Extra! Extra! 2/25
Some balm at the end of a hard week.
Hi, all, and happy Sunday.
It’s been an unusually tough week, even by this era’s standards. The death of Nex Benedict has hit me hard, as has the ruling in Alabama. Maybe you feel the same. If so, I’m even happier than usual to bring you this list of excellent news from across the country. You may need it as much as I do, and you’ve definitely earned it with all of your hard work.
So enjoy. Bask in every item. Take some long, slow breaths and let those shoulders drop. It can feel like “everything is bad.” But it’s absolutely not. Negative news is loud, but positive news has depth and weight. It has vitality. It’s replenishing. Make sure you take it in like medicine, then share it everywhere.
Thank you for embodying courage, grace, generosity, and determination week after week. Below we see the fruits of your efforts.
There will be so many more, if we merely keep going. So let’s do that.
P.S. — I have, as usual, popped an 🪓 next to every item that folks like you helped make happen, or that got done by lawmakers we helped elect.
Read This 📖
God, do I love Jess Piper.
And this also. Incredible.
Celebrate This! 🎉
I can finally announce the totals of our Movement Voter Fund matching campaign! You’ll remember we had a generous subscriber offer to match 20K in donations. Well, we raised $45,851 off of it! So with his match we are at $65,851! WOWOWOW! You guys blow me away. 🪓
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, has vowed to carry on his work. 🪓
The DNC outraised the RNC by almost $6 million in January, with the DNC ending the month with $24 million cash on hand compared to the RNC’s $8.7 million. 🪓
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has reversed course and decided to opt his state into the federal Summer EBT Program
Denver will now pay residents who commute on bikes to meet city's climate goals. 🪓
Hepatitis C is now so readily curable that the WHO aims to eliminate it globally by 2030.
The Biden administration announced that it is distributing another $5.8 billion for water infrastructure projects around the country, paid for by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. 🪓
The West Grand School District in Colorado just got a grant from the Biden administration for 2 more e-buses. It is set to have all zero emission bus routes by 2025. 🪓
The U.S. Supreme Court left in place a decision striking down Washington's state legislative map for violating the Voting Rights Act by diluting Latino voting power. A lower court will oversee the process of redrawing fair districts for the 2024 elections. 1
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit allowed the permanent injunction against enforcing Texas’s anti-drag law to remain in place.2
Tuesday was the biggest filing day in Starbucks Workers United history - TWENTY-ONE new stores announced their organizing efforts!!! 🪓
Between February 4 and 7 Los Angeles captured 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to provide water to 106,000 households for a year. This is because the city has invested heavily in becoming “spongier.” Progress! 🪓
President Biden's re-election team now has $130 million in the bank, while the Republican National Committee has little cash and Donald Trump's team is spending tens of millions on legal bills. 🪓
Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley, sent a letter pressing for the urgent implementation of President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order that seeks to modernize and promote voting access. [Democracy Docket] 🪓
President Biden canceled another $1.2 billion in student debt for about 150,000 borrowers. In total, his administration has canceled $138 billion of such debt. 🪓
New York Attorney General Letitia James said she is prepared to seize Donald Trump's properties, including Trump Tower, if he fails to pay his $354 million civil fraud fine. 🪓
The 2024 Oscars nominee luncheon was vegetarian for the first time ever. This is in large part due to a campaign by the amazing org Habits of Waste. (Now they’re working to get awards shows to stop using plastic water bottles.) 🪓
The Biden administration pledged to invest $100 million for women's health research, First Lady Jill Biden announced Wednesday. 🪓
In Wyoming, sheep may now safely graze under solar panels in one of the state’s first “Agrivoltaic” projects.
Boeing replaced the head of its troubled 737 Max program. Good.
Stephen Miller’s right-wing legal group voluntarily dismissed its own lawsuit challenging a host of voting rules in Maricopa County, Arizona merely 16 days after filing the case.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is proposing to cancel up to $1 billion in medical debt using federal funds. 🪓
Gettr, a pro-Trump social media site that was launched with great fanfare less than three years ago, has now laid off much of its staff and is close to shutting down.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission just voted to protect Southern Resident orcas under the state’s Endangered Species Act. 🪓
Nikki Haley outraised Donald Trump in January.
Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
The I.R.S. announced it will crack down on corporate executives who use company jets for personal travel. 🪓
James Biden told House GOP investigators during an hours-long private transcribed interview on Wednesday that Joe Biden wasn’t involved at all in his business dealings.
Thanks to expansive renewables installation, analysts think that China’s carbon emissions may start declining as early as this year.
President Biden announced his 46th round of judicial nominees. 🪓
A new report revealed that Trump-Branded NYC real estate has plummeted in value since 2016.
Michigan saw roughly 6,500 people turn out for the first day of early in-person voting last weekend ahead of the presidential primary on Feb. 27, an encouraging turnout for the first major election year since the state adopted nine days of early in-person voting in 2022. 🪓
Bob Moore, the owner of Bob’s Red Mill, who died recently, left the company to his 700 employees.
Judge Engoron refused Trump’s request for a 30-day delay in his penalty payment period.
The U.S. Supreme Court left sanctions in place against Sidney Powell and six other lawyers who filed baseless lawsuits challenging President Biden’s 2020 election victory in Michigan.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed new, fairer legislative maps into law, ending more than a decade of partisan gerrymandering in the state. This is a direct result of our eleting Janet Protasiewicz. YOUR WORK MATTERS! 🪓🪓🪓
Secretary of State Blinken said that the US government now considers new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories to be “inconsistent with international law,” marking a reversal of a policy set under the Trump administration. 🪓
Google has updated its advertising policies to officially bans ads with fake endorsements. This is a direct result of advocacy work done by Check My Ads. 🪓
The American Lung Association has found that the transition to EVs and clean electricity generation could avoid nearly 3 million pediatric asthma attacks. WOW! 🪓
Some oil and gas companies may be liable for tens of millions of dollars in penalties as the Biden administration’s new methane fee takes effect. 🪓
A movement to bar utilities from using ratepayer funds for advocacy work is gaining momentum across the country. 🪓
The National Rifle Association and its former longtime leader Wayne LaPierre were found liable in a lawsuit centered on the organization’s lavish spending. Jurors ordered LaPierre to pay $4,351,231 in restitution. The verdict is regarded as another major win for New York Attorney General Letitia James. 🪓
The USDA announced it is investing $772.6 million to fund 216 projects that will benefit more than 1 million people living in remote areas of the country by providing reliable high-speed internet access, clean, safe water, and a wide range of support for rural families, agricultural producers, and small businesses. 🪓
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allocated over $50 million to Hawaiʻi for upgrades to drinking water and other clean water infrastructure projects. 🪓
Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado announced a lawsuit to block the nationwide supermarket merger between the multibillion-dollar retail giant Kroger and its rival Albertsons. 🪓
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the expansion of its Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap Community Initiative to 150 additional communities. Many rural and low-income communities in the U.S. lack basic running water and indoor plumbing. This program helps fix that. Thanks, Joe Biden! 🪓
Pennsylvania's highest court has ruled that Republican state lawmakers can no longer enforce a subpoena for election records issued in 2021 that was inspired by Trump's election lies.
A federal judge ruled that MyPillow founder Mike Lindell must pay a 64-year-old from Nevada the $5 million he owes him for winning the “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge.
The Supreme Court has rejected appeals from three House Republicans — Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, and Ralph Norman — who challenged fines for not wearing face coverings on the House floor in 2021.
Journalists at the San Antonio Express-News and MySA announced their intent to unionize, becoming the fourth Texas newsroom to announce a union effort in 2024. 🪓
A bipartisan ethics panel in Wisconsin has recommended felony charges against one of Donald Trump’s fundraising arms in relation to an alleged scheme that it says was meant to circumvent campaign finance laws to take out a powerful GOP lawmaker who has turned against Trump.
“Right to work" legislation was handed a decisive defeat in the New Hampshire statehouse. 🪓
The U.S. imposed its most extensive package of sanctions on Russia since the war in Ukraine started, including on Russian government officials tied to Aleksei Navalny’s death. 🪓
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, endorsed Sweden’s bid to join NATO after it agreed to give Hungary more fighter jets, ending a 19-month blockade.
A new survey of scholars placed Donald Trump last in its ranking of all U.S. presidents.
Once again, Trump showed huge electoral weaknesses in a primary election, this time in South Carolina.
Warren Buffett's son Howard just gave $500M to Ukraine for humanitarian relief.
Chicago is suing five of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, accusing them of lying about their products and the dangers of climate change that contributes to flooding, extreme heat and other destructive forces that continue to hurt the city and its residents.
Maryland is about to about to spend over $10 million to train nurses and physician assistants to perform abortions—a move to help increase access and trained providers. 🪓
Doctors in six states where abortion is legal are using new laws to send abortion pills to tens of thousands of women in states where it is illegal. 🪓
A task force convened by the Smithsonian museum has concluded that the remains of tens of thousands of individuals taken by their Institution without consent should be proactively returned to their families and communities.
Watch This! 👀
The perfect song for this moment. Thanks to the subscriber who forwarded it to me.
I, too, was hit hard by the death of Nex Benedict as so many young people I know are LGBTQ. Thanks to your link https://oklahoma.gov/governor/contact/leave-a-comment-or-opinion.html , I wrote this letter to the Governor - I doubt he'll have the courage to respond, but I felt I had to do something. Thanks for sharing the link to make it easy to do.
Dear Gov. Stitt,
I am heartbroken at the loss of a beautiful soul. Nex Benedict was just a 16 year old kid, but the atmosphere at the school and in your state tolerated and even encouraged intolerance. Bullying led to beating, led to the tragic death of this child.
What kind of "Christian Kindness" does this represent...and what are the "grown-ups" in your state modelling for the next generation with the hate speech against LGBTQ people?!?
What would Jesus (who advocated for the leper, the prostitute, those society cast out) say about this "Christian morality." I believe in the worth of every human and am absolutely appalled at this hypocrisy - the same "Christian" people who quote the Bible against homosexually violate the Bible's prohibitions on pork or seafood, tattoos, and adultery!
I look to those in power, like you Governor Stitt, to take a stand for goodness, not meanness; inclusiveness, not exclusion. I'm eager to hear you step up and speak out.
Will you extend your "pro-life" rhetoric to cover this child? Or are your words merely political posturing -- Your "Christianity" unrecognizable to the first Christian - Jesus, himself?
Sincerely, Carol Simon Levin
Kudos to the list of 'what's happening out there'. I don't know of anyone else who is doing this. Very relevant and reinforcing. Thanks. (Loved that ending song by Seeger. Grew up with him and EleanorR.)