Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, that time of the week where your intrepid GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300, Bhu, and the good folk at the GNR discord) gather the good news stories to help start your week off right.
First of all Happy Mother’s day to all who celebrate. Secondly, I got myself a new CPAP machine this weekend. I can barely use it right now, but I am hoping to adapt to it so I can use it at night. Wish me luck.
Anyway, onto the good news, but first some music: Soul Sacrifice by Santana
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game does not have the right to carry out a controversial plan to kill bears this spring, at least for now, a state judge has ruled.
Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin found that the department’s predator control program, aimed at boosting a caribou population that has declined dramatically since the 1990s, remains unconstitutional, despite an Alaska Board of Game emergency authorization for the bear-killing to resume.
Through the program, which began in the spring of 2023 after the board first authorized it in 2022, the department has killed 175 brown bears, five black bears and 19 wolves.
Great news. Leave the bears alone.
Poland has launched a new free health screening programme for people aged 20 and above, aiming to boost early detection of problems and promote preventive care.
The new initiative, called Moje Zdrowie (My Health), broadens the eligibility of a similar earlier scheme, Profilaktyka 40+ (Prevention 40+), which was available only to people over 40 years old.
Unlike the previous programme, which offered a one-off set of checks, the new scheme can be used regularly: once every five years for those aged 20-49 and once every three years for those older than that. It also now includes a follow-up visit with a doctor.
Great news for people in Poland. Especially young people.
The Food and Drug administration has approved the U.S.'s first at-home alternative to the Pap smear, a procedure generations of women have dreaded and often found painful.
The new device by Teal Health will offer a "much preferred experience," the company said in its announcement, and also aims to increase screening rates by making the procedure more convenient.
Traditionally, gynecologists have inserted a cold metal speculum deep into a woman's vagina to scrape cells from the cervix.
The Teal Wand — "built with empathy," the company said — uses a swab to collect a vaginal sample. Women will then mail the sample to a lab that will screen for HPV (human papillomavirus), the virus that causes nearly all cervical cancers. A growing body of research has found HPV testing to be highly accurate.
Great news for people who have vaginas.
Mercury is released by environmental and human-driven processes. And some forms, specifically methylmercury, are toxic to humans. Therefore, policies and regulations to limit mercury emissions have been implemented across the globe. And, according to research published in ACS ES&T Air, those efforts may be working. Researchers found that atmospheric mercury levels have decreased by almost 70% in the last 20 years, mainly because human-caused emissions have been reduced.
“By tracking mercury pollution over four decades at the top of the world, we show that global efforts to reduce pollution are working — mercury levels in the air around Mount Everest have dropped significantly in the last two decades,” explains Yindong Tong, the corresponding author on the study.
Fantastic news for the environment.
On Sunday, Donald Trump went on TV and told Americans that their children should make do with less. “They don’t need to have 30 dolls; they can have three,” the president said on Meet the Press. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils; they can have five.” Critics were quick to point out the irony of America’s avatar of excess telling others to tighten their belt. But the problem with Trump’s remark goes beyond the optics. It’s that his argument for austerity contradicts his campaign commitments—and exposes the limits of his transactional approach to politics.
Something something “Leopards eating faces” something something. (Sorry if I’m not as articulate as I usually am I’m kinda sleepy as I write this.)
Nearly 200 Overwatch developers at Activision Blizzard have formed a new union under the Communications Workers of America called The Overwatch Gamemakers Guild—CWA, "a wall-to-wall unit that includes game developers across all disciplines, including design, production, engineering, art, sound, and quality assurance."
New Unions are always welcome. Especially in the video game industry that desperately needs them. I was a fan of the original Overwatch before Blizzard’s naked greed and cruelty drove me away from them, and Overwatch 2 became a joke due to naked corporate greed. So Hopefully this is a step in the right direction for the company.
A federal judge has temporarily barred President Donald Trump’s administration from dramatically shrinking three agencies that fund libraries across the U.S., settle labor disputes with public sector workers, and support state business contracting programs.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell, Jr. in Rhode Island said Trump can’t unilaterally end the funding and programs for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Minority Business Development Agency and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. All three agencies were established by Congress.
The agencies carried out the cuts under the direction of an executive order from Trump. In Tuesday’s preliminary injunction, McConnell said the actions were likely arbitrary and capricious because the agencies weren’t able to provide more than “vague” justifications for the sweeping cuts.
And what a surprise, Trump loses again. Is anyone still taking this loser seriously?
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump has recently taken to complaining to dinner companions at his Mar-a-Lago resort that things are not going as well as he thought they would in his return to the presidency.
Now that he is over 100 days into his second term, the president in recent weeks has expressed growing dissatisfaction that he hasn't been able to deliver on his promise to end the war in Ukraine and has even taken to wondering if Russian President Vladimir Putin has been stringing him along.
Oh Boo hoo. Let me play you a tune on the worlds smallest violin you cheddar encrusted waste of space.
Like I said, he’s got four years left. Lets make sure he’s as miserable as possible in those four years as he’s making us.
Accordingly, Trump has set his sights on states during the first 100 days of his administration.
He has tried to kill New York City’s congestion pricing, though last week the Department of Justice accidentally filed a document outlining the legal flaws with the administration’s plan.
On April 8, he signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify and halt any state climate laws that she deems illegal, including California’s pioneering cap-and-trade program. That directive, though, is probably illegal itself, because the Constitution guarantees states broad authority to enact their own laws, legal experts told Grist.
“This is the world the Trump administration wants your kids to live in,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “California’s efforts to cut harmful pollution won’t be derailed by a glorified press release masquerading as an executive order.”
More evidence of Trumps impotency. The Green future is coming in spite of him.
The Secular Talk YouTube Channel brought this wonderful story to my attention. Go subscribe to him, he’s doing great work.
On May 5, hacker group Anonymous hacked the website of airline company GlobalX, the airline carrying out the lawless deportation of Americans, many of them legal residents.
The website was defaced with a message from Anonymous which read:
Anonymous has decided to enforce the Judge's order since you and your sycophant staff ignore lawful orders that go against your fascist plans.
The message refers to Federal U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez ruling on May 1 that the Alien Enemies Act cannot be used to carry out deportations. The message quotes the Judge’s order and mocks Trump, stating “You lose again Donnie.”
I generally don’t put a lot of stock in Anonymous being overly useful, they were pretty absent during Trumps first go, but it is nice to see them acting out now. Good on them.
Time for a musical break: Some other world by Elton John from the Ferngully soundtrack
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Democratic controlled cities of Salt Lake City and Boise adopted new city flags this week showing support for LGBTQ+ people in defiance of their states’ Republican-controlled Legislatures, which have banned traditional rainbow pride flags at schools and government buildings.
Ha! I love this. Become ungovernable!
Cory Bowman, the Republican half-brother of Vice President JD Vance, received just under 13 percent of the vote in Cincinnati's mayoral primary on Tuesday, enough to advance to the general election.
Bowman, 36, was beaten by Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, a Democrat, who won 82.5 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Republican Brian Frank, the third-place finisher, was eliminated with just 4.6 percent of the vote.
Under the rules of the nonpartisan three-way primary, only the top two finishers advance to the November general election.
I mean its a pretty small things, but sometimes you just wanna point and go “HA HA!”
Today’s piece is brief, but notable. This morning, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, testified in the Google remedy antitrust case. And he made two observations about the consequences of the case, which led Google’s stock to crater 7.5%, or $150 billion in value. Here’s the Google stock chart.
Google has gotten too large, its time to divide it up.
President Trump sent his well wishes to the new American Pope, Robert Prevost — even though the new pontiff has been critical of the president, his administration and the White House’s treatment of migrants.
Prevost, who has taken the name Pope Leo XIV, has shared several highly critical posts about Trump and his immigration policies on X.
One scathing post he retweeted read: “There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages. This is being carried out in our name and the shame is on us all.”
Hey, new Pope dropped. And I like him already.
A strange sensation crept across all of progressive Texas on Sunday, and that was the unfamiliar sensation of victory. Democrats and progressives won elections all over the Lone Star State this weekend, and here’s a quick, comprehensive recap.
North Texas Wins
In Tarrant County, voters completely shut out county GOP and Patriot Mobile-backed candidates. Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, trolling Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Bo French on Twitter, called it an 0-11 shutout of GOP candidates in that county’s three largest cities, including the Fort Worth, Arlington and Mansfield City Councils and School Boards, plus Keller ISD. The vast majority of those GOP losses were suffered by candidates backed by Patriot Mobile, a notorious DFW area virtual network operator and mobile phone service provider that gives a portion of its profits to conservative causes and candidates. All of their picks lost - notably Tammy Nakamura, who also had been backed by the True Texas Project, an anti governmental group flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center, failed in her bid for re-election to the Grapevine Colleyville School Board, losing to Matt Foust.
I know it seems like a long shot, but I for one will never stop fighting for a Blue Texas.
Donald Trump is flopping.
Three months into his second term, his poll numbers have plummeted to historic lows. A growing majority of Americans — 55% — disapprove of his presidency. In one poll, a whopping 45% gave him an “F” grade. Voters give him devastatingly low marks on issues like the economy and immigration. Another poll shows that 52% of Americans see Trump as a “dangerous dictator” who is overstepping his presidential authority.
Trump is a pathetic loser who is whining and throwing a tantrum whenever he doesn’t get his way.
At the entrance to the New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, North Carolina, a big red sign reads ‘English Stops Here.’ The school, which teaches preschool through the sixth grade, is a Cherokee language immersion program. Classes, lunch and after-school activities are conducted primarily in Cherokee, and the school’s books, maps and diagrams are full of the 85 symbols that make up the Cherokee syllabary.
Among other resources, teachers and students have access to copies of a half dozen hand-printed picture books designed and created by students at Western Carolina University (WCU). The books cover a range of topics, from Cherokee myths and legends to the riparian habitats of western North Carolina.
The partnership with WCU was initiated by Dr. Hartwell Francis, the curriculum developer for the New Kituwah Academy and an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
This is a really cool idea. Thumbs up.
Think this is as good a stopping point as any, now for Pokemon.
And now, the cute corner.
And last but not least, the organizing spotlight, where we look at ways you at home can help resist the Trump Agenda.
x
I've made a script [with the CORRECT bill number] you can use. additionally, i recommend reading this guide on how to contact your reps
autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/u...
You can find your reps here:
www.house.gov/representati...
www.senate.gov/senators/sen...
— Dieselbrain (@dieselbrain.bsky.social) 2025-05-09T19:02:27.802Z
Don’t let the news overwhelm you, use this tool to stay engaged
And that’s it for this week. See everyone next Monday.
