Extra! Extra! 11/26
A quickie after a holiday break.
Hi, my dear friends.
I’ve been off of all devices, away from news, and completely off of social media for four full days, which has been restorative beyond description. But I hopped back on my laptop tonight to pull this list together for you, because, well, we have an agreement! Sunday is for good news!
So here it is, as always, although perhaps slightly shorter than usual due to my time off.
And, as is my wont, I’ve popped an axe (🪓) next to the items that’ve come about either through the advocacy of folks like you or because of the good work of lawmakers we (or others) helped to elect.
Enjoy! Back to work tomorrow!
Jess
P.S. — Scant time to proofread tonight so forgive all typos, please!
Read This 📖
This article about Meredith Ellis, a Texas rancher who raises cattle and wants to be part of the climate solution by implementing regenerative cattle ranching, is amazing, fascinating, and hopeful!
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Vatican City State, home to the Pope, will replace its entire fleet of vehicles with EVs by 2030. Volkswagen will deliver fully electric cars, including the ID.3 and ID.4, to the Vatican State to support its transition to EVs.
The world’s 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars.
RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit dedicated to eliminating personal medical debt, has canceled $33 million in debt owed by nearly 16,000 Cleveland residents thanks to American Rescue Plan Act dollars allocated by Cleveland City Council earlier this year. 🪓
The Biden administration is investing $40.8 million into new centers to train students and workers for the rapidly growing clean energy economy. 🪓
The Supreme Court declined to hear former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s appeal of his conviction in the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.
The world’s largest single-site solar farm is officially online in the United Arab Emirates.
Aid workers were able to transport 28 premature babies who were in intensive care at Al-Shifa Hospital to Egypt for treatment.
Virginia Democrats announced their proposal for a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights. 🪓
Forty Texas companies and business leaders are entering the fight against Texas’ abortion ban, filing a brief with the Texas Supreme Court that argues the “ambiguity” in the law’s medical exceptions cost the state an estimated $14.5 billion in lost revenue every year.
In Louisiana, Democrat Henry Whitehorn will serve as the next Caddo Parish Sheriff after beating Republican John Nickelson by a single vote!! (Special thanks to the Environmental Voter Project, who phonebanked for this race!) 🪓
A federal judge struck down Pennsylvania's policy of rejecting mail-in ballots simply because the outer envelopes are missing a correct handwritten date from voters. Over 7,600 ballots were rejected in 2022 because of the rule.
The tiny island nation of Dominica just announced the world’s first marine reserve specifically for sperm whales.
The once abandoned Caribbean island of Redonda, part of Antigua and Barbuda, has been transformed into a biodiverse haven for plant and animal species. 1
For the fourth time, the Arizona Supreme Court has denied Kari Lake's request to transfer the appeal of her failed election contest directly to the state's highest court.
After years of legal battles, a federal court struck down a key permit for Sempra Energy’s new LNG plant in Port Arthur, Texas, last week, calling the state’s decision to approve it “arbitrary and capricious.”
After having released dozens more in the two preceding days, Hamas released 17 hostages on Sunday, including one American — Avigail Idan, who turned 4 on Friday — and said it would seek to extend a temporary cease-fire with Israel after the current four-day pause is over. 🪓
New results from a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll show Americans’ support for abortion access is at one of the highest levels on record since nonpartisan researchers began tracking it in the 1970s. Included in these numbers? One third of Republicans believe abortion should be legal for any reason.
In a move that may soon be replicated elsewhere, the Gila River Indian Community signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over a stretch of irrigation canal on its land south of Phoenix. 🪓
Thousands of Starbucks workers across the country walked off the job on the coffee giant’s flagship sales event “Red Cup Day” on Nov. 16. 🪓
A new artificial intelligence-powered electronic nose can detect the bacteria that cause food poisoning.
A new study has shown that an estimated 50,000 shipwrecks can be found around the UK's coastline and have been acting as a hidden refuge for fish, corals and other marine species in areas still open to destructive bottom towed fishing.
A groundbreaking study at The University of Texas at El Paso reveals that compounds derived from spent coffee grounds could potentially prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by protecting brain cells.
President Biden tapped W. Kimryn Rathmell to serve as the next director of the National Cancer Institute. As director of the cancer institute, Rathmell will play a central role in carrying out Biden’s “cancer moonshot” initiative, which is aimed at cutting the U.S. death toll from the disease in half over the next 25 years. 2 🪓
A Missouri jury ordered Bayer to pay $1.56 billion to four plaintiffs who claimed the company's Roundup weedkiller caused injuries including cancer, a verdict that could intensify investor pressure on the German drugs and agricultural chemicals company to change its legal strategy. 3
Deforestation in the Amazon has decreased by 22.3% in the 12 months through July, according to government data, marking the lowest levels in five years. The reduction, totaling 9,000 square kilometers, is attributed to the president’s efforts to address the environmental destruction that occurred during his predecessor’s tenure. 🪓
In a historic decision, the Canadian government just announced a ban on the domestic trade of elephant ivory and rhino horn, as well as the import of hunting trophies containing these parts. 🪓
The European Union has become the first international body to criminalize wide-scale environmental damage “comparable to ecocide.”
Pink is joining the fight against book banning.
Denmark's Orsted and Eversource Energy's South Fork offshore wind project installed the first of its 12 turbines, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Monday, moving the country closer to its first wind farm in federal waters. 🪓
BMW has ended the production of combustion engines in its home country of Germany.
New Jersey joins a growing list of nine states, including California, Vermont, New York, Washington, and Oregon, to ban gasoline-burning cars – eventually, at least. As of 2027, New Jersey will start limiting the number of gasoline-powered cars, light-duty trucks, and SUVs that can be sold within the state, and eventually ramp that up to a full ban starting 2035. 🪓
States and urban areas will be required to set goals to reduce carbon emissions from cars and trucks on their roads under a new federal rule issued Wednesday, part of the Biden administration’s efforts to link tens of billions of dollars in highway funding from the infrastructure law to its environmental priorities. 🪓
More than 330,000 doses of a new WHO-recommended malaria vaccine arrived in Cameroon – a historic step towards broader vaccination against one of the deadliest diseases for African children.
Don’t You Wish You’d Had This on Thanksgiving? 👀
This and the previous item from The Waggle.
As always, thanks so much, Jessica, for this week's good news!
Oh, dear. I'm so embarrassed to admit this: My husband of 40+ years, is a native to Antigua. And though I knew of the Antigua and Barbuda connection, I never heard of the Island of Redonda being part of same. I most certainly will ask him about this when he wakes up this morning. Even so, it's good to hear that the rest of Antigua and Barbuda have been "on it" in my absence!
P.S. Love that our President was "caught" holding the book "Democracy Awakening" in his hand. I'm pretty sure HCR would gladly autograph it for him!
Thank you Jessica for finding the positive and giving so much hope for or future.