Extra! Extra! 4/20

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Hi, all, and happy Sunday.

And a happy Easter to all who celebrate!

It’s been another wild week. And while Trump continues to do jawdropping damage to our country, people, lawmakers, and institutions are fighting back with greater and greater effectiveness. So today we’ll focus not on the harms the president and his traitorous cohort are doing, but on the noble, productive, and tireless work of the opposition—because it’s evident everywhere!

We’ll also celebrate wins unrelated to Trump. Because there is a world outside of him, and it’s doing some great things.

Thanks for being in this fight with me, and for persisting even when it feels overwhelming. It’s because of people like you that we have the list below, and it’s because of people like you that next week’s will be even longer.

Read This 📖

Rebecca Solnit does it again. Just read it.

Celebrate This! 🎉

The April 19th No Kings protests were another huge success! And the press actually covered them!

After being sued by the ACLU, the Border Patrol said it will retrain hundreds of California agents on how to comply with the Constitution.

Bernie Sanders & AOC spoke to 20,000 people in Salt Lake City with 5,000 people in the overflow area. That’s more than 10% of Salt Lake City’s entire population!

Colorado just made it illegal to buy, sell, and manufacture most semi-automatic firearms without background checks and training, and puts limits on who qualifies for that training.

More than 70% of four-wheeled vehicles imported into Nepal last year were electric, showing a stunning rise in EV adoption.

Harvard is standing up to Donald Trump and refusing to meet his demands for institutional policy changes. More than 70 current and former college presidents signed a letter supporting Harvard’s pushback.

In a small CA town the Word Warriors are back!

The webmaster at Case Western University was told to remove three DEI pages from the school’s website. She refused.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN body that regulates global shipping, approved new regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions across the maritime sector—one of the most polluting and least regulated industries on Earth.

Newark is now the third U.S. city, and the first in New Jersey, to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections.

Bernie Sanders and AOC filled a 13,000 seat arena to capacity for their “Fighting Oligarch Tour” in Nampa, Idaho. Idaho!

More Americans now disapprove of Trump on immigration than approve, by 50% to 45% . Plus, a MAJORITY of Americans now disapprove of Trump on deportations by 53% to 42%.

The Church of the Latter-day Saints has added a brand-new “Caring for the Earth” page to their main church website.

AOC raised $9.6 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Chattanooga, Tennessee has just been crowned North America’s first national park city.

The FDA announced plans to phase out animal testing requirements.

​The Guardian recreated an interactive climate future risk tool that was developed by FEMA and deleted by the Trump administration. (Subscribe to the Guardian if you can, please!)

Crosswalk buttons across Silicon Valley were hacked to include audio snippets imitating the voices of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. And not in a flattering way.

A U.S. District Court granted a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration's freeze on billions in congressionally approved infrastructure and environmental funding for communities across the nation.

Judge Boasberg issued an opinion and order finding probable cause that the Trump administration’s actions in the ongoing matter of J.G.G. et al v. Trump constitutes contempt.

Representative Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, was booed roundly while defending President Donald Trump’s tariffs during a town hall on Tuesday.

A protestor with a “Jail 4 Insider Traders” sign had to be removed from Marjorie Taylor Greene town hall. Nice work, friend!

The nation’s largest federation of unions has put together a pro bono legal network that aims to help federal employees whose jobs have been lost or threatened under the Trump administration.

4chan, the notorious, hate-embracing online forum, got hacked. Badly. It may spell the end of the platform.

Chuck Schumer has invoked the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition to block Trump’s appointees to serve as U.S. attorneys for two of the most prestigious districts in the country, the southern and eastern districts of New York.

Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO announced the selection of Dr. Heather Shotton as the new president of the college. Shortly thereafter their City Council elected the new mayor, Gilda Yazzie. Both women represent the first Indigenous women in these leadership roles. [H/T subscriber Carolyn S.]

Three large foundations, McKnight, Freedom Together, and MacArthur, have announced that they will stand up against “illegitimate and illegal attempts to limit our rights and actions.” Good!

Gov. Gavin Newsom and CA state Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Trump administration over Trump's sweeping tariffs, arguing that it was illegal for him to use emergency powers to impose them.

Planned Parenthood Arizona has resumed gender-affirming care.

The Illinois Supreme Court denied a Republican challenge to Illinois state house districts.

Callers to conservative radio shows are unhappy with Trump’s tariffs.

As of this week 200,229 people have raised their hands to say they’re interested in running for office with Run For Something; 39,700 of them have signed up since November!

New polling from Morning Consult shows that voters for the first time since 2021 trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the economy

Over 230 interfaith leaders from across Colorado added their signatures to a beautiful and important statement on the truths of immigration. On April 16, they released the statement at a press conference held in Aurora, CO.

A United States District Judge blocked most of Trump’s executive order targeting Houston-based law firm Susman Godfrey.

Pope Francis did not attend the Vatican’s official meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Saturday, instead having his No. 2 deliver him a lecture on compassion.

In a win for voters, a federal court ordered Mississippi to draw new state senate districts for Desoto County, finding that its new map does not fix violations of the Voting Rights Act.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador in efforts to help Kilmar Abrego Garcia and got to meet with him. The fact that he is still alive and no longer at CECOT is excellent news.

The European Parliament and EU governments have agreed to rules designed to reduce the risk of accidental microplastic pollution.

Chuck Grassley got raked over the coals at a Town Hall. Especially about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

A federal judge ruled that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in online advertising, a space the company has dominated for years. The ruling could transform the $1.88 trillion company’s influence over the internet.

A three-judge panel for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals again unanimously rejected a Trump administration request to overturn a lower-court order requiring it to secure the freedom of Kilmar Abrego García.

Twelve Republican members of Congress signed a letter to Speaker Johnson opposing significant cuts to Medicaid. That’s because of you! Keep calling!

Federal judges in Colorado and Nevada issued rulings blocking the administration from continuing other deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

Nearly three dozen immigrants have had their Social Security numbers reinstated after visiting field offices to prove that they are not, in fact, dead.

A new survey found that plastic pollution on Australian coastlines dropped by 39% over the last decade. Additionally, there was a 16% increase in coastal areas with “no plastic debris at all.”

A federal judge has once again blocked Department of Government Efficiency staffers who are operating inside the Social Security Administration (SSA) from accessing sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.

A U.S. judge barred the Trump administration from rapidly deporting hundreds if not thousands of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to show they fear being persecuted, tortured or killed there.

A judge in Idaho expanded the medical exemptions that apply to the state’s near-total abortion ban.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the Wisconsin governor can lock in 400-year school funding increase using a veto.

Trump is registering the worst economic approval numbers of his presidential career.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the Trump administration to halt a round of mass firings that attempted to eliminate as much as 90% of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s staff.

Things continued to go very badly for Pete Hegseth all week. And then they got much, much worse today.

New York City is cutting emissions and saving money by making vegetarian meals the default in public hospitals.

Prosecutors filed charges against private security guards who helped drag Teresa Borrenphol out of a Republican town hall earlier this year.

In a sign that they may be finding a spine, the Supreme Court told the Trump administration not to take any action to deport Venezuelan men based in Texas it alleges are gang members. This ruling is temporary but seems encouraging.

Barbara Lee won the Oakland Mayor’s race.

Chicago’s public school teachers approved a four-year contract with the nation’s fourth-biggest school district on April 14 after almost a year of tough negotiations.

Trump officials decided not to invoke the Insurrection Act for now. (This serves as another reminder to not believe everything we read.)

EU countries and lawmakers struck a deal to ban PFAS in toys.

Over 200 prominent former government officials and other American leaders joined together in an open letter condemning President Trump's retaliatory investigations targeting Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor– and all others illegitimately targeted by the administration.

David Brooks has joined the Resistance.

A two-year-old boy who spent a night alone in the Arizona wilderness was found and led to safety by a rancher’s dog