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June 09, 2017 09:50 AM UTC

Good News! Week of June 3-June 10

  • 26 Comments
  • by: kwtree

(Get More…Gooder! – promoted by Colorado Pols)

This diary, which I hope to publish every Friday, will be all about small victories in the big battles: People doing the right thing for the right reasons. Stories of bravery, generosity, caring, and integrity. Where possible, I’ve connected this to Colorado politics and stories.

This is a selfish project for me – I need to see those small victories and uplifting stories just to keep going as an activist. Without them, it’s too easy to be overwhelmed by the flood of bad news and attacks on democracy and civil rights, and simply stop trying to keep politicians accountable.

There are many “good news” items I haven’t covered; more possible categories for good news are: Race, discrimination, justice, bizarre news, animals, marches, town halls, community organizing, “the resistance”. Where another organization such as ProgressNow Colorado reports on “How to fight back this week”, I’m not going to duplicate coverage. As always, add your own “good news” stories and commentary.

Energy and Environment

NRC has to consult with tribes first before permitting its uranium mine in S. Dakota

Cleantechnica reports that renewables make up 19.5% of US energy in the 1st quarter of 2017.

Colorado currently gets 16% of its energy from wind, and 2% from solar or other renewable sources, for a total of 18% of Colorado’s total electrical energy use. This was 2015 data, and is probably higher now. Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard goal is to use 30% renewable energy by 2020. Xcel plans to build 600 megawatts of wind capacity on Colorado’s eastern plains, a move which the Independence Institute says is unnecessary.

Midwest Energy News includes these gems: Nevada will bring back rooftop solar, the market for energy storage is at an all time high, while the cost of solar is at an all time low. Also low: Demand for coal at its lowest since 1984.

Wikipedia Commons, map of Climate Alliance states. Image Attribution: By Thekiller160 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

The US Climate Alliance, a grassroots response to the President’s repudiation of the Paris Climate Accord, continues to gather states, cities and businesses pledging to meet or exceed the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 2%. It now includes 12 states and 211 municipalities, plus some major businesses like GE, Google, Apple, Microsoft.

Colorado has not yet joined the US Climate Alliance; Colorado governor John Hickenlooper wrote that Trump’s withdrawal was a “serious mistake” and likened the decision to “ripping off your parachute when you should be pulling the ripcord

Education and Children

Senate committee rejects DeVos education vision and budget. So SPED funding, Title IX and X, college remediation and grants, and  nutritious school lunches are safe…for now.

Reproductive Rights

Colorado women can now get one year supplies of contraceptives control . This helps women who live in rural areas, or who must take off work for medical appointments. A study showed that having contraceptives consistently available can cut the unplanned birth rate by 30%.

Several states have put laws in place which act as a firewall to protect access to contraception for low-income women

Elections, Candidates, and Voting

Colorado is putting up some decent candidates against Doug Lamborn, Ken Buck, and Clarice Navarro.  Betty Field, Chase Kohne, and Brianna Buentello have formally declared and have filed paperwork to run against these incumbents in 2018. Other Democratic candidates have also declared intention to run against Mike Coffman and, and are deciding whether to run against Gardner in 2020. Information from “The Green Papers“

LGBT rights

Methodist church has appointed its first openly gay bishop in Colorado; her appointment was immediately challenged, as it apparently violates church law.

However, Bishop Oliveto has been welcomed to the pulpit of the United Methodist Church in Greenwood Village, CO.

Hornet billboard for Colorado Springs
Hornet’s message for Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs.

This billboard will be put up in Colorado Springs, home of the anti-gay Focus on the Family headquarters.  The campaign is by Hornet, which is also placing one of these near the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS.

Sam Long, a trans math teacher from Denver, will tell his story in DC:

Medicine and science

Veterans (and others) experiencing symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder can now get cannabis prescribed. It’s one of the more effective treatments for PTSD.

Dinosaur Dung + Particle Accelerator = Science h/t to notaskinnycook

cool scanned dinosaur poop pic
Scanned Coprolites (Dinosaur poo) Image credit: Qvarnström et al, Sci. Reports (2017))

Two Coloradans were chosen for NASA astronaut training

 

Civil rights, faith, and justice

Muslim mosques are hosting interfaith dinners for Ramadan. The Islamic Center in Fort Collins did and Aurora will on Saturday, as will Boulder.

 

crowd supporting ft collins mosque
The day after this Ft Collins mosque was vandalized in a hate crime, thousands showed up,  in the rain, to show support. 3/27/2017

 

Immigration rights

Ingrid Encalada Latorre, Arturo Garcia, and Jeanette Vizguerra left their church sanctuaries last month after they won stays of deportation.

This followed months of community rallies and support, and Ms. Vizguerra was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people of the year.

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26 thoughts on “Good News! Week of June 3-June 10”

  1. I thought this would be a good idea. Unfortunately, parroting political propaganda does not qualify as good news. Maybe Jane Doe survives cancer with help from a students Go Fund Me page. Jon Doe adopts two cats, two dogs and half a dozen chickens, saving them from a kill shelter.

    Any thing else, it's just a continuation of the regular crap. No news.

    1. Poor MJ. Prune has ruled against your good news idea. But, I've forgotten the last time you posted anything, Prune, that would count as real news.

      MJ did leave out that Lamborn will have a higher quality primary opponent than usual with Owen Hill. Hopefully the Republican voters in CD 5 will finally figure out that Lamborn has been pretty much a do-nothing congressman other than saying "how high?" when military interests say "jump." 

          1. I keep having to repeat this for you, Prune. You wouldn't know what a real conservative looks like even if Ronald Reagan was back from the dead and sitting in your kitchen sipping on a 'brewski.

            You know what a brewski is; it's what he and Tip O'Neill would occasionally share at the White House in the evening after their day time battles on the Hill. I can't imagine John Boehner or Paul Ryan ever sitting down over a brew with Barack Obama. 

            1. What would Ronald Reagan think of the slavish devotion on the part of the modern GOP to the successor to the Evil Empire?  

              #SAD!!!

              1. I think Reagan would be appalled. Reagan said: "trust, but verify." Trump leaves out the "verify" part. I still wonder exactly what Putin has on Trump. 

            2. I can imagine Boner and Ryan having a beer with O, and nothing good coming out of it for the American people. Don't have to imagine it just look what we got from the girly man Republicans after 8 years of Republican help. 

          1. More fact manipulation from Prune. And noting again the attempted distraction by injecting Bill Clinton to remove focus from the current president.

    3. Then tip your hat, Pear, to my son, Ph.d philosopy teacher at Trinity College in Hartford, conn.  He and his roomie, who is also a philosopy prof at Fairfield University, came across an abandoned and obviously abused pit bull near New Haven.   They took him to the pound but rescued him the next day after he wasn't claimed because it would have been a death sentence.   Dudley is a very sweet dog and they finally found a slelter to keep him .  They have two dogs of their own, a dachshund and chihuahua and didn't want to keep him out of fear the littleones would attack him, forcing Dudley to defend himself.

      After searching high and low, they found a shelter to take him in return for a sizable gift.   He whimpered when they left him because had already had fallen in love with them.  But within a week, he found a new home, with a fenced yard and a doggie playmate .

      It is a  little known law of physics that when a good dog is happy, a new star is born.  Thanks to the dogged persistence of my son and daughter in law, there is now a new binary star near Sirius, the Dog star.  

      A good dog has a home and the love he deeserves, a love he will nourish, amplify, and return to his new family a hundred fold.

      Some times, the good creatures win.

      heart​​​​​

       

       

      1. My heart cockles are warming, V. Seriously,  that's a sweet story, and is a credit to your son. I had two rescued pit bulls for years, until one died and I had to give up the other one to a better home when I moved. They are wonderful, affectionate, loyal dogs if you don't try to make them into weapons.

      2. Great story. This last weekend I drove to Lincoln NE and back in one day to pickup our new 3 year old female Springer Spaniel. The new powerful pear are liver and white. Love our animals!

    4. But if Jane Doe survives her cancer with the help of GoFundMe, she will lose her insurance under TrumpCare's abolition of the ban of denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions – if she has the misfortune of living in a red state with a governor who requests a waiver from HHS.

      So your feel good story doesn't necessarily have a happy ending, Prune. 

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