Extra! Extra! 12/3 🙌🏼🙌🏼
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Here are all the wonderful things that happened this week—at least the ones I could find. The most wonderful of all, of course, was a week-long ceasefire in Gaza and 105 hostages released back to their families. Hopefully we’ll see more of the same very soon.
There were lots of other wins, too, though, and some of them—the items with an 🪓 next to them below—were brought about either by the hard work of folks like you or by elected officials that YOU helped to elect! So enjoy those in particular!
Remember: what we focus on grows. So let’s take a moment to focus on what went right this week, and maybe even share it with a loved one.
Then let’s get ready to go back to work making more victories tomorrow.
Celebrate This! 🎉
WE MADE THE 10K MATCH FOR MOVEMENT VOTER PROJECT! In fact we’ve raised over 16K so far!!! That means 26K with the match! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!! Thank you! 🪓
President Biden announced nearly 30 new actions to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security. 🪓
The federal government is pumping $5 million dollars into two watershed projects meant to protect drinking water for several urban areas in New Mexico. 🪓
Under a new deal, some of Toyota's future hybrid and electric cars will likely be powered by U.S.-built batteries made from recycled minerals stripped from old Priuses. This move signals the beginning of a potential circular battery supply chain in the U.S. 🪓
The RNC’s fundraising is NOT going well. At all.
Reproductive rights advocates submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to the Montana Secretary of State that, if allowed on the 2024 ballot and approved by voters, would explicitly protect pre-viability abortion in Montana’s foundational legal document. 🪓
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law bills that repeal several abortion restrictions in Michigan. (Missed this last week) 🪓
The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state’s congressional map, rejecting a Republican lawsuit arguing that the map unfairly benefits Democrats. The current districts will remain in place for 2024 and beyond. 1
Life expectancy in the US rose by more than a year in 2022, the first increase since the pandemic began. (It’s still lower than our peer countries, but I’ll take a win where I can get it!)
The Starbucks “Redcup Rebellion,” where over 5,000 Starbucks workers went on strike, has already landed a major victory - the ability for workers to PAUSE MOBILE ORDERS during especially busy rushes. This is something their union has been calling for since the very beginning. 🪓
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two pro-voting bills into law. They will allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote and automatically register eligible individuals to vote when they are released from incarceration. 2 🪓
On the first day of the United Nations COP28 climate conference, delegates reached a historic agreement on the blueprint for the Loss and Damage Fund to help developing nations cope with the costs of the climate crisis. 🪓
Kenneth Chesebro, one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Georgia election-interference case, plans to meet with investigators in Arizona and Nevada, where similar probes are underway. Spill the tea, Kenneth!
Lithium-Ion battery prices are falling again this year.
A closely watched measure of inflation showed continued signs of fading in October.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, under the leadership of Dick Durbin, voted to issue subpoenas for Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo related to an ethics probe of Supreme Court justices. 🪓
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights declared that its seats on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Board of Advisors are now vacant, effectively removing Cleta Mitchell, an election denier and former Trump lawyer, from that position.
The EPA proposed a new rule that sets the stage for every lead water pipe in the nation to be replaced, with the vast majority expected to be removed in the next ten years. WOW! 🪓
Google's new geothermal project in Nevada is now operational, providing clean energy to the grid serving two Google data centers.
Mondaire Jones’s only real opponent announced that she was exiting the Democratic primary for New York's 17th District and endorsing his campaign against freshman Republican Mike Lawler. This is good news for his race!
A lost moose who wandered into Minnesota and is now trying to find his own kind has his own Facebook page and a huge following. Fans have named him Rutt.
Republicans are starting to sound a bit more flexible about the budget. 🪓
Last year Finland’s electricity consumption decreased by 6.2 percent while the shares of fossil-free and domestically produced electricity reached record highs.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management just banned M-44s, aka cyanide bombs, which are used to control predators, across the lands it manages. That’s 245 million acres. 🪓
The United Auto Workers just announced the largest union organizing drive in modern American history. 🪓
Researchers have developed “biohybrid microrobots” designed to remove micro- and nano-plastics from water without causing further pollution. In tests, the robots demonstrated a high removal efficiency, offering a potentially cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution for tackling plastic pollution in aquatic environments.
The United States and 18 other nations released guidelines for Artificial Intelligence development in hopes of keeping systems safe from rogue actors. 🪓
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously approved a reform to make phone calls from local jails free of charge. 🪓
A federal appeals court ruled that former President Donald Trump is not immune from civil lawsuits related to the Jan. 6 insurrection. The court rejected Trump's claim that presidential immunity shielded him from litigation.3
Medicaid expansion launched this week in North Carolina! 600,000 people will gain health care coverage as a result! This is a result of TEN YEARS of advocacy by grassroots organizers and it’s a big deal! 🪓
President Biden is going after businesses charging Americans junk fees, and he’s now attacking Donald Trump for raking in a small fortune on those very same fees. 🪓
Two Arizona county officials were indicted on felony charges after delaying certification of the valid results of the 2022 election. (Remember? We emailed them to protest!) The charges, which include conspiracy and interfering with an election officer, each carry up to two and a half years in prison. 🪓
Prosecutors in Georgia do not intend to offer plea deals to former President Trump, Mark Meadows, or Rudy Giuliani. Four of the 19 defendants have already accepted plea deals and may testify against the others.
Judge Tanya Chutkan denied an attempt by Trump’s legal team to subpoena records from the House January 6 Select Committee. Chutkan said their attempt resembled a “fishing expedition” rather than a legitimate attempt to find evidence to bring to trial.4
A Texas man who pleaded guilty to posting a message online threatening Georgia officials in the wake of the 2020 election was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.
A New York appeals court Thursday reinstated a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after the former president repeatedly disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial.
An Arizona Supreme Court judge who once accused Planned Parenthood of committing genocide has agreed to recuse himself from a case involving the organization that will determine the future legality of abortion in the state. [H/T
of Abortion Every Day, who broke the story leading to this result!] 🪓The Pennsylvania Department of State announced that mail ballot materials will be redesigned ahead of the 2024 presidential primary election to help voters avoid making errors that risk having their ballots rejected. 🪓
Ron DeSantis’s struggles are back in the headlines.
For the first time ever, a commercial plane flew across the Atlantic Ocean without using fossil fuels.
Florida added 2,499 megawatts of solar electricity capacity during the first six months of 2023. (That’s a LOT.)
California is putting $20 million into two new programs: the Reproductive Health Service Corps and the Pharmacists Comprehensive Abortion and Reproductive Health Empowerment Initiative. The first will expand and diversify the repro health workforce, and the second will empower pharmacists to provide comprehensive reproductive health care services. 🪓
Maryland announced a partnership with the nonprofit group Upstream USA that will expand access to contraception in cities and rural communities. 🪓
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is under investigation again in relation to his attack on abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard.5
A panel of three North Carolina judges temporarily blocked the enforcement of Senate Bill 749, a new law that transfers the power to appoint board of elections members from Gov. Roy Cooper (D) to the Republican-controlled state legislature.
A federal judge has blocked a law in Montana that sought to ban TikTok across the state, delivering a blow to an unprecedented attempt to completely restrict a single app within a state's borders.
The EU has struck a deal to stop ships of waste plastic landing in ports of poor countries.
Crews have installed what’s billed as the nation’s first wireless-charging public roadway for electric vehicles beneath a street just west of downtown Detroit.
U.S. GDP grew at a 5.2% rate in the third quarter, even stronger than first indicated. 🪓
Coal took a beating during the first days of COP28. 🪓
The Lower Sioux tribe in southwestern Minnesota is building the very first vertically integrated hempcrete operation in the U.S.
A new polls shows that, despite heavy polarization, the steady majority of voters want the country to prioritize climate change and most also want 100% clean energy.
Attorneys General in 21 states signed an amicus brief stating that transgender people must be allowed to use the bathroom of their gender identity. 🪓
Hundreds of ancient artifacts from Crimea, including ceramics and jewelry, were returned to Kyiv after a legal battle between Ukraine and Russia over their ownership.
The House of Representatives voted to expel George Santos, a New York Republican who lied about his background and faces federal fraud charges. 🪓
The S&P 500 set a high for the year, erasing its previous decline as investors cheer signs that the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates.
This and the above two items from States United For Democracy.
I'll sleep better tonight. With all the stressfuness overwhelming most of us who care you and Robert Hubble seem to put it down in a manner that lets us take a deep breath, rest and be awake and ready. Thank you Jessica..Great work.
Fabulous recap of progress! Thank you Jessica!!!