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Good News Roundup for Tuesday, January 31, 2023 [1]
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Date: 2023-01-31
đŠ to hpg for posting this in the Evening Shade on Saturday:
x In the first four days since he launched his U.S. Senate campaign, Rep. Ruben Gallego has had 10,000 Arizonans either donate to his campaign or sign up to volunteer. â Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 28, 2023
How Joe Biden Wins Again
This is by far my favorite recent opinion piece on Biden. Iâve had to butcher it in order to conform to Fair Use, so I encourage you to click the link and read the whole thing.
By Franklin Foer in The Atlantic:
Back in 2009, Obama anointed Biden âThe Sheriff.â Obama charged him with overseeing the implementation of the Recovery Act, the $787 billion economic stimulus⌠. This was a thankless task, because it made Biden responsible for any waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, but it was also a dream assignment. The career politician...could bask in selling governmental achievements made of concrete and steel, stuff people could touch. Bidenâs frustration with Obama was that he didnât sufficiently consider the marketing potential of the stimulus. ...The 2009 Recovery Act included tax cuts, but intentionally didnât advertise them. ... This humility of sorts transgressed a core Biden maxim: Good policy is useless without good politics. The health of the government (not to mention the health of the Democratic Party) depends almost entirely on public appreciation of the governmentâs deeds. Now that heâs president, Biden is his own self-anointed Sheriff. In its first two years, his administration passed ambitious, expensive legislation. âŚOverseeing these investments will allow Biden to fulfill the two grandest ambitions of his presidency. ...he believes that non-college-educated voters, the neglected constituents he wants to take back from the Republicans, hardly know about the big bills emanating from Washington with banal names. And they wonât believe in their efficacy in any case, unless they can see the fruits of the legislation with their own eyes. Biden intends to deluge this group with relentless salesmanshipâchristening new airports and standing next to local officials as they break ground on new factories and tunnels. ⌠His second ambition is far trickier. ...He wants to comprehensively change the economy of entire regions of the country. By geographically concentrating investmentsâin broadband, airports, semiconductor plants, universitiesâhe can transform depressed remnants of the Rust Belt into the next iteration of North Carolinaâs Research Triangle. By seizing the commanding heights of the industries of the future, he can reindustrialize America.
Justice40
Iâm one of the 85% of voters who hadnât heard about this great initiative. We need to spread the word!
From Data for Progress:
..if youâre like 85% of voters, you probably havenât heard of Justice40. Justice40 was created two years ago by President Biden as an executive order. The initiative ensures disadvantaged communities will receive 40% of the overall benefits of federal investments in climate, clean energy, and energy efficiency. Justice40 helps communities that have been disproportionately affected by climate change and provides access to basic human necessities like clean air and water. You know, the little things we need for survival. So, you might not know about Justice40, but we promise, youâre gonna love it. Once voters learn about Justice40, 54% of them support the initiative, including 82% of Democrats and 55% of Independents. Voters clearly support environmental justice initiatives like Justice40, buuuut the projects havenât broken through news cycles that have been dominated by sexy M&Msand Olivia Wildeâs salad dressing. These initiatives are important and itâs crucial that voters hear about them.
Colin Kaepernick's new doc destroys one of Kevin McCarthy's talking points
Kaepernickâs partner in this venture is Ben Meiselas of Meidas Touch.
From MSNBC:
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is well-versed in the art of making bold, evocative statements about the realities of inequality in the United States. His latest statement â a new documentary heâs executive produced for Hulu â takes aim at a familiar target: state-sanctioned violence police and corruption. The project is set in Bakersfield, California, and includes another high-profile foe: new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. x A true crime thriller we made set in Kevin McCarthyâs district.
The highest homicide rate â
The most crime. â
The most police executions. â
Welcome to Killing County. pic.twitter.com/qKxl7i5dfn â Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) January 25, 2023 âKilling County,â set to debut Feb. 3, highlights the 2013 police shooting of Jorge Ramirez Jr. in Bakersfield, which is part of McCarthyâs district. ... The filmmakers investigate what they say is a the raft of police violence in Bakersfield â in particular, gun violence â thatâs turned Bakersfield and the surrounding Kern County into one of the nationâs most violent regions over the last decade.
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đż Repellent Republicans Rushing toward Ruin đż
Republicans demand spending cuts to lift the debt limit. They won't say what to cut.
What they want to cut â as always â is Social Security and Medicare, but they donât want the pushback theyâll get if they say so. Theyâve painted themselves into a corner and have no one to blame but each other.
From NBC News:
Republicans, newly empowered with a House majority, are demanding spending cuts as a price for lifting the debt ceiling and averting a catastrophic default on U.S. debt. But theyâre struggling to identify what to cut, complicating Speaker Kevin McCarthyâs task of passing a bill with his narrow majority. âThereâs gotta be cuts in spending. That has to happen,â said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., an ally of McCarthy, R-Calif., and the far right. But she declined to get specific when she was asked what should be cut. âI havenât really formulated an exact list,â she said. Republicans are divided over whether Medicare and Social Security spending should be on the chopping block. Theyâre split over whether military funding should be on the table. Theyâre firmly opposed to new tax revenues to reduce the debt. They say theyâre willing to cut domestic non-defense spending, but thatâs a limited slice of the budget pie that wouldn't fulfill many conservativesâ demands to balance the budget.
Justice Department asks FEC to stand down as prosecutors probe Santos
Yup, itâs looking like Georgie-Porgieâs little adventure in creative campaign financing is going to end poorly.
From The Washington Post (another gift link):
The Justice Department has asked the Federal Election Commission to hold off on any enforcement action against George Santos, the Republican congressman from New York who lied about key aspects of his biography, as prosecutors conduct a parallel criminal probe, according to two people familiar with the request...which came from the Justice Departmentâs Public Integrity Section, ...the clearest sign to date that federal prosecutors are examining Santosâs campaign finances. The Justice Department request also asked that the FEC provide any relevant documents to the Justice Department...âď¸ Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday interviewed two people about Santosâs role in Harbor City Capital, an investment firm that was forced to shut down in 2021 after the SEC accused it of operating a âclassic Ponzi scheme.â SEC interest in those people came after they were quoted Wednesday in The Washington Post describing how Santos solicited an investment in Harbor City at an Italian restaurant in Queens in late 2020. The FEC ordinarily complies with DOJ requests to hold off on enforcement. Those requests arise from a 1977 memorandum of understanding between the agencies that addresses their overlapping law enforcement responsibilities. âBasically they donât want two sets of investigators tripping over each other,â said David M. Mason, a former FEC commissioner. âAnd they donât want anything that the FEC, which is a civil agency, does to potentially complicate their criminal case.â
Civil Rights Lawyer Ben Crump Might Take Ron DeSantis To AP 'Sue Your Ass' Class Over Black History Course
Jessiestaf mentioned this story yesterday, but I thought youâd enjoy some details, as well as Wonketteâs delightful snark.
By Doktor Zoom on Wonkette:
Benjamin Crump and the Florida honors students who may sue if they can't take AP African-American Studies. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is getting significant pushback for his administration's rejection...of an Advanced Placement course in African American studies. [Last Wednesday], African American state lawmakers, educators, and others rallied in the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee to call for the AP course to be offered in Florida high schools. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said at the rally that if DeSantis refuses to make the class available, Crump will sue the state on the behalf of three high school honors students from Leon County who want to take the course. âIf the governor allows the College Board to present AP African American studies in classrooms across the state of Florida, then we will feel no need to file this historic lawsuit,â Crump told reporters at the Capitol. âHowever, if he rejects the free flow of ideas and suppresses African American studies, then weâre prepared to take this controversy all the way to the United States Supreme Court.â It's just the latest effort to fight back against DeSantis's ongoing agenda of using culture war issues to build rightwing support nationwide as he plans a likely 2024 presidential run. DeSantis has claimed that the AP course, currently being taught as a pilot before being rolled out nationwide, is tainted by unnecessary political elements like queer theory, because no Black people have ever been LGBTQ as long as you exclude Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, and others who were not Martin Luther King, the only Black leader DeSantis pretends to admire. DeSantis and his Education Department also cried bitterly about how the AP course was full of "critical race theory" because it might suggest that slavery, Jim Crow, and systematic racism were part of a deliberate attempt by white people to deny rights and economic freedom to people of color, which could make white children feel sad. Instead, under Florida law, we're pretty sure Black history is limited to half of one sentence from King's "Dream" speech, as well as a brief list of Black entertainers, athletes, Supreme Court justices who were not Thurgood Marshall, and the opening credits of "The Cosby Show."
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Musical break
Now for something completely different.
The DSQ is my current favorite string quartet. Their mastery, focus, and connection create the kind of unified sound that you hear from only the greatest quartets. They can play anything from Haydn to Britten (I especially love their performances of Shostakovich), but they also enjoy playing traditional Danish folk songs. This joyful tune is one of their favorites, and they used it as the encore at a performance I heard last week.
x YouTube Video
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Good news from my corner of the world
Black Joy Is Propelling a Rural Racial Justice Movement
Everything about this story makes me happy and hopeful.
From Reasons to Be Cheerful:
[Julianne Jackson] and her wife had met folks at Portlandâs protests [in 2020 against police brutality] who were from the stateâs rural areas. âThey asked, âIf we were to do something like this [a march], who would come and stand with me?ââ Jackson decided that Oregonâs rural towns could be the perfect place to benefit from a different kind of racial justice march â one oriented around joy instead of anger. The next day, with the help of her friend Emily Terry, Black Joy Oregon was born, a nonviolent organization that shows up in rural areas to demonstrate loving and joyful celebrations of Black culture. When they travel to rural towns they stand at busy intersections and hold up signs emblazoned with messages of love for the Black community â Black is beautiful, Black is revolutionary, Black lives uplift, and so on. âWe smile and wave at folks, dance and just spread love and joy,â Jackson says. They also build connections with community leaders and provide access to resources and assistance for Black folks. âď¸ One of the most memorable experiences for Jackson was early in the pandemic, in August of 2020. She and a core group of Black Joy women were trying to find ways to help people escape the fast-moving Beachie Creek Fire. Jackson was scrolling through Facebook and heard about a couple who needed help evacuating their entire farm in Stayton, Oregon, a farming community 16 miles southeast of Salem. ...âwhen we pulled up to their farm it literally was like: Trump, Trump, Trump. ...â [Jackson said.] Jackson was wearing a Black Lives Matter sweatshirt and had BLM stickers covering her car. ...âWe were all looking at each other like, what the fuck? And we just got right to work. We were like, âWhaddya need?ââ The 60-something white man and his wife who owned the farm asked the women for help corralling the farm animals. ...They ended up getting all of the farmerâs animals to safety, even helping to drive some of them in their own vehicles down to a farm in Salem that was willing to take them temporarily. âWhen we had gotten everything completed, this dude kinda looked at us, and his eyes were welling up and he said, âThis is what America needs. This is what works.ââ ...Jackson says that she and the Black Joy Oregon crew have been criticized by other Black Lives Matter activists for helping people perceived to be antagonistic to the cause. âThatâs a really important concept to me,â Jackson says. âIf youâre on fire, Iâm not going to ask you if you voted for Trump first before I put you out. Iâm going to put you out and we can talk about all of that later, if thatâs what needs to happen. For me, itâs so imperative that we be human first.â
Jury awards $1M to Portland woman who tried to buy gas but told: âI donât serve Black peopleâ
This story made it into Super-Kossack Bill in Portland Maineâs Cheers and Jeers âWho Won the Weekâ poll on Friday!
From The Oregonian:
A Portland woman won $1 million in damages this week after a jury found she was racially discriminated against by a gas station attendant who told her âI donât serve Black people.â Portland attorney Greg Kafoury poses for a photo with Rose Wakefield. A Multnomah County jury deliberated for about five hours before awarding Wakefield $1 million in damages on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Rose Wakefield, 63, had stopped for a fill-up at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton on March 12, 2020, when she noticed the attendant had ignored her car and was instead pumping gas for other drivers who had arrived later. The attendant, 23-year-old Nigel Powers, responded: âIâll get to you when I feel like itâ after Wakefield asked for service, according to the lawsuit. Surveillance footage played during the four-day civil trial showed Wakefield going inside the gas station mart and speaking with the manager and another employee, who eventually went outside and filled up Wakefieldâs car. As she was leaving, Wakefield asked Powers why he had dismissed her. Powers replied that it was because she was Black, then laughed in her face, according to the suit. âď¸ Jacksons tried to settle the case for $12,000 during pre-trial negotiations, the lawyer added. âď¸ [Wakefield] works as a retinal imagist at a Veterans Affairs clinic about five minutes away from the gas station at the Tanasbourne Town Center. âIf something like this happens to you, donât let it slide, thatâs my message,â she said. âBecause somebody else will have to suffer for what you didnât take care of.â
This former Baker City school is now an arts hub, concert venue and bike hostel
Saving an old building and turning it into a community asset is a perfect win-win.
From The Oregonian:
About 16 years ago, [Brian and Corrine] Vegter moved from New York City to Eastern Oregon, looking for a change of pace and a place where they could live as full-time artists. Corrine works primarily in metal sculpture, while Brian paints. ...in 2018, they took a leap of faith and purchased a 1925-built red brick building that had served as an elementary school until 2002. âď¸ The couple did much of the renovation work themselves. Corrine claimed one of the rooms as her welding shop. Across the hall is a woodworking space with various saws and tools. A science classroom became the Vegtersâ apartment home. The schoolyard became a sculpture garden. Every October, part of the basement becomes the âHaunted Studios.â The cafeteria and gymnasium space now serve as a 250-person capacity concert venue. Seattle-based indie rock band Telekinesis opened their U.S. tour at Churchill in 2019. That same year (before the pandemic halted concerts) they hosted Welsh-singer Jon Langford and guitarist and songwriter Calvin Johnson. ...âFor a place out in rural Oregon, [Brian said,] weâre a big space, and weâre conveniently located between Seattle and Salt Lake City, or Portland and Boise. Itâs not lost on us that weâve developed this thing where these fantastic musicians recognize, âOh, thatâs a worthwhile stop.ââ âď¸ Another classroom was turned into a hostel catering to cyclists and skiers. Hostel guests have access to the former gym showers and sleep on bunkbeds. Rates are $30 for those on bikes. Car guests can book the room through Airbnb for $35 plus fees. The Vegters also converted a classroom into a one-bedroom apartment thatâs available for rent on Airbnb for $130 a night. The space is often booked solid.
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Good news from around the nation
Enraged Ex-Lover Tipped Off FBI to Top Official Accused of Helping Russia
An unforeseen twist in the McGonigal story.
From The Daily Beast:
The angry ex-lover of the FBIâs former New York counterintelligence chief claims she tipped the feds off to some of his misdeeds before his arrest last week. Charles McGonigal, who was part of the FBI probe of the Trump campaignâs Russia ties, has been charged with money laundering, lying to the FBI, and taking money to help a sanctioned Russian oligarch, among others. In an interview with Insider, Allison Guerriero said she dated McGonigal for a year, unaware he was married. He spent far more lavishly than an FBI salary would typically allow, she recalled, and she once found a bag of cash in his apartment. But after their fling ended, he revealed he was married and had no plans to leave his wife. She said she was so angry that, after a bout of drinking, she emailed his boss to disclose the affair as well as extensive dealings sheâd noticed McGonigal had in Albania. Itâs unclear what came of the email but the feds turned up on her doorstep three years later to ask her about McGonigal and some of her allegations regarding Albania appeared in last weekâs indictment.
Johnson & Johnson Canât Use Bankruptcy to End Cancer Lawsuits, Court Rules
Itâs time for J&J to just pay up. Their behavior is indefensible.
From The Daily Beast:
A three-judge panel in Philadelphia ruled Monday that consumer health product giant Johnson & Johnson canât use a recently filed bankruptcy to quell droves of lawsuits stemming from a cancer-causing ingredient used in its baby powder line. The conglomerate had used Chapter 11 to place one of its units, LTL Management, under court protection, blocking some 40,000 lawsuits from reaching juries. But according to the court, that filing was illegitimate, citing that the corporation had never claimed to be in immediate danger financially, a prerequisite for the status. âThe doors to the courthouse, which had been slammed shut by J&Jâs cynical legal strategy, are once again open,â said attorney Leigh OâDell, representing a mass tort comprised of thousands of compromised talc users, according to Bloomberg. Johnson & Johnson will challenge the ruling, the company said in a statement. The business has lost a number of past lawsuits similar to this one, including one in which they paid upwards of $2 billion to victims of the talc-based baby powder formula, even after appealing the case all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Abortion pill manufacturer sues over West Virginia ban
IANAL, but it looks to me like the manufacturer has a better case than the anti-abortion groups arguing that the FDA never had the authority to approve medication abortion in the first place.
From NBC News:
Abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro filed a lawsuit Wednesday arguing that West Virginia's sweeping ban on the procedure is unconstitutional â one of a spate of suits testing the legality of medication abortion in the post-Roe legal landscape. âď¸ Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortions carried out in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. The Biden administration has sought to shore up access to abortion pills, even as more than a dozen states have banned the procedure. The drugmaker, which filed its case in West Virginia federal court, argues that the Food and Drug Administration's regulations on abortion medication override state law. Also on Wednesday, a medical doctor in North Carolina sued officials over the stateâs stringent requirements for the use of mifepristone. In November, anti-abortion medical providers filed the âanti-abortion mirrorâ of the two suits, legal expert Rachel RebouchĂŠ said; that lawsuit argues the FDA acted outside of its authority in approving medication abortion in 2000. The outcomes of the cases could determine who can access medication abortion amid the patchwork of abortion laws that have sprung up across the country since the high courtâs decision.
âBrave Bessieâ Gets Her Likeness on New Barbie as Mattel Honors the First Black Female Pilot
Bessie Coleman has made an appearance in my GNRs before, so Iâm delighted to share the news that sheâs now being honored with a Barbie.
From Good News Network:
A brave young Black woman who became a pilot in the 1920sâand even walked on the wings of airplanesâhas become the latest hero to be honored in the Barbie doll series featuring âInspiring Womenâ. Known for her daring adventures as a barnstorming stunt flyer, Bessie Coleman broke new ground in the field of aviation. ...Despite facing racial and gender discrimination, Bessie Coleman became the first Black and Native American female aviator. âď¸ The âBrave Bessieâ doll was sculpted to her likeness and dons a traditional olive-green aviator suit, including a cap with her initials âBCâ. ...Bessieâs great niece, Gigi Coleman, teamed up with Mattel to make the Barbie. âKeeping Bessieâs legacy alive has always been a labor of love for my family. We hope through this doll more people will discover Bessieâs story and be inspired.â Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 and grew up poor in Atlanta, Texas. She helped her mother pick cotton to earn money, but Coleman wanted to attend college. After she could only afford one semester, she heard that women in France had more rightsâand could even fly planes. Coleman made it her mission to become a pilot. However, American aviators would not teach her. So, she studied the French language and saved up her money. At age 29, she sailed to France, enrolled in a flight school, and received her international pilotâs license on June 15, 1921. She returned to the U.S. and amazed crowds with stunts that earned her the nickname âBrave Bessieâ. âď¸ Colemanâs stunts included making figure-8 shapes with her plane. She walked on her craftâs wings while in midair. She even shocked crowds by parachuting from the plane, while a co-pilot took the controls. Coleman toured the country, giving flight lessons and speechesâand refused to perform for segregated crowds. At one event, Coleman learned that there would be separate entrances for Black and white people. She said she would not perform unless there was only one gate. The event leaders agreed.
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Good news from around the world
Good news you probably didn't hear about
From Future Crunch:
Almost all children in Western and Central Africa now attend primary school, with enrolment rising from 50% in the 1990s to nearly 90% today. Enrolment in high school is increasing too, more than doubling in the last decade to 55%. âWith close to universal access in the primary cycle, the progress made is dazzling.â World Bank âď¸ UNICEF just released its latest figures on the decline in global child mortality. In the space of a single generation, the number of children dying under the age of five has fallen by 59%. Four low-income countries, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda, and 15 lower-middle-income countries, including Bangladesh, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, have reduced child mortality by more than 75% since 1990. âď¸ Democracy in decline? Someone might want to tell that to the nearly 10 million new voters that have registered for Nigeria's upcoming elections, 84% of them under the age of 34. This will be the seventh election for Africa's most populous country since it returned to democratic governance 23 years ago. Al Jazeera
Pro-western Petr Pavel sweeps to landslide win in race for Czech presidency
Another antidote to the âdemocracy in declineâ narrative.
From The Guardian:
Petr Pavel, a retired general and former senior Nato commander, has swept to the Czech Petr Pavel presidency after a landslide victory over the former prime minister Andrej BabiĹĄ in an election overshadowed by rows over the war between Russia and Ukraine. With nearly all the votes counted, returns showed Pavel prevailing by the emphatic margin of 58.3% to 41.68%, the largest ever recorded in a Czech presidential poll and reflecting an advantage of more than 958,000 votes nationwide. Pavelâs supporters immediately hailed the result as a victory for liberal democracy over oligarchic populism, which they believe BabiĹĄ represents. As the scale of his triumph became clear, Pavel, 61, a former army chief of staff and Nato second-in-command, was greeted by ecstatic chants of âpresident, presidentâ from champagne-drinking supporters as he mounted the podium at his campaign headquarters in Pragueâs KarlĂn district. âď¸ In a highly symbolic moment, he then received the congratulations on stage of Zuzana ÄaputovĂĄ, Slovakiaâs president, who â like Pavel â has spoken out against populism and invoked the values of VĂĄclav Havel, the one-time dissident who was the first post-communist president of the former Czechoslovakia. âď¸ It also amounted to a humiliating rebuff for Slovak-born BabiĹĄ, 68, a billionaire tycoon who stood accused of running a shameless, scorched-earth campaign after portraying Pavel as a warmonger for his support of military aid to Ukraine.
Volunteers plant mini-forests in Paris to slow climate change, tackle heatwaves
I love the concept of the Miyawaki forests, and I love that theyâre being planted in so many places. I hope the trend takes off here, too.
From France24:
French volunteers are using a pioneering Japanese tree-planting method to create pocket forests in Paris in the hope they will slow climate change, create biodiversity hotspots and tackle the growing number of heatwaves in the capital. âď¸ Mini-forests were first developed in the 1970s by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who studied the relics of centuries-old forests growing around sacred temples and shrines. Miyawaki found they were not only thriving without human intervention â they were richer and more resilient than more recently planted forests. In his study of ancient primary forests, Miyawaki claimed that densely planted indigenous species, grown in carefully prepared soil at four different heights to provide multiple layers of coverage, grew up to 10 times faster and captured more carbon than standard managed forests. âď¸ Advocates of Miyawaki forests have adapted his methods and transported them around the world as cities look to curb the effects of climate change, restore degraded land, create biodiversity hotspots and sequester greater amounts of carbon. Forests the size of tennis courts have been planted in Beirut, in cities in Asia, all over India, and increasingly through Europe.
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Good news in medicine
Regenerative Medicine Breakthrough: Cellular âGlueâ To Regenerate Tissues, Heal Wounds, Regrow Nerves
Every week seems to bring another mind-boggling advance in medicine.
From SciTechDaily:
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have engineered molecules that act like âcellular glue,â allowing them to direct in precise fashion how cells bond with each other. The discovery represents a major step toward building tissues and organs, a long-sought goal of regenerative medicine. Adhesive molecules are found naturally throughout the body, holding its tens of trillions of cells together in highly organized patterns. They form structures, create neuronal circuits, and guide immune cells to their targets. Adhesion also facilitates communication between cells to keep the body functioning as a self-regulating whole. In a new study, published in the December 12, 2022, issue of Nature, researchers engineered cells containing customized adhesion molecules that bound with specific partner cells in predictable ways to form complex multicellular ensembles. âWe were able to engineer cells in a manner that allows us to control which cells they interact with, and also to control the nature of that interaction,â said senior author Wendell Lim, PhD, the Byers Distinguished Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and director of UCSFâs Cell Design Institute. âThis opens the door to building novel structures like tissues and organs.â Bodily tissues and organs begin to form in utero and continue developing through childhood. By adulthood, many of the molecular instructions that guide these generative processes have disappeared, and some tissues, like nerves, cannot heal from injury or disease. Lim hopes to overcome this by engineering adult cells to make new connections. But doing this requires an ability to precisely engineer how cells interact with one another.
Pfizer pledges to sell all its products at cost to poor countries
This is great news that offers hope for more cooperation between Big Pharma and governmental agencies.
From Fierce Pharma:
Pfizer has expanded its program to provide drugs at cost to the worldâs poorest countries from 23 patented medicines to its entire suite of approximately 500 products. The New York pharma giant first revealed its initiative, dubbed âAn Accord for a Healthier World,â last May. At the time, the program included Pfizer's COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid and the companyâs other patented vaccines and drugs. The expansion covers off-patent products, such as chemotherapies and cancer therapies that have the potential to treat nearly 1 million new cancer cases in these countries each year, Pfizer said. It also covers antibiotics to combat infectionsâcontracted in hospitals and clinicsâthat claim the lives of roughly 1.5 million each year in these countries. The goal of the expansion is to âbetter align with disease burden and unmet patient needs in the countries,â Pfizer said. The accord has opened access to Pfizerâs drugs to 1.2 billion people. To get the initiative rolling, Pfizer worked with the governments and health ministries of African nations Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Senegal. In all, 45 countries are included in the new accord.
FDA moves to ease restrictions on blood donations for men who have sex with men
Itâs good news that an ignorant and homophobic general ban directed at gay men will be replaced by more sensible restrictions â based on a series of questions that assess [potential donorsâ] HIV risk, regardless of gender.â
From NPR:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued proposed guidance Friday to ease restrictions on blood donations by men who have sex with men. The change is expected to take effect after a public comment period. The restrictions on donating blood date back to the early days of the AIDS epidemic and were designed to protect the blood supply from HIV. Originally, gay and bisexual men were completely prohibited from donating blood. Over time, the FDA relaxed the lifetime ban, but still kept in place some limits. Under the current policy â last updated in 2020 â men who have sex with men can donate blood if they haven't had sexual contact with other men for three months. The new proposed policy would eliminate the time-based restrictions on men who have sex with men (and their female partners) and instead screen potential donors' eligibility based on a series of questions that assess their HIV risk, regardless of gender. Anyone taking medications to treat or prevent HIV, including PrEP, would not be eligible. The risk assessment would include questions about anal sex. Potential donors who've had anal sex in the last three months with a new sexual partner or more than one sexual partner would not be eligible to give blood.
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Good news in science
Magnets rapidly remove dangerous âforever chemicalsâ from water
This will obviously take time and effort to scale up, but the experimentsâ results are amazing.
From The Optimist Daily:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of compounds that have been widely used since the 1950s due to their ability to repel water and oil. However, PFAS compounds have lately been linked to a number of concerning health issues, including an increased risk of diabetes and liver cancer. To make matters worse, a recent study discovered that PFAS levels in rainfall practically everywhere on Earth surpass the EPAâs recommendations. These stable molecules are extremely difficult to degrade, giving them the moniker âforever chemicals.â Researchers at the University of Queensland have found a method for removing PFAS pollutants from water. The researchers created a solution termed a magnetic fluorinated polymer sorbent, which covers the PFAS molecules when added to contaminated water. This makes them magnetic, thus using a magnet to attract the pollutants and separate them from the water is a pretty straightforward process. In experiments with small samples of PFAS-contaminated water, the scientists discovered that the process could remove over 95 percent of most PFAS molecules within 30 seconds, including over 99 percent of GenX â a particularly hazardous compound. âď¸ The new studyâs researchers claim that their magnetic solution offers a few advantages over conventional PFAS removal procedures. The solution itself may be reused up to ten times, it is considerably faster than others, and it does not require any additional energy to initiate the reaction. âď¸ The findings were reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Check out this video to see the team explain their work further.
Boston Dynamics gives a robot some new moves
Boston Dynamicsâ robots get more lifelike with each iteration. As someone commented on YouTube: âThis is only a little bit terrifying, but totally amazing at the same time.â
x YouTube Video
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Good news for the environment
The âbubble barriersâ that stop plastic pollution before it reaches the sea
A very clever low-tech solution to a vexing problem.
From Positive News:
The Amsterdam barrier prevents around 8,000 pieces of plastic from reaching the sea each month. Dutch startup led by sailors and surfers has devised a way of stopping trash in its tracks â with a little help from bubbles. The Great Bubble Barrier (GBB) deploys a perforated tube on riverbeds to create a curtain of bubbles which nudges waste to the bank for collection. And for such a lo-fi method itâs proven remarkably effective, snagging plastic particles as small as 1mm and intercepting as much as 86 per cent of flotsam in inland waters before it reaches the sea. âď¸ The concept was devised by a team of Dutch ocean lovers in 2019. They came up with a design that catches plastic over a riverâs full width and depth, and directs it to a catchment system that collects and compresses the waste. Last summer, GBBâs first bubble barrier was installed in the mouth of the Oude Rijn (Old Rhine) river at Katwijk in mid-western Netherlands after locals expressed dismay at plastic pollution littering the townâs beach. The bubble curtain is created by an air compressor running on renewable electricity, which pumps air to the riverbed tube, laid diagonally across the waterway. The bubbles lift plastics to the surface, and the flow of the river channels waste sideways into a catchment system. GBBâs method operates 24/7, works regardless of water levels, and allows aquatic life and river traffic to pass unhindered. Another bubble barrier has since been deployed in Amsterdam, and two more are planned for Portugal and Germany.
These âInvisibileâ Solar Panels Appear Just Like Historic Italian Terracotta Roofs and Can Help Green Historic Buildings
Another clever solution.
From Good News Network:
âInvisible Solarâ roof tiles In the historic Italian city of Vicenza, Veneto, a typically-Italian family business of artisans is handmaking not-so-typical solar panels. Designed to be indistinguishable by the naked eye from regular terracotta roof tiles, âInvisible Solarâ tiles are made to improve the energy efficiency of heritage buildings without compromising their historic appearance. They make each tile out of a non-toxic and recyclable polymeric compound they themselves developed, and the tiles allow for sunlight to pass into a hidden bank of photovoltaic cells without the human eye being able to tell they are translucent. This gives them the appearance of regular handmade clay tiles that cover most of the roofs in Italy and almost all of the roofs in their native, UNESCO-listed Vicenza. The company is called Dyaqua, and their founder, Giovanni Battista Qualiato says that just like regular roofing tiles, Invisible Solar can be installed by roofers without any special training or equipment. In 2015 Invisible Solar was mentioned by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) as a solution to improve energy efficiency in cultural heritage across the country, and they are already installed in Pompeii. âThey look exactly like the terracotta tiles used by the Romans, but they produce the electricity that we need to light the frescoes,â said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park.
Delight as dolphins spotted in New Yorkâs Bronx River
Knowing how filthy the Bronx River used to be, Iâm just astounded at this good news. And how wonderful that they have a video to prove it!
From The Guardian:
Dolphins have been spotted frolicking in New York Cityâs Bronx River, an encouraging sign of the improving health of a waterway that was for many years befouled as a sewer for industrial waste. A pair of dolphins was seen gliding through the riverâs waters on [January 16th], the New York City parks department confirmed, near a small park in the cityâs Bronx borough. The Bronx river rises north of New York City and cuts through the Bronx before terminating in the East River, the estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. âItâs true â dolphins were spotted in the Bronx River this week!,â the parks department gleefully tweeted. x Itâs trueâdolphins were spotted in the Bronx River this week! This is great newsâit shows that the decades-long effort to restore the river as a healthy habitat is working. We believe these dolphins naturally found their way to the river in search of fish.
(Video: Nick Banco) pic.twitter.com/40ZNgBjJZs â NYC Parks (@NYCParks) January 19, 2023 âď¸ The Bronx River suffered for many years as it became a natural dumping ground for waste running from nearby industrial plants. In recent decades, however, industrial activity near the river has declined and municipalities have agreed to not push sewage into the waterway. City authorities stock the Bronx river with fish, too, a lure to dolphins, who eat 20lbs of fish a day.
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rosy, Nora, and Rascal.
A New York shelter says Ralphie the dog is a jerk, but it still wants him adopted
Rosy chose this story because she believes that every dog deserves a home, even one like Ralphie. Letâs hope the right no-nonsense adopter steps up and succeeds in teaching him some manners!
From NPR:
A New York animal shelter is telling potential adopters all they need to know about one dog in particular â the good and the bad, but mostly the bad. The Niagara SPCA said they've become quite skilled at spinning an animal's "less than desirable" qualities, but with Ralphie the dog, that was hard to do, it said last week. Ralphie "This one stumps us, though. We don't actually have too many nice things to say so we're just going to come out with it." Ralphie the dog is adorable, but has a hard time being told no and is prone to ankle-biting, the organization said. "Our best guess is that Ralphie's cute face got him whatever he wanted and boundaries are something he heard people talk about, but they didn't apply to him," the post said. Ralphie was adopted twice and given back. The first time, his owners took him to boarding and training classes, but the animal insisted on being the boss of everyone, according to the SPCA post. The second time, his new owners said he had a tendency to annoy their older dog and he was rehomed two weeks later. âď¸ "Lots of people withheld Ralphie's less than desirable traits, but we're going to tell you all about it," it said. "He's a whole jerkânot even half. Everything belongs to him. If you dare test his ability to possess THE things, wrath will ensue. If you show a moment of weakness, prepare to be exploited. Sounds fun, huh?" The shelter said the best home for Ralphie is "the Mother of Dragons," or one with an owner who is stern and does not have other animals.
Biden confirms that White House cat Willow has 'no limits' and sleeps on top of his head at night
Nora thinks that Willow knows how important Joeâs head is and wants to be there at night to keep it warm and protected. Good job, Willow!
đŠ to SageHagRN for posting this link in a comment in Saturdayâs GNR.
From Business Insider:
President Joe Biden revealed more about White House cat Willow at a Lunar New Year reception on Thursday. Willow, the âwild childâ Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden hosted the event where the president unexpectedly shed light on the cat's sleeping habits. Willow is a wild child with "no limits," and often ends up dozing off on top of his head at night, Biden told the crowd. "Willow may walk in here any time now. She has no limits," Biden said at the reception, according to USA Today reporter Joey Garrison. "You think I'm kidding, I'm not. Especially in the middle of the night when she climbs up and lays on top of my head." The White House did not immediately respond to Insider's request for more information about Willow.
Biodiversity safeguards bird communities under a changing climate
Rascal and I both liked this story showing that having lots of different birds in one community makes all of them better able to deal with climate change. Which is even more reason to maintain and improve species diversity.
From Science Daily:
A new study shows that North American bird communities containing functionally diverse species have changed less under climate change during the past 50 years than functionally simple communities. ...Consistently, bird communities with higher species richness and a larger variety of functional properties changed less radically in their community composition following climate change. "For example, if a community contained birds of prey, insectivores, and seed-eaters rather than birds from just one feeding guild, it was better safeguarded against the negative impacts of climate change," highlights PhD Emma-Liina Marjakangas, the leading researcher of the study from University of Helsinki. Community-level diversity works as a buffer against negative climate change impacts, especially during winter, i.e the season that has shown strongest climatic warming across the Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand, biodiversity played a smaller role during the breeding season. Indeed, earlier studies have shown that bird communities change faster during winter than summer, which explains this pattern. "Habitat and available food determine a species' flexibility for changing its breeding and wintering areas. For example, grassland species have shifted their distributions northwards slower than forest passerines, such as the American robin, or habitat generalists, such as the mourning dove," explains Senior curator Aleksi Lehikoinen from the University of Helsinki. Functionally diverse bird communities help maintain ecosystems via plant seed dispersal, pest insect control and even pollination of flowering plants. Climate change reshuffles the composition of these important bird communities and therefore threatens their ability to provide ecosystem services. "Our results strengthen the understanding that biodiversity safeguards ecosystem functioning and that the biodiversity and climate crises need to be mitigated simultaneously to avoid multiplicative effects," Marjakangas emphasizes. The study is based on a community science database from 1966-2016 covering all of North America, and it was published in the international journal Scientific Reports.
Finally, all three of my furred and feathered co-editors wanted me to boost this terrific story that Pakalolo posted on DKos on Thursday:
Ukraine credits beavers for preventing an invasion along the Belarus border.
Beavers on Ukraineâs border with Belarus have been left alone by farmers and other landowners. Their dams and populations are no longer threatened by Ukrainians in the region of Volyn due to Vlad the Bloodyâs invasion. They have been left to do their thing: change the local ecosystem back into a watery wonderland. âď¸ Isnât nature grand? From Business Insider: Local beavers are helping Ukraine defend itself from a potential new front in Russia's invasion, Reuters reported on Thursday. The animals are unwittingly helping Kyiv by building dams that keep the ground marshy and impassable, a military spokesman told the agency. This helps Ukraine by making it less likely that an attack could come via Belarus, which borders Ukraine not far north of the capital Kyiv. Ukrainian officials had warned that Russia may wage an offensive through its ally Belarus into a region of Ukraine called Volyn. Defense forces there, however, have been reassured by conditions on the ground, left impassable by miles of burst river banks, thick mud, and waterlogged fields.
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Art break
Artwork Found in Shed Covered in Bird Droppings Turns Out to be Early Van Dyck Now at Auction for $3 Million
From Good News Network:
Iâm a sucker for stories about unknown artworks by Old Masters found hidden away in attics and sheds. This is an especially good one, because the finder had dedicated much of his life to searching for such treasures.
Side by side images of the full sketch and a detail of the face and upper torso An oil sketch done by Dutch Master Anthony van Dyck is going up for auction soon, after being found discarded in a farm shed covered with bird droppings. Bought on a hunch for $600 in 2002 from an estate auction, itâs predicted to sell for $3 million when it goes up at Sothebyâs. While it was found far from the Flemish painterâs home of Antwerp, the farmhouse lay in the town of âKinderhookâ New York, a town settled almost certainly by his countryman. Albert B. Roberts believed it to be a work by a Dutch master of some repute, and bought it for âthe excitement of the chase.â A Study of Saint Jerome is one of only two known live model works completed by the painter Anthony van Dyck. Artnet reports it was âlikely created between 1615 and 1618, when the young painter was working as an assistant in Peter Paul Rubensâs Antwerp studio.â âď¸ Then-87-year-old Roberts exhibited the painting in 2019 at the Albany Institute of History & Art, the same year he had it authenticated by art historian Susan Barnes. âIâve devoted the last 30 years of my life to the search for art that I like to call âorphanedâ art, that for one reason or another has been neglected, overlooked, perhaps lost in the shuffle of the art world in different countries,â he said at the time.
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Hot lynx
www.newyorker.com/...The Invention of the Police. In light of new urgency to rein in police abuses, The New Yorker has brought this 2020 piece by historian Jill Lepore out of their archives. Lepore is, as always, brilliant and fearless: âWhy did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.â This piece is long but worth the time.
www.theatlantic.com/⌠Tanks for Ukraine Have Shifted the Balance of Power in Europe. â...the European states most directly vulnerable to Russian aggressionâin Scandinavia, the Baltic region, and Central and Eastern Europe...forced NATOâs two greatest powers to take a step that Biden and especially Scholz have clearly been afraid of taking.â
www.nytimes.com/⌠Britainâs Cautionary Tale of Self-Destruction. If youâre able to get past the NYTimes paywall, this is an opinion piece well worth reading. Spoiler alert: the villain is austerity, enforced by 12 years of Tory government.
www.newyorker.com/⌠How Native Americans Will Shape the Future of Water in the West. âTribal nations hold the rights to significant portions of the Colorado River. In the increasing drought, some are showing the way to sustainability.â
obits.oregonlive.com/⌠Robert Cameron obituary. My husband and I like to read obituaries (theyâre about lives, not about death!), and we love really good ones. This is one of the best ever .
And a bonus video link â Beau on how Monopoly can teach us about the generational wealth gap:
x YouTube Video
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Todayâs GNR is so long I decided to omit my usual housekeeping and activism links. You all know what to do without any reminders!
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Closing music poem I took this photo in my neighborhood, where several people have display cases for poems. I always stop to read them in hopes of finding a gem. Hereâs a gem.
â¤ď¸ â¤ď¸ â¤ď¸ â¤ď¸ â¤ď¸
Thanks to all of you for your smarts, your hearts, and
your faithful attendance at our daily Gathering of the Herd.
â¤ď¸đ RESIST, PERSIST, REBUILD, REJOICE! đâ¤ď¸
[END]
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