Extra! Extra! 3/19

Link to tweet is here.

Hi, all!

Here’s your weekly dose of positive news—just in time for the (crazy) week likely to come! Drink it all in; know that you helped make some of it possible; know that your hard work taking simple actions is helping to build future victories, and I’m proud of you for that.

Talk tomorrow!

Jess

Read This 📖

I want to be this woman when I grow up. 🦸🏽‍♀️

And this might make you feel a bit better about the Willow approval.

Celebrate This! 🎉

Pro-choice activists in red states are using anti-ACA provisions passed by Republican legislatures as an unlikely weapon in their fight against restrictions on abortion.

Virginia saw more than 25,000 ballots cast via same-day registration in the first year a new law made it possible.

Regulatory action to phase out the use and production of dangerous insecticides has been a boon to public health. According to new research published last month, the atmospheric concentrations of three insecticides near the Great Lakes have fallen so low that researchers can’t even quantify them anymore.

I missed this last week—a federal jury convicted former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Mathew Borges of participating in a racketeering conspiracy.

In Arizona, a judge imposed sanctions against Mark Finchem—an Election Denier who lost last year’s race for secretary of state—and his lawyer for an election contest lawsuit that the judge called “groundless and not brought in good faith.”

Pro-Choice Ohio’s ballot amendment was approved unanimously by the Ohio attorney general and Ohio Ballot Board. It’s going to be on the 2024 ballot! Woot!

President Biden will sign an executive order that aims to increase the number of background checks before firearms sales.

Novo Nordisk will slash insulin prices by up to 75%.

This week in an historic first, three Black women led a briefing at the White House.

The New Mexico legislature adopted an omnibus voting rights bill known as the New Mexico Voting Rights Act. Among many provisions, House Bill 4 would enable people to vote while on probation and parole. This would immediately restore the voting rights of roughly 11,000 New Mexicans.

Michelle Yeoh became only the second woman of color and first Asian woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress. 

President Biden announced that the government will subject 27 drugs to inflation penalties, aiming to reduce out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients and lower prescription drug prices more broadly. 

Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, is celebrating a milestone this week as it completes the final phase in a project to boost its energy resiliency. The community’s 17,600 residents now host the archipelago’s first cooperatively managed solar microgrid — a network of photovoltaic panels and battery storage units that will use renewable energy to keep the lights on and power flowing during a power outage.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is set to join electrification nonprofit organization Rewiring America as a senior counsel. 

The EPA just proposed the strongest standards yet for keeping coal plant pollution out of U.S. waterways. Coal plants emit toxins like mercury, arsenic, and chloride that cause cancer in humans and make it harder for wildlife to reproduce.

The Biden Administration announced it would strictly limit the amounts of two “forever chemicals” found in drinking water. A peer-reviewed study found that as many as 200 million people in the U.S. are exposed to PFAS (which have been linked to a range of health impacts even in small doses) in their drinking water.

The UN just signed a deal to purchase and move a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. The rusting tanker has more than 1 million barrels and poses the threat of massive environmental damage from a possible oil spill or explosion.

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley introduced a bill to televise U.S. Supreme Court proceedings in real time.

New England researchers are optimistic that a tiny wasp is turning the tide against the widespread destruction wrought by the emerald ash borer, an insect that is decimating ash tree populations across the country.

Illinois will be the third state to require that employers offer paid time off for any reason, a move that lawmakers hope will be especially beneficial for low-income workers.

The Australian state of New South Wales, which includes the city of Sydney, announced last month that it would turn more than 1 million acres of pastureland in its northwest corner into a new national park, marking the state’s largest-ever acquisition of private property for that purpose. The pastureland, called Thurloo Downs, was purchased from a farmer who had been using it to raise sheep and cattle. It is now expected to serve as an important refuge for dozens of threatened species.

President Biden averaged 46% this week in the four polls on 538’s Biden job approval tracker. If it holds will be his highest rating since Sept, 2021.

After a yearslong campaign from environmental groups, Albania’s Vjosa River — one of the last unobstructed rivers in Europe — has been declared the continent’s first wild river national park. The “historic” designation by the Albanian government aims to preserve the Vjosa’s more than 1,000 plant and animal species and protect its ecosystems from dams, gravel extraction, and other disruptions.

Sanofi, the third major producer of insulin in the United States, announced it will cap prices for insulin at $35 a month.

Two reproductive health networks, Trust Women and Whole Women’s Health, announced that they will not immediately stop prescribing mifepristone if the Trump-appointed federal judge rules to suspend or invalidate its FDA approval. 

North Dakota’s state Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to block a statewide abortion ban, saying that the state’s constitution protects abortion rights in some situations, meaning that the procedure remains legal in the Roughrider State. 

New polls show that 21 percent of Fox News viewers place less trust in the network since the revelations from the Dominion lawsuit, and 13 percent no longer believe the election was stolen after reading the leaked texts from Fox hosts and executives. 

Graduate Students at the University of Chicago won their election to unionize by a landslide.

The Justice Department successfully argued to the court that Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, must testify because of the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege. 

The Biden-Harris Administration announced over $73 million in outreach grants to connect more Americans with affordable, high-speed internet.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights, for war crimes. (I hesitate to call this “good” news, but accountability is extremely important.)

Two bills that will expand the electorate in Washington, DC, became law this week, including automatic voter registration. 

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz officially signed a bill that will provide all Minnesota students with free breakfast and lunch. 

New Mexico’s governor signed legislation that prohibits local governments from trying to restrict abortion;

Watch This! 👀

The below is from Jay Kuo's awesome weekend newsletter: "The Week in Tweets and Memes"--it's worth the paid subscription to

The Status Kuo

just to get it every Saturday, although I'm a huge fan of all of Kuo's posts.

Kuo writes:

And lately, because “woke” is pretty much being used everywhere by the right, it’s becoming increasingly meaningless and difficult for them to even explain what it is. Here’s a best selling right-wing author giving it her best shot (then admitting that she messed it up big time and was going to go viral as a result).

Nancy Lee Grahn @NancyLeeGrahn

HAH! If you attack people for being woke, but then your brain breaks when asked to define it, then yeah, "This is gonna be one of those moments that goes viral"