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Jane Doe via Change.org

10/10/2012 Nativegrl77

Verizon will no longer punish victims of domestic violence with cancellation fees. Now Sprint should do the same.

Sign Jane’s Petition

My name is not Jane. I need to keep my real name secret because the man who abused me can’t know where I am — I fear for my safety. But when I was leaving him and needed to get him off the cell phone contract we shared, Sprint put my safety at risk.

The man who abused me is the father of my son. When our baby was just four months old, he watched as his father strangled me and threatened to stomp on my head with steel-toed boots. I left and got a restraining order the next day.

But at a time when I had no job, no steady place to live, and feared for my life and the life of my little one, Sprint refused to let me get my abuser off my cell phone contract unless I paid them $200 — even though the contract was in my name. I had no money, and the man who threatened to kill me could track exactly who I was calling and when.

I was inspired when I saw that another woman started a petition on Change.org asking Verizon to end contract cancellation fees for victims of domestic violence — and she won. So I started my own petition asking Sprint to do the same. Click here to add your name.

When I signed the petition asking Verizon to drop cancellation fees for victims of domestic violence, I was shocked how many other people who signed shared awful stories about Sprint. One woman wrote about how Sprint made her meet her abusive ex-boyfriend in person at the Sprint store before they’d let her cancel her contract.

As for me, I’m still so afraid of my abuser that I can’t even use my real name. But this issue is so important for women like me fighting for their lives, I knew I had to do something.

Cindy’s petition to Verizon made me realize that I am not alone. If she can get Verizon to change its policies to prioritize the safety of victims of domestic violence, there’s no reason Sprint can’t do the same. I know that if enough people sign my petition, Sprint will do the right thing, too.

Click here to sign my petition demanding that Sprint follow in Verizon’s footsteps and end cancellation fees for victims of domestic violence.

Thank you,

Jane Doe USA

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Monument to Cesar E. Chavez

10/10/2012 Nativegrl77

The White House

President Obama Establishes Monument to Cesar E. Chavez

President Obama traveled to Keene, California, to dedicate the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument on the property known as Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace).
The site is recognized worldwide for its historic link to civil rights icon Cesar Estrada Chavez and the farm worker movement — the site served as the national headquarters of the United Farm Workers (UFW) as well as the home and workplace of Cesar Chavez and his family from the early 1970’s until Chavez’s death in 1993, and includes the Memorial Garden where Chavez is buried.
Read the reactions of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Julie Rodriguez, an Associate Director for the Office of Public Engagement.

President Barack Obama views the office of Cesar Chavez before the dedication ceremony for the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, Calif., Oct. 8, 2012. Pictured with the President, from left, are: Arturo S. Rodriguez, President, United Farm Workers; Helen Chavez, Cesar Chavez’ widow; Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder of the United Farm Workers; and Paul F. Chavez, Cesar Chavez’ Son and President of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Always low prices. Not always sustainable.

10/10/2012 Nativegrl77

Safeway is offering responsibly fished canned tuna at a lower price than conventional brands like Chicken of the Sea. It’s time for Walmart to do the same.

Take action and ask Walmart to start selling sustainably caught canned tuna.

Walmart’s own brand of tuna might be low cost. But it comes at a high price to our oceans.
That’s because what you’ll find inside a can of Walmart’s ‘Great Value’ tuna has been caught in the some of the most destructive ways imaginable. These destructive fishing practices unnecessarily kill tens of thousands of sharks, sea turtles, rays and other sea creatures every year.
It doesn’t have to be this way — even for a company as big as Walmart.
Safeway just recently began selling sustainably-sourced tuna under its own label on a national scale. This “Responsibly Caught” Safeway Select tuna also costs less than cans from major companies like Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea. We know it can be done and it’s time for Walmart to do the same thing. Help us send 30,000 messages to the company in the next 48 hours by taking action today.
Take action and ask Walmart to start selling sustainably caught canned tuna.
Walmart is such a large buyer that it could force the entire canned tuna industry to change. We’re talking about altering industrial fishing practices on the scale necessary to actually save our oceans. It’s what consumers want, and Safeway has already proven that it can be done in a cost-effective manner.
Companies like Chicken of the Sea are blocking progress by wanting to continue with business as usual: yanking tuna out of our oceans by any means necessary and slaughtering anything else that gets in the way.
Walmart has the power to get the tuna industry to clean up its act, but it is going to need to hear from the public first before it does anything.
Destructive fishing practices are one of the biggest threats facing our oceans right now. The use of fish-aggregating devices (FADs) is particularly gruesome.
FADs, which are basically floating objects placed in the ocean, don’t just attract tuna. They attract all sorts of life — including sharks, sea turtles and a bunch of other species. When the ship returns, it scoops up everything that has gathered around the FAD with a net. Hardly anything is spared in this process, and the crews just toss the lifeless remains of whatever they don’t want back into the ocean.
Chicken of the Sea, Bumble Bee and Starkist all catch their tuna in this way.

Safeway doesn’t.

Hopefully, Walmart will follow their lead after they hear from enough people like you.
For the oceans,

Casson Trenor Greenpeace Senior Markets Campaigner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

General Motors Is Alive

10/10/2012 Nativegrl77

| By ThinkProgress War Room

The Rescue of the Auto Industry — By the Numbers

At the height of the financial crisis, some people, including Mitt Romney, said we should “let Detroit go bankrupt.” And Bain Capital was one of the many private investors that refused to invest in the auto industry when it stood on the brink of collapse.

Fortunately, President Obama saved the U.S. auto industry and now it’s roaring back. For example, just today we learned that General Motors is adding another 2,000 jobs in Michigan. These jobs are coming to Michigan as part of larger effort to insource thousands of jobs at the world’s largest automaker.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a look at the auto rescue — by the numbers.

More than 1 million: Jobs saved by the auto rescue.
$85 billion: Totalspent by the U.S. government on the auto rescue.
$60 billion: Amount the government will likely recover.
$7.2 billion: Savings to taxpayers from reducedunemployment, Social Security, and other benefits in 2009 and 2010.
$97 billion: Estimated losses in personal incomes prevented by the auto rescue.
26 percent:Remaining stake (of the initial 61 percent stake) held in GM by the government.
0: Number of Chrysler shares currently held by the government.
167,000: Number of jobs the automakers and their suppliers are forecasted to add by 2015.
2.5 million: Number of people employed by the U.S. auto industry today, up from 2.3 million in August 2009.
3.3 million: Cars and light trucks sold by GM and Chrysler in the past 12 months, up from 2.9 million in the previous period.

BOTTOM LINE: Mitt Romney said to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” but we didn’t do that and now the auto industry is helping to fuel the recovery in states across the country, particularly Michigan and Ohio.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Leading GOP voter suppression expert says voter IDs laws are “a favor” for poor people.

Big Bird stars in a campaign ad and he greeted Mitt Romney today in Iowa.

Leading Democratic Senator says we “ought to scrap” tax reform that lowers tax rates.

After one Arkansas Republican lawmaker called slavery “a blessing in disguise,” another suggests that Jesus condoned it.

Mitt Romney’s tax plan: defeated by arithmetic. (Again.)

Another fail on foreign policy from Mitt Romney.

Billionaire CEO threatens to fire employees if Obama wins.

Buckle up: Super PAC spending is about to explode.

Australia’s female prime minister delivered a blistering speech on sexism and misogyny.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Bringing history to life … Official Google blog

10/10/2012 Nativegrl77

Today you can discover 42 new online historical exhibitions telling the stories behind major events of the last century, including Apartheid, D-Day and the Holocaust. The stories have been put together by 17 partners including museums and cultural foundations who have drawn on their archives of letters, manuscripts, first-hand video testimonials and much more. Much of the material is very moving—and some is on the Internet for the first time.

Each exhibition features a narrative which links the archive material together to unlock the different perspectives, nuances and tales behind these events. Among others you’ll see:

Tragic love at Auschwitz – the story of Edek & Mala, a couple in love who try to escape Auschwitz
Jan Karski, Humanity’s hero – first-hand video testimony from the man who attempted to inform the world about the existence of the Holocaust
Faith in the Human Spirit is not Lost – tracing the history of Yad Vashem’s efforts to honor courageous individuals who attempted to rescue Jews during the Holocaust
Steve Biko – a 15-year-old’s political awakening in the midst of the Apartheid movement featuring nine documents never released in the public domain before
D-Day – details of the famous landings including color photographs, personal letters and the D-Day order itself from Admiral Ramsay
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II – an account of the 1953 Coronation including color photographs
Years of the Dolce Vita – a look at the era of the “good life” in Italy including the fashion, food, cars and culture

As with the other archives that we’ve helped bring onto the Internet, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, you can zoom in to see photos in great detail and search through millions of items for a specific country, person, event or date. Watch our video for some guidance about how to find your way around the exhibitions.
The historical collections are the latest chapter in the work of the Google Cultural Institute, following the Art Project, World Wonders and the Nelson Mandela archives. We’re working closely with museums, foundations and other archives around the world to make more cultural and historical material accessible online and by doing so preserve it for future generations.
You can explore the many exhibitions at www.google.com/culturalinstitute. You can also follow us on our Google+ page. What you see today is just the start, so if you’re a partner interested in contributing your own exhibitions, please fill out this form.
Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Product Manager, Google Cultural Institute