(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.'] Date: 2023-06-05 Welcome back friends to the Good News Roundup. Its Monday, which means its time for Bhu, Killer300, and myself, your loyal and lovable GNR newsroom, to bring a well curated selection of good news stories to start your week off right. Not feeling my best at the moment, I tried to have a salad for dinner. Nothing fancy, just some Spinach, some dressing, some Parmesan and croutons, and a cut up chicken breast. But as it turns out I was allergic to the spinach, which made me feel like crap all afternoon. Its frustrating that when I want to try and eat healthy, my body turns against me. Ah well. Enough a bout my personal problems, time for good news. IPON, Wis. — For Timothy Bachleitner, a Republican Party leader in this small Wisconsin city, his party’s collapse in a spring election for state Supreme Court was demoralizing enough. But what really hurt was when a Mack truck rolled through Ripon not long after, wrenched up a building revered as the sentimental birthplace of the GOP, and plunked it down on a commercial corridor a little more than a mile away. The Little White Schoolhouse, where a group of Whigs, Free Soilers and Democrats met to form a new, anti-slavery party in 1854, had been moved several times before, and the building’s owner, the Ripon Chamber of Commerce, said the new location would make it easier to accommodate visitors when Republicans hold their national convention in Milwaukee next year. But the National Register of Historic Places was not impressed, telling officials the schoolhouse would be delisted. The episode sparked a minor controversy in Republican Party circles around the state. As I said last week, we are in the twilight years of the GOP, they can only go down from here since they refuse to change course and just keep getting more horrible. Don’t take this as a cue to become complacent though; keep fighting. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed legislation late Tuesday that protects abortion rights for out-of-state patients seeking care in the state, as well as for providers within the state. In doing so, Lombardo became one of a handful of Republican governors to move to codify abortion rights — and the only swing-state GOP governor to do so in recent years. It could signal a degree of willingness within the party to moderate on an issue that has become a political liability following the Supreme Court’s decision last year striking down Roe v. Wade. That decision gave states wide latitude to set abortion policy. I think Lombardo is just smart enough to see the writing on the wall: Abortion rights are the nail in the coffin for the GOP. The best thing that Doug Lewin, president of Texas-based energy consultancy Stoic Energy, can say about the just-concluded Texas legislative session is that it could have been much, much worse. Lawmakers failed to pass bills that would have helped stabilize and clean up the Texas grid, but at least they also, at the last minute, avoided passing bills that would have crushed the state’s clean energy industry. So things are not great in Texas, but they could be worse. So good news we didn’t get the worst case scenario I guess. Minnesota is having a blockbuster year for climate policy. In recent days, the Midwestern state adopted a series of ambitious laws designed to slash greenhouse gas emissions, adding to the momentum kicked off by the 100 percent clean electricity standard enacted in February. More and more states are stepping up to help fight climate change, we just need to keep at it. America’s rural electric cooperatives, the member-owned and -operated entities that bring power to 42 million people and cover more than half the country, will soon get their biggest jolt of federal funding since the New Deal law that created them in the first place. And the terms for applying for a piece of the $10.7 billion in grants and loans are pretty wide-open — as long as cutting greenhouse gas emissions and making energy more affordable and accessible takes center stage. These are the parameters of two federal programs created by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act that were officially unveiled last week. The Inflation Reduction Act might be the most important legislature penned in the past decade. We need to make sure we get Biden a second turn and Dems full control of Congress so he can keep it up. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was surely hoping for a bump from his presidential campaign launch last week. But a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows no sign of improvement. In fact, the survey of 1,520 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 25-30, suggests that DeSantis may have actually lost ground against frontrunner and former President Donald Trump since officially entering the race for the 2024 GOP nomination during a glitchy Twitter Spaces event with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk. As I have said, no one is gonna vote for this knock off Trump as long as the real thing is around, when you lose a popularity contest to Donald Trump you have problems. Finland was dealing with an unusual problem on Wednesday: clean electricity that was so abundant it sent energy prices into the negative. While much of Europe was facing an energy crisis, the Nordic country reported that its spot energy prices dropped below zero before noon. This meant that the average energy price for the day was "slightly" below zero, Jukka Ruusunen, the CEO of Finland's grid operator, Fingrid, told the Finnish public broadcaster Yle. This is what the future looks like, and its beautiful. And speaking of electricity, its time for another GNR LIGHTNING ROUND Bendy solar panels as good as normal ones New battery to power airplanes and EV’s explained Everything you need to know about the world of alternative jet fuels Rural India hospitals turn to Solar Record low fossil fuel power in Brazil in February Wind Industry sets eyes on Japan for 2050. Scientists working to make electricity from thin air make breakthrough New Orleans to wipe out millions in medical debt New Superbug killing antibiotic found China sends first civilian astronaut to space More support for women’s rights than you think San Diego collectors surrender 65 artifacts to Mexico The power of humor in indigenous activism The fight against book bans is mobilizing a new generation of student activists When Antiwar activists salted the US Military And that does it for this week’s Lightning round, now back to normal stories. Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains,” philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said in the 18th century. Likewise, the right to strike is the fundamental source of a union’s power, and everywhere they have signed that right away. ​“No strike clauses,” which ban workers from striking during the course of a union contract, have been ubiquitous for decades — the price, companies argue, of having a contract at all. Breaking out of this power-sucking bargain is a vital task for the labor movement, if it ever wants to be able to stand up to corporate America in a meaningful way. The good news is that at least one union is actively trying. If strikes didn’t work, companies wouldn’t be working so hard to block them. More than a thousand Chicagoans of all ages, genders and sexualities packed tightly into the Metro for its sold-out ​“Chicago Loves Drag!” show on April 14. The balconies overflowed with people dressed in exuberant color, eagerly peering over one another to get a view of the night’s 41 performers. Drag kings and queens made the room their own, claiming the audience’s full attention with lip syncs, comedy acts and dance routines, a radiant variety show highlighting the broad — and liberatory — entertainment that drag offers. Proceeds benefited the work of LGBTQ organizations in Chicago and Tennessee, including the Trans Formations Project, Life Is Work, ACLU of Tennessee and the Tennessee Equality Project. I’m sure it would make Dr. Frank N. Furter proud if they were still with us (I watched Rocky Horror Picture show for the first time last Halloween). SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Senate Democrats plan to start fining their absent colleagues amid a month-long Republican walkout, a move they hope will pressure boycotting lawmakers to return to the chamber as hundreds of bills languish amid the partisan stalemate. In a procedural move Thursday, Democrats voted to fine senators $325 every time their absence denies the chamber the two-thirds quorum it needs to conduct business. The amount reflects lawmakers’ average daily pay, according to the office of Democratic Senate President Rob Wagner. The GOP, being the biggest babies in the world, have been walking out on and not doing their job whether than let the Dem controlled Senate actually pass anything. So basicaly, they don’t show up, they don’t get paid, the way it should be. After a bruising three-year fight, workers at school bus manufacturer Blue Bird in Fort Valley, Georgia, voted May 12 to join United Steelworkers (USW) Local 697. “It’s been a long time since a manufacturing site with 1,400 people has been organized, let alone organized in the South, let alone organized with predominantly African American workers, and let alone in the auto industry,” said Maria Somma, organizing director with the USW. “It’s not a single important win. It’s an example of what’s possible — workers wanting to organize and us being able to take advantage of a time and a policy that allowed them to clear a path to do so.” Once again, when we organize and strike, we win. The basic message here is, don’t just follow the news, get involved with politics. That’s what a lot of us are doing the GNR after all. It may not be much, but its something. And on that note, this weeks GNR comes to a close. Have a good week, and I’ll see you in the future. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/5/2173344/-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/