Extra! Extra! 11/24 👏🏼👏🏼
Celebration is a form of resistance!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Well, here it is—even in the midst of all this bad news—your weekly list of all the things that went right in the past week. As usual, there were a ton of them!
Enjoy this roundup. Savor it, bask in it. And for goodness sakes, share it! People are feeling low; they need the lift. Remember, what we focus on tends to grow, so let’s take some time to focus on the wins today, and help others to do so as well.
Enjoy, and have a terrific Sunday. You’re amazing and who you are makes a difference.
Sending hugs.
Jess
P.S — I’ve popped an 🪓 next to every item that everyday activists like you helped make happen, and a 🪣 next to every one that got done by lawmakers or administrations that we helped elect.
Read This 📖
A few readings on hope—all really worth your time:
Despair is Not a Strategy: 15 principles of hope by Abby Brockman. Excellent.
Also, this full Rebecca Solnit column from 11/9 is outstanding.
Superb: 8 Reasons That keep Me Going by David Pepper.
Celebrate This! 🎉
Democrats have flipped the Alaska House! 🪓
In Missouri, while Republicans won the top of the ticket on Election Day, activists helped overturn the state’s abortion ban and won Proposition A, a ballot initiative for a $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave, which won with more than 58 percent of votes. 🪓
In CA-45, Derrick Tran extended his lead even more—he’s now ahead of his GOP opponent by 519 votes. 🪓
In Washington Dave Upthegrove, a Democrat and environmental advocate, beat Republican challenger Jaime Herrera Beutler in the race for Washington commissioner of public lands—a position that puts him in charge of environmental protection efforts in the state. 🪓
300 Whole Foods workers in Philly are unionizing with UFCW. This appears to be the first organizing effort at a Whole Foods store ever. 🪓
By a “razor-thin margin,’” attorney Sal Mungia won a race to join the supreme court in Washington state. He won by roughly 0.6%, defeating a more conservative challenger who wanted to break up the court's progressive majority. 🪓
MIT announced that undergraduates with a family income below $200,000 will have their tuition covered.
Women have won 60 seats in the New Mexico Legislature to secure the largest female legislative majority in U.S. history. 🪓
Olive oil prices are on track to halve soon.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has transferred $6.5 million from the state’s medical marijuana program to the Missouri Veterans Commission. That brings the cumulative total transferred to $46,478,820 since sales began in October 2020.
Morning Joe saw its ratings continue to decline…as viewers protest the hosts warming up to Trump. The show averaged just 647K total viewers, with only 51K in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo. That means the show was down a staggering 60% in the demo versus its Q3 2024 average and down 43% in total viewers. [Source] 🪓
The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to approve a “sanctuary city” ordinance that prevents city resources from being used for immigration enforcement and city departments from voluntarily sharing information on people without legal status with federal immigration authorities. 🪓 🪣
New data from the United Kingdom show that sales of antibiotics for use in food-producing animals remain at decade-low levels.
Homicides in big cities fell as much as 40 percent during the first nine months of the year, according to new data, dropping significantly since the crime wave that peaked throughout the pandemic. 🪣
Scientists are astonished at how fast salmon are returning after the largest dam removal in U.S. history opened up the Klamath River. 🪓
Women now make up a majority of the Los Angeles City Council for the first time in history. 🪓
A tentative contract deal between SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) and its largest employee union ended the possibility of a history-making “mega strike” of roughly 14,000 public-sector union members in transit and city services. Union members will get a 5% raise in a 1-year contract, as well as an unspecified pension adjustment. 🪓
St. Paul, Minnesota is clearing the medical debt of 32,000 of its residents. Prioritizing those with the highest need, the city is using federal funds to wipe out $40 million in medical debt obligations through the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt. 🪣
Hundreds of female faculty members at the University of Colorado Boulder will receive backpay as part of a $4.5 million settlement stemming from a class action gender equity lawsuit. 🪓
Lawmakers in Denmark just approved a plan to plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest and natural habitats. 🪣
President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Cecile Richards, an abortion rights activist and former president of Planned Parenthood. 🪓 🪣
One of the largest solar energy projects in Rhode Island — Dry Bridge, in North Kingstown — is generating enough power to offset two-thirds of on-campus electricity consumption for Brown University.
She Should Run, a nonprofit that helps women run for office reported a 743% increase in U.S. women looking to get involved post-election. 🪓
Also since Election Day, Run for Something has had over 10,000 people from across the country sign up to run for office. To put that into perspective, RFS had 15,000 people reach out with interest in running for local office in the first year of Trump’s presidency. 🪓
Alaska voters rejected a ballot measure to repeal open primaries and ranked-choice voting in the state. 🪓
A Wyoming judge ruled that two laws restricting and banning abortion in the state violate its constitution, making the procedure legal up until fetal viability for the time being.
Only 8 days after his nomination had been announced, Matt Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration as U.S. attorney general under Trump’s administration. HUGE. 🪓
Massachussetts legislators approved a long-awaited climate bill that will limit gas pipeline expansion, make it easier to site and build renewables, and allow utilities to use geothermal energy — instead of fossil fuels — to heat and cool homes. 🪓 🪣
There were FOUR initiatives on the ballot in Arizona that were designed to limit voter power. All four were massively funded by special interests. All four failed. 🪓
Clean energy win: Ann Arbor, Michigan voted 79 percent in favor of a measure to create a “sustainable energy utility” (SEU) that will supplement the existing grid and help residents shift to cleaner, more reliable energy. 🪓
Democrats in Montana gained 10 seats in the state House and 2 seats in the state Senate—breaking the GOP supermajority. That’s the most seats Democrats have won in the Montana legislature in 30 years. 🪓
Inside Climate News, an excellent climate newsletter, received two new major grants—one for 500K from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the other for 225K from the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation, both to be used over the next three years.
Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur won reelection against Republican Derek Merrin in one of the most closely contested House races. Her margin of victory? About 1200 votes. 🪓
After 60 years, Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s parade will finally include LGBTQ+ groups. 🪓
Weeks after ProPublica reported on the deaths of two pregnant women whose miscarriages went untreated in Texas, state lawmakers have filed bills that would create new exceptions to the state’s strict abortion laws, broadening doctors’ ability to intervene when their patients face health risks. We don’t know if they will pass, but even the fact that they’ve been introduced is a small victory. 🪣
Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde (R) finally conceded to incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
A new Democracy 2025 platform is live, and 800 lawyers are signed up to implement legal counter-strike plans to Project 2025 that were developed in recent months in working groups convened by Democracy Forward. 🪓
The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) commissioned a post-election poll to better understand voters’ views on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and found overwhelming public support for the agency across all demographics, including Trump voters. Go figure.
President Biden became the first sitting American President to visit the Amazon and to proclaim the first International Conservation Day. He also announced that the U.S. has fulfilled his pledge to increase U.S. international climate finance to over $11 billion a year by 2024 – making the United States the largest bilateral provider of climate finance in the world. 🪣
An overwhelming majority of voters—about 94%—believe the presidential election results are accurate, according to a post-election poll from Reuters and Ipsos.
Bluesky is rapidly emerging as a counterweight to X, with downloads rising 430 percent during election week. (Find me there at @jesscraven101.bsky.social) 🪓
The Justice Department, along with the Attorneys General of four states, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block UnitedHealth Group’s proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of rival home health and hospice services provider Amedisys. 🪣
The Justice Department asked a U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday to order Google to sell its Chrome browser in what would be the largest antitrust crackdown since the feds tried to break up Microsoft two decades ago. 🪣
The Supreme Court handed a massive win to shareholder rights and corporate disclosure requirements when it dismissed a case brought by Facebook that sought to block a lower court’s ruling that allowed shareholders to sue Facebook for allegedly misleading shareholders. 1
A Virginia circuit court ruled that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin unlawfully steered the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), potentially paving the way for the state to lower greenhouse gas emissions and regain access to tens of millions of dollars to fight climate change.
In NYC, the MTA’s congestion pricing plan, which will decrease traffic, encourage the use of public transit, remove pollutants from the air, and send desperately needed funds to the MTA, just got the green light! It starts January 5. 🪓
U.N. talks have reached a deal to offer $300 billion a year in climate aid to poor nations. 🪣
If this isn't hope, I don't know what it. I also saw your video about how Gaetz withdrawing was a big win but there will be lots of fights we won't win. Either way, I'm here for all of it. I've written so many letters, I've lost count. It's WE THE PEOPLE. Don't forget that. We still matter. Stand up, Speak Up, Stay informed, Stay strong!
Thank you Jess! As always Extra! Extra! is the ray of light that I need after another tough week. But most of all, I am inspired by the message from Senator Booker. He always knows how to bring us together with hope and purpose. And boy do we need that now!!