Extra! Extra! 6/22
Bright spots in the midst of the chaos.
Hi, all, and happy Sunday,
It’s still tough times—tougher than ever, in fact. We’re facing war with Iran; Los Angeles is still being tormented by ICE, and Republicans are still pathetic and cowardly. Cruel, too. It’s awful.
And yet. The resistance is rising. And I mean everywhere. So while things are very bad, and we’re all doomscrolling a lot, I urge you to take just a few minutes to enjoy the things that have gone right this week—the people who have pushed back, the detainees who have been freed, the courts that have ruled the right way, and the people who haven’t given up fighting. There are so many of us!
So here’s your list. Read it through slowly. Maybe read it twice! And be sure to watch the video at the end, too. I think it’ll move and inspire you as much as it did me. Then share all of this with friends and family who need the boost.
I love you guys. We’re in the thick of it. But we’re in it together. And we will get through this.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Angel City women’s soccer team in Los Angeles gave out 10,000 shirts saying “Los Angeles is for Everyone” on the back and “Immigrant City Football Club” on the front before their match on Saturday.
A new Colorado law includes requirements that dozens of cities provide multilingual ballots during local elections, bridging a major gap in access for voting in those races.
Disney and Universal are suing an AI firm for copyright infringement, alleging that it stole “countless” copyrighted works to train its AI engine in the creation of AI-generated images.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill with Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
The Smithsonian Institution rebuffed Trump’s attempt to fire the director of its National Portrait Gallery, with the museum’s governing board asserting its independence in a direct challenge to the president.
A federal judge extended the block on Trump’s attempt to ban Harvard from accepting international students.
The American Bar Association sued the Trump administration over its attack on law firms.
Nearly all the members of a board overseeing the prestigious Fulbright scholarships resigned in protest of what they call the Trump administration’s meddling with the selection of award recipients for the international exchange program.
One of Germany’s largest asset managers divested from ExxonMobil, accusing it of “insufficient commitment” to climate targets.
A federal judge ruled all transgender and intersex people can obtain passports that align with their gender identity while the case against Trump’s EO proceeds.
Journalists sued the LAPD for use of excessive force at anti-ICE protests.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) deleted a series of tweets that promoted unfounded conspiracy theories about the man suspected in the deadly shooting of two Minnesota Democrats and their spouses. Talk about a low bar. But still.
Voters of Tomorrow plans to invest $3 million in hiring campus organizers and supporting local youth organizations in 18 Congressional districts where young voters will be the margin of victory in 2026.
A federal judge ruled it was illegal for the Trump administration to cancel several hundred research grants, adding that the cuts raise serious questions about racial discrimination.
Mike Lindell was found liable in a defamation case brought by a former Dominion Voting Systems executive. The jury ordered him to pay roughly $2.3 million in damages.
Kseniia Petrova, the Russian scientist who spent four months in detention after failing to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country, was freed on bail from federal custody by a magistrate judge in Boston.
The Supreme Court ruled that innocent victims of wrong-house raids and other abuses by federal law enforcement can seek compensation for emotional and physical harms, upholding a key exception to sweeping legal immunity that has long protected the government from being sued.
U.S. drug deaths dropped by roughly 40% last year among people under the age of 35.
In the first quarter of 2025, Colombia saw a 33% drop in deforestation compared to the same period last year.
Chris Kluwe is running for the state legislature in California!
Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi has won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. Hashmi is the first Muslim woman in the Virginia Senate and could become the first to hold the state’s second-highest office.
A bill creating a minimum wage for farmworkers in Maine has been signed into law. Starting next year, their minimum rate will rise to $14.65 an hour.
Josh Weil, the progressive teacher who stunned the political world in March by raising nearly $14 million for a failed congressional special election bid in Florida, is now running to become their next U.S. senator.
The FDA just approved a long-lasting injection to prevent HIV.
A federal judge found that Trump’s dismissal of three Democratic members of the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission last month was unlawful, clearing the way for the nation’s product safety regulators to return to work.
Eight senators, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote a letter to the Democratic Party’s leaders calling on them to reject billionaire money by removing super PAC and dark money spending from Democratic primaries.
In New Jersey, the drought warning that has been in place since last fall has finally been lifted.
Mahmoud Khalil is back home and with his newborn baby!
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the Trump administration broke the law when it withheld funding for the nation’s libraries, a finding that inches the White House another step closer to a legal showdown over its powers to reconfigure the country’s spending.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously backed Attorney General Josh Kaul in a ruling determining that attempts by the Republican-led Legislature to control settlements in certain civil cases are unconstitutional.
John Eastman's disbarment has been upheld by a California Court.
Artist Nezza sang “El Pendón Estrellado,” the official Spanish-language version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” at a Dodger’s game, despite being asked not to do so, in support of the city’s immigrant community.
A new study found that, in places with plastic bag bans or taxes, volunteers at shoreline cleanups collected 25 to 47 percent fewer plastic bags as a total fraction of items collected, compared to places with no plastic bag policies.
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink—who resigned after Trump’s Oval Office ambush of Volodymyr Zelensky—announced that she raised more than $250,000 in the first 24 hours of her campaign for Congress. The race, in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, will be one of the most competitive in the US. 1
A federal court granted an injunction to stop HHS’s unlawful termination of grants that the plaintiffs and their public health workforce rely on to protect against infectious diseases and pandemics. The injunction will require HHS to issue the grants while the litigation proceeds.
Denver recorded the largest multi-year reduction in unsheltered homelessness in American history.
Kraft Heinz announced that it will remove artificial dyes from its U.S. products before the end of 2027.
China is building the world’s largest national park system, with a network of wilderness bigger than Texas.
After decades of being underpaid, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have secured a 400% pay raise.
For the first time in years, Democrats have fielded candidates in all 100 Virginia House districts — including deep-red districts — and during early voting this year, voter turnout surged, jumping by 65,000 more votes than in 2021.
For its first time ever, the NAACP won’t invite a sitting president to speak at their annual convention.
In a unanimous decision a federal court of appeals has ruled that Louisiana’s law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms is unconstitutional.
A coalition representing educators and researchers sued to stop the recent mass termination of grants by the National Science Foundation.
The Onion has a full page ad in today’s New York Times print edition featuring part of an editorial titled, “Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice.” It’s “meant to highlight the utter fecklessness of this country’s lawmakers.”
An Instagram account called No Sleep For ICE is posting the locations of Los Angeles-area hotels where ICE agents are staying so protestors can go play loud music and bang drums in front of them. It’s working!
An organization called K-Town for All has begun raising funds to help Los Angeles street vendors stay home with their families to keep them safe from ICE raids. They have now ensured that 42 vendors and their families can stay home, and they’re still going strong!
Watch This! 👀
This is really beautiful, but be warned there is one quick clip of a resident being beaten by ICE. But do watch if you can. It’s magnificent. Video by Instagram creator @aodream
H/T Scott Dworkin
I needed this! Got into a Reddit troll trying to poke holes in my argument that protests and organized resistance "do anything." Was feeling bummed and then I got notification that you published today's edition. Feeling slightly better about the state of the world.
Wonderful video; really lovely.