Bad news get shared a lot more than good news. Which is always unfortunate, but these days it seems harder and harder to find any good news. So here are a few stories that I wanted to share.

✦ Yesterday, the Maine state Senate passed a bill so that the state could join the National Popular Vote Compact. (You can read all about the Compact, how it works, and how you can help out HERE.) The biggest newspaper in the state stated that it is very likely to pass the state House, and of course, thanks to flipping the governor’s seat in 2018, Maine has a Democratic governor. I won’t count my chickens before they’re hatched, but consider me very optimistic.

✦ Ten transgender women who made their way out of Central America with the caravan that Trump demonized so much right before the 2018 election, have won their asylum cases and have been released from detention in Texas.

✦ Federal judges have ruled that Ohio’s congressional map is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and have ordered a new map to be redrawn in time for the 2020 elections. The GOP has a 12-4 advantage over the Dems with the now illegal map.

✦ In a win for criminal justice reform advocates, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has stated that he will no longer sign any legislation that imposes a minimum mandatory sentence, a practice that has long disadvantaged communities of color. He is also vetoing two pieces of legislation that recently passed that imposed minimum mandatory sentences.

There are always people working to do right in the world. And those wins are happening. Let me know if there are any good news stories that you’re happy about — leave a note in the comments!

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Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: criminal justice reform, Explainers, featured, gerrymandering, good news, Maine, National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, transgender rights, Virginia