Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
I’m glad to be able to get this out to you from home, on a working computer, and in plenty of time for you to read it today! It’s important to me that I set you up for your week right.
Here’s the TLDR: Lots of good stuff happened this week, and much of it can be directly traced back to the work of people like you, so please enjoy this list of our recent wins, share it widely, and give yourself a pat on the back for being part it.
Remember, none of us has to do everything to save democracy, but if each of us just does something, wins like these will keep happening.
Enjoy! And thanks for your support!
Celebrate This! 🎉
6-year-old Martina is out of ICE detention — YOUR CALLS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! I got this text from one of my sources: “It’s kind of a big deal to have a GOP member of congress work to get a kid out. He absolutely wouldn’t have if he wasn’t so badgered by everyone. All the calls and tags worked.” AMAZING! 🙌🏼
A federal judge ruled Idaho must allow abortions when necessary to protect a woman’s health - not only when her life is at risk.
In a win for Michigan voters, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump DOJ's request to reconsider a ruling from a three-judge panel in June that denied its demand for the state's unredacted voter data.
A federal court in Nevada became the latest district court to reject the Trump administration’s floundering campaign to force states to turn over their unredacted voter rolls. For those keeping count, that makes their record 0-22.
Home battery installations are growing despite the Trump administration’s eliminating the tax credits for them.
Amanda Janoo won the Democratic Primary for Governor of Vermont! She came out of nowhere to win the hearts and minds of Vermonters.
Two Republican-backed amendments were roundly defeated in Missouri. One would have toughened the rules for approving citizen-led changes to the state constitution, and the other would have phased out Missouri’s personal income tax and raised other sales taxes to offset the lost revenue.
Kansas voters have rejected a plan to fundamentally remake the Kansas Supreme Court — a longtime priority for Republican lawmakers who placed the constitutional amendment proposal on the ballot and framed the urgency of its passage in dire terms.
Seattle Public Schools will begin free meals at all of its schools this fall.
Federal prosecutors said Andrew and Tristan Tate should remain in jail while their extradition proceedings play out, citing the brothers’ own social media posts as evidence they are flight risks and a danger to the community.
A Nebraska court rejected the RNC’s lawsuit seeking to block certain U.S. citizens abroad from voting in the state, handing the national GOP another major loss in its escalating legal campaign against overseas voters.
SpaceX’s earnings show that Elon Musk wiped out two-thirds of Twitter’s ad business.
Florence Pugh hosted a "Together for Palestine" concert in London. It sold out and raised $2 million in relief money for Palestine.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced the state has successfully met or surpassed nearly all of its pollution reduction targets set under the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.
Flock contract cancellations or rejections have now hit 28 states.
A federal judge threw out the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University, a blow to the government’s efforts to force the university into a settlement.
The Trump administration abandoned its effort to obtain sensitive medical records from transgender young people who received gender-affirming care at a Pennsylvania hospital.
A federal judge again blocked the USPS from implementing part of Trump’s executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections.
Anthropic says it will put an invisible watermark on Claude-generated text and images in an effort to comply with European rules for AI transparency.
After years of decline, Mexico’s overwintering monarch numbers were 64% higher this past winter.
Arizona erased more than $1 billion in medical debt for nearly 671,000 residents through Undue Medical Debt.
For the first time, solar power was Portugal’s main source of electricity in July.
Over 30 students occupied the lobby of OpenAI’s new office near Capitol Hill for two hours, unfurling banners reading "Stop Stealing Our Future" and "OpenAI bought my Senator."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is getting transparent about freezing her eggs, documenting the process on social media to normalize the experience and give other women a behind-the-scenes look at her decision. It’s actually amazing.
The Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, which leans red, endorsed Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate.
Trump’s net approval rating has fallen to -27, a new record low in the Economist/YouGov tracking poll.
Following an overwhelming turnout of passionate residents at Tuesday’s city council meeting, officials in Panama City Beach, FL voted to keep physical books on their library’s shelves rather than clearing them out to make room for other municipal projects.
Russia released Robert Gilman, an American who had been held in prison for more than four years.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has permanently halted Shell and Impact Africa’s controversial oil and gas exploration off the pristine Wild Coast. HUGE!
The DNC reversed course on its decision to eliminate Ranked Choice Voting in Democratic primaries!
California’s electric grid is cleaner today than it has ever been, thanks to renewable energy sources like solar power.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) say they are "very likely" or "absolutely certain" to vote in the November 2026 general election for congressional and state offices, according to a new Marquette Law School Poll.
Minnesota made history when its voters chose to advance all women candidates for the first time in each of the major party primaries for governor and U.S. senator.
New research finds that companies that resisted the pressure and kept their DEI practices after Trump threatened to target them, including Costco, Apple, and Delta Air Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back.
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation announced that the state will begin phasing out paraquat, a powerful weedkiller associated with birth defects, thyroid issues, and other serious health problems.
A judge ordered the Kennedy Center to pay a musician more than $250,000 in legal fees after dismissing a lawsuit the center had filed against him for backing out of a concert late last year, in protest of Trump’s name being added to the institution.
A 41,000-person Facebook group is leading the fight against data center proposals in Pennsylvania.
Karoline Leavitt is leaving. Good riddance.
Canada ended sperm donor restrictions for gay and bisexual men, a “precedent-setting” move toward “ending decades-long discrimination.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan to give 2,000 free Broadway tickets to high school students in the city.
New Jersey passed a new “big tech” law to regulate kids’ social media use. The law will limit social media platforms’ use of children’s data, restrict algorithmic content recommendations to minors, block notifications during school hours, and more.
In a victory for voters, a Michigan judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the RNC that sought to make it easier for partisan poll challengers to dispute voter eligibility and interrupt the state’s ballot-counting process.
A new study shows that across the globe, solar energy is projected to supply about 61% of the world’s electricity by 2050. Also, the world just passed a huge solar milestone: three trillion watts of power.
Democrats overwhelmingly outvoted Republicans in several key primaries on Tuesday: Wisconsin governor by +301k, Minnesota U.S. Senate by +291k, and Minnesota governor by +272k.
Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy, lost his primary in Minnesota.
Candidates from local to statewide races who took stances against data centers prevailed in Michigan’s primary elections!
A new fund called the Phoenix Species Project will pump $200 million into efforts to pull 100 animals and plants back from the brink of extinction.
Sarah George, a progressive prosecutor in Vermont, secured another term.
New Mexico’s clean-energy transition is emerging as a success story in a state long associated with fossil-fuel production. In just five years, solar, wind, and batteries overtook fossil fuels. And electricity prices remained cheaper than average.
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million for an abatement fund to address the harms it has done to the state’s youth.
An appeals court in San Francisco found that Meta, along with Google, TikTok, and Snapchat, had to face more than 3,000 lawsuits against the social media platforms charging them with being addictive to young users.
Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience. (This one is from June but I missed it back then and think it’s worth sharing.)
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill lifting the restriction on abortion at or after 24 weeks, making the state’s abortion law one of the broadest in the country.
New research from the Civics Center shows that many more 18-year-old Americans are registered to vote in this year’s midterm elections than at this point in 2022.
Main activists held the second stop on the “Retire Susan” recess tour, this time at Senator Collins’ office in Portland, where they highlighted her failure to protect Mainers’ reproductive rights.
4 years ago, Ken Paxton stole someone's $1,000 pen. This week, Ken Paxton’s pen victim endorsed James Talarico in a new ad.
Watch This! 👀
Here’s Martina, courtesy of Lidia Terrazza News.
I heard your comments loud and clear, folks. I've changed out the picture at the top of the post. Sorry the original offended some of you.
Thank you, Jess. I'm so happy (and relieved) to see Trump getting no cooperation to gather voter roles! And at least some judges are not bowing to Trump. Also it looks like his family tax audit immunity will be denied! And when it comes to the Epstein files, between Katie Phang and a great judge things won't go well for Blanche, and therefor Trump. I'm really not a mean person, I just don't like to see unjust and illegal things work out!