Looking back over last week and the whiplash we all experienced between elation over passing the infrastructure bill and despair over the Rittenhouse verdict, I began thinking about good news and bad news, light and darkness. All good news unfolds against a background of bad news, otherwise we wouldn’t appreciate it. We can see the stars only on the darkest nights.
There’s an art term that describes the interplay of light and dark: chiaroscuro (literally “light/dark”). The famous Ansel Adams photograph I used as the image for this GNR is a gorgeous example, where the sunrise illuminates the highest peaks and also picks out the trees and grazing animals in front of the black hill. The darkness helps us see what’s in the light.
And I think this works as a metaphor for what we’ve experienced as progressive activists during the past five years.
During TFG’s reign of terror and error, darkness took over. But because it was so gratuitously horrible (the cruelty was the point), the rays of light that began shining from all the good people resisting — starting with the wonderful Women’s March — shone all the brighter and attracted more resistance. The same thing happened after George Floyd’s horrific murder — it was so steeped in the darkness of prejudice and cruelty that it motivated the entire country to express outrage and to shine a much-needed light on police violence against people of color.
During those dark times, we brought light (compassion, community, righteous anger, truth-telling) because we needed it so desperately. The darker things got then, and the darker they get now as the GQP reactionaries fight everything Biden is striving to do, the harder we fight to keep bringing light.
I found a lot of good news for us today, so settle into a cozy spot with your morning beverage of choice and give yourself a break from the darkness.
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Good news in politics
As Biden agenda advances in Congress, White House weighs new offensive on inflation
In the full article, the point is made that if Biden pursues blaming anti-competitive consolidation for inflation, he risks alienating some of the corporations whose cooperation he needs to solve supply chain issues. But fortunately one of Biden’s talents is walking exactly this kind of political tightrope. And I think that opening up the issue of consolidation for discussion will be healthy.
From The Washington Post:
The burst of progress on Biden’s economic agenda comes amid unresolved strains that the administration in recent months has struggled to confront, with high inflation emerging as a top concern for American voters amid the biggest price hikes in nearly three decades. Republicans have blamed the inflation problems on Biden’s economic agenda, but there are signs that the White House could soon push back more forcefully, saying that large corporations are partly to blame for the dramatic increase in costs. ✂️
... [The White House is] considering whether to escalate an attack on parts of corporate America over rising consumer prices, according to an administration official and three people with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private meetings. ✂️
The White House took a step in this direction earlier this week, with Biden urging the Federal Trade Commission to escalate its investigation of anti-competitive behavior in the oil and gas industry, which the president alleged was leading to higher prices for drivers at the pump. Administration officials have discussed launching similar measures, with aides discussing calling attention to consolidation in the grocery sector as food prices rise, two people familiar with the matter said.
A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal thinking, said the administration has been focused since the beginning of the administration on antitrust measures — from housing to agriculture — aimed in part at reducing consumer costs. Senior White House officials published an analysis in September on the role of concentration in the meatpacking industry on higher prices. The administration has also already appointed a number of aggressive antitrust advocates to key positions.
White House offering more aid for winter heat, utility bills
Biden isn’t letting the GQP messaging about energy costs go unanswered — he’s responding with concrete actions that will help Americans cope. As usual, he’s taking humane actions that are also smart politics.
From The American Independent:
The Biden administration is taking steps to help distribute several billion dollars in aid for winter heating and utility bills, an unprecedented sum that comes largely from its $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
The package provided an additional $4.5 billion for the government's Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which typically has funding of $3 billion to $4 billion annually. Aid for renters can also cover utility costs, while the money provided to state, local and tribal governments can help families that face high heating bills and are ineligible for other programs.
"It's another example of where the American Rescue Plan included extra precautions to ensure we would be prepared," said Gene Sperling, who is overseeing coronavirus relief for the White House. "These new programs and funding were designed to ensure that if the weather was colder or the prices were higher, we would have the highest resources ever to help as many hard-pressed families as possible." ✂️
"The Democrats' inflation is functioning like an ultra-punitive tax on the American families who can least afford it," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Wednesday.
But in this instance, the spending from the aid package is already helping to insulate millions of households from higher utility bills and reducing strains on household budgets.
Trump’s economic record is being 'soundly beaten' by Biden as economy bounces back: Forbes
This is especially delicious coming from the dyed-in-the-wool plutocrats at Forbes. Personally, I find the S&P to be a very inadequate tool for measuring the health of the economy, but a lot of conservatives and independents have total faith in it, so it’s good news that it’s reacting positively to Biden’s economic policies.
From Alternet:
Chuck Jones of Forbes reports that Trump was in the habit of boasting about economic gains during his administration, but now his records are being "soundly beaten" according to the S&P 500.
Writing, "The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Thursday at 4,704.54 (its third close above 4,700) and fell just short of another record on Friday when it dropped 6.58 points or 0.14% to 4,697.96. The Nasdaq closed at a record high of 16,057, its first close above 16,000... Jones added despite rising inflation and the possibility that interest rates could rise the economy under Biden is thriving.
"By President Trump's favorite measure of success President Biden's post-election gains in the S&P 500 Index have soundly beaten Trump's equivalent at just over their one-year election anniversary," he wrote before explaining that, "Charlie Bilello, Founder and CEO of Compound Capital Advisors, has created a chart that shows how many times the S&P 500 has hit record highs in any year since 1929. For 2021 the Index has eclipsed the record 66 times, which is the second highest number to 1995's 77 times. Biden's record number also eclipses Trump's best year in 2017 when the Index broke its all-time high 62 times."
White House Says Biden Has 'Grave Concerns' on Death Penalty After Julius Jones Commutation
I have never believed that the death penalty was either just or effective, so I find this news very encouraging.
From Newsweek:
The White House addressed President Joe Biden's view on the death penalty following Thursday's commutation of Julius Jones' death sentence in Oklahoma.
Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the case has caused the president and his administration to "reflect" on their position.
"The president has made clear over time that he has grave concerns about whether capital punishment as currently implemented is consistent with the values that are fundamental to our sense of justice and fairness," Psaki said.
She also noted that on the federal level, Attorney General Merrick Garland has halted the use of executions after a historically high use of them by the Trump administration. Garland gave no timetable for when or if federal executions will resume.
Schumer And Gillibrand Remain Hopeful Manchin Will Come Around To Reconciliation Bill
From Talking Points Memo:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Sunday remained hopeful that a deal can be reached with centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on the reconciliation package, following the Build Back Better plan’s passage in the House.
During a press conference on Sunday, Schumer said that Senate Democrats will do what they can to get Manchin to come around to the reconciliation bill. Both Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who are key votes in the evenly divided Senate, have put up a fight over the sweeping BBB’s price tag and scope.
“The House did a very strong bill. Everyone knows that Manchin and Sinema have their concerns, but we’re going to try to negotiate with them and get a very strong, bold bill out of the Senate which will then go back to the House and pass,” Schumer said.
Schumer then insisted that Democrats are “in very good shape to get 50 votes,” but that he expects Republicans will seek ways “to try to knock it out.” The Senate majority leader said that Democrats would like to finish the BBB bill by Christmas.
Fox News poll: Nearly 50% of people want government to 'do more' to solve problems
From The American Independent:
"The Democratic answer seems to be 'spend more,'" Bill Hemmer, co-anchor of [Fox’s] "America's Newsroom," said in a segment Friday morning. "...We did our polling, we released it last night, and you look at Virginia results, in New Jersey, other places, it just doesn't seem like the American people are buying what this administration is selling."
The Fox News poll to which Hemmer was presumably referring, released on Thursday, in fact showed nearly half of respondents in support of more government action.
The poll, which surveyed 1,003 registered voters across the country between Nov. 14-17, asked respondents to weigh in on whether the federal government is "doing too much and is too involved in things better left to individuals and businesses" or whether it should "do more to solve the problems facing the country today."
A plurality of those surveyed, 49%, said the government should do more to help while 11% said the current level of government action is "about right."
That figure is the highest it's ever been, in the 11 years Fox News has asked the question on comparable surveys.
Meanwhile, back in the Land of the Lost (or more accurately, the Land of the Losers), we get the following stories:
Sean Parnell ends Pennsylvania Senate campaign after wife granted sole legal custody of their children
The remaining GQP field is weak and about to get weird with the rumored candidacy of Dr. Oz, who is, as the NYMagazine Intelligencer puts it, “from Ohio, has lived for years in New Jersey, and is arguably really from Hollywood.”
🍿 It’s popcorn time! 🍿
From The Washington Post:
Republican Sean Parnell, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump in a closely watched Pennsylvania Senate race, said Monday he will not continue with his campaign, hours after it was made public that a judge had granted his estranged wife primary custody of the couple’s three children.
The judge’s order last week, made public in court documents Monday, outlined in detail the allegations of domestic and other abuse Laurie Snell had made against her estranged husband, and concluded that “Parnell did commit some acts of abuse in the past.” Parnell has denied the allegations.
In his decision to award primary physical and sole legal custody of the children to Snell, Senior Judge James Arner deemed Snell “the more credible witness” who “can truthfully give regular status reports to Sean Parnell and, as may be needed, to the court.”
Trump's grip on the GOP is 'slipping' as advisers scramble for reasons to bail on 2024 run: report
Good luck scraping that dried-on piece of orange dogshit off your shoe, GQP.
From Alternet:
According to a report from the Atlantic's Peter Nicholas, a close adviser to former president Donald Trump admitted they are "rehearsing" arguments intended to convince the former president that another presidential run in 2024 could end in disaster and embarrassment.
As Nicholas wrote, despite polls showing Trump to be the odds-on choice to be the Republican Party presidential nominee in 2024, there are signs that there is a building movement against him among conservatives who are being more vocal about moving on without him. ✂️
According to Nicholas, "If Donald Trump tries to run for president again, one of his former campaign advisers has a plan to dissuade him. Anticipating that Trump may not know who Adlai Stevenson was or that he lost two straight presidential elections in the 1950s… They'll remind Trump that if he were beaten in 2024, he would join Stevenson as one of history's serial losers. 'I think that would resonate,' said this person, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to talk more freely. 'Trump hates losers.'"
"Trump might not listen to his former campaign confidante. But the mere fact that someone who worked to elect Trump the first time is rehearsing arguments to stop a comeback suggests that the former president's tight grip on the Republican Party may be slipping," Nichols suggested.
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Good news from my corner of the world
Portland City Council OKs money for police body cameras, more homeless services
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Portland City Council unanimously approved changes to the fall budget Wednesday that will expand Portland Street Response, fully fund police body cameras, and assist people experiencing homelessness.
“This funding package is our opportunity to make an immediate financial commitment to making greater, sustainable change for the long term,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said during the council vote. “This fall budget process represents the good work we can do right now with the resources at hand to address our most urgent housing, safety and economic needs.”
The vote followed a seven-hour public testimony session last week that brought over 200 people to testify to the city council. Many said they wanted city leaders to beef up the police bureau, citing repeated break-ins and a record number of shootings this year. Other Portlanders said they feared the city was backsliding on promises made in 2020 to find public safety alternatives to the police bureau. ✂️
The fall budget monitoring process, traditionally a time for city officials to make minor changes to the budget, became unexpectedly consequential after the city received an unanticipated budget surplus of $62 million. The money was the result of higher-than-expected return on local business license taxes due to big profits from large companies.
The city council committed $18.8 million of that surplus to homeless services as part of a city-county agreement on homelessness.
The Anti-Displacement Repair Team of Portland
A big thank-you to chloris creator for finding this story and then saving it for me to include in my local news!
From reasons to be cheerful:
Taking Ownership PDX, an organization that helps Black homeowners age in place... is oriented toward longtime residents [who need help with home maintenance]. ✂️
The group focuses on maintenance to keep houses livable, making long-needed repairs and renovations to decaying decks, sagging roofs and failing plumbing. In so doing, the organization aims to generate wealth for Black homeowners, deter predatory investors and realtors, and prevent communities from being splintered by gentrification.
Woodlawn is just one of Northeast Portland’s historically Black neighborhoods that, over the past decade, has seen an influx of younger, wealthier and mostly white homeowners. Residents who grew up in Woodlawn now can’t afford to live there; median home prices are $551,000, according to Zillow. Longtime homeowners [are] an essential part of the city’s fabric whose presence gives the neighborhood a sense of continuity. ✂️
[Taking Ownership was] founded by 36-year-old Randal Wyatt in July 2020, [and] has helped over 50 Black homeowners across Portland. The organization has raised over half a million dollars and maintains a database of 250 local volunteers who are eager to pitch in on the projects whenever they arise.
Taking Ownership founder Randal Wyatt
Wyatt, a native Portlander, has always been a helper. Before Taking Ownership, he was a student advocate at Portland YouthBuilders, worked with teenagers at the Latino Network, and served as a residential treatment counselor at the Salvation Army.
Equitable Giving Circle boosts communities of color, giving with no strings attached
From The Oregonian:
Since its beginnings in spring of 2020, [Equitable Giving Circle, a] Black women- and femme-led organization, has collected weekly food boxes for thousands of families, distributed plants and provided housing assistance and school items to families throughout the Portland area.
Driven by an ethos of “giving with no strings attached,” the organization’s mission is to economically boost communities of color, and to address inequities created by institutional bias and discriminatory systems.
“We know the people who are most ignored are often hardest to get to,” said AJ McCreary, executive director and one of the founders. ...”I said, let’s buy CSAs from BIPOC farmers and give them away to Black families.” ✂️
Each week, Equitable Giving Circle hosts a pop-up pantry where Black and brown individuals and families can pick up produce and packaged items. “We see on average 75 families or households a week,” McCreary said. ✂️
The majority of Equitable Giving Circle’s funding in its first year went toward food programs. But the organization also helps families with housing stability. In the past year, it distributed three-month emergency rent and mortgage grants, helping keep dozens of families from getting evicted. ✂️
“We really want a radical model of redistributing wealth and equity,” Green said. “We really want to purchase an apartment complex and have cohorts of families — particularly Black and brown single parents — live there for a few years rent free, so they can live, heal, save and then at the conclusion, have a competitive down payment.”
Oregon National Guard members join effort to resettle Afghan refugees
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Around 200 members of the Oregon Army National Guard are currently deployed to a base in Indiana where they’re supporting the intake and processing of more than 7,000 Afghan refugees.
Both the 224th Engineer Company out of Dallas, Oregon, and the 1186th Military Police Company out of Salem arrived at Camp Atterbury last month near the town of Franklin, Indiana, where the Department of Homeland Security has set up its own small city of refugees, military personnel, government employees and staff from non-governmental organizations.
The effort is part of “Operation Allies Welcome” — Homeland Security’s effort to resettle people fleeing persecution by the Taliban following the United States’ departure from Afghanistan. ✂️
...soldiers within the 224th Engineer and 1186th Military Police companies of the Oregon National Guard are providing security, information and education services to refugees in support of Operation Allies Welcome.
That includes...1st. Lt. Alex Esselstrom, of Bend. ...“It’s a great experience to be able to say that we’re part of this historical moment in these unprecedented times, that we were able to come and support these people that have been through so much,” Esselstrom said.
Washington state Attorney General’s Office requests meeting over Clark County Jail’s emails to ICE
It’s good news that these guys are being investigated. Local enforcement may hate the laws that forbid this kind of communication with ICE, but they need to be forced to obey those laws.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Washington’s top civil rights enforcers are calling for a meeting with the Clark County sheriff over collegial and possibly illegal emails between jail staff and federal immigration agents.
The emails — the subject of an OPB investigation in July — show jail staff offering up inmates’ birthdates, places of birth and even fingerprints to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The inmates discussed typically have names of Latino descent.
In a Nov. 15 letter, Assistant Attorney General Emily C. Nelson wrote that her agency is “concerned” about the emails, which seem “tailored” to furthering immigration enforcement despite Washington’s sanctuary laws. ✂️
As OPB reported, the emails led to at least one man’s deportation to Mexico. In that case, court records showed jail staff helped federal agents into a restricted area. One staffer later cheered on ICE agents, writing “Great job! Go get him!” in an email.
In 2019, Washington legislators passed the Keep Washington Working Act, which aimed to curb how often state and local law enforcement would detain a person when the federal immigration agents attempt to apprehend them.
The law also narrowed the ways state and local agencies can share information when the crimes at hand aren’t federal crimes like drug or human trafficking. It prevents agencies from disclosing personal information without a signed warrant from a federal judge.
And also from Washington state, an encouraging story about fighting back successfully against the takeover of local governments by right-wing extremists.
How a ‘Good Governance’ Movement Defeated Far-Right Forces in Their Town
BTW, the town name is pronounced “skwim,” not “see-kwim.”
Do click the link — the whole story is well worth reading.
From Bloomberg:
On the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, Clallam County has the distinction of being America’s bellwether: It has picked the winner of every presidential election since 1980.
While elections for local offices there may not have the same predictive power, their outcomes may be a barometer of the political climate. This year, races for typically nonpartisan seats in Clallam County, Washington, became a high-stakes battle over the spread of far-right ideas into local politics. On Nov. 2, a backlash against extremist forces saw a decisive win: Voters overwhelmingly rejected a slate of contenders aligned with conservative populist views such as resisting public health requirements and QAnon apologism. Residents voted instead for the candidates who had organized to defeat them.
“Our community has spoken and they want a change,” said Vicki Lowe, a city council candidate in Sequim, a town of 8,000 in Clallam County. As of Nov. 3, Lowe had 68% of the vote against an incumbent who’d recently supported a city resolution opposing pandemic health mandates. “Now we can take the focus back from everything else that doesn’t have to do with Sequim City Council, and start talking about housing and sidewalks and how our recycling is really getting recycled,” she said.
In memoriam: Dave Frishberg
Losing one of the most charming and distinctive artists in all of jazz history is certainly not good news, but it is good news that he’s being celebrated widely now. Dave lived in Portland from 1986 until his death, and I knew him because my bass-player husband backed him many times. I never tired of his songs no matter how many times I heard them.
This is one of my favorites, a hilarious take-down of the pseudo-hipness of some jazz fans. Musicians find those guys unbearable, so this song is sweet, witty revenge.
By the way, the song that provided most of his royalties and also the song that Dave is best known for is “I’m Just a Bill,” which he wrote while under contract to the kids’ show “Schoolhouse Rock.” The vocalist is Dave’s friend Jack Sheldon:
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Good news from around the nation
U.S. state attorneys general probe Instagram's effect on kids
From Reuters:
A bipartisan coalition of U.S. state attorneys general said on Thursday it has opened a probe into Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, for promoting its subsidiary Instagram to children despite potential harms.
The investigation, involving at least nine states, comes at a time when Facebook is under scrutiny over its approach to children and young adults.
The attorneys general are investigating whether the company violated consumer protection laws and put young people at risk, they said in emailed statements.
"Facebook, now Meta, has failed to protect young people on its platforms and instead chose to ignore or, in some cases, double down on known manipulations that pose a real threat to physical and mental health – exploiting children in the interest of profit," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in a news release.
Apple to make self-repair parts, tools, and manuals available to customers
This has been a long time coming! And it’s another example of how consumer pushback can change wrong-headed corporate policies.
From Optimist Daily:
Following growing pressure from right-to-repair advocates, Apple has announced that it will begin selling spare parts and tools to allow the general public to repair their devices at home.
Under the new program, customers can buy parts and access manuals to repair their own iPhones and Mac computers. The company will start with 200 parts and tools aimed at fixing the most common issues with devices such as screens, displays, batteries, and cameras on newer models. Customers will be able to buy these supplies at the same price as repair shops.
This consumer-focused initiative follows in the footsteps of a 2019 program which made Apple products available to independent repair shops. The company reports that there are currently 2,800 independent shops in its program.
The customer repair initiative will be piloted in the US before expanding to other countries.
Vending Machines Are Now ‘Giving Machines’ in Where People Can Donate Chickens, Blankets, Boots, or Basketballs
What a great idea!
From Good News Network:
Employing the common and easily understood method of the vending machine—these Giving Machines allow passersby in American cities to make a charitable donation to a fellow citizen through local and global causes.
Catering to impulsive givers to indulge their altruistic impulses, they can use the vending machine to purchase anything from a single goat or two chickens to providing a household cleaning kit, polio vaccines, or even a day at Yankee Stadium for an orphaned teen.
When donors make their purchase via credit card, the Giving Machine dispenses a postcard featuring an image and description of their donation.
Of the 10 cities with vending machines nationwide, one of them will be located at Rockefeller Center in New York City, just south of its famed Christmas tree. The machine will kickoff on Tuesday, Nov. 30—the day known as “Giving Tuesday”—with speeches from people at UNICEF, WaterAid, the UNHCR, CARE, the Mariano Rivera Foundation, and other charities.
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Good news from around the world
Milan Is Winning the Fight Against Food Waste
In October, this program won the Earthshot Prize, an initiative founded by Britain’s Prince William. Milan received $1.37 million in prize money and a global network of support to scale the program.
From reasons to be cheerful:
With its packets of tagliatelle pasta, tins of tomato sauce and large bottles of extra virgin olive oil, the Gallaratese Hub just off Via Appennini in Milan’s northwest seems like any other supermarket in the Italian city.
But the produce on the shelves of the 400-square-meter space, owned by the municipality of Milan and opened in July, has been donated by supermarket chains and private businesses just around the block. And the customers, who show up to get their groceries five days a week, don’t pay a thing — it’s all covered by a prepaid card.
“It’s about making our food systems more sustainable and less wasteful,” says Federica Giannotta, head of advocacy and Italian programs at Terre des Hommes Italy, the NGO running the solidarity supermarket as well as outreach distribution. “And of course helping those families that are really in need of support.”
The Gallaratese Hub, one of three currently in Milan, is part of the city’s pioneering efforts to cut down food waste. Milan is the first major city to enforce a citywide food waste policy, relying on the wide-ranging cooperation of public agencies, food banks, charities, NGOs, universities and private businesses. ✂️
The hyperlocal focus has...been a significant factor in Milan’s food policy — excess food, they argue, should be distributed within the same neighborhood, reducing carbon emissions and maximizing the freshness of the food. ...Andrea Segrè, a professor of agricultural policy at the University of Bologna and scientific director of the Waste Watcher International Observatory, believes the local aspect, which he calls a “Zero Kilometer” approach, is crucial. ✂️
“Each city around the world could apply this model,” says Professor Segrè. “You need some competence, some knowledge, and willing actors. But you can copy it easily.”
Tobacco use falling: WHO urges countries to invest in helping more people to quit tobacco
From the WHO:
The fourth WHO global tobacco trends report released [November 16th] shows that there are 1.30 billion tobacco users globally compared to 1.32 billion in 2015. This number is expected to drop to 1.27 billion by 2025.
Sixty countries are now on track to achieving the voluntary global target of a 30% reduction in tobacco use between 2010 and 2025: two years ago only 32 countries were on track.
Millions of lives have been saved by effective and comprehensive tobacco control policies under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and MPOWER – a great achievement in the fight against the tobacco epidemic.
Abu Dhabi to allow non-Muslim civil marriage under family law shakeup
From Reuters:
Non-Muslims will be allowed to marry, divorce and get joint child custody under civil law in Abu Dhabi according to a new decree issued on Sunday by its ruler, state news agency WAM said. ✂️
The UAE last year introduced a number of legal changes at the federal level, including decriminalising premarital sexual relations and alcohol consumption, and cancelling provisions for leniency when dealing with so-called "honour killings".
These reforms, alongside measures such as introducing longer-term visas, have been seen as a way for the Gulf state to make itself more attractive for foreign investment, tourism and long-term residency.
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Good news in science and medicine
Woman Becomes ‘Natural Suppressor’ of HIV as Her Body Completely Clears the Disease – Doctors Find Only Antibodies
From Good News Network:
Another patient has seemingly recovered fully from a diagnosis of HIV.
The woman in Argentina may have become the first person whose immune system, itself, cured her of the virus. And, though it has been heralded as a miracle, it presents hope to scientists—and patients—that one day we may be able to put the HIV scourge behind us.
The 30-year-old woman dubbed the “Esperanza” Patient (in the tradition of naming HIV-cured patients after their city of residence), may prove a little more special. ✂️
The few details released to the public regarding the unique case includes that she was diagnosed in 2013, and has been showing ‘non-existent viral presence’ for 8 years. Then, in 2020 she gave birth to an HIV-negative child. If researchers’ can figure out how her immune system is capable [of] neutralizing the virus so effectively, it would lead to more effective and basic treatments, and perhaps even a cure.
Novel mRNA vaccine offers protection against Lyme disease
From Optimist Daily:
[The ticks that carry Lyme disease] are expanding into new territories across the midwest, meaning cases of Lyme disease are also expected to grow. To confront this issue, a team from the Yale School of Medicine has created a vaccine. The way it works is by stopping the ticks from being able to feed and multiply within the host’s skin, in this way stopping the bacteria from entering. The team utilized a type of RNA in the vaccine, which works by carrying instructions on how to fight off the invasion.
...The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, found that two weeks after [guinea pigs received] the injection, a substantial immune reaction was achieved. The response works by creating inflammation around the area of the bite, causing the ticks to dislodge. Alongside this, protective proteins in the blood are recruited to fight against bacterial infection.
...more testing and clinical trials need to occur in the future to see if this immunity would transfer in the same manner [to humans].
Seeing inside a human brain
This astounding imaging was performed with HiP-CT (Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography) on the still-healthy brain of a deceased donor. We have so much to learn, so it’s good news that we’re creating such amazing tools.
AI has helped design the chickpea of all chickpeas
I’m a big fan of chickpeas/garbanzos, so I was happy to read this news. They’re not only delicious, their nutritional profile is impressive: high in protein, B1, B6, folate, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc.
From The Optimist Daily:
[Artificial Intelligence’s] latest endeavor: designing the ultimate chickpea. Although these pulses are a thoroughly understood crop, the genome of most varieties is not well sequenced. An organism’s DNA holds potential secrets into its growth and nature, therefore a project was set out to unlock these.
The research was a huge international endeavor, with teams all around the world genetically mapping over 3000 varieties of chickpea. A team from the University of Queensland in Australia then analyzed the data to identify the best genes from the bunch. Their criteria was enhanced yield and nutrition, and also resistance to drought, heat, and diseases.
Using these as the basis for crop performance, an AI algorithm was able to weight genes and rank them. “We are using our AI ‘FastStack’ technology platform to design a chickpea with the ultimate genetics for maximum seed weight, and we think this will ultimately be a valuable tool for chickpea breeders,” said Professor Hayes, a lead on the project. The tool can then be used as a database and guide for farmers, who can then combine different strains to produce an optimum breed.
Chickpeas are the world’s third largest pulse crop, and with more people turning to a reduced meat diet, the demand for the crop will continue to grow. They are also vital for crop rotation farming systems, adding essential nitrogen into the soil naturally. This reduces the need for nitrogen fertilizer, a big runoff pollutant of land and waterways close to farms.
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Good news for the environment
Climate action pays for itself a lot sooner than you think
This is very, very good news.
From Anthropocene:
Rapid and massive action to decarbonize the U.S. economy will net the country trillions of dollars in savings over the next few decades alone, according to a new study—even if the rest of the world does nothing.
Plenty of research has shown that in the long term, the costs of climate change will be much greater than the costs of retooling society to reduce emissions and keep climate change in check. But the conventional wisdom has been that it will take many decades to “break even” on decarbonization from a financial point of view. And the prospect of short-term pain for only long-term gain has made it difficult to generate political support for climate action now.
The new study overturns these assumptions. To do so, researchers combined existing climate and economic models with the latest epidemiological data on the health risks of air pollution, heat, and other climate change effects.
“Health benefits of both clean air and reduced climate change are far larger than previously estimated,” the researchers write in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Considering these additional benefits of emissions reductions, benefits outweigh costs even in the near term.”
Aggressive action to move the economy away from fossil fuels will quickly decrease air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, surface ozone, and particulate matter. In turn, that will lead to fewer premature deaths, reduced health care costs, improved productivity of the labor force, and better crop yields. The economic benefits of cleaner air will outpace the costs of decarbonization within the first decade, the researchers found.
How one neighborhood used gamification to reduce traffic emissions
This is very clever.
From Optimist Daily:
Green transportation methods like walking, biking, and taking public transportation reduces carbon emissions and improve air quality for residents, but encouraging people to choose these options over personal vehicles is a challenge. One neighborhood in London has finally cracked the code on green transportation: make it a game.
The London borough of Hounslow launched an initiative called Beat the Street in 2019 to try and get residents to bike and walk more. They placed card-reading boxes around town and gave residents cards to scan at each box. Every time a resident touched two boxes, they received points for using green transportation to travel between the locations. At the end of the six-week trial period, individuals, schools, and businesses with the most points were given prizes like books and vouchers for sports and crafting materials.
All in all, the researchers were able to recruit 28,219 participants and found that the playful boxes reduced car traffic by 53 percent during morning commute hours and 34 percent during evening commute hours. Additionally, the number of participants who reported being physically inactive (engaging in less than 30 minutes of exercise per week) dropped from 25 to 18 percent.
This study not only demonstrates the power of gamification in getting people to make greener transportation choices but also shows how engaging people in community-oriented transportation schemes boost involvement and enthusiasm. The relatively low cost of box installation and prize distribution also makes this an easy program to implement in nearly any city.
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
Here’s Rosy’s choice. As a street dog who was rescued while pregnant with three puppies, she especially appreciates the kindness of these good people in Morocco.
Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help them.
From National Geographic:
Salima Kadaoui, founder of SFT Animal Sanctuary, carries one of the pregnant female dogs to her van in August 2021.
“We can’t take more than three this morning,” says [Salima] Kadaoui, founder of SFT Animal Sanctuary, a nonprofit that rescues and cares for Tangier’s Beldis. The three dogs—which all prove to be pregnant, an all-too-common discovery—will be spayed and vaccinated against rabies. The veterinarian will also abort the dogs’ fetuses as part of an effort to control the population. Then, SFT staff will return the dogs to the streets, a philosophy called trap, neuter, and release (TNR).
At least 30,000 Beldis roam the streets of Tangier alone, with an estimated three million in Morocco. Many of them live in dire conditions, scavenging food scraps from the garbage and suffering from injuries and illnesses, including mange, and, more rarely, rabies. An estimated 80 people die from the disease in Morocco each year, and fear of rabies is the main reason Moroccans dislike Beldis, Kadaoui says. ✂️
In 2017, Kadaoui and colleagues launched Project Hayat—which means “life” in Arabic—with the goal of making Tangier the first rabies-free city in Africa, in large part by vaccinating and sterilizing 30,000 dogs by 2025. So far, they’ve vaccinated and released more than 2,500 animals, with plans to increase that rate with financial support from Morocco’s Ministry of the Interior, which supports TNR. ✂️
Kadaoui’s focus is on the bigger picture. “Adoptions are wonderful—don’t get me wrong,” she says. “But we've got 30,000 strays. The solution is not adoption. The solution is for humans to learn to live in harmony with the dogs and to look out for them.” (Read how adopting street dogs has become popular in India.)
To that end, she hopes Tangier will become a model community for co-existing with dogs, a place where citizens report seeing a sick dog or put out a bowl of water on a hot day.
Nora was taking care of four kittens when she was rescued off a Portland street, so this story warmed her heart.
Rusty-spotted kittens reunited with mother after two days
According to Wikipedia, these cats weigh only 2-3.5 pounds. So these kittens are tiny!
Text from Mid-day (Mumbai, India), photo from Wildlife SOS:
An NGO along with the forest department successfully reunited two of the world's smallest wild cat kittens with their mother in Pune recently. The Rusty-spotted kittens had been separated from their mother for two days. The two kittens, approximately a month old, were discovered in a harvested sugarcane field near Uruli Kanchan, Pune.
The mother had not come for her kittens on the first day, and the reunion attempt failed. The kittens were taken to the RESQCT Wildlife TTC in Bavdhan where they were fed and hydrated. The teams decided to attempt the reunion a second time the next evening. A few changes were made to the set-up of the reunion site and live cameras were placed to monitor the kittens remotely. Finally, the mother arrived, and our teams watched her retrieve and relocate her kittens one by one to a safer place. ✂️
The Rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus) is one of the world’s smallest wild cats and has ‘Near-Threatened’ status on the IUCN Red List. This species is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Their distribution is limited to the dry deciduous forests, scrubs and grasslands of India and Sri Lanka. This wild cat is nocturnal and feeds mainly on rodents, birds, lizards, frogs and insects.
Rascal admires his feral cousins in London and hopes they’re getting lots of special snacks from kind passers-by.
Wild parakeets, far from their native land, have taken a liking to London
From National Geographic:
Kensington Gardens is one of numerous places throughout the British capital where ring-necked parakeets are thriving—an estimated 30,000 of them today. Sometimes called rose-ringed parakeets, they’re not meant to be here; their native ranges are Southeast Asia and Central Africa. So how did a bird that’s common in the foothills of the Himalaya and the equatorial forests of Africa come to London? ✂️
“My suspicion is that there were a whole lot of releases over a period of years of pet birds or birds in aviaries,” says Paul Walton, head of habitat and species for the Scottish branch of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). They were either freed deliberately or escaped. ✂️
Why have they been so successful? One reason is that London—with 47 percent of its area given over to green space, including 3,000 parks, three million private gardens, not to mention a huge number of allotments, or garden plots, and sprawling Victorian cemeteries—is the perfect city for birds. And England’s mild winters, which are becoming more temperate, present no obstacle to their survival. ✂️
For Nick Hunt [author of The Parakeeting of London: An Adventure in Gonzo Ornithology], London’s parakeets carry hope on their wings. “The dominant backdrop of our times is of decline and extinction, of wild species disappearing,” he says. “So, to see a species that is not only surviving, but thriving, I can’t help thinking: Good on you, you’re bucking the trend.”
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Hot lynx
theracket.news/… The far right's secret weapon. “Have some extreme reactionism you need to sell? Call the politics desk of the New York Times.” A scathing piece on the NYTimes. Read it and pass it on!
www.cjr.org/… What can we do about society’s ‘information disorder’ “...there is an incentive system in place that manufactures information disorder, and we will not address the problem if we do not take on that system.“
rootsofprogress.org/… We need a new philosophy of progress. “We live in an age that has lost its optimism. Polls show that people think the world is getting worse, not better. ...But it was not always so.”
bostonreview.net/… Making Communities Safe, Without the Police. A excellent, very thorough overview of this complex issue.
www.theatlantic.com/… Hey, Facebook, I Made a Metaverse 27 Years Ago. “It was terrible then, and it’s terrible now.”
www.goodnewsnetwork.org/… This Cabin’s Flexible Design Can Open To Nature or Enclose into Cozy Space Again
www.onelook.com/ Look up a word based on what you want a word to do, and www.powerlanguage.co.uk/… A new-to-me word game. Both of these fun suggestions arrived in my inbox thanks to Laura Olin, whose weekly newsletter I recommended in an earlier GNR.
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Wherever is herd…
A tip of the hat to 2thanks for creating this handy info sheet for all Gnusies new and old!
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
- The Monday GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu). With their five, we survive and thrive.
- Alternating Tuesdays: NotNowNotEver and arhpdx.
- Wednesdays: niftywriter.
- Thursdays: Mokurai the 1st and 2nd Thursdays, WineRev the 3rd, MCUBernieFan the 4th, and Mokurai the 5th (when there is one).
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup. Heart-stirring and soul-healing introduction and sometimes memes to succumb to.
- Sundays: 2thanks. A brief roundup of Roundups, a retrospective, a smorgasbord, a bulletin board, an oasis, a watering hole, a thunder of hooves, a wellness, a place for beginners to learn the rules of the veldt.
hpg posts Evening Shade diaries at 7:30 p.m. ET every day! After a long day, Gnusies meet in the evening shade and continue sharing Good News, good community, and good actions. In the words of NotNowNotEver: “hpg ably continues the tradition of Evening Shade.” Find Evening Shades here.
oldhippiedude posts Tweets of the Week on Sundays at 6:00 p.m. Central Time — New time! Our second evening Gnusie hangout zone! In search of a TOTW diary? Look here or here.
For more information about the Good News group, please see our detailed Welcoming comment, one of the first comments in our morning diaries.
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How to Resist: Do Something …
The following invaluable list was put together by chloris creator:
Indivisible has created a Truth Brigade to push back against the lies.
Propaganda, false characterizations, intentionally misleading messages, and outright lies threaten our democracy and even our lives. We can effectively combat disinformation, despite the well-funded machines that drive it. They may have money, but we have truth and we have people. People believe sources they trust. When we share and amplify unified, factual messages to those who trust us, we shift the narrative. When we do this by the thousands--we’re part of the Indivisible Truth Brigade, and we get our country back. Join us.️
Our own Mokurai is a member. You can see his diary on the California recall here.
From GoodNewsRoundup (aka Goodie):
Most important: DON'T LOSE HOPE. This is a giant and important fight for us but, win or lose, we keep fighting and voting and organizing and spreading truth and light. We never give up.
And I’ll add a recommendation for you to check out Activate America (formerly Flip the West), which is recruiting people to send postcards to Dem voters whose GQP Representatives voted against the infrastructure bill. The message is about all the benefits of the new law so they’ll be likelier to vote for the Dem challenger.
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Closing music
Many of you have no doubt already seen this, since it went viral in October 2020. But I found out about it only a couple of days ago, when the Bengsons performed it on “Livewire” on NPR while I was listening in the car.
Even if at first you find the Bengsons a little bit too cute (which I did), I recommend you keep listening. You’ll find that they aren’t posing. They’re absolutely genuine, truly sincere and caring, and their message is one we can all use.
“Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going on...”
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
❤️💙 RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! 💙❤️
