Hi, all, and happy Sunday night!
Itâs a tough time in America, but everywhere we look Americans young and old are rising to the challenge and fighting to keepâand growâour democracy. To say itâs heartening is an understatement. So letâs take a few minutes to look at all the great news that broke this week.
Remember, it was people like you who helped make it happen.
You deserve to celebrate it.
Read This đ
We had a school-board winning streak on April 4th, and almost no one knows about it! Read about it here.
Celebrate This! đ
The governor of Virginia signed legislation repealing the requirement that voters get their mail ballot envelopes signed by a witness.
Republican bills to ban ranked-choice voting and criminalize immigrant aid organizations were blocked on Wednesday by Gov. Katie Hobbs, who vetoed them. Â
An 85-year-old white man has been charged in connection with the shooting of a Black teenager who approached his front door in Kansas City, Mo., last week after confusing the address with a home about a block away, prosecutors said on Monday.
Allegations from congressional Democrats that Justice Clarence Thomas likely violated federal ethics laws in his dealings with a Republican donor have been sent to a committee of federal judges responsible for âaddressing allegations of errors or omissions in the filing of financial disclosure reports.â
Renewables keep breaking energy production records.Â
Colorado just became the first state to pass a right-to-repair law for farmers. Under the new law, manufacturers including Deere & Co must provide manuals for diagnostic software and other repair aids.
Fox News agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over 2020 election misinformation. The network will pay $787 million.
The U.S. will spend $1 billion to keep Covid vaccines free for the uninsured when the shots move to the commercial market later this year.
At least three people who carried tiki torches during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017Â have been indicted.
Mike Lindellâs firm was told by a private arbitration panel to pay $5 million to the winner of a âProve Mike Wrongâ election-fraud challenge.
Scientists discovered that two common types of fungi can break down one of the worldâs most stubborn plastics. The fungi can even be found in backyards and took just 140 days to completely break down polypropylene.
A U.S. Navy ship once named after a Confederate victory is now named after a Black Union soldier. The Navy renamed the USS Chancellorsville to the USS Robert Smalls, after an enslaved man who escaped the South by stealing a Confederate steamship.
A new coral reef has been discovered in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the most far-reaching new laws aimed at curbing gun violence in decades in Michigan on Thursday, two months after a mass shooting on the campus of Michigan State University left three students dead and five severely injured.
A county commissioner in Oklahoma resigned Wednesday amid growing backlash after a local newspaper reported that he and other officials talked about lynching Black people and threatened to assassinate two reporters in a conversation secretly recorded by one of those journalists.
Rep. Scotty Campbell, a âforceful advocate1â of expelling the Tennessee Three, has been forced to resign after a story by NewsChannel 5âs Phil Williams broke about Campbellâs vulgar and inappropriate behavior toward two teenage legislative interns. Ew and yay.
Clean Slate legislation just took effect in Michigan, and itâs already cleared the records of nearly 850,000 people. Michigan has about 2.8 million people with criminal records, many of them low-level, nonviolent offenses.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a law which will expand the Washington Voting Rights Act.Â
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed a bill that would have required mail-in ballots to be returned by 7 p.m. on Election Day, eliminating a three-day grace period enacted in 2017.Â
In response to the Biden administrationâs proposed changes making the asylum-seeking process more restrictive, over 84,000 Americans submitted comments on the Federal Register.
Scientists discovered a new microbe in a volcanic spring in Italy, and they say it has the ability to absorb carbon dioxide âastonishingly quickly.â
Fox News has parted ways with Dan Bongino.Â
President Biden announced the creation of a White House Office of Environmental Justice, one of several actions to address the unequal burden that people of color carry from environmental hazards.
The Biden Administration has announced an executive order aimed at improving long-term care and supporting caregivers. The executive order includes 50 directives to federal agencies to support access to affordable and high-quality child care, aging and disability care, and better job quality and support for care workers across the growing, yet often ignored industry.Â
The Arizona Senate and the Cyber Ninjas reached a settlement with American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, in a years-long public records lawsuit that helped to discredit the Cyber Ninjasâ sham review of Arizonaâs 2020 election results.2
The Justice Department charged four Americans and three Russians with conspiring to covertly and illegally interfere in American elections and spread Russian propaganda.
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court held Fulton County and its lawyers in contempt of court for allowing outside access to the countyâs voting machines in defiance of a court order.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Tennessee) is in trouble again. And again! Good.
President Biden has pledged $500 million to help Brazil fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
The Biden administration is proposing a widespread ban on a toxic chemical used in paint strippers that has been linked to dozens of accidental deaths, the first of several long-awaited moves planned for this year to bolster the countryâs chemical-safety rules.
President Biden convened leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) for the fourth time since taking office to galvanize efforts needed to tackle the climate crisis and keep a 1.5°C limit on warming within reach.
Donald Trump was rebuked by the judge in his looming civil rape trial over a request for jurors to be told that if the former president did not testify, it would be out of concern that his presence would adversely affect New York City.
The Supreme Court delayed a decision on abortion pills, preserving access for now. Phew!
Watch This! đ
One of my subscribers dropped this in the mental health discussion thread I posted (for paid subscribers only, sorry!) this past week. I was absolutely captivated by it. Maybe you will be, too.
States United Democracy Center
People should know more about Robert Smalls, who just had a Navy ship named tor him. After he stole that Confederate ship, bringing its crew is slaves and their families to freedom, he went to Washington to help persuade Lincoln to allow escaped slaves to enlist in the military. He then returned to Charleston where he guided naval raids throughout the harbor. After the war he was elected to Congress and served a couple of terms before the violent suppression of African American voters caused his defeat. One of my heroes.
"ew and yay"
That sums up this chaotic time we live in.