Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Hope you’re hanging in there amidst the seemingly endless craziness we’re subject to these days. The good news is that—well, there’s a lot of good news, too! I’ve compiled as much of it as possible below, and it’s a great list!
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the literal avalanche of frightening and enraging information with which we’re being deluged. This Sunday newsletter is my attempt to provide a counterbalance—or a temporary reprieve, at least. Please enjoy, savor, and share it with as many people as possible.
I know we’re all exhausted, but now is not the time to quit. We’re close to a meaningful victory in November’s elections. By focussing on our wins for a few moments we’re helping to restore our strength so that we can keep fighting!
So let’s do that.
Celebrate This! 🎉
Almost a thousand people used my secure link to check their voter registration on Friday! (Can we get to 10K by the week’s end? Check yours here!)
Chorus’s poll worker recruitment push last week got THIRTY THOUSAND new people to sign up to be poll workers!
The Chop Wood, Carry Water community helped raise $11,000 to get thousands of messaging “red signs” into Virginia’s five swing Congressional districts. We know these signs are wildly effective; Republicans used similar ones in 2024.
The Jimmy Kimmel interview with James Talarico that Trump’s FCC tried to suppress now has 8.5 MILLION views on YouTube. (Let’s get it to ten, y’all!)
A federal court rejected Trump’s order keeping an old and polluting Michigan coal plant open.
New Mexico just banned uranium mining on 13 million acres of state land.
On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani officially established 9/11 as an annual “day of remembrance and service.”
The Texas Supreme Court knocked down implementation of a vote-suppressing redistricting plan officials adopted in Galveston County after the state’s March primaries, saying it cannot be used in November.
New polling from Quinnipiac shows Democrats lead by 11 on the generic ballot.
When ICE detained Angel Chavez Salas outside his Decatur home in front of his young son, a group of Decatur High School students didn't wait for adults to act. They launched a GoFundMe and raised nearly $20,000 for his legal fight. This week, a judge granted him a $10,000 bond, and he's home while he continues fighting his asylum case.
A new Cook Political Report/Univision survey of Texas Hispanic likely voters finds the Democratic candidates in the state’s Senate and gubernatorial contests leading their GOP opponents by a 2-1 margin.
A federal judge said in a filing that a Trump administration order for FEMA to cut its staffing nearly in half was illegal.
A federal appeals court panel declined to let DHS restore access to a new (bad) tool that would allow states to compare their voter rolls against federal citizenship and Social Security data.
The city of Denver sued DHS and ICE to keep armed immigration agents away from polling places this November.
Flock Safety cameras around Waltham, MA have been covered with black plastic bags per order of the Mayor.
VoteVets, the largest Democratic veterans group in the U.S., launched a new messaging campaign against Trump’s planned arch across from Arlington National Cemetery.
North Carolina reached a nearly $500 million settlement with chemical manufacturers Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva, which state officials accused of illegally dumping PFAS into the Cape Fear River and other waterways.
A gray wolf was seen in California’s Mendocino national forest for the first time since the species returned to the state 15 years ago.
A federal judge in Miami denied Andrew and Tristan Tate's bail request, ordering them to remain in a detention center in Miami.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara ran a national survey asking Americans to choose between two hypothetical political candidates. When one talked about climate change, voters were more likely to pick them.
Epstein walk of shame artwork was up in Dallas, TX during the RNC.
A GOP state lawmaker whom Trump deliberately targeted in Indiana for voting down new gerrymandered maps was declared the winner of his primary after a recount was finally completed. His final victory margin? THREE VOTES.
A Trump loyalist who had been tapped to oversee a sprawling and controversial DOJ conspiracy investigation targeting political foes of Trump abruptly resigned. Rumors say it was because he couldn’t find any actual wrongdoing.
A new Freedom Project USA/Change Research poll in Florida finds Angie Nixon (D) and Ashley Moody (R) tied in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 47%. GO ANGIE!
A federal judge blocked the BLM from enforcing its order requiring a conservation group to remove hundreds of bison from three federal grazing allotments in northeastern Montana while the organization’s lawsuit proceeds.
The contractor hired to renovate the Reflecting Pool admitted that its repair work—not vandals— caused the pool’s liner to peel and bubble.
Several journalists who used to work at the Washington Post have started a new publication called the Washington Sun. It seems pretty great!
A judge halted a commercial logging project that threatened the Indiana Bats’ habitat in Shawnee National Forest, violating the Endangered Species Act.
Gavin Newsom signed into law restrictions on addictive social media technology and interactions with harmful AI chatbots, ushering in some of the strongest online protections for young users in the United States.
Republicans’ “Trump-a-Palooza” was an utter flop, with empty seats, embarrassingly low ratings, the podium literally falling apart, and little enthusiasm from attendees.
A federal court dealt a major victory for the environment by striking down NJ state water quality permits that are required to construct the Williams Transco Northeast Supply Enhancement natural gas pipeline — putting a halt to the expensive and unnecessary project.
A federal judge temporarily revoked authorization to build a massive data center on public land near Boulder City, Nevada.
Britain announced a ban on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and sanctions on companies involved in an accelerating building boom in the settlements. They were joined in this by Canada and France.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) announced new data center regulations, including requirements that they generate their own clean energy and strike community benefits agreements with host municipalities.
Clean energy scored a rare win in Ohio when state regulators unanimously approved a permit for 149 megawatts of solar and 149 MW of battery storage at the Hamden Energy site in Vinton County.
The Supreme Court denied a New York woman’s bid to send her son to kindergarten without receiving state-required vaccines, in a case that highlights the limits of the court’s push to expand religious rights.
Turkmenistan has repaired eight methane “mega-leaks” after receiving alerts from a U.N. monitoring program—a development experts called an important breakthrough.
A unanimous federal appeals panel upheld a block on the IRS sharing confidential taxpayer data with ICE, ruling the agency violated a Watergate-era privacy law when it handed over more than 47,000 taxpayer addresses.
For years, the Roanoke City Public Schools district in VA has been installing solar panels to lower electricity bills, minimize its carbon footprint, and teach students about clean tech. Now, the district is set to be the first in the state to invest in storage, with a solar-and-battery-powered microgrid at each of its two high schools, which double as official disaster shelters.
The White House pulled down a Tetris-style game called Build the Wall from its new online arcade, after a warning by the classic game maker that it takes copyright infringement seriously.
Investors spent a record amount in the first half of 2026 on projects that combine renewable energy — mostly solar — with batteries.
Bad Bunny made Emmy Awards history, winning all seven categories his Super Bowl halftime show was nominated for, and becoming the first Spanish-language program to win for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).
Patagonia is suing the Trump administration over the removal of protections from 91% of Bears Ears National Monument.
More than 600,000 people signed a petition opposing the construction of a data center next to the Nashville Zoo. City officials have since introduced restrictions on large data centers and authorized steps that could allow it to acquire the property where the data center is planned.
New York City released around 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed records about air quality following the September 11 attacks, making critical public health information available for the first time.
Former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves (R) endorsed Adam Hamilton (D) over Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) for U.S. Senate in a Kansas City Star op-ed. Graves said Marshall “has turned his back on Kansas.”
The Associated Press said it will not refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”
The Supreme Court blocked a Missouri congressional map drawn to benefit Republicans from going into effect for the 2026 midterms. No justices dissented from the decision.
After years of effort, a partnership of organizations has made Baltimore Harbor swimmable again.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani created a first-of-its-kind office — the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power — to help private-sector workers organize and protect their rights.
Under a new law, people in Texas now have the right to repair their electronics. The Texas Right to Repair Act passed unanimously and took effect on September 1, making Texas the ninth U.S. state to guarantee the right to repair their devices.
In a win for voters in Delaware, a state judge ruled against two Republican state senate candidates who argued the state’s permanent absentee ballot voting measures violate the state’s constitution.
A northwest Kansas school district’s unsettled lunch debt was substantially paid down, thanks to an effort from a group of inmates at a nearby Correctional Facility.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill (S.B. 1431) that requires election officials to send mail ballots and related materials to all active registered military and overseas voters.
TX Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico hosted a food drive during the GOP convention and gathered 20,000 pounds of goods for Texas families.
Protesters brought downtown Dallas to a halt and blocked traffic to protest the RNC’s sad convention.
Watch This! 👀
Your feel good story of the week!
I appreciate the amount of work it takes to compile these weekly lists. I shared this one today to my own list serve. I wanted them all to feel as encouraged as I do. Thank you so much Jess!
I read a Substack article today from Judge Luttig about how little mike johnson, speaker of the house will refuse to swear in the new Democratic members on January 3rd, 2027. This is more scary stuff! I do appreciate all the good news, so thank you for that.