Good News Headlines 1/22/2024
Photo©Hilary Halliwell/Pexels
Good News To Start 2024: These Laws Are Now In Place To Help Animals
by Kitty Block and Sara Amundson, The Humane Society
Inscribing the humane treatment of animals into our laws takes years, and so we are heartened by some key measures at the state level taking effect in 2024, which are the result of so much rallying and advocacy, and which will contribute to shaping the humane world we envision. As of Jan. 1, 2024, California’s Proposition 12, widely considered the world’s strongest law for the protection of farm animals, now enjoys full implementation. This comes after the expiration of a six-month extension that permitted the sale of any remaining noncompliant pork products already in California’s stream of commerce.
Wales Gets Its First ‘Dark Sky’ Community To Reduce Light Pollution
by Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, Ecowatch
Presteigne and Norton, a town and neighboring village in the Welsh county of Powys, have been announced as Wales’ first “dark sky community” by DarkSky International. Lights will be dimmed or turned off earlier in order to lower light pollution in the area, allowing residents to get a clearer view of the night sky, reported BBC News. “The Community has worked tenaciously over the last six years to highlight the benefits of becoming a dark sky community,” said Leigh-Harling Bowen, leader of the Presteigne & Norton Dark Skies Community, a press release from DarkSky International said.
Historic, All-Woman St. Paul City Council Sworn In And Ready To Work
by Regina Medina, MPR News
Council Member Saura Jost got bit by the politics bug back in the early 2000s when she was a student at Central High School in St. Paul. At the time she didn’t know of many other girls of color who shared her aspirations. A lot has changed since then. Jost now finds herself as one of seven women on St. Paul’s seven-seat, part-time city council — a first for the city. All the council members are under 40. And all except one are women of color. “I never would have thought when I was in high school working on politics that one day, you’d so quickly really have an all-women city council with so many women of color, and that also [I] get to be one of them.”
Bird-Friendly Maple Syrup Boosts Vermont Forest Diversity & Resilience
by Nina Foster, Mongabay
As the sun rises, the ethereal song of a wood thrush echoes through Bourdon Maple Farm’s 55-hectare (135-acre) forest in Woodstock. A bright scarlet tanager wings about the canopy as hungry yellow-bellied sapsuckers drill into tree bark. At the height of maple sugaring season, birds provide a comforting soundtrack for the farm’s head of operations, sales and marketing, Meg Emmons. “A lot of times, the birds are my only company out here in the woods,” she said, smiling at a nearby black-capped chickadee. But the forest’s most vocal residents are also some of its most vulnerable.
Cape Verde Becomes The First African Country In 50 Years To Eradicate Malaria
by Andy Corbley, Good News Network
Becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to eliminate Malaria in half a century, Cape Verde has gone three years without a single case of transmission. Malaria kills most people who die every year, and now that the complex phenomenon of various parasites and various mosquitoes has been quelled, it should stay that way owing to the fact that Cape Verde is a nation of islands. Indeed, all international travelers and migrants have free access to malaria diagnoses, which has been one of the nation’s strategies for controlling the spread of the parasite. Active mosquito control has also helped.
