June 7, 2023

Justice for Ajike Owens, promoting voting access, fake pregnancy clinics, and more!

Contact all members of Congress:

• By phone: (202) 224-3121

• By email: democracy.io

• By US mail: Representatives / Senators

• By fax: Representatives / Senators

• By Resistbot: Resist.bot

Contact White House or other federal agencies:

• usa.gov/federal-agencies

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• JUSTICE FOR AJIKE OWENS
  Ajike “A.J.” Owens, a Black mother of four in Ocala, Florida, was shot and killed by her White neighbor while knocking on the neighbor’s door on Friday. Owens, who was unarmed, reportedly went to the shooter’s house to confront her about shouting racial slurs at her children and throwing something at them, although the details of this confrontation remain unclear. The Sheriff’s office declined to arrest Ajike’s killer for days, saying they needed to determine whether the use of force was justified under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, but after protester pressure finally took her into custody late last night. Let’s continue to demand justice for this mother by reaching out to 5th Judicial Circuit State's Attorney Bill Gladson at (352) 671-5800 or Wgladson@sao5.org and insisting her killer be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And if we live in one of the 30 states with Stand Your Ground laws, let’s contact our legislators to urge them to ensure they cannot be used to get away with murder.

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• EXPAND VOTING ACCESS

  The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has issued a report reviewing the progress of ten federal agencies in implementing President Biden’s Executive Order to Promote Voting Access. Based on that report, a coalition of nearly 100 civil and human rights organizations sent a letter to the Administration noting seven agencies where the Executive Order has yet to be fulfilled. Let’s tell President Biden and Vice President Harris that we’re disappointed at the slow implementation of the Executive Order to Promote Voting Access, and we want the Administration to ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Prisons, the General Services Administration, Indian Health Services, Department of Education, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quickly carry out the recommendations of the report “Strengthening Democracy: A Progress Report on Federal Agency Action to Promote Access to Voting”—link https://civilrights.org/resource/voting-eo-report/#.

  (h/t Americans of Conscience Checklist)

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• STOP THE CDC FROM PROMOTING FAKE PREGNANCY CLINICS
  With abortion bans spreading across the country post-Dobbs, we’re seeing growing focus on so-called “crisis pregnancy centers”, facilities that present themselves as assisting pregnant people but primarily aim to dissuade them from accessing abortion. These institutions are filling the service gaps in family planning and resources where clinics that offered abortions used to be, except they do not offer the same level of care or services and often attach strings to what they do offer. Yet they are being included in directories maintained by divisions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for family planning services. Let’s add our voices to the activists who want to make sure no one is misled and ask the CDC to remove recognized “crisis pregnancy centers” and any other facility that provides medically inaccurate and misleading information from the National Prevention Information Network database.

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• UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN FEDERAL CONTRACTS

  One in five Americans work for companies that have contracts with the federal government. Since 1965, those companies have been required to ensure that Black Americans and people of color have equal opportunity in hiring, training, and promotions. An investigative report by Reveal shows that’s not happening. The top jobs with the highest pay and best benefits are going to white men, while lower paying jobs like administrative assistants, technicians, and laborers are going to women and people of color. Let’s send the link to Reveal’s report, https://revealnews.org/article/diversity-data-top-federal-jobs/, to our Members of Congress, and tell them that we expect them to conduct oversight and pass legislation to ensure that federal contractors meet their equal-opportunity obligations to their workforce.

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• POLITICS PODCAST

  The Ballotpedia podcast On the Ballot connects people to politics. Hosted by Victoria Rose, Ballotpedia's election experts unpack the week's top political stories, offering facts, not spin. There’s a new episode each Thursday afternoon, streaming on Spotify or other podcast services. Recent episodes have covered polarization in America and how AI might affect political news. Let’s check it out here.

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STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS

• MI: DRIVERS LICENSES FOR IMMIGRANTS

  Democratic legislators have re-introduced Drive SAFE (Safety, Access, Freedom, and Economy) bills, which would allow all Michiganders, regardless of immigration status, to obtain a driver's license or state ID; something that was perfectly legal in Michigan until 2008. Expanding access to driver's licenses is crucial to ensuring public safety and the dignity of all Michigan residents, whether they are documented or not. Let's join Drive Michigan Forward, a coalition of organizations that supports the restoration of driver's license to all undocumented immigrants, in securing a committee hearing for the Drive SAFE bills. They have a resource page where we can contact Democratic members of the House Regulatory Reform Committee and Senate Transportation Committee via form email, or we can use the phone numbers and phone script that are provided to contact lawmakers directly.

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