Extra! Extra! 6/16 🥂
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Here’s your list of good news for the week just ending. As usual, there’s more of it than you’d think. And as usual, you had a lot to do with making some of it. So I’ve popped an 🪓 next to every item folks like you helped make happen, or that got done by lawmakers we helped elect.
Please make sure you share this post with as many folks as you can. We must, must, must get the word out about the progress, the milestones, the legislative wins, and the great work Democrats are doing everywhere. Otherwise, why bother? Also, how will we have the motivation to keep going if we don’t stop to enjoy our accomplishments?
Finally, what we focus on grows. So let’s focus on the positive, bask in the glow of our successes for a few minutes, and then go enjoy the rest of our Sundays.
Thanks for all you do.
P.S. — The audio version is about 4/5 complete but got cut off a bit early, sorry. Hard to do the recording on a weekend with family around.
Read This 📖
This will make you feel great. I promise.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Department of Health and Human Services announced that as a result of the Biden-Harris Administration’s huge investments in health care navigators via the Inflation Reduction Act, uninsured rates for communities of color across the country have dropped significantly. 🪓
The Department of the Interior announced $130 million in funding to revitalize land in coal communities. It’s part of a larger plan to clean up legacy pollution and create good-paying jobs and economic opportunities for coal communities amidst the clean energy transition. 🪓
Regulators in the California South Coast Air Quality Management District voted to approve a first-in-the-nation measure that aims to sharply reduce emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) from more than 1 million large water heaters, small boilers, and process heaters in the area. (I was at the meeting where they voted on this!!) HUGE! 🪓
By a nearly unanimous bipartisan vote, the New York legislature passed landmark legislation protecting children from big tech. 🪓
Global investment in clean energy this year is on track to hit $2 trillion — that’s nearly twice the amount being invested in fossil fuels, per the International Energy Agency.
President Biden announced a significant decrease in violent crime in the first quarter of 2024, based on FBI data from over 11,000 law enforcement agencies. 🪓
Pharmacists are unionizing! 🪓
In Arizona, the state Court of Appeals upheld more than $47,000 in sanctions against Mark Finchem for a baseless election challenge.
The Democratic National Committee is trolling Trump with billboards in 10 locations in Milwaukee, quoting his recent quip about the “horrible city.” The Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee on July 15th.
Global EV sales will hit a record this year, and double by 2027 to more than 30 million, according to a new BloombergNEF forecast. 🪓 (Biden’s IRA helped make this happen!)
After a colossal cleanup effort, federal and state authorities fully reopened the main shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore. 🪓
Washington State has taken a major step toward a cleaner environment by banning foam tableware, including takeout clamshells, bowls, cups, and portable coolers. 🪓
Wisconsin Democrats will be fielding candidates in almost every statehouse race this November! 🪓
The U.N.’s most powerful body approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution to support an American-backed cease-fire plan. 🪓
Inspired by false conspiracies about irregularities in the 2020 elections, conservatives organized referendums in three South Dakota counties to ban the use of voting machines. Voters last week rejected all three ballot measures. 🪓
After decades of dwindling numbers due to habitat degradation and poaching in the southern portion of Florida’s Everglades National Park, the native flamingo population is returning and thriving once again. 🪓
A federal judge ruled that Florida’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors and several of the provisions restricting such care for adults are unconstitutional. As such they are permanently blocked!
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California laws barring the sale of firearms and ammunition at fairgrounds and other state property are constitutional.
The American Rescue Plan is being used to eliminate $7 billion in medical debt for up to 3 million Americans by 2026. 🪓
The World Bank announced that the global economy is in better shape than it was at the start of the year, thanks largely to the performance of the United States. 🪓
Democrat Ann Jacobs, who led the Wisconsin Elections Commission during the 2020 election, was unanimously reelected chair of the panel and will lead the bipartisan commission in the key battleground state this fall. 🪓
The Wisconsin Supreme Court temporarily suspended Trump attorney James Troupis from his position on a judicial ethics committee after he was indicted for his role in a fake electors scheme during the 2020 election. 🪓
The Biden-Harris Administration announced that it is designating a 1,722-square-mile area in eastern Lake Ontario as America's 16th national marine sanctuary. 🪓
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a sweeping effort to erase medical debt from credit reports, which would help millions of Americans across the country wipe nearly $50 billion from their credit history. 🪓
The annual congressional baseball game was interrupted by climate protesters. 🪓
According to new data estimates from BloombergNEF, global carbon dioxide emissions are starting to fall for the first time since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Two city councilors in Washington, D.C., who’ve championed criminal justice reforms in recent years easily defeated primary challengers last week. 🪓
In New Mexico, several incumbent lawmakers who voted against legislation mandating paid and family leave, sinking the bill and angering progressives, were ousted in Democratic primaries. 🪓
Heineken is successfully using regenerative farming to grow its hops.
HUGE: The DNC announced it will give nearly $2 million to state parties in 11 non-battleground states in the months ahead of elections in November -- first-of-its-kind investments in on-the-ground organizing, data infrastructure and voter-turnout efforts specifically targeting certain places that aren't at the heart of the presidential or congressional battlefield. 🪓
The DNC also launched a mobile billboard with footage of the January 6 riots for Trump’s visit to DC. It followed the former president as he moved between meetings with House and Senate Republicans.
The Biden Administration announced over 18 million new business applications since Joe Biden took office. Wow! 🪓
Inflation cooled more than expected in May. 🪓
To commemorate Juneteenth, the National Archives Museum announced it will display the original Emancipation Proclamation and General Order No. 3 from June 18 – June 20, 2024.
The Biden Administration launched a new option for filing Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) complaints, which could include abortion depending on a SCOTUS decision. 🪓
Over 150,000 South Koreans marched for Pride despite a government ban. 🪓
Amarillo became the second city across Texas to vote against joining the growing list of "Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn." 🪓
An Arizona appeals court rejected Kari Lake's lawsuit seeking to overturn her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial race. This is the sixth time Lake's election contest has been dismissed by state courts. Sheesh, she’s persistent!
Researchers have detected a significant dip in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons, harmful gasses that deplete the ozone layer and warm the planet. It’s the first recorded decline since the country agreed to phase out the chemicals nearly 30 years ago.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority froze a lower court’s decision that stood to significantly limit the number of early voting locations for the 2024 elections. Municipalities can assign early voting sites without these restrictions. (Go Janet Protasiewicz!) 🪓
A Michigan judge largely rejected the Republican National Committee’s bid to tighten the state’s instructions for verifying signatures on absentee ballot applications and return envelopes ahead of the 2024 election.
President Biden announced his fifty-first round of judicial nominees, bringing the total to 247. 🪓
Eugene Young announced that he was dropping out of the Sept.10 Democratic primary in Delaware, leaving state Sen. Sarah McBride on a glide path to become the first openly trans person to ever serve in Congress. WOW!
Ohio Democrats turned in an astounding special election performance on Tuesday night—in a conservative rural district they had no reason to think would be favorable in any way. Some of you wrote postcards for that race! THANK YOU! 🪓
SCOTUS didn’t ban mifepristone right now. It’s the little things.
U.S. and European officials agreed to lock up sanctioned Russian assets until Moscow pays reparations for invading Ukraine, clearing the way for a $50 billion loan package for Kyiv at the G7 summit. 🪓
President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy signed a historic U.S.-Ukraine Bilateral Security Agreement. 🪓
Despite having less capacity, Amtrak is on track to break ridership records in 2024. Ridership was 20% higher in the first seven months of Amtrak's budget year that began Oct. 1, and ticket revenue was up 10% versus the same period in 2023.
New polling shows that abortion’s importance as a voting issue is way up, especially among pro-choice voters.
The flow of traffic to Donald Trump’s most loyal digital-media boosters (sites like the Daily Caller and the Drudge Report) isn’t just slowing; it’s utterly collapsing.
The Biden administration issued the first national strategy to reduce food waste. 🪓
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to liquidate his personal assets as a bankruptcy judge sought to force him to pay the roughly $1.5 billion in damages he owes for claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
The New York City government released a new Google Maps layer that displays roughly 1,000 public bathrooms available for public use. 🪓
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed two bills into law that will protect drivers for companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash. 🪓
A new proposed rule from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau could stop $49 billion of medical debt from appearing on credit reports and lowering the credit scores of 15 million Americans. 🪓
A star-studded fundraiser in Hollywood last night raised over 30M for Biden’s campaign.
Mass shootings are down 29% from last year. 🪓
Watch This! 👀
Some needed silliness from the Daily Show. Thanks to
for posting!
Another Good News item from Florida. The Florida Democratic Party has successfully qualified Democrats to run in every single state legislative race, in both houses, and in every Congressional district. It was a huge effort by the FDP, by grass roots activists and by several members of the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida. No Republican will run unopposed. This is historic.
You always provide the light to lead us to the next week! Thank you for all the good news! 🥰