Extra! Extra! 10/27 🎁🎁
BRAKE FOR GOOD NEWS!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
In an effort to get this newsletter out before midnight tonight I am keeping this opening brief and, just this one time, skipping the 🪓’s and 🪣 ‘s.
Here’s a looooong list of everything good that happened this week. There is so much more I didn’t have time to add, but this should give you a good boost going into a critically important week.
Remember, things like this happen because PEOPLE LIKE YOU make them happen. There’s a direct cause for these effects. YOU are the secret sauce.
Thank you for that.
Share this widely. Let the world know we’re winning.
Jess
Read This 📖
Mainstream media is officially covering the Post-It note movement and honestly this article sort of choked me up.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The White House announced that it would propose new rules under the ACA that would require insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control at no cost to patients, as it seeks to expand access to contraception and cut out-of-pocket costs.
Maine has received $65M through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to improve its electrical grid for renewable energy.
The New York City Comptroller Brad Lander announced support for a policy that would cease future investments by New York City public pension funds in midstream and downstream fossil fuel infrastructure.
President Biden formally apologized for the federal government's role in running boarding schools where thousands of Native American children endured abuse, neglect and eradication of their tribal identities.
More than 145,000 people participated in early voting across the state of Michigan on Saturday, the first day of early in-person voting. The previous record was 11,000.
Republican former Michigan Congressman Fred Upton — who represented southwest Michigan’s 6th Congressional District — endorsed Kamala Harris for President.
American teen tobacco use has fallen to a 25-year-low, according to new data analyzed by the CDC and FDA that was released on Thursday.
Renewable energy capacity in India just hit a major milestone — accounting for 46% of the country’s total power. After years of effort to build solar parks, wind farms, and hydroelectric projects, the country’s total renewable energy capacity now exceeds 200 gigawatts.
As of this week, the FTC’s final rule banning fake online reviews and testimonials has come into effect.
Medicaid will now cover traditional healing practices for Native Americans in four states. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the two-year pilot program that applies at Indian Health Service facilities, tribal facilities, and urban Indian organizations.
A federal judge ruled that Rudy Guliani has to forfeit his Manhattan penthouse apartment and all his valuable possessions to the Georgia election workers he defamed. YASSSS!
The “Central Park 5” are suing Donald Trump for defamation. GOOD.
Palestinian, Muslim and Arab-American community leaders in Arizona came out publicly in support of voting for Harris.
Beyonce came to Houston, TX to campaign for Kamala Harris! Her incredibly powerful, poetic, inspiring speech is NOT to be missed!
Team Harris-Walz and National Basketball Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett partnered together for Hoop It Up 2Vote, a series of 3v3 basketball tournaments this weekend inMilwaukee and Detroit, encouraging voters to make their voice heard this November.
Four astronauts returned to earth after an extended stay in space that lasted nearly eight months. Just in time to vote, too!
After months of advocacy from students, researchers, and faculty members, the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment is cutting financial ties with the fossil fuel industry!
The DOE just announced $3 billion in funding for two sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects through its Loan Programs Office! 1
Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele announced that he voted for Kamala Harris for president.
Billionaire conspiracy theorist Elon Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC skipped its daily $1 million sweepstakes on Wednesday following a warning from the Justice Department that it might be illegal. (Thank you for your letters to the DOJ about this!)
Drug overdose deaths have decreased in the U.S. for six months straight, and though public health officials can’t explain what’s happening, it’s welcomed news.
In Arizona, former Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd pleaded guilty to charges related to her refusal to certify election results in 2022.
Early voting data shows that 130,000 of the potential first-time climate voters the Environmental Voter Project has been targeting have already voted early!
The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. (As a result I have signed up as a paid subscriber.)
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that election officials must count voters’ provisional ballots if their mail-in ballots were rejected because of errors.
A judge has struck down Ohio’s abortion ban as unconstitutional, saying last year’s voter-approved amendment “unequivocally protects the right to abortion.”
Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, will be the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court (about a law that bans medical treatment for transgender youth).
A judge handed down a temporary injunction blocking the $8.5 billion merger between fashion houses Capri and Tapestry, a deal that would put “affordable luxury” brands Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, and Versace all under one roof and dramatically consolidate the industry. The FTC’s Lina Khan (SHERO) brought the suit.
Insane Clown Posse‘s frontman Violent J endorsed Kamala Harris.
A judge tossed out a Republican Party lawsuit aimed at tightening the qualifications for Americans overseas to cast ballots in Michigan.
The first salmon since 1912 was just spotted in Oregon’s Klamath River Basin just months after a dam removal project was completed.
New York is one year ahead of schedule for hitting some of its clean energy goals outlined in the 2019 state climate law.
Kamala Harris’ campaign outraised Donald Trump by more than 3-to-1 in September, with the vice president’s massive $222 million haul further extending her financial advantage in the final stretch of a tight presidential election.
In a win for voters, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) plea to reinstate rules from the State Election Board that could delay certification and require a hand count of ballots.
Teamsters Against Trump have knocked over 40,000 doors of swing-state union members, sent over 290,000 postcards, gained over 1.2 million campaign video views, and successfully driven an anti-Trump narrative within the Teamsters. Bravo! And thanks to Movement Voter Project, who funded them!
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule to tighten lead dust standards, a move that aims to eliminate decades-old paint in millions of homes across the country that endangers young children.
Six Georgia cities have been awarded grants to help replace aging gas pipelines. The funding is part of a pot of nearly $800 million that has been awarded so far under the Bipartisan Infrastructure law.
We got more reporting that Trump’s ground game is basically nonexistent. (P.S. — I got this article from political strategist Mike Lux, who added: “The author underestimates what a strong field game vs a weak one can do- it’s more like 2-3 points, not 1 point.”)
According to Jen O’Malley Dixon volunteers for team Harris-Walz knocked on 1.2 million doors in battleground states just yesterday alone! WOW! She added: “It is okay to be nervous and to be anxious, but don't be freaked out, because we feel very good about where we are.” YES!
A new Harvard Youth Poll of voters under age 30 finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by 28 points among likely voters, 60% to 32%.
A federal judge blocked Virginia from purging its voter rolls of alleged non-citizens and ordered the state to reinstate more than 1,600 people who had already been bounced from those voter lists,” CNBC reports.
President Biden named his 55th round of judicial nominees.
Vice President Harris announced that the Small Business Administration (SBA) provided a record $56 billion through more than 100,000 small business financings in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024—the most in more than 15 years. The Vice President also announced new actions by the Biden-Harris Administration to cut red tape and expand access to Federal contracting opportunities.
The Biden-Harris Administration announced $110 million in awards from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to accelerate research and development in women’s health.
Republican and former Bush Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman endorsed Kamala Harris for President. In her endorsement, Veneman cited the Harris-Walz campaign’s “bold vision” and slammed Donald Trump’s tax hikes as “dangerous for rural America.”
Waukesha, Wisconsin’s Republican mayor endorsed Kamala Harris.
More than 80 American Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics have signed an open letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
The DNC is planning to paper 30 college campuses in 11 swing states with ads directing students to IWillVote.com.
Nearly $20 million has been awarded to conserve the Milwaukee River basin. It’s part of $1.5 billion federal package from the Inflation Reduction Act, which funneled $19.5 billion into the USDA's conservation programs for so-called "climate-smart" practices.
A federal judge tossed out the RNC's lawsuit seeking to purge allegedly “ineligible” voters from Michigan's rolls. Voting rights groups said the lawsuit threatened to disenfranchise eligible voters.
More than a thousand religious leaders endorsed Kamala Harris today.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump among likely voters nationally, 51% to 47%
23 Nobel Prize winning economists published a letter saying Kamala Harris’s economic plans are wildly better than Trump’s.
The DLCC—the official Democratic body in charge of funding state legislative races—announced a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that highlights the abortion policies of candidates in the battleground states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Watch This! 👀
This is inspiring and amazing.
And this is really funny AND effective.
Inspired by you, I knocked doors for three hours in my new hometown of Tempe, AZ yesterday. I was so scared to do it, but did it anyway. I am an introvert and can be awkward in conversations, but I feel like I did great. I also worked for 6 hours at a local direct mail house helping to get mailers out for Harris, Nez and Stanton campaigns. Thanks Jessica for inspiring me to get outside of my comfort zone to make a difference.
Thank you…that was helpful. Even here in Australia, I am having sleepless nights at the thought of what a second Trump term would bring. Praying for a Blue wave! All the best to you all.