Catching Up...

🪧 On Saturday, protesters gathered in cities large and small across the U.S. for nationwide “Hands Off!” protests to rally specifically against the actions of President Donald Trump and DOGE.

🌧️ With days of rainfall, flooding devastated parts of the U.S. South and Midwest, and at least 18 people have lost their lives. The aftermath is still threatening communities today, as rescue crews work tirelessly to help.

🏀 The UConn Huskies defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks in the women’s NCAA college basketball championship in front of a (fourth-consecutive) sold-out crowd.​

Food

To address food insecurity, a group of Baltimore women is building a community fridge network

Recognizing the difficulty some folks have in being able to travel to and access local food pantries where and when they’re open, a group of four women in Baltimore wanted to bring the food to them.

The Bmore Community Fridge Network is a map of community fridges and neighborhood pantries across the city, and it’s hoping to connect nearby residents with free food.

Not only will the map help those in need of food — it will also serve those looking for places to donate food. Right now, the map has four community fridges featured, and the women are working quickly to add more.

Why is this good news? Maryland Food Bank data shows more than 90,000 city residents are food insecure, and 1 in 3 Marylanders face food insecurity. While the number of residents experiencing food insecurity is down from last year, the region’s rate is nearly twice as high as the national average.

This network is essential in making it easier to collect donations and connect people in need with fresh food that’s nearby.

→ Read more

More Good News

​A plan to study “social housing” passed the Portland City Council with unanimous support. Housing developed, owned, and operated by the government would help keep the units affordable for people living in the city and address severe housing shortages that the private sector is not meeting.

​A study found that shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over seven years by 20%. While it’s not clear how Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia form, certain viruses, especially those in the herpes family, have long been suspected of adding to genetic and other factors that make people more vulnerable.

​Home builder Lennar is constructing 1,500 new Colorado homes with heat pumps. Ground-source heat pumps, which tap into the stable temperatures hundreds of feet beneath the Earth’s surface, are a super-efficient way to heat and cool homes — but expensive to install, unless it’s built in from the start.

​There are now almost 50 rhinos living at a ranch in Uganda, part of an initiative to bring the animals back to the country. Rhinos went extinct in Uganda in the early 1980s due to poaching, trafficking, and political turmoil. Six rhinos were introduced to the former cattle ranch in 2006, and their numbers have since multiplied.

People doing good

Runner attempts 50 ultramarathons in 50 days for the homeless: ‘If I’ve got to run across Australia to hit $2.2M, then that's what I'll do’

→ Read more​

Good data

In recent years, four countries have successfully stopped and reversed the erosion of their democracies

When looking at key aspects of democracy, like the fairness of elections and checks on government power — in the past 20 years, Thailand, Zambia, Brazil, and Poland all saw declines in democracy … some faster than others.

But all four countries have also been able to stop, and even reverse autocratization successfully. In all these instances, people resisted growing authoritarianism and were able to either partially or fully restore previous levels of democracy.

This illustrates how even when democracy deteriorates, that decline is not a permanent fixture — t​​hose losses can be recovered.

→ Read more​

More Good bits

🍓 No more losing strawberries (two days after you buy them) to mold.

📰 The news is tough to watch right now, but a TikTok comic makes it easier.​

🌎 Christians now have a climate action bible.​

✏️ The girls are going to school (even if it’s in secret).​

🎨 Can Kanye break the world record? (Instagram)

What’s good?

Now that we’ve got a toddler in the house, we rarely lose our berries to mold (iykyk).

Try as you might, which food item do you wish lasted longer in your refrigerator??

I still can’t get through a whole head of romaine ... reply and tell me yours!

— Megan