Extra! Extra! 10/2
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Here’s a bunch of great news that (mostly) flew under the radar this week. So many things to celebrate!
Enjoy, and please share. Everyone needs something to smile about these days.
And thanks, as always, for being my subscribers.
Jess
Read This 📖
A fantastic and uplifting article about writing postcards to voters!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Joe Manchin pulled his dirty permitting deal from the Continuing Resolution!
The Senate passed a bill to avert a shutdown and fund the government until Dec. 16th.
Massachusetts became the latest state to ban school officials and employers from discriminating against individuals based on their natural hair and protective hairstyles.
The Cuban public voted this week to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption nationwide. The measure passed a referendum with 67% of voters supporting legalization
Last week, California’s legislature unanimously passed the Forbid Lewd Activity and Sexual Harassment (FLASH) Act, making it illegal to send unsolicited sexually explicit photos or videos.
The EPA launched a new national office tasked with advancing environmental justice and civil rights. The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights “delivers on President Biden’s commitment to elevate these critical issues to the highest levels of the government and solidifies the agency’s commitment to delivering justice and equity for all.” (Full news release here).
In an untelevised investiture ceremony Friday morning, the Supreme Court formally welcomed Ketanji Brown Jackson into its cohort!
(Should have been in last week’s) A jury found Project Veritas guilty of violating wiretapping laws and fraudulently misrepresenting itself to a Democratic consulting firm, and will be ordered to pay $120,000.
The Senate unanimously passed the STURDY Act to protect children from deadly furniture tip-overs. Consumer and child advocates have been lobbying for this bill for YEARS!
The Montana Supreme Court blocked two new laws – one that would eliminate Election Day registration, and another that would make the state’s voter ID law much more strict.
President Biden and the Department of Health and Human Services announced that premiums for Medicare B will decrease next year for the first time in over a decade.
Hertz rent-a-car has struck a deal with General Motors to purchase up to 175,000 electric vehicles for their rental fleet! The multi-billion dollar, multi-year deal could be the first of many GM agreements to supply electric vehicles to rental car companies, GM's operations chief said.
A jury found the insurrectionist underwear model guilty on all charges. John Strand, a spokesman for the anti-vaccine group America’s Frontline Doctors, faces up to 24 years in prison.
New Jersey’s Democratic Governor, Phil Murphy, set the East Coast’s most ambitious target for offshore wind energy last week, vowing in an executive order to develop 11 gigawatts by 2040 — enough to power about 4.7 million homes. The Garden State’s is about 50 percent higher than its previous goal of just 7.5 gigawatts.
McConnell is on board with the Electoral Count Act, which means it will pass!
In an historic deal between affordable housing groups and labor unions, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed two major bills to convert underutilized and vacant commercial buildings into housing.
There was also another trailblazing EV purchase order this week. Aviation company Heart Aerospace unveiled a new 30-passenger commercial electric plane, and Air Canada has ordered 30 of them. Air Canada and the Swedish automaker Saab have each invested $5 million in the company as well.
According to Bloomberg NEF (paywall) and other analysts, the U.S. and other major economies have reached the tipping point for EV adoption, suggesting that the EV transition is now irreversibly and like to scale up rapidly.
Democrats saw a big win in Pennsylvania after successfully blocking a Republican lawsuit seeking to prevent counties from notifying and giving voters the opportunity to fix errors in their mail-in ballots. Read more here.
A Donald Trump fan who took his teenage son along as he assaulted Mike Fanone, then a Washington, D.C., police officer, and another officer at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Tuesday.
The Department of Justice announced grant awards totaling $100 million to help communities across the U.S. reduce gun crime and other serious violence.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it would nearly double the funding awarded for clean school buses this year following increased demand, with school districts from all 50 states applying for the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates.
Local election boards in Maryland will be allowed to begin opening, canvassing, and tabulating mail-in ballots prior to Election Day.
NASA’s asteroid-crashing mission earlier this week was a success. Read about the experiment and what it means for the future.
Amtrak, the country’s federally chartered passenger rail company, announced a plan last week to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.
In Delaware, the Department of Elections will continue to process mail ballot applications while the state’s new no-excuse mail voting law is being litigated.
Watch This! 👀
Trigger warning—a bit of cursing in the below. But well worth it.
Just gotta say . . . . Loving the Chevron commercial!!
So well-done! Bravo.