Modesto Peace/Life Center

Modesto Peace/Life Center The Modesto Peace/Life Center, founded in 1970, works for peace, justice and a sustainable environment.

06/23/2026

Yes, there is more GOOD NEWS, compiled by Jess Craven.
"A federal judge ordered the Kennedy Center to make a plan for staying open.

A Fulton County judge threw out a conspiracy-fueled lawsuit seeking to open Georgia's election-night operations center — where votes are received and published — to far-right observers.

Trump’s reflecting pool has not only re-filled with algae, but the bottom is now peeling up. So much winning!

Due in large part to loud and robust protest from citizens and voting rights advocates, Georgia Republicans reversed course on redrawing their maps in a special session. It’s a HUGE win.

Stephen Colbert’s ‘Peanuts’ gag on the Late Show finale did, indeed, mean CBS had to pay a fine to Lee Mendelson Film Productions. They, in turn, donated the money to World Central Kitchen.

The Trump administration has reversed its decision to dismantle a $368M deep-sea observation system following an outcry from lawmakers and ocean experts.

A federal judge ruled that Idaho cannot immediately enforce its new law criminalizing the use of certain restrooms that do not match an individual’s s*x at birth.

Poland plans to generate up to 69% of its energy from renewables by 2040.

French Polynesia made a major move for marine conservation. The government announced it will protect 200,000 square miles of ocean, more than twice the size of Michigan (or roughly the area of France).

On Sunday night, people came together for Rise Up, Sing Out at more than 1500 watch parties in all 50 states, with hundreds of thousands more watching from home.

​The biggest expansion in federal scholarship money in 50 years is set to launch this summer, although few know about it.

Five states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington state — have recently enacted legislation to shield their elections from federal actions.

Governor Andy Beshear posthumously pardoned 43 individuals who were wrongfully imprisoned for helping enslaved people escape to freedom, signing the executive order Monday ahead of Juneteenth.

All detainees from "Alligator Alcatraz" have been transferred out of the Florida Everglades facility.

Andy Burnham, the affable Labour mayor of Greater Manchester in the UK, held off the challenge of the Reform candidate in emphatic fashion to return to parliament and is now odds-on to replace the deeply unpopular Keir Starmer as prime minister.

A protester going by Vijay Bombs projected images of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein on the tarp covering the front of the Kennedy center.

Organizers behind the Montana Plan have had 34,906 signatures declared valid by the state of Montana. That is comfortably above the number needed to qualify for the ballot.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court found that “skill game” machines, the slot machine-like gambling devices commonly seen in gas stations, convenience stores, and bars, are indeed slot machines and therefore illegal outside of casinos.

Approval for Trump among rural Americans dropped this month to 50 percent — a new low, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll.

Irish politicians voted in favor of removing the three-day mandatory wait time for an abortion in the Republic of Ireland.

The Supreme Court turned away ex-Trump campaign aide Carter Page’s attempt to revive a lawsuit against James Comey.

Protestors wearing tee shirts that read “Team Algae” showed up at the reflecting pool to troll Trump.

The biggest wind farm in the U.S. began operation in New Mexico. SunZia’s 916 turbines will supply enough power for one million homes, mostly in California and Arizona.

Sean Penn’s next feature film will tell the story of January 6 through the eyes of a Capitol police officer.

The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the US and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind projects.

Ariana Grande launched a new foundation that will help protect trans and LGBTQ+ rights.

The Judge who authored a decision that endangered IVF lost his bid to become Attorney General in Alabama.

Gov. Mike DeWine called for Ohio to abolish the death penalty. This is a major reversal for him.

The state of New Jersey donated 770 World Cup tickets to youth soccer players, sick children, first responders, and healthcare workers.

Kyrgyzstan established a “climate-ready corridor” for snow leopards, argali sheep, and wild goats. The corridor connects 2 million acres of pastureland, forest, and high-altitude landscapes and is designed to protect wildlife from predicted climate scenarios.

New research found the HPV shot is virtually eliminating cervical cancer deaths in vaccinated women under 30.

ICE plans to sell or give away most of the 11 warehouses it bought to detain migrants, reversing course on a signature initiative.

More than 100 Stanford University graduates walked out during Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s commencement address, chanting ‘Free Palestine,’ in protest over Project Nimbus, the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government.

Artist Sheryl Crow spoke out eloquently about the UFC fight on the White House lawn.

Citizens Bank took some hits last week for their continued financing of private prison giants CoreCivic and GEO Group: As part of the Not with Our Money, Citizens! campaign, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) withdrew an additional $2 million in response to Citizens’ reneging on their promise to meet.

Also, the City Council of Jersey City, the second-largest city in New Jersey, voted unanimously in favor of a resolution urging the city not to place taxpayers’ money with a bank that is “continuing to finance and profit from the detention of immigrants.” They have already started the process of withdrawing approximately $265 million from Citizens.

Utility-scale solar has produced more electricity than gas power plants in California across most days this year.

Bella Bautista made Georgia state history by securing the Democratic nomination for House District 14 and, in so doing, becoming the first openly transgender woman to win a primary in Georgia.

DHS announced it is giving up on its plan to turn a warehouse in Social Circle, GA into a 10,000 bed ICE detention facility. This after the very red town’s citizens fought back vigorously (as did their two US Senators)! Bravo!

The European Union’s 27 member countries voted in favor of opening the first cluster of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. This, after Hungary, under new leadership, dropped its longtime opposition!

New data suggest the Atlantic’s vital circulation may withstand climate warming better than feared.

JD Vance went on the View and got pretty well grilled by the hosts. The mainstream media could learn something!

Residents of Milford, MI showed up to oppose the renewal of Flock Safety cameras in their town. The board unanimously voted to cancel one contract for 5 cameras. The other contract comes up for a vote in August, and citizens are organizing against that one, too.

06/19/2026
06/19/2026

Study Kingian Nonviolence with The King Center: thekingcenterinstitute.org

Tuesday!Let's keep standing up. You can also sit and and be heard.
06/19/2026

Tuesday!
Let's keep standing up.
You can also sit and and be heard.

"Kohen, a one-year old baby, was killed when police opened fire at a car over an alleged shoplifting incident in a Walma...
06/19/2026

"Kohen, a one-year old baby, was killed when police opened fire at a car over an alleged shoplifting incident in a Walmart parking lot in Mississippi."

From Revolutionary Love Project
06/19/2026

From Revolutionary Love Project

06/19/2026

Trans people are especially vulnerable to experiencing more than one kind of violence, sometimes in different areas of their lives.

"The beloved children's educator arrived at the Capitol in her signature pink, wheeling a suitcase packed with 535 packe...
06/19/2026

"The beloved children's educator arrived at the Capitol in her signature pink, wheeling a suitcase packed with 535 packets of letters and drawings from children held in ICE custody at the nation's largest concentration camp for children in Dilley, Texas -- one packet for every member of Congress. "I cry a lot," a 7-year-old boy wrote in one of them. "I want to get out of here."

This week, Ms. Rachel went to Washington!

The beloved children's educator arrived at the Capitol in her signature pink, wheeling a suitcase packed with 535 packets of letters and drawings from children held in ICE custody at the nation's largest concentration camp for children in Dilley, Texas -- one packet for every member of Congress. "I cry a lot," a 7-year-old boy wrote in one of them. "I want to get out of here."

Ms. Rachel spent two days going office to office -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- urging lawmakers to end family detention and reunite children separated from their parents. She told them about the kids she's come to know over months of video calls with detained families: Deiver, the 9-year-old who just wanted to compete in his state spelling bee; Amalia, the 18-month-old who suffered a near-fatal health crisis in custody; and Guri, a 12-year-old detained with his family since February who has suffered from blood in his stool for months without ever being referred to a specialist.

"This is not a partisan issue," Ms. Rachel maintains. "We will all look back on this time and remember if we stood with children being abused in detention centers."

As she was leaving the Senate office buildings on Tuesday evening, the news broke that the House had just passed, in a virtually party-line 214-212 vote, a $70 billion package to fund Trump's mass detention and deportation campaign through the end of his term -- including $38 billion for ICE alone. The money will fuel a vast expansion of the detention system, which has already swelled to a record 70,000 people and is on track to exceed 100,000 beds -- some of them in facilities designated to hold families and children like the ones whose letters she carried.

That evening, Ms. Rachel sat quietly on the Capitol steps, taking in the weight of the vote -- and then recorded a message for the children whose words she carried: "I have your words right here. I'm always going to stand with you."

She has heard the criticism that a children's entertainer should stay out of politics, and her answer has always been simple: "I am political. It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border." So the next morning, she came back -- to meet with more lawmakers and make sure every one of the 535 packets was delivered.

"I'll never stop trying, for them," she said. "I can't say, 'I'm just one person, so I'm not going to make a difference.' What if everyone said that?"

---

To stand with Ms. Rachel and the children being imprisoned by the administration, here's how to take action:

--> Call your representatives via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and demand the immediate release of all children from ICE detention and an end to family detention -- if you don't reach a staffer, be sure to leave a message

--> The National Center for Youth Law is fighting the Trump administration in court over conditions at Dilley. To support their critical work, visit https://youthlaw.org/

--> To support the National Immigrant Justice Center, which advocates for detained immigrants and conducts oversight of ICE facilities, visit https://immigrantjustice.org/

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Ms. Rachel has drawn a direct line to her hero Mister Rogers, who faced the same accusations of being "political in his day -- a history explored in "Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers," available at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780664260477 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4c3LDG5 (Amazon)

For a powerful novel-in-verse that tells the story of child immigrant detention through the eyes of a 9-year-old girl imprisoned in a U.S. detention camp, we recommend "Land of the Cranes" ages 9 and up at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781338343861 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4lImdkB (Amazon)

For children's books that encourage empathy and understanding of Mighty Girl immigrants of the past and present, visit our blog post, "A New Land, A New Life: 25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855

For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for A Mighty Girl's free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter

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To read The Washington Post's full story on Ms. Rachel's visit to Capitol Hill, visit https://wapo.st/4ecHKP2

To read NPR's reporting on the $70 billion ICE funding package and concerns about the agency's unprecedented expansion, visit https://www.npr.org/2026/06/09/nx-s1-5851664/house-reconciliation-vote-immigration-enforcement-ice-border-patrol

06/18/2026
From Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem בצלם- "In this so-called ceasefire, Israel has continued to kill people,...
06/18/2026

From Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem בצלם- "In this so-called ceasefire, Israel has continued to kill people, block the entry of humanitarian aid and use starvation as a method of warfare, while preventing reconstruction and repair of vital systems."

After the “ceasefire” was declared on 10 October 2025, Israel continued to attack and bomb civilians throughout Gaza. Since then, it has killed 1,003 residents of the Strip.

Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 73,000 people and forcibly displaced about 1.9 million from their homes, as part of the genocide in the Gaza Strip. It has destroyed the healthcare system and massively damaged water infrastructure, education systems and other essential services.

In this so-called ceasefire, Israel has continued to kill people, block the entry of humanitarian aid and use starvation as a method of warfare, while preventing reconstruction and repair of vital systems.

The killing, destruction and dispossession have not stopped for a moment: the genocide continues.

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