United States

This archive collects solutions-journalism stories and milestones from the United States — covering policy wins, community-led efforts, scientific advances, and social progress happening across the country. Each entry highlights what’s working and why it matters.

Newborn baby being held, for article on spina bifida treatment

World-first stem cell therapy trial treats spina bifida before birth

By / October 11, 2022 / Good News For Humankind

Spina bifida causes nerve damage that accumulates in the womb, and until now, medicine could only respond after that damage was done. A clinical trial at UC Davis Health is changing that window, applying a stem cell patch directly to a fetus’s spine during pregnancy to support repair before birth. The first baby treated was expected to arrive with leg paralysis — instead, she was kicking and wiggling her toes. If results hold across all 35 enrolled patients, this could establish a genuinely new standard of care for a condition that currently offers families very little hope.

Jail cell

President Biden pardons all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana

By Peter Schulte / October 7, 2022 / Good news links

More than 6,000 people with prior federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana — and thousands of others convicted under Washington, D.C., law — could benefit.

Person sitting on the street

New Delaware law ends many fines and fees that criminalize poverty

By Peter Schulte / October 6, 2022 / Good news links

HB 244 bans courts from charging interest or imposing fees for late payments, failing to pay, or paying in installments, among several other changes meant to reduce abusive fines and fees.

Students in classroom

Youth crime in the U.S. has plummeted 78% since 1994

By Peter Schulte / September 30, 2022 / Good news links

Law enforcement agencies made an estimated 424,300 arrests of youth in 2020, a 38% drop from the previous year and half the number from five years earlier.

Refrigerators in grocery story

U.S. Senate ratifies Kigali Amendment, joining more than 130 countries in treaty to eliminate HFCs

By Peter Schulte / September 26, 2022 / Good news links

HFCs were widely adopted in the 1980s and 1990s to replace CFCs, which damage the Earth’s ozone layer. But then HFCs emerged as some of the most potent greenhouse gases, far more potent than carbon dioxide.

Child getting school lunch

California launches largest free school lunch program in U.S.

By Peter Schulte / September 20, 2022 / Good news links

When classrooms in California reopen for the fall term, all 6.2 million public school students will have the option to eat school meals for free, regardless of their family’s income.

Project Bison

World’s biggest carbon capture plant set for Wyoming

By Peter Schulte / September 19, 2022 / Good news links

Project Bison is slated to swing into action next year and, all going to plan, will scale up its operations by the end of the decade to suck up five million tons of CO2 each year, and safely lock it away underground.

Patagonia founder gives away entire company to fight climate change

By Peter Schulte / September 15, 2022 / Good news links

98% of the company’s total shares are now owned by a new organization a 501(c)(4) that Patagonia says will use every dollar not reinvested into the company to “fight the environmental crisis.”

A molecule model

Scientists achieve the impossible, safely destroy toxic ‘forever chemicals’

By Peter Schulte / September 13, 2022 / Good news links

Even low-level exposure to these chemicals over a sustained amount of time can lead to serious health effects, including thyroid disease, reduced immune response, and several cancers.

U.S. dollars

California passes law requiring companies to post salary ranges on job listings

By Peter Schulte / September 12, 2022 / Good news links

The law will also require California-based companies with more than 100 employees to show their median gender and racial pay gaps — a first for a U.S. state.