Extra! Extra! 10/1 🪓
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
This edition once again almost exceeded Substack’s length limits so I know it’s been an especially good week. Enjoy the victories people like you helped bring about (marked with an 🪓), and the ones you didn’t. All of them are a reminder that, while lots of terrible stuff is happening, the wins are happening right along with them. And YOU are making the difference!
Please share this news far and wide, and give yourself a pat on the back. Without you we’d be sunk!
Jess
Read This 📖
WOW. “This is the most extraordinary month [we] have ever seen in antitrust.”
Celebrate This! 🎉
Bill Clinton is launching a climate fund to address the challenges posed by global warming.
Thanks to an anonymous donation, a pristine 1,200-Acre preserve in Texas just opened to the public for the first time ever. The newly opened Pecan Springs Karst Preserve is home to a handful of threatened and endangered species.
Electric big rigs are going farther and charging faster.
The Biden administration is doling out $1.4 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law to power rail projects in 35 states and D.C. 🪓
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new abortion rights protections into law, including legislation that shields providers from out-of-state prosecution if they prescribe abortion pills to someone in an anti-choice states. 🪓
Rep. Andy Kim announced Saturday that he was launching a 2024 Democratic primary challenge against corrupt New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez.
A federal judge—Matthew Kacsmaryk, no less!—sided with the Biden administration on an administration rule that would allow retirement advisers to include climate and environmental factors in their calculations.
The International Energy Agency found that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still within reach if countries rapidly scale up renewables within the next decade.
The European Court of Human Rights heard a case this week brought by six Portuguese youth, who argued that Europe’s governments are violating their fundamental rights by not doing enough to prevent climate change.
A Minnesota judge summarily dismissed misdemeanor charges against three Anishinaabe water protectors who had protested at a pipeline construction site in an effort to stop the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline. “To criminalize their behavior would be the crime,” she concluded.
Massachusetts has become the first state to ban all state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles. The city of Concord, MA has gone one step further, banning plastic bottles outright in the entire city. 🪓
A Missouri judge decided against Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s attempts to try to quash a pro-choice ballot measure by giving it a wildly partisan and inaccurate summary.
The Federal Trade Commission and 17 states filed a lawsuit against Amazon for “illegal conduct” in its online store and services to merchants, which stifled competition. 🪓
The United Farm Workers union endorsed Joe Biden for reelection.
Plan C launched the Charley Chatbot, an online chatbot designed to connect abortion seekers—specifically those in restricted states—to information about their options.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama’s request to let it use a congressional map passed by its legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey this summer with only one majority-Black district — a strong rebuke of a stunning act of defiance from the state and its Republican political leadership.
A last-minute reprieve has saved Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention from having to cut much of the funding for its nonprofit contractors, who work on the frontline with people experiencing violence and crime.
Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that prevents school boards from banning or censoring textbooks that tackle racial or LGBTQ+ issues. 🪓
A new large sample, high quality, bi-partisan Univision poll of Hispanic voters has Biden leading Trump 58-31 (+27).
Brazil's Supreme Court just rejected efforts to restrict Native peoples' rights to reservations on their ancestral lands. The ruling sets a precedent for hundreds of Indigenous land claims and is expected to have widespread consequences for Indigenous land rights.
Run For Something announced a 50 State School Board Strategy — their plan to fight for public education anywhere it’s under attack! YAAAAY!
SNAP recipients will be able to use their benefits for Uber Eats grocery deliveries starting next year.
Hunter Biden sued Rudy Giuliani and Giuliani’s former lawyer, Robert Costello, in federal court for essentially destroying his privacy.
Elevated Access, the group of volunteer pilots who have been flying people out of their home states in order to get abortion and gender-affirming care, completed its 400th flight recently. In a press release, the group says their network of pilots have flown passengers over 250,000 miles since April 2022.
A New York judge ruled on Tuesday that Donald J. Trump persistently committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets, and stripped the former president of control over some of his signature New York properties.
President Biden became the first sitting president to walk a picket line on Tuesday. 🪓
A federal judge in Texas struck down the state’s new anti-drag law, which includes both civil and criminal penalties, declaring it to be unconstitutional and barring state officials from enforcing it.
Churches and community groups across Florida are throwing themselves into efforts to teach Black history after the state’s controversial move to reject AP African American Studies.
A state judge ruled that Montana’s law banning gender-affirming medical care for minors likely violates Montana’s Constitution, granting the law’s challengers a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several gun control measures Tuesday, including a bill that tightens the state’s concealed-carry rules and another that imposes a new tax on firearm and ammunition sales. 🪓
A church in Texas just launched a new program to help fund health care for transgender youth. With no requirement for religious beliefs or church involvement, the program assists local families who need to travel out of state for healthcare for their children with a $1,000 grant.
The Massachusetts group behind the state’s recent political wins for abortion rights is expanding into Connecticut and New Hampshire. 🪓
New Balance announced they would stop making athletic shoes with kangaroo leather.
The Biden Administration is launching the National Climate Resilience Framework, a vision designed to guide and align climate resilience investments and activities by the federal government and its partners. 🪓
Judge Tanya Chutkan refused former President Donald Trump’s request that she recuse herself from his election interference trial in Washington.
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a civil complaint against eBay, accusing the online marketplace of unlawfully selling and distributing hundreds of thousands of products that violate environmental laws. 🪓
An appeals court declined to postpone the start of next week’s trial in the New York attorney general’s $250 million fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump and his company.
BLM finally released a plan that protects Labyrinth Canyon in Utah and the surrounding public lands from out-of-control off-road vehicle traffic. 🪓
A new Economist + YouGov poll finds that Americans are much more likely to say that the U.S. is doing too little on climate change than to say that the country is doing too much.
Omar Navarro, a favorite of former President Trump’s MAGA movement for repeatedly challenging Democrat Maxine Waters for her congressional seat, was indicted Wednesday on 43 counts of misusing campaign funds, including funneling tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations back to himself through friends and family.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service just voted to ban wildlife killing contests in the state.
Abortion rights groups in Colorado turned in paperwork last week to place a proposed constitutional amendment before voters that would both safeguard abortion access and overturn a 1984 amendment that bans public funding for the procedure. 🪓
The Biden-Harris administration hosted the first-ever White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities, which included representatives from more than 25 states, territories, and Tribal Nations. 🪓
President Biden signed a Presidential Memorandum to prioritize the restoration of healthy and abundant wild salmon, steelhead, and other native fish populations to the Columbia River Basin. 🪓
The Federal Aviation Administration announced nearly $300 million in funding for projects to help achieve America’s goal of net-zero emissions from aviation by 2050. 🪓
President Biden vetoed two resolutions that would have overturned protections for at-risk wildlife. 🪓
Free Speech For People filed a lawsuit before the Michigan Court of Claims challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot in 2024.
Scott Hall, a defendant in the sweeping election-interference case against former president Donald Trump and 18 others in Fulton County, Ga., became the first to plead guilty on Friday. He also agreed to testify against others.
The GA state Senate Republican Caucus has suspended a North Georgia lawmaker who recently called to defund the Fulton County district attorney in response to her indictment of former President Donald Trump.
At House Republicans’ first impeachment hearing against Biden, their own witnesses said there was not enough evidence to support impeachment.
The EU finalised a new draft rule banning advertisements that mislead customers with false sustainability promises.
In a surprise turnaround, New Hampshire’s electric utilities have come out in favor of continuing the state’s current system for compensating customers who share their surplus solar power on the grid.
Federal district Judge Steve Jones denied Jeff Clark’s petition to remove his Georgia criminal case from Fulton County to federal court.
A federal court found that Starbucks illegally punished workers for unionizing by denying them pay increases and benefits, even while the company boosted wages and benefits for non-union stores. Starbucks must now provide thousands of workers with back pay and increased benefits.
The Writers Guild of America reached a deal on a new contract! The strike is over and their deal is GREAT!
The National Forest Foundation announced that in the past year, it’s planted over 8 million trees — of 25 different species — and reforested over 21,000 acres of land.
One day after the Senate confirmed commissioner Anna Gomez, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced plans to begin a process to restore Net Neutrality! 🪓
We’ve at least temporarily averted a shutdown! 🪓
As a new listener to your subscription, I was positively giddy reveling, and all of this amazing good news. I am a racial justice activist and organize predominantly with SURJ. Very little causes me to feel giddy so this is a big day! Thank you so much. I too shared it with others who may be unfamiliar with your posts.
Just shared your upbeat, positive report on Spoutible, Jessica. Hope it brings more readers to your incredible reporting. Thank you!!!