Extra! Extra! 6/23 🥳🥳🥳

All the GOOD news that's fit to print!

As usual, found in Jay Kuo’s “Just For Xeets and Giggles.”

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Here’s your list of everything good that happened this week—or everything I could find, anyway. Fortunately, I know that if I missed something one of you will post it in the comments—thanks for that!

Remember, we ought not work as hard as we’re working without occasionally stopping and acknowledging the progress we’re making. To ignore our wins is a formula for burnout and despair!

So let’s make time to stop, take a breath, and really savor the fruits of our labor. YOU HELPED DO SO MUCH OF THIS!

And of course, please share this list as widely as you can. Because everyone—and I mean everyone—needs a lift right now.

I have, as usual, popped an 🪓 next to every item folks like you helped make happen, or that got done by lawmakers you helped elect.

Celebrate This! 🎉

Our Chop Wood, Carry Statehouses Giving Circle made our 10K match in under a week! Amazing work, all; it’s a testament to the power of so many of us working together to raise money for critical statehouse races! 🥳 🪓

Also, our Senate Circle event on Monday raised $99,424 for donor alliances in Ohio and Montana that are working with grassroots organizers to support not only those states’ two Senate candidates, but others up and down the ballot in November! (If anyone wants to make it an even 100K you can still give here!)

Arizona will invest $8.5 million to continue a feasibility study related to water conservation. The money comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. 🪓

European Union countries gave final approval to a major and long-awaited plan to better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc

Nevada lawmakers awarded $9 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the nonprofit SafeNest to build out a Las Vegas campus that centralizes and expands services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and trafficking. 🪓

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore issued a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, one of the nation’s most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use. 🪓

In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rule on credit card late fees, PNC is slashing such fees to $8, and Wells Fargo is eliminating them on a new card. 🪓

Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington joined the antitrust suit against Apple. 🪓

Chinese solar producers are setting up shop in the U.S. because of tariffs. ¹ 🪓

Green energy continues to make EXCELLENT progress around the world.

Biden’s campaign went up with an ad that for the first time calls Trump a “convicted criminal.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s government has been stockpiling mifepristone for its residents in case Trump is elected and attempts to cut off access to the drug. It’s one of several pre-emptive steps officials and activists are taking to resist a potential Trump administration. 🪓

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, over one million workers and retirees' pensions have been protected.

Within 24 hours of Louisiana enacting a law to require that the Ten Commandments be in every classroom, the ACLU sued.

Gun violence has decreased in most major U.S. cities this year, with Philadelphia seeing the biggest drop so far. 🪓

In a glimmer of hope for one of the world’s rarest fish, scientists have counted 191 Devils Hole pupfish this spring in their tiny desert habitat — the highest spring count for the critically endangered species in more than two decades.

President Biden announced new executive actions that will offer protection against deportation to an estimated half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. HUGE. 🪓

Activists from Climate Defiance were arrested for crashing the diamond at Nationals Park and demanding that Congress “stop playing games” and focus instead on ending US reliance on oil, gas, and coal and stopping subsidies for fossil fuels. 🪓

Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing political consequences for her congestion pricing reversal.

A new Politico/Ipsos poll finds 21% of independents “said Trump’s conviction made them less likely to support him and that it would be an important factor in their vote.

It looks like we’re about to get a spectacular new FDIC Commissioner, and it’s partially thanks to Republicans!

Colorado’s governor signed a bill expanding the availability of drop boxes on college campuses. 🪓

Fulton County, Georgia established new processes to protect voters from baseless mass challenges.

A new ‘quiet zone’ ordinance passed by the Chicago City Council in Illinois will stop anti-abortion harassers from using sound amplifiers outside of an abortion clinic.

Chiquita Brands, the largest banana distributor of bananas in the U.S., has been ordered to pay $38.3 million to the families of victims in Colombia killed by a paramilitary group they helped fund. 

A Washington D.C. suburb is executing the country’s most ambitious plan to provide clean, sustainable local transit.

The United Auto Workers and Ultium Cells reached a historic agreement in Lordstown, Ohio, where UAW workers are manufacturing batteries for General Motors electric cars and trucks. The agreement significantly increases wages and ensures critical health and safety and scheduling protections for 1,600 workers. 🪓

This is technically from last week, but Florida Democrats are contesting every seat in both chambers of the legislature for the first time since 1980! HUGE! 🪓

The White House launched a new website compiling all of the President’s and Vice President’s work to lower costs! 🪓

The biggest ever standalone public opinion survey on climate change, the Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024, shows 80 percent – or four out of five - people globally want their governments to take stronger action to tackle the climate crisis.

This Tuesday, the first class of the American Climate Corps took a pledge to work “on behalf of our nation and planet, its people, and all its species, for the better future we hold within our sight.” 🪓

The Minnesota Legislature approved a bill that will return 18 acres of state trust lands to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, a win for the international land back movement aiming to put Indigenous peoples back in control of their ancestral territories. 🪓

The U.S. Department of Justice, in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission, sued software giant Adobe for misleading users of their software programs over the terms and conditions of their subscriptions. 🪓

Supreme Court justices ruled 8 to 1 to uphold a federal law restricting guns from people who have been subjected to restraining orders for domestic abuse. A stopped clock, and all that…

A federal judge in Arizona declined to dismiss criminal charges against Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd. The supervisors refused to certify the results of the 2022 midterm elections. A judge later ordered them to.

In Michigan, the state supreme court ruled that two activists who are charged with attempting to discourage Black voters from voting in 2020 can be prosecuted. 

Mississippi just got its first utility-scale wind farm. 🪓

Used EVs are rapidly getting cheaper than gas-powered cars. As more EVs enter the used market at lower prices, there is a wider market of potential first-time EV owners. 

PepsiCo is expanding the size of its electric fleet in California.

The union representing nearly half of Environmental Protection Agency employees approved a new contract with the federal government this month that included protections from political meddling into their work. 🪓

Thanks to the advocacy of Democratic lawmaker Maxwell Frost, Orlando, FL will be getting a passport office—heretofore the entire state of Florida has had only one, in Miami. 🪓

Robert Winnett, the controversial right-wing British journalist recently tapped to become editor of The Washington Post later this year, will not take the job after all! Let’s hear it for blowback!

Electric vehicle growth is slowly eating into global oil demand.

The Vermont legislature voted to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of a bill that aims to increase Vermont’s reliance on renewable energy. It requires most of the state’s utilities to purchase 100% of their electricity by 2030. It will now become law. 🪓

A federal judge in Washington state found that BNSF Railway knowingly trespassed when it ran about a quarter-million cars carrying crude oil over the Swinomish Reservation beyond what was outlined in an agreement with the tribe. They likely now have to pay 440M to make it right. (If you can get past the paywall this story is AMAZING! Thanks to the subscriber who sent it to me!)

Trump failed, once again, to have his New York gag order lifted after an appeals court declined to take up his complaint.

Steve Bannon will have to serve his contempt-of-congress time in real prison — not a minimum security facility — due to a separate open criminal case against him.

Biden raised 40M in 5 days this week. 🪓

RFK won’t make the debate stage, because he hasn’t qualified for the ballot in several states where he claims he has. Once a con-man, always a con-man.

Trump Media share prices continue to plummet.

The House Ethics Committee expanded its investigation into Matt Gaetz.

The United States—and the Biden administration—celebrated Juneteenth as a federal holiday for the fourth time ever. HUGE! Also, and partially as a result, according to a YouGov survey national awareness of Juneteenth is rising, with 90 percent of Americans now aware of the holiday, versus 74 percent in 2022. 🪓

The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that could have disrupted the U.S.tax system.

The Biden campaign announced that they’d hired their 1000th battleground state staffer.

A proposed amendment to New York’s constitution barring discrimination based on “gender identity” and “pregnancy outcomes” was restored to the November election ballot by a state appeals court.

The Biden-Harris Administration has proposed a plan to protect and manage old-growth forests in the National Forest System, advancing their climate and conservation goals. 🪓

A federal court dismissed the Republican National Committee's lawsuit that tried to purge voters from Nevada's rolls. 

Biden-Harris 2024 announced a $1.5 million partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), which houses some of the nation’s most prominent and historic Black-owned newspapers from across the country. 🪓

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) launched an investigation into Affinity Partners, the Saudi-backed private equity firm led by Jared Kushner. 🪓

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates endorsed President Biden’s reelection Thursday, saying “the stakes for women and families couldn’t be higher.” Gates has committed $2 billion to organizations working for gender equality and reproductive rights. 

The Biden-Harris Administration released updated Climate Adaptation Plans from over 20 federal agencies to bolster climate resilience nationwide. 🪓

Watch This! 👀

I’m really grateful that ads like this are being made, and that new groups like the Seneca Project are popping up everywhere. Very empowering.

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BIG by Matt Stoller