Extra! Extra! 4/14
All the good that's fit to print!
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
It’s been quite a week. We saw more dangerous escalation in the Middle East but also some true statesmanship from our President, watched Trump disintegrate further as his trial approaches, and had a beautiful, temporarily-nation-uniting eclipse. And those are just a few highlights.
You, meanwhile, worked hard every day fighting for our democracy.
So you’ve earned some GREAT NEWS!
Here it is, in all its glory. Thanks to those of you who sent me items to add, and to those of you who helped make some of these items happen. It takes a village not just to raise a child, but to fix a nation. That’s what we’re doing here.
Now enjoy some wins from the week just passed. Tomorrow we’ll get back to work making more.
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.
P.P.S. — My read-aloud version of this and every newsletter can be found in a horizontal bar across the very top. Look for the ▶️ button. And enjoy! It isn’t going anywhere!
P.P.P.S — If this newsletter brings you joy please consider sharing it!
Read This 📖
This David Pepper piece: “Report from the front lines: Missouri” is SO UPLIFTING!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Two women who say abortion restrictions put them in medical peril are now campaigning for Biden. 🪓
Public school teachers in St. Louis will receive a historic 17% pay bump over the next three years. 🪓
The indigenous leaders of New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga and the Cook Islands have signed a treaty granting whales legal personhood.
The Biden administration refused to gift a lot more money to Medicare Advantage. Insurance companies were NOT happy about it. 🪓
The government is launching a broad probe into private equity in health care. 🪓
Two more boardmembers have been sworn into the Federal Trade Commission, so it’s a full-strength commission again.1 🪓
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed Democrats’ bills protecting election official privacy, improving accessibility for voters with disabilities, and requiring earlier notice to voters when their polling place is moved. 🪓
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear vetoed a bill that would require the state to leave ERIC. 🪓
The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill allowing officials to begin processing mail ballots before Election Day.2 🪓
The USDA released its final rule revising the food package for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The updated food package will have a longstanding positive impact on program participation, health outcomes for WIC participants, and addressing health disparities. 🪓
Bicyclists now outnumber motorists in Paris. 🪓
An Indiana state court just approved religious exemptions to its abortion ban. 🪓
The USPS unveiled new forever stamps honoring Underground Railroad heroes. 🪓
The Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions to prevent gun violence by expanding background checks on firearms and closing “gun-show loopholes” — the most significant action to expand background checks in decades! 🪓
The Biden administration cancelled another 7.4B in student loans. 🪓
In Chicago 8,000 janitors just approved a better labor contract. They got a 15% wage increase, employer-paid health care and better retirement benefits, the union said. 🪓
Four Native American tribes in South Dakota barred Gov. Kristi Noem from their reservations after she said that Mexican drug cartels had a foothold there.
Dick Durbin finally subpoenaed Leonard Leo! 🪓
Atlantic salmon are spawning in rivers in central England for the first time in 100 years.
The Biden administration announced a new rule aimed at generating more money for taxpayers and protecting them from cleanup costs by increasing the fees oil and gas companies must pay to drill on federal lands tenfold. 🪓
Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a program to fund youth-led climate action in 100 cities across 38 countries and six continents. 🪓
The EPA announced strict limits on drinking water concentrations of six kinds of PFAS chemicals. They also announced that nearly a billion dollars would go to help states and utilities detect and remove the contaminants from their water supplies. 🪓
The first stadium in the world purpose-built for a women’s professional sports team opened in Kansas City.
Eight new battery and EV factories were announced in the U.S. in March, worth a combined $3 billion in investment. At least $121 billion in clean energy projects have been announced since the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022. 🪓
In a milestone for the critically endangered species, a baby California condor has just hatched in San Diego. There are now approximately 275 free-flying condors in California, Utah, Arizona, and Baja California.
Thanks to soaring renewables, carbon market emissions in the European Union fell by a record 15.5% in 2023. The largest fall was in the power sector, which saw a 24% drop in emissions compared with 2022 levels thanks to an exponential surge in renewable energy development.
Attorneys for Trump made multiple attempts to delay his upcoming criminal trial in New York. Each attempt was denied.
The Los Angeles County Medical Association, L.A. Care Health Plan and the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s Office of Violence Prevention are collaborating on a digital billboard campaign that emphasizes the importance of gun safety and promotes the use of gun locks to keep children and youth safe from accidental gun violence inside the home. 🪓
Los Angeles County health officials also began a program that will distribute 60,000 gun safety locks to the public free of charge. 🪓
The Texas Court of Appeals upheld injunctions in two related cases against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, barring them from implementing the agency’s rule expanding the definition of child abuse to presumptively treat the provision of gender-affirming care as child abuse.
A Federal Judge has ruled that a trans woman teacher forced to go by "Mr." can return to going by "Ms." and use female pronouns in the classroom.
Right-wing conspiracy theorists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman will pay up to $1.25 million for their role in a robocall scheme that spread disinformation about the 2020 election to Black voters.
More than 2,000 Swiss women won a landmark climate-related lawsuit that could set a precedent in Europe. 🪓
Sheep are solving a green energy problem by keeping grass short around solar arrays!
Team Biden-Harris launched Out for Biden-Harris, a national organizing and engagement program to mobilize LGBTQ+ voters, communities, and leaders across the country. 🪓
A Florida woman who stole the diary of Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, and helped sell it to a right-wing group was sentenced to a month in prison.
Trump’s social media company lost one-third of its value on the stock market in a week as an initial surge in trading withered, dropping the value of Trump’s personal stake in the company to under $3B, from a peak of $6B.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, the U.S. is setting limits on pollution from chemical plants. 🪓
The Humane Society announced that over 40% of hens used for eggs in the U.S. are now cage-free, a major improvement from just 3% 15 years ago. 🪓
Zurich Insurance Group AG will no longer underwrite new oil and gas projects, and is cracking down on clients planning to expand in metallurgical coal mining. 🪓
Allen Weisselberg was sentenced to 5 months in jail for perjury. Buh bye.
A federal judge rejected a lawsuit from 11 Republican lawmakers in Michigan trying to invalidate two voter-approved voting rights amendments using the rejected independent state legislature theory. The amendments will remain in effect.
A federal judge — for the second time — rejected a right-wing challenge to a new Nevada law that makes it a felony to harass and intimidate election officials. The crucial law will remain in place.3
The Biden Campaign has opened 112 field offices in 9 swing states. Trump has opened zero field offices in those same swing states.
President Biden and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to tighten the military and economic ties of their two countries to help counter China. 🪓
Twelve US states — including the largest by economic output, California — now generate enough renewable energy each year to cover more than 50% of their electricity needs. 🪓
Texas got more electricity from solar than coal last month. They’re also becoming “an early hot spot for geothermal energy exploration.”
Dolly Parton’s free children’s book program is now expanding statewide in Virginia. Thanks to her Imagination Library program, all children in the state up to the age of 5 will receive one free book a month through the mail.
Natalie Cline, the Utah official who bullied a student athlete online by falsely claiming she was transgender, lost her race for re-election to Utah State Board of Education. 🪓
The White House announced new efforts to address racial wealth disparities. 🪓
A new NYT poll has Biden gaining ground.
Kansas’s Democratic Governor Laura Kelly vetoed four anti-trans and anti-abortion bills. 🪓
President Biden issued an executive order to enhance the United States' preparedness and response to pandemics and other biological threats. 🪓
The Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature has approved a bill that would protect health care workers who provide abortion and gender-affirming care from legal action brought in other states. 🪓
Stunning artworks have been uncovered in a new excavation at Pompeii. (This is good news for ancient history freaks like me, anyway.)
After President Biden told Bibi Netanyahu the U.S. would not support the Israeli government in retaliating against Iran, Israel called off planned strikes. This will hopefully lessen the chances of a wider escalation. 🪓
Watch This! 👀
Thanks so much to subscriber Barbara Flores for sending this my way! What a perfect video to round up eclipse week!
This and the two above from Big by Matt Stoller.
This and the two above from the Markup.
The ending video was spectacular. Thanks for sharing all this good news!
With good news so bloody difficult to come by, your column today was a brisk Spring tonic...cheers!