Dear John,

I hope this finds you as well as possible. Hopefully you’ve seen TakeAction has rolled out a ton of our political endorsements this week. It’s hard to believe election season is around the corner (and early voting for primaries starts next Friday). While we get ready to roll up our sleeves, and, as a country, execute our first major election since Jan. 6^th, it’s important that we do not normalize anything about the Big Lie, insurrection, or attacks on our elections system. Across the country and in Minnesota, there will be election deniers on the ballot for positions like Secretary of State and Governor. These are precarious times and repeating the truth matters.

Here’s what we’re reading, watching, and listening to this week:

1. Select Committee on Jan. 6

If you’ve missed the broadcasts, get caught up with these takeaways from the select committee hearings on the Jan. 6^th insurrection. Bookmark this recommended reading list.

2. Families & Jan. 6

It’s no secret that in recent years families have been torn apart by different views on everything from the pandemic to conspiracy theories like QAnon. This piece in Teen Vogue describes what it’s like to be the child of a Jan. 6^th insurrectionist.

3. Juneteenth

This piece is a decade old but dives deeply into the history of Juneteenth.

4. Commentary

From Miski Noor, read We Don’t Need More Evidence that Police Can’t Be Trusted. We Need Real Safety.

5. Mpls

Hyperlocal and important: Seventy-five City of Minneapolis staff members courageously organized, putting their jobs on the line to speak out about the work environment at the city coordinator’s office. Read this MinnPost commentary Delayed vote on Minneapolis city coordinator leaves staffers in a precarious position.

6. Dignity + Respect

Led by our partners at CTUL, this is a critically important initiative to protect non-unionized construction workers, many of whom are immigrants and people of color, from wage theft and abuse. Read Workers’ rights group calls on Twin Cities developers to help stop worker abuse and check out this video from yesterday’s march and rally.

7. Feminist Economic Recovery

The State of Hawaii was the first in the world to write a Feminist Economic Recovery Plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A milestone was reached this month: for the first time in history, there are no girls in the state’s youth prison. This was part of an intentional strategy to replace handcuffs with healing.

8. Primaries

From our blog, check out 5 Things to Know about TakeAction Minnesota + Primary Elections.

9. DALL-E

Thanks to our brilliant digital strategist Laura for this tech piece. There’s new AI that generates images from lines of text! Read How DALL-E could power a creative revolution.

10. Ms. Marvel

 I’m pumped to watch the new Marvel mini-series. See 'Ms. Marvel' treats being Muslim as ordinary — and that makes it extraordinary and check out the trailer.

That’s a wrap. 

- Kenza Hadj-Moussa