Extra! Extra! 6/4 🎈🎈
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Last week was bumpy at best, but we still have a lot to celebrate. So take a break from doomscrolling and enjoy the many wins we racked up!
Remember, what we focus on tends to grow, so let’s make sure to take some time to revel in our successes. It’s important!
Back to work tomorrow. Until then, enjoy last week’s good news!
Read This 📖
A beautiful essay on Pride from
.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The debt ceiling crisis is over, and Biden (and Americans) largely came out on top.
Five progressive groups announced they are planning a 15-city protest in Florida next month to mobilize minority members of the electorate and spread word about what not voting in 2024 could mean for their future in the Sunshine State.
Run For Something endorsed another 45 amazing young leaders across 12 states last week — 76% for municipal office, 18% for education roles, 4% for legal positions, and 2% for state legislature. This class brings them up to 234 endorsed candidates for 2023 so far across 30 states - 54% of which are people of color, 50% of whom identify as women, and 28% as LGBTQIA+.
Pandemic-era policies achieved a historic narrowing of the stubborn income gap in America.
The North Face strongly defended and renewed its support for working with drag queen Pattie Gonia. The company faced backlash similar to other recent national brands for its “Summer of Pride” campaign but responded like true LGBTQ+ allies.
Connecticut’s Senate passed a resolution absolving dozens of state residents who were accused, convicted and executed for the crime of witchcraft in the 1600s.
A South Carolina judge has temporarily blocked the state’s new abortion restrictions from going into effect, just one day after Gov. Henry McMaster signed them into law.
In Los Angeles, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto (for whom I voted!) announced a settlement in the Office’s lawsuit against Nevada-based Polymer80, permanently prohibiting the company from selling its ghost gun kits in California without first conducting background checks of buyers and without utilizing serial numbers on its products. The company must also pay $4 million in civil penalties, and its two founders must pay an additional $1 million in civil penalties.
In Missouri activists were able to stop a bill that would have made passing ballot initiatives almost impossible by instituting the highest threshold in the country for passage.
Roll Call has obtained information from a Republican pollster that shows that likely voters have moved 6% towards Democrats in a generic US Senate poll and 10% toward Democrats in a generic US House poll. The shift is likely due to the Supreme Court’s “Dobbs” decision overturning “Roe vs Wade” which was announced in June 2022.
The Connecticut Senate passed two pro-voting bills. One would establish 14 days of in-person early voting and heads to Gov. Ned Lamont (D) for his signature. The other would allow no-excuse mail-in voting and will go before voters in November 2024.
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation Wednesday from the White House declaring June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month.
Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.
A bill signed into law this week in Colorado prohibits family courts from ordering children to participate in “reunification programs” that (often violently) isolate them from a trusted caregiver.
Latvia just elected the first openly gay head of state in Europe.
A Missouri nonprofit has launched an initiative to provide free emergency contraception by mail.
Toyota revealed that they would invest an additional $2.1 billion into their future Liberty facility in North Carolina, increasing its total investment to $5.9 billion.
In Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, signed a law that would protect out-of-state abortion seekers and those providing reproductive care from prosecution in Nevada, regardless of other states’ policies.
Employers posted a blockbuster 339,000 jobs in May in the latest sign that a booming labor market continues to prevent the country from slipping into a recession
The Biden administration will exclude public lands around Chaco Canyon, an important Native cultural site in New Mexico, from new oil and gas leasing for 20 years.
York groundsel, a cheerful yellow flower that slipped into global extinction in 1991, has been bought back to life in the first ever de-extinction in Britain, and is flowering again in York.
An Atlanta-area investigation of alleged election interference by former president Donald Trump and his allies has broadened to include activities in Washington, D.C., and several other states, according to two people with knowledge of the probe — a fresh sign that prosecutors may be building a sprawling case under Georgia’s racketeering laws.
Norway’s electric car sales are booming. Of the 13,342 new cars sold in the country in May, more than 80% were fully electric, official data showed, while gasoline and diesel vehicles amounted to barely 3%.
VP Harris became the first woman ever to deliver West Point’s commencement speech.
The New York State Assembly unanimously passed a bill aimed at increasing protections for the state’s community gardens. The bill, which has already unanimously passed the Senate, now awaits Governor Hochul’s signature.
Ukraine built more onshore wind turbines in past year than England, and they’ve been keeping the power on!
Illinois is poised to become the first state to ban book bans. Legislation approved by the Illinois legislature, which Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) is expected to sign imminently, establishes an official policy against book bans:
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) announced his resignation from Congress due to his wife’s undisclosed health issues. It’s a safe GOP seat, but Stewart’s resignation temporarily shrinks the already slim GOP majority in the House until a special election is held in Utah. Kevin McCarthy is sweating now!
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian ordered failed GOP candidate and election denier Mark Finchem to pay $40,565 in legal fees and costs to Adrian Fontes, the Democrat who defeated him in the November election in AZ. The same judge imposed a separate $7,434 penalty against Daniel McCauley, Finchem’s attorney, for filing a lawsuit that she previously called “groundless and not brought in good faith.”
Texas just signed the CROWN Act into law, prohibiting hairstyle discrimination based on race. It passed with bipartisan support including a vote of 143-5 in the House and 29-1 in the Texas Senate and was quickly signed into law by the governor.
Finland had an "unusual problem" last week: so much clean, hydroelectric energy that prices for electricity were in the negative.
Scientists have invented a device that can continuously generate electricity from thin air, offering a glimpse of a possible sustainable energy source that can be made of almost any material and runs on the ambient humidity that surrounds all of us.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an attempt to send Ohio's proposed abortion amendment back to square one.
Nevada made it a felony to threaten an election worker.
A failed New Mexico political candidate was indicted on federal conspiracy and gun charges for shootings that targeted four elected officials.
Two Oath Keepers militia members convicted of seditious conspiracy were sentenced to several years in prison for their roles in a violent plot to disrupt the transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Arizona Supreme Court rejected the Arizona Republican Party's lawsuit attempting to strike down the state's 1991 no-excuse mail-in voting law.
Parents of three transgender children in Florida have filed a lawsuit to block a new Florida law that bans gender-affirming care for minors. The families have asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order immediately blocking enforcement of it.
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Tennessee has struck down that state’s drag ban after a two day trial. He ruled that the law was substantially overbroad and unconstitutionally vague, and therefore violated drag artists’ rights under the First Amendment. 1
A wealth tax implemented in Washington state just last year has already raised more than $849 million as of this month, more than tripling initial projections. The millions raised from the tax will go into school districts and childcare programs, financing much-needed construction and renovations and funding early childhood education programming. 2
Watch This! 👀
If this doesn’t make you cry you’re made of stronger stuff than I am. Thanks to subscriber Susan Morgan for sending it my way!
I’m traveling in Rome now and was so happy to see a giant Pride flag in front of the US embassy! Wish I could share my photo!
This is just what I needed- thank you!