GOOD NEWS

•  The White House helped railway companies and its unions to reach a tentative agreement to avoid a potential strike that threatened to shut down a crucial vein of the U.S. economy. 
• Gov. Gavin Newsom rented billboards in 6 red states with abortion bans to direct women to a California state website that tells users how and where to get an abortion in the state.
  
• The data is clear: Since the Dobbs decision Democrats over-performed in every special election since then.
  
• Yvon Chouinard, who founded the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia and became a reluctant billionaire with his unconventional spin on capitalism, has given away the company. All Patagonia’s profits will now be used to fight climate change.
  
• Roger Federer has spent $13.5M over the last ten years to build 80+ preschools in Malawi, along with his partners. This funding has helped over 150,000 children learn to read.
  
• The ballet superstar Misty Copeland announced that she was starting a free, 12-week program in New York City that she hopes will bring in a new generation of dancers, especially Black and Latino children, who are underrepresented in ballet.  

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• On the Covid Front: “We are moving to a point where a single
  annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection
  against serious illness all year,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House
  pandemic response team coordinator, announced. Jha called the new
  vaccines a “major milestone,” even as he cautioned that “variant
  curveballs” could scuttle hopes for bolstered immunity.
  
• “For the first time since December of 2020, these vaccines have
  caught up with the virus,” Jha said . He added that the Biden
  administration is coordinating with states and municipalities to
  distribute the vaccine at “tens of thousands” of locations in the
  coming days. As was the case with earlier COVID-19 vaccination
  efforts, inoculations will be free. All people age 12 and older are
  eligible.
  
• On the Midterms Front: According to Congresswoman Katie
  Porter, “Democrats are picking up steam in polls across the country,
  and election forecasters are more optimistic than ever about our shot
  at holding the House.”
  
• More on the Midterms Front: According to a Yahoo News/YouGov
  poll conducted from Sept. 2 – Sept. 6,, Democrats are heading into
  the homestretch of the 2022 midterm campaign with a lead over
  Republicans among registered voters — including those who say
  they “definitely will vote” this year.
  
• Good News in Michigan: The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that
  a proposed state constitutional amendment that would protect
  abortion rights should be placed on November’s ballot. 

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•  Biden's student loan forgiveness program relieves 43 million borrowers to some extent, and will completely erase the student debt of about 20 million people.
  
• The Brooklyn Public Library is offering electronic editions of banned books freely to any American teenager with the library's QR code.
  
• Mitch McConnell's PAC is canceling $8 million in ads for Mark Kelly's opponent. The GOP knows Arizona will re-elect Mark Kelly.
  
• A proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution gathered enough valid signatures to make the November ballot. 
  
• Democratic voters in Florida's 10th District (which is very blue) picked Maxwell Frost as their candidate -- he is on the road to becoming the first Gen Z candidate to join Congress.
  
• American companies are on pace to re-shore, or return to the U.S., nearly 350,000 jobs this year. That would be the highest number on record since the group began tracking the data in 2010. 

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• A federal judge in Florida ruled that a law pushed by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis restricting conversations around race in schools and the workplace is unconstitutional.
  
• Speaking of favorability, the overall narrative about Joe Biden continues to improve. We got more stories like The same Joe Biden suddenly looks different and Breathing Room For Biden: Big Summer Wins Ease 2024 Doubts, plus wait until you see how some of the editorial cartoonists are covering his rising approval!
  
• A federal judge in Georgia denied Sen. Lindsey Graham’s attempt to avoid testifying before a grand jury in Georgia investigating interference in the 2020 election.
  
• Gas prices continued to fall.
  
• The National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled $10M worth of ads this fall for Senate races in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
  
• The Biden administration created a plan to bring 7.5 million Americans in default on their federal student loans back into good standing, restoring their eligibility for financial aid and removing the incident from their credit history.
  
• The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced they wouldn't play any games on Election Day and instead would encourage their fans to vote.
  
• There has been a huge surge in women registering to vote since the 6/24 Dobbs decision. Starting in PA, where women have accounted for >56% of new registrants in that time period. Those women new registrants are 62%D to 15% R and 54% are under the age of 25. Compare that to men new registrants at 41% <25 and 43% D, 28% R. 

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• The Inflation Reduction Act passed the House and Senate and Joe Biden will sign in to law this week.
  
• There was no inflation in the month of July.
  
• The national average price of gas fell back under the $4 mark per gallon for the first time since early March.
  
• Two years of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ text messages have been turned over to the January 6th Committee.
  A new Fox News poll has the generic ballot tied with Democrats and Republicans each getting 41%. The GOP had a 3-point edge in June, and a 7-point advantage in May. 

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• AG Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ has charged four current and former Louisville Metro Police Department officers with federal crimes related to death of Breonna Taylor.
  
• The U.S. killed al-Queda's leader (and co-architect of 9/11) Ayman
  al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul.
  
• The Biden administration has reunited another 400 migrant children with their families.
  
• The DOJ sued Idaho over its state abortion restrictions.
  
• Parts of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia recorded the highest amount of coral cover in nearly 40 years.
• 
  
• The Senate confirmed Michael Langley to be a 4-star general in the US Marine Corps. He's been a Marine for 35 years and is now the first Black 4-star general in the Marines' history.
  
• Both the House and the Senate approved NATO expansion to include Sweden and Finland.
  
• President Biden signed an executive order protecting a woman's right to travel for an abortion.
  
• A judge ordered Texas to release data on its voter purge program aimed at immigrants.
  
• Pennsylvania's mail-in voting law was upheld by the state's Supreme Court.
  
• After the passage of Indiana’s total abortion ban, Eli Lilly, one of the state’s biggest employers, says they’ll be planning their growth outside the state. 

***** 

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin
  announced a deal on an energy and health care bill, representing a
  breakthrough after more than a year of negotiations that repeatedly
  collapsed. 
  
• The House and Senate passed the CHIPS Act, which helps U.S.
  companies compete with China by funding domestic semiconductor
  manufacturing and science research.
  
• One America News (OAN), a far-right media organization, is being
  dropped by Verizon. 
• They have now lost their presence in over 20
  million homes this year
•  
• Gas prices have come down every day for 5 weeks now

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• Our  "good news" space this week is dedicated to one remarkable woman. She  goes by many names, today we'll call her Stephanie. She is a 60+year old  white woman who lives in a southern red state and she smuggles abortion  pills to women that have no other means of getting an abortion. She  gets the pills from Mexico and India and then she mails them to the  women. No prescription is involved, no doctors or nurses are involved.  She runs this underground operation out of her bedroom divvying up the  pills she's ordered while watching MSNBC, Rachel Maddow is her favorite.  Each package she mails has a random return address that she gets from  houses that are for sale on Zillow. She has already sent pills to  hundreds of people. There are many Stephanies out there, we just don't  know them.
   
• “Never  underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change  the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”  ~ Margaret  Mead
   
• If you'd like to listen to the whole story about Stephanie you can find it on This American Life Episode 774: The Pink House at the Center of the World, Act 5: The Pill Smuggler (43:35)

• Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted yesterday afternoon,  "a bipartisan group of 20 Senators (10 D and 10 R) is announcing a breakthrough agreement on gun violence - the first in 30 years - that will save lives." 

• Hero and GOP Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney skewered fellow GOP reps during the Select Committee Hearings. “Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."

• A Texas judge just blocked Greg Abbott from ordering child abuse investigations of the parents of all trans youth in the state

• Historic Job Growth under President Biden  

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• In a far-reaching agreement, U.S. Women's Soccer has prevailed in achieving equal pay that sets the global standard moving forward in international soccer. The deal also encompasses other areas such as child care, parental leave, short-term disability, mental health impairment, travel and equal quality of venues and field playing surfaces.  

• President Biden reopened the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, and the Senate confirmed a new U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine -- Bridget Brink

• President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to increase production of baby formula and to start a new program that will use commercial aircraft to pick up overseas formula that meets U.S. standards

• Once the final candidates were nominated for the Pennsylvania governor's race -- Josh Shapiro (D) vs. Doug Mastriano (R) -- two major ratings agencies upgraded the race rating from Toss Up to Leans Democratic

• Illinois became the first state in the Midwest to pass legislation banning untraceable "ghost guns."  

• The House passed the MST (Military Sexual Trauma) Claims Coordination Act to better assist survivors of military sexual assault and harassment access medical care and mental health services.

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• Emmanuel Macron won re-election as France’s president after defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right candidate many in Russia favored. 

• A state court in Kansas threw out a new map of congressional districts as an unconstitutional gerrymander. 

• All criminal charges have been dropped against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. 

• Davide Martello, the "Piano Man" travelled from Germany to the border of Ukraine and Poland with his piano on wheels to play John Lennon's Imagine for refugees entering the country.

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• President Biden took executive action to regulate the sale of ghost guns. The order mandates background checks on people who buy these gun parts & requires adding serial numbers to the assembled weapons.

• TPS (Temporary Protected Status) Is designated for Cameroon. This announcement is warranted under law, and it's hoped that the administration continues to take more steps to help dismantle the anti-Black sentiment within the immigration system.

• Wisconsin Supreme Court DENIES Republican Congressmen's last ditch effort to block new congressional map. A final victory in this long and hard fought battle.

• Alyssa Nakken of the @SFGiants became the first woman to have an on-field role during a Major League Baseball game when she came in as First Base Coach. The first @MLB game was played May 4th, 1871, 151 years ago.

• Amazon Workers on Staten Island Vote to Unionize in Landmark Win for Labor 

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• The House passed the CROWN Act, legislation that would ban discrimination against individuals based on how they choose to wear their hair.   

• Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, a top priority of President Biden’s that expired in 2019. It was included in a wide-ranging government spending bill.  

• Twelve years ago, @chefjoseandres founded the World Central Kitchen after Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Today, the WCK is currently serving about 100K meals a day out of 5 countries in Eastern Europe for Ukrainian refugees. 

•  Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station in yellow and blue flight suits in support of Ukraine. It was a daring statement against the war.  

• Arnold Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about their country's assault on Ukraine in a powerful video.