Extra! Extra! 12/11 🎊

Jim Messina @Messina2012

What a week for the Biden Admin! Lots to celebrate. Since Tuesday— -Warnock wins by nearly 3 points -Brittney Griner home for Christmas -Marriage equality bill on its way to Biden’s desk

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Here’s your list of excellent happenings from the past week. As always, it’s longer than you’d expect. While we tend to focus on the terrible things occurring at what feels like a relentless pace, the good things often sneak under the radar if we don’t make a point of looking for them.

So look away! It’s been a good week!

Thanks for reading and, as always, for your much-appreciated support.

Jess

Read This 📖

Love this inspiring profile of a reproductive justice hero.

Celebrate This! 🎉

Lawmakers in Missouri pre-filed legislation to restore voting eligibility to people with past felony convictions immediately upon release from incarceration.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday extended immigration protections for Haitians in the United States

The FDA is planning to open blood donation to more gay and bisexual men. The current policy hasn’t changed since the 1980s, and public health experts and advocates said the changes will both help battle stigma and address future blood shortages.

Lower-income families in Tennessee just received an additional $500 to help them this holiday season. The money will support around 24,000 children in families enrolled in the state’s Families First/TANF program.

Gas prices are now lower than at this time last year.

A court in Queensland, Australia, recommended against approving a massive coal mine proposed by a company owned by billionaire Clive Palmer, arguing that the project would exacerbate climate change and jeopardize human rights.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed local officials in three states central to Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election: Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

The man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and ran off with her French bulldogs has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

A New York City jury has convicted the Trump Organization on all nine counts of criminal tax fraud.

WARNOCK WON!

A federal judge ruled that a new voter-passed ban on high-capacity gun magazines in the state of Oregon is legal and can go into effect. 

The International Energy Agency found in a new report that renewable energy will overtake coal as the largest source of electricity by early 2025. 

The Respect For Marriage Act passed in the House with bipartisan support and will now be signed into law!

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was named Time Magazine’s 2022 Person of the Year. 

Reddit users are turning Kanye West’s page into a Holocaust awareness forum in response to his ongoing antisemitism. r/Kanye has 700,000 members and has been flooded with posts about the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust and denouncing antisemitism.

Brittney Griner was released in a prisoner swap with Russia!

President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed legislation curbing the use of confidentiality agreements that block victims of sexual harassment from speaking publicly about misconduct in the workplace.

The women of Iran were named Time’s 2022 Heroes of the Year for leading a rebellion against the Iran government following the arrest and death of Mahsa Amini after being held in the morality police’s custody.

President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday announced the infusion of nearly $36 billion to shore up a financially troubled union pension plan, preventing severe cuts to the retirement incomes of about 350,000 Teamster workers and retirees across the United States.

In a major victory against plastic pollution, city council members in Los Angeles and San Diego voted on Tuesday to ban the distribution of expanded polystyrene, the foamy plastic used in disposable coffee cups and takeout food containers.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill to restrict the private ownership of big cats, a move conservationists hope will improve the lives of the animals and end exploitation.

Michael Flynn, who served as national security adviser to former President Trump, appeared before the special grand jury investigating whether Trump and his allies criminally interfered with the results of the 2020 election. 

A South Carolina man who had warned of a siege on the U.S. Capitol ‘if the electoral votes don’t go right’ was sentenced to three years in prison in the Jan. 6 attack on Tuesday.

Watch This! 👀

Have you seen this yet? I literally wept.