Good News Friday

A couple of personal good news items: first, many thanks to commenter greenNotGreen who un-pixilated my banner image. I can’t tell if it looks out of focus or if my glasses are just dirty. Let me know what you think. It’s probably time for a new one overall, but I’m absolutely the worst where graphic design is concerned.

Also, I didn’t say anything about it here because I didn’t want to jinx anything but two weeks ago my beloved 13 1/2 year old dog Cleo had some pretty intense surgery. They thought it was an adrenal tumor but it turned out something had ruptured in a blood vessel going to her kidneys. It was a really big deal, she was in surgery for hours and had a kidney removed, but thank God she’s doing great now. And the best news is, the lab reports show no signs of cancer. We’re not sure what caused this, it may still have been cancer, but right now we’re just so happy to have our girl back.

It’s always a tough call with a dog this old. One vet told us surgery wasn’t a good idea considering her age. I easily could have just nixed the idea and had her put down, she was in so much pain. I’m so glad I didn’t. Here she is last year:

On to other good news:

• The Bureau Of Labor Statistics announced that more people are employed today in the U.S. than when President Obama took office. Also, the statistics show this net gain takes into consideration a loss of 67,000 government jobs. That means not only are more people employed, but they’re employed in the private sector, not government jobs. Aaaand another right-wing myth goes down in flames.

• A canvasser for Oregon Democratic state house candidate Brent Barton saved a woman from a burning house. He then used her garden hose to extinguish the fire before fire crews came.

• Google agreed to buy 48 MW of wind power for its Oklahoma data center.

• Twenty-seven million women in the developing world will now have access to cheaper contraception thanks to a deal forged between world leaders, Bayer HealthCare, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

• A federal judge has upheld President Obama’s ban on lobbyists serving on government boards.

• Cancer death rates are expected to plummet by 2030.

• A coalition of Oklahoma pastors collected 80,000 signatures opposing Hobby Lobby’s lawsuit against the contraception mandate. Rev. Lance Schmitz attempted to deliver the petitions to Hobby Lobby’s corporate headquarters but was ordered off the property. The money quote:

“I thought a Christian business would be interested in hearing from a pastor with a petition signed by thousands of people of faith,” Schmitz said in the statement. “I guess Hobby Lobby is more interested in using their faith to score political points than in finding a way to ensure that its female employees get the health care they need.”

Indeed.

• Austin becomes Texas’ first city to publicly support marriage equality following the unanimous passage of this resolution.

• Peak car: it’s real and it’s here.

• The Wisconsin Supreme Court has declined to hear challenges to the state’s voter ID law until an appeals court hears the cases, which means holds on the law will remain in place for the November election.

• Penguins rescued after an oil spill in South Africa have been returned to the sea. Check out the pictures here. Reunited, and it feels so gooood.

• The mayor of Phoenix is taking the food stamp challenge.

• U.S. military spending on renewable energy projects, including conservation, is expected to grow to $1.8 billion by 2025.

• California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing RNs to dispense birth control.

• Students in Hopkinsville, Ky — the community which serves Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne — have crafted and erected 500 “pinwheels of peace.” Haven’t seen a picture anywhere but when I do I’ll post it.

• Remember this incident from the early days of Occupy Wall Street?:

That’s Kaylee Dedrick on the left, who had just been pepper-sprayed by the infamously-named NYPD officer Tony Balogna. Well, it’s a year later and Dedrick is suing Balogna, but that’s not the good news: the good news is that volunteer medic Robert Grodt came to Dedrick’s aid, romance bloomed, and the couple are now engaged and expecting a baby. According to the New York Times’ CityRoom blog, Grodt proposed to Dedrick on New Year’s Eve in Zuccotti Park, where it all started. Awww.

• In related news, UC Davis has agreed to a $1 million settlement over the pepper-spraying of 21 Occupy protestors last year. The pepper-sprayed students will each get around $30,000 and a written apology from the university.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame broke a summer attendance record.

• The civil war battlefield in Franklin, just south of Nashville, is one of eight such sites to be awarded grants from the National Park Service enabling them to acquire additional land.

• Tennessee’s Education Dept. received a $5.5 million federal grant for its Recognizing Excellence in Rural Tennessee project.

This week’s cool video comes courtesy of Sarah Silverman. Language NSFW, so pop in the earbuds: