Extra! Extra! 9/26
Where thoughts go energy flows.
—Anonymous
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
Also, G’mar Chatimah Tova to those who observe Yom Kippur.
As the quote at the top of this email reminds us, what we focus on tends to grow. So let’s take a few minutes to focus on—and enjoy, and brag about, and share!—all the monumentally good things that happened this week. In lots of ways it was a really, really good several days.
Also, I’m doing something new starting today. Since a lot of the below victories are things we made calls, signed petitions, or sent letters about, or were made possible by politicians we helped elect, I’m going to put a little 🪓 next to wins that the Chop Wood, Carry Water community—and other people just like it—helped to bring about!
It’s a visual reminder that what you do matters. YOU are changing the country, and the world. So enjoy these victories. You truly helped make them.
Jess
P.S. As always, if you enjoyed this list and want to help support my work—so I can keep supporting yours—please consider signing up for a paid subscription. If you already have one THANK YOU! You’re keeping the lights on over here!
Celebrate This! 🎉
Jennifer Hudson and Bill Maher both announced they will be delaying going back to shooting their shows after pushback for breaking the WGA strike.
Michigan launched a new program that will make it harder for abusers to access the home address of domestic violence survivors via public record, including voter registration records. 🪓
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the start of automatic voter registration in the commonwealth. 🪓
Indivisible’s letter about Supreme Court Justices’ accountability, to which many of you signed on, made it into Politico! 🪓
A big-money group supporting President Biden’s reelection has hired two veterans of his 2020 campaign to lead a new Latino advertising effort, and they’re blanketing swing states with early television spots.
Florida installed more solar panels in the first half of 2023 than any other state.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his intention to sign landmark legislation that would require all major corporations that do business in the Golden State to disclose both direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. We worked VERY hard to get these passed—it’s a real victory for activists! 🪓
In California the Sacramento Municipal Utility District has installed its first batch of novel grid batteries to assist its quest for a carbon-free grid by 2030.
The Indiana Supreme Court’s disciplinary commission filed a complaint against Todd Rokita, the Republican AG. The commission says Rokita violated professional conduct rules—including confidentiality requirements!—during his harassment campaign against Bernard.1
New Jersey began requiring health plans provided by employers with at least 50 workers to include coverage for abortions.
Abortion rights activists in Missouri have launched a website, AbortionHelpMO.com, to ensure that people in the state know that they can get abortion care out-of-state if they want to.
The DailyKos special election tracker has Democrats outperforming 2020 results by 7.6 points over 25 races across the US this year. 🪓
Michael Bloomberg announced he’s going to spend big to go after new petrochemical plants that make fertilizer, plastics and packaging.
New York’s Gov. Hochul signed a ten bill pro-democracy package into law!
The California State Water Board approved a Cease & Desist Order that will stop bottling giant and Nestle-successor BlueTriton from removing tens of millions of gallons of water annually from southern California’s San Bernardino National Forest.
A new study found that switching to working from home can reduce a person’s carbon footprint by 50%. The study also found that hybrid schedules where people work remotely for two to four days a week could also cut emissions by 11 to 29%.
The Biden-Harris Administration approved $37 Million in borrower defense discharges for over 1,200 students who attended the University of Phoenix. 🪓
In Canada, the anti-trans group 1 Million March 4 Children planned massive protests against the rights of trans students. They were largely drowned out by huge crowds of supporters for trans rights and unions.
The Biden-Harris Administration announced that it is launching the American Climate Corps – a new initiative to train young people in high-demand skills for jobs in the clean energy economy. 🪓
The Biden administration offered nearly half-a-million Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. the ability to live and work in the country legally, approving a longstanding request from cities struggling to house asylum-seekers. 🪓
Democrats kept control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives after winning an open seat in a special election in the Pittsburgh area. 🪓
Hal Rafter (D) flipped a swing seat in a special election for the New Hampshire state House. The upset puts Democrats just one seat away from erasing the GOP’s majority in the chamber. 🪓
A 150-year-old giant banyan tree in downtown Lahaina, Hawaii, that burned during the fires is showing signs of recovery.
President Biden issued an Executive Order to protect people in East Palestine, Ohio and nearby communities, and continue to hold Norfolk Southern accountable. 🪓
Upwards of 175 actors, musicians, authors, comedians, reality stars, models, media personalities, academics, activists and more have signed an open letter calling on creative communities in Hollywood and beyond to leverage their voices to stop book bans.
A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled in favor of booksellers who argued that Texas’s new law banning some books from public school libraries and restricting others is likely unconstitutional.
Five states—Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah— announced they are creating state-level climate corps programs. They will work with California’s climate corps — the first one to launch, in 2020 —and the federal government’s.
A coalition of 40 historically Black colleges and universities received a $124 million donation that will fund initiatives aimed at increasing enrollment, graduation rates, and employment rates.
Brazil reinstated stricter climate goals that could reduce the country’s CO2 emissions by as much as 73 million metric tons by 2030.
Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr has been named to the Time 100 Next list.
Americans can again order free coronavirus tests under a revived federal program!
A judge in Florida handed down a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump and one of his attorneys, accusing the former president of attempting to use the courts to "seek revenge on political adversaries" in his lawsuit against Hilary Clinton.
Reproductive rights advocates are trying to put the question of abortion access on the 2024 ballot in the battleground state of Nevada.
The five women senators who filibustered a near-total abortion ban in South Carolina are being awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year.
A Scottish research team believe they may have produced the "holy grail" alternative to palm oil.
The Senate confirmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, maneuvering around Senator Tommy Tuberville’s blockade on military promotions. 🪓
A huge prehistoric structure in Ohio, Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, which is made up of eight monumental earthworks built around 2,000 years ago, has become the 25th US landmark to be awarded a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. 2
The largest urban heat island in Dallas will be turned into a large, dedicated green space, including a 10-acre park. The Texas Trees Foundation used data from temperature sensors to redesign the area for optimal human health and thermal comfort.
The presence of 134 snow leopards has been confirmed in Bhutan by the National Snow Leopard Survey. This represents a 39.5% increase from the country’s first survey in 2016, when 96 individuals were counted.
The U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 25 governors representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population, announced a series of new commitments from its members to eliminate emissions from buildings, including collectively quadrupling heat pump installations by the end of the decade.
The startup CarbonBuilt has hit a key milestone in its quest to kick a notoriously carbon-intensive ingredient out of concrete.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it has helped half a million children and families regain their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) coverage after being inappropriately disenrolled. 🪓
President Biden and VP Harris announced the creation of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a huge step towards ending gun violence in America. THIS. IS. HUGE. 🪓
More than a year ahead of a state deadline, California announced it has installed 10,000 fast chargers for electric vehicles.
States Project Giving Circles focused on VA (including mine, which is still taking donations!) will collectively raise more this year than the DNC has given for the Virginia elections (the DNC is in for $1.5M). The States Project is contributing more than that as a result of fundraisers held in living rooms and zooms and backyards and cafe postcarding dates where communities chip in! That's YOU. You're a part of this top VA investment. Thank you! 🪓
A Taylor Swift Instagram post drove record-breaking web traffic to Vote.org this week and helped the site register more than 35,000 new voters.
Lina Khan, the FTC chair we helped get confirmed, is attacking private equity in health care and it’s a BIG deal! 🪓
The Fed opted not to increase interest rates at this month’s meeting due to cooling inflation.
President Biden held an expanded bilateral meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, continuing his staunch showing of support for Ukraine. 🪓
An impressive panel of activists and climate and human rights leaders launched a campaign at Climate Week NYC calling for prompt, radical, legislative action to break the fashion industry’s intrinsic links to fossil fuels.
Germany pledged 40 million euros to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. This amount is enough to make the fund, which was ratified in August, operational.
The Defense Department is now working to upgrade veterans' discharges that were less than honorable as a result of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy.
The Senate confirmed Gen. Eric Smith to the Commandant of the Marine Corps with a vote of 96-0, as well as Gen. Randy George to serve as the the Army Chief of Staff by nearly a unanimous vote. 🪓
The Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously struck down part of a new anti-democratic law that would have allowed a white official to appoint four unelected judges to a Hinds County court that oversees Jackson, which is over 80% Black.
After years of negotiations, the EU just adopted a comprehensive battery regulation that could spur battery recycling at a scale never seen before outside of China.
Global rhinoceros numbers have increased to 27,000, new figures show, with some species rebounding for the first time in a decade.
The California Attorney General is suing anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers over their medically-unsound “abortion reversal” procedures.
Project Veritas, the conservative organization founded by James O’Keefe, suspended all operations on Wednesday after another round of layoffs. Buh-bye.
Nearly 70 countries at the United Nations on Wednesday signed a first-ever treaty on protecting the international high seas, raising hopes that it will come into force soon and protect threatened ecosystems vital to the planet.
Progress Action Fund’s newest ad for PA and OH, about a 12 year-old rape victim, got over 7 million views in the first 24 hours after it was launched. (The spot is called, appropriately, “Republicans Watching Your Daughter.” Trigger warning: mentions rape.)
Your Extra! Extra! lists of great news items are great on several levels:
1. Curating and catching positive news we may have missed, and
2. Showing the payoff for hard work you were so instrumental in promoting--positive energy toward doing some more!
Thank you!
Thank you for all your hard work. It is uplifting to find such a positive feed as we go into another week 😊❤️🙏