Extra! Extra! 8/17
Even at the worst of times, light still shines through.
Hi, all, and happy Sunday.
Thanks to everyone who subscribes to this newsletter and tells me how much they look forward to the Sunday good news roundup. Because of you—and your enthusiasm for this weekly wins list especially—I keep churning this newsletter out no matter what. Even when I’m down with a cold, as I am at the moment.
That’s not just good for you. It’s good for me!
As I gather each item, scouring the news for every tiny win and greedily copying and pasting headlines I’d missed from helpful friends’ texts, I feel a surge of hope that wasn’t there before. The news is so bad, but also…weirdly sometimes good! Progress keeps happening. The courts aren’t totally broken. Individuals are stepping up in heroic ways.
And for every awful thing MAGA does there’s a countervailing reaction from our side that’s just wildly inspiring! (Looking at you this week, Free DC! And you, too, Gavin Newsom!)
So while I’d rather be living at a different time or a different place, for sure, I’m so grateful that, if I have to be here, now, it’s with all of you. YOU are the good news I look for every week. You make it. You cause it. You generate it. You inspire it.
And YOU are the reason these lists will keep growing.
Thank you so much. Enjoy!
Read This! 📚
Free DC models effective resistance to Trump’s takeover, from Waging Nonviolence. Yessss!
Celebrate This! 🎉
California Governor Newsom is fighting fire with fire and calling for November special election to counter Texas’s redistricting plan.
A judge struck down key parts of the Florida law that led to removal of books from school libraries.
A federal judge struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating DEI programs in schools and universities.
A federal appeals court panel shot down a Trump administration bid to make secret a public database of federal spending that researchers say is crucial to ensure the administration is not flouting Congress’ power of the purse.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration appears to be illegally withholding funds previously approved by Congress for the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit that supports democratic institutions and individual liberties across the globe.
Thousands of people gathered along 8 miles of a major road in Columbus, OH, to protest Trump.
On Saturday there were nationwide protests to fight back against Donald Trump’s authoritarian power grab all across the country!
Even conservative economists are coming out against EJ Antoni, Trump’s awful nominee to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S. solar company T1 Energy and specialty glass maker Corning have reached a deal that will establish a fully domestic solar supply chain.
A federal judge in Rhode Island blocked the Trump administration from adding new conditions to grants that fund domestic violence services.
Sen. Bernie Sanders spent last weekend rallying with thousands of people at a number of “Fighting Oligarchy” events in West Virginia and North Carolina.
Ford announced its plans to start rolling out its new family of affordable electric vehicles in 2027. Featuring a midsize pickup truck with a target starting price of $30,000, the EVs will be assembled at its Louisville, Kentucky plant.
A federal judge ruled that anti-government activist and former Idaho gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy must pay a $52 million civil court judgment against him.
Pressed by legal challenges, the Trump administration reopened funding set aside for EV charging infrastructure.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) felt the wrath of constituents during a town hall in Chico, California, on Monday.
A company in California ran the biggest test yet of a “distributed power plant,” where people’s home batteries supply power to the grid.
There was a 14.9% year-on-year drop in murders in the US in 2024.
A Biden-era consumer protection rule giving account holders the right to access their financial data and easily switch banking institutions has been saved from the abyss by an unlikely source: the cryptocurrency industry.
NYC’s Bureau of Labor Law won a $3 million settlement on behalf of 450 mostly immigrant workers who risked their safety to clean the subway during Covid.
Ohio’s Sherrod Brown has decided to run for U.S. Senate again in 2026.
An Illinois judge declined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to hold Texas Democrats who fled there in contempt.
A van with JD Vance’s bald meme face on it followed him around his UK vacation.
Grok was briefly suspended from X on Tuesday for comments suggesting the U.S. and Israel are committing genocide in Gaza.
Oregon’s new Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act will hold companies that sell packaged products in the state financially responsible for helping the state collect and recycle the packaging.
Boston launched a new pilot program to give young adults facing homelessness $1,200 cash every month for two years.
Lagos, Nigeria, one of the world’s most plastic-polluted cities, has now banned single-use plastics.
Rep. Brad Finstad, R-Minnesota, was basically heckled and protested everywhere he went this week.
Thousands of Alaskans took to the streets Thursday and Friday to protest the meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Germany will collaborate with Ukraine's Western allies to send up to $500 million in military aid using a new NATO supply line.
A Los Angeles nurse and community activist whose arrest drew protests and sharp criticism from local officials and advocacy groups was released from federal custody without criminal charges.
Americans say they are drinking less alcohol than ever.
Due to a ruling in Texas state court this week, Infowars conspiracist Alex Jones is a big step closer to losing his studio and brand.
The San Fernando Valley Visibility Brigade got a great write-up in L.A. Taco!
A new program in North Carolina will admit half of NC high school seniors to in-state colleges without their having to apply.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing the federal government over Trump's "brazenly unlawful" attempt to federalize and control the Metropolitan Police Department.
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read (D) rebuffed a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to share sensitive information on Oregon voters, citing a lack of legal authority for the demand.
Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a bill that would have forced Wisconsin voters with felony convictions to pay all outstanding legal fees before regaining their right to vote — a measure voting rights advocates called a modern-day poll tax.
A federal judge rejected a bid by New Hampshire’s secretary of state to throw out a lawsuit against the state’s new proof-of-citizenship law.
A lawsuit by the DeKalb County GOP seeking the removal of hundreds of voters just months before an election was dismissed.1
Approximately 60,000 home-based child care providers will get to preserve their retirement, health care and training benefits and receive a pay bump under a contract deal their union leaders have struck with the state of California.
Australia will recognize a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday, joining the leaders of France, Britain and Canada in signaling they would do so.
A federal judge in California ordered the National Science Foundation to reinstate millions of dollars in grants awarded to UCLA, finding that the agency had tried to circumvent a ruling in June requiring restoration of the funds.
Zohran Mamdani was featured on the cover of TIME magazine.
Elon Musk's anti-woke AI chatbot Grok has declared Trump "the most notorious criminal" in Washington D.C. in a series of posts on Musk's social network X.
Ulta is ending its partnership with Target.
Sydney Sweeney’s new movie BOMBED at the box office in the wake of backlash stemming from the actress’s recent eugenics ad campaign with American Eagle.
Smile at This! 👀
A Los Angeles group called Hang Out Do Good wrote letters this weekend to local immigrant families. Here’s one of them, submitted by a subscriber. BEAUTIFUL.
Thank you for all your efforts! You are a bright Light!!
Every week I copy some of your good news and share it with links on my FB page. It so helps to see there ARE good things happening, Thank you again for compiling this list and I hope you feel better soon!