(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . It's the Rs' Year of Finding Out - February 1st Good News Roundup [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-01 Good Day, Gnuville! Another Wednesday has rolled around already — and another month has begun. WOW! As you read through today’s stories, I think you’ll find two main themes emerging. First: the legislative achievements of Joe Biden and the Democrats are really starting to be felt and in story after story, positive impacts are being recorded and attributed to one or another of the big building back better bills of 2021 and 2022. In just over two years, the Biden administration has been one of the most consequential in modern US history, and — as Handsome Joe often says — “We’re just getting started”! Second: I think 2023 is shaping up to be a very consequential year in politics and I mean that in the best way. Republicans — and their funders — are entering the finding out stage of FAFO. This is my version of popcorn! The walls are closing in on TFG legally and although I doubt he will go to prison (where he belongs), I do think his remaining years will be a misery of legal hassles, criminal prosecutions and financial ruin. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving creep. Meanwhile, the shoes are falling one by one by one on the Republican MAGA crowd. Those who were complicit in the planning of January 6 are starting to get nervous as little indicators that the dominoes are falling start to flicker on. In addition, the campaign finance corruption uncovered by the “George Santos” revelations looks like it goes wider and deeper within the Republican organization. The hue and cry from NY Rs — and their frantic demand that Santos resign, their desperate efforts to distance themselves — points to some extreme nervousness. Other Rs who likewise were linked to him are now trying to edge away. It is likely that most, if not all, of them are implicated in whatever mess Santos is in. In addition, the Rs in the House, “led” by the incompetent barely elected Kevin McCarthy are in such disarray it is almost laughable. We knew they could not (and would not) govern, but even their nefarious plans to cause havoc in the House, persecuting Democrats are going down in flames. They failed to account for the righteous fire and supreme competence of House Democrats — who are not having any of the Rs nonsense. Most of all, House Rs grossly overestimated both their own ability to carry out a plan — any sort of plan — and the patience of the American people. People are not supportive of the R agenda (which is to hold the debt ceiling hostage, raise taxes on the middle class and working Americans and hold Benghazi/butter emails style “investigations” until the cows come home). Yeah, it’s a sh*tshow. Republicans are falling apart, panicking and making complete fools of themselves while Democrats just keep on delivering. Delivering good policy Delivering results from the legislation they got passed last year Delivering pushback to R fuckery Delivering truthbombs to counter R lying It’s a good time to be a progressive and a Democrat. 2023 is going to be the Rs year of Finding Out. Let’s get to the news! 🎶 Opening Music 🎶 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 Biden fights for reproductive rights Biden administration proposes strengthening health law's contraception mandate, Oriana Gonzalez, Axios, January 30, 2023 The Biden administration on Monday moved to reverse a Trump-era policy that made it easier for employers to refuse to offer birth control coverage in company-sponsored health plans. The big picture: The Trump administration's rollback of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate allowed organizations to opt out of coverage, citing moral objections. Before that, exemptions were limited to religious grounds. The Trump administration rule was challenged in court on the grounds it could cause irreversible harm to women but took effect in 2018. Driving the news: The new rule — proposed by the Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor departments — would get rid of the "moral" exemption and retain the "religious" one. It would also create an "independent pathway" for people who have insurers with religious exemptions to access birth control through a "willing contraceptive provider" at no cost, according to an HHS press release. Biden kicks off tunnel project, renamed for Frederick Douglass A 150-year-old tunnel that’s a major bottleneck for East Coast Amtrak passengers is slated for a huge upgrade, Chris Megerian (and AP), Fortune, January 30, 2023. Ulysses S. Grant was still president when travelers sped through the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, connecting Philadelphia and Washington by rail for the first time. A century and a half later, the tunnel that runs under Baltimore residential neighborhoods is more of a chokepoint than a lifeline. There’s only one tube, and trains need to slow to just 30 mph (48 kilometers per hour) to navigate a tight turn on the southern end.✂️ The tunnel is slated to be replaced with help from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure legislation championed by the Democratic president, and he was visiting Monday to talk about the massive investment. Once completed roughly a decade from now, the new tunnel is expected to have two tubes, with up to four tracks total, and allow trains to travel more than 100 mph. It will be named for Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery in Maryland and became a prominent abolitionist. The total project, which includes related bridges and equipment modernization, could cost $6 billion. More on the implementation of the Infrastructure bill — Dems are messaging! Here is (some of) the White House transcript of the press “gaggle” with The Biden admin’s Infrastructure Implementation Co-ordinator, Mitch Landrieu (D-LA). Mr Landrieu brought the message — in accordance with the president’s instructions to “build the team, get the money out of the door, and then tell the story.” It’s all about “hurry the hell up and get it done,” from the President’s perspective. So that’s just the way we roll. As you know, $1.2 trillion to rebuild the country and build a better America: roads, bridges, airports, ports, waterways, clean air, clean water, high-speed Internet, and an entire clean energy economy. We have $185 billion out of the door. Last year, we had 7,000 projects that are in some level of formation. And this year, we expect to have 20,000 more by the end of the year. We started off this year with a bang. As many of you know, y’all were with us when we announced the big bridge program about four weeks ago, where the President went to the Brent Spence Bridge with Leader McConnell and talked about bipartisanship and trying to figure out how to get it done. And this year is all about implementation and execution. On that day, you may recall that the Vice President was in Chicago, on the South Side. The Secretary was in Connecticut announcing a program. And, of course — not that day, but a few days later — both the Secretary and I went to the Golden Gate Bridge to talk about a $400 million investment to fortify that bridge in the event that they would suffer from another earthquake — essentially, to put brake pads on it and to make it more resilient to make sure that that bridge is in place. Today, actually, we’re making another major announcement of nine Mega projects across the country that are in your briefing. But the biggest of which, of course, is the Hudson Tunnel Project that we’re talking about today, for the casing on the end of it. As you guys know, yesterday, the President was in Baltimore announcing another portion of this, because this is also part of the Northeast Corridor and high-speed rail, which is critically important to getting people out of cars onto rail, actually making it more safe, making it more climate friendly, and then, of course, providing thousands of jobs.✂️ As you can see, this is part of a much larger — it’s the biggest infrastructure investment program in the country. This is part of the Gateway Program. And there are a bunch of different projects that are part of that.✂️ Today, also, we’re announcing that we have investments not only in the Brent Spence Bridge — so they got a part of the big bridge program, and they got part of the Mega program. Because, as you guys said, we pushed a lot of these programs together. They’re also announcing funding for the I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge, $150 million; the Metra UP-North line in Chicago, Illinois; the Alligator River Bridge in North Carolina; the I-45 and U.S.-75 corridor in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Roosevelt Boulevard multimodal bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; I-10 freight corridor — $60 million in Mississippi; and the Watsonville-Cruz Multimodal Corridor in California.✂️ On “messaging” Q From your perspective, doing this every day, have you seen a shift in the public awareness or appreciation of these projects as it’s gotten bigger, and as it’s gotten — MR. LANDRIEU: You know, it’s a myth that people don’t know about these projects. If nobody knew about it, people would quit taking credit for all of them. And, of course, Republicans and Democrats, especially people that voted against the bill, talk about them all the time. As Nancy Pelosi said, even those people that voted no want the dough. So I think the public is acutely aware because they drive by or they walk by them all the time. And so whenever they — wherever there’s a road project or a rail project going on, it is more likely than not it got a substantial amount of federal funds in it because the President’s commitment was to rebuild. Really simple: “I’m going to use the power of my presidency to bring people together and get big things done.” And this is bringing the receipts over and over and over again. And I think people pick it up and understand it.✂️ So we should have a fairly good scope of what all the asks in the country are at this time. And I assure you that I have not had one person, whether they be Republican or Democrat or independent, say, “Please stop funding projects in my district because we need to save money.” I haven’t heard that yet. And if I do, we’ll — you know, we’ll deal with it at that time. Q Just as a follow-up — MR. LANDRIEU: You might ask them that. (😄🔥) Dems making good on promise to promote regionally diverse voices House Dems tap Hoyer to lead new regional council, Katherine Tully-McManus, Politico, January 30, 2023. Not many good photos of Steny Hoyer in the DK library House Democrats are set to launch a new arm of leadership dedicated to fulfilling a longtime party goal — promoting regionally diverse voices to communicate about their legislative wins — and they’re putting a familiar face in charge: Steny Hoyer. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will announce later Monday that he’s creating a Regional Leadership Council, with one Democrat representing each of a dozen regions across the country. Hoyer will chair the new effort, lending it two decades of party leadership experience and close ties to the Biden administration.✂️ Hoyer said in an interview Monday that he’s already begun working with Mitch Landrieu, the Biden administration official overseeing the implementation of the infrastructure bill, as well as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo: “Leader Jeffries wants to make sure that the American people got the best results possible from the legislation that was passed and that they know what has been done for their regions.” Raskin cheekily “warns” McCarthy to go through with his threat Jamie Raskin warns McCarthy that releasing Jan. 6 videos might be hard on Republican egos, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, January 31, 2023. WASHINGTON — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is threatening to release all of the videos associated with the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised to do the same during the 2022 election season but has been mum ever since.✂️ Raw Story asked Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who served on the committee, about the release of all of the information and he agreed that it's one of the new powers that McCarthy has. "You know I think it would be — look, the presentation we made was gripping to the country," he said. "I think there are equally fascinating details that would emerge that way as Senator [Josh] Hawley (R-MO) found out."✂️ "Let's just say there are a hundred different reasons something may not have been made public yet and it would all become public," Raskin said. "And those who are proud of what they did in that period will be able to remain proud and those who have something to be embarrassed about will presumably be nervous about the release of everything." Senate Dems working to make air travel less awful Air travelers would get $1,350 if bumped under proposed ‘passenger bill of rights’ that comes just weeks after Southwest Airlines’ epic meltdown, David Koenig and AP, Fortune, January 31, 2023. Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Edward Markey of Massachusetts said Tuesday they will again offer a “passenger bill of rights” that would, among other things, allow customers to file class-action lawsuits against airlines, and legislation to limit airline fees.✂️ Both the passenger-rights and airline-fee proposals from longtime critics of the airline industry have floundered in the past, and they lack Republican support so far in the new Congress. But the lawmakers argue that they can succeed this time by attaching their ideas to must-pass legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration.✂️ Blumenthal’s proposal would set $1,350 as the minimum compensation for passengers bumped off oversold flights. It would require airlines to provide alternate transportation and reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs to customers whose flights are delayed as briefly as one hour — Southwest says it is reimbursing stranded passengers for “reasonable” hotel and meal expenses.✂️ Markey proposes separately to limit fees to what it costs the airline to provide the service. Both proposals have failed to gain traction in previous years. Blumenthal said things are different now because of the increase in disruptions by airlines that received tens of billions of dollars in pandemic relief from taxpayers. 🎶 Music for Democrats 🎶 Republicans in Disarray Opinion: The House GOP’s sham hearings are fizzling before they even begin, Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, January 31, 2023. First, most voters don’t want lawmakers to spend time spinning scandals.✂️ Second, it is hard for Republicans to explain to an audience not already seeped in right-wing conspiracy theories what they heck they are talking about.✂️ Third, Republicans have a problem with evidence — or the lack thereof. ✂️ Fourth, there are rakes aplenty for Republicans to step on. Each time a Republican screams that the government has been “weaponized,” Democrats should be prepared to go through the litany of real GOP abuses and outrages while in power It seems Republicans imagine their hearings will be some sort of payback for the revealing, substantive and gripping investigation conducted by the House Jan. 6 committee. But a major reason those hearings were so effective was the personnel. There were no disruptive Republicans on the panel, and there were plenty of whip-smart Democrats. Those same Democrats will be present on Republican-led committees. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (Md.), for example, will be the ranking member on Comer’s Oversight Committee. Even the Democrats’ far-left flank should prove useful. Whatever one thinks of her politics, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), the No. 2 Democrat on the panel, has ably demonstrated her proficiency in hearings. In addition, Democrats have set up a rapid response group, the Congressional Integrity Project, to fire back at Republicans. The group will point out which Republican officials participated in the 2020 coup attempt and which refused to testify before the Jan. 6 hearing. Knowing the media will likely give equal time to critics of the hearings, Democrats might receive plenty of oxygen to air Republicans’ dirty laundry. DOJ tells Gym Jordan “No” — again DOJ Tells Jim Jordan It Can't Comply With Request On Biden's Classified Documents, Marita Viachou, HuffPost, January 31, 2023. The Justice Department on Monday denied a request by the House Judiciary Committee to turn over documents related to the special counsel investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. In a letter addressed to the panel’s chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the department said it cannot turn over non-public files under its long-standing policy of not sharing information that could impact an ongoing probe. “Disclosures to Congress about active investigations risk jeopardizing those investigations and creating the appearance that Congress may be exerting improper political pressure or attempting to influence Department decisions in certain cases,” the letter states. (🙄Ya think?) Innocent people don’t ask for pardons There's likely 'digital smoking gun evidence' on Republican's phone about Jan. 6: ex-Homeland Security aide, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, January 31, 2023. Former chief of staff for the secretary of Homeland Security, Miles Taylor, thinks that Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) is heavily involved with the plotting around the Jan. 6 attack. It was reported Tuesday that a "block" was placed on Perry's phone, which was seized by the FBI. The block is temporary until the federal appeals court decides whether the FBI should be able to possess it. A judge already agreed to the warrant for the phone previously.✂️ Wallace asked Taylor what he thinks is in Perry's phone that he's so desperately trying to block from the FBI. "I think what's on his phone is digital smoking gun evidence of his close involvement in this plot," said Taylor. "We've already seen some of it. He's clearly one of the key players fanning the flames of the conspiracy theory that led to the attack. But there could be more damning evidence, more connections. What I worry about is potential ties to some of these extremist groups. We know other people in Donald Trump's orbit were directly engaging with the people who committed acts of violence. Was Rep. Perry? I think there's probably more for investigators to find there. It's probably one of the reasons the Justice Department has been seeking out that device. He's proven himself to be a key interlocutor in that." Rs literally can’t wait for TFG to shuffle off this mortal coil You can’t make this kind of stuff up: Journalist Reports Pro-MAGA GOP Insiders Secretly 'Can't Wait Until This Guy Dies', Ed Mazza, HuffPost, January 31, 2023. “They (Rs) all wanted him gone, but nobody wanted to confront him directly,” Coppins said Monday on CNN. “There is just this fear that if they go after him or if they try to rally around somebody else they’ll spark a backlash from his base.” He explained on CNN and in his latest report on The Atlantic that party insiders are hoping something happens to remove Trump from the scene, such as an indictment. But there’s also another secret hope among those silent anti-Trump Republicans. “You have a lot of folks who are just wishing for [Trump’s] mortal demise,” former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) told Coppins, according to his report in The Atlantic. “I want to be clear: I’m not in that camp. But I’ve heard from a lot of people who will go onstage and put on the red hat, and then give me a call the next day and say, ‘I can’t wait until this guy dies.’”✂️ “I was taken aback by how often I heard this,” (Coppins) said. “I thought it was kind of a morbid, dark joke at first. But I heard it so often that it started to become clear that this was actually what a lot of Republicans believe and it just speaks to the desperation in the party.” TFG in hot water, you hate to see it lol The fact that it was his own vanity that caught him out is 👩‍🍳😘: Trump in Even More Legal Hot Water After Lying to Judge, Jose Pagliery, Daily Beast, January 31, 2023. Former President Donald Trump appears to have lied in sworn court records, opening him up to severe sanctions by a New York judge who has already lost his patience and threatened to punish him before. Trump claimed he wasn’t the president of the Trump Organization during his four years at the White House, despite previously testifying that he was an “inactive president.” And he claimed that he didn’t have a financial stake in a partnership with the real estate company Vornado, even though he previously testified that he did. ✂️ The Trumps, desperate to avoid the collapse of their company, initially tried to disqualify the AG and stop her from accessing company records. But when Judge Engoron threatened to sanction lawyers for incessantly making “frivolous” legal arguments, the Trumps last week were finally forced to answer James’ lawsuit with actual defenses. The result was a legal document that read like a joke, with Trump attorney Alina Habba going as far as claiming there is formally no such thing as the “Trump Organization’—a ridiculous position, given that it’s a billion-dollar company Trump used to build his reputation over decades. And AG James is on it New York attorney general calls for new sanctions against Donald Trump, Jonathan Stempel, Yahoo News, January 31, 2023. NEW YORK (Reuters) -New York's attorney general on Tuesday asked a judge to sanction former U.S. President Donald Trump, his adult children, the Trump Organization and their lawyers over their responses to her $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against them.✂️ In a letter to the Manhattan judge overseeing the case, Arthur Engoron, James said many responses were "demonstrably false," frivolous or otherwise improper. She said the Trumps should lose some of their defenses, as well as face sanctions. "The court has already admonished defendants and their counsel for their continued invocation of meritless legal claims but exercised its discretion in not imposing such sanctions," the letter said. "It does not appear that this point was taken." Speaking of hot water... It appears that the water is getting hotter for WhatsHisNameGeorgeAnthonyDevolderSantosWhateverHis NameIs and possibly he is getting ready to get out of dodge completely. Note that — even though he is “voluntarily stepping down” from committee assignments, the Democrats are definitely not letting up on the pressure (and rightly so!): Rep. George Santos voluntarily steps down from House committee assignments, Barbara Sprunt, NPR, January 31, 2023. Embattled New York Republican Rep. George Santos is voluntarily stepping down from his committee assignments amid outcry over his fabricated biography and ongoing questions about his personal and campaign finances. Ten bucks says many more Rs will go down with the Santos ship... "With the ongoing attention surrounding both my personal and campaign financial investigations, I have submitted a request to Speaker McCarthy that I be temporarily recused from my committee assignments until I am cleared," Santos said in a statement.✂️ Several Republican members of the House as well as Republicans in his New York district have called on Santos to resign. Santos did not take questions from NPR Tuesday morning but has repeatedly said he has no plans to resign. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. had previously pushed for an ethics review of Santos. "Half-measures like voluntarily taking himself off his committee assignments are not good enough for the people of New York's third congressional district, or for the American people," Torres said in a statement. "He was a disgrace yesterday. He's a disgrace today. And he'll be a disgrace tomorrow. He should resign from office immediately." Nassau County GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo recently called Santos' run for office a "campaign of deceit, lies, and fabrication." "He has no place in the Nassau County Republican Committee, nor should he serve in public service or as an elected official," he said. "He's not welcome here at Republican headquarters for meetings or at any of our events." Luttig not letting TFG off easy Judge who told Pence not to overturn election predicts ‘beginning of end of Trump’, Michael Pengelly, the Guardian, January 31, 2023. The conservative judge who convinced Mike Pence he could not overturn the 2020 election has predicted “the beginning of the end of Donald Trump” – the former president who incited the January 6 insurrection but is now trying to return to the White House. Speaking to the Washington Post, J Michael Luttig also made a common comparison to another notorious former president, Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 over the Watergate scandal. “What Nixon did was just an ordinary crime,” Luttig said, referring to the cover-up of a break-in at Democratic headquarters. “What Trump has done is quite arguably the worst crime against the United States that a president could commit.” 🎶 Music for Republicans 🎶 🌎 Good News for the Planet 🌍 Biden administration flexing its muscles for the greater good — again EPA stops the Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay with rarely used power, Isabelle Ross, KDLG, January 31, 2023. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday morning that it is effectively killing the controversial Pebble Mine project in Southwest Alaska. The decision caps a decades-long battle over a region that is not only home to one of the world’s largest deposits of copper and gold, but also the world’s largest wild salmon run. The EPA says the mine would cause too much damage to the salmon habitat, and it’s banning certain mining activities at the Pebble deposit. United Tribes of Bristol Bay Executive Director Alannah Hurley called EPA’s decision historic. It’s a move some Bristol Bay tribes have pushed the EPA to take for 13 years.✂️ The EPA is exercising its rarely-used “veto authority” under section 404-c of the Clean Water Act to prohibit mining the Pebble deposit. This is the 14th time in the history of the Clean Water Act and just the third time in the past 30 years that the federal agency has done so. Hurley thanked the Biden administration multiple times; she pointed to its nation-to-nation discussions with the region’s tribes and said the federal government consulted with tribes when the state would not. She also said tribes will continue their efforts to protect the region. American legacy car manufacturers competing for EV market share Big car manufacturers competing to get the lion’s share of the EV market? YES PLEASE! There are few better indicators that EVs are here to stay (along with other green energy infrastructure) than to see the legacy ICE vehicle manufacturers throw down for them. Corporations are all about dollars and cents and they clearly see that the big bucks will be in EVs in the long term, so they want to corner the market now in the nearer term. The article kind of waffles on the robustness of the market demand, but remember Biden’s big infrastructure bill (mentioned a couple of times upthread 😊) includes money to build out EV charging infrastructure across the country. I think once the worry about being able to keep “fueled up” is removed, the demand for EVs will leap. Hopefully, the legacy car producers will have rolled out lots of affordable EV models to meet that demand. My money is on them doing so and soon — because it’s going to make good business sense. The EV wars are here and it’s ‘now or never’ for major players like Ford and GM to gain ground against Tesla, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, Will Daniel, Fortune, January 31, 2023. After years of dominance in the booming electric vehicle (EV) market, Tesla’s competition is gaining ground. Legacy U.S. automakers are taking market share from the EV giant in North America, and the Chinese firm BYD is now the world’s top EV seller globally. But Elon Musk and company are fighting back, and they may have just started “a major EV price war” in the process, according to Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives.✂️ “There is a window of opportunity to gain share…and 2023 is a pivotal year that will establish the winners and losers in this EV landscape,” he wrote. “It’s now or never for Ford, GM, and the others.”✂️ “​​With all Street eyes focused on GM’s earnings this morning, the company came out swinging and delivered an exceptionally strong performance on the top and bottom line, further showing that demand is still strong and the shift to EV is increasingly underway,” Ives wrote. GM isn’t cutting jobs either, or prices, and instead announced a $650 million investment to develop a lithium mine in Nevada with Lithium Americas this week. EV companies have been looking to bolster their supplies of key elements like lithium used in the production of EV batteries. Clean energy is cost effective Clean energy is cheaper than coal across the whole US, study finds, Jeff St John, Canary Media, January 31, 2023. Now, with Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and federal financing on the table, the coal-to-clean transition is not just more cost-effective than ever before — it can also be accomplished by building clean energy close to retiring coal plants. So says the latest Coal Cost Crossover report from think tank Energy Innovation. The report finds that all but one of the country’s 210 coal plants could be shut down and replaced with clean energy and batteries at a net savings to energy consumers, up from 72 percent of coal plants as of Energy Innovation’s last such analysis in 2021. What’s more, nearly all of the country’s coal plants — 205 of 210 — could cost-effectively be replaced by renewable energy built within about 30 miles of the existing plant, the report finds. That’s a result of the Inflation Reduction Act’s additional tax incentives for investments that help revitalize coal communities, as well as the law’s creation of a program to make low-interest loans to redevelop dirty energy sites to produce carbon-free energy, said Michelle Solomon, Energy Innovation policy analyst and report co-author. Climate solutions and building community resilience Tribal Solar Projects Provide More Than Climate Solutions, goodgoodgood, January 29, 2023. For tribes like those Covenant Solar works with, the switch to solar power is urgent to mitigate the long-term impacts of fossil fuels. But it is also a way to strengthen tribal self-determination through workforce development and energy independence from often exploitative, non-Native-run utilities. “We are disrupting the broken fossil fuel-based energy system,” says Covenant Solar founder Cheri Smith. “This is economic development with really high human impact.”✂️ Covenant Solar and Native Sun both take a systems-based approach to renewable energy development. In addition to solar installation, workforce development and technical training are key aspects of their work — with a long-term goal of establishing tribally owned solar utilities. Today, Covenant Solar is helping develop three megawatts of solar power at Northern Cheyenne that will provide power for utilities, homes, and businesses. The dozen solar panel installers Covenant Solar trained at Northern Cheyenne are now going to other tribal communities in the Great Plains to train tribal community members to be solar installers and get jobs in the field of renewable energy. Monarch population increased for second year Monarch butterflies wintering in California rebound, Olga R Rodriguez, AP, January 31, 2023. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The population of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has rebounded for a second year in a row after a precipitous drop in 2020, but the population of orange-and-black insects is still well below what it used to be, researchers announced Tuesday. Volunteers who visited sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving tallied more than 330,000 butterflies, the highest number of these insects counted in the last six years. It was a promising rebound after the annual winter count in 2020 recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies. In 2021, the number recorded was 247,000. “I think we can all celebrate and this is really exciting,” said Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society, a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on the conservation of invertebrates. “We were all so relieved last year when we had about 250,000 butterflies, and to see that number tick up even modestly this year it’s really a good sign that we’ve got a second chance.” 🎶 Music for Butterflies 🎶 🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙 🐩 A curious Colorado bear strikes a pose for 400 selfies on a wildlife camera, Kaitlyn Radde, NPR, January 27, 2023. Humans aren't the only species that take selfies, apparently. A motion-capture camera in Boulder, Colo., snapped hundreds of images of a curious black bear in November, local officials say. The city's Open Space and Mountain Parks department set up nine of the cameras to track and learn about local wildlife species while minimizing the presence of humans in sensitive habitats. One of the cameras had captured about 580 images — and about 400 of them were of the same bear. "These pictures made us laugh, and we thought others would too," a spokesperson for Open Space and Mountain Parks said in a statement. x Recently, a bear discovered a wildlife camera that we use to monitor wildlife across #Boulder open space. Of the 580 photos captured, about 400 were bear selfies.🤣 Read more about we use wildlife cameras to observe sensitive wildlife habitats. https://t.co/1hmLB3MHlU pic.twitter.com/714BELWK6c — Boulder OSMP (@boulderosmp) January 23, 2023 🦁 An update on our new baby lions! As you know, my city is the very best city anywhere. We have beautiful buildings, a beautiful lake and a beautiful diverse population. Our city has all sorts of interesting people and also all sorts of interesting animals! We have loads of amazing dogs and cats and we even have lions! ☺️ I am quite partial to lions myself, as Mama can tell you (nifty: no, she is not; she is afraid of lions and bears, but let’s humor her because she is trying really hard! 🥰). Last month, one of our lions, Zari, had three baby lions! Remember I told you about it? They are called cubs, although I don’t understand why since a lion is a big cat, I think the babies should be called kittens. 🤔 Then again, foxes are in the canine family like me and yet their babies ARE called kits, not puppies. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Come to think of it, I believe beavers’ babies are also called kits and I don’t think they are like cats at all! 😲 None of this makes any sense! 🙃 Anyway! So Zari had her babies a few weeks ago but she is understandably not going to let anyone — human or feline — near them at the moment. So we don’t even know if they are boy kittens or girl kittens or a combination of both! OOPS! 😅 I said “kittens”! I mean CUBS. But luckily for us, the smart people at the zoo have a camera set up so they can keep an eye on the family in case any trouble arises. And thanks to that camera, we have photos of the cute little kit—cubs! YAY!! Lincoln Park Zoo sharing photos of 3 new lion cubs, Jeramie Bizzle, CBS, January 26, 2023. CHICAGO (CBS) – Here's something to start your day off on a good note. Check out these baby pictures from the Lincoln Park Zoo. The three lion cubs were born about two weeks ago to mom, Zari. They're still out of sight from the public while mom and the cubs continue to bond. The zoo says they'll know the sex of the cubs in another month or so when they have their first exam. x This may be our cutest #LionWatch update yet! Zari’s three cubs are progressing well and now have their eyes open to the world around them, which is another big milestone. Zari & the cubs will remain behind the scenes for several more weeks as the cubs grow in size and strength. pic.twitter.com/dvCVqrVbPw — Lincoln Park Zoo (@lincolnparkzoo) January 25, 2023 🎧🐶 Here’s something fun to listen to, if you like to listen to stuff! It’s an interview on Utah Public Radio about how dogs are featured in art throughout history because we have been so important to humans for years and years and even centuries! UnDisciplined: Man's best friend in life and art, Matthew LaPlante, UPR, December 2022. Given the role dogs have played alongside humans for tens of thousands of years, it should probably come as no surprise that they frequently show up in our art. They are often depicted as guiding us, supporting us, entertaining us, and helping us say things about ourselves to others. This week, we’re going to do a deep dive on this relationship and what it means about dogs and humans alike. Laura Gelfand is a professor of Art History, and a specialist in the history of dogs and wolves in art. (🐩 Please go to the link to find the thing to click on so you can listen to it! 🐾) Maybe an artist could paint me sometime! 👶 This is why I love babies (and puppies!): Babies feel an innate empathy towards dogs, study says, Matthew Rozsa, Salon, January 31, 2023. Raising a dog is a lot like raising a baby: both have a predilection for eating food off of the floor, lack the fine motor coordination to avoid making a mess when they eat, and speak in nonsensical sounds. The two of them also seem to share another bond, too: evidently, some innate tendency to communicate and empathize with dogs exists in human children. The findings have intriguing suggestions for how empathy is hard-wired in human children. Between 2015 and 2020, researchers at the University of Michigan studied the way toddlers react to unfamiliar dogs when those canine companions communicate distress. Among a group of 97 children (including 51 girls and 46 boys) aged 2 or 3 years — 44 of whom had dogs as pets — scientists found that, half of the time, they would assist a dog if the animal indicated that it wanted a toy or treat which had been placed out of reach. This conclusion is important because it reveals that children are capable of empathy and altruism toward animals outside of their own species. "It's been known for a long time that toddlers will go out of their way to help struggling humans, even strangers," study co-author Henry Wellman, the Harold W. Stevenson Collegiate Professor Emeritus of Psychology at University of Michigan, said in a statement. "But perhaps such altruism is specially evolved for and targeted toward other humans (who after all might help them back). But no, it applies to other animals too, like dogs they will never see again." That’s all I have for today! I will just add a nice song that I like ⬇. Bye for now! Luv, CG 💙🐾 🎶 CG’s Music Pick 🎶 🔬Cool Science 🔭 Look up! You can see a bright green comet making a rare trip across the Earth's sky, Juliana Kim, NPR, January 31, 2023. It's prime time to see the comet known as C/2022 E3, marked by its bright green nucleus and long faint ion tail. The comet has been visible for some time with telescopes and binoculars — but the best chance of seeing it with the naked eye is coming up on Wednesday, Feb. 1. This marks possibly the first time ever — or at least for thousands of years — that the comet has streaked across our sky.✂️ Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, the newly discovered comet is slated to draw nearest to Earth — 26.4 million miles away to be exact — meaning that night will be the best chance to see its glow unaided.✂️ Spectators in the Northern Hemisphere can begin to spot the comet's faint glow in the morning sky, as it journeys toward the northwest, according to Dyches. The comet will likely be visible to those in the Southern Hemisphere starting early February. More cool space science Scientists have published a new map of life, the universe and everything. Well, some of it. Hillel Aron, Courthouse News, January 31, 2023. CN) — Hundreds of scientists have been working for years on a new map of everything in the universe: the planets, the stars, the black holes, the bits and pieces of rock and ice floating in the lonely emptiness of space — in short, all the stuff. Well, not quite all the stuff. For one thing, the new analysis only looks in one direction in space, so what we're talking about here is ten percent of the sky, as seen from earth. And the map doesn't go to the very edges of the universe, because the universe, as you may have heard, is infinite. And the map isn't of how the universe is now, but of how it looked billions and billions of years ago. Think of it as a really, really old photograph of a really, really big chunk of space, one that includes not just matter we can see, but matter we can't see, dark matter, and know very little about, even though it makes up the vast majority of all substance in the universe. Milky Way Amazing CRISPR — what can’t it do? Crispr Wants to Feed the World, Jennifer Doudna, Wired, January 27, 2023. TEN YEARS AFTER its discovery, the implications of Crispr genome editing are profound and far-reaching, and we are only getting started. This tool, adapted from a bacterial immune system, allows us to cut and edit the genetic code in any living cell to make highly targeted changes and repairs. A small number of people with genetic diseases have been helped by Crispr therapies, highlighting the potential to impact the lives of those suffering from the approximately 7,000 genetic diseases with known causes. Trials are ongoing in diseases ranging from diabetes to infectious disease. In 2023, we will begin to benefit from new Crispr-based solutions in other areas. For instance, following on the heels of the initial clinical trial results, the first agricultural applications using Crispr have recently entered the market: A US Food and Drug Administration–approved edit to cattle genes re-creates a slick coat that is occasionally found in nature and allows cows to tolerate increasing temperatures; a Crispr-edited tomato, approved for sale in Japan, has enhanced nutritional qualities. In other crops, Crispr is being used experimentally to increase yield, reduce pesticide and water use, and protect against disease. The next space for Crispr innovations will be climate change, the defining fight of our times. In 2023, bold new efforts using Crispr to target climate change will begin. ⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️ ⚡️ Yer Wonkette: Arizona State Senator Named WADSACK Will Ban All The Drag Queens, That's Right, WADSACK, Evan Hurst, Wonkette, January 31, 2023. ⚡️ No kidding! The media is blowing Biden’s documents ‘scandal’ out of proportion. Margaret Sullivan, the Guardian, January 31, 2023. ⚡️ Trump served with $10 million wrongful death suit as his legal woes escalate, Sky Palma, Raw Story, January 31, 2023. ⚡️ New compensation data shows inflation pressure fading, Neil Irwin, Axios, January 31, 2023. ⚡️ Gorgeous: The Existential Wonder of Space, Marina Koren, the Atlantic, January 31, 2023. ⚡️ America’s Fever of Workaholism Is Finally Breaking, Derek Thompson, the Atlantic, January 31, 2023. ⚡️FUN stuff: 6 activities to help broaden your horizons this year — just for fun, CBC Life, January 27, 2023. ⚡️Fascinating interview and fascinating new perspective: After cancer diagnosis, a neurosurgeon sees life, death and his career in a new way, Terry Gross Fresh Air, NPR, January 30, 2023. ⚡️ The link between our food, gut microbiome and depression, Jessica Wapner, Washington Post, January 31, 2023. ⚡️ 24 Of The Funniest Tweets About Married Life (Jan. 17-30), Kelsey Borresen, HuffPost, January 31, 2023. 💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗 Happy Wednesday, Gnusies! 🎶 Wednesday Music 🎶 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/1/2149837/-It-s-the-Rs-Year-of-Finding-Out-February-1st-Good-News-Roundup Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/