Extra! Extra! 3/3
Time for some BOOM-scrolling!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
There’s a long list of wins for the week, so I’ll keep this opening commensurately short.
We took a lot of hits in the last seven days, but we scored a lot of points, too. Let’s take a pause from doomscrolling and review what they were.
Remember, what we focus on grows, so please take a moment to focus on our progress…and then share it with someone who needs a lift!
Thanks!
Jess
P.S. — I have, as usual, popped an 🪓 next to every item folks like you helped make happen, or that got done by lawmakers we helped elect.
Read This 📖
I’m hoping you can open the link, because this L.A. Times article “She binged true crime on Netflix. Then she helped free two men from prison,” is a stunning example of how one person can make a massive, life-changing difference.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward.
Eight states are moving to ban utilities from using customer money for lobbying. 🪓
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover are, for the first time, on record agreeing to take a lawful approach in implementing a merchant category code for gun and ammunition purchases in California where it will soon be legally required. [Source Newton Alliance] 🪓
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday filed suit in federal court to block the merger of supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons. 🪓
The climate foundation funded by Laurene Powell Jobs has more than $3 billion to spend.
Utah teachers will be free to display LGBTQ+ Pride flags and other social, political or religious imagery after the state House blocked a bill that would have banned teachers from using their position to promote or disparage certain beliefs. 🪓
Texas will add more grid batteries than any other state in 2024. 🪓
The U.S. Department of the Interior is investing $10.3 million to restore Arizona’s lands and waters via funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda. 🪓
Kenneth Chesebro did NOT have a good week.
Changes in consumer habits are helping bring down inflation—and sticking it to greedy corporations.
Elon Musk paid his $2000 bill to a small California bakery he’d stiffed.
The U.S. has appointed a special envoy for Sudan, which is ten months into a brutal civil war. 🪓
Gavin Newsom is launching a series of new advertisements in Republican states targeting Republican efforts to criminalize having an abortion and “a war on travel” for reproductive care. 🪓
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients in the District of Columbia started receiving added benefits as part of the D.C. Council’s Give SNAP a Raise legislation. 🪓
Starting on Monday, SNAP recipients will be able to use their benefits to have groceries delivered from Thrive Market. It’s the first online-only grocer to make the move.
New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2023, disabled people made record-breaking employment gains in a tight labor market. 🪓
Networks of crafters around the world are creating crocheted coral reefs to advocate for climate action. 🪓
The Supreme Court declined to hear a new case on race and school admissions. Thank God for small favors.
SCOTUS also turned down a major property-rights challenge to rent control laws in New York City and elsewhere. A bad ruling in the case could have directly affected 1 million apartments in NYC, and it may have had a significant impact in California as well.
The two largest oil refineries in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chevron and Martinez, have agreed to comply with rules aimed at dramatically reducing air pollution, dropping their lawsuits against the most stringent rule of its kind in the nation. 🪓
The final two Moms For Liberty members of the Bucks County, PA School Board have resigned! Tough being in the minority, I guess. 🪓
The Supreme Court allowed a $2.4 billion plan to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America to go forward.
Nearly all new US power plants built in 2024 will be clean energy. 🪓
For every hour the IRS audits those making more than $10 million, the agency is finding $13,000 of unpaid taxes.” via The Lever 🪓
State Republican parties in Arizona, Michigan and other swing states are struggling with dysfunction and debt.
In a joint announcement released by both Starbucks and Workers United, the company agreed “to begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to achieve … collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and partners.” WOW! 🪓
The U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation into the Owasso school district after the death of Nex Benedict. 🪓
The Chicago City Council voted 42-7 to enact an ordinance that will limit development of new chain dollar stores and will make it easier for residents to report dollar store code violations and other problems. 🪓
A global coalition, led by the U.S., has been formed to fight disinformation campaigns by foreign governments.
Olivia Rodrigo has launched a reproductive rights initiative alongside her upcoming Guts World Tour.
The Chicago Bears hired their first female assistant coach.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed a bill that is meant to move Kansas employers away from paying employees with disabilities less than minimum wage. 🪓
Colorado is now home to the country’s newest national park. The newly-established Amache National Historic Site is a former incarceration site that unjustly detained Japanese Americans during the 1940s. 🪓
Reforestation in the eastern U.S. has helped stall the effects of rising temperatures in the region.
Democrats are putting up billboards across eight battleground states tying Trump to the Alabama IVF ruling and warning that “this state could be next.” 🪓
In a stunning defeat for anti-trans activists in Arizona, a major bill targeting transgender people in schools has failed. The bill would have placed the issues on the November election ballot, bypassing Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs' veto, which has been used against similar legislation. 🪓
Nebraska is investing $20 million in a Malcolm X museum to honor the Black history icon.
Mitch McConnell will step down as Senate Republican leader in November. I know his replacement will be no better, but still. Good riddance.
The American Psychological Association announced in a historic policy resolution that it opposes gender-affirming care bans for transgender youth.
A New York judge rejected a request from former president Donald Trump to delay enforcement of a judgment totaling more than $450 million.
A new White House executive order aims to block the bulk sale of Americans’ personal information, including genetic and health data, to “countries of concern’' like China, Russia, and Iran. 🪓
After a massive backlash, Wendy’s walked back their announced plans to introduce surge pricing. 🪓
Elephant seals, the largest living species of pinniped, are making a remarkable comeback.
The Biden campaign is launching a nationwide effort to win the women’s vote led by Jill Biden and VP Harris. 🪓
We avoided another shutdown. 🪓
In a win for voters, a federal court struck down provisions of Arizona voter suppression laws that instituted strict proof of citizenship requirements for voting, ruling that the policies violate federal law. [Democracy Docket]
An Illinois judge removed former President Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot, becoming the third state to rule the former president ineligible under the 14th Amendment due to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. [Democracy Docket]
Virginia’s General Assembly has passed two new reproductive rights bills to make contraception more affordable and protect abortion providers. 🪓
The Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule strengthening the Child Care & Development Block Grant program, which supports over a million children and their families each month with child care assistance. 🪓
A federal judge in Austin halted a new state law that would allow Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally, saying it would do "irreparable harm" to federal supremacy on international and immigration-related matters.
The Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions to boost housing supply and lower housing costs. 🪓
Two northeast Ohio cities are working to reverse the impacts of tree canopy loss with help from a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Biden Administrations' Inflation Reduction Act. 🪓
Two major offshore wind farms slated for New York’s waters are back on track after a brutal 2023 threatened to derail the projects — and the emerging industry’s prospects in the U.S. 🪓
The two largest pharmacy chains in the United States, CVS and Walgreens, will start dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone this month, a step that could make access easier for some patients. 🪓
The U.S has made its first airdrop of food into Gaza. 🪓
A man who fatally shot a 20-year-old woman after the SUV she was riding in mistakenly drove into his rural driveway in upstate New York was sentenced to more than 25 years to life in prison.
The U.S. environment regulator announced it is launching new cleanup projects at 25 hazardous waste sites from New Jersey to Oregon with $1 billion in funds. 🪓
Trump is being sued by Truth Social’s co-founders, who accuse him of manipulating stock to reduce their stake in company by over $50 million.
Amazon’s lobbyists will be banned from the European parliament. The move comes after Amazon repeatedly refused to engage on workers’ rights and labor conditions. 🪓
The Justice Department has launched an antitrust case against UnitedHealth. 🪓
The United States Department of Education Office For Civil Rights has declared a formal investigation into alleged Title IX violations at Owasso Public Schools, where Nex Benedict was killed. 🪓
The federal government will fund 17 projects across the U.S. to expand access to renewable energy on Native American reservations and in other rural areas. 🪓
The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening safety rules for chemical plants loosened under the Trump administration. 🪓
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the creation of the Election Threats Task Force, a new effort dedicated to protecting the state’s elections from interference and protecting voters against election misinformation. 🪓
An Illinois judge ruled that Trump is disqualified from the state’s Republican primary ballot under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.” The decision’s effect is on hold while Trump appeals.
According to a new study by California Environmental Voters, the number of California state legislators who take oil money dropped by 17% from 2022 to 2023. 🪓
A federal judge struck down part of Florida's new voter suppression law banning noncitizens from helping organizations register voters. The judge ruled that the provision violates the 14th Amendment. [H/T
]Watch This! 👀
From Jay Kuo’s Just For Xeets and Giggles newsletter: “Jimmy Kimmel interviewed Trump supporters and proved definitively that they are in fact in a cult of delusion.” Watch.
Whoa! Rep Swalwell! 👏🤸♀️🥂 I'd seen the Kimmel clip before and laughed out loud again - and shook my head. Thanks for the list of uplifts!
P.S. C'mon LA County voters! Do your thing! We had 17 folks yesterday in the vote center where I'm an election clerk. 🥴 Git yer mojo in gear and VOTE! The door's open and we're waitin' on y'all! 💙
Why are there no comments here??!! Come on people. What a lovely list, thank you Jessica. Side note on the newest ntl. park in Co, Amache ….we toured it while visiting relatives a few years ago. As in all the ones we have seen in person, the camps were located in the most remote, god-forsaken parts of the country, windswept, treeless, dust-ridden.