The Biden-Harris Administration released a new Climate Capital Guidebook
The administration has been hard at work simplifying things for us, like the new IRS free income tax filing. Here’s another excellent example.
To read the guidebook, go to: Climate Capital Guidebook.
From Chop Wood, Carry Water:
The Biden-Harris Administration released a new Climate Capital Guidebook to provide a simple, comprehensive map of capital programs across the federal government that are available to climate-related start-ups, small- and medium-sized businesses, and their investors.
From the introduction to the Climate Capital Guidebook, by National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard:
The gains from the clean energy transition must benefit all Americans and be shared across communities, demographics, and geographies, particularly places that have been left behind. While larger climate technology enterprises often have the resources to navigate the many capital programs made available by the Biden-Harris Administration, smaller businesses and start-ups may face greater capacity constraints in navigating these programs.
That is why the Administration is working hard to break down barriers to accessing capital—ensuring that American businesses and workers from communities in every corner of the countrycan participate in the growing clean energy economy. This Climate Capital Guidebook is designed to provide a program-by-program overview of the resources available across the federal government to climate start-ups, small- and medium-sized businesses, and their investors.
The clean energy transition will require an all-hands-on-deck approach and at the heart of that effort will be American innovators, workers, and small- and medium-sized businesses.
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The media messing up
Wall Street Journal Finds Brave Whistleblower (Kevin McCarthy) Willing To Say Joe Biden Old
A richly-deserved hatchet job by Wonkette’s premier snarkmeister on the odious WSJ and their hack reporters.
By Evan Hurst on Wonkette:
“Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” blares the headline, and it’s one of those things where the headline graphic takes up the whole page, so it must be important. ...What if we told you their main on-the-record source was Kevin McCarthy, the former Republican House speaker? Also, they found some people who have talked to Mike Johnson, the current speaker. Both men of course have a vested interest in their voters (read: idiots) thinking Joe Biden is too senile to govern...✂️
What if we told you literally all the rest of their sources who say Biden is hopelessly senile are anonymous people who are also Republicans?
What if we told you all the previous reporting about Kevin McCarthy’s private statements about Biden feature him saying — when McCarthy’s behind closed doors instead of on the record — that Biden is sharp and prepared, which happens to be the exact same thing other Republicans say? ✂️
The White House pushes back hard, as you might expect, but everybody sees this for what it is.
[Morning Joe on June 5th] noted how Kevin McCarthy’s previous statements on the very same meetings featured in Linskey’s and Hughes’s loaded diaper of an article directly contradict the things he says in the article. You’d think somewhere in their 48,000 words Linskey and Hughes might have seen fit to mention that. ✂️
Joe Scarborough noted that in the same reporting where Kevin McCarthy spoke highly behind closed doors about Biden’s mental acuity, he was simultaneously mocking Biden in public. (McCarthy “mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations,” that’s the exact quote from Politico.)
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Good news from my corner of the world
How one apartment building in Portland seeks to tackle climate change, affordable housing
Win-win. Actually, win-win-win if you include the economic benefits of using locally produced mass timber.
From KGW:
From the outside, the Timberview VIII apartment building doesn’t look so different from its contemporaries. ...But, there are a few things that set this apartment building apart from others like it.
“When completed, this will be the tallest mass timber residence in the state of Oregon,” said Curtis Rystadt, the lead developer behind the project.
Mass timber construction offers some notable benefits over traditional construction. Concrete and steel both require lots of heat to produce and those can create sizable emissions of carbon dioxide, one of the primary drivers of climate change. Wood, by comparison, is renewable and actually works to sequester carbon. Mass timber is the process of gluing smaller pieces of lumber together to create large, structural beams. This has allowed whole structures to replace what would've been concrete or steel with wood. ✂️
...all 105 units in his new building will be affordable housing. A studio will run around $1,100 and three-bedroom units will be roughly $1,700, Rystadt said. And all of the units will be reserved for residents who make less than 60% of the median income for the area. That equates to a yearly income of $47,000 for an individual or $66,000 for a family of three.
In Oregon, Medicaid Is Buying People Air Conditioners
Before the heat dome of 2022, few Oregonians had air conditioners, and five people in Portland died from hyperthermia. With high temperatures becoming increasingly common, giving air conditioners to people who don’t have the means to purchase them is a life-saving public health policy.
From KFF Health News:
Oregon has started providing air conditioners, air purifiers and power banks to help some of its Medicaid recipients cope with soaring heat, smoky skies and other dangers of climate change.
It’s a first-in-the-nation experiment that expands a Biden administration strategy to take Medicaid beyond traditional medical care and into the realm of social services. “Climate change is a health-care issue,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told me, adding that states should be encouraged to experiment with ways to improve people’s health. ✂️
Many states are already spending billions of Medicaid dollars on services like helping homeless people get housing and preparing healthy meals for people with diabetes. But Oregon is the first to spend Medicaid money explicitly on climate-related equipment to help its most vulnerable residents — an estimated 200,000 enrollees.
Recipients must meet federal guidelines that categorize them as “facing certain life transitions,” a stringent set of requirements that disqualify most enrollees. For example, a person with an underlying medical condition that could worsen during a heat wave, and who is also at risk for homelessness or has been released from prison in the past year, could receive an air conditioner. But someone with stable housing might not qualify.
Cultivating college-going: A low-income rural school in Oregon shines at propelling graduates into higher education
It appears, unsurprisingly, that focused individual attention to each student is the key to success here.
From The Oregonian:
Lost River Junior/Senior High, a rural southern Oregon school with about 250 students in grades seven through 12, has achieved a remarkable track record at propelling students to college, standing out from the state’s overall dismal and declining performance in that realm.
The tiny school, one mile north of the border with California, routinely sends two-thirds of its graduating seniors on to postsecondary education. Its college-going rate usually outpaces the state’s, a particular feat for a rural school that primarily serves low-income and Latino students.
The school has built a strategic routine to inspire and cultivate students’ post-high school ambitions, starting in junior high. It takes a high-touch approach, requiring all seniors to apply to three schools or jobs or the military, then celebrating whatever they choose. Its signature schoolwide signing day makes as big a deal of acceptance to a local community college as others do for a Division I athlete commitment.
And for seniors, it builds in time each day for counselor Sarah Bandfield-Johnson to help put those pieces in place. “We really encourage everybody here: you will do something after you get that diploma,” Bandfield-Johnson said. “There’s a lot of options.”
Fully 80% of Lost River seniors in the class of 2021 enrolled in a university or community college within 16 months, compared to a state average of just 56%. This year all 37 seniors indicated that they were going to enroll in college anywhere from Oregon Tech up the road in Klamath Falls to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.
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Good news from around the nation
Murder rates and gun violence in America are plummeting
I love the graph showing that increases in gun violence make the news and decreases don’t. Please spread the word!!
From Fix the News:
Murder is down around 18.5% in more than 260 cities with available data for 2024 compared to the same time frame in 2023. It’s late enough in the year, with a large enough sample, to say that the country is on track for another historic annual decline. Gun violence is falling fast, too, with the overall number of shooting victims down around 12% relative to 2023.
How workers are revolutionizing the South
The piece is by David McCall, international president of the United Steelworkers Union. It’s wonderful to see workers who have been oppressed for so long finally standing up for their rights!
From Independent Media Institute:
Donneta Williams, president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1025 and a longtime optical fiber maker at the Corning plant in Wilmington, North Carolina, knows how important it is for workers intent on forming a union to speak directly with peers who walk in the same shoes. So Williams agreed to send three of her colleagues to Corning’s Tarboro facility, about 145 miles away, when workers at that site approached the union with questions about organizing.
Local 1025 members shared firsthand accounts of how the union boosted their wages, gave them a voice, and kept them safe on the job. And in May 2024, the workers at Tarboro filed for an election to join the USW.
They’re among a growing number of workers across the South eager to leverage the power of solidarity and build brighter futures, even as CEOs and Republicans in this part of the country still conspire to hold them down. … “The narrative on unions in the South needs to change,” [said Williams], pointing out that growing numbers of workers are grasping the benefits of collective action and demanding their fair share in the booming post-pandemic economy. ✂️
Williams says workers are educating themselves about collective action, seeing through the right-wing corporate pandering, and then shrugging off the South’s anti-labor traditions to chart a path forward for their families. “The mindset of workers, in general, has changed,” observed Williams, who credits President Joe Biden’s pro-union agenda and job-creating legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with helping to fuel demand for unions.
FBI Cracks Down on Rental Price-Fixing Scheme, Raiding Company That Uses Software to Raise Cost of Housing
Jessiestaf mentioned this in yesterday’s GNR, and Mokurai provided the text of the story in a comment, but I thought it deserved to be repeated with a bit more info from a different source. Of course, it’s more evidence that the Biden administration is serious about fighting corporate malfeasance.
From Good News Network:
As part of a criminal investigation, the FBI raided the offices of Cortland, a property management company operating in Arizona to find out if it was involved in an illegal price-fixing scheme centered around AI-driven rent control software.
In February, the Arizona Attorney General announced a lawsuit against nine major rental companies for alleged price fixing. All nine as well as Cortland rely on RealPage, a pricing algorithm that takes market data and determines how high rents can be in order to maximize revenue. An article in 2022 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning media outlet ProPublica reports that following the acquisition of a rival company, RealPage was pricing 2 million units nationwide by 2017. Many rental companies found that they could increase their net operating income between 3%–7% without minimizing vacancies—in other words, they could make more money even though they had fewer tenants.
As early as 2018, ProPublica reports, the FTC was aware of RealPage’s activities, and the consideration that the firm’s breadth of clientele combined with its encouragement to share private pricing information and market data between RealPage users to increase the accuracy of the algorithm was reminiscent of the particulars in previous antitrust cases in the 20th century.
Since that ProPublica story, rents in Arizona have gone up 30% on average, with even higher increases seen in parts of Phoenix and Tucson. Local reporters at the Copper Courier reported that the nine rental management companies named in the Arizona AG suit not only controlled over 100,000 rental units in the metropolitan areas where rents were rising the fastest, but that they all used RealPage software in at least some cases to set unit prices.
Tennessee to become first state to offer free diapers for Medicaid families
This is another excellent piece of public health policy made possible through Medicaid.
From Insurance News Net:
Tennessee will soon become the first state in the country to offer free diapers to families enrolled in the state's Medicaid program after receiving federal approval, state officials have confirmed. According to TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid program, families will be able to receive up to 100 diapers per month for children under two starting in August — which will be available at TennCare pharmacies.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved Tennessee's proposal late last week. The request stemmed from an initiative backed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in 2023 designed to support families, for which lawmakers approved allocating $30 million in TennCare funding for the free diapers.
“For infants and toddlers, a key benefit to adequate diaper supply is preventing diaper dermatitis, otherwise known as diaper rash, and urinary tract infections,” CMS wrote in their approval letter to the state on May 17. “Diaper rash is one of the most common medical conditions for infants and toddlers, and changing diapers frequently is the mainstay of recommendations to prevent this condition.”
On average, newborn babies can require eight to 10 diapers a day, or around 300 a month. Toddlers can use around 150 diapers a month. ✂️
According to a report from the Sycamore Institute, a Tennessee think tank, Tennessee now has the highest income eligibility for parents and caretakers among the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility broadly for adults under the Affordable Care Act.
Tennessee's new diaper benefit stands out as the state has gained attention over the years for becoming increasingly willing to reject federal funding that offer valuable resources to other families and struggling individuals.
And Delaware will be the second:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently approved Delaware's request to extend a pilot program, according to the American Hospital Association. … Under the program, Delaware will be allowed to provide up to 80 diapers and a pack of baby wipes per week for the first 12 weeks after giving birth.
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Good news from around the world
India’s low-caste voters humbled its powerful prime minister
Indian voters are finally seeing through Modi’s divide-and-conquer tactics. The reality isn’t Hindus vs. Muslims, it’s haves vs. have-nots.
From The Washington Post (gift link):
Long before shock election results released this week eroded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political mandate, the seeds of discontent were planted in the poor, zigzagging alleys housing Indians at the foot of society.
Months ago, upper-caste members of Modi’s party boasted they would gain so much political power that they would amend India’s constitution to remove affirmative action, said villager Yogendra Kumar. There was another problem, Yogendra’s friend Nikul Kumar added: Modi never delivered jobs to the poor or kept inflation in check.
Yogendra and Nikul Kumar are Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, and part of the crucial voter bloc that delivered the biggest surprise this week: low-caste Hindus in the Hindi-speaking heartland who unexpectedly rebelled against Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. While the BJP won the most parliamentary seats, it fell well short of securing the majority needed to form a government. ✂️
“Those who were betting on a vote along Hindu-Muslim lines have been shown that society realizes they are trying to separate us just so they can be in power,” Nikul Kumar, a tile maker, said in his modest living room. “The biggest weakness of BJP is it’s all about religion. If they do actual work for our education, then we can move up.” ✂️
Political analysts say Modi’s electoral setback partly reflects grievances rooted in the widening economic gulfs and challenges facing India, particularly since the pandemic. Entering the election, unemployment was running high at 8.1 percent, according to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy. In March, a group of researchers, including the French economist Thomas Piketty, found that wealth inequality in India had worsened under Modi and reached a record level, surpassing that during British colonial times.
Incredible global progress on water, sanitation, and hygiene
As Fix the News notes, this is a hugely significant global milestone that news organizations have totally ignored.
From Fix the News:
Last week the WHO and UNICEF released a new report on global access to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools. You need to dig a little - but around halfway through they reveal that between 2015 and 2023, global access to clean drinking water in schools increased from 66% to 77%, basic sanitation increased from 68% to 78%, and basic hygiene rose from 58% to 67%.
This is a staggering achievement. In actual numbers, it means that well over 200 million schoolchildren have gained access to improved water, sanitation, or hygiene services in the last eight years, a period of time which includes the severe disruptions of the pandemic. If you can find a single story about this from any other news organisation in the world, let us know. We tried and failed.
Carved 40,000 Years Ago and Found in a Cave, These Are the Oldest-Known Animal Sculptures
These exquisite sculptures are clear proof that our ancient ancestors were as blessed with artistic gifts and observational skills as any humans that came after them.
From Good News Network:
This is the first depiction of a horse ever made by humans as far as we know; cut from ivory an incredible 35,000 – 40,000 years ago. The carver is believed to be part of the Aurignacian, an Upper Paleolithic group whose people lived between 43,000 and 35,000 years ago, and whose territory overlapped with Neanderthals.
It’s determined that the carving represents a stallion, but whether it’s rearing back to fight off a predator, strutting to impress a mare, or merely bending down for a mouthful of grass, is unknown because the legs were never recovered.
One of two intact Vogelherd mammoth carvings
In 1931, amateur German archaeologist Hermann Mohn unearthed several flintstone flakes while examining a badger’s den. He informed the University of Tübingen, which led to the excavation of the den by paleo-historian Gustav Riek. The excavations led into a cave 60 feet above the banks of the River Lone called Vogelherd Cave where Riek found a selection of ivory figurines carved by early humans including a lion, mammoth, bison, and this horse.
A bison carving from Vogelherd
...more than 70 years later, a large operation was carried out...to comb through Riek’s waste piles...217,000 worked stone pieces of various sizes, 1,713 tools made from bone, antlers, or ivory, 479 kg of bones from hunted animals, (plus 235 kg of burned bones) 28 kg of mammoth ivory, and 326 pierced pendants/pieces of jewelry have been recovered over the operation that lasted from 2005 to 2012.
In 2007, Vogelherd was designated as a World Heritage Site called Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura which includes 5 other caves collectively known as the “cradle of art.”
And in a serendipitously related story:
Portugal Welcomes First Wild Bison in 10,000 Years–the Keystone Species for Rewilding a Quarter-Million Acres
The unquoted part of the story clarifies that “Through their grazing, foraging, trampling, and fertilizing, bison help to maintain biodiversity-rich mosaic landscapes of forest, scrub, and grassland, as well as numerous micro-habitats, which host a wide range of plant and animal species.”
From Good News Network:
Rewilding Europe is thrilled to announce the arrival of a small herd of bison in a large valley in Portugal. Believed to be the key to preventing catastrophic wildfires, invasive species spread, and promoting endemic biodiversity, it’s the first time bison have been present in Portugal since the last Glacial Maximum. From Poland to Romania to the UK, European wood bison are now firmly recognized as one of the best tools for returning what little wilderness Europe has left to as wild a state as possible. ✂️
In Portugal, a country smaller than Pennsylvania, the gradual abandonment of the Greater Côa Valley has presented an unprecedented opportunity for rewilding in the small country.
The government has already set aside a quarter million acres of land for conservation, boasting an interesting mix of natural and semi-natural habitats of scrub, Mediterranean dry forests, and steep gorges.
The Iberian wolf is present on the land in the form of a small pack, and the area acts as a refuge for roe and red deer, wild boar, eagles, and an ancient cattle breed that’s left to roam wild as its ancestor, the mighty auroch, once did across Europe. ✂️
“We are viewing this translocation as a pilot,” explains Rewilding Portugal team leader Pedro Prata. “...This is the first time that Rewilding Portugal team has managed bison, so it’s a learning process for us too.”...
It won’t just be new for the team, but new for Portugal in a way. Remains of the European bison have not only never been discovered in the country, but never been discovered on the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. The scientific evidence has to look back 10,000 years ago to find bison in Portugal—the steppe bison—a predecessor of the modern European bison. However, studies of translocated bison in Spain have shown that they are at home in the hot, dry climate.
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Good news in medicine
Unlocking the world around us for next-gen antibiotics
This is one of the best possible uses of AI.
From Science Daily:
An international research team has found almost a million potential sources of antibiotics in the natural world.
Research published in the journal Cell by a team including Queensland University of Technology (QUT) computational biologist Associate Professor Luis Pedro Coelho has used machine learning to identify 863,498 promising antimicrobial peptides -- small molecules that can kill or inhibit the growth of infectious microbes.
The findings of the study come with a renewed global focus on combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as humanity contends with the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs.
"There is an urgent need for new methods for antibiotic discovery," Professor Coelho, a researcher at the QUT Centre for Microbiome Research, said. The centre studies the structure and function of microbial communities from around the globe. "It is one of the top public health threats, killing 1.27 million people each year." ✂️
The team verified the machine predictions by testing 100 laboratory-made peptides against clinically significant pathogens. They found 79 disrupted bacterial membranes and 63 specifically targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.
New test promises to predict dementia nine years before diagnosis
Perhaps brain scans will become a routine part of physical exams for people considered to be at risk of dementia.
From The Independent:
A new test has been developed that can predict dementia up to nine years before diagnosis, with 80% accuracy.
Scientists say the technique has the “potential to fill an enormous clinical gap” by identifying people who are at risk of dementia and treating them before symptoms start to show. The test involves analysing the network of connections in the brain when it is in “idle mode” to look for very early signs of the condition. ✂️
[The researchers] examined the patterns of connections in a brain network called the default mode network (DMN), which kicks in when the brain is in idle mode – where the mind wanders and is not focused on a particular task. [They] developed a model that was able to predict which people in [the] group would go on to be diagnosed with dementia.
Among the 103 people who had dementia, 81 had brain scans between five months and 8.5 years before being officially diagnosed. Their brain scans showed less connectivity in the default mode network compared with those who did not go on to develop dementia, the findings showed.
[Professor Charles] Marshall, who led the research team..., said: “Predicting who is going to get dementia in the future will be vital for developing treatments that can prevent the irreversible loss of brain cells that causes the symptoms of dementia.”
New test could ‘turn the tide’ on prostate cancer
Taking an at-home saliva test rather than going to a lab for a blood draw should result in many more men finding out they have prostate cancer while it’s still in a very early, treatable stage. I hope the test does indeed wind up being “simple and cheap.”
From Positive News:
A new at-home saliva test could help identify prostate cancer sooner, giving doctors a better chance of treating the disease successfully.
The test looks through DNA in saliva samples for a range of small genetic changes linked to prostate cancer. In a trial, the test outperformed the current prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, which is considered inaccurate. ✂️
“With this test, it could be possible to turn the tide on prostate cancer,” said Ros Eeles, a professor at the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research and a consultant at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, which jointly led the research. “We have shown that a simple, cheap spit test to identify men at higher risk due to their genetic makeup is an effective tool to catch the cancer early.”
Further research is planned.
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Good news in science
Japan’s push to make all research open access is taking shape
This is a policy that needs to be universal.
From Nature:
The Japanese government is pushing ahead with a plan to make Japan’s publicly funded research output free to read. In June, the science ministry will assign funding to universities to build the infrastructure needed to make research papers free to read on a national scale. The move follows the ministry’s announcement in February that researchers who receive government funding will be required to make their papers freely available to read on the institutional repositories from April 2025.
The Japanese plan “is expected to enhance the long-term traceability of research information, facilitate secondary research and promote collaboration”, says Kazuki Ide, a health-sciences and public-policy scholar at Osaka University in Suita, Japan, who has written about open access in Japan.
The nation is one of the first Asian countries to make notable advances towards making more research open access (OA) and among the first countries in the world to forge a nationwide plan for OA.
Shigir Idol: World's oldest wood sculpture has mysterious carved faces and once stood 17 feet tall
More evidence that we have almost no idea how complex the beliefs and societies of our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors were.
From Live Science:
The Shigir Idol as seen at the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore in Russia.
Name: Shigir Idol
What it is: The world's oldest known wooden sculpture
Where it was found: At the bottom of a peat bog in Russia's Ural Mountains in 1894
When it was made: The towering sculpture was carved 12,100 years ago from the trunk of a larch (Larix) tree, making it more than twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids.
What it tells us about the past: This wood carving would have towered 17.4 feet (5.3 meters) tall when it was first crafted. It depicts a human figure and features an array of geometric motifs etched into the statue, including zigzag patterns, as well as human faces and hands. For years, archaeologists have argued over the age of the artifact. However, the latest analysis determined that the piece was created by hunter-gatherers in the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), according to a study in the journal Quaternary International. ✂️
Researchers have found a much older wooden structure — a 476,000-year-old wooden construction in Zambia — but unlike this ancient discovery, the Shigir Idol is clearly a carved monument, rather than tree trunks with notches.
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Good news for the environment
Basic income can double global GDP while reducing carbon emissions
This would extremely challenging to implement, but wow, talk about a win-win!!
From Science News:
Giving a regular cash payment to the entire world population has the potential to increase global gross domestic product (GDP) by 130%, according to a new analysis published June 7 in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability. Researchers suggest that charging carbon emitters with an emission tax could help fund such basic income program while reducing environmental degradation.
"We are proposing that if we can couple basic income with environmental protection, we can save two birds with one stone," says first author U. Rashid Sumaila of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Sumaila has been working on ending harmful fishery subsidies worldwide, but many people who rely on fisheries for their livelihoods, especially those in developing countries, say they need the subsidies to support their families. "One of the ways we can deal with this is to give the people basic income. With that, we could achieve sustainability goals without compromising people's livelihoods," he says.
The research team estimated that it would cost $41 trillion to provide the entire world population of 7.7 billion people with a basic income, or $442 billion to fund only 9.9 million people living below the poverty line in less developed countries. In return, giving basic income to the entire world population could boost the global GDP by $163 trillion, which is about 130% of the current GDP. ✂️
[The research team] estimated that taxing CO2 emitters alone can generate about $2.3 trillion a year, enough to provide a basic income for all people living below the poverty line in less developed countries [They] also suggested other alternative options to finance basic income programs, such as a plastic pollution tax or redirecting harmful oil, gas, agriculture, and fisheries subsidies to fund the program. These approaches can address two of the biggest challenges around the world -- reducing environmental degradation and alleviating poverty.
Restoring Indigenous aquaculture heals both ecosystems and communities in Hawai‘i
How wonderful that we have such sound evidence for how to make aquaculture truly sustainable!
From Mongabay:
- The loko i’a system of native fishponds in Hawai‘i has for generations provided sustenance to Indigenous communities, supported fish populations in surrounding waters, and generally improved water quality.
- These benefits, long understood by native Hawaiians, have now been confirmed by scientists in a new study that looked at the restoration of one such fishpond.
- Unlike commercial fish farms, loko i‘a thrive without feed input and need little management once established — aspects that highlight the holistic thinking and values-based management behind them.
- The study authors say the finding is another step toward communicating Indigenous knowledge to support governmental decision-making, part of wider efforts across the archipelago to weave Indigenous and Western ways of knowing to heal both ecosystems and communities.
For generations, native Hawaiians have understood that their aquaculture systems, fishponds known as loko i‘a, serve as nurseries that seed fish populations in surrounding waters. For the first time, a team of scientists from the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) have modeled this feat of Indigenous science in a study.
“We are using science to translate ‘ike kupuna, or Indigenous knowledge, into policy,” said study co-author Kawika Winter, an ecologist at HIMB and He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). “The value of this paper is that it’s one of the first, if not the first, to really show that there are ways to do aquaculture in ways that benefit the system around it.”
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rascal, and the beautiful spirits of Rosy and Nora.
Rascal, Rosy, and Nora.
Stork That Went Extinct in the UK 600 Years Ago is Spotted in the English Skies: ‘It was a great sign’
Rascal loves high-soaring birds with big wingspans, like the bald eagles he frequently sees through our front window. So he was excited to see this story.
A beautiful white stork was spotted recently flying over the English county of Cheshire, and not only would no one alive today be able to remember the last time that happened, but none of their grandparents would either; neither would any of their grandparents, and probably none of theirs.
White Stork in flight, from the Avibirds website.
White storks have been extinct in England for 600 years—since the time Martin Luther nailed his document of reforms on the Church wall—but they’ve been back and breeding for several years thanks to efforts to reintroduce them from other populations.
The Warsaw Zoo donated birds to the White Stork Project of southern England. They had been rescued following accidents on roads or with powerlines.
Some of the birds are kept at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, and every year managers at the project take their offspring to the rewilded Knepp Estate and Wadhurst Park in Sussex to grow up in a natural environment where they can build up the memory and skills to survive and thrive in the English countryside again. ✂️
“I thought it was a common crane at first but after watching it for a while I realized it was a white stork!” Darren Banks, the Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s land management officer, told the local paper. “It was fantastic to witness it circling overhead with its incredible wing span.”
For those unfamiliar with English geography, Cheshire is not close by national standards to the Cotswolds or the Knepp Estate. “There are no upcoming plans to re-introduce them here in Cheshire but it was a great sign to see one this far north!” Mr. Banks added.
Dog travels 4 miles to find help after owner's truck plunges off cliff in Baker County [Oregon]
Rosy would have loved this story of doggie heroism. I do wonder about the other three dogs, though. Maybe Blue was the best runner and volunteered to go for help while the others stayed with Garrett to keep him safe?
From KATU:
A man and his four dogs were rescued earlier this week after his vehicle plunged off an embankment and into a creek in Baker County - with one of the dogs traveling nearly four miles to alert humans for help!
The Baker County Sheriff's Office says on June 3 they received a report of a vehicle over an embankment on U.S. Forest Service Road 39 shortly before 9:30 a.m. The caller explained that his brother, Brandon Garrett, had not made it back to his camp yesterday afternoon. Family members had found his truck over the embankment that morning, but were unable to reach it due to the terrain.
Investigators later determined that Garrett was traveling north on the road with his dogs when he failed to negotiate a curve, causing the vehicle to plummet off the embankment. One of his dogs then traveled nearly four miles to the camp, which alerted the rest of the family that something was wrong.
I had given up finding a photo of this good boy, but I unexpectedly found one on the Weather Channel:
Hero dog Blue with Tyree Garrett, Brandon Garrett’s brother.
Max the cat receives honorary doctorate in 'litter-ature’ from Vermont university
Max! What a good, good boy!! Nora would definitely have fallen for him.
From USA Today:
Max the Cat has been visiting students at Vermont State University for more than four years.
Vermont State University Castleton's 2024 graduating class had the honor of sharing their commencement celebrations over the weekend with none other than Max, a tabby cat who has become something of a local celebrity during his time at the university.
Max, recognized by the college by his formal name Max Dow, has become something of a fixture on campus since moving into his nearby home with his mom, Ashley Dow, about five years ago. A former feral kitten of a nearby town, Max moved onto the very same street that leads to the campus's main entrance. The curious kitty soon learned that, while school can be a slog for some, college can be lots of fun for felines.
When Max was about a year old, he began exploring his neighborhood, Dow told USA TODAY. One day, he went missing and his family began the search. That's when they first found him on campus and, soon, they began hearing from the students. "They just love him," Dow told USA TODAY. ✂️
For Max, paying a visit to the Castleton campus means getting lots of attention, taking rides on backpacks, scaling the greenhouse, posing for endless selfies, basking anywhere he pleases and even leading tour groups. ✂️
"Max the Cat has been an affectionate member of the Castleton family for years," the university shared in posts on Instagram and Facebook.
"With a resounding purr of approval from the faculty, the Board of Trustees of the Vermont State Cat-leges has bestowed upon Max Dow the prestigious title of Doctor of Litter-ature, complete with all the catnip perks, scratching post privileges, and litter box responsibilities that come with it," the university said.
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Art Break
Parisian chairs
Laura Olin, one of my favorite eclectic bloggers, highlighted this Instagram in a recent newsletter. These are patterns of woven plastic used on the seats and backs of Parisian outdoor bistro chairs. I’m posting images of a few, but do go look at the rest: www.instagram.com/…
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Hot lynx
www.nytimes.com/… How Free School Meals Went Mainstream. “In total, more than 21 million American children now attend schools that offer free meals to all — a tenfold increase from 2010.” An interesting history of how this big policy change quietly took hold.
www.nelp.org/… The Bully’s Playbook: How App Corporations Hold Back Worker Organizing and Harm Democracy. “App-based ridehail and delivery corporations have been honing their tactics to block the communities they serve from having any say in their operations...This report lays out their corporate playbook, and how workers are fighting for more for themselves, their families, and their communities.”
www.nytimes.com/...(gift link): These Teens Adopted an Orphaned Oil Well. Their Goal: Shut It Down. “[Mateo] De La Rocha is a high school senior in Cary, N.C., who has found a unique way to clean up pollution: Along with two friends, he recently raised $11,000 to plug an abandoned oil well in Ohio.”
phys.org/… A new era for an ancient river. A good informative article on the complex history of the Klamath River and the various groups who compete for its water.
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Where Ever is Herd
Morning Good News Roundups at 7 x 7: These Gnusies lead the herd at 7 a.m. ET, 7 days a week:
As noted last week, our lineup has changed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Thanks again to niftywriter for holding down truth and justice on Wednesdays!
- The Monday GNR Newsroom (Jessiestaf, Killer300, and Bhu).
- Alternating Tuesdays: arhpdx and niftywriter.
- Wednesdays: 2nd MCUBernieFan, 3rd WineRev, 4th karij. 1st and 5th: lemay50, Andrew F Cockburn, DoctorStrange.
- Thursdays: Mokurai.
- Fridays: chloris creator. Regular links to the White House Briefing Room.
- Saturdays: GoodNewsRoundup, the one and only!
- 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. For instance, we do not welcome grammar-police comments in Roundups.
- Nanny Ogg 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, good actions, and many cats. Find most Evening Shades on the Trending List.
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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Good News Sources
🎩 to Mokurai for putting our old lists of sources together in alphabetical order!
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Do Some Good!
There are more and more opportunities to take action. You won’t be able to do them all, so choose the ones you care about most and be assured that others will do what you can’t. 💙
Sadly, war and climate change are creating more and more devastating conditions for innocent people around the world. Our ability as individuals to make as many donations as we would like will be stretched thin, but not our compassion.
Chop Wood, Carry Water
I recently discovered a wonderful new resource for activists, a daily newsletter called Chop Wood, Carry Water, by Jessica Craven. I highly recommend that you sign up!!
Here’s how she describes what she’s up to:
I started sending these emails right after Trump's election in an attempt to help bolster my own spirits and those of my devastated friends. “Chop Wood Carry Water” is a saying I learned from my dad; the idea is: when the going gets tough, put your head down and focus on simple actions. This newsletter offers such actions; they’re easy, but they’ll also help build a better democracy (and keep you sane).
As we head into the biggest election of our lives, also, the danger from MAGA Republicans is more real than ever. Our engagement and simple actions have never been more important. SO THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!
What’s in the newsletter:
Each weekday I post:
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A short pep talk
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A call script for your two Senators
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A call script for your House rep
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An "extra credit" action
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A Resistbot letter (more on this below)
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Sometimes a strategic donation suggestion
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A way to help win an election
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An invitation to a politics-related webinar
It should take you about 5-7 minutes to take the actions.
I find her actions easy to accomplish and very satisfying! She also does a GNR-style summary of the best news stories of the week every Sunday, which is a wonderful gift. I used several of the stories she highlighted on Sunday in today’s GNR.
How to help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza
There are good people working for peace on both sides of this terrible conflict. Here are some organizations that get top ratings from Charity Navigator, in alphabetical order:
And Rashida Tlaib sent an email asking for donations to Zaman International, which is delivering medicine and medical supplies to Gaza:
We can also make donations to activist groups working to create positive change in the U.S.
Donate to Leaders We Deserve
David Hogg, one of the heroes of the Parkland shooting, started this political action fund. Here’s how he describes their mission:
Young Progressive candidates face systemic barriers. At every level of government, the average politician is older than the average American. Our political system is stacked against young people – in favor of those who are older, wealthier and white. In 2020, Millennial and Gen-Z individuals only held 21% of State Legislative seats despite representing 45% of the electorate.
Leaders We Deserve is a grassroots organization dedicated to electing young progressives to Congress and State Legislatures across the country to help defeat the far-right agenda and advance a progressive vision for the future. Our mission is to identify and elect more trailblazers – youthful, audacious, and charismatic leaders who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. We pledge to stand with them, equipping their campaigns with the tools to succeed: from fundraising and messaging to scheduling and budgeting. We’ll raise the banner of their cause, rallying funds online and in person.
Donate to Voters of Tomorrow
From the Voters of Tomorrow website:
We are led by young activists, strategists, and policy wonks. We know best how to turn out our own generation best at the ballot box.
Reminder: Goodie has set up donation pages just for Gnusies! Re-elect Biden, win back the House, and keep the Senate!
Here’s the list, with the totals as of Sunday:
Reminder: Bilboteach has set up several donation pages to defeat MAGA and gain Dem seats in the House and Senate
Here’s the list, with the totals as of Sunday:
💵 💰 💙 PLEASE DONATE TO ANY OR ALL OF THEM! 💙 💵 💰
Write with Postcards to Voters
🎩 to Progressive Muse for the following info, from a comment on Sunday:
Postcards To Voters news: There was an update to the wording for the Seminole County, Florida, Vote By Mail message. If you signed up for addresses and have already completed postcards with the previous message, you don’t need to rewrite the cards, but if you haven’t started your cards yet, you can use the new message. Here is the announcement from yesterday (screenshot from the PTV Facebook page).
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Because of your feedback, the required message items have been reworded. There is no need to re-write cards you've already completed. Please use this new set of required message items. Thank you to everyone who shared their suggestions for what is now the final version of this campaign's message items.
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REQUIRED MESSAGE ITEMS
Please hand write these three required message items exactly as shown on each postcard:
It's time to renew your Florida Vote By Mail.
Call (407) 585-8683 to update your VBM enrollment.
Get Seminole County ballots at the address of your choice for every election.
This campaign will involve writing to Democrats who are registered to vote in Seminole County but have mailing addresses outside of the county. If you’d like to help:
Returning Postcards To Voters writers can use these methods to request addresses:
•Email (if you have trouble with the linked address, you can use Postcards@TonyTheDemocrat.org instead, which will be answered by a human)
•Slack.com
If you are new to Postcards To Voters, you can get set up by emailing:
•Email
Get postcarding supplies
I like to buy my cards from PtoV on Etsy because that’s one more way to support them. Here’s a pretty new set of cards, which cost $17 for 100 cards:
And FWIW, these are my favorite pens — not too thin, not too thick, don’t bleed through: Stabilo Pen 68 Felt-Tip Pen. Even though the ink is water-based, once it’s dry you can get it wet and it doesn’t run.
UPDATE: How you can fight the climate crisis in your own yard
🎩 to Gardening Toad for this updated encouraging list of ways we can fight the climate crisis:
Let’s all try to do some of this:
Millions of people worldwide are creating better habitat for humans and other living things. Join us in building a resilient, regenerative, and equitable culture for all life. Nobody is stopping us!
Examples
Abortion assistance
Here’s an easy action you can take RIGHT NOW:
Donate to two organizations providing support to people in no-abortion states who need assistance getting abortions.
National Network of Abortion Funds
The Brigid Alliance
Both of these organizations provide help with transportation, medical fees, hotel stays, etc., for those who have to travel out of state for an abortion. NNAF is a central clearing house for that assistance, The Brigid Alliance does that work directly.
And here’s another resource for women seeking abortions which I discovered only recently: Women on Web. They provide abortion pills worldwide for women who need to use them immediately and also for women who want to keep a supply on hand. You can make donations on their website to further their work.
NEW! Please pass this info along to anyone you know who may become pregnant.
From the National Network of Abortion Funds:
Misinformation is an anti-abortion tactic designed to already confuse people who are trying to get an abortion. In addition to pointing people to abortion funds, you can help by sharing accurate and important resources with your community:
- If/When How's Repro Legal Helpline is a free legal resource for people seeking abortions who have questions about their legal rights. Helpline attorneys and advocates can be reached at reprolegalhelpline.org or 844-868-2812.
- People need to know their rights when interacting with the health care system. If/When/How and Physicians for Reproductive Health created this simple guide with everything you need to know about talking to a healthcare provider after a miscarriage or abortion.
Get the truth out
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 all of the diaries in the Truth Sandwiches group on DK here.
Call out tax exempt organizations whose political stance violates IRS regulations
A suggestion from chloris creator:
Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. You can fill this out for the NRA and lots of other organizations. How about if some of us white folk go into some of the MAGA churches and video record what they’re saying?
Goodie’s action steps
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.
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