Extra! Extra! 2/4
Read all about it! 📣
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
We’ve got another good-news roundup that’s bursting at the proverbial seams! What a great reminder that, even though we’re living in (extremely) difficult times, lots of good stuff is also happening.
So let’s take a moment to stop and appreciate it. Especially because some of it was only possible because of folks like you.
Speaking of which I have, as usual, popped an 🪓 next to every item that everyday activists helped make happen or that got done by lawmakers we helped elect. Enjoy!
Read This 📖
One of my readers tagged this story for me saying it had restored her faith in humanity. I have to agree, it gave me real hope that even in DeSantis’s Florida, tolerance and community can prevail.
Also: The world can be a terrifying, challenging place. 17 syllables a day can make the difference. So good!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Activate America volunteers have surpassed two million postcards sent for the 2024 election cycle! 🪓
The Biden administration repealed the most harmful aspects of the Trump administration’s “Refusal of Care” rule. This rule granted institutions the ability to deny patients’ care based on personal and religious beliefs. 🪓
NYC Mayor Eric Adams has announced plans to eliminate over $2 billion in medical debt for up to 500,000 residents in partnership with RIP Medical Debt. 🪓
The American Museum of Natural History will close two major halls exhibiting Native American objects in a response to new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before displaying or performing research on cultural items. 🪓
PG&E will be penalized $45 million for its involvement in one of the largest and most destructive wildfires in California history.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Germany on Holocaust Memorial Day to demonstrate in support of democracy and against the rise of a far-right party. 🪓
The RNC has shuttered most of the Hispanic community centers it touted as critical to winning over Latino voters.
The U.S. Forest Service has rescinded its approval of plans to build 12 miles of rail through protected Utah woodlands — stopping a large-scale crude oil conveyance project in its tracks. [Climate Action Now app users were instrumental in this victory! Bravo!] 🪓
U.S. median rents have dropped for the eighth month in a row. 🪓
China installed more solar capacity in 2023 than the U.S. has in its entire history. They also added 76 gigawatts of wind capacity.
Kamala Harris announced a forthcoming Small Business Administration rule that will make it easier for formerly incarcerated Americans to access SBA loan programs that help individuals start and run small businesses. 🪓
American and Chinese officials committed to working together to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
The IRS started the “soft launch” of its new, free filing software! 🪓
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expects 2024 to be a “very good economic year.” 🪓
A new refinery in Georgia is about to churn out millions of gallons of jet fuel — except the fuel will be made not from petroleum but from plants. The company who opened the facility is taking advantage of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for sustainable aviation fuels. 🪓
A small township in Michigan is about to get a $375M investment to expand manufacturing for semiconductors chips. This will create 170 new, well-paying jobs in clean energy thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act. 🪓
In Florida, the Department of State has informed activists that their petition to put a ballot measure expanding abortion access statewide has achieved the 891,523 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot. 🪓
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court sent a case back to the lower court ruling that they must hear a challenge to PA’s law restricting Medicaid dollars from covering the cost of abortions. (In the weeds a bit but a big win, I’m told.)
MoveOn.org just announced that it’s going to spend $32 million in 2024 to help make sure Democrats win.
Inflation is easing faster than expected in the world’s largest economies, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.
WI Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the GOP legislature’s first re-drawn (and still bad) maps. 🪓
Six anti-abortion activists have been convicted on felony charges over orchestrating a blockade of a Tennessee reproductive healthcare clinic in 2021.
HUGE: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation broadening the state’s definition of rape. Under this new standard jurors could have found that Donald Trump raped—not merely “sexually assaulted”—E Jean Carroll.
A U.S. court blocked a $55 billion pay package for Elon Musk.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence measure hit a two-year high Tuesday. 🪓
French lawmakers voted to enshrine abortion rights in the Constitution, a first step in a long legislative process. 🪓
Patagonia is giving money to register voters and elect Democrats.
The New York City Council overrode Mayor Eric Adams’s veto of two criminal justice bills. 🪓
The new Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, is commuting with residents to learn how to improve public transit. (We postcarded for her with the Environmental Voter Project! WOOT!) 🪓
Ring, the video doorbell company, will no longer facilitate law enforcement requests for users’ footage, shutting down a tool that critics have said threatens people’s privacy. Good! 🪓
China's installed wind and solar capacity will overtake coal for the first time this year.
A bill removing trans civil rights protections was defeated in Iowa after hundreds showed up to protest its passage. 🪓
The EU’s fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit a 60-year low in 2023.
Entrepreneurs opened more businesses in 2023 than ever before. 🪓
European Union leaders agreed to $54 billion in aid for Ukraine! Whew!
Gun violence broadly trended down in 2023 across the United States, representing a historic decrease. THANKS PRESIDENT BIDEN! 🪓
Google agreed to a deal to back two major wind farms off the coast of the Netherlands as part of its plan to power its data centers entirely with clean energy.
Democrats are out-raising their Republican challengers in every Senate race but one. (That one is Bob Casey’s race and you can help fix that by attending this NOPE event and/or donating here!) 🪓
Donald Trump is “facing a cash crunch” as he blows through his resources and the RNC had its worst fundraising year since 2013 – although if you adjust for inflation, they’re breaking records for the worst performance in 30 years. Meanwhile, Team Biden-Harris has a historic $117 million in cash on hand. 🪓
FEMA will begin paying to install solar panels on schools, hospitals and other public buildings that are rebuilt after disasters, making them more resilient against future disasters while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 🪓
Electrified transportation sped past renewable energy last year to become the world’s largest category of energy transition investment. 🪓
The U.S. is “winning the world economic war.” Even Fox’s Larry Kudlow had to eat crow. 🪓
The Oregon Supreme Court said that 10 Republican state senators who staged a record-long walkout last year to stall bills on abortion, transgender health care and gun rights cannot run for reelection. Woot! 🪓
Clarence Thomas is getting sued…by a Republican.
Aimenn Penny, a member of the pro-Nazi group White Lives Matter, has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for firebombing an Ohio church that had been planning to host two drag events.
Exxon and Chevron are writing down the value of their California assets by $5 billion as the state moves to reduce fossil fuel production. 🪓
Every sixth car sold in the U.S. in 2023 was electric or hybrid, up 25% from the previous year. 🪓
President Biden is going after grocery chains for their high prices. 🪓
The Medicare drug price negotiations have officially kicked off! Thanks, Joe Biden! 🪓
Gwinnett County, GA announced that it has awarded more than $7.1 million in American Rescue Plan grant funds to 1,075 small businesses that were negatively affected during the pandemic. 🪓
President Joe Biden won a landslide victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary, capturing approximately 96% of the votes cast. 🪓
The U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs in January, a “shockingly strong pickup.” 🪓
Allen Weisselberg is negotiating a deal with Manhattan prosecutors that would require him to plead guilty to perjury.
U.S. job growth accelerated in January and wages increased by the most in nearly two years. 🪓
The Biden-Harris Administration issued two Executive Orders aimed at advancing pay equity for both the federal workforce and employees of federal contractors. 🪓
The Biden-Harris administration announced new steps to protect communities from PFAS. 🪓
Baltimore City Public Schools officials unveiled 25 new EV buses on Tuesday. The buses, funding for which came from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, will replace diesel versions. 🪓
A Queens man who tackled a police officer and pushed him over a ledge during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
A Trump-appointed judge dismissed a right-wing lawsuit seeking to invalidate North Dakota's extended mail-in ballot receipt deadline.
A campaign to overturn Missouri’s near-total abortion ban says it’s raised more than $3 million since launching the effort last month as it gathers signatures to force a statewide vote. 🪓
The Wyoming Supreme Court denied a petition by two state lawmakers and a forced-birther group to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the state’s two abortion bans.
The US’s largest solar and battery storage project, Edwards & Sanborn, has come online in Kern County, California. 🪓
In Belfast, Northern Ireland more than 200 vehicles, including garbage trucks and street sweepers, are now being powered by vegetable oil.
Nate Cohn acknowledged the power of the Resistance!!! 🪓 🪓 🪓
Watch This! 👀
Even if you didn’t get a chance to watch the Zuckerberg hearings this week you’ll appreciate this.
I am always buoyed by all the news you seem to bring us! Thank you, good to see some progress made.
Christopher Rufo is evil😡