Our brothers and sisters from across the pond showed up by the hundreds of thousands to make a certain racist-in-chief feel unwelcome and to stand up for human decency. In addition two dozen progressive organizations teamed up to organize a “Week of Action” holding a variety of political action events. There is so much activism taking place all over the country it is hard to keep up with.  However, if you know someone in need of uplifting news to bring then some cheer or a roundup of acts and accomplishments to help inspire them to work towards change, please share this blog with them. Or even just like this blog so it gets some attention and its positivity spreads. First up this week are some links to the UK protests just in case you missed them and then a very brief roundup of what happened in the U.S. as I was busy with “Week of Action” events.

Uplifting sights of the UK protests, the baby trump balloon, the hang glider at the Scotland golf club, and just for extra special kicks, my cake rendition of the baby trump balloon for a phonebank/postcard event I hosted. It is amazing what you can do with some cake mix, frosting, food coloring, whipped cream, and candy and I am happy to share instructions if you want.

🧕🏻STANDING UP FOR IMMIGRANTS  Contra Costa County will end its contract to detain immigrants at a local jail, becoming the third California jurisdiction since last year to cut such ties with the federal government. FEDERAL RULINGS THIS WEEK;

• A judge in Connecticut says the administration’s forced separation of two immigrant children from their parents at the border is unconstitutional and  ordered the government to produce the parents in court in Connecticut next week. The court found that the government violated the children’s constitutional rights by forcibly removing them from their parents without due process of law, notice or a hearing, and instead taking their parents, while distracting the children.
• A judge in California rejected the administration’s request to indefinitely detain immigrant families apprehended at the border, calling it an attempt by the federal government to simply “light a match” to a two-decade-old settlement that set strict standards for detaining immigrant children.
• A judge in California ordered the administration to reconsider the asylum requests of nearly 90 Iranian refugees, overruling the blanket denial the government had issued to all of them. The Department of Homeland Security must disclose individual reasons for the denials.
• A judge in California ordered the administration to pay the costs of reuniting immigrant parents with children separated from them at the border, rather than forcing the parents to pay and refused to extend the deadline to reunite families by July 26th.
• A federal judge upheld California’s sanctuary city law which limits law enforcement cooperation with immigration officials  and authorizes state officials to inspect detention facilities that contract with ICE, saying not assisting federal immigration enforcement isn’t the same as preventing the federal government from enforcing immigration law.

⚖️ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Former top executives at ITT Educational Services have settled fraud cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission and will pay $300,000 in fines.

👨🏿‍⚖️SEEKING RACIAL AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE  The ACLU of Nebraska launched a six-month pilot project to bail low-income people out of jail thanks to a revolving fund from an anonymous local donor.  Meanwhile, the US Court of Appeals ruled the New Jersey’s new bail system, which does away with most cash bail, is constitutional. ND Legalization Initiative 18,700 signatures to get an initiative on the North Dakota ballot to legalize recreational marijuana and are hoping it’s enough to get it on the ballot in November.  A federal judge ruled that it is unconstitutional for Tennessee to revoke driver’s licenses from people who can’t pay court costs, this is a big game changer.

🌎SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT  A federal appeals court ruled that the EPA acted improperly when it downplayed cancer risks from certain pollutants and set low pollutant thresholds for hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride emissions. The Renewable Energy Standards Initiative was approved to appear on the ballot in Arizona and if passed would require electric utilities to acquire 50 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2030. A North Dakota judge acquitted activist Micah Lott of criminal charges stemming from his protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. A federal judge ruled that cancer victims and their families could present expert testimony linking the herbicide Roundup to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and that they were not junk science in the hundreds of lawsuits alleging the weed killer causes cancer. California’s numbers are out and the state appears to have hit its first target for cutting greenhouse gases earlier then its planned goal.

👩#MeToo And WOMEN’S RIGHTS Missouri Gov M signed legislation raising the marriage age to 16 and requiring parental permission for 16-17 year olds to marry as well as baring someone 21 or older from marrying anyone 17 or younger.

🗽BECAUSE MONUMENTS AND NAMES MATTER Three elementary schools in Virginia dropped their Confederate affiliated names this week after the city of Petersburg received a $20,000 donation from an anonymous donor to cover the costs of changing the schools’ signs and other places where the names appeared.

🕬 GUN REFORM EFFORTS CONTINUE Hawaii Gov. signed the bill banning bump stocks. Moms Demand Action was invited to do outreach at the Indigo Girls  concert in Nashville.

🏳️‍🌈LGBTQ PROGRESS New Jersey Governor signed legislation that allows transgender individuals to alter their birth certificates and other legal documents to reflect their preferred gender identity. The Madison City Council (WI) banned gay conversion therapy on minors.

🤰🏽WOMEN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE NY Gov. signed an executive order to protect access to contraceptives by allowing women to fill 12 months of contraceptives after a three-month trial period (including for Medicaid recipients) without co-insurance, copays or deductibles and require insurance companies to cover emergency contraception with no cost-sharing from an out-of-network pharmacy, including copays. New Hampshire Governor signed a law extending birth control prescriptions to one year.

🕫🗳️VOTING RIGHTS The Campaign Legal Center and Southern Poverty Law Center announced start of the Alabama Voting Rights Project, to “organize and train local leaders in communities across the state, participate in community events and forums, and go door to door” to inform formerly incarcerated people that they may have the right to vote, despite the fact that they have felony convictions. On the lighthearted side, a group of siblings created a board game focused on gerrymandering with the purpose behind it to get people to sit down and play to start a serious conversation on how gerrymandering affects the community and their kickstarter project has met its goal. The ACLU launched their voter website with candidate information and their voting history.

💓STOPPING THE SPREAD OF HATE Pappa John’s founder resigned as chairman of the board over using the “N” word during a meeting with a media company.  A Forest Preserve Police Officer in Chicago officer resigned after he was captured on video ignoring a woman’s pleas as she is harassed over her “Puerto Rico” shirt. SURJ Charlottesville is sharing info on how to handle recent KKK flyers. While one man stood up for an enterprising child against hate, RAICES stood up for the over 2,000 parents separated at the border. They used that 20 million they raised to show up in DC to offer it up to bail out all the parents when they weren’t out chasing ICE buses being used to  abscond with their clients before they could meet with them.

😊AWESOME ACTIVISM  One man standing his ground to stand up for democracy in Ontario, OH, show him some love on twitter.  I don’t condone violence but you can’t say that this person turned a blind eye to the racism he saw. Boycotts work, Canadian department store Hudson Bay dropped Ivanka clothing. A few examples of the hundred of groups of people that came together for this week of action like Sister District,  SIWomenWho March, Indivisible, and so many more. New Mexico Indivisible got some great local press for their resist Trump Tuesdays and United We Dream is working with their young and enthusiastic youth in NM to train them to be our next generation of leaders at the Summer of Dreams 2018 Summer Program. Mitch McConnell continues to have problems dining out thanks to activists. Indivisible Berkeley is working to get out the votes. Indivisible Houston and Phoenix took to the streets. The NFL players association is suing over the no kneeling rule. The Poor People’s Campaign is hard at work in Kentucky. NY elected officials got arrested standing up for democracy. March for Our Lives Road to Change tour is still going strong. Abuelas Respond/Grannies Respond is going to caravan more than 2,000 miles, hosting rallies in cities along the way to protest the administration’s immigration policy.

🇷🇺  Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee.