Extra! Extra! 11/20 🎉

Hi, everyone!

Well, it’s a day late, but here’s a list of great things that happened this week, including some later-arriving results from the midterms. More wins to celebrate everywhere!

Soak it all in like a warm bath—you’ve earned it!

Thanks, as always, for being subscribers. I can’t tell you how appreciated every one of you is.

Jess

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I loved this from Michael Moore.

Celebrate This! 🎉

California just awarded 96 million in climate grants for 10 communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Climate mitigation is an important part of addressing climate change, and some communities are disproportionately impacted.

A Fulton County judge has overturned Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, ruling that two key parts of the law “were plainly unconstitutional when drafted, voted upon, and enacted” and writing that the law cannot be enforced. https://wapo.st/3tz5y92

WE OFFICIALLY FLIPPED THE PA STATE HOUSE!

Katie Hobbs, a Democratic election official who defied Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 results, won the Arizona governor’s race over Kari Lake, a Trump-backed election denier.

Michigan passed Proposal 2 last week, a measure that amends the state constitution to make voting easier while also protecting against efforts to curtail voting rights.

Early voting also notched a win in Connecticut, where voters adopted a constitutional amendment that authorizes the legislature to set up early voting.

Oakland, California passed a measure to revamp campaign finance and implement a democracy vouchers program. The program will provide each eligible voter with four $25 vouchers to donate to the candidate of their choice for upcoming city and school board elections.

U.S. Congresswoman and former Vice Presidential hopeful Karen Bass defeated Rick Caruso, the billionaire real-estate developer, to be the Los Angeles’s next leader.

Nevada’s Question 3 ballot measure passed with majority support, advancing landmark reform — nonpartisan primaries and ranked choice voting general elections — to the state’s 2024 ballot.

Massachusetts reformers were jubilant following the defeat of Thomas Hodgson, the far-right sheriff of Bristol County whose 25-year reign has been marked by extreme medical neglect, mounting jail suicides, and staunchly anti-immigrant policies.

Senate Dems passed legislation to codify same-sex marriage rights. 

The White House announced that it will seek more funding for a new generation of coronavirus vaccines and treatments in Biden’s lame duck session. 

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) won reelection and clinched the Senate majority for Dems during Tiffany Trump’s wedding which was held at, you guessed it, Mar-a-Lago.

South Dakota expanded their Medicaid program, after a decade of GOP politicians refusing to expand the program as provided by Obamacare.

A Massachusetts organization has launched a toolkit for activists and leaders to strengthen abortion rights in their towns and cities.

Running for DA in Oklahoma County, Republican Kevin Calvey vowed to drop the charges filed by the outgoing DA against five police officers who shot and killed 15-year Stavian Rodriguez outside a convenience store. Calvey lost last week to Democrat Vicki Behenna.

President Biden and Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced a climate-finance deal providing $20 billion to help Indonesia move away from coal power. 

Israel and Jordan are joining forces to help save the Jordan Riverfrom pollution and climate change, one of the many key agreements coming out of the U.N.’s COP27 conference.

Wholesale inflation saw its fourth straight decline, another signal that inflation pressures are easing in the United States.

A Georgia judge ruled that counties may offer early voting on Saturday, November 26 as a part of the Senate runoff election, rebuking guidance issued by the secretary of state.

The three biggest rainforest nations, containing more than half of the world’s tropical rainforest, have joined forces on jungle conservation efforts.

A federal judge has nixed parts of a Florida law that restricts conversations about race in public colleges in universities, the so-called “Stop WOKE Act” signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Thanks to Indigenous opposition, a second oil company canceled its oil and gas drilling lease in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Cars are vanishing from Paris under their new mayor, and it’s awesome.

In Ohio, Toledo and Lucas County have combined to turn $1.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds into as much as $200 million of medical debt relief.

Icelandair announced they will offer carbon-free domestic flights by 2030. The airline is partnering with two startups working on emission-free planes, and flights could start as soon as 2026. 

Darya Farivar was elected Washington’s first Middle Eastern woman legislator!

In Texas, Tiffanie J. Harrison beat a QAnoner that was heavily funded by anti-CRT/anti-LGBTQ extremists and the Texas GOP.

John Fredrickson is likely to keep the GOP from gaining a supermajority in Nebraska senate candidate, flipping a seat red-to-blue and becoming the first openly gay member of the chamber

Audi has partnered with battery recycling company Redwood Materials to turn old electronics into EV batteries!

The U.S. and UAE reached an agreement to spend $100 billion to add 100 gigawatts of clean energy capacity globally by 2035. The United Arab Emirates is an OPEC oil producer, so it’s an encouraging announcement for the global clean energy transition.

530,000 new battery-electric vehicles were registered in the U.S. between January and September, according to Experian, the credit data company. That’s a 57 percent increase over EV registrations from the same period in 2021.