Happy Tuesday morning, Gnusies! Today’s GNR is packed with stories proving that individuals have the power to resist lawless authoritarianism, to challenge and change public policies, and to make life better for their communities and the world. I guarantee you’ll be cheered by what you’ll read here.
A lot of today’s stories come from Oregon and Portland, so please bring news — especially Resistance news — from your own part of the world to our comment section, The Best Comment Section on the Internet™.
Opening music
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Good news in the Resistance
New Jersey may stop paying federal taxes under new governor
I know a lot of people think this can’t be done, but I’m keeping an open mind and hoping it might work.
🎩 to WineRev for mentioning this on Saturday.
From MSN:
Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey is floating the possibility that the state withholds federal tax dollars in protest of the Trump administration.
The comments from Sherrill — made on comedian Jon Stewart’s podcast — underscores how she's trying to find ways to push back against President Donald Trump’s agenda. Sherrill won New Jersey’s closely watched gubernatorial race earlier this month in a blowout, with the results widely viewed as a referendum on Trump.
Sherrill appears to be taking a page from California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s playbook. In June, Newsom similarly floated having California stop paying federal taxes — although the idea never materialized. He later told POLITICO that the proposal would be difficult, especially since individuals and businesses pay taxes to the federal government, not states.
“We’re assessing it, we have looked into it, and [the Department of] Finance is looking across the spectrum of options. But it’s limited, because most of that distribution and transfer comes from individual taxpayers,” Newsom later said.
Federal funding cuts featured prominently in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. During the federal government shutdown, Trump threatened to “terminate” funding for the Gateway tunnel — a massive infrastructure project to build new train tunnels under the Hudson River.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
And for those who assume that no feasible mechanism exists for a state to do this, here’s an interesting piece from The Guardian:
The Trump regime is selectively starving Democratic jurisdictions of federal funds, even as their residents continue to pay billions in federal taxes, with blue states accounting for over 60% of the federal government’s revenue. We are being compelled to subsidize our own political subjugation. ✂️
...Taxation is never merely technical. It is the material expression of political belonging and shared obligation. When the state weaponizes fiscal power against certain communities while continuing to demand unquestioned revenue from them, it undermines its own claim to legitimate authority. In such contexts, withholding or conditionally redirecting tax flows can become a way to re-politicize the fiscal relationship. ...Faced with this reality, Democratic governors need more than legal complaints and rhetorical protest. They need fiscal strategies of resistance commensurate with the scale of the attack. And one of the most provocative – and potentially powerful – ideas available is the creation of state-administered escrow accounts, or “in trust” funds, to temporarily hold federal tax revenues... ✂️
States could establish this system through legislation to create a tax receivership fund, explicitly designated as a trust account for federal tax liabilities. Residents and businesses would make payments into this account instead of directly to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The state would acknowledge these payments as received on behalf of the federal government, and pledge to remit them in full once specific, legally defined conditions were met – say, the restoration of suspended federal funding and reversal of other punitive actions that violate constitutional guarantees.
Importantly, this scheme does not purport to nullify federal taxes or claim state sovereignty over them. ...Of course, the Trump-controlled IRS, which has already been weaponized by the regime, would not quietly accept this. It would likely treat payments into the state trust as non-payment and impose penalties. Legal challenges would ensue. But that is precisely the point: to force a constitutional confrontation over whether the federal government can target states for political punishment while continuing to demand unquestioned fiscal obedience.
For such a strategy to work, it cannot be the isolated action of a single state. ...if multiple states act simultaneously, they can transform isolated legal defiance into a coordinated assertion of constitutional co-sovereignty. ✂️
Skeptics will call the above proposal unconstitutional, impractical or politically reckless. They are not wrong to note the risks. Under current federal tax law, states have no role in federal revenue collection. Courts might enjoin such efforts quickly. Administratively, state governments would need to build new fiscal infrastructure to receive and track payments. And Trump will seize on any opportunity to paint blue states as “insurrectionists” who must be violently crushed – but the regime is already inventing fictions to justify this regardless of on-the-ground realities.
Acknowledging risks is not the same as accepting them as decisive. The legal barriers to fiscal disobedience are formidable in part because the federal government has never before faced coordinated, large-scale challenges of this kind from wealthy states representing a majority of national tax revenue. The courts are not mechanical; they are political actors that respond to the balance of power and the perceived legitimacy of claims. Even if states ultimately lose in court, the process itself would publicly expose the authoritarian abuse of fiscal powers, force constitutional confrontation rather than quiet capitulation, and potentially reshape the political terrain.
Justice Bus puts justice on wheels throughout Oregon
Stephen Manning is a true Resistance hero.
From KOIN:
Lawyer Stephen Manning sits inside the Justice Bus outside the ICE facility on Macadam in South Portland, November 15, 2025
On Saturday afternoon, lawyer Stephen Manning sat inside a van parked outside the ICE facility in South Portland. But the van is much more than that. It’s a fully equipped mobile legal office dubbed the Justice Bus.
“The Fifth Amendment does not take a vacation day,” said Manning, the executive director of Innovation Law Lab. The Justice Bus allows lawyers to “show up where due process is needed.”
The van, which was donated to the Innovation Law Lab, is outfitted with Wi-Fi, computers and legal books. The lawyers on the Justice Bus are bilingual in English and Spanish, but it also has access to 64 other languages. It’s also solar powered, which lets the Justice Bus go easily into rural Oregon’s agricultural field and ranches in eastern and southern Oregon.“We’re able to get it out into the community anywhere. Grants Pass, Hermiston, The Dalles, Astoria, Newport, wherever ICE is going to go and conduct warrantless mass arrests,” he told KOIN 6 News. ✂️
“ICE has intentionally excluded the lawyers from the facility, has intentionally denied people access to attorneys, free attorneys,” he told KOIN 6 News. “We’re all free attorneys. We are all pro bono attorneys providing this service to anyone who wants it and who’s detained inside or anyone in Oregon who is seeking access to a lawyer for immigration purposes.”
At this time, there’s only one Justice Bus. Manning said they’d love to have more, but having the mobility of the van lets them go where they’re needed. ...If someone needs a lawyer for immigration-related issues, they just need to show up where the Justice Bus is and ask. They can also reach out to the Equity Corps of Oregon at 888.274.7292 or go to JusticeBus.org
Oregon colleges say no to Trump administration higher ed compact
This piece was published on Nov. 19, and as of the deadline on Nov. 21, no Oregon colleges have signed on. Several colleges have instead signed the American Association of Colleges and Universities pledge, which says in part, “University presidents cannot bargain with the essential freedom of colleges and universities to determine whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom. ...They cannot trade academic freedom for federal funding — and should not be asked to do so.”
From Jefferson Public Radio:
The deadline to sign on to President Donald Trump’s higher education compact is quickly approaching. Colleges and universities throughout the U.S. have until this Friday to make a decision on the agreement.
So far, none of Oregon’s higher education institutions have publicly signed on.
The U.S. Department of Education’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is among the agency’s latest tools to bend the nation’s universities toward the Trump administration’s vision for higher ed.
The proposal lays out certain provisions schools must adhere to, including new admissions requirements, revised campus free speech policies and changes to faculty hiring. The compact doesn’t explicitly state what universities would get out of the arrangement, but it alludes to several “federal benefits” such as student loan access, research funding, approval of student and faculty visas and tax advantages.
In an OPB query regarding the compact, nearly all of the state’s public universities either said they had not been contacted by the federal government about it or that they did not plan to sign it.
“While Portland State has not been asked to sign this compact, our commitment to equity, inclusion and academic freedom is unwavering,” wrote PSU spokesperson Katy Swordfisk, in an emailed statement. “We will not endorse any measure that contradicts our core values or hinders our work to build a campus where every student and employee can thrive.”
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Good news in politics
Comey, James cases dismissed as judge disqualifies interim US attorney Lindsey Halligan
‘Bye, Felicia.
From Politico:
A federal judge has thrown out the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding that President Donald Trump’s handpicked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed to the role when she single-handedly secured the indictments.
U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie concluded that Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia violated laws that limit the ability of the Justice Department to install top prosecutors without Senate confirmation.
“Ms. Halligan has been unlawfully serving in that role since September 22, 2025,” Currie concluded in opinions simultaneously filed Monday in both cases. “All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment … constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside.”
However, Currie dismissed the cases “without prejudice.” That could allow prosecutors to attempt to obtain new grand jury indictments in each case. But Comey’s attorneys have already indicated that they will argue that he cannot be re-indicted because the statute of limitations in his case expired on Sept. 30. And Currie agreed that the deadline had passed without a valid indictment.
The ruling is an extraordinary rebuke of the rushed effort by the Justice Department — under Trump’s direction — to seek indictments of his political adversaries.
U-Turn by Establishment as Corporate Dem Guru Carville Pushes ‘Platform of Pure Economic Rage’
FWIW, I see this as yet another bit of Mamdani fallout. Power brokers want to be on the winning side. Of course, typically for him, Carville uses a hellfire and brimstone approach, the 180-degree opposite of Mamdani’s low-key persuasiveness.
From Common Dreams:
James Carville, ...who has long sparred with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, turned some heads on Monday when he appeared to embrace a more populist economic vision.
Writing in the New York Times, Carville argued that the American people “are pissed” by the state of the US economy, and that Democrats must now “run on the most populist economic platform since the Great Depression. ...It is time for Democrats to embrace a sweeping, aggressive, unvarnished, unapologetic, and altogether unmistakable platform of pure economic rage,” Carville added. “This is our only way out of the abyss.” ✂️
“In the richest country in the history of our planet, we should not fear raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, which had a 74% approval rating in 2023,” he said. “We should not fear an America with free public college tuition, which 63% of US adults favored in a 2021 poll. When 62% of Americans say their electricity or gas bills have increased in the past year and 80% feel powerless to control their utility costs, we should not fear the idea of expanding rural broadband as a public utility. Or when 70% of Americans say raising children is too expensive, we should not fear making universal childcare a public good.”
Progressives who have long advocated for more economic populism cautiously welcomed Carville’s new approach, although they expressed skepticism that the Democratic Party was really ready to go in this direction. ...David Sirota, founder of The Lever and one-time senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, noted with amusement that Carville’s recommendations to Democrats had changed dramatically over the last few months. ...“He’s gone from demanding Dems play dead to demanding Dems be Bernie Sanders,” Sirota observed. “A good reminder that thumb-in-the-wind politicos with no principles will change their tune when others do the hard work of shifting the political environment.”
“Alarming”: Sen. Wyden demands investigation into JPMorgan Chase’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein
Wyden, one of my two great Oregon senators, has been relentless in researching the financial underpinning of Epstein’s world-wide sex trafficking operation. He’s also meticulous, so you know he’s got the receipts on JP Morgan Chase.
From Salon:
JPMorgan Chase is facing intense scrutiny from a top Senate Democrat over its longtime financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee, issued a report on Wednesday that alleges the financial giant may have underreported more than $1 billion in “suspicious transactions to the federal government” for nearly two decades.
“A compliance failure of this scale is alarming,” Wyden’s report read. “JPMC’s underreporting of SARs impeded law enforcement’s visibility into the financial infrastructure that enabled Epstein’s cross-border sex trafficking organization.”
The report relies on unsealed court documents that show JPMC filed suspicious activity reports (SARs) for $4.3 million in transactions made by Epstein between 2002 and 2016. However, the documents reveal that JPMC waited until after Epstein’s arrest and death in 2019 to fully report on a further $1.3 billion in SARs. “Emails raise the possibility that this was due to JPMC executives’ desire to continue working with Epstein,” the report read, citing communications in the court documents.
Wyden called for JPMC to “face criminal investigation for the way it enabled Epstein’s horrific crimes,” in a statement on Thursday. “Complicit banks ought to be investigated, as should anybody who helped Epstein traffic his victims or took part in the abuse.”
Doug Jones enters 2026 Alabama governor’s race
My apologies for posting a video from “X”, but that appears to be the only place it was published.
From Alabama Reflector:
Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones officially joined the race for Alabama’s governor Monday afternoon.
Jones posted a video to social media Monday where he confirmed the “worst kept secret” in Alabama. He also teased an official kickoff next month. “Folks in Alabama deserve a governor who is going to fight for them,” he said. “What we’ve heard all along is that Alabama wants their next governor to be someone who lives here, who works here, who listens to the people of this state, who understands the people of this state.”
...Alabama’s primaries are May 19.
Jones’ entry into the race likely sets up a rematch with U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who defeated Jones in the 2020 senatorial race and has largely cleared the field in the GOP gubernatorial race. It also gives Democrats their highest-profile gubernatorial candidate since Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Sue Bell Cobb jockeyed for the nomination in 2018.
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Repellent Republicans and Related Reprobates Rushing Recklessly to Ruin
House Republican Warns More “Explosive” Resignations Coming After MTG
Yes, please!
From The New Republic:
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt resignation announcement has only revealed even more cracks in the GOP’s foundation. Punchbowl News reports that even more Republican representatives are considering resigning in the middle of their term due to what they see as the “arrogance of this White House.”
“This entire White House team has treated ALL members like garbage. ALL. And Mike Johnson has let it happen because he wanted it to happen. That is the sentiment of nearly all—appropriators, authorizers, hawks, doves, rank and file. The arrogance of this White House team is off putting to members who are run roughshod and threatened,” one anonymous senior House Republican told Jake Sherman. “They don’t even allow little wins like announcing small grants or even responding from agencies. Not even the high profile, the regular rank and file random members are more upset than ever. Members know they are going into the minority after the midterms.”
It’s unclear which Republicans are on the brink of resignation, but their feeling of disrespect—and their failure to win on various issues—have led many on the right to throw in the towel for 2026 as they expect the party to lose its already slim majority.
“More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinder box. Morale has never been lower,” the anonymous representative continued. “Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”
X’s New Feature Exposes Top MAGA Accounts As Foreign Operatives — And The Problem Is Even Worse On Instagram
Shocked/not shocked.
I hope this revelation will force at least some of the fans of these faux MAGA spox to realize that they’ve been played.
By Patrick Zarelli in South Florida Media:
Elon Musk flipped a switch this week, and the American political internet had a meltdown. A new country-of-origin transparency feature on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, instantly exposed that many of the loudest “America First,” “MAGA,” and even anti-Trump accounts aren’t American at all. They’re foreign-run influence operations masquerading as U.S. citizens, pumping propaganda into the bloodstream of U.S. politics.
When users click an account’s “Joined” date, the platform now reveals the actual location where that account is operating. What followed was digital chaos. MAGA influencers accused Democrats of foreign manipulation, Democrats blasted MAGA for being duped by obvious fraudsters, and both sides suddenly realized a hard truth: a huge chunk of the political war online is being waged by people who don’t even live in the United States.
One major “MAGA NATION” account with 392,000 followers turned out to be based in Eastern Europe.
Another high-engagement “Dark MAGA” page is run from Thailand.
“MAGA Scope,” with 51,000 followers, is operating out of Nigeria.
“America First,” with 67,000 followers, traces back to Bangladesh. ✂️
While Musk has taken heat for turning the lights on, Instagram and Facebook remain pitch-black by design. Meta has far more foreign-run political pages pretending to be American, but refuses to expose them. Mark Zuckerberg has always been one of the biggest cowards in American business history, and this moment is no different. After everything this country has done for him, when the country needs him, he’s always hiding in his Hawaiian bunker instead of standing on the front lines where any real leader would be. And I can say this from firsthand experience, as @PJZNY on Instagram, I deal with tens of thousands of fake comments across my political posts, many of them abusive, coordinated, and clearly foreign. Running a network like this without any accountability tells you everything you need to know about Zuckerberg’s character. This isn’t leadership; it’s surrender.
Political content on Instagram is flooded with:
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fake patriot accounts run out of Pakistan
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anti-Biden meme pages managed from Brazil
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AI-generated political influencers run from Kosovo
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evangelical “U.S. prayer pages” traced to Macedonia
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Veteran-themed scam pages traced to Nigeria and Ghana
“We’re not Enron”
Ha! Imagine being so dirty that this is the best PR damage control line you can come up with. 🤣
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Good news from my corner of the world
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield Announces Lawsuit to Return Newport’s Search-and-Rescue Helicopter
The criminal recklessness of this DHS action can’t be overstated. The rescue helicopter nearest to the Oregon coast will now be 100 miles away, and people washed into the sea or thrown from capsized boats will freeze to death while waiting for rescue. BTW, the backstory is that DHS wants to take over the Newport OR airport so they can establish an ICE facility there. Of course, the community is fighting tooth and nail (With ICE (maybe) waiting in the wings, Newport sits in limbo). In addition to causing unnecessary deaths, this ICE takeover also imperils Newport’s most important source of income, tourism.
From Oregon Department of Justice:
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter from the Newport Air Facility rescues a young girl at Yaquina Head in Newport, who was one several people swept to sea and stranded on the cliffs after being caught in a rip current while surfing at Agate Beach.
Attorney General Dan Rayfield...announced [on Friday] that the State of Oregon, together with Lincoln County and the Newport Fishermen’s Wives organization, are filing lawsuits to compel the federal government to return the Coast Guard search-and-rescue helicopter abruptly removed from the Newport Air Facility. The Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County filed their lawsuit today; the State will file its lawsuit on Monday. Both lawsuits will be adjudicated in federal district court in the District of Oregon, in Eugene.
“This helicopter isn’t a luxury—it’s a critical part of how we keep people alive on the Oregon Coast,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “The federal government didn’t just move a piece of machinery. They pulled away a safety net that this community depends on, and they did it in the dark of night with no transparency and no legal process. We’re taking action because every minute matters in a coastal emergency.”
For nearly four decades, the Newport-based helicopter has been a lifeline for coastal residents, fishermen, and visitors. Its sudden, unannounced overnight removal to North Bend—without any public notice, community consultation, or the risk assessments required under federal law—has left one of the most dangerous stretches of the Pacific Coast without timely aerial rescue coverage.
“We are deeply concerned about the safety of our commercial fishing industry, especially with the opening of crab season scheduled for December 16th,” said Becca Bostwick-Terry, President of Newport Fishermen’s Wives. “Commercial fishing is one of the nation’s most dangerous occupations, and Oregon’s cold waters make rapid helicopter response a matter of life and death.” ✂️
The State’s lawsuit will argue that the removal of the helicopter violates federal statutory requirements and standards that mandate public notice, community input, and formal risk assessments before the Coast Guard may downgrade or relocate an air station or essential rescue asset. Those processes were not followed. ✂️
The Attorney General emphasized that today’s action reflects a united front among state, county, and community partners. More information about the lawsuit will be available as the case proceeds.
Oregon’s National Guard General gets it right
x
Oregon National Guard General Alan Gronewold:
“Yes, if you give an order that directs a soldier to commit a criminal act, they should disobey that."
The only person who thinks the contrary is a 34-count convicted felon, who wouldn't pay himself for the crime committed by the soldier.
[image or embed]
— Maca Iglesias🇺🇸Thank You, President Biden🇺🇸 (@rotterdamvvg.bsky.social) November 21, 2025 at 6:29 AM
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Good news from around the nation
Nation’s Largest Landlord To Pay $7 Million Settlement After States Accuse It of Using Algorithms To Drive Up Rents
Some good news at last for renters!
From Realtor.com:
The nation's largest landlord has agreed to pay $7 million to settle claims it used algorithms to raise rents.
Greystar Property Management, which manages nearly 950,000 rental units nationwide, reached the multimillion-dollar settlement after nine states sued the company, accusing it of an "algorithmic pricing scheme."
The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesots, North Carolina, Oregon, and Tennessee agreed to a settlement stemming from a January 2025 lawsuit.
An investigation by a bipartisan coalition looked at Greystar's role into the scheme, which allowed property management companies to share supply and demand pricing data with one another on a service called RealPage.
RealPage uses algorithmic models to recommend price increases to subscribers. In a January 2025 complaint, it claims Greystar and other co-defendant landlords discussed "competitively sensitive topics" that included pricing strategies and rents. ✂️
The complaint said RealPage knew what competing landlords were charging and could increase profits for landlords by using that information to recommend landlords set or raise their prices uniformly, as a result eliminating competition and leaving renters no choice but to pay artificially high prices.
"Whether it's through smoke-filled backroom deals or through an algorithm on your computer screen, colluding to drive up prices is illegal,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release.
Three years in, Patagonia says its radical ownership model is paying off for the planet
A great example of “doing well by doing good.” Congratulations, Patagonia!
From Fast Company:
Three years ago, Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard made an unprecedented move: he and his family gave away the company. Instead of selling the multibillion-dollar retailer or taking it public, they created a new trust and nonprofit that would use the company’s profits to fight climate change and protect nature.
In a new report that looks at the company’s impact over its 52-year history, Patagonia shares how the change has amplified its environmental work.
While the company’s day-to-day internal work hasn’t changed significantly, “we’re giving away a lot more money to protect the planet,” says Corley Kenna, Patagonia’s chief impact officer. ✂️
Each year, as much as 98% of its profits can now be spent on climate action, after subtracting any funds needed for reinvestment in the business. (The company hasn’t shared exactly how much cash goes back to the business itself, but it needs some funds for building retail stores, buying inventory, and having some money in a bank to weather unexpected events like a pandemic.)
The remaining 2% of profits fund the company’s “purpose trust,” designed to ensure that the company makes all decisions in line with its purpose to help save the planet, even long after Chouinard and his family are gone. “It’s really designed to lock in the values of the company,” Kenna says. A future CEO “can’t go rogue and take the company in a totally different direction.”
“Seeds of Relief” partners with Undue Medical Debt to pay off medical debt for over 128,000 Nevadans
Undue Medical Debt is one of the nonprofits I donate to monthly. Their “bang for the buck” ratio is in a class by itself.
🎩 to Gnusie AKALib for noting this in a comment on Saturday.
From Seeds of Relief:
Medical debt has become a crushing weight for working people. More than 100 million people carry medical debt, often the result of an unexpected illness, injury, or gap in insurance. For many, this means choosing between paying for care or covering rent and groceries.
That’s why Somos Votantes Education Fund is partnering with Undue Medical Debt to eliminate more than $133 million in medical debt for over 128,000 hardworking Nevadans in Clark County and Washoe County.
Community members who received medical debt relief will be sent a letter from Undue Medical Debt the week of November 24th indicating which debt has been eliminated. Qualification is dependent on Undue Medical Debt's access to available medical debt, as provided by hospitals or collection agencies that have agreed to sell qualifying accounts to Undue. Those who qualify for this medical debt relief have medical debts that are 5% or more than their annual income or earn at or below four times the poverty-level rate.
Shower the People: How Gwen Watkins built a mobile hygiene hub and a legacy of dignity
🎩 to Gnusie strawbale for putting a link to this story in Saturday’s comments. It’s a wonderful illustration of how one good idea plus a lot of energy can grow into a far-reaching community program that helps hundreds of people.
From The Optimist Daily:
It started with a need Gwen Watkins couldn’t ignore. In San Luis Obispo County, many unhoused individuals were unable to access the church-based shower services available in the area. Gwen recognized the gap, and at an age when many would be stepping back from service, she stepped up.
In her seventies, she began fundraising for a mobile shower trailer that could go where people were, not the other way around. After two years of determined effort, Shower the People officially launched in 2017 with a sustainable, completely volunteer-run model that continues to serve the community with compassion, consistency, and genuine human connection. ✂️
With no blueprint but plenty of resolve, Gwen designed the program to be sustainable, flexible, and centered on the people it served. Her approach was simple but profound: meet people where they are, greet them by name, and make every interaction a moment of respect and care. ...What started as a mobile hygiene effort has grown into a robust, wraparound support network. ...At sites like the alley behind the San Luis Obispo Library, Shower the People now offers, among other services:
- Free monthly health clinics in partnership with Vituity Cares, Access Support Network, and WashMeGo. In 2024 alone, these clinics served 340 guests, providing over 120 medical exams, 70 vaccinations, treatment, testing, and even haircuts and hot meals.
- No-cook food bags from the SLO Food Bank, tailored to unhoused residents’ nutritional needs and distributed by STP volunteers at Thursday shower shifts.
- A new healthcare access guide, created by STP, which demystifies local medical and mental health resources for those without stable housing. The resource outlines eligibility, walk-in options, insurance requirements, and more, making healthcare less intimidating and more reachable.
- Veteran outreach at events like Veterans Stand Down in Santa Maria, where STP has provided showers every year since 2017.
- Regular hygiene days with community partners that transform shower sites into pop-up wellness hubs.
These services are essential to the community, as it is clear that the need continues to grow. Last month alone, more than 700 guests came for showers, supplies, or referrals.
Each guest receives a clean T‑shirt, underwear, socks, toiletries, a towel and washcloth, and 15 minutes of private hot water. These seemingly small, simple things really deliver a big impact. ✂️
Support or get involved
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
I hope this success story helps Mamdani in his mission to make NYC buses free.
From the NY Times (gift link, thanks to Jess Craven):
There was a psychiatrist, a librarian, a substitute teacher and a graduate student in biomedical engineering. There was an Amazon warehouse worker who’d just finished his night shift, and a man who’d lost his driver’s license because of an incident in Florida that he didn’t want to talk about.
They were all riding Iowa City’s buses one sunny November morning, and they were all amped about the same thing: That everyone got to ride for free.
Iowa City eliminated bus fares in August 2023 with a goal of lowering emissions from cars and encouraging people to take public transit. The two-year pilot program proved so popular that the City Council voted this summer to extend it another year, paying for it with a 1 percent increase in utility taxes and by doubling most public parking rates to $2 from $1.
Ridership has surpassed prepandemic levels by 18 percent. Bus drivers say they’re navigating less congested streets. People drove 1.8 million fewer miles on city streets, according to government calculations, and emissions dropped by 24,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. That’s the equivalent of taking 5,200 vehicles off the roads.
“You don’t have to figure out your bus pass. And before, it was $31 a month, which adds up,” said Vincent Hiser, 71, as he rode the No. 1 bus one recent Monday from his job at Bread Garden Market to the mobile home he shares with his 3-year-old Cavapoo, Ruby, and 13-year-old cat, Roy Rogers.
Free city buses are relatively rare in the United States. The idea has been getting a new look recently, after Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral race with a promise to make buses free. However, critics have described the plan as pie in the sky, and Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York recently voiced doubts.
But in Iowa City, a college town and home to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, objections to free buses, and even parking fee increases, have been muted. ...downtown businesses supported free buses because they helped bring people downtown and decreased workers’ transit costs. ✂️
There were early concerns that fare-free travel would heap extra burdens on bus drivers, drawing homeless people or anything-goes behavior. Yet several drivers said that not having to ask passengers for payment or transfers has led to less friction with riders. It also speeds up travel, they said, because no one was delaying things by rummaging for money. According to the city, on-time arrivals have increased by 13 percent. “There’s less dealing with the fare box and finagling over fares, but it’s definitely been busier,” said Justin Jones, who’s been driving city buses for Iowa City for 15 years, one recent morning just before starting his route.
A New Orleans man who had his murder conviction tossed wins election as city’s chief record keeper
Perfect karma: a man unjustly incarcerated and unable to access his own court records as he fought for justice is now in charge of those court records. He has a lot of cleaning up to do in his new job — quite literally, as you’ll see in the final paragraph.
From AP:
Calvin Duncan celebrating his election victory
A New Orleans man who spent three decades in prison before his murder conviction was vacated won election Saturday to serve as the city’s chief criminal court record keeper, despite the state challenging his past.
The city’s newly elected clerk of criminal court, Calvin Duncan, fought for decades to clear his name after being convicted of carrying out a 1981 fatal shooting. Duncan, a Democrat, later uncovered evidence that police officers lied in court, and had his conviction tossed by a judge in 2021. Duncan won with 68% of the vote, according to unofficial returns from the Louisiana secretary of state’s office.
“Tonight is a dream that’s been forty years in the making,” Duncan said in a statement Saturday night. “I hope that all those people who died in prison because we couldn’t get their records are looking down now. I hope they’re proud of me. We never stopped fighting for each other’s rights, and I will never stop fighting for yours. Thank you for this privilege.” ✂️
Duncan, 62, had only an eighth-grade education when he was incarcerated but became a legal expert while still in prison, helping other inmates challenge unconstitutional practices. He later became a lawyer. In 2020, Duncan’s legal advocacy drove the U.S. Supreme Court to end non-unanimous jury convictions in Louisiana and Oregon, the only two states still allowing a practice rooted in the Jim Crow era.
Duncan, who recalls that it took years for incarcerated people to get access to basic court documents, says he sought the clerk position to ensure fair treatment for all and that records are treated with greater care and respect.
New Orleans criminal court system still relies on paper files, though the city says a digital filing system is in the works. In August, court records were mistakenly discarded, leading the clerk’s office to wade ankle-deep through a landfill to retrieve them.
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Good news from around the world
Full text of European counter-proposal to US Ukraine peace plan
The so-called “peace plan” is still a mess, but the Europeans have made it clear that they won’t allow Trump to simply hand Ukraine over to Putin.
I’m posting the full text of the European response because there’s been some confusing news about it.
From Reuters:
Below is the text of a European counter-proposal to the United States' draft 28-point Ukraine peace plan, seen by Reuters on Sunday. The counter-proposal, drafted by Europe's E3 powers of Britain, France and Germany, takes the U.S. plan as its basis but then goes through it point by point with suggested changes and deletions.
1. Ukraine's sovereignty to be reconfirmed.
2. There will be a total and complete non-aggression agreement reached between Russia and Ukraine and NATO. All ambiguities from the last 30 years will be resolved.
(Point 3 of U.S. plan is deleted. A draft of that plan seen by Reuters said: "There will be the expectation that Russia will not invade its neighbours and NATO will not expand further.")
4. After a peace agreement is signed, a dialogue between Russia and NATO will convene to address all security concerns and create a de-escalatory environment to ensure global security and increase the opportunity for connectivity and future economic opportunity.
5. Ukraine will receive robust Security Guarantees
6. Size of Ukraine military to be capped at 800,000 in peacetime.
7. Ukraine joining NATO depends on consensus of NATO members, which does not exist.
8. NATO agrees not to permanently station troops under its command in Ukraine in peacetime.
9. NATO fighter jets will be stationed in Poland
10. US guarantee that mirrors Article 5
- a. US to receive compensation for the guarantee
- b. If Ukraine invades Russia, it forfeits the guarantee
- c. If Russia invades Ukraine, in addition to a robust coordinated military response, all global sanctions will be restored and any kind of recognition for the new territory and all other benefits from this agreement will be withdrawn.
11. Ukraine is eligible for EU membership and will get short-term preferred market access to Europe while this is being evaluated
12. Robust Global Redevelopment Package for Ukraine including but not limited to:
- a. Creation of Ukraine Development fund to invest in high growth industries including technology, data centres and Al efforts
- b. The United States will partner with Ukraine to jointly restore, grow, modernize and operate Ukraine's gas infrastructure, which includes its pipeline and storage facilities
- c. A joint effort to redevelop areas impacted by the war to restore, redevelop and modernize cities and residential areas
- d. Infrastructure development
- e. Mineral and natural resource extraction
- f. A special financing package will be developed by the World Bank to provide financing to accelerate these efforts.
13. Russia to be progressively re-integrated into the global economy
- a. Sanction relief will be discussed and agreed upon in phases and on a case-by-case basis.
- b. The United States will enter into a long-term Economic Cooperation Agreement to pursue mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, AI, datacenters, rare earths, joint projects in the Arctic, as well as various other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities.
- c. Russia to be invited back into the G8
14. Ukraine will be fully reconstructed and compensated financially, including through Russian sovereign assets that will remain frozen until Russia compensates damage to Ukraine.
15. A joint Security taskforce will be established with the participation of US, Ukraine, Russia and the Europeans to promote and enforce all of the provisions of this agreement
16. Russia will legislatively enshrine a non-aggression policy towards Europe and Ukraine
17. The United States and Russia agree to extend nuclear non-proliferation and control treaties, including Fair Start
18. Ukraine agrees to remain a non-nuclear state under the NPT
19. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will be restarted under supervision of the IAEA, and the produced power shall be shared equitably in a 50-50 split between Russia and Ukraine.
20. Ukraine will adopt EU rules on religious tolerance and the protection of linguistic minorities.
21. Territories
Ukraine commits not to recover its occupied sovereign territory through military means. Negotiations on territorial swaps will start from the Line of Contact.
22. Once future territorial arrangements have been agreed, both the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake not to change these arrangements by force. Any security guarantees will not apply if there is a breach of this obligation
23. Russia shall not obstruct Ukraine's use of the Dnieper River for purposes of commercial activities, and agreements will be reached for grain shipments to move freely through the Black Sea
24. A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve open issues:
- a. All remaining prisoners and bodies will be exchanged on the principle of All for All
- b. All civilian detainees and hostages will be returned, including children
- c. There will be a family reunification program
- d. Provisions will be made to address the suffering of victims from the conflict
25. Ukraine will hold elections as soon as possible after the signing of the peace agreement.
26. Provision will be made to address the suffering of victims of the conflict.
27. This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by a Board of Peace, chaired by President Donald J. Trump. There will be
penalties for violation.
28. Upon all sides agreeing to this memorandum, a ceasefire will be immediately effective upon both parties withdrawing to the agreed upon points for the implementation of the agreement to begin. Ceasefire modalities, including monitoring, will be agreed by both parties under US supervision.
Timbuktu’s Medieval Manuscripts Return Home After a Decade Away Safe from Insurgents
This is wonderful news in two ways: that these precious documents were saved from destruction and that they have now been digitized so if they’re vandalized their contents will not be lost. I read elsewhere that the documents were returned to Tumbuktu because the dry climate there will protect them better than the wetter climate in Bamako, where they have been stored for 13 years.
From Good New Network:
Stacks of Timbuktu manuscripts at the Ahmed Baba Institute
Thousands of ancient Arabic texts have returned to their rightful place in the legendary Saharan trade city of Timbuktu after years of safe-keeping further south. [Now that they have] undergone extensive digitization, fear that the content of the manuscripts may not survive the centuries due to security concerns or funding have abated somewhat.
Mali was once the center for the richest kingdom arguably in history, and that wealth afforded scholars the leisure time for tens of thousands of hours of study, much of which was written down and preserved in the dry desert air. ...their existence was threatened by Islamic insurgents that spread through North Africa and the Sahel in the wake of the overthrow of Moammar Ghaddafi in Libya back in 2011. A year later, the insurgency swept into Timbuktu, but by then residents had smuggled out some 300,000 manuscripts south to the capital of Bamako. Most have now been brought home.
Their finely preserved pages, some glittering with gold leaf, catalog a wealth of medieval knowledge that occasionally outshines parallels to what had been collected in Europe at the time. Historical chronicles of West African empires sit next to medical treatises, astronomical works, even a surgical manual that records an instance where doctors in Timbuktu operated on a man’s cataracts. ✂️
In addition, many of the texts reveal what was on the minds of scholars and the man-on-the-street at the time. Legal debates, such as whether it was moral to smoke tobacco, or whether dowries should be lowered to permit poorer men to marry, can also be found upon their pages.
The Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu not only helps care and house the manuscripts, but continues coursework on their contents. “When a student finishes studying with a scholar, that scholar gives him a certificate saying he has taught him a subject, which the student has mastered,” explained Dr. Mohamed Diagayaté, general director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, to Africa News. “The certificate also says that the student learned it from a certain scholar, and that this scholar learned it from another scholar, going right back to the person who wrote the original document.”
In addition to the scholars, specialists in the care, handling, archiving, and digitization of the manuscripts are trained at the institute. It’s a popular pursuit for youth in the area.
Community Rallies to Protect Local Cobbler Until Supermarket Cancels Plans to Expand
A sweet story about a community standing up for a beloved local artisan against corporate competition.
From Good News Network:
Alan Macdonald inside his cobbler shop
When a corporate shoe repair chain wanted to open a location in a Gloucestershire, town, locals rallied in a signature-gathering campaign to protect their local cobbler. ...the petition to reject the corporate newcomer was promoted on social media and collected a total of 1,000 signatures from people in the area, including the local Parliament member.
A UK grocery chain Tesco had submitted a planning application to open a new Timpson store, which is a UK chain that for 160 years has offered dry cleaning, watch repair, key duplication, photo printing, engraving, portraiture—and shoe repair—all at one location.
Alan Macdonald has run Macdonald’s Traditional Cobbler for 30 years, and lamented that the new Timpson store would be placed across the street and make it “difficult” for his business to continue. ...Resident Gemma Surman decided to start a petition asking the supermarket to withdraw the planning application. When the application was due to be discussed at a parish council meeting, Tesco confirmed it would not be progressing without specifying if this was due to the petition.
Macdonald said that even beyond just his own concerns, the planning application got some 80 objections from locals. ✂️
Like Timpson’s, Macdonald offers watch repair and key duplication. ...“I’ve become part of the community now and it’s a lovely place to live in. People are so supportive,” he said. “All I can say [to the community] is thank you so so much, and it means that I can never retire!”
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Good news in medicine
Scientists Uncover a New Pain Switch That Could Transform Treatment
More good news for mice — and eventually for us, too. 😉
From SciTechDaily:
Researchers at Tulane University, working with collaborators from eight other institutions, have identified a previously unknown way that nerve cells communicate. The discovery may reshape how scientists understand pain and could guide the development of safer, more effective treatments.
In the study, led by Matthew Dalva, director of the Tulane Brain Institute and professor of cell and molecular biology in the School of Science and Engineering, along with Ted Price of the University of Texas at Dallas, the team found that neurons can release an enzyme outside the cell that activates pain signaling after an injury. Their findings, published in Science, also offer fresh insight into how brain cells strengthen connections involved in learning and memory. ✂️
“It opens up an entirely new way of thinking about how to influence cell behavior and potentially a simpler way to design drugs that act from the outside rather than having to penetrate the cell,” [Dalva said.]
The team found that active neurons release VLK, which strengthens the function of a receptor tied to pain, learning and memory. When researchers removed VLK from pain-sensing neurons in mice, the animals did not experience typical post-surgical pain but still behaved and sensed their environment normally. Supplying extra VLK increased pain responses. ...Dalva added that these findings highlight a promising path for influencing pain pathways by targeting enzymes such as VLK instead of blocking NMDA receptors, which play an important role in communication between nerve cells but can lead to serious side effects when interfered with. ✂️
Next steps are to determine whether this is a mechanism specific to just a few proteins or part of a broader, underappreciated aspect of biology, and, if so, whether it could reshape treatment approaches for neurological and other diseases, Dalva said.
This tiny pill could change how we diagnose gut health
Imagine being able to avoid a colonoscopy!
From Science Daily:
Move over, colonoscopies -- researchers writing in ACS Sensors report that they have created tiny microspheres filled with bacteria that can sense the presence of blood, a key sign of gastrointestinal disease. These microspheres function like miniature "pills" that are swallowed and include magnetic particles so they can be easily collected from stool. After passing through mouse models with colitis, the sensors detected gastrointestinal bleeding within minutes. The team notes that the same bacterial system could eventually be engineered to identify other gut-related conditions. ✂️
To develop an alternative [to colonoscopy], Zhou, Bang-Ce Ye, Zhen-Ping Zou and colleagues are exploring the use of bacteria that detect biomarkers such as heme, a component of red blood cells that signals bleeding inside the gut.
The team previously designed bacteria that emit light when they encounter heme, but the early versions broke down during digestion and were difficult to retrieve afterward. In the new study, the researchers protected the bacteria by enclosing them, along with magnetic particles, inside small droplets of sodium alginate, a thickening ingredient commonly found in foods. This produced sturdy hydrogel microspheres that travel through the digestive tract and can be removed from stool with a magnet. Initial laboratory tests confirmed that the hydrogel shield allowed the bacteria to survive simulated digestive conditions while still letting heme reach the sensor and trigger a glow.
The researchers then gave the microspheres orally to mice with varying levels of colitis, ranging from no disease activity to severe inflammation. After the spheres moved through the gastrointestinal tract, the team retrieved them using a magnet and reported three key findings:
- Microsphere cleanup and signal analysis required about 25 minutes.
- The sensors produced stronger light signals as disease severity increased, indicating higher levels of heme in animals with more advanced colitis.
- Tests in healthy mice showed that the microspheres were biocompatible and safe.
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Good news in science
See the largest, most detailed radio image of the Milky Way yet
Wow!!
From Science News:
Zoomed in on the galactic center (shown), the new view displays red and blue bubbles representing objects emitting radio light, such as supernova remnants and stellar nurseries.
A ribbon of red splotches interspersed with blue dots marks the largest, most detailed image of the Milky Way in radio wavelengths ever assembled, researchers report October 28 in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
This new side view of our fairly flat spiral galaxy, as seen from Earth’s southern hemisphere, will help astronomers find and classify objects within it and better understand ongoing processes, says astronomer Silvia Mantovanini of Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
The new image was prompted by the search for supernova remnants, leftover bubbles of gas and dust from exploding stars. Most of these objects have been discovered in radio light because they can continue emitting radio waves for tens of thousands of years after an explosion, Mantovanini says.
Researchers have detected about 300 supernova remnants in the Milky Way but estimate that roughly 2,000 exist. Studying more stellar remains will shed light on the last evolutionary stages of stars and their grand finales, Mantovanini says. However, it was difficult to distinguish supernova remnants from other objects with past telescopes and surveys. ✂️
Stitching together almost 2,000...observations using supercomputers revealed a dazzling edge-on view toward the center of the Milky Way, spanning roughly 60,000 light-years, or just over half the galaxy’s width. The team stacked 20 versions of the image, each a different color to represent a specific range of radio wavelengths, with longer wavelengths depicted in red and shorter wavelengths in blue. The colors hint at the mechanisms behind the radio emissions, such as heat-related radiation from stellar nurseries, which look like blue bubbles, and emissions from supernova remnants that don’t come from heat, which appear as red bubbles.
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Good news for the environment
Impossible caves, lost worlds, and how sometimes, people do the right thing
Don’t you want to be transported instantly to this magical place? How miraculous that it’s being protected!
From Fix the News:
The entrance to Hang Sơn Đoòng.
Visitors explore Son Doong Cave on kayaks. The size of the cave is so massive a Boeing 747 can fly through its biggest cavern.
In 2009, a Vietnamese logger led British explorers to what turned out to be the world’s largest cave. Hang Sơn Đoòng is big enough to fly a Boeing 747 through, taller than the Great Pyramids of Giza, vast enough to have underground weather and its very own rainforest. The ‘discovery’ kicked off a frenzy: cue suggestions like “let’s build a 10-kilometre cable car into the depths to allow for mass tourism.” But environmental activists managed to convince local authorities to keep their heads, and now the area around Hang Sơn Đoòng is a conservation success story that’s protected not only the cave, but the Annamite region around it.
Why is this a big deal? Let’s talk about the Annamite.
Young female saola
In an era when Western scientists get excited about finding a new tubeworm, this place is home to at least 25 species found nowhere else in the world, including charismatic megafauna like the ‘recently discovered’ saola, an antelope-like bovine with straight sharp horns and a black-and-white patterned head so rare it’s known as the ‘Asian Unicorn.’ The area, variously called the ‘Amazon of Asia,’ the ‘Lost World’ and the ‘Noah’s Ark of Wildlife’ (the latter because it’s also provided refuge to many thought-to-be lost species, like the Roosevelt’s muntjac, a deer declared extinct in 1929) was an absolute goldmine for poachers; little-watched and less explored, its plants and animals were hunted for meat, medicine and, yes, to satisfy tourists who wanted to see new species. The fear, expressed in the 2013 book “Gold Rush In The Jungle,” was that the Annamite mountains would soon fall prey to empty forest syndrome.
Now the success of sustainable tourism in and around Hang Sơn Đoòng — including the re-training hundreds of local poachers as guides and porters — has led UNESCO to create a new transboundary World Heritage Site with Laos, extending protection across the Annamite range.
Oh, and Ho Khanh, the illegal logger who discovered the cave? He’s one of the tour guides.
Can solar farms become future refuges for bumblebees?
The really exciting part of this story is the new hi-res modeling the researchers used.
From Lancaster University:
In the first study to investigate the role of solar farms in future biodiversity conservation, a research team, from Lancaster University, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Reading, set out to discover if the UK’s existing solar farms could support bumblebees in the face of a changing countryside.
They found that solar farm management – wildflower margins verses turf - was the main factor influencing the number of bumblebees within solar farms themselves.
Their new modelling suggests bumblebee numbers within solar farms could more than double (increase by 120%) if solar farms are managed for biodiversity, with wildflower margins providing a rich source of food for the bees. This increase is when compared to solar farms just covered with turf grass. ✂️
The researchers applied a novel high-resolution modelling technique to predict how Britain’s existing 1,042 solar farms may play a role in supporting bumblebee numbers in the coming decades. They used and investigated three previously established future visions….of what landscapes in Britain could look like based on ‘sustainable’, ‘middle-of-the-road’ and ‘fossil-fuelled development’ socio-economic scenarios, downscaled from 1km to a highly detailed 10m square resolution. ✂️
Dr Hollie Blaydes, Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University, said: “We took existing land use futures maps and downscaled them to a resolution that is more relevant to bumblebees. Then, we added features, such as hedgerows and wildflower patches, which are important landscape elements for bumblebees and combined the maps with a pollinator model. The model predicts how bees use these landscapes based on foraging and nesting resources. This aspect of the work was particularly novel - it is unusual for modelling like this to be done in such detail.”
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rascal and Margot, and the beautiful spirits of Rosy and Nora.
Puffins return to island for first time in at least 25 years
Who doesn’t love puffins?? Rascal is definitely a fan. BTW, the wonderfully-named Isle of Muck is a nature reserve off the coast of northern Ireland.
From BBC:
A puffin in water at the Isle of Muck off the Antrim coast at Islandmagee
Puffins have been seen on the Isle of Muck in County Antrim for the first time in years, after a major scheme to remove invasive brown rats. It is the first time the vulnerable seabird has been recorded on the tiny island off Islandmagee since Ulster Wildlife took over the management of the seabird sanctuary 25 years ago.
A programme of rat eradication began in 2017 and winter grazing has now been implemented to keep vegetation low, so predator cover is reduced. ✂️
Five puffins were spotted in 2024. Then in spring this year, cameras set up as part of the rat eradication programme caught two puffins coming and going from a nesting burrow on the cliff ledges. Their behaviour, bringing food back to the nest, was a positive sign that they were breeding.
For Mr Crory, tales of puffins once breeding on the Isle of Muck "felt more like folklore", but the myth is now becoming a reality. "Seabirds face immense challenges globally, with 24 of the 25 breeding species at risk of local or global extinction," he said. "So, while a handful of puffins on a tiny island may seem small, this moment is huge – it proves that seabird restoration works."
WeRateDogs celebrates a dog and a cat!
This is a story that both Margot and the spirit of Rosy can cheer for.
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