Good News 5/10/26 - 5/15/26
Good News: Mother’s Day Edition
Sunday, May 10, 2026
I spent yesterday with my mom.Today’s good news is a list of simple pleasures of being like-mother-like-daughter.
Mom was in Arizona for the winter. I’m grateful she wasn’t here for the worst of the surge. She tells me she wishes she had been, to stand in solidarity.
Mom wore a rebel loon sweatshirt she bought off Etsy, careful to make sure it was produced by a small Minnesota business.
On the drive to Renee’s Memorial, she asked me about the legal cases stacking up against ICE. She wants to see justice.
I introduced her to my friend, Stephanie, who is one of my local Fierce Love ladies who is up on all the things.
I told her several of the stories I’m collecting about Minnesota WOMN in the Resistance.
The teacher who has come to know her student’s unique cries.
The mother who raised $84K for mutual aid by herself.
The “quarter fairy” who delivered rolls of quarters to immigrants in apartment buildings with coin-operated laundry.
Mom is an expert in the women of the Bible. So we talked about the book I just read Separation of Church and Hate that details what Jesus actually teaches and how it doesn’t match what the Christian Nationalists are trying to do to this country.
At Alex’s Memorial she stopped for extra long at the stethoscopes left by medical professionals.
I pointed out one of the “ghost shoes” left around the city to represent all those who were taken.
We talked about how Dad refuses to talk with us about politics, and continues to confuse us with his vote (which doesn’t match his values or behaviors).
We got a donut at Glam Doll.
We finished the day with a trip to the Tulip House, and she talked about how she grew up in South Minneapolis.
I hope, in whatever way you can today, you celebrate the WOMN in your world and the true meaning of Mothers’ Day (note the apostrophe placement).
If you haven’t read it yet, go see Heather Cox Richardson’s historical explanation of Mothers’ Day.
5/11/26
Good New: FireArms Legislation
Monday, May 11, 2026
Minnesotans have been fighting to change firearms legislation to protect our youth.
On August 27, 2025 August 27, 2025, during a morning Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church and School connected to the first week of school two children, Fletcher Merkel (8) and Harper Moyski (10), were killed in a mass shooting, and many others were injured when the shooter fired through the church windows while students and parishioners were gathered inside.
On May 4, state senators voted 34-33 to pass comprehensive gun safety bill banning assault-style rifles weapons and high-capacity magazines. This bill closes the ghost gun loophole and directs $20M into school safety and mental health resources. The bill now sits on Speaker Lisa Demuth’s (R) desk. She controls whether it goes to the House floor for a vote before the legislative session ends on May 17.
In recent polling, the majority of Minnesotans support this bill. 51% of rural Minnesotans oppose, while 69% of urban residents support.
One Senator who was resistant to banning firearms, Grand Hauschild of Hermantown, changed his mind because his cousin’s children were in Annunciation when the shooting occurred.
Last September, Harper’s parents, Mike Moyski and Jackie Flavin, invited Lisa Demuth into their home. When they asked her “if the gun safety bill came to the House, would she block it from getting a floor vote?” She said yes. They have an email documenting her agreement.
Lisa Demuth is now running for governor and has not responded to emails this week regarding the bill. Flavin has stated “Refusing to engage the bill while also offering no alternative path forward is not leadership.”
This Mothers’ Day weekend, parents and students from Annunciation Catholic School stood on the street corners near their church holding signs asking passersby to honk their support.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy held a press conference calling on the House to act on more than a dozen Senate-passed bills, including guns and ICE. She stated “We are ready to negotiate, and at times we’re not finding willing partners because they’ve not been able to do the work in the House.”
Jackie Flavin is still writing emails.
If you live in Minnesota now is the time to contact your House representatives and pressure them to bring this legislation to a vote.
Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.
TeriLeigh💜
GOOD NEWS: Minnesota ICE Legislation
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
SF 3699 passed the Minnesota Senate 34–33, a one-vote margin that shows that Minnesota is a purple state that works closely across party lines to debate things carefully. Supporters, including senators like Ron Latz and Omar Fateh, say the bill is about making sure people can access school, health care, and the legal system safely. Opponents argued enforcement limits and the broader direction of state policy.
The bill centers on what happens at “sensitive locations” like schools, hospitals, nursing homes, child care centers, and colleges—places where everyday life happens. SF 3699 would require a judicial warrant signed by a judge before immigration enforcement can enter those spaces, bringing court oversight into decisions that affect students, patients, and families. This part of the bill reinforces Constitutional rights.
The bill also requires schools and hospitals across Minnesota to create clear, written policies for how to respond if immigration agents arrive, giving staff guidance instead of uncertainty. It includes provisions to ensure that administrators and legal counsel are notified when enforcement is attempted, adding structure and communication into high-pressure moments.
Another section focuses on courts, aiming to limit civil immigration arrests around court proceedings so people can show up, testify, and participate without fear. This also reinforces Constitution rights to due process.
Because the vote was so close, every single senator’s position mattered, showing a legislature where individual voices still carry real weight. The bill now moves to the Minnesota House, where it will be debated again, amended if needed, and either passed, changed, or reconciled before reaching the governor
This is what a functioning system looks like, both sides debating, arguing, and working together to discuss proposals openly.
Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.
TeriLeigh💜
GOOD NEWS - How Mutual Aid Works in Minnesota
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Some people saw chaos this winter and froze. Some people saw chaos and started organizing grocery deliveries from their living room. Kelly Wilson turned grief into motion.
Ten days before the election, Kelly lost her younger sister to aggressive kidney cancer. Days later, after the election, she decided: “When they take stuff away, you’re going to work really hard to give stuff back.”
In November, Kelly organized a hoodie drive for unhoused LGBTQ youth in Minneapolis, raising roughly $1,000 in hoodies and another $1,000 in grocery gift cards before Thanksgiving.
She created a Minnesota mutual aid group centered on “radical joy as resistance,” bringing together neighbors to support marginalized communities through direct action.
Kelly helped organize weddings for 12 LGBTQ couples after posting a simple Facebook invitation asking friends to meet at a coffee shop and hear her idea. Eight people showed up. Within 24 hours, the group had a location and a Star Tribune interview lined up.
During an earlier government shutdown, she organized a neighborhood bean drive for TSA workers impacted by SNAP disruptions.
After hearing about a Honduran mother taken by ICE while breastfeeding her infant, Kelly mobilized her community to deliver food and supplies to the family within hours. Neighbors arrived at her door carrying Costco, Cub, and Target bags full of beans, rice, and groceries.
Within 24 hours of posting a broader mutual aid request online, Kelly’s living room, dining room, and a neighbor’s garage were overflowing with donated food.
During one subzero week, roughly 50 neighbors gathered in an unheated garage to pack more than 100 food boxes for families sheltering in place.
Kelly and a network of volunteer drivers initially delivered about six food boxes a day. At peak periods, they reached as many as 12 households daily.
As churches and larger organizations began handling food distribution, Kelly shifted focus toward rent support, diapers, formula, toddler snacks, and infant supplies.
After Kelly posted an emotional video responding to violence in North Minneapolis, the video went viral, reaching roughly one million people in a day and growing her network from about 1,000 followers to more than 15,000.
Donations poured in from around the country and the world. In roughly three weeks, Kelly’s grassroots effort raised more than $73,500 through direct giving.
Kelly’s network has now helped 75 families, delivered more than 75 loads of groceries and supplies, and helped cover rent for 48 families through partial or full rent payments.
One donor family repeatedly arrived with roughly $1,000 worth of Costco meat, milk, eggs, and cheese—supplies mutual aid groups often struggle most to provide.
A donor connected through LGBTQ community networks quietly dropped off a $10,000 check after Kelly simply answered honestly when asked what was needed. That single donation helped cover rent support for 10 families.
Kelly coordinated directly with social workers, schools, churches, and neighborhood organizers to respond rapidly to emergencies, including helping an 11th grader caring for younger siblings after their mother was hospitalized.
People from outside Minnesota also reached out to help. One small town in Scotland offered to organize Zoom friendships for families isolated inside their homes during peak ICE activity.
Yesterday, Kelly received a message from a neighborhood elder, the kind you don’t say no to, requesting her presence on her front porch at 3:45pm. An elder Kelly doesn’t know well. Kelly went, and 10minutes after her arrival, nine other neighbors arrived. They were there to sing in her presence and bring healing. The video below is the result.
Minnesota is still being traumatized. We are grieving, and we are healing. All these things can happen at the same time.
Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.
TeriLeigh💜
RAGE NEWS in Minnesota
I’m feeling angry this morning. And anger means action, which eventually leads to change.
Do people not care about dead children?
On Monday I posted this Good News list about a gun violence bill passing the Minnesota Senate. It got the lowest engagement of any of my Good News lists ever. By a lot.
The evenly split red/blue MN House passed a gun legislation bill that 80% of Minnesotans support.
This legislation has been brought forth as a direct result of children dying in the Annunciation School and Church shooting in August in Minneapolis. The parents of the children who died invited elected officials from both sides of the aisle into their home to discuss this kind of action. The Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, promised these parents to bring the bill to the House. She has now put that bill in a drawer with no intention of fulfilling her promise to the parents of this child who died.
When mass shootings happened in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, similar legislation was passed, and the results of those laws changed history.
Australia (1996, Port Arthur massacre, 35 killed) — within 12 days the government passed national reforms banning many semi-automatic weapons, creating a licensing system, and buying back 600,000+ guns, followed by decades with dramatically fewer gun deaths and no mass shooting at that scale
New Zealand (2019, Christchurch mosque shootings, 51 killed) — within weeks the government banned military-style semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, created a national registry, and implemented a buyback, with near-unanimous parliamentary support
United Kingdom (1996, Dunblane school shooting, 16 children and a teacher killed) — passed the Firearms Amendment Acts of 1997 banning most private handgun ownership, after which school shootings became extraordinarily rare.
If MN Representative and Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, doesn’t bring this bill to the House floor by 5pm tonight, members of MN Congress will be staging an all night sit-in. Anger means action. Minnesotans are angry about dead children.
Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.
TeriLeigh💜
P.S. As a former high school teacher, I have attended way too many funerals for children in my life. One is too many. I’ve attended more than one. This issue cuts deep.
GOOD NEWS - Minnesotans are fighting for children’s rights to not die by guns.
Friday, May 15, 2026
The number one cause of death for children in the USA is gun violence. Minnesotans showed up en masse yesterday to simply ask the House of Representatives to have an honest debate about this issue and consider a bill that is similar to ones already passed in Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Thousands of Minnesotans signed petitions demanding a House vote on the gun violence prevention package. Advocates delivered more than 7,000–8,000 signatures directly to Speaker Lisa Demuth at the Capitol.
Students from across Minnesota traveled to the Capitol and spent the day meeting lawmakers face-to-face, telling personal stories about lockdown drills, school shootings, and growing up under the shadow of gun violence.
Families who have lost children to gun violence continued showing up with their grief, publicly week after week, including parents and survivors who have become some of the strongest voices pushing for action.
Resistance singers and community choirs held a public “sing-in” at the Capitol, using collective singing as a form of witness and pressure during the gun safety push.
Faith leaders and community members organized a public “pray-in,” bringing spiritual ritual and collective mourning into the Capitol alongside the legislative fight.
Emergency room workers and medical professionals staged demonstrations showing the aftermath of gunshot trauma, using medical role-play and firsthand experience to communicate what firearm injuries actually do to human bodies.
Minnesota House DFL members repeatedly asked from the House floor where the bill was and why it had not been scheduled, turning routine floor sessions into sustained public accountability moments.
Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura publicly gave leadership a 24-hour deadline to bring the bill forward, then helped lead an overnight sit-in inside the House chamber after the procedural motion failed.
Roughly 20 Democratic lawmakers stayed overnight in the House chamber after adjournment, physically occupying the space in protest and refusing to quietly let the issue disappear before session adjournment.
Community organizers from groups including Protect Minnesota, Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, and GIFFORDS coordinated advocacy days, constituent outreach, Capitol gatherings, and sustained public pressure.
Protesters gathered outside the House chamber chanting “Hold the vote,” turning the Capitol itself into a visible civic pressure point during the final days of session.
Look at this list. This all happened JUST YESTERDAY and is continuing today.
We just want the bill to have an opportunity to be discussed. It already passed in the Senate. We want the House to debate and vote on it.
Thanks for giving a shit.
I love you all fiercely.
TeriLeigh💜