Take The Initiative

My name is Vern Harner and I'm a Phd Candidate and instructor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. I am proud of what I have accomplished as a doctoral student, including being named a Husky 100, receiving the prestigious Excellence in Teaching award, and serving as communications coordinator for the Caucus of LGBTQ Faculty and Students in Social Work. However, I am worried that, when I graduate, I will not be able to have a diploma that I can be proud of.

While the University of Washington supports trans students in many ways, it does not currently allow trans and nonbinary students to have our chosen first names on our diplomas. There is no state or federal law enforcing full legal names on diplomas. While transcripts must reflect legal names, there are multiple universities, including Yale, Miami University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Denver, that have policies making it simple for trans students to have diplomas reflecting chosen first names (regardless of whether a legal name change has been completed). I am hoping to graduate next year --I would love for my diploma to match the name on the masters diploma I received from Arizona State University 5 years ago and to be able to hang my diploma on my office wall, as is the norm for college instructors and professors (which I hope to be!).

The fact that UW policy does not allow this is not only an equity issue, but a safety issue for trans individuals. Updating the preferred name policy at UW to be in line with the university's diversity and equity focus and allow preferred/chosen first names on diplomas is a necessary step that must be completed as soon as possible to ensure that, not only our trans students can be safe and affirmed, but that we can continue to recruit and retain top tier students, faculty, and staff.

Sign this petition to demand that the University of Washington Faculty Senate expedite a policy change to allow diplomas to reflect the chosen first names of trans and nonbinary students. If you are affiliated with UW (faculty, staff, student, alumni), please note that when signing. Thank you for all of your support!

#SaveNagaenthran - Petition for President Halimah Yacob to pardon an intellectually disabled man, who has been sentenced to death for a non-violent drug offence.

Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man with borderline intellectual functioning, was arrested for importing 42.72g of diamorphine (heroin) at the age of 21. The following year, he was convicted and sentenced to death. During his forensic psychiatric evaluation, Nagaenthran was assessed to have an IQ of 69 - a level internationally recognised as an intellectual disability, impaired executive functioning, and ADHD. Having been imprisoned for 12 years in isolation, Nagaenthran's mental health has severely deteriorated: He has become disoriented and incoherent, showing potential signs of psychosis. Nagaenthran faces imminent execution on 10 November 2021. (UPDATE: On 9 November, Nagaenthran tested positive for COVID-19. As such, he has been granted a stay of the judicial execution until all pending proceedings are concluded.)

In court, Nagaenthran testified that he had been coerced by a man who assaulted him and threatened to murder his girlfriend. Dr Ung Eng Khean, a psychiatrist in private practice, submitted that Nagaenthran was suffering from "an abnormality of mind at the time of his arrest". According to the Singapore law, this should have been sufficient grounds for him to be acquitted or released from charges. However, the defence was dismissed despite psychiatric evidence highlighting Nagaenthran’s inability to make rational decisions, assess risk and consequences, as well as control his impulses. These findings were corroborated in a 2017 report, where Dr Kenneth Koh of the Institute of Mental Health concluded that “[the appellant’s] borderline intelligence and concurrent cognitive deficits may have contributed toward his misdirected loyalty and poor assessment of the risks in agreeing to carry out the offence”.

The execution of a mentally ill person is prohibited under international human rights law, as well as under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). As a signatory of the UNCRPD, the Singapore government runs the risk of violating its obligation towards “ensuring that persons with disabilities are treated equally with dignity and respect”.

According to the CRPD Committee, the duty to refrain from imposing the death penalty on persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities is grounded on the disproportionate and discriminatory denial of fair trial guarantees and procedural accommodations to them. This is demonstrated in Nagaenthran's case, where there was a lack of procedural accommodation accorded to him as required by the International Principles and Guidelines on Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities. Thus, from the time of his arrest to his sentencing, Nagaenthran was denied true due process, even by Singapore’s own current standards under the Appropriate Adult Scheme.

In addition, marginalisation presents vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited by drug syndicates, especially in times of financial desperation. Hence, the punishment for drug offences is often class-biased, and disproportionately penalises marginalised groups and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, with minority groups accounting for 75% of the inmates on currently death row. This is also evidenced the case of Nagaenthran, who comes from an impoverished family with limited access to social support or services. In order to pay for his father's heart operation, Nagaenthran tried to borrow RM500 from a man named "K", who then exploited and coerced him into smuggling drugs. Therefore, rather than resorting to punitive measures, the Singapore government should focus on resolving the underlying causes of poverty and marginalisation to effectively eradicate drug trafficking and drug usage.

Moreover, no credible evidence exists to show that the death penalty works more effectively than imprisonment in deterring crime, and any execution for drug offences contravenes international law and standards. Decades of research reveal that punitive drug policies are not effective in reducing drug use or drug-related harms, and no positive correlation has been found between the imposition of capital punishment and drug use or positive public health outcomes. Studies in the US have also evinced that capital punishment cases are far more expensive than life imprisonment due to the legal costs incurred. Furthermore, Singapore is an anomaly, as majority of the world's safest and most developed countries have abolished capital punishment. Punitive policies also foster stigma, discrimination and marginalisation, which in turn hinder access to social services and prevent people from seeking help.

Capital punishment is often defended on the grounds that the government has a moral obligation to protect the safety and welfare of Singaporeans. However, Nagaenthran's death sentence indicates that the Singapore judicial system is failing to protect the safety and welfare of those with disabilities. Specifically, it demonstrates the systemic failure of Singapore’s criminal justice system to recognise the impact of intellectual disabilities on a person’s culpability and capacity to commit a criminal offence.

Given that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled, committed a non-violent crime, and was allegedly coerced by assaults and threats, we sincerely appeal for President Halimah Yacob to uphold Singapore's commitment to the UNCRPD by pardoning Nagaenthran's death sentence.
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Statements condemning the impending execution of Nagaenthran:

United Nations
European Union
Human Rights Watch
Amnesty International
International Bar Association
International Federation for Human Rights
Harm Reduction International, alongside 27 organisations and networks
American Psychological Association's Division of Social Justice
Commonwealth Lawyers Association
The Law Association for Asia and the Pacific
Australian Lawyers Alliance
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
Malaysian Bar
Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network
Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign
Transformative Justice Collective
We Who Witness, alongside 56 organisations of persons with disabilities
Think Centre Singapore
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture
SG Climate Rally - Statement by Environmentalists
Richard Branson: Stop the killing of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam
Statement from drug users, ex-drug users and their family members in Singapore
Statement from members of the Singapore arts industry
Statement from social service and healthcare professionals
Statement from members of the legal industry in Singapore
Statement from the loved ones of people on death row
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International media coverage:

BBC: Family prays for miracle to halt execution of man with low IQ
CNN: Campaigners make last effort to save man with intellectual disabilities from execution in Singapore
The New York Times: Rights groups urge Singapore not to execute man with mental disability
The Washington Post: Singapore is set to execute a mentally disabled man for trafficking 1.5 ounces of heroin
The Wall Street Journal: Singapore execution stayed After positive Covid-19 test
Reuters: Singapore grants 11th-hour stay of execution for Malaysian with COVID-19
Associated Press News: Singapore urged not to hang disabled Malaysian in drug case
Daily Mail: Mentally disabled man's execution for drug trafficking in Singapore is postponed – because he's caught Covid-19
The Guardian: Outrage as Singapore prepares to execute man with learning disabilities over drugs charges
ABC News: Singapore urged not to hang disabled Malaysian in drug case
The Independent: Singapore halts execution of Malaysian drug offender with low IQ after he contracts Covid
Boston Globe: Singapore delays appeal hearing on disabled man’s execution
Al Jazeera: Nagaenthran case puts Singapore’s death penalty in spotlight
SBS News: More countries are scrapping the death penalty, but Singapore isn't one of them
The Times: Man with ‘very low’ IQ due to hang in Singapore for drug smuggling
The Sydney Morning Herald: Last-ditch bid to spare mentally impaired man from hanging in Singapore
Vice World News: Chilling letter details execution of 'intellectually disabled' Inmate
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Things you can do to help #SaveNagaenthran:

Share news about the campaign.
Write to President Halimah Yacob and your MPs.
Urge your organisations and groups to release statements.
Alert human rights organisations to this injustice.
Donate to Transformative Justice Collective here.
Send words of support to Naga's family in the comment section at this link
Sign the following letters of appeal to the president, if you are:

A lawyer, law student, or a member of the legal industry.
A member of the arts community (e.g. visual artist, writer, arts student, musician).
A social service professional, counsellor, healthcare worker, or a community worker.
A drug user, ex-drug user, or a loved one of someone who used drugs.
An environmentalist
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ADVISORY!

The requests for donations you receive after signing are enabled by the people from Change.org, who are asking for advertisement money to promote this petition. Those donations DO NOT go towards funding Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) or Nagaenthran’s family.

To donate to TJC, please click this link. There, you can select the option for your funds to go directly towards supporting families like Nagaenthran’s.

The character and quality of life in Port Washington is once again being threatened by overdevelopment. Stop the rezoning of 2.03+_ acres of waterfront at 145 West Shore Rd to Multiple Residence.

Bay Aggregates is the site of the proposed project. It is between the northern end of TONH Beach Park and Tilcon on Hempstead Harbor. Southern Land Co. is targeting this parcel of land for a 7 story, 176 unit and 300 car, 95 ft. tall luxury apartment complex on Hempstead Harbor in Port Washington (PW).
This area includes a 29 slip public marina and is a DEC designated wave action zone, so moderate to severe storms will require all people and cars to evacuate.

This change in zoning will set a precedent for two more parcels of land next to this parcel and could lead to two or more apartment buildings of similar size.

The infrastructure of the PW peninsula cannot continue to support more overdevelopment:

· PW is overpopulated and highly congested with traffic on one and two lane roads.

· A zoning change in 2020 on the western side of the peninsula allows building for up to 140 new apartments; there are also plans for 30+ 2- bedroom apartments on the northwestern side of the peninsula. There are currently over 2,000 2-family houses and about 1,500 apartments in PW with over 50 units available today.

· The school, water, sewer districts, police and fire departments of PW will be additionally stressed by these significant increases in population density and traffic congestion.

· Additional building and increased population on the Hempstead Harbor side of PW will have a significant and negative impact on the water quality and long term environmental health of Hempstead Harbor and Manhasset Bay. Sewage treatment effluent already contributes 25% of the Total Nitrogen load, among other pollutants, to the Bay. Further effluent from the Harbor side will significantly increase the load to the Bay without improved and/or alternate technologies to reduce effluent and the inherent pollutants.

Update April 21, 2021

The TONH has released the final scoping document about SLC’s application to rezone the property at 145 West Shore Road. The scoping document describes the required contents of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which will now be written by SLC. The EIS should take 4-6 months to complete. TONH will conduct public meetings on the EIS after completion. The final scope can be accessed thru google by searching for:

Town of North Hempstead Final Scope for Draft Environmental Impact Statement The West Shore Residences

The Beach Park is a shared resource for the entire Town of North Hempstead. Do you want a 95’ tall building, more traffic and overflow parking on our beach parking lot?

Please read the final scope, sign the petition and continue to add comments with reasons opposing the SLC project. We will continue to provide updates on the project, meetings and the SEQR process.

Sign Up and Speak Up! The petition signers and comments will be shared with everyone at the public meetings!

Over the next few weeks we will provide more information on the SEQRA process and what the potential adverse impacts mean to us in the Town of North Hempstead & Port Washington. They are Surface Water, Groundwater, Flooding, Aesthetic Resources, Transportation, Noise, Odor & Light, Human Health and Community Plans & Character.

You will be notified of all future public meetings when the meeting dates are announced.

Sign this petition, express your opinion on this project and attend the public meetings in person or via live streaming at

https://northhempsteadny.gov/content/16253/17996/18616/default.aspx

There are two links in the center of the page. You can live stream the meeting and listen or you can zoom and provide input 30 minutes prior to the meeting. Please show up, sign up and speak up!


Thank you! Your support is appreciated.

Washington County Board of Ed has decided, 2 weeks before the start of school, to put masks back on our children. Help us change their minds! Freedom to choose to wear a mask!

Little research exist that masks are useful in combating the spread of Covid 19 in children.

Children need to see faces to learn emotions, how to pronounce words, and to breathe. Our children are tired of wearing dirty masks all day

Denton Basic Services Center has asked our city council to rent us land to build a resident run tiny house village for Denton’s unhoused community. Four years in the making we are very very close. Council needs to see we have broad community support.

Why these type villages work. It will be based on villages like Unity Village and Swifthaven village in Bellingham Washington supervised by HomesNow, whose director is on our board. Resident built and run villages give those coming off the street the community, purpose and safety required to heal from survival mode. It gives them the investment, pride, skills and responsibility all adults desire from a home. Overseen by DBSC they will create rules, responsibilities and solve problems that may arise, building communication and organizational skills and fostering cooperation.

It will be on land behind a low income area on a dead end street, starting with 35 homes, eventually expanding to 150+. There will be a community kitchen and bathrooms. Our unhoused neighbors are very excited by this project.

You can find out more about DBSC and the village on our FB page It’s Time to Do It. And if you’d like to help build it you can contribute to us at PayPal Denton Basic Services Center

Please sign to let council know you support our project.

This petition is simple: Mask choice for the 2021-22 school year. There is a choice in the local community and state. It's time to give this choice back to the parents, staff and students of the Washington school district. Let us decide what is best for our health.

This petition will be presented to the school board in July. Let your voice be heard.

Attention community!


A San Jose mural commemorating Hispanic heritage and the late Brenda Lopez, a Washington community leader, is in danger of being painted over!

The mural, which spans the side of a gym on 899 South First Street in San Jose, was created in April 2016. It depicts Dia de Los Muertos figures, labor leader César Chavez and honors our local Folklorico dancer and community leader, Brenda Lopez, who died of cancer.

The mural serves a dual purpose by highlighting the cultural achievements of the Latino community and is a deterrence for gangs who wish to tag the building.

Unfortunately, a new property owner who has zero connections to our community has refused to work with the family of Brenda Lopez and neighborhood leaders to save the critical piece of local art and history. Jaeson Le, who purchased the building recently, told our community leaders he wasn’t comfortable with the art.

Le said he wants to fill the building with tech workers, and he doesn’t want them turned off by artwork he thinks could be interpreted as gang-related. This is a racist statement that directly insults our families. It compares our history and community leadership to gang and criminal activity. Le is part of an overall effort citywide to gentrify our neighborhoods, erase our culture, and replace our spaces with wealthy tech workers.

We cannot allow this to happen. Please sign this petition to send a message to Le and our elected officials that we will not allow our communities to be displaced and our culture to be erased. It’s time to stand up for Brenda Lopez, and the working families of Guadalupe Washington. Our barrios are not for sale!

The classes of 2022 and 2023 want to continue to honor their friend, classmate and teammate through the 2021-2022 season.


Malachi Washington, a student of Bishop Ready and gifted Football Player passed away January 1, 2020. His football brothers continued to honor him by carrying his jersey onto the field during every game and placing it on their bench. This year they are being told by the athletic director that they can no longer honor him by carrying his number onto the field because “half the school doesn’t know him”. But half the school does, and everyone should know what a kind hearted, fun, wonderful kid he was!


These boys have already been through enough and deserve to honor and respect their friend at every game of what would have been his senior year. Please sign this petition to allow our boys to honor their football brother and carry a piece of him with them at every game.
https://www.thisweeknews.com/sports/20200102/ready-mourns-death-of-student-athlete-malachi-washington?template=ampart

Thurston county has gone too far! The Assessor's office has unfairly raised property taxes nearly 25% for 2022 - even on properties where there have been no upgrades and properties with manufactured homes! The people of Thurston county are already struggling due to the covid-19 shut downs and illness causing loss of income and employment. We have seniors, disabled and single parents who are trying to stay in their homes, many cannot even afford repairs due to the already high property taxes. Our homeless population has increased exponentially. Jay Inslee has instated a rent increase freeze and a no-eviction moratorium which has hurt landlords and left them unable to pay mortgages. Many are struggling just to survive. This is not the time to be increasing taxes to unaffordable levels! If this tax increase is allowed, many will lose their homes. Tenants will lose when the eviction moratorium is up - rents will go up and many will be evicted when homes are auctioned off by Thurston County or foreclosed on by banks due to nonpayment of mortgages. Homelessness will increase even more. Thurston county officials need to curb their spending, budget better and stop taking it out on us property owners. Let's join together and JUST SAY NO to these unfair, increased property taxes!

There is a project starting 2022 that has yet to be approved that will change Washington Avenue from a 4/5 lane currently to a 2/3 lane roadway with 2 hour street parking. Washington Avenue is the main arterial street into Philadelphia from I95 highway and also a 80% commercial roadway with hundreds of businesses. This project prioritizes cyclists above businesses and commercial activities and hinders our only snow emergency route in the area. Traffic would flood off to neighboring residential streets making residential areas more dangerous for pedestrians.

Let me be clear that we care for cyclists and the safety of the people. There needs to be a better way to make this work for everyone. Two hour parking and less travel lanes is not the answer.

Two hour parking damages businesses who's employees use that parking for work. Parking is already extremely limited and removing over 220 parking spaces and limiting them to 2 hour zones means businesses will rely on parking in residential areas! This hurts everyone that travels into the city for work and everyone that lives around Washington Avenue who owns a vehicle.

This is only a few of the issues out of the dozens of real complaints held by the businesses and the communities on and around Washington Avenue.

We must end this project until a proper plan is put before all the businesses on Washington, before it ends most of the businesses on Washington Avenue.

COVID-19 continues to take an insurmountable toll. The millions of lost lives, the lost livelihoods, the illness, the isolation, the educational loss for kids, and direct impacts on our way of life.

We all know what an amazing feat it was that as of February, several vaccines were on the market that could beat this virus. However, getting people vaccinated has been extremely inequitable and lacking. Globally, we've given out approximately over 1.47 billion doses of the vaccine and about 4.6% of the world is fully vaccinated.

The Washington Post reported that 45% of all vaccine doses administered so far have gone to 16% of the world's population. As of May 6th, just over 20 million vaccine doses have been administered across the African continent, which has 1.3 billion people. On top of structural inequities baked into our global system, we simply aren't producing enough of the vaccines.

More worrying are new strains of the virus. As the virus continues to spread, it'll have more opportunities to mutate which will increase the chances that our newly developed vaccines will be less effective.

This petition calls on Moderna, Pfizer, and CureVac to do as follows:

Participate in the World Health Organization's (WHO) mRNA Technical Transfer Hub to help facilitate the sharing of knowledge around mRNA vaccines.
Partner with and assist other potential sites to provide targeted support to help them develop COVID-19 Vaccine.
This petition also calls on Angela Merkel and the German Government to also agree to waive its patents on COVID-19 Vaccines it has produced.

Suspending the patents is an important step to allow others to produce the COVID-19 vaccines (the Biden committed to this step on May 5th). However, there are trade secrets and technical knowledge not in a patent that drug companies possess that are really important to scale up manufacturing. To this effect, the World Health Organization (WHO) had created the mRNA technical transfer hub to help facilitate this sharing of knowledge but Moderna, Pfizer, and CureVac (another company that produced an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine) have not participated. It's really important that they do so.

Other companies around the world (many that might be well poised to retrofit their operations for an mRNA vaccine) could start producing vaccines if they had the know-how. It certainly may be challenging and take some work, but it's an important next step to produce enough of these vaccines at a faster rate. And we need to beat this pandemic and we need to deal with the shameful inequities in how we are going about vaccinating the world.

If this virus has taught us anything, it's that we're all in this together. And governments and pharmaceutical giants need to heed this lesson.

Dear Equestrians,

A developer is putting in a bid to purchase the land around the Washington State Horse Park (“WSHP”) in Cle Elum, WA. While the Park's 112 acres and most of the cross country tracks will remain intact, the trail system will be gone. We won’t have access to this safe, equestrian only trail system anymore. The proposed site plan will be eliminating all of the existing trails in order to install 673 manufactured homes and up to 661 RV sites. You can find extensive information about the development plans including site maps at the City's website www.cityofcleelum.com.

The reason for this petition is to save 75 acres for the trail system and 8 acres around the covered arena/livestock holding pen area for equine use exclusively. There are so few areas left in Washington that are equine exclusive. This land is currently used for events and competitions that draw hundreds of equestrians to Cle Elum each year. These individuals, in turn, support Cle Elum’s restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. High caliber events offered at WSHP have brought in many famous equestrians from a wide array of disciplines including former Olympians Karen and David O’Connor. Additionally, recreational equestrians utilize the trails as a safe environment to exercise and train their horses.

To further support this effort, you can write an e-mail the City of Cle Elum at [email protected] and referencing the 47 Degrees North Project. More information about this project is available through this link: https://cityofcleelum.com/city-services/administrative-services/public-notices/proposed-47-north-project/.

Thank you for supporting Washington State Horse Park and Equestrians of Washington!

Covid-19 has taken an extreme toll on our students. The P/NP option allowed our GPAs to not suffer the way we as students have been for almost two years. This was our first semester being thrown back into normal instruction in a world that is still not normal. According to a new BestColleges.com survey, 95% of college students have experienced negative mental health symptoms due to COVID-19-related circumstances. Negative mental health has a direct link to impacting performance in the classroom. The student body is pleading to administration to request that P/NP be extended for this semester.

Vincent DeMario Truitt was a 17 year old black male that was shot 2 times in the back at point blank range where he later died by the gun of a Cobb County Police Officer. We are asking the D. A. Flynn Broady press charges against officer Max Karneol for murder and criminal negligence manslaughter! Vincent’s family deserves justice for this young man’s life. Body cam footage shows that Mr. Truitt was not a threat to the officer and the officer could have exercised other actions besides shooting this kid at point blank range. Officers can be seen and heard in footage trying to birth a justifiable story. Please help us get justice for Vincent Truitt because his life mattered!!!

I recently read the New York Times’ recent exposé on Costco’s chicken supply chain and watched the accompanying video. As both a Costco member and a resident of Washington near Costco’s HQ, I’m heartbroken and appalled by the deluge of horrors Costco inflicts onto the millions of chickens who end up on its shelves. These chickens have bodies that grow so large and fast that they can’t be supported by their own legs, forcing them sit and endure chemical burns caused by their own piling feces. They live their entire lives without ever seeing the light of day and often suffer catastrophic organ failure because the industrial machine that brought them into existence values monetary efficiency over their well-being. And these chickens were effectively bred to suffer—100,000,000 of them a year under Costco’s purview. While Costco is famous for its $5 rotisserie chicken, the real cost of each of those chickens far exceeds the price tag—we’re just not the ones who pay it.

Costco has an unprecedented opportunity to directly and dramatically improve the lives of hundreds of millions of birds. I’m calling on Costco to adopt the Better Chicken Commitment, the new standard for chicken welfare across the industry. This standard, already adopted by over 200 food companies, eliminates many of the worst abuses chickens face in supply chains just like Costco’s.

In Costco’s own words, “If you are ever in doubt as to what course of action to take on a business matter that is open to varying ethical interpretations, TAKE THE HIGH ROAD AND DO WHAT IS RIGHT.” Now is your chance, Costco. Adopt the Better Chicken Commitment.

Sign here if you agree.

Michael Schermerhorn returned to prison after a parole violation. While in prison, he was jumped by 6 people and was beaten until his jaw was broken and he was urinating blood. He was put in solitary confinement despite him being the victim of the situation. For the days after the incident, he tried to advocate for himself and his injuries, yet nobody at the prison would listen and they only prescribed him ibuprofen. He told officers that he didn't feel right and that his "brain wasn't working right." He was in a cell all alone pleading for help. After begging, they allowed him to make one phone call. He used that call to ask his family to contact the prison to see if they would listen and get him medical attention.

Shortly after, his body succumbed to his injuries and Michael died in a cell at 31 years old.

The officers at Washington Correctional Facility (located in New York) forced Michael to suffer alone in fear.

They need to be HELD ACCOUNTABLE for this negligent homicide. We demand justice for Michael and his family. Michael was in prison for a drug-associated charge. The actions of the officers at Washington Correctional Facility are absolutely despicable, disgusting, and we demand justice NOW.



GoFundMe for funeral costs here: https://gofund.me/1c6da374

March 23, 2021 was a sunny day in Lewis County. 18 year-old Zack Hines jumped from a trestle into the Chehalis River for fun, something he had done many times and others often do in the area during warm summer months. Due to COLD WATER SHOCK associated with this time of year he was unable to swim to shore, he is presumed drowned.

Zack was a smart, caring, and extremely athletic young man. He loved God, his family, his friends, and the gym. Our family, like many others, have lost him far too soon, due to the unassuming cold waters in our beautiful state.

Washington's unintentional drowning rates are higher than the national rate. I am asking for change. I am asking for educational signage to be posted near large, cold-water rivers in specific areas that become popular swimming and recreational areas in our state which would discourage entering the water before summer.

This signage is largely a one-time cost to each county that could save lives and the heartbreak families endure. The signage could save county resources each year by reducing costs associated with the average 100 search and rescues each year.

This signage should be different than any others previously forbidding jumping or swimming. It should include education. It should indicate the average temperature of our rivers in the fall, winter, and spring (6°C) and how many seconds it takes for cold-water shock to set it (30 seconds- 2 mins). Young men between 17-24 account for 70% of open water drownings in our state. We must post signage that grabs their attention and encourages them to think twice.

On May 7th 2019, the Highlands Ranch, Colorado community was forever changed when a shooting occurred at the Highlands Ranch STEM School. 8 students were hurt and 1 was killed.

During the shooting, Kendrick Castillo, Brendan Bialy and Joshua Jones ran at the shooter and tackled him, giving their classmates time to take cover and escape.

Kendrick Castillo gave the ultimate sacrifice of his own life in the process.

We, as a Highlands Ranch community, believe that these three brave heroes are deserving of the 2019 Arthur Ashe Courage Award. This award is given out yearly at the ESPYs through ESPN and is given to individuals or a group that "stand up for their beliefs in the face of adversity," and that is exactly what Kendrick, Joshua and Brendan did.

We have a chance right now to make a change, stop these mass shootings and make these three true heroes so well known that nobody will be able to recall the name of the gunman. Please sign this petition.

Tens of thousands of Washington state employees — along with many private-sector healthcare workers — will be required to receive COVID-19 vaccinations or face firing, according to a sweeping mandate announced Monday by Gov. Jay Inslee.

Many workers in this state believe my body my choice, many are not "anti-vaxers" they just chose not to take a non FDA approved drug for a virus with a high survival rate.

Stop Inslee from making this mandatory! This is an unacceptable form of government overreach and it must be stopped!

I feel Washington Middle School should be renamed Bennie Hargrove Middle School as a forever memorial and sign of respect due to losing his life during an act of bravery and heroism. His name and legacy should be a staple in the Albuquerque community and the state of New Mexico until the end of time. Rest In peace to this young man and prayers and condolences to his family, friends, and everyone he encountered during his short life.