(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Good News Roundup for Friday, April 14, 2023: Making a Difference [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: 2023-04-14 my 299th gnr Welcome 🌻 to Friday’s Roundup of Good News! As others have remarked, what a week! All eyes have been on Tennessee as the Justins have been expelled and then reinstalled, while news anchors have twisted their tongues over “legislature” and “legislator” (and they have messed up repeatedly). Despite the mangling of several words, all the attention has made a difference: The Justins have been reinstated, and they now will gain so much more attention Cameron Sexton, the speaker, with the light shining on him, has been found to be violating the TN state constitution because he does not actually live in the district he represents. Moreover, this may cause some problems with his per diems. Stuff we would not have learned if it were not for the brouhaha. the district he represents. Moreover, this may cause some problems with his per diems. Stuff we would not have learned if it were not for the brouhaha. Governor Lee actually took action on guns — better background checks and being able to take guns away from those who are deemed a danger to themselves or to others. Melissa Brown,The Tennessean, more below Last week, when I was finishing the GNR and just hearing about what was happening in Tennessee, I left the story out because it was such bad news (and it broke right before the GNR went live). I didn’t even know what to suggest. It means the attention we give to problems — the clicks, the letters, the protests — they make a difference. We’re making a difference, my friends. Yes, it’s annoying that we have to keep doing this, but it’s important. Come on in, dear gnusies, and see what the good difference-makers are doing. Regular Scheduled Programming No one here is naïve; we are aware of the many who are fighting to destroy our country. Some of us expected it: the cheating, the lying, the chaos, and yes, even the attempts to cling to power despite the clear will of the people. But we are here to read the efforts and the positive results of those (including us and our fellow gnus) who are working so hard to save our country from those very bad people. We are furious with them for what they are doing and we are letting them know. Remember: 💙 There are more of us than there are of them. 💛 They are terrified when we organize. THERE IS LOTS OF EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE TERRIFIED! 💔 They want us to be demoralized. The best way to keep up your spirits is to fight. So, take the time to recharge your batteries, but find ways to contribute to the well-being of our country and our world. 🗽 Biden as President ! 🗽 Biden, Harris and their administration have been hard at work. Here are the last week’s posts at the White House briefing room. 👎 Out with the Bad, In with the Good 👍 March inflation report hints at cooling Courtenay Brown, Axios After worrying inflation data so far this year, March's numbers offer room for guarded optimism. Yes, but: Price gains are still far too rapid, especially in sectors of the economy where inflation can be difficult to stamp out. Still, there are signals of disinflationary relief, with more set to come in the months ahead, even if they're not on track to happen as quickly as the Federal Reserve (or consumers) would like. By the numbers: Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.4% last month, barely slowing from February's brisk pace. In the year through March, core inflation was 5.6% — higher than the overall inflation index (5%) for the first time since 2020. Major chemical company no longer opposes ban on asbestos Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi, Pro Publica For decades, chemical companies fought attempts to ban asbestos, claiming they needed the potent carcinogen to manufacture chlorine. As recently as last April, in fact, the CEO of one of the last major companies still clinging to the toxic substance argued for it to remain legal. Acceptable alternatives “do not exist,” Olin Corp. CEO Scott Sutton told regulators. In a dramatic turnaround, Olin said on Tuesday that it would support a federal ban on the deadly mineral. ✂️ Supporters of a ban heralded Olin’s new position. “We are deeply encouraged that Olin Corporation has stepped forward to publicly say they are committed to ending asbestos use in the chlor-alkali industry,” said Linda Reinstein, the co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, in a statement on Wednesday. The EPA still needs to address resistance from the rest of the chemical industry. More fallout in Tennessee: x GOP FALLOUT IN TENNESSEE: Rep. Paul Sherrell, who recently suggested bringing back lynching as a form of capital punishment, has been removed from the House Criminal Justice Committee by Speaker @CSexton25. Sexton's office claims Sherrell was "very agreeable to this change." 1/ pic.twitter.com/IEfBrLW70s — Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) April 11, 2023 Go Dark Brandon, go! x Today, my Administration is announcing our plan to expand health coverage for Dreamers, the thousands of young people brought to the U.S. as kids. We’re not done fighting for their pathway to citizenship, but we're getting them the opportunities they deserve in the meantime. pic.twitter.com/4eqNMMNxtt — President Biden (@POTUS) April 13, 2023 💣 Republicans: Party of Crimes and Chaos 💣 Oh! Special counsel is focusing on the fraud of the grift! Josh Dawsey, Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman, Jacqueline Alemany Washington Post Federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have in recent weeks sought a wide range of documents related to fundraising after the 2020 election, looking to determine if Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money, eight people familiar with the new inquiries said. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has sent subpoenas in recent weeks to Trump advisers and former campaign aides, Republican operatives and other consultants involved in the 2020 presidential campaign, the people said. They have also heard testimony from some of these figures in front of a Washington grand jury, some of the people said. The eight people with knowledge of the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. And there’s more: x Two former Directors of National Intelligence testified today in two separate federal grand jury investigations into the former president for espionage and an attempted coup. Just like... sit with that sentence for a minute. — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) April 13, 2023 R policies in the House are not helping them: x Brutal early assessment of Congressional Republicans via @NavigatorResearch - Job Approval 35%-59%, -48 w/indies - Inflation 37%-52%, -27 w/indies - Jobs/economy -17 w/indies Big yikes. pic.twitter.com/urwav7Am0t — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) April 13, 2023 🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver 💙 🚚 Biden administration improving privacy measures to protect doctors who do abortions Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo The Biden administration released a raft of proposals related to keeping abortion-related health information private Wednesday morning. Some of the measures are specifically targeted to shield providers from prosecution, so far the primary way red states are seeking to criminalize the procedure. The headline announcement is that the Health and Human Services Department is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to strengthen privacy protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). “This rule would prohibit doctors, other health care providers, and health plans from disclosing individuals’ protected health information, including information related to reproductive health care, under certain circumstances,” per a White House fact sheet. “Specifically, the rule would prevent an individual’s information from being disclosed to investigate, sue, or prosecute an individual, a health care provider, or a loved one simply because that person sought, obtained, provided, or facilitated legal reproductive health care, including abortion.” Democrats deliver on the economy. x Job creation per month under Biden running at 50 times the rate of the last 3 GOP Presidents. Look at that R number - 10,000 jobs a month over 16 years. It's a stunning indictment of the modern GOP. 2/x pic.twitter.com/D4zjXf3XZu — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) April 7, 2023 and x One party - the Democrats - has reduced the annual deficit while in the White House. While the other - the Republicans - have repeatedly since it rise on their watch. Clinton got us to surplus. Trump had one of the worst fiscal track records of any President in our history. 4/ pic.twitter.com/J9IthkFjMY — Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) April 7, 2023 💜 Unity? 💜 Wow. The Arizona House just expelled a Republican member who deserved to be expelled. ABC15 PHOENIX — The Arizona statehouse has voted to expel Republican Liz Harris from the chamber. Harris was expelled by her peers in the House of Representatives on a vote of 48-11 Wednesday. The expulsion vote stems from an election integrity committee hearing conducted by Harris in February in which she invited a speaker who made unfounded accusations of bribery against members of the legislature, including the Republican Speaker of the House Ben Toma. The presenter also accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of being an integral part of the scheme. Harris faced an ethics investigation in response to the hearing. The House ethics committee concluded Harris broke house rules by damaging the “institutional integrity of the house.” You can find more background here. All the Ds and many of the Rs voted for the expulsion. And although I don’t know much about Liz Harris, she was definitely an election denier. Most Americans want sensible gun safety laws. And look at what just happened in Tennessee Melissa Brown, The Tennessean Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at strengthening background checks for firearm purchases, in addition to calling for lawmakers to pass an order of protection law to keep guns away from people who present a danger to themselves or others. "I’m asking the General Assembly to bring forward an order of protection law," Lee told reporters at a police precinct in Nashville. "A new, strong order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety, from those who are a danger to themselves or the population." “This is our moment to lead and to give the people of Tennessee what they deserve," Lee said. 📥 Actions You Can Take 📤 Tax-exempt organization complaint referrals. 13909. You can fill this out for the NRA and lots of other organizations. How about if some of us white folk go into some of the MAGA churches and video record what they’re saying? Voting rights. This may be the biggest issue threatening our democracy right now. Besides contacting your representatives at the state and federal level to do the right thing (depending on who they are), you can support and contact these organizations: ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union Democracy Docket — founded by Marc Elias, so important in fighting the challenges after the last election. Fair Fight — founded by Stacey Abrams 🌱Grass roots. Biden and Harris can do the top-down stuff, but we have to support from the bottom. I don’t know how to deprogram 75 million people, but some things have been written about, such as deep canvassing, and lots of people are talking about this. If you know someone (who did not storm the Capitol), then see if you can be pleasant. Instead of trying to reason with them (logic is obviously not their strong point) distract them with something else. We need to remove the sources of lies and to take down the temperature. If we get more of the Rs to wear masks and to get vaccinated and to vote for Ds, the country will be a better place. We need to coax some of them out of the rabbit holes and diffuse the anger and the crazy. 🏃 Run for something. If you want to run for something, but have no idea what to do, these people will help you. They also like money and volunteers to help those people who are running, so even if you’re not in a position to stand for office, you can help. Note: they are especially planning to target the 57 Rs in local governments who participated in the insurrection. 👎 Defund the seditionists. Defund the seditionists. This is a list with companies that sometimes have donated to the seditionists. The list is long. You will recognize many of the corporations, and you probably have a relationship with some — either you are a customer, a shareholder, or maybe even an employee. Contact them and compliment or complain, but let them know you are watching. Forward it to others. 🔎 Want to check out what’s going on with campaign contributions? Check out this diary. 👀 🐍 Schadenfreude 😈 Dominion judge will probably appoint special master to see if FOX withheld evidence Marshall Cohen, CNN News Wilmington, Delaware, CNN — The judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems’ massive defamation case against Fox News said Wednesday that he plans to appoint an outside attorney to investigate whether the right-wing network lied to the court to withhold key evidence, after repeatedly expressing exasperation and frustration with Fox’s attorneys. “I am very concerned… that there have been misrepresentations to the court. This is very serious,” Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said Wednesday at a pretrial hearing in Wilmington. The extraordinary move, on the brink of the trial starting next week, is the latest blow to Fox News as it tries to fend off the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit that Dominion filed in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. Given how awful the evidence has been, how could it possibly be worse? What the hell are they holding back? In the meantime, others are angry: Murdoch sued by FOX shareholder Dan Ladden-Hall The Daily Beast A Fox Corporation shareholder on Tuesday sued Rupert Murdoch, his son Lachlan, and other directors on the company’s board over claims they allowed Fox News to spread lies about the 2020 presidential election. Plaintiff Robert Schwarz is arguing that the board violated its fiduciary duty to the company by deciding to “chase viewers by promoting the false stolen election claims” which in turn exposed Fox to “public ridicule and negatively impacted the credibility of Fox News as a media organization that is supposed to accurately report newsworthy events.” Schwarz also alleges that “Fox knew—from the board down—that Fox News was reporting false and dangerous misinformation” about the election but was “more concerned about short-term ratings and market share” than the long-term damage of the lies. Alvin Bragg sues Jim Jordan Jonah E. Bromwich, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and William K Rashbaum New York Times The Manhattan district attorney on Tuesday sued Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio in an extraordinary step intended to keep congressional Republicans from interfering in the office’s criminal case against former President Donald J. Trump. The 50-page suit, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, accuses Mr. Jordan of a “brazen and unconstitutional attack” on the prosecution of Mr. Trump and a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. Mr. Bragg last week unveiled 34 felony charges against Mr. Trump that stem from the former president’s attempts to cover up a potential sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Lawyers for Mr. Bragg are seeking to bar Mr. Jordan and his congressional allies from enforcing a subpoena sent to Mark F. Pomerantz, who was once a leader of the district attorney’s Trump investigation and who later wrote a book about that experience. Mr. Pomerantz resigned early last year after Mr. Bragg, just weeks into his first term in office, decided not to seek an indictment of Trump at that time. Wish it could involve some real penalties, like time for Jordan in jail, but a civil suit like this also includes DISCOVERY. So it can be determined if Jordan has been collaborating with tRump and his lawyers. 📣 Let’s Honor Truth ☀️️ This week we’re honoring Pro Publica, which recently broke the story about the corrupt inJustice Clarence Thomas. I’ve heard about them for years but I regret to say that, despite this being by 299th GNR, I haven’t been using them as a direct source. Pro Publica digs into the numbers, especially financial numbers, and that’s where so much of the truth lies. They also provide useful information, such as how to file taxes without paying TurboTax. By the way, your taxes are due on April 18. That’s in four days. Pro Publica, for example, explains some of the loopholes used by the ultra rich, such as the tax deductions on yachts and private planes. Not only does this prevent the IRS from collecting the money we need, private planes are some of the worst offenders with respect to greenhouse gases. Well done, Pro Publica! 🌹 Let’s Celebrate Love ❤️ An oldie, but perhaps a bestie: x Happy 35th anniversary to the greatest television moment of all time. The moment Nicholas Winton was brought face to face with the hundreds of children he saved during the Holocaust.pic.twitter.com/mUgTsTTw3u — Goodable (@Goodable) April 12, 2023 Sometimes an organization really makes a difference. Now, I’m hoping that Goodable has done its research and that this ice cream company is as good it seems: 📎 Odds & Ends 📎 There are a lot of problems with polluted water in India. But here’s a nice story: x A 4-mi long dead river in India has been revived that had for centuries been a source of drinking water, irrigation for 2,000+ acres of rice & a lifeline for 500 fishermen. 3 decades of misuse & neglect led to the river becoming biologically dead; choked with weeds, & trash. pic.twitter.com/EsSB96xEQK — Pam Bowling (@PamBowling7) April 12, 2023 Odds, this time a moose: x A young moose caused a stir when it strolled through the front doors of a Providence Alaska medical facility Thursday afternoon in Anchorage — apparently without an appointment. (Video provided by Providence Alaska) https://t.co/OQVCNju8Oh pic.twitter.com/lAe9025J0X — Anchorage Daily News (@adndotcom) April 7, 2023 This story is from a while back, but I just saw it now: x Paul Waweru says his invention, the Ecomobilus bike, is far cheaper and easier to maintain than traditional motorbikes. It uses recycled batteries from discarded laptops.https://t.co/DfXUkhkPdy pic.twitter.com/1nA8rl0hE6 — Kevin James Morrison (@kevinsonofken) January 31, 2023 3D printing of vegan cheesecake (definitely in the odd category) Paige Bennett, EcoWatch Could the future of cooking be 3D-printing? That’s what researchers at Columbia University set out to investigate in a study that involved 3D-printing a seven-ingredient, seven-layer vegan cheesecake. The study is meant to examine the pros and cons of preparing food with 3D-printing technology. The study, published in the journal npj Science of Food, involved printing a layered cheesecake from edible food inks. The researchers tested multiple cheesecake designs using seven ingredients: peanut butter, strawberry jam, Nutella, cherry drizzle, banana puree, frosting and graham crackers. The most successful cheesecake test featured a graham cracker foundation for every layer of the cheesecake, and soft-but-sturdy peanut butter and Nutella were best for the supporting layers. Softer ingredients, like banana puree and strawberry jam, worked best nestled into those supporting layers. 🐦 I do a lot of other writing. A recent offering: Hunters of the Feather, a story about a thinker-linker crow who wants to save birdkind from extinction, and sequels, Scavengers of Mind and the brand-new Familiars of the Flock (They’re really good! They’re really cheap! Buy and review or rate positively! And Hunters is also available on Audible!) Other stories, based on Jane Austen novels — including a new one for lovers of Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s Advice to Young Ladies — and others on Greek mythology, can be found here. All titles are available through Kindle Unlimited, but I only get paid if you turn the pages. 💙 What You Can Do to Rescue Democracy 💙 It turns out that participation in democracy is not just an every-four-years event but requires active participation, like, whenever you can find time. Current projects: Look in the comments for Progressive Muse’s report on Postcards to Voters And some other ideas: You can relax and recharge. You can join protests and freeway blog. You can help register new voters. You can smile. You can say something nice to friend or a stranger. You can get out the vote for special elections. You can reach out to upset Republicans. We need to win some back. You can share your ideas below. 🌻 💙 “Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial, and victory is never assured.” 💙 President Joseph R. Biden 🌹 🌹 🌹 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/14/2162963/-Good-News-Roundup-for-Friday-April-14-2023-Making-a-Difference 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/