Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

This newsletter is running late, and I know how important it is to many of you to read it on Sunday night, so I’m keeping this opening short.

Good things are happening. Like, really good. We ignore them at our peril. Remember: what we focus on tends to grow, so doomscrolling alone isn’t a strategy for positive change. We must relish our wins! Savor them! Bask in them! Share them!

So let’s do that.

I’m so proud of the hard work you’re doing; it’s because of people like you that these lists get longer every week. Keep up the great work!

Celebrate This! 🎉

Former Kansas Gov. Mike Hayden (R) is endorsing Democrat Adam Hamilton in his campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. He is the second former GOP governor to do so, after Bill Graves.

DoorDash apologized for siding with GOP bill targeting D.C.

Lyft agreed to pay the state of California $272.5M to ⁠settle claims that it stole drivers’ wages by mislabeling them as independent contractors rather than employees.

1,000+ nurses marched against Palantir’s collaboration with ICE, demanding Palantir out of hospitals.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.

Nearly every Senate Democrat (except for Fetterman) along with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) voted for Senator Chris Van Hollen’s Section 502B resolution demanding a State Department report on human rights practices in the West Bank and conditioning military aid on its delivery.

Americans across the political spectrum say that data centers and AI will be important to their vote this year.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced an October 11 citywide scavenger hunt focused on New York City’s history of organizing.

A group of people—including a number of clergymembers— is walking nearly 100 miles from Adelanto concentration camp to downtown LA to call for an end to all camps and ICE cruelty.

The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic, and other artificial intelligence companies over the potential dangers posed by their products.

The NFL asked the Department of Homeland Security to remove a social media post likening former Philadelphia Eagles star Brian Dawkins' greatest hits to immigration agents' treatment of migrants.

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., announced the arrival of her daughter this week, boosting the ranks of congresswomen who have given birth in office.

Oatly, the world’s largest producer of oat milk (and my personal favorite), has joined an unconventional but effective climate journalism campaign.

An international research team identified a new gentoo penguin species, Pygoscelis kerguelensis, on the remote Kerguelen Islands, marking the first penguin species described in over 100 years.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s housing grant cuts.

Chief Justice John Roberts is persona non grata in the town in which he’s had a vacation house for 20 years.

California banned child marriage.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order appointing Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to oversee the Cornell University sexual assault investigation.

A federal judge permanently dismissed the vandalism case against former Olympian David Hearn with prejudice, barring the U.S. Attorney's Office from refiling charges related to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Renee Good’s family is suing both the Trump administration and the ICE agent who shot her for wrongful death and excessive force.

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from pursuing border wall construction in the Big Bend region in Texas.

Major League Baseball leadership is no longer considering holding a game inside a national park after major public backlash at the idea.

A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of Marco Rubio was sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on Venezuela’s behalf during the first Trump administration

After an enormous, organized pressure campaign from activists and climate groups, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from a major climate case just a week before the court is scheduled to take it up. Alito had faced calls to recuse himself over his financial interests in energy companies.

Trump posted Tom Cotton’s personal cell phone number on Truth Social. I don’t generally support doxxing but in this case I’ll make an exception.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a ban on single-use nicotine vapes in CA.

Ohio, which raises money for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library by selling license plates bearing her image, sold twice as many license plates in the month after Parton’s death as the previous eight months combined. The money raised will cover a year’s worth of books for over a thousand children.

An appeals court ruled that Trump’s name can’t be carved into the Institute of Peace building.

Early voting data shows emerging signs of a Democratic advantage in the midterms.

A judge overturned Trump’s decision to fire the court-appointed top U.S. prosecutor in Seattle

The National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline resumed the specialized services for LGBTQI+ youth in crisis, 14 months after the Trump Administration ended the services.

Marking a novel development in his years-long legal battle with E. Jean Carroll, Trump formally accepted defeat, withdrawing a failed effort to claw back some $5 million from the writer whom he was held liable for sexually abusing.

Hispanic voters on the Texas border have soured on Trump and feel deeply betrayed.

A federal judge rejected the DOJ’s lawsuit to compel Georgia to provide them with access to its complete statewide voter registration database for a second time.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a slew of bills aimed at protecting sexual assault survivors and increasing safety on college campuses

Newsom also signed AB 1448 into law, blocking new offshore oil and gas leases in California waters and cutting off state infrastructure that would support federal drilling!

Newsom also signed a slate of energy-affordability legislation aimed at containing the utility spending that is driving up electricity costs in the Golden State, including two that will boost the use of virtual power plants as an alternative to costly grid investments and gas-fired power plants.

Newsom signed legislation to protect Californians from wildfire by speeding up fire mitigation projects, making it easier to protect homes and communities, and investing in new innovative tools to prevent and fight fires.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a long overdue bill which bans child marriage in the state of California. Hard to believe this wasn’t already a law but now it is!

Newsom signed a package of legislation to protect California immigrants and communities and strengthen civil rights and public safety including: a ban on shock gloves, restrictions on uses of flash-bang grenades and explosive breaching charges, a prohibition on ICE officers who have committed serious misconduct on the job from becoming peace officers or public employees in California, a new 25% tax on the gross income of for-profit corporations that operate private immigration detention facilities—the revenue will go to a new Due Process for All Fund to support immigration services for California families—and The No Kings Act, which will allow Californians to sue ICE, Border Patrol, and any federal agent who violates their constitutional rights. And it’s retroactive to March 1, 2025!

Macklemore’s ‘Free Palestine Tour’ sold out in minutes.

According to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, more than 650,000 people nationwide have already voted, and an astounding 48 million mail-in ballots have been requested. In Virginia, early voting has tripled 2022’s turnout pace.

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s authority to withhold some federal counterterrorism funding from states that don’t meet its election administration demands.

The Georgia Peanut Commission chair became the latest Republican to back Jon Ossoff.

A second, senior prosecutor working on the so-called grand conspiracy investigation into a wide array of Trump’s enemies has resigned from the case.

A new A.I.-powered search tool that Trump unveiled Tuesday to help Americans get information from the federal government started out providing facts that contradicted false claims Trump has made about topics such as election fraud and immigration. (It now says it can’t provide “political commentary.”)

Zach Bryan wore a Free Palestine shirt while performing at Gillette Stadium after Macklemore was banned from the venue.

A leading anti-abortion zealot just quit the FBI.

Ken Paxton got caught on tape saying that Trump’s Texas convention hurt Republicans.

Half a million trees will be planted across England in the next three years to protect against extreme weather.

The States Project has expanded their map to include four final states where they believe their expertise and targeted investment could unlock and shore up governing power this November: Indiana, Missouri, Maine, and Texas!

Governor Newsom signed ALL of Climate Action California's priority bills!

Some GOP senators are warning Trump to stay away from key Senate races, cautioning that his presence will likely turn off independent voters.

ActBlue raised $833 million for Democratic party candidates and causes in the third quarter, a record amount that will help narrow the financial advantage the GOP enjoys with big donors.

The DCCC added eight new deep-red House seats to their offensive House battlefield list of “Districts in Play.”

The judge overseeing the Kennedy Center case “was reared to love and respect the arts” by his mother, who was closely associated with the Kennedy Center.

Top GOP funding groups are scaling back their North Carolina ad spending, essentially giving up on the Senatorial race there. They are instead sending that money to KANSAS, because apparently we’re competitive there now!

A federal judge ruled that Trump doesn’t have the power to fire court-appointed U.S. attorneys, rejecting a core tenet of the Trump administration’s approach to top prosecutorial jobs.

Watch This! 👀

This was released in the fall of 2024, but it feels even more relevant now.

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

You probably thought nothing good happened this week, right? But you’d be wrong! As per usual, a lot of great stuff did happen—it just got drowned out by the horrors occurring all around us.

So please spend some time today reading through this list and letting a bit of joy in. We’re taking some losses, but we’re notching victories everywhere as well. If what we focus on grows—and I truly believe it does—then spending some time today focussing on these wins is really important. So let’s do that! Also, if we don’t stop to savor the wins, what’s the point in fighting for them?

Thank you for all you do, and for all you WILL do in the upcoming weeks to make sure we win big this November.

Celebrate This! 🎉

A growing number of Republicans are publicly breaking with Trump, a sign that a party normally in lockstep views him as a liability in the midterms.

By a 12-point margin, registered voters say they would prefer to elect a Democrat to Congress, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit against the prediction market Polymarket, accusing it of being an illegal gambling operation that is operating in New York without a license.

The Iowa Farmers Union endorsed Democrats in all federal elections. Wow!

The California Supreme Court ordered a county sheriff, Chad Bianco, to return about 650,000 ballots he seized from election officials as part of an investigation into voter fraud that state officials said had no basis in fact.

In a companion case brought by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the court unanimously rejected Bianco’s argument that the state’s chief law enforcement officer lacks authority to issue binding directions governing a county sheriff’s investigation. According to Marc Elias these two rulings “will make it more difficult for far-right officials to undermine the will of the voters.”

Macklemore just announced a new “Free Palestine Tour” that will benefit a dozen charities helping Palestinians.

Germany just became the third major economy to commit to phasing out fossil fuels entirely, in their case by 2045.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the city had planted more than 18,000 trees, the most in a single year in a decade, with most of the trees planted in neighborhoods vulnerable to extreme heat.

An Iowa judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race.

A federal judge lifted Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW, and CBS. The Trump administration isn’t complying perfectly, but they have largely allowed those outlets to resume their White House coverage. We’ll keep fighting for complete adherence.

Ohio television stations are so far choosing to ignore a legal threat from GOP Rep. Max Miller and are broadcasting an ad from his Democratic challenger centered on the allegations of domestic abuse Miller faces from his ex-wife.

Democratic attorneys general from California and New York sued the Trump administration over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

Seattle banned surveillance pricing in grocery stores to ensure prices are the same for all customers.

A second sea turtle laid eggs on Southern California shores, days after another olive ridley sea turtle nested on the West Coast for the first time in recorded history.

Harvey Weinstein was sentenced in Manhattan criminal court to 15 years in prison for the 2006 sexual assault of former production assistant Miriam Haley.

An anonymous tip line started by Sandy Hook families has helped prevent 20 school shootings since 2018.

More than a year after federal regulators abruptly canceled a $7 billion solar energy grant program, a Rhode Island federal judge has ordered them to revive the program.

Patagonia is giving thousands of customers a $100 discount on merchandise for enrolling three people in a program that encourages registered voters to cast a ballot in the midterms.

Major television networks halted TV coverage of presidential events over the White House’s ban of CNN. Good!

A federal judge in Alabama temporarily barred immigration officers from entering construction sites without a warrant and detaining workers without reasonable suspicion that they live in the country illegally.

Autozone workers just won the first ever union at the company. They have joined the UAW!

The Cook Political Report moved 15 House races toward Democrats.

The Supreme Court again blocked Missouri from using a congressional map in November that was redrawn to give Republicans an edge in the midterm elections.

Girls flag football has become the fastest-growing high school sport, as tens of thousands take up a game that barely had a varsity footprint a few years ago.

Following an outcry over potential suppression, YouTube and Meta are changing direction and running an ad for an Elon Musk documentary.

Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell resigned from his position in New Jersey after an ethics investigation concluded he made sexually explicit comments to a staffer. Democrats’ not tolerating this terrible behavior is good news.

A floating solar array on a village reservoir in Monroeville, Ohio has gone online. It is the largest floating solar system in the state and among the five largest in the country.

Former two-term Republican governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty has reemerged on the national political scene as the leading evangelist for solar energy.

An anonymous donor stepped in last month to save a Seattle-area community center that was slated to close. Last week, community members learned that the new owner was travel writer and TV host Rick Steves, who pledged to keep it open and free for people needing hot showers and hot meals.

Ukraine delivered about 4 tons of food to temporarily occupied Oleshky in the Kherson region using drones.

Swing Left shared that over its first big weekend of action last week volunteers knocked on 4,677 doors across 36 canvasses in 17 states like Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas. Also, phonebankers made 19,422 phone calls into swing districts on Saturday and Sunday.

The NAACP filed a lawsuit in federal court to ensure the Trump admin doesn’t violate federal law by sending armed federal agents to voting sites. It follows a similar lawsuit filed earlier this month by good government groups in conjunction with the city of Denver.

The bipartisan Supporting Early-Childhood Educators’ Deductions (SEED) Act is set to become law. The SEED Act will, for the first time, allow early childhood educators to claim the same federal tax deduction for out-of-pocket classroom expenses currently available to K-12 teachers.

This week, Trump’s disapproval rating hit 60.4%, the worst mark of his two terms in office, including the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riots.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) joined the call from one of his Republican Senate colleagues to investigate Donald Trump Jr. for his Russian oligarch wedding gift.

There was a mass walkout when Netanyahu spoke at the UN. There were also mass protests in New York City. Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder were among the protesters arrested for blocking Netanyahu’s entrance to the UN.

Mayor Mamdani announced a new Met-City Hall program to distribute 70,000 free opera tickets a year to New Yorkers.

Three organizations representing thousands of ranchers in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas issued a joint statement warning ICE operations are disrupting the agricultural community and will make beef prices spike again.

Dave Matthews told his concertgoers “I’m so tired of this f*cking president.” (Sorry, I could only find an Instagram link.)

Tucker Carlson told NPR that Donald Trump should be removed from office under the 25th amendment.

Flock is trying to shrink its workforce with employee buyouts after massive public backlash and cancelled contracts.

550,000 people registered or updated their voter registration as a result of National Voter Registration Day.

Mayor Mamdani announced that DoorDash will pay $131.5 million to settle claims that it underpaid delivery workers in New York City.

One month after a Honduran migrant was deported to a country in Africa that is not his country of origin, a federal judge in Colorado has ordered the U.S. government to return him to the United States and be released.

The pro-Trump “Freedom Fest” with Kid Rock was canceled days before it was set to occur due to poor VIP ticket sales. The organizer announced “I am never ever, ever, ever, ever doing this event again. Ever.”

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order imposing stricter data center regulations in Maryland.

Republican Monae Johnson, South Dakota’s secretary of state, crossed party lines to endorse a Democrat to succeed her.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis is taking executive action to save the bees by planting and protecting pollinator habitats. Polis, who was a beekeeper and florist before he ran for office, has introduced bee-saving legislation since 2021.

KS Senate candidate Adam Hamilton is leading Roger Marshall in a new Emerson poll.

Even after fines, an NFL player continues to pay tribute to Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair wrote the name of 8-year-old Wafaa Akila on his eye black, one week after the NFL fined him over $11,000 for writing another child’s name on his eye black. Hero.

The FDA issued a new rule removing language that could suggest that animal testing is the only acceptable way to generate safety information for regulatory decisions involving human drugs and biological products.

New York City raised the minimum wage for snow shovelers to $30 an hour, increasing to $45 per hour after the first 40 hours worked in a week.

Heretic Coffee Co., the Portland coffee shop that went viral for ‘SNAP breakfast’ is now building a free cafe in Gaza.

We helped Manuel Ortiz’s family hit their 9K Go Fund Me goal so he can secure legal representation and hopefully get out of detention!

A judge has ordered Fox Corp. to hand over hundreds of documents that could reveal how founder Rupert Murdoch managed some of his media companies' most significant scandals over the past two decades.

A group of high school students in California spent months collecting 2,674 pounds worth of tennis balls and pickleballs for recycling. That’s around 22,000 balls total — and it’s a recycling world record.

House Democrats are preparing a sweeping oversight agenda if they win control of the House in November, with investigations focused on Trump, his family, and his administration.

A U.S. District Court judge has granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump Administration from gaining access to a database of state-owned records containing the sensitive personal information of 17 million drivers nationwide.

The Chicago Department of Public Health launched its first "street psychiatry" teams, in an effort to provide mental health services to some of the city's most vulnerable people.

Watch This! 👀

Love Hamilton? You’ll love this!

Hi all, and happy Sunday!

Woof. What a week. It was mayhem, as always, but to me there’s a definite signal in the noise. Things are going badly for team Trump—and better for our side—every day. We should be encouraged by that!

But even if that weren’t the case I’d still have tons of good news for you. Because this list comes out every Sunday no matter how awful things are out there, and it’s always full of good things. The truth is, there are so, so many people working to save this country—and the world—and their successes are undeniable. We just seldom hear about them!

That’s why this edition of Chop Wood, Carry Water is likely the most important of the week. We can’t keep going in this fight if we don’t stop to acknowledge and celebrate our wins. And we can’t celebrate them if we don’t know about them!

So please share this post far and wide. It’s critical that folks know about the victories, and hopefully they’ll decide to sign up and help us create more!

After all, the more of us do this work the longer these lists will become.

Now let’s get to it!

Celebrate This! 🎉

A slate of governors moved to erect AI guardrails, including Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger, who signed an order to increase data center oversight, and California’s Gavin Newsom, who ordered the state to accelerate developer regulations.

The terrible crypto bill known as the Clarity Act was blocked in the Senate! We’ve been calling to tell our reps to oppose it for months! We did it, friends!

The man who sprayed U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar with vinegar in Minneapolis has been sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he is using $2.5 million in state funds to erase medical debt for tens of thousands of Kentuckians through a partnership with Undue Medical Debt.

The family of a woman who died after being denied an abortion is suing Ken Paxton.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a Milwaukee judge who helped a man evade ICE will keep her law license.

A federal judge blocked DHS from acting any further against a man who sent a harsh email to an ICE official after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed.

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from continuing to ask applicants for civil service jobs throughout the government to respond to what unions described as a partisan “loyalty question.”

New York City announced it will partner with startup It’s Electric to build hundreds of curbside charging stations by 2030.

A new ReconMR/Siena poll shows Gina Hinojosa ahead of Greg Abbott by four points, surging with key demographics that she needs to win in November.

Kamala Harris will campaign with Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan next week as part of a midterms circuit tour to help Democrats win competitive seats in Congress.

A group called Rise and Resist showed up at a New York Young Republican’s event where Greg Bovino was the guest speaker. They yelled “murderer” when he arrived, then stood on the sidewalk and read the names of the 70+ folks who have been killed by ICE agents or who have died in ICE custody during Trump’s second term. Nice work, y’all!

Even in reliably red Kansas, strategists are saying Republican voter enthusiasm is terrible.

After repeated setbacks and twice being ordered by the Trump administration to halt development, Revolution Wind has completed construction of its 65-turbine wind farm off the coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

A company called Credit Acceptance Corp agreed to a $710 million settlement with 40 ‌U.S. states and Washington, D.C. to resolve charges it drove thousands of borrowers with low incomes and low credit scores into predatory auto loans it knew they could not afford.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a standalone postproduction tax incentive into law in a bid to lure Hollywood jobs back to California. This law came about because a few women—including one I know personally—made it their personal mission to get it passed! Amazing work!

Democrats are seeing an explosion in voter turnout.

Stowe, PA commissioners voted for a second time to overturn a taskforce agreement with ICE, following public opposition.

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Military Academy at West Point cannot limit what its faculty say and write in public, a victory for a law professor who sued the academy over the restrictions, arguing they were unconstitutional.

Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth. Mike Johnson had to send the House on recess, he was so afraid it would pass!

The discharge petition to bring the Epstein Files Transparency Act II up for a vote reached 218 signatures!

Democrats now lead Republicans in the generic ballot by 9 points. Some polls say it’s higher.

District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the Kennedy Center board from inscribing Trump's name on the Kennedy Center, ruling that such memorials require Congressional approval. Since then, thousands have turned out in spontaneous protests to protect the building from demolition!

The U.S. House approved another War Powers resolution.

In China, solar power just overtook coal as the largest source of installed power capacity.

Michael J. Fox received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2026 Emmy Awards for his work in Parkinson’s research. His foundation has supported over $3 billion in research.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts donated $600,000 to upgrade the HVAC system at a local high school. Northeast High School is just one of 52 district schools that have been operating without a working air conditioning system.

The Buffalo Bills asked the Canadian band Bare Naked Ladies to sing “Oh, Canada” at the beginning of their game against the Detroit Tigers. They said it was to show solidarity with their Canadian fans. Nice work!

Kevin Warsh defied Trump and raised interest rates. While it’ll increase costs, lowering them would have made things even worse.

LA punk band Gottlieb has released a 10-hour spoken word demoralization

track to be played over loudspeakers at protests, outside detention

centers, and anywhere else agents of the government are in conflict with

the people.

Net favorability of AI has fallen 17 points from +8 in December to -9 today (42% favorable - 51% unfavorable). People especially hate data centers!

The House Oversight Committee voted unanimously to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress.

Ms. Rachel announced she’d be matching Macklemore’s $1 million donation to support Palestinians, inviting “every wealthy white celebrity” to do the same.

A center-left bloc won a slim majority in Sweden’s elections.

Environmental concerns about AI and data centers are intensifying.

Californians just made it through the hottest August on record without having to endure any rolling power outages. Thanks, solar energy!

Scientists have identified 51 climate and environmental solutions capable of reaching “positive tipping points” when adoption becomes rapid and self-reinforcing. Among the most promising are solar and wind power, electric vehicles, heat pumps and cleaner household cooking.

A coalition of Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C., are suing the Trump administration to block a rule that makes it harder for immigrants to obtain green cards or even enter the country if they rely on public benefits.

Oconee County Council in South Carolina has passed an ordinance banning the use of Flock cameras and similar surveillance systems countywide. They are the first county in the state to do so.

After sustained public backlash over a subsidiary's contract with ICE, a French company called Capgemini announced it's selling Capgemini Government Solutions entirely — walking away from its direct role in U.S. federal immigration-enforcement contracting.

A federal judge has ordered ICE to halt construction on a planned detention facility in Gilroy, CA after attorneys for the state and Santa Clara County sued to block it on environmental grounds.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to turn over thousands of internal USAID records sought by The Washington Sun.

A federal appeals court formally put back into effect a ruling allowing Mississippi to count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day.

Republican Bo French’s racist social media posts targeting South Asian university students have resulted in a fundraising windfall for his Democratic opponent in Texas’ railroad commission race.

A second federal judge blocked the Trump administration from implementing a U.S. Postal Service rule that would tighten mail-in voting requirements.

After pivoting to planting crops under solar panels, farmer are seeing their plants “growing well for the first time.” Called agrivoltaics, the additional shade reduces evaporation and stress on the plants, all while generating clean electricity.

After solar farms in Minnesota turned the ground beneath their panels into pollinator-friendly habitats, native bee abundance rose 20-fold.

The World Meteorological Organization reported that the 2025 Antarctic ozone hole ranked among the smallest since 1992.

A federal judge ordered AG Blanche to provide handwritten FBI interview notes from the Epstein files involving Trump’s alleged attack on a 13-year-old girl.

A group of women are creating fake tradwife dating profiles to lure and “dox” FBI agents linked to ICE activities.

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove and former Republican Kansas Governor Bill Graves announced they are supporting Democratic candidates in their respective states. They add to a growing list of Republicans who are crossing party lines to support Dems.

Working Families Party had a HUGE night in the Delaware primaries this week. They endorsed 13 downballot candidates; 8 won.

NYC Mayor Mamdani announced the city has filled its 200,000th pothole. But there was so much more in the new Mayor’s Management Report. Tree planting went up 61%. Bus lane installations doubled. Murders hit a five-year low. Food distribution grew 32% . It goes on and on. “Pothole politics” is working!

Watch This! 👀

San Diego Mayor Gloria’s speech was drowned out by Flock protestors this week. Fantastic!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Hope you’re hanging in there amidst the seemingly endless craziness we’re subject to these days. The good news is that—well, there’s a lot of good news, too! I’ve compiled as much of it as possible below, and it’s a great list!

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the literal avalanche of frightening and enraging information with which we’re being deluged. This Sunday newsletter is my attempt to provide a counterbalance—or a temporary reprieve, at least. Please enjoy, savor, and share it with as many people as possible.

I know we’re all exhausted, but now is not the time to quit. We’re close to a meaningful victory in November’s elections. By focussing on our wins for a few moments we’re helping to restore our strength so that we can keep fighting!

So let’s do that.

Celebrate This! 🎉

Almost a thousand people used my secure link to check their voter registration on Friday! (Can we get to 10K by the week’s end? Check yours here!)

Chorus’s poll worker recruitment push last week got THIRTY THOUSAND new people to sign up to be poll workers!

The Chop Wood, Carry Water community helped raise $11,000 to get thousands of messaging “red signs” into Virginia’s five swing Congressional districts. We know these signs are wildly effective; Republicans used similar ones in 2024.

The Jimmy Kimmel interview with James Talarico that Trump’s FCC tried to suppress now has 8.5 MILLION views on YouTube. (Let’s get it to ten, y’all!)

A federal court rejected Trump’s order keeping an old and polluting Michigan coal plant open.

New Mexico just banned uranium mining on 13 million acres of state land.

On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani officially established 9/11 as an annual “day of remembrance and service.”

The Texas Supreme Court knocked down implementation of a vote-suppressing redistricting plan officials adopted in Galveston County after the state’s March primaries, saying it cannot be used in November.

New polling from Quinnipiac shows Democrats lead by 11 on the generic ballot.

When ICE detained Angel Chavez Salas outside his Decatur home in front of his young son, a group of Decatur High School students didn't wait for adults to act. They launched a GoFundMe and raised nearly $20,000 for his legal fight. This week, a judge granted him a $10,000 bond, and he's home while he continues fighting his asylum case.

A new Cook Political Report/Univision survey of Texas Hispanic likely voters finds the Democratic candidates in the state’s Senate and gubernatorial contests leading their GOP opponents by a 2-1 margin.

A federal judge said in a filing that a Trump administration order for FEMA to cut its staffing nearly in half was illegal.

A federal appeals court panel declined to let DHS restore access to a new (bad) tool that would allow states to compare their voter rolls against federal citizenship and Social Security data.

The city of Denver sued DHS and ICE to keep armed immigration agents away from polling places this November.

Flock Safety cameras around Waltham, MA have been covered with black plastic bags per order of the Mayor.

VoteVets, the largest Democratic veterans group in the U.S., launched a new messaging campaign against Trump’s planned arch across from Arlington National Cemetery.

North Carolina reached a nearly $500 million settlement with chemical manufacturers Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva, which state officials accused of illegally dumping PFAS into the Cape Fear River and other waterways.

A gray wolf was seen in California’s Mendocino national forest for the first time since the species returned to the state 15 years ago.

A federal judge in Miami denied Andrew and Tristan Tate's bail request, ordering them to remain in a detention center in Miami.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara ran a national survey asking Americans to choose between two hypothetical political candidates. When one talked about climate change, voters were more likely to pick them.

Epstein walk of shame artwork was up in Dallas, TX during the RNC.

A GOP state lawmaker whom Trump deliberately targeted in Indiana for voting down new gerrymandered maps was declared the winner of his primary after a recount was finally completed. His final victory margin? THREE VOTES.

A Trump loyalist who had been tapped to oversee a sprawling and controversial DOJ conspiracy investigation targeting political foes of Trump abruptly resigned. Rumors say it was because he couldn’t find any actual wrongdoing.

A new Freedom Project USA/Change Research poll in Florida finds Angie Nixon (D) and Ashley Moody (R) tied in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 47%. GO ANGIE!

A federal judge blocked the BLM from enforcing its order requiring a conservation group to remove hundreds of bison from three federal grazing allotments in northeastern Montana while the organization’s lawsuit proceeds.

The contractor hired to renovate the Reflecting Pool admitted that its repair work—not vandals— caused the pool’s liner to peel and bubble.

Several journalists who used to work at the Washington Post have started a new publication called the Washington Sun. It seems pretty great!

A judge halted a commercial logging project that threatened the Indiana Bats’ habitat in Shawnee National Forest, violating the Endangered Species Act.

Gavin Newsom signed into law restrictions on addictive social media technology and interactions with harmful AI chatbots, ushering in some of the strongest online protections for young users in the United States.

Republicans’ “Trump-a-Palooza” was an utter flop, with empty seats, embarrassingly low ratings, the podium literally falling apart, and little enthusiasm from attendees.

A federal court dealt a major victory for the environment by striking down NJ state water quality permits that are required to construct the Williams Transco Northeast Supply Enhancement natural gas pipeline — putting a halt to the expensive and unnecessary project.

A federal judge temporarily revoked authorization to build a massive data center on public land near Boulder City, Nevada.

Britain announced a ban on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and sanctions on companies involved in an accelerating building boom in the settlements. They were joined in this by Canada and France.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) announced new data center regulations, including requirements that they generate their own clean energy and strike community benefits agreements with host municipalities.

Clean energy scored a rare win in Ohio when state regulators unanimously approved a permit for 149 megawatts of solar and 149 MW of battery storage at the Hamden Energy site in Vinton County.

The Supreme Court denied a New York woman’s bid to send her son to kindergarten without receiving state-required vaccines, in a case that highlights the limits of the court’s push to expand religious rights.

Turkmenistan has repaired eight methane “mega-leaks” after receiving alerts from a U.N. monitoring program—a development experts called an important breakthrough.

A unanimous federal appeals panel upheld a block on the IRS sharing confidential taxpayer data with ICE, ruling the agency violated a Watergate-era privacy law when it handed over more than 47,000 taxpayer addresses.

For years, the Roanoke City Public Schools district in VA has been installing solar panels to lower electricity bills, minimize its carbon footprint, and teach students about clean tech. Now, the district is set to be the first in the state to invest in storage, with a solar-and-battery-powered microgrid at each of its two high schools, which double as official disaster shelters.

The White House pulled down a Tetris-style game called Build the Wall from its new online arcade, after a warning by the classic game maker that it takes copyright infringement seriously.

Investors spent a record amount in the first half of 2026 on projects that combine renewable energy — mostly solar — with batteries.

Bad Bunny made Emmy Awards history, winning all seven categories his Super Bowl halftime show was nominated for, and becoming the first Spanish-language program to win for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).

Patagonia is suing the Trump administration over the removal of protections from 91% of Bears Ears National Monument.

More than 600,000 people signed a petition opposing the construction of a data center next to the Nashville Zoo. City officials have since introduced restrictions on large data centers and authorized steps that could allow it to acquire the property where the data center is planned.

New York City released around 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed records about air quality following the September 11 attacks, making critical public health information available for the first time.

Former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves (R) endorsed Adam Hamilton (D) over Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) for U.S. Senate in a Kansas City Star op-ed. Graves said Marshall “has turned his back on Kansas.”

The Associated Press said it will not refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”

The Supreme Court blocked a Missouri congressional map drawn to benefit Republicans from going into effect for the 2026 midterms. No justices dissented from the decision.

After years of effort, a partnership of organizations has made Baltimore Harbor swimmable again.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani created a first-of-its-kind office — the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power — to help private-sector workers organize and protect their rights.

Under a new law, people in Texas now have the right to repair their electronics. The Texas Right to Repair Act passed unanimously and took effect on September 1, making Texas the ninth U.S. state to guarantee the right to repair their devices.

In a win for voters in Delaware, a state judge ruled against two Republican state senate candidates who argued the state’s permanent absentee ballot voting measures violate the state’s constitution.

A northwest Kansas school district’s unsettled lunch debt was substantially paid down, thanks to an effort from a group of inmates at a nearby Correctional Facility.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill (S.B. 1431) that requires election officials to send mail ballots and related materials to all active registered military and overseas voters.

TX Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico hosted a food drive during the GOP convention and gathered 20,000 pounds of goods for Texas families.

Protesters brought downtown Dallas to a halt and blocked traffic to protest the RNC’s sad convention.

Watch This! 👀

Your feel good story of the week!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

I’m down with a cold, so this’ll be a quick opening. Enjoy this week’s looooong list of improbable victories, incremental steps forward, and time-earned wins! People just like you made most of them happen!

And please don’t forget to share this list widely as proof that our hard work does pay off—we just don’t always hear about it!

Have a terrific three-day weekend!

Celebrate This! 🎉

A federal judge in Boston ruled for the third time that the Trump administration’s plans to restrict mail-in voting are likely unconstitutional and should be prevented from being implemented ahead of the midterm election.

SCOTUS declined to hear an application on a Michigan citizens-only voting ballot measure that would have established strict voter ID rules. It will therefore not be on the ballot!

Investors spent a record amount in the first half of 2026 on projects that combine renewable energy — mostly solar — with batteries.

In a blow to Trump, a Missouri court blocked a Republican-drawn congressional map for the midterm elections.

A banner reading ‘Ellison Is Trump’s Bitch!’ was flown over the Paramount lot in protest of the Warner Bros. merger.

Romanian prosecutors have officially indicted social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate with a range of trafficking and sex offenses.

Local activists in King County, WA have stopped the construction of an asphalt plant on a vacant lot in their neighborhood after fighting it for TEN YEARS! They’re now getting a park instead!

A judge in Washington blocked the EPA from sending landmark California vehicle emissions rules for a potential repeal to the Republican-controlled Congress.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest public school system, is banning generative AI for all students this school year.

Brian José Morales García, a U.S. citizen who was wrongly deported four months ago, is finally back in the U.S!

Leading U.S. medical groups are urging people to get updated flu and COVID-19 vaccinations this fall, banding together to issue shot guidelines in an effort to ease confusion caused by the Trump administration's anti-science advice.

Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox News. Buh bye.

A federal grand jury indicted an ICE officer on charges of making false statements about the shooting of a man in Minnesota last winter.

A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked much of Trump’s latest effort to withhold citizenship from babies born in the US to noncitizen parents.

Since Wednesday, when a Washington Post article dropped highlighting my friend Casey Revkin and the amazing work she’s doing raising money to send to moms and kids at Dilley Detention Center, donors from across the country have sent her organization Each Step Home $440,000!

A UN committee said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other ⁠measures to address the enduring ⁠legacy of racial discrimination. Their document may be cited in courtrooms.

The Florida Department of Transportation revoked permits for Flock cameras and other license plate readers on state highways.

A judge approved Bank of America’s $72 million settlement with a group of Epstein accusers.

Voters in Independence, Missouri have recalled a city councilman who supported billions of dollars worth of tax breaks for a data center.

Mark Ruffalo was defended by Joaquin Phoenix, Hannah Einbinder and more than 180 Jewish figures after Paramount falsely accused him of using ‘antisemitic tropes.’

Zohran Mamdani has ALSO announced a ban on the use of AI in public schools for the 2026–2027 academic year.

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered all state agencies to pause funding for Flock cameras. (It should be noted that he approved almost 30M in such funding, and is only backpedaling now because he’s afraid of the voters in November.)

In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals swept three byelections, securing the 172 seats necessary to restore their majority government in the House of Commons.

A city in Oklahoma tried to charge a farmer more than $17,000 to fulfill a public records request for information related to a proposed data center and the farmer’s arrest at a city council meeting. Now, the State’s attorney general has stepped in and told the city to drop the fees and “provide access promptly” to the documents.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's use of deportation and visa-revocation threats to punish international students for political speech violates the Constitution.

A new law in New Jersey requires data centers to report their water and energy use to state energy regulators every six months as part of a plan to “hold data centers accountable.”

The share of Americans who associate themselves with the Democratic Party has grown significantly over the past year, according to data from Gallup.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order barring city contracts with companies found to have committed "public integrity violations," including helping ICE.

Internet pranksters redirected people searching for information about the upcoming GOP convention to the DOJ’s website about the Epstein Files.

A central Arkansas county agreed to pay $275,000 to a former library director who was fired after speaking against local conservatives’ push to limit children’s access to books.

Tennessee plans to rename Nashville airport after Dolly Parton.

The prediction market Kalshi has permanently barred George Santos, the former representative from New York, and fined him $71,356 after finding evidence he engaged in insider trading.

West Virginia gave 54,000 low-income families a $200 school clothing allowance.

A record 12% of adults in the U.S. now identify as LGBTQ+.

The world’s biggest electric vehicle battery maker announced all 20 of its plants are now carbon neutral.

Gov. Gavin Newsom backed off his (terrible) proposal to reduce costs for electrical utilities after their equipment sparks wildfires, after homeowners, insurers and fire survivors argued his original plan would have shifted those costs onto them. A victory for people power!

A new Politico article reveals that Republicans are growing increasingly worried that their mid-decade redistricting push “is not on track to bear the fruits they hoped it would.” Ya think?

The Ontario premier erected a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”

The Maryland Supreme Court gave Democrats a victory in the state's protracted redistricting battle, allowing the Legislature's proposed amendment on redistricting to appear before voters in November.

Decades after they were hunted to near extinction, black bears are now rebounding in southern US states.

Tucker Carlson essentially endorsed Abdul El-Sayed (D) for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. I despise the man, but if he gets more voters to support El-Sayed I’ll take it.

Cook Political Report shifted three House races towards Democrats. FL-14 went from Lean R to TOSS-UP, MI-10 went from Lean R to TOSS-UP, and MI-08 went from Lean D to Likely D.

Cybersecurity experts—some of them hackers— are volunteering to keep America’s utilities safe from attacks.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there are no plans to send troops to polling places in November.

Students at hundreds of schools across Colorado walked out of class on Friday to protest ICE’s immigration crackdown. Organizers say more than 200 schools participated.

In many of Wyoming’s state primaries last week, Republican voters chose candidates who defended the state’s voting systems and election workers, over those who amplified the president’s lies about voter fraud.

Election denier Tina Peters turned down a Shasta County, CA elections job after Gov. Newsom publicly vowed to block her.

Democrats are mobilizing an ‘unprecedented’ defense to combat potential election disruption.

Because of the Iran war EV sales are surging in Europe, China and other major markets.

A new PAC run by a “a scrappy team of clean energy enthusiasts” is taking down lawmakers that oppose clean energy.

Ford Motor aims to sell more than 100,000 of its new Fathom electric trucks in the first year of production.

Roughly 250 Yale students, faculty and alumni held a deliberately unregistered teach-in — intentionally violating new protest restrictions — demanding administrators walk away from settlement talks with the Trump administration.

The national voter registration rate for 18-year-olds is up 6.7 percentage points compared to the same point in the 2022 midterms.

Congress passed a bill to avoid a government shutdown before the election.

Sen. Thom Tillis called on Trump to fire Pete Hegseth over what he called Hegseth’s “inept management” of the military.

Sen. Ed Markey won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball moved three gubernatorial ratings towards Democrats.

The House voted to censure outgoing Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., after a months-long investigation by the ethics committee into allegations he sexually harassed two young female staff members. The vote was 413 to 2.

A federal judge ruled that Kyrsten Sinema can be sued under North Carolina’s homewrecker law for her romantic relationship with a married member of her security detail. Karma.

The UN has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favor of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

A federal judge dismissed the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit challenging California’s trans-inclusive school sports policies.

The Tetris company denounced the White House website’s “build the wall” game, which is essentially a clone of Tetris.

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

This really is my favorite moment of the week. Hitting send on this email is a great feeling, because a) it means I get to take the rest of the day off and b) I know how much you all want and need this good news. It feels good to bring joy, and this week’s list holds a lot of it!

Do me a favor: If this post helps lift some of the weight from your shoulders, please share it! Despair is our enemy; we can combat it by reminding people that tons of good stuff is still happening, and countless incredible people are still out there fighting the good fight, whether by suing the Trump regime, sitting in trees, protesting Flock, or simply using the “correct” bathroom! (See below for more on all of that.)

So let’s not spread doom. Let’s spread hope. That’s what I try to do, anyway, and I hope that you’ll join me.

After all, hope isn’t just an action. It’s also a strategy. And it works when we work it!

Have a great Sunday.

If you loved this post please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It’s literally how I keep the lights on. ❤️

Subscribed Celebrate This! 🎉 A new state law took effect in New York stopping local cops from signing cooperation agreements with ICE agents.

A judge struck down Texas’s ban on drag shows, telling people offended by them “just don’t go.” Bravo!

Volunteer teachers from UTLA have paired with the grassroots group Unión del Barrio to patrol their neighborhoods before school, documenting federal immigration vehicles and training other adults to get students to class safely.

Three Stars and Stripes journalists who were fired by the Pentagon sued the Department of Defense in federal court, arguing their dismissals were illegal and violated their first amendment rights to free speech.

Under Mayor Mamdani, NYC is expanding its free doula program and will reach thousands more expectant mothers.

Meta will pay up to $17.1 billion in a landmark settlement over social media addiction claims.

A federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘miscarriage of justice’ claims and her bid for prison release.

A private arbitrator has ordered The Washington Post to rehire the opinion columnist Karen Attiah, who was fired in September over her social media posts about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It also ordered the company to compensate her with back pay.

In a pilot program set to roll out in three states (TBD), Costco is teaming up with the nonprofit insurance provider SCAN Health Plan to streamline health care access for older adults.

A federal judge upheld a pause on border wall construction at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, Texas for allegedly “interfering and altering the property, canals and related irrigation infrastructure.”

Canada’s prime minister announced the largest clean energy investment in North American history. It’s a package of hydropower, onshore wind and transmission projects aimed at meeting electricity needs while also exporting power to Massachusetts and New York.

A new coalition of more than 600 public, private, and nonprofit-sector organizations is joining together to save monuments from Trump’s destruction and stop his administration from dismantling the National Historic Preservation Act.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Ohio from requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote at motor vehicle offices.

For nearly a month, the key force standing in the way of Trump’s border wall project in southeast Arizona has been a person (not always the same one) sitting in a 200-year-old tree. So far, they’re succeeding.

The Middlesex County District Attorney's office has dropped criminal trespassing charges against two anti-ICE protesters, just days before the beginning of a trial. Activists had said they planned to use the court case to highlight detention conditions inside ICE’s New England field office.

After months of public comment about data sharing and oversight, Asheville, NC’s City Council voted 5–2 in a packed, heated meeting to cancel the city’s contract with Flock Safety.

A group of students was granted a victory when a federal judge ruled that Florida International University likely violated their First Amendment rights when it demanded apology videos after they silently and peacefully protested ICE.

Registered nurses from National Nurses United – joined by patients and community allies – mobilized nationwide to demand hospitals and elected officials immediately cut ties with Palantir.

The grassroots action group Swing Left is expanding its midterms map into races Democrats previously didn’t think were winnable. They now have 29 House races categorized as “must-flip” districts.

Democrats scored a legal victory ahead of the midterm elections: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that low-cost ad rates that candidates qualify for do not have to be made available to political parties.

Arkansas Medicaid is now covering doula care, complying with a new law meant to improve maternal health.

More than 270,000 square miles around Easter Island is becoming an Indigenous-managed ocean reserve. It will be one of the largest Indigenous-managed reserves on land or sea anywhere in the world.

A California woman gave $1 million in bonuses to teachers in her local school district.

A federal judge denied the Trump administration’s request to dismiss a contempt of Congress indictment against Steve Bannon, saying the U.S. Justice Department didn’t justify dropping the case after the former White House aide had been convicted and served four months in prison.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library confirmed it would continue her legacy and send free books to millions of children around the world.

New data from the FBI shows that violent crime decreased by 9.3% from 2024 to 2025, the sharpest annual drop since 1900, when those records began.

With 55 acres free to the public Maryland’s newest state park opens this week. Savage Highlands State Park was a former privately held woodland resort in Garrett County and is now home to yurts, cabins, and campsites at a much lower price.

Republicans are having to spend money defending Senate seats in states they didn’t expect to be competitive.

In Kansas, “bearded, burly” trans men are entering women’s restrooms to show the “absurdity” of bathroom bans.

Maine will continue providing gender-affirming care despite an announcement from the Trump administration banning Medicaid from covering hormone therapy and procedures for children under 18.

​New Jersey approved 16 agrivoltaics projects totaling over 52 megawatts. Each project will pair solar generation with active farming, including soybeans, hay, grains, vegetables, fruit, and livestock.

A wildlife crossing in Washington State celebrated 10,000 safe crossings and zero roadkill. The Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 has been open for 12 years, and it’s been so successful that the state is planning to build 15 more undercrossings and one more overcrossing.

Two community solar projects just opened on a former coal mine in Illinois. The two projects utilize 16,950 solar panels across about 40 acres of land and are capable of generating enough energy to power almost 1,650 average households.

As renewable energy gains popularity across Europe, market demand for methane has dropped dramatically. In the last quarter century, Europe’s wind and solar capacity has surged from under 20 GW ​to nearly 750 GW.

After Olivia Rodrigo announced Friday that Daisy Chain Fields had raised $10 million for women-focused nonprofits, Melinda French Gates doubled that number, totaling the donation to $20 million.

Smoking and vaping continued to decline among middle school and high school students.

British right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was detained by ICE on Thursday and deported Friday to the United Kingdom. Bye bye.

A federal appeals court ruled that states can regulate prediction markets like gambling, dealing a major blow to the booming industry.

A federal judge upheld Oregon’s plastic pollution and recycling program, the first court ruling on the legality of state laws designed to hold producers responsible for the cost of dealing with their waste.

Republican Mike Lindell—the My Pillow guy— can't move ahead with a recount of his loss in the governor's race primary after Minnesota's highest court turned back his lawsuit.

Playgrounds are getting a glow-up in NYC, courtesy of Mayor Mamdani and a newly appointed “renew crew.”

Argentinians protested Peter Thiel outside of his Buenos Aires mansion. (Sorry this is a Threads post, but that’s where the person who filmed it posted it.)

The City of Tempe, AZ announced that it has turned off its Flock license plate reader cameras and plans to end its contract with the company.

In Michigan, a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Washtenaw County. The administration filed the lawsuit in April over county policies that limit the extent to which local law enforcement can cooperate with ICE.

Eugene, Oregon’s Clean Energy Fund qualified for the November ballot after a four-month signature drive.

Climate-friendly heat pumps are becoming the norm among American home builders.

​The USDA announced its “Harvest to Hallways” program, which promotes farm-to-school practices and more nutritious school lunches. The initiative also included a new investment of $50 million to help school cafeterias purchase equipment such as cold storage and stoves.

Last weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., ran on Shell’s 100 percent renewable race fuel.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration acted illegally when it labeled the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic a security risk and barred the company from working with the U.S. government.

Despite setbacks, the world remains much more democratic than it was only half a century ago.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled a meeting with Paramount Skydance, saying the company demonstrated a “lack of good faith” in early settlement talks around its planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

A newly released study will make it way easier to sue fossil fuel companies over climate change.

Mapquest has joined the resistance.

Watch This! 👀 A high school student from Valencia, CA gave the public comment to end all public comments about Flock cameras this week. Unbelievable!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

As usual, a lot of good stuff happened this week. It’s tempting to only focus on Trump’s attempted torching of our democracy—because of course that happened again, too—but if we don’t stop to celebrate the wins we will absolutely burn out. Plus, why work so hard if we don’t occasionally stop to say “hey, we helped do that!”

Of course we didn’t make every single thing below happen, but even if it wasn’t us, folks like us did. I mean folks who refuse to give up. Who believe the world and this country are worth saving. Who believe our actions are the debt we owe to future generations.

People like YOU, in short, are making the world better. And making these lists longer every time. Thanks for that, and for never giving up on the country we call home.

Celebrate This! 🎉

Angie Nixon won the Democratic Senate primary in Florida despite being out-fundraised by 20-1!

The Supreme Court for a second time refused Trump’s request to review a $5 million civil judgment against him after a jury found in 2023 that he had sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll.

Effective immediately, Pennsylvania is requiring AI data centers to commit to strict environmental and transparency requirements AND receive approval from the local community if they want to even have their permits reviewed.

Costco has implemented an independent, on-site energy system at its distribution center in Port St. Lucie, Fla., taking the facility off the grid amid significant energy challenges in the United States.

Alexander Vindman said he’ll be giving away the millions he raised for his Florida Senate campaign “to the places it will matter most” — starting with the Florida Democratic Party.

Florida U.S. House candidates Cory Mills and Catalina Lauf and Wyoming gubernatorial candidate Megan Degenfelder all lost their primary elections this week. All three were Trump-endorsed.

Progressive California state Sen. Aisha Wahab won her primary to serve out the rest of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term after securing victory in a special election. She will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.

Max Miller (OH-07) says he’s bleeding cash and labor support as union ironworker Brian Poindexter surges ahead in polling.

Former Rep. Mary Peltola became one of the top two candidates to advance to Alaska’s four-way Senate general election.

A controversial study that some vaccine skeptics used to argue that millions of people likely died as a result of COVID vaccines has been retracted over misinformation and issues with the research.

Conservationists in Florida have created a ‘coastal corridor’ of ocean-based projects designed to preserve and nourish vulnerable marine life.

The DNC sued the Trump administration over its failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records about any plans to seize ballots in the midterm elections.

A personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine succeeded in a large, late-stage trial among high-risk patients with melanoma. The individualized vaccine, paired with an existing immunotherapy, is the first and only combination regimen to demonstrate potential to extend melanoma patients’ lifespans.

Sean Duffy’s “Great American Roadtrip” YouTube show is bombing.

Cities across Latin America have reached a historic milestone of 10,000 electric buses.

Zion is now the first national park to offer an all-terrain wheelchair for public use.

A federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s planned ban on visas for immigrants from 75 countries, finding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have the authority to impose the ban.

A Washington Post analysis of thousands of social media posts and newsletters from hundreds of politicians from both major parties shows that in the past six months, Republicans’ public statements about data centers have turned sharply negative. (Democrats’ views were already there.) (:

Incredible! The Indiana organizing project announced it has 55 confirmed events for their Weekend of Public Witness to End ICE Detention at Miami Correctional the weekend of August 28, 29, 30. (Click here to see the full list of events.)

Flock cameras are joining data centers as a top midterm boogeyman, with members of Congress and congressional candidates trying to harness a sudden groundswell of grassroots anger over the AI surveillance tool. Good!

Oregon fishermen will begin testing ropeless crabbing technology next spring in a new effort to save whales from often-fatal entanglements.

Democrats have flipped an at-large seat on the city council of Jacksonville, Florida's most populous city.

Ed Martin, a senior Trump Justice Department official and a super awful guy, is leaving his post in the administration. He’ll assuredly go on to do something else nefarious, but at least we’re not paying his salary.

A new study from Ohio found that when people with poorly controlled asthma swapped out their gas stoves for electric ones, hospital admissions and missed work or school days dropped by 70 percent.

A data rescue group called AidData republished a large collection of USAID evaluation reports, restoring decades of evidence about the efficacy of foreign aid programs previously lost in the shutdown of USAID.

The Cook Political Report updated its ratings for the Iowa and Texas Senate races from lean Republican to toss-up.

San Diego County supervisors (including one we postcarded for years ago!) voted 3-2 to end contracts with ICE to train at a county-owned facility near the Mexican border and a Navy facility leased by the county.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott, seeking to compel the extradition of an ICE agent to stand trial for assault and falsely reporting a crime in the wounding of a man during the agency’s crackdown in Minneapolis.

In Minnesota and Nevada, federal judges threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuits seeking voters’ private data, the 22nd and 23rd such cases to be dismissed. The Justice Department brought 31 lawsuits in total seeking voter data; it has yet to win any of them.

New polling from Emerson College/The Hill gives Democrats an 8-point advantage on the generic midterm ballot. The numbers are so bad that former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he’s “worried” about the party’s midterm prospects.

For the first time in 100 years, an otter was spotted in the Bronx River, a sign of recovery for the waterway.

Sunita Doddamani, a federal prosecutor who was fired earlier this year, is suing the Justice Department, alleging that she was unlawfully dismissed for political reasons tied to her work prosecuting a case against anti-abortion activists.

A Democratic-backed slate flipped the school board of Sarasota County, FL. This is a county of 400K that went for Trump by 18%.

Even some Republicans are souring on Trump, with his approval rating at +58 among Republicans, down from +91 when he took office.

After pushback, police let Omaha Public Schools opt out of electric gloves.

A federal judge blocked a land exchange that would have allowed a contentious road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wild area in southwestern Alaska.

ABC sued the FCC, accusing the agency of violating the First Amendment in its efforts to possibly strip the network’s local broadcasting licenses.

The economy has spoken: stuff that’s AI-generated has almost zero value.

MN Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order to block copper mining near the Boundary Waters.

UPS, FedEx, and DHL set up refund portals where customers can request their money back as the companies receive tariff refunds from the government.

The European Union’s new packaging regulations are now in effect, setting EU-wide limits on “forever chemicals” in food-contact packaging.

Australia announced a gun buyback program will start in November.

Utility-scale solar dominated the 368 U.S. power plants that began operating during the first half of 2026.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) vetoed a sweeping GOP elections bill that would have shortened early voting, extended the time period to challenge votes and expanded voter roll maintenance.

The California Energy Commission unanimously approved a rule that would phase in the nation’s first standards for tire efficiency. In addition to saving drivers a LOT of money, the state projects that the changes could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million tons annually, which it says is equivalent to taking around 400,000 cars off the road.

Protesters are staging a “tree sit” in a tiny Arizona town to protect a 200-year-old tree from being cut down by the federal government for a border wall. This week they extended the encampment into Sonora, putting people in trees on both sides of the line so they stand in the way of both the primary and secondary wall.

Nate Silver launched his midterm forecast, and it’s bullish on Democrats’ chances. The current model gives Dems a nearly 90% chance of winning the House, and the polling aggregate gives Dems a 7.6 point advantage.

Loggerhead sea turtles are having a record nesting season on the East Coast, especially Florida.

The Trump administration it is temporarily pausing construction of a contentious border construction project in Texas’ Big Bend National Park while the head of the agency tasked with building the wall visits to do an “on-the-ground evaluation.”

Pennsylvania flip: Dems declared an upset victory in a special election for an exurban Pittsburgh state House seat district that President Donald Trump won by almost 20 percentage points in 2024. Democrat Brandon Dukes seems to have won the election by eighty-eight votes. Y’ALL!

The court tossed a Republican lawsuit challenging Nevada’s grace period for mail ballots, following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Watson v. Republican National Committee.

A federal appeals court ruled John Sarcone III’s subpoenas against New York Attorney General Letitia James are invalid because Trump appointed him illegally.

Inside Elections shifted 8 more House races towards Democrats.

In a “world-first” deal and a milestone for gig economy workers, Uber Eats and Doordash delivery drivers in Australia will earn a minimum wage, at least $31.30 an hour.

PublicSquare, the "MAGA alternative to Amazon" that Donald Trump Jr. helped launch on the New York Stock Exchange floor in 2023, has lost nearly $160 million and seen its stock price collapse. It may soon be delisted from the Stock Exchange.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is out of the Middle East and heading home.

A federal court appointed a Special Master and Independent Monitor to oversee government compliance with the Flores Settlement Agreement, including prolonged detention and conditions at Dilley, an ICE family detention center in South Texas.

Um, a new Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College Poll in Arkansas finds U.S. Senate candidate Hallie Shoffner (D) holding a slim lead over Tom Cotton (R-AR), 47% to 44%, but within the survey’s margin of error.

Trump has lost the manosphere.

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

I’m glad to be able to get this out to you from home, on a working computer, and in plenty of time for you to read it today! It’s important to me that I set you up for your week right.

Here’s the TLDR: Lots of good stuff happened this week, and much of it can be directly traced back to the work of people like you, so please enjoy this list of our recent wins, share it widely, and give yourself a pat on the back for being part it.

Remember, none of us has to do everything to save democracy, but if each of us just does something, wins like these will keep happening.

Enjoy! And thanks for your support!

Celebrate This! 🎉

6-year-old Martina is out of ICE detention — YOUR CALLS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! I got this text from one of my sources: “It’s kind of a big deal to have a GOP member of congress work to get a kid out. He absolutely wouldn’t have if he wasn’t so badgered by everyone. All the calls and tags worked.” AMAZING! 🙌🏼

A federal judge ruled Idaho must allow abortions when necessary to protect a woman’s health - not only when her life is at risk.

In a win for Michigan voters, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump DOJ's request to reconsider a ruling from a three-judge panel in June that denied its demand for the state's unredacted voter data.

A federal court in Nevada became the latest district court to reject the Trump administration’s floundering campaign to force states to turn over their unredacted voter rolls. For those keeping count, that makes their record 0-22.

Home battery installations are growing despite the Trump administration’s eliminating the tax credits for them.

Amanda Janoo won the Democratic Primary for Governor of Vermont! She came out of nowhere to win the hearts and minds of Vermonters.

Two Republican-backed amendments were roundly defeated in Missouri. One would have toughened the rules for approving citizen-led changes to the state constitution, and the other would have phased out Missouri’s personal income tax and raised other sales taxes to offset the lost revenue.

Kansas voters have rejected a plan to fundamentally remake the Kansas Supreme Court — a longtime priority for Republican lawmakers who placed the constitutional amendment proposal on the ballot and framed the urgency of its passage in dire terms.

Seattle Public Schools will begin free meals at all of its schools this fall.

Federal prosecutors said Andrew and Tristan Tate should remain in jail while their extradition proceedings play out, citing the brothers’ own social media posts as evidence they are flight risks and a danger to the community.

A Nebraska court rejected the RNC’s lawsuit seeking to block certain U.S. citizens abroad from voting in the state, handing the national GOP another major loss in its escalating legal campaign against overseas voters.

SpaceX’s earnings show that Elon Musk wiped out two-thirds of Twitter’s ad business.

Florence Pugh hosted a "Together for Palestine" concert in London. It sold out and raised $2 million in relief money for Palestine.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced the state has successfully met or surpassed nearly all of its pollution reduction targets set under the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

Flock contract cancellations or rejections have now hit 28 states.

A federal judge threw out the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University, a blow to the government’s efforts to force the university into a settlement.

The Trump administration abandoned its effort to obtain sensitive medical records from transgender young people who received gender-affirming care at a Pennsylvania hospital.

A federal judge again blocked ⁠the USPS from implementing part of Trump’s executive order that aims ⁠to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections.

Anthropic says it will put an invisible watermark on Claude-generated text and images in an effort to comply with European rules for AI transparency.

After years of decline, Mexico’s overwintering monarch numbers were 64% higher this past winter.

Arizona erased more than $1 billion in medical debt for nearly 671,000 residents through Undue Medical Debt.

For the first time, solar power was Portugal’s main source of electricity in July.

Over 30 students occupied the lobby of OpenAI’s new office near Capitol Hill for two hours, unfurling banners reading "Stop Stealing Our Future" and "OpenAI bought my Senator."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is getting transparent about freezing her eggs, documenting the process on social media to normalize the experience and give other women a behind-the-scenes look at her decision. It’s actually amazing.

The Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, which leans red, endorsed Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate.

Trump’s net approval rating has fallen to -27, a new record low in the Economist/YouGov tracking poll.

Following an overwhelming turnout of passionate residents at Tuesday’s city council meeting, officials in Panama City Beach, FL voted to keep physical books on their library’s shelves rather than clearing them out to make room for other municipal projects.

Russia released Robert Gilman, an American who had been held in prison for more than four years.

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has permanently halted Shell and Impact Africa’s controversial oil and gas exploration off the pristine Wild Coast. HUGE!

The DNC reversed course on its decision to eliminate Ranked Choice Voting in Democratic primaries!

California’s electric grid is cleaner today than it has ever been, thanks to renewable energy sources like solar power.

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) say they are "very likely" or "absolutely certain" to vote in the November 2026 general election for congressional and state offices, according to a new Marquette Law School Poll.

Minnesota made history when its voters chose to advance all women candidates for the first time in each of the major party primaries for governor and U.S. senator.

New research finds that companies that resisted the pressure and kept their DEI practices after Trump threatened to target them, including Costco, Apple, and Delta Air Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation announced that the state will begin phasing out paraquat, a powerful weedkiller associated with birth defects, thyroid issues, and other serious health problems.

A judge ordered the Kennedy Center to pay a musician more than $250,000 in legal fees after dismissing a lawsuit the center had filed against him for backing out of a concert late last year, in protest of Trump’s name being added to the institution.

A 41,000-person Facebook group is leading the fight against data center proposals in Pennsylvania.

Karoline Leavitt is leaving. Good riddance.

Canada ended sperm donor restrictions for gay and bisexual men, a “precedent-setting” move toward “ending decades-long discrimination.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan to give 2,000 free Broadway tickets to high school students in the city.

New Jersey passed a new “big tech” law to regulate kids’ social media use. The law will limit social media platforms’ use of children’s data, restrict algorithmic content recommendations to minors, block notifications during school hours, and more.

In a victory for voters, a Michigan judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the RNC that sought to make it easier for partisan poll challengers to dispute voter eligibility and interrupt the state’s ballot-counting process.

A new study shows that across the globe, solar energy is projected to supply about 61% of the world’s electricity by 2050. Also, the world just passed a huge solar milestone: three trillion watts of power.

Democrats overwhelmingly outvoted Republicans in several key primaries on Tuesday: Wisconsin governor by +301k, Minnesota U.S. Senate by +291k, and Minnesota governor by +272k.

Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy, lost his primary in Minnesota.

Candidates from local to statewide races who took stances against data centers prevailed in Michigan’s primary elections!

A new fund called the Phoenix Species Project will pump $200 million into efforts to pull 100 animals and plants back from the brink of extinction.

Sarah George, a progressive prosecutor in Vermont, secured another term.

New Mexico’s clean-energy transition is emerging as a success story in a state long associated with fossil-fuel production. In just five years, solar, wind, and batteries overtook fossil fuels. And electricity prices remained cheaper than average.

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million for an abatement fund to address the harms it has done to the state’s youth.

An appeals court in San Francisco found that Meta, along with Google, TikTok, and Snapchat, had to face more than 3,000 lawsuits against the social media platforms charging them with being addictive to young users.

Ford says it has hired back some human engineers after AI failed to match their skills and experience. (This one is from June but I missed it back then and think it’s worth sharing.)

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill lifting the restriction on abortion at or after 24 weeks, making the state’s abortion law one of the broadest in the country.

New research from the Civics Center shows that many more 18-year-old Americans are registered to vote in this year’s midterm elections than at this point in 2022.

Main activists held the second stop on the “Retire Susan” recess tour, this time at Senator Collins’ office in Portland, where they highlighted her failure to protect Mainers’ reproductive rights.

4 years ago, Ken Paxton stole someone's $1,000 pen. This week, Ken Paxton’s pen victim endorsed James Talarico in a new ad.

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Hope you had a good week and enjoyed a bit of time off from the newsletter. I’ve been on vacation with 18 family members in beautiful Nova Scotia, and it’s been wonderful. Since I haven’t worked in days, and since my laptop also just died and I am now tapping away uncertainly on my teenager’s MacBook with a broken spacebar, this list may be a tiny bit shorter than usual. I promise it’ll be back to full length next week after I’ve gotten home and secured a new computer.

In the meantime I hope you’ll enjoy this brief foray into the world of good news. Savor it! Re-read it! Share it!

And remember that lists like this are only possible because of people like you. Thanks for all the hard work you do making the world—and our country—a better place!

Celebrate This! 🎉

Democrats flipped 4 seats and won a majority in Tennessee’s Montgomery County Commission race. The 21-member Commission has gone from being evenly split to having an 11-member Democratic majority.

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport launched a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall, issuing investigative subpoenas to the Newark facility run by the GEO Group.

Associate Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the felony vandalism case against Olympian David Hearn.

A U.S. District Court Judge ruled the Shenandoah County School Board violated federal civil rights laws by reinstating Confederate names to two schools, ordering the board to promptly remove the monikers.

The CLARITY Act will not be voted on before the recess! We know Republicans never give up so we still have to do calls again later, but the awful crypto bill’s odds of passing just plummeted. A big WIN!!

A federal judge issued yet another blow to Trump’s war on wind, ruling that the Defense Department must resume its review of onshore wind permit applications.

Joanna Whaley, a former megachurch pastor who endured 15 years of conversion practices, is set to become the first transgender member of Michigan’s state legislature after winning her Democratic primary election on Tuesday.

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million and make changes to the way young people can use its platforms, in its ongoing legal battles over social media harm and addiction. The ruling was in addition to $375 million that Meta was ordered to pay in the same case in March, when a jury found that the company misled users about the safety of its platforms and enabled the sexual exploitation of young people.

The DOJ took its latest blow in a failing voter roll crusade as a federal judge dismissed its case targeting Washington, D.C. This marks a 0-21 record for them.

A federal appeals court panel ruled that Trump cannot continue building the ballroom without explicit approval from Congress. The ruling does not immediately halt construction, but it is a blow to the president and all but guarantees that the Supreme Court will decide the fate of the ballroom.

Two Republican mayors from the reddest parts of Georgia are breaking ranks to back Jon Ossoff’s reelection bid, telling The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Democrat’s work for their communities outweighs partisan differences.

Maryland lawmakers approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would clear a major legal obstacle to redrawing the state’s congressional map before 2028, giving voters the final say on whether Maryland can fight back against Trump’s expanding wave of GOP gerrymanders.

Embattled North Carolina Republican congressman Chuck Edwards withdrew from his reelection campaign, two days after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured for unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two young female aides in his office.

Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan's Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in a massive victory for the party's progressive wing in a battleground state.

William Lawrence (whom I interviewed on a Live recently) won his primary election for Congress in Michigan, too!

Donavan McKinney, (whom we also had here on a Live) won his Detroit area primary election as well! Another progressive unseats a moderate, corporate Dem and heads to Congress!

All 8 of Winona, MN’s Flock cameras were stolen this week.

A Kansas state court just permanently struck down a long list of abortion restrictions, ruling that they violated the fundamental right to abortion, and health care providers’ right to free speech under the state constitution.

Baltimore had its first July with single-digit homicides in a quarter of a century.

Missouri voters blocked a GOP-led effort to raise the bar to pass constitutional amendments. The push came after progressives in the solidly Republican state found success with ballot measures related to abortion, health care and the minimum wage.

A divided federal appeals court said the Trump administration improperly terminated billions of dollars in funds to boost clean energy projects, handing a win to a coalition of nonprofits picked to run the Biden-era effort.

Minnesota’s ban on AI ‘nudification’ technology is officially the law! A judge denied Elon Musk’s attempt to prevent the law from going into effect.

The federal government dropped charges against three more individuals in connection with damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, further weakening Trump's argument that it was the work of vandals.

The Education Department will erase roughly $11 billion in federal student loan debt owed by more than 170,000 borrowers after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to delay relief for students who claimed they were defrauded by their schools.

More than 1,000 employees at the biggest AI companies wrote an open letter urging the U.S. government to slow the pace of AI development.

Amid growing public backlash, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a moratorium on data center approvals until audits are completed by state regulatory agencies.

The first 2,000 children were officially enrolled in New York City’s inaugural free 2-K class.

The F.D.A. approved Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine. The agency had initially refused to even review the application but reversed course after a public outcry.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger restored voting rights to 66,000 people with past felony convictions. The announcement comes ahead of the November referendum that would automatically restore the right to vote after release from incarceration.

New Jersey announced that it has effectively eliminated veteran homelessness through rapid rehousing, street outreach, and emergency sheltering.

Exactly eight months after NYC Mayor Mamdani signed an executive order for housing development, the city has broken ground on a large-scale affordable housing project, utilizing more than 100 city-owned sites to build an estimated 50,000 new affordable homes for New Yorkers.

Food delivery workers in New York City earned an additional $104 million in tips after the city started enforcing a law to crack down on “deceptive” tipping practices from delivery apps.

After Howard University unenrolled hundreds of students for missed tuition payments, New York offered college admission at two universities for residents who were impacted.

Awful Tennessee Republican Congressmember Andy Ogles lost his primary! He’s out as of January 1, 2027!

Chandler, AZ just pulled the plug on their 40+ Flock cameras after a police officer got caught using the system for personal reasons.

The Senate has adjourned until September 14 without passing the SAVE Act!

Speaking of Tennessee, Democratic turnout for House primaries in a majority-Black county there surged to the highest level in a decade! And Justin Pearson won his primary!

And Democrats flipped the Knox County School Board in TN as well.

In Augusta Township, MI voters resoundingly rejected rezoning more than 500 acres of farmland for a hyperscale data center.

The Amsterdam Pride parade this weekend prominently featured this Trump-kissing-Putin float. It was a crowd favorite!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

It’s been, as usual, a chaotic, frustrating, and occasionally painful week. Fortunately we’ve also seen Americans fighting back, courts holding MAGA to account, and other signs of progress brought about by determined fighters everywhere who are refusing to back down. So take a pause from doomscrolling and check out this long list of what went right this week. It’ll shore you up, I promise!

My one ask? Share this list with someone you know who’s in despair. It’s so important to remind our friends and family that wins are still happening—they just require tenacity and elbow grease to bring about! The more of us who join this work, the longer these weekly lists will be!

And thanks to all of you for supporting me. It never ceases to amaze me that you do. I’m so grateful for it.

Support my work. Subscribe here.

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Celebrate This! 🎉

In both May and June, solar was the top source of electricity in the European Union, providing a record-high 25% of its power in June alone.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is abandoning his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity after receiving pushback from all corners of the soccer world.

A district court dismissed, with prejudice, the DOJ’s lawsuit against the executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, who refused to turn over Illinois’ complete, unredacted statewide voter registration list.

Federal prosecutors dropped the high-profile criminal case against former U.S. Olympian David Hearn over supposed damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. They also publicly acknowledged that the pool liner’s damage resulted from a “botched installation” rather than deliberate acts of criminal destruction.

Two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Graham Nash and singer/songwriter Jesse Welles both canceled concerts scheduled this week at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Virginia, citing an ongoing labor dispute at the garden.

Harrisonburg, VA ended its contract with Flock.

Gov. Tina Kotek has ordered Oregon to withdraw its land sale for a controversial data center near Salem.

New York sued Kalshi — alleging it’s an illegal gambling operation.

Over the last few months, people have cut down surveillance cameras owned by the company Flock Safety with an electric saw in upstate New York, thrown paint on them in Oakland, California, and rammed a truck into them in Idaho.

A new analysis of Black voters in the south indicates that Republican attempts to dilute their political power is driving them to the polls in larger numbers and shifting their counties further left.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration cannot detain illegal immigrants inside the U.S. without bond hearings, rejecting its expansion of mandatory detention rules.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz banned state workers from betting with private government info on prediction markets.

California's Scholarshare College Savings Fund Board decided to change a low performing mutual fund in their college savings investment options with a higher preforming fund that excludes fossil fuel companies.

California just became the first major grid system on the planet to generate more than 50% of its electricity from solar across an entire month.

A federal judge has tossed Kash Patel's $10 million lawsuit against a blogger who called him a "googly-eyed Kremlin bitch" and a "blatantly incompetent chud."

A ghost gun company was ordered to pay $100M in the death of a Kentucky teen in a historic verdict.

An 11-year-old in Florida was recognized for reading over 100 hours to animals in shelters.

A group of women called the “Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage” are cleaning up ponds in Cape Cod, one by one. Amazing.

The Senate unanimously agreed that Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and collaborator of Jeffrey Epstein, should not be allowed a presidential pardon or clemency of any kind.

86 senators voted to move forward with a Russia and Iran sanctions bill.

A new Fox News poll in North Carolina finds Roy Cooper (D) leads Michael Whatley (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 53% to 44%.

Barack Obama will hold a fund-raiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a fresh sign that Democrats intend to continue their aggressive push to gerrymander congressional districts ahead of the 2028 election.

Trump’s net approval rating has fallen to a record-low 25 points underwater, with just 35% approving of his job performance and 60% disapproving.

New data from the World Health Organization shows the global rate of road traffic deaths fell by 21% between 2011 and 2025. That decrease happened even with the addition of more than one billion motor vehicles to roadways globally.

So far in 2026, seven states have restricted the use of AI in health insurance companies’ medical authorization decisions.

After more than 21 years without local access, a Planned Parenthood clinic in southwest Missouri began providing abortion care, along with expanding pain management for IUD placements and biopsies.

GOP fundraising groups have as of yet refused to spend any money on Ken Paxton’s senate campaign. Meanwhile, James Talarico entered July holding about nine times as much cash in his principal campaign account as Paxton has in his.

Iowa Democrat Josh Turek got an assist from Barack Obama, who endorsed his bid to flip a Republican-held U.S. Senate seat in a video of the two shooting hoops.

The teleprompter operator accused of unlawfully gambling on Trump’s speeches via a prediction marketplace is no longer employed by the White House.

Nearly 80,000 acres of land and water will now be protected in western Maine, thanks to one of the largest collaborative conservation projects in Maine history.

Johnson & Johnson will pay $5.5B in settlement money over talc cancer lawsuits.

The DOJ has moved to dismiss charges against David Huerta, a prominent California union leader who was arrested while protesting against an ICE raid in Los Angeles last year.

A Canadian Solar subsidiary opened its $1 billion flagship solar cell manufacturing facility in southern Indiana, which is expected to create 1,200 jobs.

Electric vehicle sales and charging stations are booming in states you might not expect, like Florida and Texas. Last month in Georgia, there were 29% more charging ports than a year earlier.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that new city-owned grocery stores will cut prices by 30% on basic items.

California has just switched on its first canal solar project. Supporters of this pilot program believe this approach could one day help California save more than 60 billion gallons of water every year.

About 71% of the clean electricity generation and 67% of the power sector emissions reductions projected to arrive thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 are still on track to be realized as of mid-2026.

Electric heat pumps have outsold gas furnaces in the United States since 2022, and they’re now on track to overtake conventional ACs this year as well after a near-tie in 2025!¹

For the third year in a row, global hunger has fallen.

Michigan passed a law that requires the state to preserve 50% of foster children’s federal benefits so that they have financial support when they age out.

ICE has informed the Shapiro administration that it will not use two warehouses it purchased in Pennsylvania as detention centers.

Thirteen protesters ranging in age from 20 to 74 blocked the entrances to ICE's National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, a response to fatal ICE shootings in Maine and Texas earlier this month.

The DOJ lost yet another voter roll lawsuit in New Jersey. For those counting at home, that makes them 0-18. Yikes.

Daniel Boone Regional Library went ahead with its first "rainbow story time" for toddlers after Missouri's secretary of state threatened in writing to strip its state and federal funding. More than 100 residents showed up to support the library, chalking "love is love" messages on the sidewalk outside.

NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a bill banning New Jersey businesses from using personal data to charge shoppers different prices for identical products.

After massive backlash, a school district in New York has paused its plan to deploy an AI-powered teaching assistant in classrooms.

Big cat conservationists in Zambia say leopard numbers are rebounding thanks in part to local communities swapping real furs for synthetic in traditional ceremonies.

Texas surpassed its annual Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nesting record.

Dozens of attorneys, social workers and staff at the Bronx Defenders walked off the job, forgoing pay to demand a fair contract after months of stalled talks.

SpaceX has lost $1 trillion in value since June’s all-time high.

The Michigan Supreme Court halted the Line 5 tunnel project, ordering more review. This will likely delay it for years! Woot!

A collection of former Biden administration officials, academics and policy experts released what they described as a counterweight to the conservative Project 2025, the policy handbook written by many Trump administration officials. Its top focus? Climate action.

Nearly one-quarter of those who voted for Trump in 2024 now say they regret their vote (23%). This is up four points from 19% in late June.

Walmart stores are rapidly building EV chargers even in states where charger construction has otherwise been slow.

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill to make Illinois the first state to officially recognize gambling disorder as an addiction.

The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 211, a ballot measure to require special interests that buy advertisements for state and local elections to disclose their donors.

Watch This! 👀

Ohio’s Burning River Brigade really knocked it out of the park this week! Watch!

Hi, all, and happy Sunday!

Sorry this is out a bit later than usual—I spoke at an event in Northern CA today with the great Robert B. Hubbell, and the time spent there, plus a few hours in the car and now the flight home, have delayed my work on this newsletter. It was worth it, though! If you could have been at this Commit to Democracy meetup you wouldn’t have even needed the good news listed below! It was incredible! Suffice it to say that the resistance is alive and well, and preparing for the midterms in ways that truly inspire.

For those of you I met today thanks again for a wonderful event. And for all of you, here’s your belated but still terrific rundown of all of this week’s good news.

Enjoy!

Celebrate This! 🎉

Paramount agreed to halt its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until next June at the latest while a judge considers a lawsuit from state attorneys general who sued to block the deal. HUGE!

China plans to increase wind and solar power generation by 53% over the next five years, under a new renewable energy plan that for the first time makes its green power target binding.

A federal judge ordered the EPA to administer a $2.8 billion climate grant program that the Trump administration had rescinded.

The Justice Department withdrew the subpoenas that sought phone records and grand jury testimony from New York Times journalists who had reported on the security liabilities of Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One jet.

France passed a landmark law restricting access to social media for anyone under 15, the first European country to do so, and the latest in a wave of countries acting against what they view as malign effects of such services on minors.

Nineteen state attorneys general have now moved to join a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to freeze routine reviews of land-based wind projects across the country.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered the DHS to halt the deportation of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, a witness to the fatal July 7 shooting of Lorenzo Araujo Salgado in Houston.

A new analysis from marketing consulting firm Emarketer found that OpenAI is on pace to undershoot its own five-year ad revenue projections by a whopping 90 percent.

Mayor Mamdani sent notification letters to property owners with second homes worth more than $5 million letting them know the pied-a-terre tax is coming soon.

Katy Perry slammed Donald Trump for using her song ‘Firework’ to accompany footage of US strikes on Iran. The singer shared that she is "deeply appalled and angry.” Good!

Swimming classes have started again in Gaza after three years of war, with hundreds of children learning to float, doggy paddle and take their first strokes in five makeshift sea pools built from sandbags and rubble.

A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%.

Amish Shah, an emergency room physician who backs Medicare for All, won the Democratic primary in his swing Arizona House district.

Environmental groups and tribes are suing the Trump administration over a new rule eliminating the majority of habitat protections for imperiled wildlife protected by the Endangered Species Act.

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new initiative aimed at bolstering the journalism ecosystem with a focus on local, community, and underserved news outlets.

Butterfly experts are planting 15,000 milkweed plants along Florida roadsides to help monarch butterflies.

A U.S. appeals court rejected the Justice Department’s request to let federal officials fully move ahead with Trump’s overhaul of mail voting ahead of the November midterm elections, leaving in place a Boston judge’s order that declared the president’s policies unlawful.

Vigils honoring Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, both killed by ICE agents this month, happened in communities across the country this weekend. One is pictured at the top of this newsletter!

After floating the idea of keeping Democrat Cindy Burbank on Nebraska’s ballot for U.S. Senate after she asked to be removed, Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced he will allow her to be deleted because the state law doesn’t give him the authority to refuse. (This will help Dan Osborne!)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to approve a $16.9 billion budget deal, closing a deficit of more than $640 million while avoiding many of the most painful cuts labor groups and nonprofits had feared.

A Trump-appointed judge threw out the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking Kentucky’s unredacted voter rolls, bringing the department to a staggering 17 straight losses.

A judge declined to pause her earlier ruling that blocked New Hampshire’s restrictive proof-of-citizenship voting law while the state appeals.

The official account for Spain’s national football league shared an altered image of the country’s celebration in New Jersey Sunday, snipping Trump out of photos after he refused to leave the dais. The FIFA World Cup account also cropped him out of the shot, leaving only the president’s shoulder in view.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) said she has no plans to supply the DOJ with data on thousands of noncitizens who were erroneously registered to vote due to a software malfunction. She says, rightly, that the DOJ would “weaponize” it.

Republican Governor Mike Kehoe of MO signed a GOP-sponsored omnibus elections law that, among other things, restores voting rights to an estimated 40,000 Missourians currently on probation or parole.

The city of Newport, KY is ending its Flock pilot program. It will remove the cameras from the city and not move forward in purchasing the technology.

Seattle-area Sheriff Patty Cole-Tindall announced that her deputies will not assist ICE on routine immigration matters.

Donald Trump is historically unpopular — nearly 45 points underwater with independents — which is worse than Nixon just before he resigned over Watergate.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation raising the compensation to wrongfully convicted people in the state who receive certificates of innocence.

State officials representing 25 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over its threat to withhold federal funding unless the states adopt its desired election policies.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing the federal government to provide all of its records on Jeffrey Epstein’s contacts with foreign governments, pursuant to an inquiry he launched into whether the convicted sex offender had acted as an unregistered foreign agent.

Russel Vought is leaving the CFPB. His replacement will be no better, but at least it won’t be him!

A new law in California will create a $3,500 discount for first-time EV buyers, so long as the car retails for less than $50,000.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that Lina Khan, the Biden administration’s AMAZING Federal Trade Commission chair, would serve as the chair of the NYC’s Economic Development Corporation.

A new WaPo article reports that Republicans are seeing a “‘scary’ lack of enthusiasm among core voters ahead of midterms.”

The Maine Democratic Party formally selected Troy Jackson as its new Senate nominee, and the whole process seems to have gone quite smoothly.

Democratic Senator Andy Kim unveiled the MediKids Act to expand Medicaid to all U.S. children. It would automatically enroll every child at birth until the age of 26.

Across the country, more state legislatures are passing laws to streamline renewable development than are enacting policies to prevent clean energy from being built.

A Massachusetts doctor who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has had her medical license revoked.

Democrat Matt Orlando defeated Republican Jeff Weninger in the Chandler, Arizona, mayoral election. This seat flipped blue for the first time in 36 years!

The last patient being treated for Ebola in Uganda has been discharged from hospital, leaving the country with no active confirmed cases of the deadly disease.

Syracuse, New York has officially ended its partnership with Flock Safety.

Three teachers who were sanctioned for helping to facilitate a student-led drag show won a settlement of $150,000 from Iowa’s Ankeny school district.

A new law two years in the making has finally taken effect across the European Union. Under the ruling, major fashion retailers, wholesalers, and apparel manufacturers are now banned from trashing unsold clothing, accessories, and footwear.

The European Commission fined Google 890 million euros for breaking digital antitrust regulations by steering consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

Illinois and Cook County, in partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, erased more than $2 billion in medical debt combined for over a million residents.

In Monticello, Georgia, a 25-year-old reporter has purchased his home town paper to save it from corporate ownership.

For the second time, four House Republicans joined with Democrats to approve a war powers resolution to hem in Trump’s authority and end the war.

The man who killed Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark was sentenced to life in prison.

Rooftop solar saved New England residents over $130M in electricity costs during a recent heat wave.

Two critically endangered black-and-white ruffed lemurs were just born at the Central Park Zoo. The twins, Maso and Tonga, join six other lemurs born through the zoo’s Species Survival Plan since 2008.

Sierra County, New Mexico passed its first moratorium on data centers, citing concerns over potential water and environmental impacts.

Christian and Jewish leaders gathered at the Texas Capitol to condemn recent ICE-related deaths in Texas, Maine and Florida, telling agents who believe their orders are immoral to "resign and find other work."

67% of voters believe that heat waves are being worsened by climate change [Data for Progress]

Former Seattle U.S. Attorney Roger Rogoff is suing after Trump fired him less than an hour after he was sworn into office.

A new Massachusetts program will let EV owners leverage their cars’ batteries as a grid resource and be compensated for power they feed to the grid during times of high demand.

Watch This! 👀

Reader Marie L. sent this delightful video, which pays homage to the Trash Wheel, which collects 500 tons of waste annually before that waste goes into the harbor and the Chesapeake Bay. Single use plastic is the top source of micro and nanoplastics in our waterway, synthetic turf is number two. Very feel good indeed!