Welcome back to the Monday Good News roundup, that magical time of the week when your GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300 and Bhu) bring you the stories to start your week off right. We got a lot of good news this week, so lets get right to it.
ndrea Villanueva was in bargaining five days ago, negotiating a new contract for herself and 500 other retail janitors who clean some of the Twin Cities’ most recognizable stores. A group of building security workers, also members of Villanueva’s union SEIU Local 26, were also in negotiations in the same building. The workers bumped into one another in the hallways as the day went on — stopping to cheer each other on and express their solidarity.
Local 26 is just one of a major network of unions and community groups in Minneapolis and St. Paul that lined up bargaining processes for new contracts — and in some cases, strike votes — around a March 2 deadline, deliberately set in order to maximize their leverage and win collectively-determined community demands around four key issues: dignified work, stable housing, a livable planet and good schools.
That deadline is today, and a rolling Week of Action that will likely include thousands of workers on strike, street protests, and art and theater events, is set to begin.
Someday companies are gonna learn the hard lesson that they need us more than we need them, and maybe then we will get the wages and respect we deserve.
fter a grueling and innovative organizing campaign characterized by stonewalling, fear mongering and retaliation, Starbucks workers are closer than ever to a first contract.
Days after Starbucks Workers United announced the largest single-day union drive in the company’s history, the union declared it had reached “a constructive path forward … on the future of organizing and collective bargaining at Starbucks.” According to the statement, Starbucks will no longer deny benefits and credit card tipping to union members, and will work towards a “foundational framework” for collective bargaining agreements. “While there is plenty of work ahead, coming together to develop this framework is a significant step forward and a clear demonstration of a shared commitment to working collaboratively and with mutual respect,” read a statement posted by Starbucks Workers United on X.
No amount of chicanery will ever conquer the spirit of workers.
Hey, remember two weeks ago, the last time I wrote about the politics and policy of U.S. immigration? When I suggested that hardline positions on immigration were neither electoral nor policy winners? When I concluded: “Democrats should articulate a message on immigration that reminds Americans — who want to be reminded, by the way — that border security is important, but so is ensuring a large, healthy inflow of immigrants”?
I bring this all up because on Tuesday there was a poll and a front-page story that illustrates both aspects of my argument.
The border situation in the US is a clown show, and definitely needs some revisions.
As I argued recently in International Security, one reason why China’s economic coercion has not been more effective is the disconnect between central and local government priorities. When implementing informal economic sanctions, China’s top leaders often outsource punishment to subnational authorities. This is especially the case when the targeted country is a major commercial partner with assets and business interests distributed across multiple localities. Yet some local leaders enthusiastically partake in economic retaliation, while others seek to protect their respective business environments from national-level tensions.
The lack of coordination among local leaders during times when national interests or regime legitimacy are at stake may seem odd, given that China is an authoritarian country ruled by a strongman leader. However, the process of career advancement in the CCP, which puts a premium on both meritocracy and patronage ties, inevitably shapes local leader behavior, including decisions to punish foreign economic actors.
Looks like China’s attempt to bully other countries is coming up flat.
I was hoping to make this trip during a decidedly warmer season, both for my own sake and for the sake of documenting a prettier, livelier city. I wanted to capture tree-lined streets in full bloom, parks buzzing with children, and the volume of people that only sunny days can guarantee.
Then again, today’s gray, icy, and windy conditions are actually appropriate if I’m interested in seeing just how successful Hoboken’s headline-grabbing interventions have been. Feeling safe crossing the street is a 24/7/365 expectation, not a privilege limited to the warmer months. Those months may showcase the fullest potential of, say, a pedestrian plaza or parklet, but if the sense of safety doesn’t translate to grayer days, rainier ones, or even nighttime, then arguably, those interventions aren’t enough.
Things are improving in cities all over, not just Hoboken.
Some good news out of Alexandria: The city recorded zero traffic fatalities—car accidents or auto-related pedestrian deaths—in 2023, its transportation department announced Wednesday.
The report highlighted Vision Zero, a policy program implemented in 2017 with the goal of reducing the city’s traffic fatalities to zero by 2028 through education, enforcement, and road engineering. One example: the “road diet’—in which one lane was converted into a bike lane—on Seminary Road, which had been identified by the initiative as a high-crash area. While some residents pushed back against the move, a 2022 report from the city found that average annual crashes on the thoroughfare had since decreased by 41 percent.
Lets all hope for a future where vehicular related deaths are a thing of the past.
The city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, faced a cascade of housing challenges. A state land bank program intended to fight blight had accumulated 267 derelict properties by 2015. But those lots were in neighborhoods where the cost of building a house would exceed its market value when finished. This produced a destructive loop in which existing homeowners had no financial incentive to improve their properties, and affected areas fell into further decline.
Reactivating those neighborhoods required more than one program, grant, or department could provide. So city, county, and state agencies, along with housing developers, advocates, and nonprofits—including the Incremental Development Alliance—formed a coalition in search of creative solutions.
One of their first steps was to conduct a survey of the housing types in Kalamazoo, many of which were traditional American homes of various sizes and configurations. Town officials then began asking how such buildings could be recreated today.
More good news on the front of making housing affordable for everyone.
Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Tuesday that she will not run for re-election this year, leaving the Senate after one term that saw her paint Arizona blue, leave the Democratic Party and play a key role in numerous legislative negotiations in a tightly divided Senate.
“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video posted on her X account.
Sinema’s decision paves the way for a tough and expensive fight for her seat — though it will be more straightforward than the messy three-way contest she would have prompted by staying in. The leading Republican, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and the leading Democrat, Rep. Ruben Gallego, are already running hard to replace Sinema.
In her video, Sinema said partisan warfare has carried the day.
Good riddance. Sinema was a quisling and a traitor from day one, a millstone around Biden’s entire administration. I mean at least Manchin could make the excuse he was playing to the audience back home, Sinema is just a self aggrandizing con artist. Good bye and good riddance I say.
A federal appeals court in Florida blocked enforcement of employer provisions in a law state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dubbed the "Stop WOKE Act" in a unanimous ruling on Monday.
The big picture: In upholding an earlier ruling, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in an opinion Monday said the legislation "exceeds the bounds of the First Amendment."
- It stems from a lawsuit filed by several Florida businesses challenging the act, also known as HB7, which would prevent them from requiring workers to attend workplace training promoting diversity and inclusion.
- DeSantis administration officials argue the law is designed to prevent indoctrination in workplaces and schools and have indicated they may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the decision.
Seriously DeSantis? Why ate you even still around. You lost. You’re a LOSER. You’re never gonna be President, just go sit on your hands and go away.
The rules in the model building code will require new homes to come equipped with the circuitry to hook up induction stoves and electric car chargers, and will be used as a benchmark in almost every state.
In November, trade associations representing gas utilities and furnace manufacturers launched a last-ditch effort to gut the provisions, which will be released this year.
The International Code Council, the nonprofit organization that works with industry groups and local governments to write the generic codes enshrined into law across most of the country, even bent its own rules to grant players like the American Gas Association and the American Public Gas Association extra time to file appeals, HuffPost reported last month. The fossil fuel groups challenged codes that would make it cheaper for homeowners to opt out of gas, arguing that the proposals either fell outside the bounds of what the energy code was meant to do or were forged through improper procedures.
Gas industry has to accept their time has come and gone, stop trying to force everyone to bow to them.
he Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked a Texas law that allowed state law enforcement officers to arrest migrants entering the United States from Mexico.
In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the high court blocked Texas from enacting the law until March 13, giving the state until March 11 to respond to the Justice Department’s request asking to pause the law from taking place.
The Justice Department had filed an emergency request Monday asking the Supreme Court to intervene, with Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar arguing that the law would alter the “status quo that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.”
A temporary reprieve from Texas “harrass non white people” law. People are getting tired of this nonsense.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) announced a program on Monday that will cancel $2 billion in medical debt for Arizonans.
“Today, I am so proud to announce that we are taking steps to retire medical debt for up to an estimated 1 million Arizonans,” Hobbs said at a press conference Monday. “That’s a fresh start, a new chapter and a huge weight taken off the shoulders for every single one of them.”
Hobbs said that by using up to $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, Arizona is “working with partners” at the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to buy back “up to approximately $2 billion worth of medical debt held by Arizonans.”
Very cool news out of Arizona.
The cost of a late payment on your credit card could soon be going down.
Federal regulators issued a new rule Tuesday capping credit card late fees at $8, down from the current average of $32. The move is expected to save customers an estimated $10 billion a year.
That’s a significant drop. Glad to see it.
For the first time this year, I attended the YIMBYTown conference, the annual gathering of the YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement. The event was in its sixth year in 2024, and it has been held in six different cities. This year’s was in Austin, Texas. It seemed a good time to see what the fuss is about. (And is there ever a bad year to hang out in Texas in February and eat some breakfast tacos?)
After all, Strong Towns President Chuck Marohn and I have a book on housing coming out this spring, one which devotes an entire chapter to YIMBY. Attending was a chance for me to deepen my own connections with some of the people working hardest to make it easier to build badly needed homes in this country. And not just more homes, but a range of homes more in tune with local needs and budgets, as well as the kinds of neighborhoods that are intrinsically welcoming, where it can be understood that each new arrival makes the party better, not worse.
In this country no one should be homeless, and these are the people trying to make that happen, and god bless them for it.
With minimum parking requirements, cities guarantee homes for cars in new development even before people — and they spare nothing in the quest for off-street parking stalls. A potential yard or garden can become a victim to the asphalt mandate. Actual living space may need to shrink to make room for car storage. And existing trees, in most cases, don’t receive preferential treatment over mandated car parking, despite the benefits of tree retention that almost everyone agrees on. Or at least they haven’t been given preferential treatment until now.
Senate Bill 6015, which passed the Washington State Senate Monday in its final vote before heading to Governor Inslee’s desk, includes a provision mandating that cities over 6,000 people, and all counties, in Washington “may not require off-street parking as a condition of permitting a residential project if compliance with tree retention would otherwise make a proposed residential development or redevelopment infeasible.”
Good news for parking and for trees.
ou can hear them as they plug in their devices at their seat. You can hear them as they pass through the hissing automatic doors between cars. You can hear them as they enter the spacious, sparkling restrooms.
“Wow.” “Nice.” “Is this a new train?”
To which I reply to my fellow passengers, “Yes. Yes, it is.”
Siemens Venture cabs started rolling onto Amtrak Midwest routes in 2022, and by now they’re a ubiquitous sight in this corner of the Amtrak system. These are the same cab cars used by the privately-owned Brightline system in Florida, and are considered the top-of-the-line for passenger rail in North America. Northeast Corridor riders won’t be able to experience the new train smell until 2026, since the Airo trains slated for those routes keep getting delayed.
Yes! Bring back trains. Love trains.
Trump shows no interest in diplomacy. Rather, he takes pleasure in the total dominance of his opponents. It has worked for him in the past. In 2016, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul bent the knee to Trump after he humiliated each of them in turn, mocking their height, their wife and their physical appearance respectively. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — who called Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the riot on January 6 — endorsed him and he will exit Senate leadership at the end of the year.
Trump recently said, “We’re getting rid of the Romneys of the world.” In a similar vein, when Lake ran for governor, she said McCain Republicans needed to “get the hell out” — a move which likely cost her the governorship. But the problem is that the voters who previously voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 and who voted for Haley in the primary are now leaving the Republican Party.
On Super Tuesday, Haley continued her trend of eating into Trump’s leads in suburban areas. In Virginia, she won in the Washington suburbs of Alexandria and Fairfax County, as well as Charlottesville — the home of the University of Virginia — and tony neighboring Albemarle County. That’s a sign that the old country-club Republicans are not sold on him.
Trump’s campaign might argue that Virginia is an open primary state. But in neighboring North Carolina, which had a partially closed primary where Democrats could not vote but unaffiliated voters could, Haley got within single digits in Wake County — which includes the suburbs of Raleigh — and Mecklenburg, which includes the suburbs of Charlotte.
Senator Thom Tillis, the Tar Heel state’s most astute Republican politician, told The Independent that Trump has work to do in the suburbs. “Primaries are a little bit different, because they're really focused on the other candidate, but now it's all about painting a vision for how you can fix a lot of the problems that the Biden administration’s created,” he said.
Last week, Tillis told me he had not endorsed Trump, but on Wednesday, he gave a half-hearted endorsement, telling me, “We've got to get behind the presumptive nominee and support them.”
Yeah turns out acting like a raving maniac scares off potential voters.
November can’t come quick enough.
At 2:27 p.m. on Friday, March 8, the Florida Legislature adjourned sine die. With this adjournment, 21 of 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were effectively killed, leaving an anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education bill as the lone piece of legislation to pass this session. This session featured some of the most severe bills ever proposed against transgender individuals, all of these bills are now officially dead. LGBTQ+ activists in the state now have the rest of 2024 to regroup, with hopes that the November general election will yield results against a legislature that has spent two years targeting transgender individuals in every aspect of life.
I think we are at a point where people are sick and tired of this performative cruelty from the GOP. We as a people can do better.
But that can keep for now, Its getting late, and another GNR comes to a close, I’ll see you all next week.