Keep On Keeping On
Hello Sunny-siders,
The world is springing back to life here. This slough was filled with red-winged blackbirds, and it was incredible to just stand and listen to them for a few minutes. Wherever you are, I hope you can take a few minutes this weekend to listen to nature.
I think many of us are on edge this week with the budget reconciliation talks and continued violations of our constitution. Keep engaging in self-care and drop in and out of the fight as you need to. Paul Shattuck published a post listing 80 tiny ways to stay human a while back, and it’s one I keep revisiting. Perhaps it will help you if you need it.
And with that, here is my roundup of good news for this week. Let’s get to it…
Breaking!
The House Budget Committee voted against the current draft of the “big beautiful” tax bill on Friday afternoon, preventing it from advancing to the House. The “no” votes aren’t really for the reasons that we’d like them to be—it looks like there’s a deep divide between moderate and far-right Republicans about raising the the state and local tax cap and making even worse cuts to Medicaid/Medicare and green energy subsidies—but everything I’ve read from activists is that the slower this process goes, the better things are for our side.
Older news that I bookmarked but forgot to share…
Back in April, Rep. Sarah McBride (DE) was instrumental in reversing a policy change that stripped funding from the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a network of state-run centers that support small and mid-sized manufacturers. She organized a group of 86 Democratic representatives to oppose the cuts, and the pushback resulted in funding for the rest of the fiscal year.
Also in April, a judge blocked the Trump administration from enacting a policy that bans the use of the “X” marker on passports. This lawsuit is still in progress.
In this era of billionaire-owned media outlets, the Spokesman-Review is going down a fascinating new path. The owners are donating the paper to the nonprofit Comma Community Journalism Lab, and awarding a $2 million matching grant to help keep things running. “It’s been a great venture for 132 years, but if you had the chance to extend its viability, as people know and love it, why would you not do that?” Cowles said. The transfer should be complete sometime this summer.
Back in March, a federal judge blocked Iowa’s Senate File 496, which requires schools to remove books containing “descriptions of sex acts” from their libraries, saying it violated the First Amendment.
Things in litigation…
I haven’t given this update for a while, so let me note that there are currently at least 239 different cases in play against the Trump administration. Yes, this route is slow… but lawsuits do result in meaningful reversals.
Multiple media outlets announced in late April that funding for the Women’s Health Initiative had been restored, but I wanted a formal acknowledgment that they were actually going to receive the money before including it here. WHI investigators finally made that announcement on May 6th.
Attorneys general in thirteen states are leading the charge against an executive order that declared an “energy emergency” and tries to allow emergency permits for oil and gas projects.
Farmers in New York, along with two environmental organizations, filed suit against the United States Department of Agriculture after it took down climate-related information on its website. This week, the USDA said it will restore the pages.
Judge Beryl Howell used Trump’s boast about getting money and free representation from law firms against him when ruling in favor of Perkins Coie, who were blocked from accessing government buildings.
Lawyers for Judge Hannah Dugan (the woman who allowed an immigrant to leave through a side door to avoid ICE) are pulling from the same playbook, saying that if Trump gets immunity for official acts, so should Judge Dugan.
In super weird news, Justice Amy Coney Barrett is now being pegged as a “DEI hire” after supporting Justice Elena Kagan in a hearing about birthright citizenship. (None of the mainstream media outlets saw fit to cover this, but Media-ite—leans left, generally reliable per Media Bias Chart—included a transcript in their article.)
Back in early April, a California judge said Trump’s administration couldn’t deny funding for legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children. Now the Ninth Circuit of Appeals has upheld that order once more.
In Montana, a judge ruled that Bill 99, which banned gender-affirming care, is unconstitutional. That is a huge relief for families here.
A judge ruled that DOGE must resume efforts to hand over internal documents as part of FOIA requests. This hasn’t hit mainstream media yet, but I think it’s the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington vs DOGE case (CREW v. DOGE (D.D.C.) - Case No. 1:25-cv-00511), originally filed on Feb 20.
Individuals making good trouble…
Oklahoma launched a DOGE-style portal asking the public for ideas about how to save money—and were promptly deluged by suggestions that Republican policies were to blame.
Hundreds of people protested at Kristi Noem’s honorary degree ceremony at Dakota State University in Madison, SD, and more than 3,700 people signed an online petition to rescind the degree.
AmeriCorps is a vital program and volunteers of all ages do everything from working in disaster areas to managing afterschool programs to helping seniors. The cuts to their programs have been devastating. Private citizens stepped up to donate $80,000 to help cover costs at two programs in Maryland, which expand internet access to underserved communities and mentor middle and high school students, respectively. (There’s currently a lawsuit in play to restore funding to AmeriCorps.)
Senior staff at Harvard have pledged to donate 10 percent of their salaries to the university for one year to help keep the university afloat as it resists the Trump administration. This pledge has been overshadowed by the news about Harvard’s president voluntarily reducing his pay by 25%. (We can make the argument that university and college presidents are grossly overpaid to begin with, and I wonder how much personal belt-tightening he’ll actually need to do this. But it’s a nice precedent.)
One of the founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was arrested after protesting at a Senate hearing on Wednesday to bring national attention to the genocide that is happening on Gaza.
Staff at the US Copyright office reportedly denied entry to two Trump appointees who showed up after Trump “dismissed” (illegally) Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Director of the Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter. According to anonymous sources, the staff have recognized Principal Deputy Librarian Robert Newlan as the acting Librarian of Congress. Seems like they’ve learned from the past and I applaud them.
People voted for change…
In Omaha, a city that has had a Republican mayor since 2013, Democrat John Ewing was elected as the city’s first Black mayor on Tuesday night.
Florida got a preview of the SAVE Act (the bill that puts an undue burden on voters to prove citizenship) in HB 1381. Just like its federal-level counterpart, it had all sorts of problems and voter activist groups were not shy about pointing them out. HB 1381 was ultimately withdrawn from consideration after a lack of support.
I meant to include this in Monday’s newsletter, but Democrats swept the election results in Lincoln, Nebraska on May 6th, according to the Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, Jane Kleeb. This was the result of a lot of on-the-ground organizing and hard work by people.
And finally…
Maikelys Espinoza has been reunited with her family after her parents were arrested at the border and they were separated.
Dr. Badar Khan Suri from Georgetown University has been released after an order from Judge Patricia Giles said his imprisonment violated his First Amendment and Fifth amendment rights.
(Note: I include these kinds of things not so much to celebrate, but because I worry about these kids and these people, and there’s a relief in knowing what is going on.)
That is it for me for now, my friends. As a reminder, there are two days in June slated for “National Days of Action”—June 6 and June 14. Now is a good time to start thinking about where you want to be at, but you don’t have to wait until June. There are always ongoing actions organized by local groups.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Thanks for compiling all this wonderful news! It definitely gives me hope in dark times. A note about local actions—I’ve had to dig a bit to find the right connections for my local protest group. But they are getting more connected with the national level organizations, like Indivisible. Hopefully, other local communities will do the same.