After any tragic shooting, we always ask, “What could we have done to prevent this?”

Families and law enforcement are usually the first to detect that someone is in crisis — but for too long they haven’t had the tools to temporarily remove guns from somebody who poses an extreme risk to themselves or others.

That’s exactly why we’re fighting for an Extreme Risk Protection Order bill that would give family members the ability to take action and stop tragedies before they happen. This Tuesday we’re taking that fight straight to the capitol in Olympia. Can you join us?

Click here to RSVP for the Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Day in Olympia on Tuesday, February 10.

Here are the event details:

What: Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Day
When: Tuesday, February 10 at 9:00 a.m.
Lunch will be provided for all attendees
Meeting Place: The United Churches of Olympia
110 Eleventh Ave SE; Olympia, WA 98501

We won big in November by helping pass I-594 at the ballot to require criminal background checks for all gun sales, but our lawmakers need to know that our state’s gun violence prevention movement hasn’t stopped fighting — and meeting them face-to-face is the most effective way to prove that.

The priority this session is to pass the Extreme Risk Protection Order bill — which would let Washington families and law enforcement ask a judge to temporarily remove guns from someone who poses an extreme risk to themselves or others.

On Tuesday, we’ll also be:

• Advocating for a bill to hold adults responsible for keeping guns out of the hands of children;
• Asking our legislators to protect the background checks law we worked so hard to win last year from any attempts at weakening it; and
• Holding a training for volunteers, writing letters to lawmakers, meeting with legislators, and hosting a press event to make sure our case for strong gun laws is heard in the media.

RSVP now if you can join us for the Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Day on February 10.

Thanks for everything you do for this movement. I hope to see you in Olympia!

Leah Bernstein
Washington State Chapter Leader
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America

P.S. If you can’t make it to the lobby day but want to add your voice to the fight for the Extreme Risk Protection Order bill, click here to automatically sign the petition to lawmakers now.

By CAP Action War Room

United States And Cuba Begin Normalizing Relations In Historic Agreement

In an announcement that hardly anyone saw coming, President Obama today declared that the United States will begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba for the first time in half a century. Decades of isolation have not yielded any improvement in promoting democracy in Cuba, and there is no good reason to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.

Along with this historic change in U.S. foreign policy, Cuba has returned Alan Gross to American soil. Gross was an American contractor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) who spent five years in Cuban jail: his crime was working to increase Internet access and connectivity in small communities on the island. “What a blessing it is to be a citizen of this country,” Gross said at a news conference this afternoon.

Cuba will also release more than 50 political prisoners and a key U.S. intelligence asset held for nearly 20 years in exchange for the United States releasing several Cuban spies.

Here are some other key details of the agreement:

1. The two counties will re-open diplomatic ties. The United States will re-establish an embassy in Havana, travel restrictions will be loosened, and the embargo on economic goods will be eased. Congressional action, however, is required to fully lift the economic embargo between the two countries.

2. Pope Francis helped to facilitate the deal.

The Pope was “directly involved in the talks “, according to Obama administration officials, appealing to both countries and hosting a key meeting at the Vatican this fall. He released a statement congratulating both parties on the agreement.

3. The American public supports this move. Polls have consistently found that a majority of Americans, Cuban Americans, and even Republicans support normalization of relations with Cuba.

4. Economic impacts for Cubans could be significant. The island nation has been isolated from much of the world for a long time. Under the new agreement, Americans will be able to send $6000 more a year to people in Cuba (Cubans, on average, earn just $17 a month). And more Americans will be about to travel to Cuba — and return with up to $400 worth of goods for personal use. That includes — you guessed it — up to $100 worth of Cuban cigars.

Not everyone is cheering the agreement. But those opposing the deal, led by Sen. Marco Rubio, are offering arguments rooted in hypocrisy. Rubio has vowed to “make every effort to block this dangerous and desperate attempt,” and states that the “new policy is based on an illusion, on a lie.” But this outcry contradicts his own faith in the power of free market economies to introduce Cubans to an American-style economy and spread freedom as Republicans usually argue it would.

BOTTOM LINE: An historic agreement between the United States and Cuba and brokered by the Pope has freed American political prisoners and will chart a new course in relations between the two countries. The era of isolation did not help spread democracy or improve human rights; a new approach that values diplomatic engagement and the empowerment of Cuban civil society is the right way to go.

Epic Chevron Battle Lands in Canadian Court Oil giant asks Canadian Supreme Court to rewrite laws in attempt to avoid seizure of assets by Ecuadorian rainforest communities

In January 2015

Ottawa, CA – Hockey. Maple syrup. Round bacon. Canada is known for many things. But it is also now, unexpectedly, the new battleground for one of the world’s most epic environmental litigations.

With sub-freezing temperatures and the first snow of the season on the ground, one might have thought that hell had indeed frozen over and that Chevron was finally ready to fight it out on the ice, as promised, in its effort to avoid paying a $9.5 billion judgment to Ecuadorian rainforest communities. But the hearing this month before Canada’s Supreme Court was just Chevron’s latest legal maneuver to deny justice to 30,000 Ecuadorian indigenous and farmer communities seeking clean water, healthcare, and a full remediation of the contamination the company left behind over two decades ago.

Read the rest on Eye on the Amazon »

CHEVRON DESERVES THE PUBLIC EYE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CORPORATE IRRESPONSIBILITY. HAVE YOU VOTED YET?

Thanks to the generous contributions of veterans, military family members, and VoteVets supporters, we were able to cut a $25,000 check to Wreaths Across America last week.

What’s more, we connected the organization with former Congressman Patrick Murphy, who did his MSNBC Show, Taking the Hill, live from Arlington National Cemetery on the day volunteers laid wreaths across the country.

It was an amazing show – you can watch the first segment here.

Thanks for marking our participation a success for the second year in a row. We firmly believe that the holiday season is about giving, which is why we chose to raise money for other worthy groups like this, and not ourselves. We look forward to doing it against next year.

But first, we have a lot of work ahead of us after the new Congress is sworn in. We’ll have to work hard to avoid dramatic escalation in Iraq and Syria, while protecting the diplomatic progress with Iran. We’ll also have to fight to protect veterans’ health care, education, and job training from Tea Party cuts.

It will take your involvement – and we’ll be in touch soon.

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran and Chairman
VoteVets.org