Extra! Extra! 4/28

A good, good week!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

What a week! There was a lot of bad, but, perhaps surprisingly, also a LOT of good—especially from a climate and a labor perspective. Since we’ve spent most of the last seven days ruing the absolute ruin that is our highest court, let’s spend a bit of time now celebrating all the other ways our country—and world—are improving.

Remember, what we focus on grows!

Please remember to share this post widely. So many people remain unaware of the great stuff Biden and the Democrats are doing—this is one way to show them! It’s also a real mood lifter for those feeling down over the recent news cycle.

We can get through this and we will. So drink up the good news, share it…and get ready to start making more tomorrow!

(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 📖

He got a college degree while he was in prison. Next up is law school.

Celebrate This! 🎉

To celebrate Earth Day 2024, President Biden announced $7 billion in awards for more than 900,000 low- and middle-income households through EPA’s Solar for All program.  🪓

President Biden also announced that the American Climate Corps is being expanded to provide clean energy job opportunities, particularly for youth, aligning with efforts to integrate renewable energy, reduce energy costs, and promote economic equity while tackling climate change. 🪓

President Biden announced a new rule aimed at enhancing privacy protections for reproductive health care. 🪓

Vice President Harris announced two new rules to improve long-term care for older Americans and people with disabilities. 🪓

The Supreme Court rejected Kari Lake's appeal in a case trying to ban electronic voting machines in Arizona.

There’s a new progressive effort to unseat two Arizona Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of the 1864 ban. 🪓

For the first time ever, the U.S. Global Change Research Program announced the availability of all chapters of the Fifth National Climate Assessment in Spanish.

The governor of Nebraska allowed a bill to become law that restores voting rights to citizens with past felony convictions upon completion of their sentence. 🪓

The Kentucky legislature sent a bill to the governor's desk that, if signed, will expand access to in-person voting prior to Election Day and voting for eligible citizens who are in jail. 🪓

Uber Eats will start accepting federal benefits payments in late 2024. 🪓

Union for Reform Judaism, representing the largest American Jewish denomination, pledged to divest from the fossil fuel industry as a response to the climate crisis. 🪓

Millions of U.S. workers are newly eligible to be paid time-and-a-half for working overtime under a rule finalized today by the Biden administration. 🪓

The percent of Republican women who believe their party’s view on abortion is “too extreme” jumped by seventeen points since June 2022.

The Federal Trade Commission voted to ban new non-compete agreements for all workers and make existing non-competes null and void for everyone except senior executives. This is a HUGE win for American workers. 🪓

Iowa became the latest state to adjourn Sine Die without passing a single piece of explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. 🪓

The U.S. government launched a portal for public reporting of anticompetitive healthcare practices. 🪓

Visa and Mastercard lost a bid to get the Supreme Court to let them out of an antitrust case on ATM fees. 🪓

Gov. Janet Mills of Maine signed LD 227, a sanctuary bill that protects transgender and abortion providers and patients from out-of-state prosecution, into law. 🪓

George Santos dropped his independent House bid.

Residents at Trump Plaza, a 40-story high-rise in the suburban NY city of New Rochelle, are pushing for the building to be renamed. 🪓

Seven countries now generate almost 100% of their electricity from renewable energy in an ‘irreversible tipping point’ moment.

Some of the 49 migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by the state of Florida are now able to legally work in the United States and have temporary protections from deportation — because they are considered victims of a potential crime.

Mother Earth will now receive royalties when you listen to nature sounds on major streaming platforms.

Social Security is expanding benefits nationwide for its rental subsidy policy claimants. 🪓

Global sales of electric and hybrid vehicles will rise to a record high in 2024, the International Energy Agency forecasts, with an increase of more than 20% expected on 2023 figures. In the first quarter of 2024, more electric and hybrid cars were sold than in the whole of 2020, the IEA said. 🪓

Nexamp, a community solar developer, has secured $520 million to install community solar projects around the nation.  🪓

The Department of Energy has announced that it’s strengthening energy efficiency requirements for light bulbs. 🪓

A PAC controlled by former President Donald Trump that has devoted tens of millions of dollars to his and his allies’ legal bills could be running out of cash after spending nearly $3.7 million on legal fees in March.

A federal judge in North Carolina yesterday struck down an 1877 state law that imposes criminal penalties for voting while on parole, probation or post-release supervision for a felony conviction, ruling that it violated the U.S. Constitution.

The USDA announced funding for more than 700 clean energy projects to lower energy bills, expand access to domestic biofuels and create jobs and new market opportunities for U.S. farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers. 🪓

The Department of the Interior announced more than $70 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda for 43 projects in 29 states that will address outdated or obsolete dams, culverts, levees and other barriers to the nation’s rivers and streams. 🪓

The Department of the Interior announced an additional $11 million in new resources from the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART program to help combat Western mega-drought. 🪓

As part of the Biden-Harris Get the Lead Out Partnership, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is partnering with three of its members – Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee – to launch the Great Lakes Lead Pipes Partnership, a first-of-its kind, mayor-led effort to accelerate lead pipe replacement in cities with the heaviest lead burdens. 🪓

Applications for the American Climate Corps are now open — with 2,000 positions to fill across the country. 🪓

Effective this week, Styrofoam is banned in the City of Los Angeles. 🪓

Joe Biden landed a major union endorsement from North America’s Building Trades Unions, and their endorsement video is 🔥🔥🔥.

Nancy Pelosi called on Netanyahu to resign. 🪓

Advocates from across the Americas hosted a mock hearing to call out Citibank’s fossil fuel financing, kicking off a week of protests targeting Wall Street’s climate impacts. 🪓

A burnt papyrus scroll found in Herculaneum, a city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, is believed to have revealed the whereabouts of Plato’s grave.

The city of Tuscon, AZ is planting a million trees to combat climate change and help improve the health of residents, wildlife, and the watershed. 🪓

Gateway Pundit filed for bankruptcy. (Check My Ads volunteers helped make this happen!) 🪓

In Pennsylvania, about 157,000 Republicans voted in the closed, Republican-only primary for Nikki Haley. 

The DOE announced that it has delivered on Congress’s mandate to cut emissions from new or newly renovated federal buildings through the Clean Energy for New Federal Buildings and Major Renovations of Federal Buildings Rule. 🪓

The DOI announced $37 million from the Investing in America agenda to clean up legacy pollution in Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri. 🪓

The DOI also finalized updated regulations to streamline and modernize offshore renewable energy development. 🪓

The Biden-Harris Administration announced a first-ever national goal to transition to a zero-emissions freight sector for truck, rail, aviation and marine, along with a commitment to develop a national zero-emissions freight strategy.  🪓

Officials broke ground Monday on what’s being billed as the first “true” high-speed rail system in the United States, connecting Las Vegas to Southern California. 🪓

An Arizona grand jury indicted seven attorneys or aides affiliated with Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign as well as 11 Arizona Republicans on felony charges related to their alleged efforts to subvert Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state. 🪓

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced new rules that will require airlines to give passengers automatic cash refunds when they cancel or significantly delay flights, or if they lose a passenger’s bags. 🪓

President Biden signed the national security supplemental into law, providing Ukraine with its desperately needed aid. 🙌🏼 🪓

President Biden granted clemency to 16 individuals convicted of non-violent drug offenses. 🪓

A political arm of Planned Parenthood is launching a $10 million voter engagement campaign in North Carolina to elect candidates in favor of abortion rights this year.

Speaker Mike Johnson was drowned out by booing crowds during a speech at Columbia University.

Republican legislative leaders in Ohio say they are negotiating with Democrats to assure President Joe Biden appears on the state’s November ballot.

The numbers of Finland’s Saimaa ringed seal, one of the most endangered seals, are rebounding after decades of conservation efforts. 

 Democratic donors gave a total of $151 million to House and Senate races through the ActBlue fundraising platform in the first quarter of 2024. This is an increase from the same point four years ago, indicating growing Democratic grassroots support as the 2024 election season heats up. 🪓

A group of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during Moscow’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022 were returned. 

California will open its first new state park in a decade this summer as the state sets targets for cutting planet-warming emissions on natural lands. 🪓

President Biden named his 48th slate of judicial nominees. 🪓

Donald Trump lost his bid for a new trial or a judgment overturning the more than $80 million verdict for E. Jean Carroll in the second defamation trial.

The Federal Communications Commission just voted to reinstate net neutrality! 🪓

The Department of Commerce has reached a preliminary agreement with Micron to provide up to $6.14 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. This investment will support the construction of two factories in Clay, New York, and one fab in Boise, Idaho. 🪓

The Biden-Harris Administration announced new school meal standards to strengthen child nutrition. 🪓

The Bureau of Land Management just released a new rule to auction off leases to restore and conserve the land, lessening oil and gas drilling leases to prioritize protecting public land, recreation, and clean energy. 🪓

New York’s first all-electric skyscraper is now open. It was designed to be extremely energy-efficient to help meet new regulations with the city's goal of an 80% emissions reduction by 2050. 🪓

The Biden administration has launched its “American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas,” a long-awaited tool to support the “America the Beautiful” conservation initiative. 🪓

New York has become the first state to receive federal approval for their rebate program for energy-efficient appliances with up to $14,000 in rebates for heat pumps, induction stoves, and electrical upgrades. At least 11 other states will soon follow. 🪓

President Biden unveiled four new Workforce Hubs designed to connect Americans to job opportunities arising from his Investing in America agenda.  🪓

The EPA on Thursday imposed what may become the first federal mandate to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. 🪓

Following a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies — and nearly 20,000 comments from supporters — the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it will block an industrial mining road that would’ve devastated millions of acres of wild landscapes along the iconic Brooks Range in northern Alaska.  🪓

In a win for voters, an Arizona judge rejected a right-wing group's attempt to ban ballot drop boxes and force the state to adopt stricter rules for signature verification.

Demand in the three biggest LNG markets — Europe, Japan, and South Korea, which together account for more than half of global demand — is shrinking because of the growth of renewables and nuclear power.

The European Union will leave a 1995 energy treaty that had allowed fossil fuel companies to sue governments over their climate policies.

Watch This! 👀

After a significant number of Pennsylvania Republican voters roundly rejected Donald Trump in Tuesday’s primary, Biden-Harris 2024 announced a new, six-figure digital ad buy targeting the more-than-157,000 Republican primary voters who chose Nikki Haley. The ad itself is brilliant: