Northern Progressives
Updates
2025-08-31
Happy Labor Day!!
Workers of the world unite! Solidarity forever!
Action of the Week
from Indivisible
Call and/or email Chuck Schumer to tell him *not* to cave this time on the annual budget.
Federal government funding runs out on September 30 -- setting up a massive monthlong sprint to pass a budget and avert a government shutdown.
But unlike the recent reconciliation showdown, when Republicans rammed their Big Ugly Bill through with a bare majority, the GOP needs to earn Democrats’ votes to pass a funding bill this time. That means Democrats have significant power to shape government funding and stop Trump’s cuts and chaos!
The dynamic of this fight could not be more different than when we tried to stop Trump’s Big Ugly Bill. In that fight, Republicans used the reconciliation process to bypass the 60-vote filibuster and do whatever the hell Trump wanted -- like gutting Medicaid and SNAP to supercharge ICE.
But this time, the GOP absolutely needs votes from Democrats to get a bill to Trump's desk. A united Democratic front has the power to block extreme MAGA policies and even reverse some damage Trump has done.
Indivisible helps you connect & provides a script you can modify as you wish.
Or go straight to Schumer's contact information:
& CALL NOW: Tell your Democratic Senator to Make Sure Schumer Fights Hard
Summary
In this newsletter you will find information about:
- Our Next Member Meeting on September 3 at 6:30pm in Cook
- Our Weekly Friday Signing Events at Noon in Cook & Tower
- Workers Over Billionaires Labor Day — September 1 in Virginia
- AFL-CIO Labor Day Picnic — September 1 in Virginia
- Remove the Regime — September 2 in Hibbing
- **Urgent action: Protect Wild Rice — September 3 Meeting in Virginia
- **Urgent action: Protect Wild Rice — September 8 Comment Deadline
- Other Training Opportunities
News & Analysis
- Minneapolis Devastated After Two Mass Shootings in 24 Hours
- Drastic Cuts to Renewable Energy
- FEMA’s Chaotic Summer Has Gone From Bad to Worse
- Local Food Shelves Fret Over Federal Funding Cuts
- DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk
- Online News Publishers Face 'Extinction-Level Event' from Google's AI-Powered Search
- AI is Starting to Secretly Edit Your Files
Inspiration
Action Items & Events
Next Meeting!
- When:
- Wednesday, September 3, 6:30pm
- Where:
- Cook Community Center
510 Gopher Dr.
Cook, MN - Topic:
- Mutual Aid
At our third and final NP meeting on addressing the coming budget and program cuts, we will look at a structure in the Cook community to move forward on the ideas we've generated.
All are welcome to attend.
Signing & Resisting Events
Each Friday at noon at the following locations:
- Cook: Hwy 53 and River Street
- Tower: Mainstreet by the locomotive
Signs should include issues common to everyone like good jobs, enough money for food and healthcare, and a good education.
Workers Over Billionaires Labor Day
#WorkersOverBillionaires
- When:
- Monday, September 1, 4:00–5:00pm
- Where:
- North 9th Avenue West & 9th Street North
Virginia, MN
Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover. Billionaires are converting the government into their private slush fund and just passed the largest wealth giveaway in the history of the US. The money they take from working families, they put in billionaires’ pockets and set aside to fund a private army of ICE agents.
AFL-CIO Labor Day Picnic — Virginia
- When:
- Monday, September 1, 4:00pm
- Where:
- Olcott Park
Virginia, MN
Remove the Regime — Hibbing
- When:
- Tuesday, September 2, 4:00–5:00pm
- Where:
- Corner of 169 and 25th
(by the college)
Hibbing, MN
Join us in showing Congress that they can't vacation their way out of the Epstein Files.
D.C. is being used as a testing ground for expanding federal abductions beyond perceived immigrants. They have taken federal control of law enforcement and brought in the National Guard under the guise of ridding the city of crime - and unhoused citizens. This is a clear authoritarian move, right out of the fascist playbook. They want to scare and desensitize us into allowing them to abduct anyone they want to off the streets. Why now? It is also a fantastic distraction from the Epstein files.
Congress returns on Tuesday, September 2nd and they're hoping to carry on like nothing is wrong. Not happening. We will make our voices heard.
Stop Keetac Sulfate Pollution and Protect Wild Rice
from Water Legacy
- Public Meeting:
- September 3, 6:00–7:30pm
- Where:
- Iron Trail Motors Event Center
919 6th Street South
Virginia, MN - Deadline for comments:
- September 8, 4:30pm
Your Comments to the MPCA are Needed to Restore Wild Rice and Protect Fish from Keetac Mine and Tailings Basin Pollution!
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is requesting public comments by September 8, 2025 at 4:30 pm. Please use the guidance below to submit your comments to the MPCA.
Please also join us and speak up at a public meeting on September 3, 2025 from 6-7:30 pm in Virginia, MN
Micro-Creator Training
from Indivisible
- When:
- Sep 30, 3:00pm
- Where:
- Virtual via Zoom
Join us for the kickoff of Indivisible’s brand-new Micro-Creator Training Series, a 4-part monthly program designed to turn local leaders into powerful digital storytellers.
Each Thursday: Calls with Indivisible's Co-Founders
Several of us attend the weekly "What's the plan?" Zoom calls with Indivisible's co-founders Leah and Ezra each Thursday afternoon at 2pm Central Time.
The calls are great for keeping you connected with current resistance efforts and strategy nationwide.
News
Minneapolis Devastated After Two Mass Shootings in 24 Hours Leave 3 Dead, 24 Injured
from Sahan Journal
"Two children were killed and several more were injured in a mass shooting Wednesday at Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis. One man was killed and six people were injured in an unrelated shooting Tuesday.
"The Minnesota House People of Color and Indigenous Caucus released a statement Wednesday, calling for a united response to end gun violence.
"'The epidemic of gun violence continues to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods, and we have to offer our community more than simple platitudes,' the statement read in part. 'We need tangible solutions and the political courage to act. We will not accept this as ‘normal’ and will not continue to turn a blind eye to an obvious issue affecting our state and nation.'"
Drastic Cuts to Renewable Energy
from Heather Cox Richardson
"Just days before Labor Day, a holiday designed to celebrate the importance and power of American workers in the United States, the Transportation Department cancelled $679 million in funding for offshore wind projects, and the Department of Energy announced it is withdrawing a $716 million loan guarantee to complete infrastructure for an offshore wind project in New Jersey.
"Reversing the shift toward renewable energy not only attacks attempts to address the crisis of climate change and boosts the fossil fuel industry on which some of Trump’s apparent allies depend, but also undermines a society based on the independence of American workers. In 2023, about 3.5 million Americans worked in jobs related to the renewable energy sector, and jobs in that sector grew at more than twice the rate of those in other sectors in what was a strong U.S. labor market. The production of coal, which Trump often points to as an ideal for American jobs, peaked in 2008. Between then and 2021, employment in coal mining fell by almost 60% in the East and almost 40% in the West, leaving a total of about 40,000 employees.
"Another cut last week sums up the repercussions of the administration’s attack on renewable energy. On August 22 the Interior Department suddenly and without explanation stopped construction of a wind farm off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island that was 80% complete and was set to be finished early next year. As Matthew Daly of the Associated Press noted yesterday, Revolution Wind was the region’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. It was designed to power more than 350,000 homes, provide jobs in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and enable Rhode Island to meet its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2033.
"The Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut expressed their dismay at the decision, noting that Revolution Wind employed more than 1,000 local union workers and is part of a $20 billion investment in 'American energy generation, port infrastructure, supply chain, and domestic shipbuilding and manufacturing across over 40 states' by Ørsted, a Danish multinational company."
FEMA’s Chaotic Summer Has Gone From Bad to Worse
from Wired
"Following a week of strife at the disaster relief agency, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem told FEMA employees to 'be vocal' about their positive experiences with the Trump administration.
"On Monday, more than 190 current and former FEMA employees signed onto a public letter criticizing the agency. While most employees signed anonymously, 35 of them signed with their names attached. Many current employees who signed onto the letter with their full names were almost immediately placed on administrative leave following the publication of the letter, The Washington Post reported.
"The letter comes after a summer of disastrous flooding across the US, which critics say has been handled poorly as the administration slow-walks responses to requests for aid from certain states. FEMA employees tell WIRED that staff attrition and policies clogging up contract approvals are weakening the agency, which is facing a hard deadline to get contracts out the door by the end of the fiscal year; these policies have already created scrutiny for the agency over its response to flooding in Texas this summer, arguably the most high-profile disaster this year. Now, as the nation heads into the most intense months of the Atlantic hurricane season, employees worry that the agency is not prepared to face another catastrophe."
Local Food Shelves Fret Over Federal Funding Cuts
from CCX Media
"The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program helps low-income families supplement their grocery budget—but local hunger relief leaders say the program is about to see a significant funding cut. Leaders from Second Harvest Heartland, The Food Group and ICA Food Shelf spoke about SNAP at a news conference in Brooklyn Park on Monday afternoon. Those leaders, alongside Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-Minnesota), held the conference to raise awareness of how it could affect Minnesotans."
DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says
DOGE team members uploaded a database with the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to a vulnerable cloud server, according to the agency’s chief data officer.
from NYTimes
"Members of the Department of Government Efficiency uploaded a copy of a crucial Social Security database in June to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk of being leaked or hacked, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed by the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer.
"The database contains records of all Social Security numbers issued by the federal government. It includes individuals’ full names, addresses and birth dates, among other details that could be used to steal their identities, making it one of the nation’s most sensitive repositories of personal information.
"The account by the whistle-blower, Charles Borges, underscores concerns that have led to lawsuits seeking to block young software engineers at the agency built by Elon Musk from having access to confidential government data. In his complaint, Mr. Borges said DOGE members copied the data to an internal agency server that only DOGE could access, forgoing the type of 'independent security monitoring' normally required under agency policy for such sensitive data and creating 'enormous vulnerabilities.'"
Online News Publishers Face 'Extinction-Level Event' from Google's AI-Powered Search
from NPR
"When Google unveiled AI Overviews last year, online publishers worried that the AI-generated blurbs in the top spot of search results would spark precipitous declines in traffic and gut the business model of vast reaches of the web.
"Now, there is growing evidence validating those fears.
"Publishers worry about a time when Google stops sending traffic to websites altogether. Tech observers and publishers have dubbed such a scenario "zero-click" searching, or Google Zero. It's an event that would be catastrophic to many major news sites and other online publishers that rely on traffic-based online advertising revenue, according to advocates for the media organizations.
"'Google is using our content without compensation, offering no meaningful way to opt out without disappearing from search entirely — and then turning around and using that same content to compete with us," said Danielle Coffey, who leads the News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 outlets. "It's parasitic, it's unsustainable and it poses a real existential threat to many in our industry.'"
AI is Starting to Secretly Edit Your Files
from Mark Hurst (Creative Good)
"One of the scarier headlines I’ve recently comes from the BBC: YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos (August 24, 2025). This is just as I predicted on Techtonic a few weeks ago in my episode on three emerging dystopias (July 28, 2025), in which I warned that Big Tech AIs would – at some point in the future – start modifying the primary sources that we rely on as sources of truth.
"I never guessed that it would happen so soon."
Inspirations
Three Undaunted Labor Figures
Unions remain critical in the fight for democracy and social justice
from the Contrarian (Jen Rubin)
"In the run-up to Labor Day, The Contrarian has featured guests and columns on the labor movement all week to underscore the critical role unions play in protecting workers and defending democracy. Even if you have never been a union member, you almost certainly have enjoyed the protection of workplace safety rules and benefits that labor unions fought for over decades (e.g., paid vacation, sick leave, overtime). But unions have also been key in battles for civil rights, environmental justice, and the social safety net.
"Three union figures’ legacies speak to the essential role that organized labor plays in nearly every issue that’s critical to Americans. Their biographies remind us that for decades union leaders and members have pushed back against threats, smears, violence, and public skepticism to struggle collectively for a more just society."
Pritzker Responds to Trump Sending in the Troops
from Heather Cox Richardson
"At the press opportunity, Trump claimed that he saved Washington, D.C.—where crime was at a 30-year low before he took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilized the National Guard—from such rampant crime that no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses. 'People,' he said, 'are free for the first time ever.'
"This afternoon, standing flanked by leaders from business, law enforcement, faith communities, education, local communities, and politics at the Chicago waterfront near the Trump Tower there, Governor Pritzker responded to the news that Trump is planning to send troops to Chicago.
"Pritzker noted that every major American city deals with crime, but that the rate of violent crime is actually higher in Republican-dominated states and cities than in those run by Democrats. Illinois, he said, had 'hired more police and given them more funding. We banned assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stops, and high-capacity magazines' and 'invested historic amounts into community violence intervention programs.' Those actions have cut violent crime down dramatically. Pritzker pointed out that 'thirteen of the top twenty cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago. Eight of the top ten states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois.'"
OutFront Policy & Organizing
We've got each other
from Outfront MN
"Last month, the Trump administration shut down the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline's LGBTQ+ youth services. This decision will have devastating impact on LGBTQ+ people of all ages as we continue to withstand attack after attack on our rights. But don't forget: there are always people ready to help. The following organizations are here to assist those in crisis:
- Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
- LGBTQ National Youth Talkline: 1-800-246-7743
- The Trevor Project Youth Call Line: 1-866-488-7386
- The Trevor Project Yout Text Line: Text ‘START’ to 678-678
- Crisis Text Line: Text ‘HOME’ to 741741
- Black Trans Advocacy Coalition: 855-624-7715 "
Signs of Solidarity
Canvassing Toolkit
from NO Kings
"When businesses and communities stand together, we send a powerful message: immigrants are essential and welcome here. This guide will help you organize locally, engage business owners, and build visible, united resistance.
"Download our printable signs — one designates a private area for employees that ICE cannot enter without a judicial warrant, and others show public solidarity with immigrants. Print them, bring them to businesses, and help send a clear message that our community stands together against fear and intimidation."
Use the following link to download your choice of high-resolution posters.
Honoring the Hyperlink
Resisting Google Erasure
When we build clickable lists of links/citations ::: when we build reading lists for ourselves & each other we resist the tyranny of Google search.
Although it may be absurd or rarely used ... it is an act of persistent, insistent agency over sharing ::: a mutual aid library, an information macrame, a community weaving ...
A handful of us started to send each other links to news/resources we felt were important. Some of these end up in the newsletter or on the website. You are welcome to join us. This is an evolving, informal, archive of sorts ::: a joint memory or witness.
We are just getting started :)
Please Share your Sources of Information and Inspiration:
What news sources, reading lists, podcasts, subscriptions and other resources do you rely on for good information? Please respond to hello@northernaction.org with the sources you recommend and a brief reason why they're important to you. We plan to publish a list from sources you submit. We'll keep submissions anonymous.
Northern Progressives Schedule & Structure
NP Group meetings are held:
First & third Wednesdays in Tower or Cook
- 1st & 3rd Wednesdays in Tower or Cook
Breakfast Club:
- Pattenn's Café in Orr at 10 am on 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.
Everyone is welcome to come and discuss current happenings, help shape the direction of NP, and get to know each other.
Northern Progressives Communication Committee
- General email (submit ideas here):
- hello@northernprogressives.org