Extra! Extra! 6/8 🙌🏼🙌🏼
A lift in heavy times.
Hi, all. Happy Sunday.
Of course it’s not very happy, is it? As is so often the case in the days of Trump, there’s a great deal of awful stuff happening. My city is under siege at the moment, and we’re feeling it. But the good news is that Angelenos are doing what they always do: joining together and standing up for what they think is right. We are utterly unbowed and more unified than ever. That, in and of itself, is excellent news.
Of course, it’s a fluid situation. But I remain hopeful we’ll get through it.
There’s more than that. As trying as things are, good things also happened all across the country this week. So let’s take a short break from the stress, fear and anger and let ourselves enjoy what went right. It’s OK to celebrate our wins in the midst of ongoing trials—in fact it makes us more likely to be able to handle the hard times as they come.
So read this list. Then re-read it. Then share it with someone who needs a lift!
Remember, the victories below come as a result of the hard work of people like you—people who won’t accept the unacceptable, who insist on working, in big ways or small, to improve their world and their country. Thanks for that.
Enjoy this list, then get ready to make more wins tomorrow.
And if you’re in L.A. stay safe, friends. See you on the streets.
Read This 📖
Michele Hornish’s Small Deeds Done is always wonderful, but this issue’s opening essay is really beautiful and important—please read it. It will inspire you so much to turn out to a No Kings protest!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Trump and Elon have seemingly broken up. This can only be a good thing.
SCOTUS declined to take up two appeals, from Maryland and Rhode Island, that could have had bad ramifications for the gun violence prevention movement.
The Utah Legislature’s own newly released study found that gender-affirming care benefits trans youth. The study was commissioned under the state’s 2023 law that prohibited gender-affirming care for minors — and the findings completely contradict the basis of that law.
President Trump’s private golf club in Bedminster, N.J. was hit with a remarkable 18 health code violations, nine of them considered “critical.”
At least 11 big companies are moving work away from law firms that settled with the administration or are giving—or intend to give—more business to firms that have been targeted but refused to strike deals.
High school students in Milford, MA, staged a massive walkout protesting ICE’s arrest of student Marcelo Gomes da Silva.
Democrats commissioned a taco truck to hand out free lunch in front of the RNC headquarters.
A group of prominent attorneys, law professors, and former judges have submitted a complaint to the Florida Bar urging an investigation and appropriate sanctions against Attorney General Pam Bondi for engaging in professional misconduct. (You can sign a letter in support of this action.)
Sen. Alex Padilla is expanding his efforts to hold up Trump’s EPA nominees in response to the Senate’s move to revoke his state’s electric vehicle mandate.
After more than a month in jail, a waitress in a small Missouri town who immigrated from Hong Kong 20 years ago was released by ICE. Carol’s arrest rattled her conservative community, which came together to call for her release.
A Guatemalan man who was wrongly deported to Mexico was permitted to reenter the United States, marking the first known instance of the Trump administration returning a deportee in response to a judicial order.
Damian Williams, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, is leaving the law firm Paul Weiss to join Jenner & Block, defecting from a firm that struck a deal with the Trump administration to sign on with one that fought it in court.
Workers in Pittsburgh, PA, Richmond, VA, and Albuquerque, NM, voted to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. These wins bring their movement to over 600 union victories since December 2021.
A major motion was granted in the case of Kilmer Abrego Garcia that allows the wrongfully deported man’s legal team to sanction the US Department of Justice over its abuse of confidentiality orders and for withholding unredacted materials from the court. Also, he’s back in the U.S.
The International Energy Agency predicts global investment in clean energy will reach $2.2 trillion this year, marking another record high.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) sued Alina Habba, U.S. attorney for New Jersey and a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, for false arrest, malicious prosecution and defamation stemming from his arrest for protesting the Trump administration's deportation policies.
Ticket sales and subscription revenue at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts have fallen sharply since Trump made himself chairman.
The mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma announced that the city has approved $105 million in reparations for the infamous Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921
A judge ordered the government to allow Venezuelan men who were removed from the U.S. earlier this year to challenge their ongoing imprisonment in El Salvador.
South Korean politician Lee Jae-myung, a left-leaning candidate, won the country’s presidential election.
Wisconsin’s first large-scale, solar-powered battery storage project is operational and can power more than 130,000 homes for up to four hours.
A coalition of immigrants rights organizations and criminal defense lawyers sued the Trump administration to block the government from paying El Salvador to imprison the hundreds of removed Venezuelan migrants.
A Santa Barbara, CA judge granted a temporary restraining order to stop Sable Offshore’s dangerous pipeline restart — the same corroded pipeline that spilled 450,000 gallons of oil into Chumash waters 10 years ago.
The FCC's lone Democratic Commissioner is challenging the weaponization of her agency.
Lawmakers in Hawaii have passed first-of-its-kind legislation that will increase the state’s lodging tax to raise money for environmental protection and strengthening defenses against natural disasters fueled by the climate crisis.
A new AI-powered internal tool that aims to streamline U.S. EPA practices is highlighting the importance of climate action, contradicting the agency’s current direction.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander announced new climate standards for pension fund asset managers, including clear net-zero goals that decrease their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
The largest land back deal in California history is returning 17,000 acres around the Klamath to the Yurok, the final parcel of a nearly 50,000-acre land transfer.
Americans are finally saving almost as much as financial advisors recommend for retirement, according to new data released by Fidelity Investments.
Democrat Keishan Scott defeated his Republican rival in a landslide win for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Scott, who is 24, secured over 70% of the votes cast in Tuesday's special election.
Massachusetts-based Boston Metal is on the verge of earning its first revenue as it continues honing a novel steelmaking process so clean it can vent emissions into a parking lot the company shares with a day care center.
Democrats had a strong night in Mississippi on Tuesday, flipping several seats from red to blue. They even defeated a few incumbent Republican mayors.
Two of the parties behind an AI-generated robocall that imitated then-President Joe Biden and warned residents not to vote in the New Hampshire Democratic primary have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit brought by voting groups.
After massive public backlash, high schooler Marcelo Gomes da Silva was granted bond and released from an ICE detention facility.
Two prominent former Republicans—Joe Walsh and David Jolly— have joined the Democratic party. Jolly is running for Florida governor, too!
Yorba Linda, CA has entirely eliminated PFAS from its drinking water supply.
A federal judge said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons must keep providing gender-affirming care to transgender people who are incarcerated.
Artist Michele Pred projected the words STOP THE CUTS TO NATIONAL PARKS on a mountain face in Yellowstone Park, part of her ongoing series of guerrilla public art actions—shining light (literally) on urgent issues.
Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones, a former Under Secretary of the Air Force under Joe Biden, won the mayoral race in San Antonio, TX. She beat Republican Rolando Pablos, a former secretary of state who ran with (lots of) support from Governor Greg Abbott.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore AmeriCorps-funded programs in Washington, D.C., and 24 Democratic-led states as their lawsuit proceeds over recent cuts.
Defying an order from Ron DeSantis, Florida Pride organizers lit up the Acosta Bridge in Jacksonville with rainbow colors using handheld lights.
The family of a 4-year-old Bakersfield girl with a rare medical condition has been granted humanitarian protection from deportation, allowing her to continue receiving lifesaving treatment in the United States.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem took down her list of “sanctuary cities” she said weren’t cooperating with federal immigration authorities after the National Sheriffs’ Association demanded an apology.
The U.S. Department of Education is pausing its plan to garnish people’s Social Security benefits if they have defaulted on their student loans.
The NJ turnpike authority is switching away from Tesla charging stations at all rest stops. They will immediately transition to Universal Open Access EV chargers.
Pamela Hemphill, a former Trump supporter who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, formally rejected Trump’s pardon, saying what she did that day was “not OK.”
Watch This! 👀
Fantastic. This guy is a very good follow, btw.
Thank you for the breath of fresh air in the true toxic news that we also need to hear. And Jesse is amazing. I’ve been a fan for months now! He cranks out the best musical news
You are amazing!! I learn so much AND find something I can DO!!