(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



From the GNR Newsroom: Its the Monday 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: 2023-04-10  

Welcome back to the Monday Good News Roundup, where your GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300 and Bhu) Gather up all the good news for you to enjoy.

So Yesterday was Easter, and we are also within Passover and Ramadan, so the statement of happy holidays has never been more appropriate than right now. Also Margaret Thatcher died on Saturday, which is something a lot of people also celebrate.

But enough of the downfall of that evil old person, lets talk about the downfall of the current set of evil old people. ON WITH THE NEWS!

Two pretty cool things happened in Texas over the weekend: Country star Kelsea Ballerini co-hosted the CMT Awards and used the stage to make salient statements on Tennessee’s drag ban and the recent mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School; and a federal judge ruled that at least 12 books that had been removed from Llano County public libraries for containing LGBTQ+ and racial content must be returned to those shelves within 24 hours. On Saturday, Judge Robert Pittman ruled in the favor of seven individuals who, in April 2022, sued county officials, claiming the books’ removal violated their constitutional rights. That series of books included titles like Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings. The books were first taken off shelves when Republican lawmakers and community members claimed they were “inappropriate” and “pornographic filth,” due mostly to the fact that they featured narratives of marginalized and LGBTQ+ people. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio, accused county officials of removing and restricting the books from the public library system solely “because they disagree with the ideas within them.”

I think after the massive defeats in 2020 and last year, a lot of these assholes have just decided this was as good as they were gonna get and they were just gonna go ahead and turn their particular corners they already control into their own private dystopian hellholes. Luckily we’re fighting back against their ignorance and wickedness every day. Its hard work, but we’re up to the task.

Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators. House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto, days after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it.

Its really amazing the level of pettiness and meanness that the GOP demonstrates. Like just think about it. They are picking a fight over this tiny thing, just so they can make a group of people feel uncomfortable. Really think on it. Its so utterly pathetic when you say it out loud. GOP lawmakers, I implore you, go out and touch some grass.

The story might have ended there, in defeat. But movements are stubborn creatures. If people fight long enough, they learn that losses are temporary and that victory can only come through a refusal to retreat. Last December, just a month after Democrats held their statewide majority in the midterms, the tenants’ rights group Housing Justice for All renewed its Good Cause campaign and then went even bigger, unveiling “Our Homes, Our Power,” a package of five bills intended to address the worst housing and homelessness crisis in decades. All of the proposals are important, but Good Cause remains the most crucial—not only because it has the power to save people right now, in the present, by slowing the constant stream of evictions, but also because it’s the only one that fundamentally reshapes the relationship between landlord and tenant. Housing activists have until June 8 to persuade state legislators to stand up to the real estate industry and protect their constituents.

I’m lucky that I have a really good landlord (Who is also my dad), some people aren’t so lucky, and they are getting fed up. Here’s hoping this works out for them.

Often relegated to extremely low-paying professions considered impure by dominant castes, caste-oppressed people suffer from educational and employment discrimination and other forms of direct and structural violence both in South Asia and the United States. In 2018, the Bay Area-based civil rights group Equality Labs released a survey on caste discrimination in the United States. Among other findings, it noted that two-thirds of the caste-oppressed Dalit population faced bias at work and that one in four faced ​“verbal or physical assault.” Kumbhare was one of nearly 400 caste-oppressed people and allies who testified in support of an ordinance outlawing caste discrimination in Seattle, according to a campaign email by City Council member Kshama Sawant. Introduced by Sawant, the ordinance — which frames caste as a human rights issue — passed on February 21, making Seattle the first jurisdiction in the country to outlaw caste discrimination. The law adds caste as a protected category in Seattle’s equal rights law alongside 20 other protected categories including race, gender, sexual orientation and disability.

I still can’t believe this wasn’t illegal in the states already. Still, I’m glad its getting addressed now.

What happens when old buildings have reached the end of their life, either their useful life in terms of safety or their desirable life in terms of modern living? For the hundreds of thousands of homes that meet their end in the U.S. each year, the answer is demolition. More than 600 million tons of debris from the construction and demolition industry (known as C&D for short) was generated in the United States in 2018 alone. The demolition portion itself is responsible for more than 90 percent of C&D debris. While the biggest contributor to demolition waste — aggregates like concrete — can be recycled and sometimes are, 145 million tons of construction and demolition waste still ends up in landfills. In recent decades, there’s been a growing movement towards deconstruction instead of demolition. Rather than flattening an old building, deconstruction opts to carefully disassemble a building instead, saving what’s salvageable from the landfill for reuse. This is exactly the mission of Minneapolis’ The Birch Group demolition company and Scrapbox Salvage reuse store.

That’s a neat idea, surprised no one has thought of it before.

Question though: If you deconstruct a haunted house, will the haunting transfer to whatever the repurposed items are used for? What are the rules here? I smell a movie franchise here.

Friends, a very big win last night in Wisconsin. Am grateful to the many of you who helped do the work to make it possible. I’m also really pleased with how this new platform here at Hopium allowed us to beam into the election last week with our discussion with WI Dem Chair Ben Wikler, and then encourage one another to do shifts, keep writing postcards, keep donating - all that. This is not something I could have done at my old home, NDN, and I am excited about what we are building here, together. A few notes this very happy morning: We got to 55% in Wisconsin! - A core understanding here at Hopium is that the historic extremism and awfulness of MAGA, reinforced in recent days by DeSantis’ lurch to the right and the GOP’s rancid rallying behind their serial criminal frontrunner, gives us the opportunity to grow our coalition, expand our vote and get to 55% (up from Biden’s 51.4%) next year (here’s the original “Get to 55%” memo and a companion video).

Despite the continues movements of our enemies last week, we had some super good news out of Wisconsin. This is really seeming like the death knell of the GOP. We just have to keep it up.

Hundreds of activists from across Guatemala walked along the shores of the majestic Lake Atitlán in the country’s western highlands in commemoration of World Water Day on March 22. In their hands they carried white flowers, which they left floating along the shores as an offering. The ceremony was held as part of the regional meeting of water activists to mark the international day meant to bring awareness to the water crisis around the world. This meeting was hosted by the local collective Comunidad Tz’unun Ya’, which has become one of the most active water rights defenders in the Central American country.

Good news out of Guatemala!

The practice of joining a workplace with the secret aim of organizing it is called “salting.” Westlake was addressing recruits at the Inside Organizer School, a workshop held a couple times a year by a loose confederation of labor organizers. At these meetups, experienced activists train other attendees in the art of going undercover. Speakers lecture and lead discussions on how to pass employer screenings, forge relationships with co-workers and process the complicated feelings that can accompany a double life. Most salts are volunteers, not paid union officials, but unions sometimes fund their housing or, later, tap them for full-time jobs. Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate that’s home to the new Starbucks union, hired Westlake as an organizer around the time the coffee chain fired him last fall.

I’m digging this. Its Guerilla unionizing. Now do this to the video game industry.

Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed a repeal of the state’s 1931 abortion ban, which the Democratically controlled state legislature had passed last month. “This is long overdue,” the Democratic governor, who campaigned on protecting abortion rights last fall, said in a statement on Twitter. The ban’s repeal came a day after a major victory for abortion rights advocates in neighboring Wisconsin, where liberals won control of the state Supreme Court, which is expected to decide a lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 abortion ban. In the wake of last summer’s US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, protecting abortion rights has proven to be a galvanizing force for Democrats and independents, which helped power the Democratic majorities that made the Michigan repeal possible.

Every day in every way we are making the GOP regret repealing Roe vs. Wade.

Much digital ink has been spilled, and many hands have been wrung, about the State Senate fly in yesterday’s Wisconsin rejuvenating election ointment. The massive news, and balm for progressive Badgers’ weary souls, was “Judge Janet” Protasiewicz’ ten-point win over whiny two-time loser Dan Kelly, which tips the Wisconsin Supreme Court to a 4-3 progressive majority! (Joke going around the Book of Faces: “How is Dan Kelly spelled? With two Ls and zero Ws!!”) The ink-spilling hand-wringing, alas, is about the special election in the 8th district of the state senate. Republican Alberta Darling won the seat by over 10,000 votes in 2020, but retired December 1, 2022, setting up yesterday’s contest between Republican Dan Knodl and Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin. While Habush Sinykin put up a strong campaign, after the results were complete she fell short of Knodl’s total by a mere 1300 votes. (No recount — she has conceded — but that was delightfully close!) The extra juice in that race was the possibility of denying the Republicans the supermajority they had won in the appallingly-gerrymandered state senate in 2022. As I recall, at the time, there was very little chatter about the impeachment-conviction power this technically afforded them. Instead, there was more a ragged sigh of relief — Governer Tony Evers (D) had won a second term, and the Republicans did NOT win a supermajority in the Assembly and therefore could not override a gubernatorial veto

Yeah, in case you were worried about Wisconsin. I know the GOP are sore losers and tend to try and eff things up on the way out, this time they wont.

In Chicago on Tuesday, hope won out over cynicism. Brandon Johnson — a former teacher, union organizer and ​“little known county commissioner” as public radio outlet WBEZ Chicago put it — was elected mayor over entrenched Democratic Party operative Paul Vallas, who was backed by the city’s police union and a slew of prominent political leaders. While the election was close — with Johnson claiming 51% of the vote — the result signified Chicagoans putting their faith in progressive proposals and a candidate who has devoted his life to teaching, community organizing and organized labor. By contrast, Vallas promised to expand and further empower the police force, and to institute policies like making it illegal to ​“threaten, engage in, or promote looting, damage to property or violence” — an alarming incursion on free speech and organizing.

Great news for Chicago. Here’s hoping more cities follow their lead.

And now, for the weather, we are expecting a GNR Lightning round….RIGHT NOW!

Next hot fast food item: Electric car charging

Global renewables capacity grew 10% last year

3D printing promises to change architecture forever

Gene therapy cure for sickle cell anemia on the horizon

New nanoparticles can perform gene editing on lungs

Bacterial nanosyringe could deliver gen therapy to cells

Biden administration releases road map to upscale energy storage

Kentucky Governor legalizes medical Marijuana

California, LA and Japan sign into green shipping initiative

FDA approves over the counter opioid overdose treatment

Loneliness in the US subsides after Pandemic high

Alright, good lightning round, now back to the sunny skies of our regular GNR posting.

Across North America, people are beginning to think differently about how we build our cities. Public and private community leaders in greater Peoria, Illinois, are no exception: they’re getting out on the ground and physically taking in the transportation abilities of their city. Through a series of walk audits, they are not only observing the urban environment, but starting to understand how small, simple actions can profoundly shape it. On their latest walk audit in February 2023, a group of locals—including a local transportation engineer—were led by Mark Fenton, an activist and transportation consultant who helps communities figure out how to build more walkable places.

Cities are made for walking.

Yesterday, I wrote about the emergence of a possible plan B for the debt ceiling: Rather than try to extract a ransom, some Republicans want to attach a debt-ceiling hike to a bipartisan plan to reform infrastructure permits. But the response to that column made me realize I brushed too quickly past a step in the argument that not everybody has arrived at, so let me make that piece of the case more explicit: The whole hostage scheme is unraveling. Republicans have begun to admit they can’t pass a budget plan before the debt limit expires. “I don’t see how we get there,” Financial Services Committee chair Patrick T. McHenry said. “And this is a marked change from where I’ve been. I don’t even see a path.”

Once again the GOP prove they don’t actually know how to run things. Maybe that’s why the Dems keep beating them.

Light rail is the spine of the South End, and most of the new development is built very close to the line. You might say that light rail forms a primary thoroughfare through the district. The Lynx Blue Line was built through the middle of underutilized blocks on the South End, and a multiuse path about 10 feet wide was constructed on both sides of the tracks. This path, which goes on for miles, is a generator of urban frontages. New development fronts this path, creating another layer of urbanism between the old street network. The path is very active with pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists from early morning to late in the evening. Architect Terry Shook, a CNUer based in Charlotte, jokes that the South End is an overnight success 25 years in the making. Shook and developer Tony Pressley in 1996 gave the South End its name in the mid-1990s, but it wasn’t until 2002 that the first large new residential project opened. Even then, it took a while for development to boom in the area. After the Blue Line opened, the nation entered the Great housing bust. When development resumed, the South End was ground zero in Charlotte.

More good news about city redesign.

It wasn’t long ago that Europeans were lamenting the United States’ lack of progress on climate. Now they’re racing to keep up. When President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, he wasn’t just altering U.S. domestic energy policy. The law’s tax credits for domestic manufacturing and clean-energy project construction changed the global calculus of where companies should operate. Now even U.S. allies are scrambling to hang on to a piece of the booming clean-energy industry. In mid-March, the European Union proposed policies to ensure the bloc’s clean-energy manufacturing base grows enough to meet 40 percent of its deployment needs by 2030. On Monday, France’s finance minister unveiled a set of tax incentives and subsidies to encourage clean-energy manufacturing in the nation and ​“reverse a long-term disindustrialisation trend in the country,” Reuters reported. Lapsed EU member Great Britain weighed in too, but mostly to express distaste for this ​“distortive global subsidy race” with allies.

Three cheers for the Biden administration!

Just south of San Isidro, a tiny Texas town near the U.S.-Mexico border, an abandoned gas exploration well is once again being put to work. A 10-foot wellhead rises from a dusty square lot that sits on a 500-acre cattle ranch. Long pipes snake above and below the ground, though the machinery isn’t dredging up fossil fuels. Instead, engineers are tapping the Earth itself. Sage Geosystems, a three-year-old geothermal energy startup, is using the old well as a test bed. Last year, the company created a 3,200-foot vertical reservoir deep underground using its novel fracturing technology. For the last six weeks, Sage has been pumping and storing large volumes of water in the artificial reservoir, which sits in the rock formation at an average depth of 9,500 feet. The reservoir’s water pushes up against the rocks around it, building up mechanical pressure in the fracture. When the crew opens a wellhead valve at the top, the pressure releases, pushing out the water with such force that it can drive a turbine and generate electricity.

A neat development in Texas. I love living in the future.

That seems a good as place as any to stop for this week. We started in Texas, we end in Texas. Full circle. And speaking of circles I’ll see you guys next week when we circle on back to Monday Morning. Till then have a good week.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/10/2163077/-From-the-GNR-Newsroom-Its-the-Monday-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/