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Good News Roundup for Tuesday, November 28, 2023 — with an exciting announcement! [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-28  

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The media messing up

If it bleeds, it leads

As usual, Future Crunch nails it.

From Future Crunch:

Here's a collection of headlines about shoplifting in the United States from the last six months, taken from The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Vox, the Associated Press, The Guardian, Fox News, The Hill,and Forbes. Here are the data from the Council on Criminal Justice on shoplifting incidents in 24 major US cities over the last five years, showing a decline from a pre-pandemic trend of 45 per 100,000 residents to an average of around 36 per 100,000 this year. Which begs the question: does America have a shoplifting problem? Or does it have a journalism problem?

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Good news from my corner of the world

Portland Teachers’ Union and School District Sign a Deal

Portland’s historic first-ever teachers’ strike has ended with an excellent deal for the teachers. Portlanders were overwhelmingly supportive of the strikers, which I believe helped force concessions from the district. Another victory for labor!!

From Willamette Week:

The first-ever teachers’ strike in Portland is almost over. The school district and the teachers’ union announced they came to a tentative agreement [on November 26]. It’s not a done deal quite yet: Teachers still need to vote to ratify their new contract and the School Board will need to approve it at their meeting Tuesday. Still, students [returned] to school [on] Nov. 27, with a two-hour late start. The acrimonious Portland Association of Teachers strike has dragged on since Nov. 1, canceling 11 days of instruction. ✂️ Throughout bargaining, the two sides worked through issues primarily related to wages, planning time and class size. The union negotiated about a 13.8% cumulative cost-of-living increase over the next three years that will catapult more than half of Portland Public Schools teachers over the $100,000 annual salary mark by the end of the contract. Educators will also enjoy a major boost in planning time, from 320 minutes a week at the elementary level up to 410 minutes. The union backed down from its demand for hard caps on class sizes and ended up with soft caps with overage pay for teachers for each student their class exceeds the recommended number. “This contract is a watershed moment for Portland students, families and educators,” says PAT president Angela Bonilla. “Educators walked picket lines alongside families, students and allies—and because of that, our schools are getting the added investment they need.” ✂️ “This is a transformative deal that will improve the lives of students in Portland and have far-reaching positive effects for our students across the rest of the state,” says Reed Scott-Schwalbach, president of the Oregon Education Association.

Inside the new climate assault on the oil majors

From The Age:

The infernal heat that began killing people in the normally temperate north-west of the United States in June 2021 began with unusually heavy rain over China, which drove energy into the jet stream which crosses the Pacific and set off a cascading set of climatic events resulting in a heat dome that settled across parts of the US and Canada. In Multnomah County, Oregon, temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius [107 degrees Fahrenheit], 44.5 degrees [112 degrees F] and 46.6 degrees [116 degrees F] over successive days. Before that week began, the county’s record temperature was 41.6 degrees [107 degrees F], and its average high temperature was just 21 degrees [70 degrees F]. ...By the time it had subsided, the heat had killed 69 people. ✂️ Obviously, the heat dome hit on a broader front. ...But it is Multnomah County that has decided on a course of action that might have consequences around the world. The county is suing the global fossil fuel industry for $US50 billion ($76.2 billion) to cover costs of the heat dome and for future-proofing the county. It is accusing defendants, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, the American Petroleum Institute, Koch Industries and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, of executing “a scheme to rapaciously sell fossil fuel products and deceptively promote them as harmless to the environment, while they knew that carbon pollution emitted by their products into the atmosphere would likely cause deadly extreme heat events like that which devastated Multnomah County in late June and early July 2021”. Climate litigation is increasing around the world, but the Multnomah case is attracting significant attention. Partly this has to do with the lawyers saddling up to take on the oil majors, says Professor Douglas Kysar, a specialist in torts law and climate change at Yale University. In the past, in the US, the so-called oil majors cases have often been led by an activist lawyer called Vic Sher and the firm he founded, Sher Edling, an effective boutique outfit dedicated to the climate fight. But this case is being run by three large plaintiff firms and led by one from Texas, “which you know, for us, it’s like Saudi Arabia, it’s ground zero for the oil industry”, says Kysar.

Oregon first in US to allow law students to become lawyers through apprenticeships, not bar exam

From The Oregonian:

Passing the bar exam is no longer the only way to become a lawyer in Oregon. Students at the state’s three law schools can now bypass the grueling two-day test by logging hundreds of hours at a law firm and then submitting samples of their work for review under a new system approved last week by the Oregon Supreme Court. The Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination makes Oregon the first state in the nation to allow students to become lawyers through a post-graduation apprenticeship, though backers believe it won’t be the last. “Having different pathways to show your competence to practice creates a better bar,” said Adrian Tobin Smith, chair of the Oregon Board of Bar Examiners, which administers the test. “We’re excited to be the first and thrilled to have other states join us.” California, Utah and a few other states are already studying creating apprenticeship programs, Tobin Smith said. Many students are expected to still take the traditional exam, which consists of multiple choice and essay questions, because the uniform score allows admittance to more than 30 state bars. Conversations about having a practice-based admission to the Oregon bar have bubbled up periodically for decades, but the effort gained traction after the Oregon Supreme Court briefly suspended bar exam requirements in 2020 during the pandemic. For those seeking an alternative, the portfolio examination allows prospective lawyers to gain real-world experience rather than spend months cramming for a test that many lawyers say has little to do with their day-to-day responsibilities.

Capital Assistance for Local Farmers (CALF) Project Announcement

This is an innovative solution to a long-standing problem for small farmers.

From Friends of Family Farmers (OR):

FoFF [Friends of Family Farmers] is proud to announce the launch of the Capital Assistance for Local Farmers (CALF) Project! For the last decade we have consistently heard from our farmers that access to appropriate capital is a barrier to their success. Whether it is getting loans to purchase farmland, grants for upgrading environmental practices or implementing conservation strategies, or simply operating capital the likes of which are available to most other sectors of small business, our farmers have trouble accessing the resources they need. At the same time we have heard from government agencies and programs that there is huge investment in small farms and community food systems. So where is the disconnect? This new program brings together farm and food organizations across the state with lenders and government funders to bridge the gap, provide better technical assistance to farmers and generate feedback loops to make programs more accessible to the farmers we serve. FoFF convened this coalition with the help of a USDA Regional Food System Partnership grant that will facilitate this work for the next two years. We are so grateful to the partners who have contributed to the development of this program. Along with FoFF staff, the community partners bringing their farmers needs and perspectives to the table are Black Food Sovereignty Coalition, Adelante Mujeres, Willamette Farm and Food Coalition, High Desert Farm and Food Alliance, Coast Fork of the Willamette Watershed Council, Rogue Valley Food System Network, North Coast Food Web, Rogue Farm Corps, and the Oregon Community Food System Network. The funding partners coming to the table with us are Farm Service Agency, AgWest, NRCS, Jackson Soil and Water Conservation District, Oregon Department of Agriculture, and the Oregon Water Enhancement Board. ...We will be creating a resource inventory with key information about opportunities and projects for service providers to use when advising farmers across the state, and a plan for expanding one on one technical assistance and fund accessibility in the next phase of the project. The ultimate goal is for small and local market farmers to get a bigger share of the funds coming down for climate smart, local, and community oriented farming, create stronger farm businesses, and build a web of service providers to carry this work forward in the future.

Oregon’s first electric garbage truck hits Portland streets

🎩 to Jessiestaf (and friends Killer300 and Bhu) for mentioning this story on Monday 11/21. I’m boosting it here because it’s such a cool Portland story.

Another good news detail is that COR Disposal & Recycling is “the first entirely Black-owned waste management company in the state.””

From The Oregonian:

“You really have to get used to it,” said driver James Conner, who has been working for COR Disposal & Recycling, the truck’s owner, for over three years. “It’s very quiet. You step on the throttle and you don’t hear anything.” Backers have hailed the truck’s arrival as a milestone in Oregon’s clean energy transition, a harbinger of cleaner air and quieter operations in cities across the state while transforming local private and municipal fleets. Cars and trucks, including big rigs like garbage trucks, account for 35% of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. “It will create green jobs for our community while linking together social, economic, and environmental justice in ways our economy has never witnessed,” said Alando Simpson, COR’s CEO.

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Good news from around the nation

Cheaper gas and thriving labor: 5 economic trends we're grateful for

Click the link for details on each bullet point.

From Axios:

For all the gloomy forecasts about the U.S. economy — recession! unemployment jump! sticky inflation! — plenty of developments are underway that allow for some optimism and gratitude this holiday season. Americans are working. Real wages are rising. Productivity is surging. The banking crisis that wasn't. Gas is getting cheaper.

Michigan Legislature Passes Bill Expanding Automatic Voter Registration to Formerly Incarcerated People

The good news just keeps on comin’ from Michigan. Thanks, Dems!!

From Democracy Docket:

The Michigan Legislature passed a bill [on November 8th] that would greatly build on the state’s current automatic voter registration system and expand access to formerly incarcerated individuals. The legislation would require the Michigan Department of Corrections to work in conjunction with the secretary of state to automatically register eligible individuals to vote when they are released from incarceration, unless the applicable individuals decline to be registered. Currently, Michiganders are only automatically registered to vote when they obtain, update or renew their driver’s license or state ID. The Department of Corrections is not the only state agency that would be impacted. The bill would also mandate that the Department of Health and Human Services provide the secretary of state with information related to individuals eligible for voter registration who applied for Medicaid coverage — a move that could add more than 383,000 individuals to the voter rolls, according to the Institute for Responsive Government. ✂️ Additionally, Indian tribes within the state could request that the secretary of state allow the tribe’s governing body, or other designated representative, to submit information to the secretary’s office that would help register and preregister tribal members.

The U.S. is having a rail travel renaissance, but you probably didn’t notice

Yeah, that’s because the MSM doesn’t bother with news like this.

From Fast Company:

You can hear them as they plug in their devices at their seat. You can hear them as they pass through the hissing automatic doors between cars. You can hear them as they enter the spacious, sparkling restrooms. “Wow.” “Nice.” “Is this a new train?” To which I reply to my fellow passengers, “Yes. Yes, it is.” Siemens Venture cabs started rolling onto Amtrak Midwest routes in 2022, and by now they’re a ubiquitous sight in this corner of the Amtrak system. These are the same cab cars used by the privately owned Brightline system in Florida, and are considered the top of the line for passenger rail in North America. Northeast Corridor riders won’t be able to experience the new train smell until 2026, since the Airo trains slated for those routes keep getting delayed. For once, the future came early to the Midwest. Riding in these new train cars, as I did on four journeys this month, the excitement around the revival of passenger rail is palpable. State-of-the-art rolling stock is the most vivid sign that train travel is no nostalgia trip. It’s modern, it’s efficient, it’s comfortable, and it’s only getting better. Better is the operative word here. The Infrastructure Bill’s $66 billion investment in trains, combined with improvements that were already in the works, will not yield revolutionary changes to passenger rail. But over the next few years, these investments will lead to faster, more frequent, more comfortable, and more widespread service across the country. On several rail-friendly corridors—big city pairs less than 300 miles apart—train travel will go from an eccentric travel option to a perfectly logical one.

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Good news from around the world

Russia held these Ukrainian teens captive. Their testimonies could be used against Putin.

From The Washington Post (gift link):

The Russian missing child poster went up in Crimea soon after Rostyslav Lavrov escaped last month. “HELP FIND,” it read. “17 years old, born 2006 … Height 160 cm, thin build, dark hair, blue eyes. ...Anyone who knows anything about the whereabouts of the teenager is asked to report this.” The attached photo — which Lavrov said was taken several months ago when Russian authorities holding him against his will tried to issue him a Russian ID card — showed the Ukrainian teen sullen in a white shirt and tie. He is one of three Ukrainian teenagers who fled Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea this summer and shared their experiences with The Washington Post in lengthy interviews in Kyiv and Kherson. They each described systematic efforts by Russian officials to keep them in Russian-controlled territory. ✂️ Rostyslav Lavrov shows the Russian missing-person poster featuring him on his phone. Some of the Ukrainian children in Russia are too young to know their own names or citizenship. Others may be too scared to speak up. Some have already been adopted into Russian families — including by Russian government officials — or issued Russian identity documents. But accounts from teenagers, who are capable of describing their forced removal and detention by Russian authorities, contradict the Russian narrative that Ukrainian children are finding safety and happiness in Russia. They also pose an immense legal and political threat to Putin, Lvova-Belova and other Russian officials. Ukraine intends to use their testimony as evidence that Russia is systematically removing Ukrainian children from their homes and culture, erasing their identities to reshape them as loyal Russian citizens.

And here’s the story of another one of the escaped teenagers:

A deported teen finds his way home

From Meduza:

Bogdan Ermokhin, the orphan who was deported to Russia from occupied Mariupol and later served a Russian military enlistment summons, has returned to Ukraine just in time to celebrate adulthood. Ukrainian Children’s Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets announced the homecoming on November 19, Ermokhin’s 18th birthday. Bogdan Ermokhin with his cousin, November 19, 2023 According to Lubinets, Ermokhin returned to Ukraine following negotiations with Russian officials, mediated by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, Qatar, and the embassies of Ukraine and Belarus. ✂️ The public might never have learned about Ermokhin were it not for Commissioner [Maria] Lvova-Belova, who revealed to the pro-Kremlin media in the spring of 2023 that Russia’s enemies had tried and failed to “lure” the teenager to Ukraine through “manipulation and threats.” ...In early November, however, Lvova-Belova acknowledged that Ermokhin had again expressed the desire to go back to Ukraine. Around the same time, he published a video appeal to President Zelensky requesting the Ukrainian president’s help. Though he never renounced his Ukrainian citizenship, Bogdan Ermokhin received Russian citizenship in October 2022. He was reportedly summoned to a local military enlistment office outside Moscow a year later. According to Children’s Rights Commissioner Lvova-Belova, the letter sent to Ermokhin was merely the standard summons all men receive at 18 to verify their personal records in Russia’s military registry.

French Senate to Weigh Compensation for Victims of Anti-Gay Laws

Encouraging news.

From VOA News:

France's Senate is [debating] a draft law that would allow people convicted under anti-gay laws before 1982 to receive financial compensation. Thousands of people were sentenced under two French laws in force between 1942 and 1982, one determining the age of consent for same-sex relations and the other defining such relations as an aggravating factor in acts of "public outrage." ✂️ "One of the reasons why homophobia persists in today's society is that state laws, rules and practices legitimized such discrimination in the past," said Joel Deumier, co-president of SOS Homophobie, a non-profit organization defending lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights. For [the draft] to become law, first the Senate (the upper house of parliament) and then the National Assembly (the lower house) have to vote in favor. During this process there are often negotiations about the final wording of a bill to make it acceptable to both houses. There is precedent for the French initiative elsewhere in Europe. Germany decided in 2017 to rehabilitate and compensate around 50,000 men condemned on the basis of "paragraph 175", a 19th-century law criminalizing homosexuality that was broadened by Nazi Germany and repealed only in 1994. Austria is elaborating a similar approach, to become law next year.

Elon Musk calls strikes ‘insane’ as Swedish workers take on Tesla

Don’t try your arrogant oligarch shit in a social democracy, Elon.

From The Guardian:

In what has been portrayed as the largest fight in decades to save Sweden’s union model from global labour practices, the powerful trade union IF Metall has been leading a strike across eight Tesla workplaces in Sweden for five weeks. It is the first time workers for the US carmaker have gone on strike and on Thursday, Musk, the tech billionaire and chief executive of Tesla, made his feelings clear, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “This is insane.” He was responding to a social media post about secondary, or sympathy, strikes by Swedish postal services that are preventing licence plates reaching new Tesla cars. IF Metall, which has more than 300,000 members in Swedish industry, has said it will “keep going [with the strikes] for as long as needed”. It says it took action after Tesla refused to sign a collective agreement with its members. Collective agreements, which cover conditions including salary, pension, working hours and holidays and mean that, in theory, unions and employers regulate the labour market rather than the state, are seen as a cornerstone of Sweden’s labour market model. Although union membership in Sweden has fallen in recent decades, many workers are still in unions and about nine in 10 employees have collective arrangements. The Tesla strike has attracted secondary action from eight other unions and is threatening to spread to neighbouring Norway, where Fellesförbundet (the United Federation of Trade Unions), the country’s largest private sector union, said it was prepared to take sympathy action.✂️ The strike has gained support from transport and harbour workers, who have refused to load or unload Tesla cars in all Swedish ports; electricians who have refused to carry out service or repair at Tesla’s workshops; and charging stations and painters, who will not work on Tesla cars. Other sympathy strikes include those by service and communication workers, who have stopped distributing post and shipments to Tesla. “We are well prepared for a prolonged conflict,” said an IF Metall spokesperson, Jesper Pettersson.

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Good news in medicine

New 10 Minute Treatment Restores Sense of Smell and Taste in Patients with COVID Parosmia

I have a good friend who got a mild case of COVID but a bad case of parosmia. It’s good to see that innovative cures are being developed.

From Good News Network:

Using an image-guided, minimally invasive procedure, scientists may be able to cure the loss of smell, known as parosmia, occasionally found in people who were infected with COVID-19. While most COVID patients did recover their sense of smell over time, some patients however continue to have these symptoms for months, or even years, after infection. Lead author professor Adam Zoga said that post-COVID parosmia is increasingly being recognized, and that patients can develop distaste for foods or drinks they used to enjoy. ✂️ The treatment involves injecting anesthetic directly into the stellate ganglion on one side of the neck to stimulate the autonomic nervous system, which is accurately achieved with CT guidance. The minimally invasive procedure takes less than 10 minutes, and no sedation is necessary. It’s been used to treat several other conditions including cluster headaches, phantom limb pain, Raynaud’s and Meniere’s syndromes, angina, and cardiac arrhythmia. For the study, 54 patients were referred by an ear, nose, and throat specialist after at least six months of post-COVID parosmia that was resistant to pharmaceutical and topical therapies. The researchers added a small dose of corticosteroid to the anesthetic, suspecting that the COVID virus may be causing nerve inflammation. Follow-up data was obtained for 37 patients, with 22 of the 37 reporting improved symptoms at one week post-injection. Of these 22, 18 reported significant progressive improvement by one month post procedure.

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Good news in science

NASA Sends Data Over 10 Million Miles for the First Time Using a Laser

Data encoded in photons?? Mind-blowing.

From Good News Network:

Illustration of the DSOC flight laser transceiver communicating with the ground systems NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment has succeeded in sending and receiving communications via laserbeam, and is now set to transform how spaceships communicate with each other and with Earth in the spacefaring future. The test data was beamed about 40 times farther than the Moon is from Earth, from the recently-launched Psyche spacecraft to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. The DSOC experiment aims to demonstrate data transmission rates 10 to 100 times greater than the state-of-the-art radio frequency systems used by spacecraft today, and NASA says this is the farthest-ever demonstration of optical communications. ✂️ Radiowave communications from spacecraft like the Martian rovers for example take many hours to arrive back on Earth, which is just not fast enough for an industry that may have humans operating permanently on the Moon and traveling to Mars over the next two decades. DSOC is configured to send high-bandwidth test data to Earth during its two-year technology demonstration as Psyche travels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter as part of its primary mission objective to study a metallic asteroid. At Psyche’s farthest distance from our planet, DSOC’s near-infrared photons, the particles of light containing the megabytes of data in transit, will take about 20 minutes to travel back (they took about 50 seconds to travel from Psyche to Earth during the 14 November test). In that time, both spacecraft and planet will have moved, so the uplink and downlink lasers need to adjust for the change in location. ✂️ [The] data takes the form of bits (the smallest units of data a computer can process) encoded in the laser’s photons—quantum particles of light. After a special superconducting high-efficiency detector array detects the photons, new signal-processing techniques are used to extract the data from the single photons that arrive at the Hale Mountain telescope array.

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Good news for the environment

The New Generation of Freeway Fighters Is Assembling

Portland has a very active freeway-fighting group, No More Freeways. I’m happy to see that the various similar groups around the country are working to create a coordinated national movement. It’s desperately needed because departments of transportation tend to be stodgy, short-sighted, and overly influenced by industries that benefit from continued freeway construction.

From Bloomberg:

...in October, [Matt] Butler helped organize a first-of-its kind gathering in Cincinnati — a freeway fighter summit. Organized with the nonprofit America Walks, the event drew 46 people from 25 groups spread across 17 states, a who’s who of highway foes whose protests against road projects had made national headlines. The summit drew upon the members of the Freeway Fighters Network, a national coalition of groups fighting against highway expansions and, in some cases, advocating for removing aging expressways entirely. The goal: Create a national movement out of many disparate grassroots campaigns. “There is strength in numbers,” Butler said. “We should get to know each other and figure out the next steps.” ✂️ ...the warming planet is galvanizing the latest cohort of freeway fighters. In 2016, transportation surpassed electric power generation as the largest contributor to US greenhouse gas emissions. “You literally cannot solve climate change unless you solve transportation and you can’t solve transportation unless you change how people get around,” said Tony Dutzik, a senior policy analyst at the Frontier Group, during a panel on policy and legal strategies for freeway fighting.

Dominica takes a bold step to protect sperm whales and the environment

From Optimist Daily:

Sperm whales enjoying the ocean near Dominica In a monumental move for marine conservation, the Caribbean gem, Dominica, is set to establish the world’s inaugural marine protected area dedicated to safeguarding the endangered sperm whale. This reserve, which covers approximately 300 square miles of the island’s western waterways, is a huge step in protecting these majestic creatures and their important ecosystems. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit stated that the island is committed to preserving these “majestic and highly intelligent animals.” His message emphasized the overall goal of protecting not only the whales but also the health of the waterways and the environment. ...Sperm whales‘ distinct feces behaviors are critical to the health of ocean ecosystems and the sequestration of carbon dioxide. Shane Gero, founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, emphasized the significance: “Sperm whales are, in some respects, fighting climate change on our behalf.” With an estimated 500 sperm whales in the waters near Dominica, protecting this matrilineal community becomes critical. The vulnerability of female calves, as well as the sociocultural system, highlight the importance of conservation measures. Gero emphasizes the delicate balance, stating that “one calf being entangled can mean the end of a family.” Sperm whales confront a variety of threats, including ship crashes, entanglement in fishing gear, and the effects of agricultural runoff. ✂️ Dominica’s government prioritizes sustainable artisanal fishing within the reserve while also implementing efforts to conserve these gentle giants. A clearly defined shipping lane tries to reduce deadly collisions between ships and whales. The prime minister emphasized preparations for strict control to ensure that whale tourism regulations are followed, allowing for limited but respectful interactions between visitors and these spectacular creatures.

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Good news for and about animals

Brought to you by Rosy, Rascal, and the spirit of lovely Nora.

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