Take The Initiative

Howard L Riiter & Sons have been in business for 50+ years here in Lewes, DE. Selling and or manufacturing sand, gravel, crushed concrete, asphalt millings, fill dirt and top soil etc.

We are asking for signatures to save this family’s business. They were here first. OSHA reported no issues when inspecting the site. The new development backing up to the business is complaining about noise & dust. They want this company shut down because it’s a nuisance.

We are asking for signatures in support of keeping this company in business. It not only effects their business but other local businesses (ex. Freeman’s Corn). Ritter & Sons provides Freeman’s Farm with all their irrigation for farming from their retention ponds. This is just one example of how they help our local community with blessing us with amazing corn!

It’s an obvious money/political driven agenda from the developers just trying to bully and make a ton of loot pushing these owners out of business.

Delaware Academy is currently attempting to use a hybrid model for the 2020-2021 school year. This will be extremely inefficient and dangerous for local students. The school will be forced to undergo drastic changes that hinder the “in-person learning experience”. Instead, the school should opt for an entirely online curriculum. This is more effective, and far safer for everyone within the community.

The Delaware Valley Administration acknowledges that our students are suffering educationally and mentally because of the continued school shut-down. OUR SCHOOL NEEDS TO REOPEN FULL TIME. Now that overall COVID cases are decreasing, hospitalizations and deaths are down, it is time to start focusing once again on our young people. Instead of choosing to move forward with reopening, the Del Val School Board once again has opted for the timid path, putting our children LAST on their priority list. Unlike other area schools, the Del Val BOE chose on 2/22/21 to make almost no changes to their schedule, keeping the asynchronous Wednesdays and continuing to only provide 2 days of in-school class for students. Other local schools are offering in-class education (with options for students who want to stay virtual) Why can’t Del Val? We want our children back in school full time. Please let your voices be heard, please sign this petition If you believe that it is time to get our children back to school full-time! Please share via FB, IG, E-Mail.

My name is Rosemarie Allicock and I am a fifth year senior at Delaware Valley University. I started my academic journey at DelVal in Fall of 2016, when I quickly realized that the school is nothing like what it advertises. The school preaches unity and inclusivity, and even holds kindness and respect for all people as one of its pillars, but also coddles racists. In my five years at DelVal I have witnessed numerous accounts of unchecked racism, but the thing that bothers me, and many other students the most, is the fact that the university allows students to display the confederate flag and other symbols of hate not only in their rooms, but sometimes also in their windows facing down on the campus. I am calling for DelVal to ban confederate flags from its campus and to take legitimate action against the hate on campus. The emails we receive every time a slur or a racial symbol/effigy is no longer enough, not that it ever was to begin with.
We the students are tired of the virtue signaling and complicate behavior of the university, it’s time to step up. It’s time to actually act like the inclusive university that you claim to be, instead of selling lies to prospective students.

delaware is ugly and dumb so we should give it away

I, like all my fellow Americans, realize the importance of each and every state. However, I see no reason for the state of Delaware existing. The only thing Delaware has to offer is the fact that it was the first state admitted to the USA. This alone isn't a reason it should continue to exist. We as America need to unite together to get rid of Delaware. It doesn't matter how we get rid of it, we can all brainstorm ideas together. But first we must really together and gather support for this cause.

At first glance, a bold green label reading “One Health Certified” (OHC) may look appealing to shoppers searching for safer food during the global pandemic—or at least that’s what grocery chain ALDI is counting on. But a closer look at the sticker adorning ALDI’s store-brand chicken reveals a much more sinister story: a massive meat company’s marketing scheme to humanewash, greenwash, and healthwash a grim past of environmental violations, workers’ rights issues, animal cruelty, and discrimination—and ALDI playing along.

OHC claims to certify meat producers according to a rigid standards established by an apparently independent organization. But as Farm Forward revealed in our recent report on humanewashing, OHC is the brainchild of Mountaire, the nation’s sixth largest poultry producer, which applied for the OHC trademark in 2017 and is the sole meat company to have adopted the program.

A scathing exposé in The New Yorker sheds light on why the poultry giant needs a public facelift: “Between 2010 and 2016, Mountaire had twice the number of OSHA violations per thousand workers as Tyson—a company with a workforce twelve times bigger.” Mountaire has also settled lawsuits alleging racial discrimination, and in 2013, it was fined for abusing Haitian workers, in part by denying them bathroom breaks.

And Mountaire is no stranger to environmental degradation and animal abuse. For decades, it has been cited for environmental violations, and this year, the company finally agreed to a $205 million settlement for allegedly contaminating the drinking water of thousands of Delaware residents. Further, a 2015 undercover investigation revealed birds being violently thrown and punched, as well as sick and injured birds being discarded into piles with the dead.

Behind the scenes, Mountaire’s story becomes even uglier. Mountaire’s secretive owner, Ronald Cameron, has spent decades building the political infrastructure to keep his efficient machine running without hiccups. Cameron’s own foundation has given millions to the opaque National Christian Foundation, which has given money to 23 different groups classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups. In 2020, after contributing millions to the Trump campaign, Cameron was appointed by President Trump to an advisory panel on the economic impact of the coronavirus; meanwhile, the Trump administration was busy classifying meatpacking workers as “essential,” forcing them to work amidst huge COVID outbreaks in crowded slaughterhouses. While COVID-19 cases rose by the dozens in Mountaire plants, the company went radio silent on its numbers. According to one worker, “People are coughing and they don’t look well, but they just want to keep the chicken coming. It’s all hush-hush.”

Now, with its new OHC “certification,” Mountaire is hoping to sweep all of this under the rug. OHC’s paltry standards simply enshrine routine factory farming practices, including permanent indoor confinement in crowded sheds. The genetically modified birds allowed under OHC are bred to grow so large, so quickly, that they often suffer from injuries and heart and lung stress, and many can no longer walk by the time they reach slaughter age. Further, despite touting “responsible” antibiotic standards, the OHC label allows repeated, perpetual use of medically important antibiotics for disease treatment and control without consequences. Ultimately, OHC standards do nothing to alleviate the crowded conditions within factory farms that facilitate the spread of diseases, infections, and parasites.

By plastering the OHC sticker on its store-brand chicken, which is supplied by Mountaire, grocery giant ALDI is raking in profits from conscientious shoppers. ALDI claims that it is committed to “livestock products being produced to high industry standards and in an ever more sustainable way.” Yet leadership never responded to the condemnation of OHC it received from a diverse national coalition of environmental, public health, and animal advocacy organizations, including Farm Forward, Consumer Reports, Natural Resources Defense Council, ASPCA, and the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at the George Washington University.

Further, ALDI has refused to commit to even bare-bones animal welfare measures like eliminating gestation crates for pregnant pigs. Instead, its leaders are trying to wash away these failures—and help Mountaire cover up its shameful history—with a little green sticker.

As one of the nation’s largest grocery chains, ALDI has a responsibility to its customers to stop concealing Mountaire’s dirty laundry through the OHC label—and to start making real progress. Join us in urging ALDI to take the first step by ditching its supplier, Mountaire, and the humanewashing OHC label today—then share our petition with your friends and family.

Start a petition of your own

Uncrustables has been the link to helping Delaware Disorder to win tournaments and keep on keeping on and we now need you help to get uncrustables to sponsor them! It doesn’t take much time at all and just think how much better you will feel and sleep better at night knowing that Delaware Disorder is one step closer to to being sponsored and one step closer to have enough uncrustables to get them through each practice or event!

Delaware is a state rich in community theater. It is one of our underappreciated hidden gems. Delaware has theaters tucked away on main streets, near colleges, at the heart of big cities, and in small communities. In honor of two incredible Delaware community theater staples birthdays (Brian Smith and Susie Moak), we would like you to proclaim February 4th as "Delaware Community Theater Day" annually starting February 4th, 2022.

Our community theaters are vibrant communities representing the ideals of inclusion in Delaware. Everyone has a place at the table during a production. Individuals from all walks of life forge friendships working together to put on a show. Diverse voices are celebrated in front of the curtain and behind it. Community theater enables individuals to grow past their comfort zone and learn various skills (from construction, event planning, marketing/promotion, public speaking, etc.).

Lacking the promotional budget of national blockbusters and professional productions, community theater often relies on flyers and word of mouth to draw people into this experience. Most people do not realize how many theaters we have or what productions are currently gracing the stage. If you proclaimed a "Delaware Community Theater Day," it would draw attention to this worthy endeavor and spread awareness in the state about this incredible resource. Increased engagement will benefit individuals and communities alike. Community theater could use a boost now more than ever in the wake of COVID-19 cancellations and a virtual season.

This is a petition to allow UD Army ROTC cadets to hold their commissioning ceremony outdoors at the UD stadium. COVID mitigation policies are currently a barrier, however, other colleges with over 5x as many people are holding their ceremonies in the same setting. The goal is to be given the equal outdoor capacity limit and opportunities as the other graduation ceremonies. UD Army ROTC commissioning would have less than 200 participants or smaller including family & cadets and will practice strict safety guidelines and distancing.

As the old adage goes: If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

The ability for Delaware Restaurant workers to earn their income will be greatly disrupted if HB 94 becomes law. Hundreds of Delaware's career servers & bartenders view HB 94 as a significant threat toward their ability to earn a livelihood.

We are calling on Delaware legislators to say NO 2 HB94. In theory, the bill appears to benefit the worker - but it simply does not.

In fact, in its current form, it will simply raise the amount of a tax paid by earned tip workers. Intangibly, it will create the perspective that we are being given a raise - and are less dependent on earned tips. This perception is POWERFUL & dangerous...and inaccurate.

As restaurant workers, our industry is still reeling from the impact of COVID-19. Our restaurant, bars, and venues are still operating at limited capacity. 20% of our workforce is still not back to work. Many of us who are back to work are not earning our typical income, and performing roles that are not our passion.

With all that said, we as career hospitality workers, we never requested this bill - nor were we offered at the seat at the table. There are so many ways for lawmakers in Dover to invest in our industry, and its perplexing that this was their first priority.

This is not the time for misguided reform...we are simply trying to fully recover.

Moving forward, we are hopeful that no laws pertaining to earned tip works will be proposed until the pandemic is finished straining our industry.

Recovery before reform.

The University of Delaware athletic department and women’s lacrosse head coaches have decided to suspend the women’s lacrosse season due to a gathering that the team had after a game. This gathering consisted ONLY of teammates, who see each other every single day at practice. Not only was their season revoked but 5th year eligibilities were taken away from ONLY the seniors.

Please sign this petition to help the girls get their season back or atleast show the athletic department this punishment is cruel and wrong. Thank you for your support!!!!

Governor John Carney and Dr. Rattay,

IT IS TIME TO UNMASK OUR CHILDREN!

Children should NOT be wearing masks! We are over 1 year into this pandemic and the SCIENTIFIC evidence is out. Masks are ineffective for the purpose claimed by the mandate and potentially harmful. The data has shown that children are not significant carriers of COVID-19 at school or at home. Children, per the CDC and Delaware’s own data, are statistically unaffected by COVID-19, transmit the virus, become seriously ill, or suffer death. New studies show masks are harming school-aged children physically, psychologically, and behaviorally. Adults and teachers who are at a higher risk, have all had a significant amount of time to get vaccinated if they chose to do so.

Masks in schools, daycares and camps should be OPTIONAL and should not be FORCED on our children! Our children need normalcy. They need to see their teacher’s faces. They need to see their friends faces. Kids need interaction, and kids need to be KIDS!

Our children carry the LEAST amount of risk but are left carrying the greatest burden! They DESERVE better. They deserve for YOU, Governor Carney and Dr. Rattay, to do better.

UNMASK OUR CHILDREN!

High school water polo competitions are mostly played in heavily chlorinated water regardless if they are indoor or outdoor, where the players are mostly submerged. Their faces are thoroughly doused every few seconds, and are often underwater. Unfortunately, Oregon has simply lumped Water Polo into the contact sport category without any additional consideration regarding the environment in which it is played. Evidence from other states and abroad demonstrates that COVID-19 is highly unlikely to be transmitted during games. This misclassification threatens the opportunity of having a 2021 season.

1. Experiences in Other High Risk States High school seasons were played in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Texas, mostly in smaller indoor pools. Nationwide, tens of thousands of athletes have played water polo without a single reported transmission. As a result, Illinois and Ohio will permit water polo for spring indoor seasons.

2. International Scientific Studies. Italy was hardest hit by COVID’s initial impact. Its oldest technical university, Polytechnic Institute of Turin, issued a 400-page study of 387 sports. Water polo was the safest team sport. Similarly, the Spanish Swimming Federation issued a technical paper arguing, “A well- maintained swimming pool is sanitary safe” from COVID-19. The Dutch University Medical center of Ultrecht provided evidence that chlorine inactivated COVID-19. Swimming Canada tracked over 282,000 individual mostly indoor swim training sessions without a single reported pool transmission.

3. CDC Guidance. “There is no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread to humans through the use of swimming pools…or aquatic play areas.”

4. WHO Guidance. “There is limited risk of significant microbial contamination and illness in a well-managed pool or similar environment with an adequate residual disinfectant concentration.”

5. Chlorine Gas. The effect of chlorine is not limited to the water. Droplets and gas disinfect the surface of the water column, according to the British Sports Medicine Journal and National Institute of Health.

6. Travel Tournaments. Indoor youth tournaments in Utah and Texas have hosted over five thousand athletes this winter with no reported transmissions. Oregon athletes have taken part in these tournaments.

Other states and countries have concluded that youth sport games are uncorrelated to COVID hospitalizations. The risks are outside the water. Governor Brown, if you open the sport, operational risks will be mitigated, the looming destruction of Oregon’s aquatic ecosystem can be avoided, and our mentally exhausted, isolated athletes will return to thrive in home waters.

We need to stop the power grabbers of the political spectrum and have the We The People make there owe smart choices in life.. the Constitution have been challenged and We The People need to stand up for what is right for the CT people freedom and the USA freedom. Please sign now.

California has done it and they are in the process of removing the Governor.

Lets stop this madness.

Due to recent events, I feel the need to voice my concern, echoed by others, to a serious injustice. I understand COVID-19 is causing a lot of anxiety for all of us, but this should not mean that our student body turning on each other. The “COVID-19 Concerns – Community and Individual Behavior Report Form” is causing more harm than good for our school community.

Asking students to police each other is not encouraging unity to help us all get through this pandemic. Inconsistency, mis-use and mis-trust have resulted.

Here is a story of two Colby-Sawyer students who were just removed from their off-campus housing for doing what Residential asked of them for back-to-campus arrival protocol. Stocking up on food because the Dining Hall was not going to provide for them.

Samantha Mohammed and Anna Allen are leaving campus this Saturday, Feb. 20, for an incident that most certainly could have been a warning if only the facts were clearly heard and understood. In your heart do you truly believe Sam and Anna should be revoked of their housing contract for doing what the school asked of them and stocking up on a two-week supply of food for quarantine? New London is an approved area CSC can go to.

As per an email CSC sent out to the student body and families on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 at 1:49:13 PM CSC stated, “Students who live in the college owned houses and are not on the meal plan should plan ahead to stock up on groceries to last them through the quarantine period.” Sam and Anna are roommates who live in London House. Besides living off campus, they are out-of state-students. Anna is a student from across the country and arrived late the evening before. She had the ordeal and stress of flying during COVID to arrive in New London. Both Anna and Samantha arrived at 1am on campus January 17, 2020 when the stores were closed. The logistics of travel should be considered.

I’m sure CSC didn’t expect students to bring a two-week supply of food in their suitcase on a flight from California or had enough room in their car for all those groceries along with all their other school necessities on a long drive to campus. Most off-campus students had to buy food locally before they could start their quarantine. What needs to be considered here is their arrival, check-in and shopping all had to happen on Jan. 18.

Anna and Sam were reported as being in Hannaford’s buy food for their quarantine. Other students were in Hannaford’s doing the same thing. Not all of them were reported. Obviously, the student that reported them, should also have received the same treatment because she was there at the same time doing the same thing but did not. This has turned students against student and is not right.

Another matter to bring up is how individuals might have interpreted CSC’s instructions from the Wednesday, January 6, 2021 email. Personally, I felt it had vague information on when quarantine actually started. The email stated, “Students will be tested on January 19 and will be quarantined in their residence halls through January 25.” I interpreted that to means our quarantine will start after our test on January 19.

This brings me back to the COVID-19 Concerns – Community and Individual Behavior Report Form. For the students that report other students, what are their consequences for breaking the same rules? Do you keep them around to be the school’s eyes and ears, looking for infractions?

I can personally tell you there were incidents that were reported about sexual assault and horrific behavior from a fellow student that CSC did nothing about to make me feel safe, while this student stayed on campus after these allegation. Yet CSC kicks out two students for buying food in preparation for their quarantine, at your instructions to stock-up on food. That is not right. This is all wrong. This is a big disappointment.

This morning on WMUR-TV reported, ‘The CDC said this is not the time to travel” in relation to the concerns of the more contagious COVID Variant. Colby-Sawyer is sending three of their own students off campus and having to travel back home to Connecticut and California due to them stocking up on food in preparation to the school imposed two-week quarantine. Is that right? How can these students be successful in their academics while they are “homeless” and stress over yet another crisis during these unprecedented times or forced to go remote? These are good people, and should remain on campus as part of our caring and compassionate community.

It would be safer for all involved to have the students remained in the controlled environment and able to live in their campus housing. Now they will have to travel daily back to wherever they end up living to campus, go to classes but between classes to have to sit in an approved campus building instead of the safety of their campus housing.

Can Colby-Sawyer College really afford to lose more nice students, especially when your retention rate is so low?

I urge you to revisit this case and look at the human factors to it and reverse your decision. Listen to your students; you are not hearing them and their concerns.

I also ask that you do not encourage students to take policing their fellow students into their own hands. It is breaking down our community.

Bring Sam and Anna back home to Colby-Sawyer College.

Many residents of Connecticut are faced with a rate increase of 100% for both their electric supply services and delivery charges through Eversource. Millions of families have been affected by this immense rate increase. There are countless families who struggle to pay their bills and, especially during a time of COVID, many of these families are faced with losing their homes or being evicted.
The change we need right now is for large monopolies, like Eversource, to supply and deliver energy at an affordable rate to all Connecticut residents. If Eversource continues on this path, undoubtedly more residents will be forced to move from their homes and leave this beautiful state.
I will bring this petition to the necessary leaders who can address this matter. Let your voice be heard! Please help one another by signing this petition in an effort to make this change!
Thank you for your support.

We are student leaders at the University of Connecticut who are striving for a more intersectional and Anti-Racist education curriculum.

In response to the worsening racial climate on campus, a series of hateful racially targeted events, and a prolific national history of racial injustice, the Academic Affairs Committee of USG, UConn NAACP, UConn Collaborative Organizing, and the Honors 4 Diversity Program intends to reinvent the way we approach Anti-Racist pedagogy at UConn.

We created a proposal, which calls for:

1. A mandatory first-year 1 credit Anti-Black Racism course

2. The implementation of two-courses into the General Education Oversight Committee's General Education plan that both address how diversity, inclusion, and social justice are intrinsically linked to the societal institutions in our country.

In order for this proposal to become an academic policy at UConn, we need YOU.

SIGN!

SHARE!

#EDUCATEOURPACK

In 2007 the city Stamford (through the great power of protests and relentless efforts of the local community) approved for a skate park built by Grindline. Grindline has built hundreds if not thousands of skate parks throughout the United States, which some very well have lights for a evening activity. Now here in stamford Connecticut Scalzi Park has lights for almost every activity, field , court at Scalzi Park except the skate park. From baseball to football to the basketball courts to the tennis courts to even the bocce and handball all are lit up and if I’m not mistaken even the playground itself has lights. The skate park at Scalzi Park in Stamford Connecticut is one of the top attractions at Scalzi Park. Not just opened and played on during days of games or practices. No the skate park is open seven days a week and people from all over come to visit Scalzi skate park.This year alone in 2020 as hard as it was for the world. The skateboarding community at scalzi has came together stronger than ever and has pulled off events and even professional skateboarder‘s have came to visit Scalzi Park to visit the skate park. With lights at Scalzi skate park we can achieve Control so it’s not as crowded during the day being able to broaden the range of times that we are able to use the skate park, witch will allow less people at once which is ideal especially during Covid. The city of Stamford should have someone to come fourth and lock the skate parks gate every night so nobody breaks in. Failing to do so results in non-skaters coming in at hours they are not supposed to ruining our place of action sports and put graffiti all over it. That results in two groups being highly upset #1 the city of Stamford because that’s property that they paid for and to most importantly the skateboarders because that’s very dangerous as the paint is 20 times more slip than the original concrete. Graffiti on the skate park alone is liability liability. If stamford was to grant Scalzi skate park lights that would mean that we would be able to solidify a committee to lock the gates at night so no one can further damage to the park and they can also guarantee the younger kids more freedom during their earlier sessions, versus the evening skate sessions the older gentleman can enjoy. With the great power of your voice we can make a change. This is something that the community has Really wanted since 2007. At the moment you can probably see a vast amount of younger kids on scooters with parents and a lot of the times they are put in danger and get in the way of the older kids skateboarding at high speeds resulting in some young kids possibly getting hurt. Even though the rules on the Scalzi skate park fence clearly state this is a skate park not for bikers, rollerbladers nor scooters and that it is also not for beginners. We still allow these kids and families to come in and have a great time and we welcome them with open arms. With lights once again as I reiterate can almost split us up so it’s less of a chance that anyone could either get hurt, sick or furthermore. This isnt something that happens overnight but this is something that can happen. Next year will make it 15 years Scalzi skatepark has been open!!! Wow! I believe it’s time to make this happen!! If You have ever visited Scalzi skate park or enjoyed it over the years be a big help in making this change because I guarantee everybody will be More than happy to see not only lights but a huge change in the structure of the park so we can guarantee safety as far as social distancing, the liability of more paint on the skate park and more. We are Scalzi skatepark and our Community is stronger than ever! let’s show the city of Stamford why we are one of the top attractions within Scalzi Park and the city of Stamford! - Scalzi skatepark

Connecticut is already just used for highways fast food and gas stations why not use the other wasted space for parking and storage.