Perea “favors making the police auditor local, … does not support giving the position investigative and subpoena powers and also does not support any sort of community advisory board. He says there already are enough investigative layers as is” (Ellis, “Summer pushes new issues to forefront of Fresno mayor’s race,” The Fresno Bee). Lee Brand also believes the auditor should be local but that it would be too difficult to expand its investigative power. Instead, Brand would consider a Community Advisory Board (CAB), without mentioning how the CAB would be constituted and what “power” it would have. The community would like to not only keep but STRENGTHEN the powers of the OIR to include the ability to subpoena witnesses. In Salt Lake City, for example, they have an Independent Investigator and a Civilian Review Board (not just “Advisory”). The Investigator conducts a side-by-side investigation with the Internal Affairs Unit of the Police Department (as opposed to “after” the IA investigation currently in place in Fresno). The Investigator participates in all interviews, has access to all evidence, and may compel witnesses to be interviewed. Once the Investigator has finished the investigation, it is presented to the Civilian Review Board which deliberates and sends a recommendation to the Police Chief regarding whether or not the complaint should be sustained, along with any other recommendations. The Police Chief has complete and final authority over all disciplinary decisions but is required to take the recommendations of the Police Civilian Review Board into consideration. Fresno’s OIR has made recommendations in department policies and procedures that have been critical in reducing the number of officer involved shootings (OIS), increasing the use of de-escalation tactics, and requiring the use body cameras. It is because of the OIR that the public is able to get access to hard-to-obtain information such as racial data on police field interviews, traffic stops, and detentions (Hess, “Role of Fresno’s Police Auditor Questioned,” Valley Public Radio). Prior to Mr. Rasmussen’s arrival, more than two dozen lawsuits alleging excessive force and police misconduct by Fresno PD were winding their way through federal court. The price of fighting these legal battles, not to mention the payouts resulting from either settlements or findings against Fresno PD, cost us taxpayers millions of dollars. According to KMPH-KFRE.COM media reports, about 180 lawsuits were filed against the Fresno Police Department between 1997 and 2009, and the city paid out about $5.7 million in settlements and judgments, $2.8 million of which were specifically for civil rights violations. Since the re-institution of the OIR under Rick Rasmussen in September 2012, there have been no payouts resulting from any complaint to date (any recent payouts were from complaints filed prior to September 2012). The presence of the OIR seems can help build public trust and also save the city money.

Those of us who want an end to war are the majority worldwide. If we join together to demand accountability from elected officials by voting those who support war out of office, we will consciously create an end to war by changing the mind-set which views war as socially acceptable.

The Concern: Unfortunately, many of our service members were subjected to enormous government cutbacks and left the field much earlier than retirement and several of them were given pink slips. Many military families have ended up devastated with the unexpected loss of employment mixed with a declining economy. The government is continuing to make significant cutbacks to our military forcing more service members back into the workforce after being out of the regular workforce for years, even decades in some cases. Quite a few service men and women have incredible abilities and many have so much to offer any job. That being said, our vets struggle to find the employment they need every single day. The Answer: If we put enough pressure on businesses and the government to form an employment program to help our vets get back into the workforce right away, we can help save more of some of our country’s finest from living in poverty. Join us! Together we can help our vets get the job they need today! We want to see our military vets have more access to employment too.