Extra! Extra! 7/2 🎊

The "It's Not All Bad News" edition!

Thanks to Nice News for the quote and graphic

Hi all, and happy Sunday!

It was a brutal week, but a lot of great stuff also happened. Reading this list won’t necessarily ease our grief and outrage over SCOTUS’s awful rulings, but it will give us a brief and needed respite from the sorrow. We deserve that.

So take a look at everything great that happened. You’ll be surprised how much there is. Bask in it, celebrate it, and for goodness sakes share it!

And know that I’m sending all my love and strength. Together we’ll get through this, and together we’ll prevail.

Jess

Read This 📖

Amazing! Spread the word! Climate Change Made the Texas Heat Wave More Intense. Renewables Softened The Blow.”

Celebrate This! 🎉

President Biden announced more than $42 billion in new federal funding to expand high-speed internet access nationwide, commencing the largest-ever campaign to help an estimated 8.5 million families and small businesses finally take advantage of modern-day connectivity.

The Supreme Court of the United States lifted a stay on the injunction against Louisiana’s congressional map. This is the next step toward fair maps for Louisiana voters.

The Supreme Court ruled against North Carolina in the Moore v Harper case! A major win for democracy!

The US announced new sanctions targeting the Wagner Group’s gold-mining activities in Africa as part of a bid to hamper the mercenary group’s ability to fund itself.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration announced 130 awards making up nearly $1.7 billion to fund cleaner transit projects, including zero-emission buses in communities across the country.

A new Kentucky law going into effect this week will decriminalize HIV self-test kit distribution.

The California Supreme Court dealt a blow to qualified immunity for police in the state, overturning decades of rulings that protected law enforcement from liability and broadening the right for victims to seek damages for abusive conduct.

New York City has been cleared to implement a first-in-the-nation “congestion pricing” program that will charge people driving below 60th Street in Manhattan.

About half a dozen Secret Service agents have testified before the grand jury that will decide whether to indict former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol

The FDA approved the first alopecia treatment for adolescents with a severe form of the autoimmune disease, and one dermatologist called it “nothing short of transformative.”

A new Pew survey shows that Biden’s presence in the White House has led to significantly more countries viewing the United States in a favorable light.

A Pennsylvania state court rejected a lawsuit from GOP lawmakers seeking to strike down Act 77, a 2019 law that established no-excuse mail-in voting and was originally championed by Republicans. The law will remain in place.

Oregon voters will decide next year whether to implement ranked choice voting for all state and federal elections, according to a new law enacted by the legislature.

Judges in Kentucky and Tennessee on Wednesday temporarily halted some restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender youths shortly before the provisions were set to go into effect.

The  Pregnant Workers Fairness Act went into effect this week — we advocated for it hard last year! It gives pregnant workers new rights and protections when they’re experiencing morning sickness, postpartum depression, and more.

The Biden administration is restoring Endangered Species Act protections that were removed under the former president. The restored rules will make it easier to designate a protected area, and could help with the recovery of species in areas like the Southeast.

Rudy Giuliani, who served as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was interviewed by federal prosecutors investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

A federal appeals court panel Friday upheld sanctions against attorney Sidney Powell for spearheading a legal effort to award Michigan's Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump in 2020 despite his loss in the battleground state.

Fox News has agreed to pay $12 million to Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer who had accused the network of operating a hostile and discriminatory workplace and of coercing her into providing false testimony in a deposition.

New York abortion rights advocates are putting a constitutional amendment in front of voters this November that would codify abortion rights. 

An Iowa court ruled that counties can provide election materials in languages other than English. Previously, the secretary of state was prohibited from providing non-English voter registration forms.

Directly after SCOTUS’s terrible ruling on affirmative action, the Biden administration released a set of actions they will be taking to try to mitigate the harm and promote educational opportunity and diversity in colleges and universities.

Outdoor athletic retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods quietly announced it will ban PFAS “forever chemicals” in its own-brand textile products.

The California legislature and Governor Newsom just allocated $15 million for commercial dishwasher grants to K-12 schools in California to stem the tons of single-use foodware that flow to landfills. Schools will be eligible for up to $40,000 per kitchen for dishmachines and related upgrades so they can switch from disposable to reusable foodware.

Jobs in the U.S. energy sector grew by 3.8% in 2022, an increase largely led by new clean energy opportunities.

Former Donald Trump campaign official Mike Roman is cooperating with prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team in the ongoing criminal probe related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

A federal judge has rejected former President Trump’s bid to block Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him on “presidential immunity” grounds. The case – not to be confused with the $5 million judgment Carroll already won against Trump – is set to go to trial in January.

Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Thursday that they had brought indictments against three men who allegedly wrongfully capitalized on confidential information related to the launch of President Trump’s social media venture Truth Social.

Brazil’s top elections court voted Friday to bar Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years — a period that covers the next presidential election — for making what members of the panel said were claims he knew to be false about the integrity of the country’s voting systems.

Connecticut is launching a new “baby bonds” program to combat income inequality and to break the cycles of systemic poverty in the state.

The U.S. economy showed much stronger-than-expected growth in the first quarter than previously thought, according to a big upward revision Thursday from the Commerce Department.

 The Biden-Harris Administration launched a $7 billion grant competition to fund residential solar programs. The Solar for All competition will award up to 60 grants to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and eligible nonprofits to create and expand low-income solar programs that provide financing and technical assistance.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $188 million investment to conserve some of the most economically and ecologically significant forestlands across the nation. 

The Interior Department announced nearly $16 million to prevent the imminent extinction of Hawaiian Forest Birds.

The EPA announced over $278 million in funding to improve access to safe and reliable drinking water and wastewater services for American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages.

New Zealand is set to become the first country to ban the thin plastic bags used in supermarket produce aisles, helping to reduce the amount of plastic waste heading to landfills.

Yusef Salaam, one of the “Central Park Five,” won the Democratic primary for a seat on New York’s city council.

Youth-led direct action organization Climate Defiance shut down a 2024 swing state fundraiser at the Harvard Club in New York City, headlined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The activists were protesting Schumer’s hand in approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline and his ties to the company leading the project, utility giant NextEra Energy.

This year’s Miss Texas is a liberal activist!