Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, where the GNR Newsroom (Bhu and Killer300) find all the good news articles for me to present to you to start your work week off right.
So wow, what a week huh? I think no one will argue Democrats had their best week ever last week, and Trump had his worst week ever. Biden got the Inflation Reduction act passed, his most significant political victory, and something that’s gonna help a lot of people and the environment. And meanwhile we find out Trump just can’t seem to stop breaking the law, and now he’s moved onto the kind of crimes people tend to get EXECUTED FOR TREASON over. Like I predicted Trump wouldn’t even make it to 2024 one way or another, and its starting to look like a real possibility.
But enough about that, lets move on to the good news.
Republican state officials have been waiting decades for the chance to ban abortion.
Now that they can, red state lawmakers are mired in partisan infighting and struggling to agree on how far to go. The most fervently anti-abortion lawmakers are accusing their colleagues of capitulating on rape and incest exceptions, while those calling for compromise or moderation believe more strident Republicans are ignoring political realities.
Yep, congratulations you morons, you caught that car, now what?
On Wednesday, around 250 farmworkers and their supporters took their first steps of a 24-day Delano-to-Sacramento march to demand more voting options for farmworkers when casting a ballot on unionization.
The march, organized by United Farm Workers, or UFW, has been billed as the “March for the Governor’s Signature,” a reference to demands that California Gov. Gavin Newsom sign a new bill meant to protect farmworkers from voter suppression by employers.
More and more the average working Joe is fighting for their rights and its a beautiful thing to see.
Unnoticed by most mainstream press is $60 billion for climate justice priorities — funds specifically for block grants, green banks and clean energy emissions for low-income and disadvantaged communities. This is a major shift in tone, funding and priorities. It’s one where the devil lives very much in the details — but it’s a far cry from climate bills a decade ago which had none of this.
This is significantly better than the status quo. And that does not just happen. That is power conceding because there was a demand. Even if it’s not a complete climate win.
And now I’m beginning to remember that movements don’t ever win. At least, not in the sense that most of us typically think about.
Yeah the bill might not have everything we wanted but it had SOMETHING, which is better than we usually get, and something we desperately need.
There are less than 100 days to go (92, to be precise) before the November midterms. All who have said “things can change” should pat yourselves on the back; things have already changed, and will change again. And again. The idea that the Inflation Reduction Act could be a promising beginning, instead of a heartbreaking end, is not so far-fetched after all.
Progressives are gaining power in Congress, and that’s good news for everyone.
Brazzaville – The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the launch by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, of the landmark opportunity for countries to apply for funding to introduce, or further roll-out, the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine. This international support of nearly US$ 160 million from 2022-2025 will facilitate increased vaccine access to children at high risk of illness and death from malaria, starting with Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the three African countries that began pilot introduction of the vaccine in 2019, and then expanding to other eligible endemic countries.
Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2020, nearly half a million African children died from malaria – or 1 child died of malaria every minute.
Since the world’s first malaria vaccine was introduced in 2019, it has been well accepted in African communities after a relatively short period of time. Demand is high even in the context of COVID-19: vaccination performance for the first dose is reaching between 73% to over 90% coverage, depending on the country, with no major disruptions during the pandemic. To date, about 1.3 million children have benefitted from the vaccine in the three African pilot countries.
You know what I love? Seeing deadly diseases being driven to extinction by vaccines. Lets go.
Governor Whitmer Statement
“Today, Michigan is more free and fair than it was yesterday.
“The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled decisively to confirm that our state’s civil rights laws protect our LGBTQ+ community. This is a monumental victory that ensures our LGBTQ+ community is seen equally by state law and protected by it.
“As a mom, a governor, and proud ally of the community, I am so grateful for this ruling. It will save lives, protect families, and help ensure that every Michigander is treated with dignity and respect by law. For too long, LGBTQ+ Michiganders had been left out of our state’s civil rights protections. No longer. Because of this ruling, nobody can legally be fired from their job or evicted from their home because of who they love.
“For years, I have fought to bring our LGBTQ+ community under the protection of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, and I am proud that today, history has been made. If we're going to attract the talented workforce our businesses need to create jobs and grow our economy, then we’ve got to get on the right side of history. I will keep fighting to make Michigan a safe, welcoming place no matter who you are, where you come from, or who you love.”
I’m not crying you’re crying. Okay I am crying too this is beautiful.
In a historic move, British Columbia’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth, announced today that the province will terminate its immigration detention contract with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
“Today’s decision is a momentous step. We commend British Columbia on being the first province to stop locking up refugee claimants and migrants in its jails solely on immigration grounds,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada (English Speaking). “This is a true human rights victory, one which upholds the dignity and rights of people who come to Canada in search of safety or a better life.”
Good, Immigrants deserve to be treated with dignity and respect like anyone else.
Used to spending hundreds of dollars on public transit every month? Soon, depending on where you live, all those bus, train, and tram journeys could be totally free. Sure, transit operators would earn less revenue. But some are willing to risk the cash to find out whether free fare policies can help reduce car journeys and make cities run more smoothly.
Speaking as someone who now uses the bus to get to work, I would greatly appreciate this.
Advocates and would-be advocates from around the country tuned in yesterday to a webinar about how to build political power to get safe bicycling infrastructure in their neighborhoods.
“You already have the power,” said Carter Lavin, an advocate who developed the webinar. “You may just need to know how to apply it.” Lavin’s focus was on bike lanes and networks, but his outline of steps to build political power could apply to any problem.
“Bike lanes are an amazing piece of technology,” said Lavin. “They make biking safer and enticing to more people, and they increase accessibility of biking for more kinds of riders. From a global perspective, increasing bike riding can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and bike lanes are key to helping people go car-free.”
Anything that reduces reliance on cars is a plus in my book.
The resolution, based on a similar text adopted last year by the Human Rights Council, calls upon States, international organisations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, welcomed the 'historic' decision and said the landmark development demonstrates that Member States can come together in the collective fight against the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
“The resolution will help reduce environmental injustices, close protection gaps and empower people, especially those that are in vulnerable situations, including environmental human rights defenders, children, youth, women and indigenous peoples”, he said in a statement released by his Spokesperson’s Office.
He added that the decision will also help States accelerate the implementation of their environmental and human rights obligations and commitments.
“The international community has given universal recognition to this right and brought us closer to making it a reality for all”, he said.
Guterres underscored that however, the adoption of the resolution 'is only the beginning' and urged nations to make this newly recognised right ‘a reality for everyone, everywhere’.
Darn right it is.
To help revitalize millions of acres of burned and damaged forests across the American West, the U.S. Department of Agriculture aims to plant more than one billion trees over the next decade.
Wildfires and other issues have devastated U.S. woodlands in recent years, and Forest Service arborists can’t keep up with replanting lost trees. They’ve reforested just six percent of land damaged by fires, pests and extreme weather events, which has created a backlog of about 4.1 million acres.
Now, with more federal resources and funding via the REPLANT Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the USDA's Forest Service plans to close the gap. To do so, the federal agency will need to hire more people, source and collect more seeds and expand its nursery capacity to grow four times more seedlings.
Probably a good time to once again plug Ecoasia, the entirely green search engine which plants trees as you use it. But even they haven’t planted a billion trees yet.
Jaguars have been born in an Argentine wetland 70 years after they went extinct from the area.
The jaguars were born in Ibera Park in humid, verdant northeastern Argentina following a successful rewilding program.
Overjoyed conservationists released motion-triggered video footage from a wildlife camera showing one of the parents walking across a path with a cub in its mouth.
Slowly but surely we’re fixing the mistakes of the past. Go get em baby jaguar.
Germany approved plans for the government’s special “climate and transformation fund” to invest 177.5 billion euros ($180 billion) over the next four years to help accelerate the shift to an economy that’s cleaner and less dependent on Russia for energy supplies.
Spending of 35.4 billion euros is earmarked for next year, with about two-thirds of the cash, or almost 17 billion euros, to be used to make older buildings more energy efficient, the economy ministry said Wednesday in an emailed statement. The money will flow from revenues from carbon pricing and the fund’s own reserves and will not impact the federal budget.
Its not just the US taking drastic action on the environment. Lets get it going all over the world.
Red wave crashes into reality; blue tides are rising.
Primary results continue to trickle in, but most ballots have been counted, and Republican hope of taking Olympia has all but disappeared with their dismal showing. Republican pundits were bullish that a midterm election with an unpopular president paired with relatively friendly new legislative district boundaries would provide a path to success, breaking a long run of Democratic dominance in state elections. How wrong they were.
Currently, Democrats enjoy a 57-41 advantage in the State House and a 28-21 advantage in the Senate. The primary indicates they’re likely to maintain those same advantages, if not gain seats. Looking to ahead to the next few election cycles, it’s also hard to see how Republicans would reverse the hole they’ve dug themselves into. Here’s why.
Based on results in the Primary Election thus far, it looks like the new state legislature map, as projected, contains 27 reliable legislative districts (LDs) for Democrats out of 49 total. They’re winning at least 53% of the vote in all of these districts, and often much more, thus these aren’t close races. Republicans are getting shellacked, which suggests a durable Democratic majority in coming elections.
Every day things look better and better for us in November, but lets not let our guard down, we need to get out there and vote like our lives depend on it (cause they do!)
On Thursday evening, an anonymous source close to the investigation on Trump and the recent FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago home revealed that the FBI had been searching for "classified documents relating to nuclear weapons," among other sensitive documents, according to The Washington Post. As stated in the Post's coverage, "experts in classified information" point towards the basis of the search being a fear that the documents thought to be held by Trump were "potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands."
Earlier on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland was unable to offer details on the contents of the search warrant issued prior to the Mar-a-Lago raid, but did specify that he personally authorized the decision to seek court permission for one.
Not good news in itself but holy shit. Trump messed up big time if this is true. Like this is way beyond is usual illegal nonsense, this is big. Really big.
And speaking of really big… I got nothing. Have a good week and I’ll see you next Monday.