Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
It’s true! Even after a week that contained colossal legislative disappointments, new ICE attacks in Charlotte, and more deeply disturbing Epstein stories, we still have a chock-full list of wins to celebrate. Let’s make sure we take time to savor each one, because if we only focus on the dark stuff we’re going to lose our minds!
Thank you for all of the hard work you’re doing to ensure that week after week, these Sunday posts continue to be replete with positive news. I know that as long as you’re in the mix the victories will keep coming.
So let’s get to the good things that happened this week! Enjoy!
Celebrate This! 🎉
It’s official! Democrat Pulkit Desai, a U.S. Marine combat veteran, has been elected mayor of Parsippany, NJ. He defeated Republican incumbent James Barberio by 77 votes.
Adam Schiff announced he will attempt to block Trump from receiving a $230 million payout from the Justice Department with a new bill.
Tesla (TSLA) has fallen 18% since November 3, erasing more than $280,000,000,000 in market value, and is on track for its worst month since February.
Georgia’s State Election Board agreed to stop conducting its work behind closed doors after settling a lawsuit that revealed members had been using private emails and messaging apps to discuss election rules.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot fine the University of California or summarily cut the school system’s federal funding over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimination.
Democratic Socialist Katie Wilson has been declared the winner of the election for mayor of Seattle!
PA Governor Josh Shapiro signed a new budget into law that contains over $900 million in additional funding for K–12 public education, an $11 million increase for food security, $193 million per year in tax relief for working families, and more!
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani tapped Lina Khan to run his transition team! She’s the BEST! That team, by the way, is all female!
A Utah judge rejected a new congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers and adopted an alternate proposal creating a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
California high school graduation rates and other indicators of success are slowly but steadily improving according to new data released by the state Department of Education.
After Trump declined to attend, two Democratic governors, California’s Gavin Newsom and New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, went to Brazil to attend the COP30 summit.
Thousands of student protesters in Belgrade, Serbia, formed a human shield around a bombed-out military complex, vowing to stop Jared Kushner’s redevelopment company, Affinity Partners, from turning the historical monument into a luxury complex.
About a week after her arrest, a day care worker detained by federal immigration agents in Chicago was released from custody.
President Obama surprised dozens of veterans after their plane arrived in Washington for Veterans Day.
For the first time in decades, the Los Angeles city council overhauled its rent control rules, sharply lowering the annual rent increases facing tenants in one of the country’s most expensive cities.
A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom. (I’m pretty sure we called about this!)
South Park is basically devoting their whole season to trolling Trump, and their ratings are way up as a result.
America’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a rare statement on Wednesday in support of immigrants, their most forceful collective action yet that rebukes the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign.
Chuck Borges, the former SSA data chief turned DOGE whistleblower, announced he is running to represent southern Maryland in the state’s senate.
A unanimous Nevada Supreme Court revived the criminal case against six prominent Trump allies who falsely claimed to be legitimate presidential electors amid Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election.
Three-quarters of Americans support the release of all files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case
Mike Johnson finally swore in Rep. Grijalva, making her the 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition. A House vote on releasing the files will happen this week.
A groundbreaking study has discovered that sperm whales produce vowel-like and diphthong-like patterns in their communications, revealing a previously unknown dimension of complexity in their vocalizations.
Trump got booed at a Commanders NFL game.
Since launching its own methane-tracking satellite earlier this year, California has helped close 10 large methane leaks in the state. That pollution reduction is roughly the same as taking 18,000 gas-powered cars off the road for an entire year.
The final count is in, and it’s a flip! New Jersey’s Maureen Rowan ousted a two-term Republican incumbent in deep-red 2nd District State Assembly seat, by just 842 votes.
China’s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, analysis reveals, adding evidence to the hope that the world’s biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule.
Catholic sisters just sold land back to a Native American tribe in Wisconsin, the first transfer of its kind.
Cait Conley, Rebecca Bennett, Maura Sullivan, and Joanna Mendoza, all women veterans looking to flip GOP-held districts next year, launched a group called the Hell Cats, named after the first all-female Marine unit that served in WWI.
A Baltimore police officer who was seen chasing a person in his police cruiser has been charged with attempted murder.
In a win for Wisconsin voters, a state judge vacated a ruling that would have forced election officials to conduct mass citizenship checks — a move voting rights advocates warned could have wrongly purged some citizens from the rolls.
A District Judge ordered the release of at least 313 people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between June and early October.
5,000 New Mexico kids enrolled in universal free childcare in the first two weeks of the new program.
In a huge rejection of Trump, Indiana’s GOP state Senate leader declared the chamber will not convene in December to redraw maps.
In a move advocates say will reduce utility costs, a federal appeals court just upheld Biden-era emissions standards for commercial water heaters and consumer furnaces.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) will not seek re-election in 2026.
The Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking to overturn their 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Hormone therapies for menopause will no longer carry a black box warning. An FDA official said the warnings are based on outdated science and have discouraged women from taking hormone therapy.
New Mexico lawmakers approved $192 million in state funding to cover SNAP benefits through January 20 or until federal payments resume.
In Tarrant County, Texas, Democrat Taylor Rehmet came within three percentage points of winning Senate District 9 — which voted for Donald Trump by over 17 points in 2024 — flat out over his two Republican opponents. He now heads to a runoff with one of them.
A critically endgangered black rhino calf was born in the wild in Kenya.
For the first time, Maryland’s school board reversed a local county-level book ban.
Five and half billion dollars have been pledged at COP30 for a global forest fund to conserve and restore forests.
Boston’s steam heat system is being transformed into a clean “district energy” system to deliver warmth during frigid winters without release carbon emissions.
A paramilitary group that’s been at war with the Sudanese military for over two years said it has agreed to a humanitarian truce.
California returned 17,000 acres to a native tribe and reintroduced elk to the foothills of the San Francisco bay area.
More than 1,000 unionized workers at Starbucks are now on strike at 65 locations across the country to protest a lack of progress in labor negotiations with the company.
In Oregon, a federal judge permanently blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops in the state.
A flagship report says the renewable energy supply boom will officially end the fossil fuel era. The International Energy Agency’s flagship report says the rise in low-carbon electricity will make the clean energy transition ‘inevitable’, despite President Trump’s calls to carry on drilling.
Over 1 million balcony solar panel systems have been installed across Germany.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that 44% of Democrats said they were “very enthusiastic” about casting their ballot next year, compared with just 26% of Republicans.
In Oregon, salmon are making exciting progress in their return to the upper Klamath Basin, with biologists and the Klamath tribes celebrating a series of firsts as salmon reach areas where they have been absent for over a century.
No Surrender Fund, an “anti-MAGA” group, is airing an ad in North Dakota slamming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for claiming he’s a soybean farmer.
Back pay owed to federal workers for the time they were furloughed during the government shutdown is expected to land in their bank accounts early this week.
Dozens of churches in Britain—commonly heated by oil or gas boilers—are currently in the process of installing electric-powered heat pumps as part of eco-minded retrofit projects. Many churchgoers view the schemes as acts of Christian stewardship.
Key lawmakers say support is building in the House toward passage of the Epstein bill. Up to 100 Republicans, purportedly, could vote yes.
The 200 federalized California National Guard members sent to Portland, Oregon, and another 200 federalized Texas National Guard members sent to Chicago will return to their home states. The federalized Guard troops arrived in those cities in early October but never deployed operationally because of legal challenges that continue playing out in the courts.
Trump signed an executive order to get rid of tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits.
As ICE attacks their city, protestors are marching peacefully through Charlotte to say HELL NO. Solidarity, NC!
Watch This! 👀
Visibility Brigade chapters were hard at work this week…everywhere!
Chop Wood, Carry Water is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Thanks for reading Chop Wood, Carry Water! This post is public so feel free to share it.
From Chop Wood, Carry Water via this RSS feed
You must log in or # to comment.