Good News from “Chop Wood, Carry Water”

Extra! Extra! 2/2 by Jessica Craven

We made it through another week! Read on Substack

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Good God, what a week. I’m guessing you’re ready for a little good news, and guess what? I’ve got some! Actually quite a bit. Remember: two things can be true at once. Things are very bad, AND good things also happened this week. Some of them are even outgrowths of the bad things.

So with no further ado, let’s take a look at what went right in a week that was otherwise exceedingly challenging. Please take this list in, savor it, and dwell on it for as long as you can. It isn’t doomscrolling, for a change — it’s goodscrolling! Enjoy! And then share this list with someone who needs the lift.

As usual, I’ve popped an 🪓 next to every item that everyday activists like you helped make happen, and a 🪣 next to every one that got done by lawmakers or administrations that we helped elect.

Read This 📖

This hopeful cartoon is from editorial cartoonist Kevin Necessary. [H/T Nancy Davis Kho]

Celebrate This! 🎉

The Virginia Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would restore voting rights to individuals with past felony convictions upon their release. If passed by both chambers next session, the amendment will go before voters for final approval. 🪣

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement with Novo Nordisk, securing insulin products for $35 per month in the state for the next five years. 🪣

A coalition of non-profits, public health leaders, and small businesses sued to block OMB’s late night attempt to pause all agency grants and loans. 🪓

Workers at a Whole Foods in Philadelphia have voted to become the first unionized store in the grocery chain, which is owned by Amazon. 🪓

Jim Acosta resigned from CNN, issuing a statement that said, in part: “It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant…Do not give in to the lies. Don’t give into the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope.” He then launched a Substack, which already has over 150K subscribers. 🪓

A Nevada judge dismissed a right-wing lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation that challenged voter rolls in Washoe County.

Trump’s firing of 18 inspectors general has prompted bipartisan pushback. Your calls helped with this! 🪓 🪣

The White House rescinded its illegal “freeze” after a day of ferocious backlash. Nice job, y’all. 🪓

Democrat Mike Zimmer flipped a state Senate seat in Iowa in a special election on Tuesday. Zimmer prevailed 53% to 47% in a district that Trump carried 60% to 39% in November. AMAZING! 🪓

The normally quiet Reddit thread of federal workers at rfednews has exploded with defiance — “We will NOT Resign, we took an oath and we will keep defending it against foreign and DOMESTIC enemies!!” 🪓

USDA inspector Phyllis Fong refused to comply with her firing and finally had to be semi-dragged out of her office. 🪓

Clean energy investment manager Greenbacker Renewable Energy has secured $950 million to build what will be New York State’s largest solar farm.

The U.K. and Scottish governments have launched a “skills passport” program to help fossil fuel workers transition to clean energy jobs.

The American Association of University Professors are saying they will completely ignore Trump’s attempts to control school curriculum. 🪓

Democrats easily held a state Senate seat in Minnesota. Democrat Doron Clark won this Hennepin County seat 91% to 9%. In November, Harris had prevailed 83% to 14%. 🪓

The Burbank, CA city council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to make Burbank a sanctuary city. 🪓 🪣

Solar and wind are now being installed at a rate that is five times faster than all other new electricity sources combined. 🪣 (Thanks, Joe Biden!)

In response to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, British Columbia Premier David Eby has directed the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch to immediately stop purchasing American liquor from Republican-led “red states” and remove the top-selling brands from public liquor store shelves.

​A bipartisan coalition of 24 U.S. governors pledged to continue the country’s work toward achieving Paris Agreement goals. Representing nearly 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the nation’s population, Alliance members pledged to reduce collective greenhouse gas emissions by 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, a target it is on track to achieve. 🪣

The Nature Conservancy also independently pledged to continue honoring the Paris Agreement goals and help the rest of the U.S. “do its part,” too.

SCOTUS allowed the federal government to enforce a money-laundering law that protects consumers by increasing transparency in corporate ownership.

Three days before Trump was sworn into the presidency, a private equity firm with a growing monopoly on anesthesia practices agreed to a federal settlement requiring it to back off its anticompetitive roll-up scheme that has cost patients millions more for vital services. 🪣

After years of litigation that delayed payments designed to combat the national opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler family who own it agreed to pay $7.4 billion to settle lawsuits over the opioid manufacturer’s role in the crisis and give up their company ownership. 1

Sexual assault victims in New Jersey should be able to track their rape kits through the criminal justice system by late summer under a new law Gov. Phil Murphy signed last week. 🪣

Sacramento City Unified School District officials unanimously affirmed safety for undocumented students at their schools, saying they will refuse to cooperate with ICE or allow them on their campuses. 🪓 🪣

Senate Budget Committee Democrats boycotted the committee hearing on Russell Vought to protest his nomination. MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE!! 🪓 🪣

Costco is increasing pay for most of its hourly U.S. store workers to more than $30, per Reuters.

A New York appeals court restored the state’s Voting Rights Act, which expands voter protections, overturning a lower court’s decision striking it down.

China broke its own records for the installation of new solar and wind power last year, with installed capacity increasing by 18 and 45 percent, respectively.

Former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison following his conviction on bribery and corruption charges.

The leaders of more than half of Africa’s nations gathered this week in Dar es Salaam to commit to the biggest burst of spending on electric-power generation in Africa’s history.

New research indicates students are paying significantly less to attend public universities than they were a decade ago. And tuition increases at private colleges have finally slowed after years of hefty rises. Meanwhile, college enrollment in the U.S. rose for the first time last fall to surpass pre-pandemic levels.

Two unions–National Treasury Employees Union and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility–are suing the president for his “Schedule F” executive order that would allow him to fire civil servants without due process. 🪓

Former North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is dropping his defamation lawsuit against CNN and “dropping out of politics.”

A federal judge in Rhode Island granted a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s freeze on all agency grants and loans. The judge also barred the Trump administration from issuing any further directive that emphasizes a funding freeze. Oh and he’s a judge Biden appointed. 🪣

A group of Quaker meetings, represented by Democracy Forward, filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s plan to enable ICE agents to enter houses of worship for their immigration enforcement actions. 🪓

The first step towards creating a Celtic rainforest – a now extremely rare habitat that once covered large swathes of the west coast of Britain – has been completed in Devon, England.

IKEA has slashed its carbon footprint by 30 percent in the last ten years while growing its profits 24 percent over the same period.

The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland in the UK has been ruled unlawful by the courts, in a major win for climate action.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has blocked anyone who took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol from working in state government. 🪣

TikTok influencers have been spreading information about ICE raids across the country, sometimes making it harder for agents to enforce Trump’s massive crackdown. 🪓

A new report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication finds that most registered voters support climate-friendly policies, think the US should use more renewables and less fossil fuels in the future, and support US participation in the Paris Climate Agreement.

A Franklin County, MO woman pardoned for her participation in the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for her role in a fatal drunk driving crash.

Left-leaning media outlets are seeing a “Trump bump” in ratings after initially seeing a massive drop in viewership. MSNBC has seen a 61 percent bump since Donald Trump’s inauguration. The Guardian, The Bulwark and The Atlantic have also seen increases.

Economists at Georgia Tech reported in a paper published this month that by mid-2023, the 13 states with total abortion bans had suffered a combined net loss of an estimated 36,000 residents per quarter, or more than 144,000 per year.

Rachel Maddow is bringing viewers back to MSNBC — and giving them hope.

Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature seem to be at war.

A tip line (DEIAtruth@opm.gov) meant to encourage federal employees to rat out their colleagues for working on diversity issues is instead apparently being spammed with movie quotes and colored pencil drawings. (And some of us helped!)

Active-duty trans soldiers—and one prisoner—have sued to stop the Trump Administration’s anti-trans orders.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by several voters who sought to remove hundreds of allegedly ineligible voters from voter rolls in Marin County, California without evidence. The judge ruled the voters lacked standing.

Trump’s approval ratings are already starting to drop.

Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll refused a Justice Department order that he assist in the firing of agents involved in Jan. 6 riot cases, pushing back so forcefully that some FBI officials feared he would be dismissed (he wasn’t.) Courage—love to see it!

Officials have declared that the world’s largest hornet, dubbed the “murder hornet” for its killer stings, has been eradicated in the US five years after it was first spotted.

2000 new people have signed up with Run For Something just in the last week – that makes more than 15k since Election Day. WOW!

After Minnesota’s largest Pride festival dropped Target’s sponsorship (and the 50K donation that came with it) they put out a call for financial help and raised twice the money Target was supposed to kick in in less than 24 hours.

New York lawmakers are discussing a bill that would give Gov. Kathy Hochul more time to set dates for special elections, which could leave Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s red North Country seat empty until the summer.

Amazing PA rep Malcolm Kenyatta was just elected the Vice-Chair of the DNC! So was David Hogg! (The DNC has three vice-chairs.) Ken Martin will be the Chair, and although he wasn’t my choice he seems like he’ll be a competent leader. So the DNC has strong new leadership. No more “rudderless ship.” Yay!

Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed Maria Elena Cruz to the Arizona Supreme Court. The state appellate judge from rural Yuma County will become the first Latina and the first Black person chosen for the state’s high court

After a white supremacy aligned university club encouraged students to report their classmates to ICE, hundreds of Arizona State University students responded by marching in support of their undocumented classmates.

Gov. Tim Walz announced he is proposing the first sales tax rate cut in Minnesota’s history to help Minnesotans weather Trump’s tariffs.

ITS OFFICIAL — the Eaton, Palisades & Hughes fires are all 100% contained. (As an Angeleno this one may be my favorite.)

(snip)