Extra! Extra! 5/8
Hi, all!
Happy Sunday night! And thanks to the reader who supplied me with the above lines. Beautiful, right?
You know what else is beautiful? All the things that went well last week—let’s savor them!
In the world of politics nothing that’s worth celebrating happens without a good hard shove. Brave, unselfish people like you delivered those shoves.
Thank you for that.
Now enjoy your list of successes.
Jess
Read This 📖
An Iowa mayor rejected Pride Month. LGBTQ+ residents changed his mind.
Celebrate This! 🎉
Colorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis signed new legislation to help curb gun violence.
New York has become the first state in the nation to pass a law banning natural gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings, a move that could help reshape how Americans heat and cook in their homes in the coming decades.
In Texas, where a man has sued three of his ex-wife’s friends for allegedly helping her to obtain an abortion, two of those women are counter-suing.
Governors in Indiana and New York both signed laws increasing access to birth control by allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception;
State regulators in California have approved a ban, starting in 2036, on the sale of new buses and trucks that run on diesel.
Lincoln, Nebraska Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, a Democrat, won re-election Tuesday over former State Sen. Suzanne Geist, a Republican. Gaylor Baird prevailed despite Geist’s receiving massive amounts of money from both the state GOP’s political establishment and dark money PACs. Dems also won 3 of 4 open city council seats, and a clean sweep of all 3 open school board seats.
A state court on Tuesday blocked Utah’s first-in-the-nation ban on abortion clinics from taking effect Wednesday in a ruling in which the judge called the Republican-controlled Legislature’s objective in enacting the ban “nebulous.”
Stephanie Scott, a Hillsdale County, MI Clerk that cast doubt on Joe Biden’s 2020 win, has been voted out of office in a recall election. Scott was also accused of improperly handling voting equipment after Biden’s victory.
J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell made history Tuesday morning as they became the first nonbinary-identifying actors to be nominated for Tony Awards.
Colin Alred announced he’s running against Ted Cruz and his launch ad is 🔥🔥🔥!
A newly released report from the city of Philadelphia states that their new plastic bag ban has prevented 200 million plastic bags from being used — the equivalent to filling City Hall with bags every eight months.
U.S. regulators Wednesday approved the first vaccine to prevent the respiratory ailment RSV, a decision that marks a turning point in the six-decade-long quest to protect vulnerable people against the virus.
Jamie Raskin has finished his chemo and his cancer is in remission.
A federal court blocked a Kansas voter suppression law that prohibited organizations from sending personalized mail-in ballot applications to voters.
The Arizona Supreme Court issued sanctions against Kari Lake and her attorneys: "Because Lake’s attorney has made false factual statements to the Court, we conclude that the extraordinary remedy of a sanction...is appropriate."
Employers created 253,000 jobs in April, beating expectations. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent last month, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday, matching a low from May 1969.
Former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and three other leaders of the far-right extremist group were found guilty Thursday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The new bullet train connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas is now moving forward thanks to bipartisan support. In addition to being a blueprint for more like it, the project is projected to create 35,000 construction jobs, 1,000 permanent jobs, and significantly reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a law to extend the deadline for military and overseas voters to return their mail-in ballots. This law codified part of a pro-voting constitutional amendment Michigan voters approved last year.
Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents have obtained the confidential cooperation of a person who has worked for him at Mar-a-Lago
17 million households have signed up to receive discounted internet access through the Affordable Connectivity Program.
FL’s legislature passed a bill to include AAPI history as part of the standard K-12 curriculum.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is probing whether surveillance video at Mar-a-Lago subpoenaed by a federal grand jury was tampered with.
Reversing the policy of his predecessor, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva just legally recognized six Indigenous territories. It’s crucial to protect Indigenous lands from increasing encroachment by farming, gold miners, and loggers in the Amazon rainforest.
A state judge in New York threw out the lawsuit former President Donald Trump filed against the NYT over its 2018 Pulitzer-Prize-winning series on his taxes. Trump was also ordered to pay attorney fees and court costs.
More than a dozen residents of House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s district filed a complaint with the Tennessee Attorney General, asking for a civil investigation into whether he wrongly filed reimbursement expenses with the state. The civil complaint, if found true, could come with a fine of between $375K and $1.5M for Speaker Sexton
A man who attacked police officers defending the Capitol with their own chemical spray on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to more than 14 years in prison, the longest sentence yet for anyone convicted of participating in the violent pro-Trump riot.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed House File 3, the “Democracy for the People Act,” into law. The new omnibus elections bill is one of several pro-voting priorities advanced by Minnesota’s new Democratic trifecta this session.
On Tuesday, New York lawmakers passed a law that, for the first time, authorizes the New York Power Authority — the largest state public power authority in the U.S. — to build renewable energy projects to help reach the state’s climate goals. The authorization is a culmination of four years of organizing by climate and community organizations, and has been heralded as a major win by energy democracy, environmental justice, and labor groups.
Republican Governor (and crook) Tate Reeves has a stellar Democratic opponent in Mississippi—and he’s related to Elvis! Pundits think he’s actually got a shot.
A group in Florida has formed to start a campaign for an abortion rights ballot measure in the state.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed abortion rights legislation on Wednesday that establishes a reproductive rights ballot measure for the 2024 election, protects patient data, and prohibits the prosecution of abortion providers and patients.
Wesleyan University has agreed to cover the costs of reproductive health care for its students.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a stay of execution for Richard Glossip, who Oklahoma had been planning on executing on May 18 over the objection of the state’s Republican attorney general. Glossip has maintained his innocence in the case, with long-running questions about his trial, conviction, and sentence having led Republican lawmakers in the state to oppose his execution.
New York passed a package of abortion protections yesterday, including legislation to ensure that SUNY and CUNY schools offer abortion medication;
I'm not sure how you keep up with everything and I am grateful you do! It really helps to read there are places where repair and sometimes progress, is being made. So happy for Jamie Raskin.
Just cannot thank you enough for this. In the past few weeks, I’ve had numerous conversations with family and friends and was surprised to hear them all sounding so defeated and negative about our country. While I completely understand this when watching all the horrendous things the GOP is doing, it’s also clear that they do not know how much transformative legis/EOs etc have been enacted. Also, most of these folks seem to: 1) believe there’s not much we can do; 2) not being doing what they can to make a difference; and 3) believe that the MSM (esp the NYT) accurately portrays the current state of affairs and that somehow Biden/Harris/Dems/we are not making progress. So I’m going to start sending my fam/friends newsletter with all this great info (and of course remind them again to subscribe to you) as well as a economic data. I think our greatest task heading into 2024 is making sure everyone in our circles understands how much has been accomplished bc right now way too many people are falling for clickbait headlines and the GOP op of making government seem ineffective.