Extra! Extra! 7/16 🥳
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
It’s been a brutal week, but, as always, we had an extraordinary amount of good things happen, too. As is so often the case, most of the positive news got buried in the deluge of awfulness; take some time to enjoy it now! We all need a lift. After all, why work so hard if we don’t stop and celebrate the wins?
Sending real love. You guys are amazing: you’re brave; you’re steadfast; you’re strong. You’re my heroes.
Have a great Sunday.
Jess
P.S. — I hope that if I live to be 105 I’m just like the woman in the above video.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Michigan GOP is imploding.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell 34% in the first half of 2023, hitting its lowest level in four years as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva institutes tougher environmental policies.
Total U.S. electric vehicle sales topped 4 million at the end of June. Reaching the first million took eight years. The fourth million took 10 months.
The Biden administration will open a new immigration program to allow some Central Americans and Colombians to enter the U.S. legally.
A Nevada judge denied the Nevada Republican Party’s request to block a state law mandating parties to hold primaries for the 2024 presidential election. This is a major victory for voters as the court rejected the NV GOP’s blatant attempt to rewrite the state’s election law and disregard voters’ preferences.
Maine Governor Janet Mills signed legislation against prison gerrymandering.
A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that policies that prevent transgender students from using the bathroom in accordance with their gender identity are harmful to them and therefore should be blocked.
The United States’ last declared chemical weapon — an aging rocket filled with sarin nerve agent — was destroyed at a Kentucky munitions plant, ending a decades-long operation to cull U.S. stocks of deadly toxins.
An organization called 4ocean announced that it has recovered a historic 30 million pounds of plastic waste and man-made debris from the world’s oceans, rivers, and coastlines since the company began in 2017.
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson announced the launch of a tool that will allow voters to track mail ballots as well as look up their polling places and see sample ballots. Mississippi was previously one of only three states without online ballot tracking.
Both Kansas and Oklahoma announced the results of election audits mandated by recent laws championed by individuals and organizations questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Both states found their elections to be accurate and administered with adequate security practices in place.
The White House announced it will invest $5 million to manage and improve resilience to extreme heat experienced across the United States this summer.
The Biden administration released a national plan targeting the spread of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that's increasingly laced with fentanyl and is rapidly spreading through the illegal drug trade.
Turkey said it would support Sweden’s bid to join NATO, clearing the way for the country to join the alliance. Great job, Joe Biden!
Inflation dropped to its lowest levels since March 2021.
A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a real-time air monitor that can detect any of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants that are present in a room in about 5 minutes.
A new tuberculosis vaccine could save 8.5 million lives over the next 25 years.
Portugal just doubled its goals for installing new solar and hydrogen capacity by 2030. The country also plans to decommission natural gas-fired power plants by 2040 and possibly become carbon neutral by 2045 — five years earlier than its original commitment.
In a significant shift, the Justice Department said Tuesday that it will no longer defend former President Donald Trump against E. Jean Carroll’s initial defamation suit.
The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed to strengthen requirements for the removal of lead-based paint dust in homes and child care facilities built before 1978. If finalized, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the regulation would reduce exposure to lead for as many as 500,000 young children per year.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that the government plans to put a cap on how much families pay for child care as part of the Child Care & Development Block Grant program.
A federal court in Richmond has halted construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, setting off a battle with Congress that could end up at the Supreme Court.
Arizona’s top prosecutor, Democrat Kris Mayes, is ramping up a criminal investigation into alleged attempts by Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state.
A New York appeals court on Thursday ordered the state’s congressional map to be redrawn, siding with Democrats in a case that could give the party a fresh chance to tilt one of the nation’s most contested House battlegrounds leftward. (P.S. this case will likely end up in the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, which is now led by a more liberal judge because of activism work WE DID last year! Woot!)
Federal regulators Thursday approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill available in the United States, a milestone in decades-long efforts to make oral contraceptives easier to obtain, especially by teenagers and women who don’t regularly see a doctor.
The International Olympic Committee confirmed that Russia and Belarus will not receive formal invitations to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics when they are sent out July 26.
BP is investing in a California-based startup that will use uneaten food and other waste to make low emission fuel.
The Justice Department is planning to appeal several of the sentences meted out to Oath Keepers for their Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy convictions because they are too light.
Michigan is the 10th state to ban child marriage after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Tuesday to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 years old.
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee signed a new law that will change wage theft from a misdemeanor crime to a felony starting next year.
The Screen Actors Guild has joined the Writers’ Guild in their strike!
Senators Whitehouse and Durbin have sent letters to hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, mortgage company owner Robin Arkley II, and Leonard Leo requesting more information about undisclosed gifts to Supreme Court justices.
Ray Epps, the man at the center of a widespread conspiracy theory about the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, is suing Fox News and its former host Tucker Carlson for defamation.
Texas banned homeowners’ associations from discriminating against renters who receive federal housing aid.
The number of migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization in June plummeted to the lowest level since the start of the Biden administration.
Georgia’s State Election Board is suing the conservative voting organization True the Vote over its failure to provide proof of what it said was widespread ballot trafficking in the 2020 election.
In Southern California, 84 delivery drivers joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and negotiated the first union contract among any Amazon workers in the country.
Men and women who “lewdly and lasciviously” associate with each other by cohabiting can no longer be found guilty of a misdemeanor in Michigan under a repeal of a 1931 law signed on Tuesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has signed legislation that allows people to buy and use testing strips to detect the synthetic opioid fentanyl, thought to be the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49.
President Biden raised more than $72 million in the second quarter of 2023 for his reelection effort, vastly out-raising all GOP candidates.
Kids and teens in Colorado who visit the hospital for a mental health emergency can now receive free therapy.
The U.S. Department of Justice asked to join a federal lawsuit challenging two recently enacted anti-democratic laws in Mississippi. Both laws target Jackson, Mississippi’s majority-Black population.
Cambridge, Massachusetts is requiring all buildings over 100,000 square feet to achieve net zero by 2035.
California's LAX airport, which is one of the biggest in the world, is banning single-use plastic water bottles, effective immediately!
A Wisconsin judge allowed a lawsuit challenging the state’s 173-year-old abortion ban to continue.
Senate Democrats confirmed some fantastic civil rights champions this past week. On July 12th, Tiffany Cartwright and Judge Myong Joun were confirmed. Cloture was also invoked for Rachel Bloomekatz, and we expect her confirmation early next week.
The Siemens Rail Car Factory is investing $220 million to build a carbon-neutral manufacturing plant in Lexington, North Carolina. The new factory will create at least 500 high-paying jobs, generate billions of dollars for the North Carolina economy, and meet increasing demands for rail cars and eco-friendly transportation across the East Coast and in the Midwest.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted a temporary stay of a July 4 order putting sweeping limitations on the Biden administration’s communications with social media companies.
A judge threatened former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani with contempt of court and “severe” sanctions for failing to preserve evidence, despite court orders, in two Georgia election workers’ defamation suit against him. Giuliani was also ordered to reimburse the workers for nearly $90,000 in legal fees.
A federal court ordered Kari Lake's legal team to pay $122,200 to Maricopa County for bringing a frivolous lawsuit seeking to ban electronic vote tabulators in Arizona.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has signed a law that protects the rights of all Oregonians older than 15 to access reproductive healthcare and allows minors younger than 15 to access care without parental permission in certain cases. Additionally, healthcare providers and public officials are protected from out-of-state investigations, prosecution or civil liability related to providing reproductive healthcare.
Employees at one California office of Sega, the multinational video game company behind Sonic the Hedgehog, voted to unionize on Monday.
The European Union strengthened its environmental policies this week with adoption of a nature restoration law that member countries hope will help them meet climate and biodiversity targets set under the 2015 Paris Agreement and a global biodiversity agreement reached late last year.
Maine has become the thirteenth state, along with the District of Columbia, to pass paid family and medical leave legislation.
Rosie Hidalgo was confirmed by the Senate to be Director of the Office on Violence Against Women. She will be the first Latina to serve in the role!
The Senate also confirmed Xochitl Torres Small to serve as Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She was previously a water rights lawyer before she joined Congress and grew up in New Mexico as the daughter of educators and the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants who were farmworkers.
The Biden administration announced that it will forgive the student loans of more than 800,000 borrowers, wiping out $39 billion in debt. This announcement has no relation to the Supreme Court case and doesn’t raise legal concerns because it’s built on long-standing congressional authority over income-driven repayment plans.
Watch This! 👀
🚨 WARNING! 🚨 This starts out racy, so do not press play if you don’t want to see some near nudity and sexually-suggestive content, but it’s worth it, trust me. SUCH a good ad.
Thank you for listing all of the positive news Jessica. It definitely lifts my spirits. And I love the ad! It says it like it is, and should be seen by everyone that is planning on voting Republican.
Thank you!! I love reading all of the good news; the weeks of never ending bad news are exhausting.
p.s. LOVE the ad for Ohio election!!