Extra! Extra! April 2
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
You may not believe it, but a LOT of great stuff happened this week—and I mean beyond the long-awaited indictment of our disgraced ex-President. So let’s review it, shall we?
Remember—it’s all too easy to focus on what’s grim; it’s human nature, after all, to seek out threats. And don’t get me wrong—they’re everywhere, and very real. But it’s also important to focus our attention on what our hard work has accomplished—if we don’t, we’ll lose the energy necessary to do more!
So let’s take a breath, take a look, and take a victory lap. We’ve made so much progress. NONE of it would have happened without the efforts of folks like you.
So thank you for everything you’ve done, for everything you’re doing now, and for everything you will do.
It’s because of YOU that we will win. ❤️
Read This 📖
“Abortion Wins Elections; The fight to make reproductive rights the centerpiece of the Democratic Party’s 2024 agenda.” This is an article we should ALL read. Brilliant and, I think exactly right.
Celebrate This! 🎉
To help combat racial disparities in infant mortality, Philadelphia is giving pregnant residents $1,000 per month. Participants in the pilot program will also be offered voluntary support such as benefits and financial counseling, home visiting, lactation support, and doulas.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District voted to phase out gas furnaces and water heaters by 2027! This makes the San Francisco Bay Area one of the largest U.S. districts to limit the use of gas-burning appliances in homes and buildings.
The Biden administration announced a new award of $197 million for wildfire resilience. Vice President Harris specifically cited the newly-released IPCC report in announcing the new funds, which will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in the Fall of 2021.
North Dakota passed a bill giving voters more time to cure – and election officials more time to process – mail ballots.
Virginia enacted legislation protecting county election officials from inappropriate removal.
A new law expanding automatic voter registration in Washington, DC went into effect.
The Biden-Harris administration announced it will invest more than $100 million to support conflict prevention and stabilization efforts in Coastal West Africa.
President Biden announced new federal resources to support small businesses owned by women as the administration ramps up economic recovery efforts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden administration lifted a rule requiring medical providers to obtain special waivers to prescribe Buprenorphine, a painkiller that also reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. The move is a step forward in removing barriers to treatment for opioid addiction.
The first rural hospitals are now converting to a new Emergency Rural Hospital designation and will be able to access federal funds to avoid closure. The designation comes from Section 125 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and establishes ‘Rural Emergency Hospital’ as a new Medicare provider type aiming to reduce health disparities in rural areas. 1
Last week a bill in Minnesota was introduced that would require all state-regulated insurers, including Medicaid and Minnesota Care to cover biomarker testing. Biomarker testing is a lab method that uses blood or tissue samples to check for certain molecular signatures that may indicate a predisposition to conditions like cancer or autoimmune diseases. Mandatory coverage of the tests, frequently dismissed as optional by insurers despite their preventative benefits, is a huge step forward in health equity. 2
The biggest corporate backer of deep sea mining just exited the industry.
Narcan will become available over the counter, no prescription necessary. It’s a big step forward to make the drug more accessible in communities across the country and a key focus of President Biden’s National Drug Control Strategy.
Maryland lawmakers just passed a bill making it easier for residents to access gender-affirming care. The Trans Health Equity Act passed swiftly and easily in both the House and Senate and the governor has pledged to sign it into law.
Unions for service workers at Disney World reached a deal to raise the minimum wage to $18 per hour. When finalized, the contract will benefit more than half of Disney’s 70,000-plus workforce, including costumed performers, theatrical workers, and more.
Donald Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in an indictment from a Manhattan grand jury to be unsealed on Tuesday.
A proposed “monument to the unborn” in Tennessee has raised a grand total of zero dollars.
Disney pulled a brilliant end run around DeSantis’s attempted takeover. Love this!
Work began last week on what has been dubbed the largest river restoration project in American history. The Klamath River Basin, which runs from southern Oregon through northern California, will get a major environmental makeover as four of its dams are removed by the end of next year, opening up routes for salmon to swim and allowing the land to be replanted with native vegetation.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed the New Mexico Voting Rights Act into law. The omnibus pro-voting law restores voting rights to 11,000 formerly incarcerated individuals, establishes automatic voter registration, bolsters voting access for Native Americans and more.
Turkey’s parliament has voted to approve Finland’s NATO membership bid, paving the way for the Nordic country to join the security alliance.
Madonna just added a Nashville tour date to protest Tennessee’s anti-drag and anti-trans laws. In her words, “These so-called laws to protect our children are unfounded and pathetic.”
Brazil has removed nearly all illegal gold miners from the Yanomami territory, its largest indigenous reservation. The country is planning to remove miners from six more indigenous reservations this year.
U.S. renewable electricity generation exceeded coal generation in 2022!
In Connecticut, Democrats have introduced a bill that would ban state contracts with, or any payments to, businesses that refuse to dispense medication related to reproductive healthcare, including abortion.
Transgender Day of Visibility 2023 was one of the most monumental demonstration days for transgender people in years.
For the first time in history, the transgender flag was raised above the Connecticut Capitol Building.3
A federal judge struck down Llano County, Texas’s order banning books with LGBTQ content, demanding that the books be put back on the shelves and the catalogue updated to account for their renewed availability.4
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Tennessee ruled that the drag ban there was likely unconstitutional and placed a temporary restraining order blocking it from going into effect. The ruling itself was scathing towards the drag ban, at one point stating that the judge “could see at least three ways in which the ban would violate the rights of citizens in Tennessee.” 5
A judge denied granting summary judgment to Fox News in its attempt to get Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit thrown out, meaning the case will go to trial in mid-April 6
A federal appeals court upheld a previous finding that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk violated labor laws by firing an employee involved in union organizing and making an apparent threat to rescind stock options if employees unionized.
One of the last outstanding challenges related to Michigan’s 2020 election was dismissed by an appeals court, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced.
Watch This! 👀
First, if you haven’t yet seen this video of young people protesting at the Tennessee State Capitol this week…OMG. (I can’t embed it here, but it’s worth the click—trust me!)
Next, Trans Day of Visibility awesomeness in Florida…
And finally, thanks to
for this one!
Protect Our Care’s Storyteller Corps
Protect Our Care’s Storyteller Corps
Thank you Jessica! So much great news, so wonderful to read about all these things. Thank you for keeping track for us and sharing.
I read the first article on abortion, Jessica, that you said we all should read. Wow!! Outstanding!! However, please note people, it is incredibly long, but so worth reading all the way to the very, very end.
So much excellent history and also, more importantly, what we need to do as the Democratic Party, and as citizens to make sure we win in 2024 against the Republicans. Again, people, a must read. Well worth the 1/2 hour plus to finish this article. And I copied and saved it so I can send it out to family and friends. The more of us who know this info the better!!
Extra: Some EXCELLENT comments in it such as this one from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, “If you don’t think abortion is an economic issue, you probably don’t have a uterus." And several times I was thrusting my fist into the air yelling with what was said. Also, I am passing this on to Simon Rosenberg for his campaign re women and children, and to Robert Hubbell, just because. And it is full of great ideas about how we can hopefully get more young people registered to vote and to the polls in 2024.
Please make the time to read it. And then use the information.
Bonus: If you want to see the video the author talks about from Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow slamming a Republican colleague for lies she sent out about McMorrow, tune into this CNN interview and video from 4/20/2022 https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/04/20/mallory-mcmorrow-michigan-state-senate-intvu-dlt-vpx.cnn Not the entire video of her speech, but enough. Whew! She is someone to watch and re-elect!!