Good news on rights, clean air, old fossils
Among the items behind the paywall in this edition of Fix the News:
— “If a corporation can have rights, then why can’t a tree or a mountain?” asks Fix the News. Panama is proposing United Nations talks on a non-binding declaration affirming that nature has inherent rights. Panama wrote nature’s rights into law in 2022, and more than a dozen countries, including Spain, Ecuador and New Zealand, have something similar, reports Inside Climate News.
— A year after New York City launched its congestion pricing policy, fine particulate pollution in Manhattan’s congestion relief zone was 13 percent lower, according to a new analysis published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
— Scientists have discovered preserved collagen in 66-million-year-old dinosaur bones, overturning a long-standing assumption about fossilization, reports Science Daily.
“This could unlock new insights into dinosaurs — for example revealing connections between dinosaur species that remain unknown,” says researcher Steve Taylor, chair of the Mass Spectrometry Research Group at the University of Liverpool’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics.
“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” — late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., civil rights activist
And America just did, in a way that would have made John Lewis proud! Here are voting rights resources from the midterm elections.
Here is John’s commentary today, titled “Salon, internet news pioneer, says goodbye after 31 years.”
How Democrats won races across the South
Democrats who opposed Trump’s election intervention efforts soon will control the top election office in nearly every significant battleground state for 2028
The reactions of Never Trump conservatives to the GOP’s midterm losses
In wake of midterms, tech billionaires’ political alignment with Trump may have become a liability
Harmeet Dhillon resigns after radical overhaul of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division
Adam Liptak: Why merciless Supreme Court rebuke to Trump administration on election eve matters
Federal judge blocks construction of Trump arch after Trump-allied panel approves it
Trump signs proclamation making Oval Office a national monument
Ways a Democratic Congress could help D.C.
D.C. officials to call for new Democratic governors to withdraw their states’ National Guard troops
Hegseth authorizes National Guard to use boats, humvees, light medium tactical vehicles in D.C.
Nithya Raman wins Los Angeles mayoral race in victory for progressives
California Gov. Gavin Newsom moves to commute sentences of all 548 people on death row to life without parole
MAGA faithful confront the unthinkable: Is this the end of MAGA?
After midterm rebuke, OpenAI pledges to be more collaborative with data center towns
Heather Cox Richardson on the plans of incoming House and Senate committee chairs, more
Robert Reich: ‘The big picture of what happened Tuesday’
U.S. infant bleeding episodes increase dramatically as vitamin K refusals rise, 2 studies find
You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader John Thune