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It's subtle, but there's a shift in the zeitgeist - Good News Roundup - November 18 [1]
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Date: 2022-11-18
Joe Biden is REALLY GOOD at this job
Let’s keep the faith — just like Joe always does!
What Joe Biden Knows About America, Franklin Foer, the Atlantic, November 16 2022.
Now that the Democrats have survived a midterm election without suffering the calamitous results that afflict a ruling party, let’s give Biden his political due. His success wasn’t just accidental—or the product of his hapless opposition. He had a theory for how his party could navigate the nation’s polarization, and it was far shrewder than appreciated, in part because of its generosity to his fellow citizens and their concerns. ✂️ More surprising, Biden’s domestic agenda has passed without suffering the relentless attacks that undermined support for “Obamacare,” “Hillarycare,” or, for that matter, any other piece of transformational legislation proposed by the previous two Democratic administrations. Biden signed legislation that will cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 without it being labeled “socialist,” “tree-hugging,” or any other epithet. Perhaps this speaks to Republican incompetence, but he’s also found a language for describing his policy achievements that resists smears. His strategy has been to pursue an agenda that is arguably the most progressive in history, while correcting for the excesses of activists. He has announced, over and over, that he favors funding the police. Rather than just fending off the accusation of weakness, he’s blamed Republicans for rejecting his policies that would pour resources into hiring and training cops.
Foreign trip becomes victory lap for strengthened Biden, Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian, AP, November 16, 2022.
For President Joe Biden, an international trip scheduled for just days after the midterm election looked like it would offer an escape hatch, allowing him to jet far away as he faced what many thought would be a crushing verdict from voters. Instead his journey, which included stops in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia, turned into an around-the-world victory lap. Biden spent the trip making congratulatory calls to Democrats who fared better than expected in the midterms, emboldening him during three global summits where he pushed for stronger action on climate change, closer economic ties in Asia and greater condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After facing doubts at home and abroad over his insistence that the United States is turning the page on his chaotic predecessor, Donald Trump, Biden’s contention that “America is back” appeared more durable than ever.✂️ “Joe Biden doesn’t just talk about America leading the world – he has rebuilt America’s world leadership, and over the past week the American people saw this,” said Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the president.
If you’re worried about the Rs in the House making endless distractions with bogus “investigations” of Hunter Biden, it may be reassuring to know that Joe Biden and his team have been preparing for that. There’s a plan and they know what kind of corrupt troublemakers they are dealing with:
x For months the White House has prepped for possible investigations if Republicans took control of House. Good deep dive from @JDiamond1 and team on the preparations underway for an investigative onslaught from the GOP
https://t.co/xszX0ODpj9 — Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz) November 17, 2022
Biden admin will fight for student debt relief plan
Biden admin to ask high court to take up student debt plan, Collin Binkley, AP, November 17, 2022.
The Justice Department is fighting to keep Biden’s plan alive after it was halted by two federal courts in recent weeks. The agency is asking for quick action to block both rulings and allow the plan to take effect even as it plays out in the nation’s courts. In a legal filing Thursday, the administration announced plans to appeal one of those rulings, by a federal appeals court in St. Louis, to the nation’s highest court. And it says it’s prepared to appeal the other case if needed.✂️ Advocates have long complained that only a tiny fraction of borrowers in bankruptcy succeed in getting their student loans erased, and many lawyers won’t even take those cases on. As a presidential candidate, Biden promised to fix the problem. The Justice Department on Thursday sent new guidance to its attorneys clarifying when they can support a borrower’s request for student debt forgiveness. Judges still have the final say, but the department said its guidance will lead to “fairer, more consistent results.”
🎶 Aspirational Music 🎶
x YouTube Video
🗳 Election (Continues!) 🗳
Democrats continue to shine
Democrats appear to have won a majority of seats in the Pa. House for the first time in 12 years, Anna Orso, Jonathan Lai and Max Marin, Philadelphia Inquirer, November 17, 2022.
Pennsylvania Democrats appear to have won a razor-thin majority of seats in the state House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years, an unexpected victory for the party that will have a major impact on how legislation moves through Harrisburg for the next two years. Democrats are likely to have won at least 102 seats in the 203-member chamber after ballots counted in Montgomery County’s 151st District on Wednesday put Democrat Melissa Cerrato 37 votes ahead of incumbent Republican Rep. Todd Stephens.✂️ The outcome represents a stunning setback for Republicans, who held a 23-seat advantage in the House coming into the election and anticipated they could maintain their grip on the legislature they’ve controlled for much of the last three decades.
While the continued noise from MAGA world is unsettling and a cause for concern, results like those in PA (and MI) show that the tide is turning.
x Karen Bass makes history as first woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles.
https://t.co/duj6qt6mU2 — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 17, 2022
Opinion John Fetterman made big gains in Trump country. New data reveals how. Greg Sargent, Washington Post, November 16, 2022.
For years, John Fetterman has wagered that steadily showing up in areas hostile to Democrats would ultimately pay off. After getting elected as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor in 2018, Fetterman conducted a listening tour of the state’s 67 counties. As a Senate candidate, he campaigned in 57 of them, interrupted only by his stroke. New data provided to me by the American Communities Project (ACP) offers a detailed picture of how well this worked. With Fetterman winning his Senate race by nearly 5 points, the nature of his victory shows how Democrats can continue rebuilding in the “blue wall” states after Donald Trump’s two campaigns substantially weakened them in the region.✂️ How this happened is illustrated by the ACP data. Fetterman significantly reduced his opponent’s margins of victory — relative to Biden’s 2020 performance against Trump — in three types of counties where Trump has done extraordinarily well. In the ACP’s taxonomy, those three county types are known as the Middle Suburbs, Working Class Country, and Rural Middle America.
Republicans continue to fall short
Republican Boebert’s tight race likely headed to recount, Jesse Bedayn, AP. November 17, 2022.
Adam Frisch at Congress orientation — just in case!🤞 The Associated Press has declared the election in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District too close to call. AP will await the results of a potential recount to call the race. With nearly all votes counted, Republican incumbent Lauren Boebert led Democrat Adam Frisch by 0.16 percentage points, or 551 votes out of nearly 327,000 votes counted. ✂️ While Boebert has gained widespread notoriety and a spot on the so-called “MAGA Squad,” the race headed toward a likely recount is an indication that the Trump loyalists provocative style has its political downsides. Until election night, Boebert had been heavily favored to win reelection in the sprawling 3rd Congressional District after redistricting made the conservative district more Republican. ✂️ To Frisch, his unanticipated support points to a portion of Republicans exhausted over Boebert’s Trump-like style. Whether win or lose, he said, “I think 99% of the story is here.” Frisch said he had expected a close race and wouldn’t be surprised if he won. But the candidate, who attended the congressional orientation in Washington, D.C., this week for newly minted representatives, added: “We obviously can’t be surprised if we lose. We’re not that whacko.”
DeSatanism crashes and burns on national stage
DeSantis won, but DeSantis-ism lost, Michael A Cohen, MSNBC, November 16, 2022.
⚖️ Legal News ⚖️
State courts can (and will) temper the extremist SCOTUS
State Courts Advance Protections for Young Defendants Even as SCOTUS Slows Progress, Madiba Dennie and Douglas Keith, Brennan Center, November 17, 2022.
The U.S. Supreme Court signaled last year it would not continue advancing protections for young defendants under the constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishments.” It’s a departure from 20 years of rulings that gradually expanded those Eighth Amendment guarantees. But several state courts are relying on their state constitutions to provide greater protections and insulate these rulings from further erosion by the U.S. Supreme Court.✂️ Even in states with unique constitutional provisions, however, judges disagree about how persuasive U.S. Supreme Court decisions are. In Washington, for example, Tonelli Anderson was sentenced to 61 years in prison for crimes committed at age 17 and argued in State v. Anderson that his sentence was a de facto life sentence in violation of the Washington State Constitution. In a 4–3 decision, the Washington Supreme Court, which had in 2021 banned mandatory life sentences for anyone under 21, let the sentence stand. The majority characterized the state’s prior rulings banning life sentences as only applying to crimes that “reflect the mitigating characteristics of youth.” But a dissent from the chief justice argued that such exceptions are only part of federal jurisprudence under the Eighth Amendment and are not relevant to the state constitution’s more robust protections for children. These cases are strong reminders that there is no single way forward in constitutional development. Even before Jones, a handful of other state high courts had read their constitutions to prohibit mandatory de facto life sentences without parole, and state supreme courts in Iowa and Massachusetts ruled that their state constitutions prohibit all juvenile life without parole sentences, whether or not the sentence was mandatory. Many more states have banned such sentences through legislation. As Eighth Amendment jurisprudence looks to “evolving standards of decency” to determine what punishment is cruel and unusual, these states and their courts are important examples of just how those standards are evolving.
'Positively dystopian': Judge blocks Ron DeSantis' 'Stop WOKE' law by quoting George Orwell, David Edwards, Raw Story, November 17, 2022.
The federal judge began his 44-page ruling by quoting George Orwell: 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,' and the powers in charge of Florida's public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom.' The law, often touted by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), forbids the advancement of topics that make anyone feel "guilt, anguish or other psychological distress." Walker said the legislation held an "upside down" view of the First Amendment and compared the law to the Netflix show Stranger Things. "Defendants argue that, under this Act, professors enjoy 'academic freedom' so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the State approves. This is positively dystopian," the judge wrote. x 'Positively dystopian': Judge blocks Ron DeSantis' 'Stop WOKE' law by quoting George Orwell
https://t.co/gHMETpHYkF — Joshua Holland (@JoshuaHol) November 17, 2022
These judges have had enough of your nonsense, TFG
(Here’s a good place to remind everyone that the judiciary is a consequential branch of government and thankfully, since Democrats have retained control of the Senate, we can expect Joe Biden to fill open seats with continued speed. The Republicans planned to do an end-run around democracy using the courts, and luckily Joe Biden and the Democratic Senate can do something about that!)
NY judge 'will not budge an inch' —orders Trump Organization to meet with court-appointed monitor, Sarah K Burris, Raw Story, November 17, 2022.
Judge Arthur F. Engoron has instructed a retired judge to begin monitoring the practices of the Trump Organization and new court documents reveal the scope of her powers. According to the decision filed Thursday, the former president's company has two weeks to deliver retired Judge Barbara S. Jones "a full and accurate description of the corporate structure" there. "The parties shall promptly meet with the Monitor and shall cooperate with the Monitor to design processes and procedures that provide the Monitor with access to all information necessary to effectuate the Monitor's responsibilities herein," the Judge wrote. They're responsible for informing her in advance of any shifting assets within 30 days of the movement. This guarantees that they can't form the corporation in another state and funnel money there outside of the purview of the New York Attorney General's $250 million lawsuit.
Trump just ran into 'extremely bad luck' in his lawsuit against Letitia James: legal reporter, Travis Gettys, Raw Story, November 17, 2022.
The former president had sued James for "intimidation and harassment" after her office filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Trump Organization, which the 41-page complaint alleged was an attempt to "steal, destroy or control all things Trump," and the attorney general had the case removed to federal court. "Extremely bad luck for Trump," reported Politico's Kyle Cheney. "He filed a lawsuit against NYAG Letitia James in Florida state court. James yesterday removed the case to federal court and it landed before ... Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who just days ago sanctioned Trump attorneys for a frivolous lawsuit." Some of Trump's own legal advisers urged the Florida attorneys who drafted the James complaint that the case was frivolous and would fail, and they unsuccessfully staged an intervention to stop the suit from being submitted to a court.
Just Security did a thorough analysis of the potential case against TFG and published their model case here. Check it out:
x With team of astounding colleagues, we published the culmination of massive undertaking:
United States v. Donald J. Trump
A Model DOJ Prosecution Memo in Mar-a-Lago Investigation
169-page document
Catalogues and compares all prior case DOJ prosecuted...
https://t.co/kpzrpRykSW — Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) November 17, 2022
🎶 Hint Hint, GOP 🎶
Republicans in Disarray
Republicans Are Sticking to a Losing Game, Chris Lehmann, the Nation, November 17, 2022.
Like horror-movie victims transfixed dead in their tracks as the avenging demon approaches, the GOP caucuses in both chambers of Congress appear to be staying the course. As the evidence continues mounting that the GOP’s status-quo arrangements are a prescription for doom, the party held its nominations for leadership Tuesday afternoon. To put things in the suitably bloodless prose of Hill gamesmanship: Both Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell survived test votes of their GOP leadership perches, with McCarthy on track to serve as speaker of the House, and McConnell officially poised to resume his present role as Senate minority leader. But the appearance of any continuity is a rapidly fading mirage for today’s Republican Party. Still reeling from a midterm election cycle where they were banking on winning comfortable control of the House and Senate alike, the GOP’s congressional brain trust faces a distinctly chastened future over the next two years. The composition of the Senate is still technically unresolved, pending the outcome of the December 6 runoff vote for Georgia’s Senate seat, but Democrats have already claimed a majority there. That means that McConnell will be largely unable to mount resistance to a slew of federal judicial nominees that the Biden White House hopes to move through the chamber, and will be taking legislative cues from the House, where McCarthy will preside over a vanishingly thin majority of between one and six seats.
'The hatred for Kevin McCarthy is palpable': Reporter explains why knives are out for GOP leader, Travis Gettys, Raw Story, November 17, 2022.
Republicans appear to have won a narrow House majority, but minority leader Kevin McCarthy faces a real challenge in becoming the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The California Republican has been working behind the scenes to secure the votes he'll need to take charge of the chamber, but Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Alemamany told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that other GOP lawmakers despise him. "Kevin McCarthy faces a Sisyphean task if he ultimately does become Speaker, which seems inevitable, but is going to be a hurdle in the next few weeks as he's trying to get from 188 votes of support, behind closed doors during the leadership elections that we saw earlier this week, to the number 218," Alemany said. "The hatred for Kevin McCarthy amongst his ranks is palpable, amongst certain House Freedom Caucus members."
TFG: Republicans’ anvil
People were trying to escape TFG’s interminable “announcement” speech, but they were literally not allowed to leave! It’s bizarre and creepy, but also kind of funny:
x A crowd has formed by the exit of the ballroom as some try to leave Trump’s announcement speech before he has finished…. But security won’t let them. pic.twitter.com/O7C6QJfYgK — Olivia Rubin (@OliviaRubinABC) November 16, 2022
Trump’s former Pentagon chief says he’s ‘unfit for office’, Steve Benen, MSNBC, November 17, 2022.
Over the summer, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who worked alongside Donald Trump for a year and a half, publicly declared that the former president is unsuited for public office. Esper went on to agree that Trump represents “a threat to democracy.”✂️ Months later, as The Hill reported, Esper isn’t backing down. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that former President Trump is unfit for office, and he does not want him to run for president in 2024. ... “I wish he wouldn’t,” Esper said, referring to Trump’s announcement Tuesday night that he is making another bid for the White House. “I think he’s unfit for office.” But as the former president moves forward with plans to pursue a second term, it’s worth appreciating just how much company Esper has among former members of Team Trump.✂️ And these are just the top-level officials who served at the Cabinet level. The list grows much longer if we include other federal officials who worked with Trump just below the Cabinet level. Every president has faced criticisms from partisan rivals and critics in the press, but it’s qualitatively different to hear from officials who were part of Trump’s own team.
🎶 Karma Music 🎶
International News
Secret Signs Show Putin’s Own Henchmen Are Turning on Him, Allison Quinn, Daily Beast, November 17, 2022.
Nearly nine months into Russia’s war against Ukraine, it seems some of Vladimir Putin’s strongmen are laying the groundwork to abandon ship. A human rights group that works closely with Russian inmates and investigates abuses by the security services has reportedly received a flood of calls from members of those same security services desperately trying to flee.✂️ “The incident with a missile hitting Poland on Tuesday almost became a prologue to the seizure of power in Russia,” the channel reported Thursday, claiming that high-ranking security officials had gathered in the immediate aftermath of the strike for “informal consultations.”✂️ So, according to the channel, they decided that “if the U.S. leadership and the adjoining countries show readiness for a harsh response, then the best way out would be to remove the current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from power and create a collegial council of security officials to ‘temporarily’ take control of the country into their own hands … blaming all the problems on either a seriously ill or law-breaking president.” Noting that Putin has brought tension “to almost the limit,” the channel warned: “This time, the critical situation turned out to be illusory and it made no sense for the security forces to take risks, but next time, and there will be a next time, Putin may not have a chance.”
Lula says ‘Brazil is back’ as he vows to reverse Amazon deforestation – as it happened, Guardian Live Blog, November 16, 2022.
SUMMARY: The Brazilian president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula for short), addressed Cop27 and promised that “Brazil is back”.
He confirmed that Germany and Norway will reopen the Amazon fund, called for Cop30 to be held in the Amazon rainforest, and announced that he would be setting up a ministry for Indigenous people.
Lula also said that it is time to reform the UN and the global settlement. “The world has changed.”
EU shakes up climate talks with surprise disaster fund offer, SETH BORENSTEIN, SAMY MAGDY and FRANK JORDANS, AP, November 17, 2022.
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Climate talks appeared stalled late night Thursday on major issues going into the final day, but possibilities for a deal were buoyed by an unexpected proposal by the European Union on two of the thorniest issues, tying compensation for climate disasters to tougher emissions cuts. Minutes after the United Nations summit’s chairman warned delegates that “we are not where we need to be in order to close this conference with tangible and robust outcomes,” the EU’s top climate official made a surprise offer. To applause, he proposed a two-pronged approach that would create a pot of money for poor countries and push for steeper cuts of heat-trapping emissions by all countries, as well as the phasing down of all fossil fuels, including natural gas and oil. The issues of compensation and pollution-cutting “are two sides of the same coin as far as the European Union is concerned,” said European Union Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, making clear that the 27-nation bloc won’t offer more money unless there are concessions on emissions targets.✂️ “There is an outcome where we all come out of this having done our jobs and with something that protects our planet,” Stiell said. “Let’s do that.”
🌱 Environmental News 🌱
Is the universe part of our environment? I say YES, it is!
Webb telescope spots earliest galaxies yet, and they are cosmic oddballs, Mark Johnson, Washington Post, November 17, 2022.
From its perch a million miles from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope has sighted two of the most distant galaxies ever — and delivered a brilliant surprise. These galaxies are far brighter than anyone expected, challenging our view of how the cosmos took shape in the aftermath of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago. Scientists had hoped that the world’s most advanced space telescope would deliver the unexpected, and “the universe did not let us down,” said Tommaso Treu, principal investigator for the GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program and a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “We discovered there are many more distant galaxies than we had been expecting,” Treu said. “Somehow the universe has managed to form galaxies faster and earlier than we thought.”
Just For fun:
(FYI: I actually really like Brian Cox and all the BBC science specials! LOVE them, in fact! But this is still really funny! 😂 “Because I’m an expert”)
x Every BBC series about the universe. pic.twitter.com/pByfozoTpS — Seán Burke (@SeanBurkeShow) December 10, 2021
Big win for salmon in the northwest
It’s amazing how many stories have progressed during the time I’ve been writing GNRs. I wrote about the proposal from local tribes in a GNR some time ago — now it has been approved!
US approves largest dam removal in history to save endangered salmon, Reuters via the Guardian, November 17, 2022.
A US agency seeking to restore habitat for endangered fish gave final approval on Thursday to decommission four dams straddling the California-Oregon border, the largest dam removal undertaking in US history. Dam removal is expected to improve the health of the Klamath River, the route that Chinook salmon and endangered coho salmon take from the Pacific Ocean to their upstream spawning grounds, and from where the young fish return to the sea. The project has long been a goal of several Native tribes whose ancestors have lived off the salmon for centuries but whose way of life was disrupted by European settlement and the demand for rural electrification in the 20th century.✂️ PacifiCorp is contributing $200m toward dam removal, paid for by a surcharge on its customers in Oregon and California, said Bob Gravely, a company spokesperson, and California voters approved a bond measure for the state to provide an additional $250m.
Re-upping this excellent video which will help bolster (or adjust) your perspective on our progress regrading climate change:
🐩💙 CG’s Picks 💙🐩
Hello Everybody, it’s me, Curlygirly! How are you today? Are you surprised to see me on Friday? I think chloris creator wrote the GNR on our usual day (Wednesday), so me and Mama are doing today and so i had time to find MOAR stories!!
Lincoln Park Zoo wins Innovation Award
Remember the other week when I brought you a story about lions and then I said “at least there are no lions in Chicago” (because I am a little bit afraid of lions) and then Mama said “bad news we do have lions at the Lincoln Park Zoo” (but she will never take me there, so it’s OK)?
Well.
It turns out that not only do we have lions at Lincoln Park Zoo (and I am still NOT going there!), but the zoo has just won an important prize for being one of the best zoo lion habitats around! I did tell you about the habitat before, but it wasn’t opened yet back then and definitely didn’t win any prizes yet. But now it is and it has!
Lincoln Park Zoo’s new lion habitat wins Chicago Innovation Award for development and features, Mitch Dudek, Chicago Sun Times, November 16, 2022.
An African lion cub (not at Lincoln Park Zoo) The exhibit, which opened in the fall of the 2021, features temperature-regulated rock formations, zip lines and pulleys that deliver meals in a way that allows for stalking and hunting behavior, climbable trees that were sustainably harvested and an enclosure that allows visitors a nearly nose-to-nose experience.✂️ Staff at Lincoln Park Zoo developed an app called “ZooMonitor” that allows volunteers to chart animal behavior by observing and entering data into a tablet that’s used to analyze trends and preferences. “Compared to the previous habitat, the space use is just amazing,” Leahy said. “They are using every nook and cranny and feature, which is an incredibly wonderful feeling.” Four years of data collection and two years of design preceded construction, which ran through the pandemic.
Orphaned Elephant Trust welcomes first grandbaby calf
Me and Mama like checking up on the lives of all the elephants in the nursery at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Orphans Project. This week, they had exciting news! One of the very first orphaned elephants that they raised there, Yatta, is all grown up and a mother of several second generation elephants (who were born wild after Yatta was successfully reintegrated into a protected wild habitat). NOW, comes the good news that Yatta’s daughter, Yetu has brought a new little bull into the world. A third generation has begun and Yatta is a grandmother!
A Milestone Birth: Yebo, Ithumba’s First ‘Great-Grandbaby’, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, November 14, 2022.
Over the years, we have been introduced to many Ithumba ‘grandbabies’ — a wild calf born to an orphan we rescued, raised, and reintegrated back into the wild. But this past week, a special branch appeared on the family tree. For the very first time, one of our Ithumba orphans became a grandparent, making us proud honorary great-grandparents.✂️ Yatta became a mother in January 2012, just two months after her friend Mulika gave birth to Ithumba’s first ‘grandbaby,’ Mwende. As has since become a tradition among our Ithumba ex-orphans, Yatta returned to the stockades within hours of giving birth, bursting with pride and eager to introduce her bundle of joy to the men who raised her. Interestingly, Mulika and Yatta’s girls are half-sisters, both sired by the same bull elephant who reigns over the northern sector of Tsavo East. He is a magnificent tusker we call ‘Dad,’ instantly recognisable because of his ivory that sweeps towards the ground. We named her calf Yetu, which means ‘ours’ in Swahili. It turned out to be a fitting name, because Yatta invited us to be part of her daughter’s life from the very beginning. Although she is an entirely wild elephant, Yetu has always felt at home among the unconventional human-elephant family who raised her mother. In the following decade, Yatta has also brought two sons into the world: Yoyo, born 2017, and Yogi, born 2021.✂️ Yetu and her herd spent much of the dry season away from Ithumba. It had been more than three months since their last visit. Then, mid-morning on the 11th November, Head Keeper Benjamin saw a line of elephants approaching Ithumba. He immediately recognised Yetu in the lead — with a beautiful baby boy striding by her side! Yetu was flanked by her best friend and half-sister, Mwende, ex-orphan Mulika's firstborn. These girls have grown up together, and now they will raise this little baby together. x Yatta's growing family tree is testament to the positive impact we can have for elephants when we rescue a single orphan. Living wild & free, ex-orphan Yatta has just become a grandmother to baby Yebo! Full story at
https://t.co/RuXFdp3loB #elephants #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/ymmOBectIV — Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (@SheldrickTrust) November 14, 2022
Extremely Rare twin Birth
Something we are always interested in over here is unexpected twins, and there was some amazing news this past week involving elephants and twins!
‘Miracle’ elephant twins born at Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Zoe Sottile, CNN, November 14, 2022.
Look at these cutie-pies! 😍 The Asian elephant twins were born on October 24 to parents Mali and Doc, according to a news release from the zoo. The birth of twins was a shock for zoo staff, according to the release. Less than 1% of elephant births are twins – and when twins are born, they rarely survive.✂️ The team hadn’t predicted the birth of twins “due to the sheer improbability as well as the complexity of elephant ultrasounds,” according to the release. But they were still prepared with a specialized milk replacer on hand to supplement the second calf’s diet. There has never been a recorded case of elephant twins surviving in the United States, says the zoo, making the birth a “historic moment” for the facility.✂️ The miracle twins are Asian elephants, an endangered species found throughout south and Southeast Asia, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The species’ population has declined largely due to habitat fragmentation, human-elephant conflict, and poaching.
More twin animal babies!
Here are more twins! A different animal this time, though! 🦌
x Golden retriever's been best friends with this deer for 11 years — watch them grow up together 💗 pic.twitter.com/vhJLdI9jx2 — The Dodo (@dodo) November 10, 2022
That’s all I have for today! Bye for now, luv CG 💙🐾
🎶 Twins Singing Music 🎶
✶✶ My Local (Chicago) News ✶✶
Chicago and black entrepreneurs tackle food deserts
I mentioned the story below earlier this year when the (Ohio-based) developers, Yellow Banana, were still considering the idea. On Wednesday, the city of Chicago approved the project including the provision of a 13.5 m subsidy from the city. In return, our underserved southside neighborhoods get 6 new and improved full-service supermarkets — with guarantees for at least 10 years!
Save A Lot plan is a hopeful sign for food deserts, Chicago Sun✶Times Editorial Board, November 17, 2022.
The half-dozen stores have to remain open for at least 10 years under the deal the city forged with Yellow Banana, a Black-owned company. If one of the stores ends up closing or is sold, the developer “must return all previously dispersed funds to the city for all six stores,” Deputy Planning and Development Commissioner Tim Jeffries said. Those conditions should ensure residents have a stable source of groceries for the near future. Michael Nance, a partner in the holding company that owns Yellow Banana, said he and his associates are well aware that Save A Lot’s reputation took a hit when it closed stores. Nance said the group has thought about rebranding the stores, and they want to hear what community members have to say — both of which strike us as smart moves. Grand openings of grocery stores in neighborhoods considered food deserts are always celebratory and hopeful. But the real challenge is sustaining these businesses long-term, and making fresh, healthy food available everywhere, so that food deserts become a thing of the past.
Another affordable housing project moves forward!
x Plan Commission approved plans for a six-story, 63-unit affordable housing project at 4715 N. Western Ave. in Lincoln Square. The project, led by The Community Builders, will include ground-floor commercial space and 18 public parking spaces. pic.twitter.com/ebjbbbiU4D — Chicago DPD (@ChicagoDPD) November 17, 2022
Gorgeous Chicago Architecture Featured in Photo Project
Do you like architecture? Do you like beautiful photography? Well, you’re in for a treat! Click on the link below to see glorious photographs taken by drone of some of the iconic early skyscrapers in my beautiful city.
Ready for their closeup, Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun✶Times, November 13, 2022.
The top of the tower of the Wrigley Building In Chicago, there is the azure blue of the American Furniture Mart, whose windows seem to float against perfect summer skies. Or the white summit of Mather Tower, a reminder that the top four stories started crumbling and were lopped off, only to have the city eventually force the owner to helicopter in a replacement. The glittering gold crown of the Carbide and Carbon Building. Chris Hytha, a 25-year-old Philadelphia photographer, calls them simply “Highrises” on his sleek online project presenting stunning high-resolution photographs stitched together from close-up drone shots of grande dame buildings across the country. But I prefer “antique skyscrapers,” the term coined by his collaborator, historian Mark Houser. I learned of the project when Houser’s self-published 2020 book, “MultiStories: 55 Antique Skyscrapers & the Business Tycoons Who Built Them,” fell into my hands. Not just a valentine to lovely old structures, the book is a scholarly attempt to puff off the dust and view them afresh.
🎶 Music for Chicago 🎶
💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Opinion Nancy Pelosi was the most consequential speaker of our time, Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, November 17, 2022.
⚡️ Nancy Pelosi, Badass, Michelle Cottle, New York Times, November 17, 2022.
⚡️ Election Denial Is a Losing Strategy, Michael Waldman, Brennan Center for Justice, November 15, 2022.
⚡️ Why the Right’s Immigration Demagoguery Crashed and Burned in the Midterms, James North, The New Republic, November 17, 2022.
⚡️ Progressive Critics Are Wrong About the Senate’s Landmark Marriage Equality Bill, Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, November 15, 2022.
⚡️ MERRICK GARLAND HASN’T DONE THE SPECIFIC THING YOU WANT BECAUSE DOJ HAS BEEN BUSY DOING THINGS THEY HAVE TO DO FIRST, empty wheel.net, November 14, 2022.
⚡️ A fantastic read: The Great Progression 2025-2050, Peter Leyden, BigThink (Progress Issue), September 2022.
⚡️ AN END TO DOOMERISM, Hannah Ritchie, BigThink, September 2022.
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another week!
It’s been a long year.We’ve been through an emotional wringer and of course, there will be trying times ahead.
But, try to make space to appreciate just what we accomplished in this midterm election — in spite of the heartbreaking losses, it was still an historic election — and take a few moments to feel the relief and the hope that the results point to. The country rejected extremism. That’s a really good start!
There’s a long way to go, but we have made a good start. That’s something really solid for which to give thanks next week!
Thanks for reading today!
Happy Friday, Everyone!
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