Monarch butterflies on a rock at the El Capulin Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Macheros, Mexico.Richard Ellis/ZUMA

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Tree by tree, Mexican scientists are planting the first stages of a new forest in the mountains of the country’s central Michoacan state. They’re taking saplings from oyamel fir trees further down the mountain and creating a new home for them higher up. Three and a half years ago, the first batch of transplanted trees were each seven inches tall. Now, thousands of saplings have grown, some up to four feet tall.

These trees are home to millions of eastern monarch butterflies who migrate there every winter, and in moving the forest, scientists are hoping they’ll be able to save the species and their habitat. Worldwide, the monarchs’ habitats have become increasingly endangered by herbicides, logging, and the storms and warming temperatures associated with climate change. The new forest, which researchers hope to replicate on nearby mountaintops, would replace lower-altitude forests that are getting too warm for butterfly hibernation. The trees create a cooler microclimate for the butterflies and protect them from chilly winter rains. The experiment is a form of “assisted migration” that is also happening with other plant and animal species in places such as Canada and in parts of the United States.

“It’s an idea that may sound radical,” forest geneticist Cuauhtemoc Saenz-Romero tells the Los Angeles Times. “But by the end of the century it may be absolutely needed.”

Mexican researchers and farmers are doing the transplanting, including Francisco Ramirez Cruz. A local 75-year-old farmer, he is helping to grow the saplings in a greenhouse and transplant them up the mountain. He says preserving the butterflies’ habitat will also help protect the tourism and timber on which many of his neighbors depend.

“In the early days, we didn’t know where they came from,” he says of the fluttering wonders. “But we have always been so happy to see them.”

Here are some other Recharge stories to get you through the week.

• Short story with your commute? Thanks to new vending machines at a British rail station, commuters have been offered a mental treat: A choice between one-, three-, and five-minute short stories, printed out for the trip. Riders seem to enjoy the three free vending machines, which were installed earlier this month at Canary Wharf in London, and the effort helps people get off their phones—for a bit. “Every single day,” says commuter Paresh Raichura, “I’m on the lookout for something new to read.” (The Guardian)
• An inspiring advance. Computer scientist Katie Bouman became an internet star last week when a photo of her in front of the first image of a black hole went viral. Trolls quickly descended, denigrating her effort and wrongly crediting a male colleague with the bulk of the discovery. MIT clarified that her contributions were significant to the project, inspiring the team’s methods to build the final image. Bouman’s work was part of a 200-member team effort, and in a Facebook post she emphasized: “No one algorithm or person made this image.” What can’t be denied is the infectious joy that Bouman brought to the moment, as seen in this video from Nature. (NBC News)
• The world rallies for Notre Dame. After the devastating fire in Paris this week, global leaders sang praises and offered prayers. Donors have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help rebuild. And when the fire topped its iconic spire and destroyed much of its roof, students and others took to the streets Monday night to serenade the famous cathedral, whose altar and famous bell tower still stood. “Honestly, it’s more moving than I could describe,” tweeted one visitor, who shared a video of the singing procession. France’s US ambassador thanked Americans for their support and added: “All together, we’ll rebuild #NotreDame for the coming millennium.” (CNN)

Avi Hatami and Brad Wieboldt.Screenshot via Newsday

Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. 

Avi Hatami was on a commuter train outside New York, studying for a medical exam, when he heard something. Hatami, an aspiring doctor just 10 months out of medical school in Mexico, took his earbuds out, recognized a call for medical assistance, and rushed to help.

In the adjacent car, Hatami found a man with no pulse—cold, sweating, bluish. He ripped off the man’s shirt and coat and performed CPR for 15 minutes.

“I was very nervous. First patient in the States. I don’t have a license yet. I’m 23 years old. I think I was one of the youngest people on the train,” Hatami tells Newsday. “I was yelling, ‘Stay with me, stay with me, come on, come on, stay with me,’ and just kept on going.”

Eventually, the color began returning to Brad Wieboldt’s face. After the train stopped, EMTs were able to board and take care of Wieboldt, who had suffered a heart attack. Still, the 51-year-old had to be placed in a medically induced coma for five days before he woke up.

Last Wednesday, 16 days after the drama, Wieboldt met Hatami and hugged him. “Without Avi,” said Wieboldt, “there is just no question I wouldn’t be here.”

That is just one inspiring recent medical story. In New Orleans, a cardiac nurse was out dancing when a fellow two-stepper collapsed. Laura Pizzano performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, pumped his chest, and then applied an emergency defibrillator as the dancers formed a prayer circle around them, the Times-Picayune reported. EMTs took the stricken man, who survived, to the hospital.  

In a rescue of another kind, Liz Smith, a director of nursing at a Boston hospital, adopted a baby girl who had not been visited for five months, according to the Washington Post. “Since the moment I met her, there was something behind her striking blue eyes capturing my attention,” said Smith. “I felt that I needed to love this child and keep her safe.”

(Thanks to Recharge readers Patricia Kitchen, Rose Horowitz, Delores Handy, and Kasia Clarke for the story suggestions.)

And in other Recharge news..

• “A no-militia policy.” After two anti-immigrant vigilante groups showed up in Arivaca, Arizona, the border town community rallied to stop them from inciting violence. One of the groups claimed in a Facebook video that townspeople were in league with immigrant smugglers and drug dealers. A local bar responded by banning militias from its premises. Fearing Pizzagate-style extremism, 60 residents met, set up phone trees for threats, and complained to Facebook about the groups. The social network later banned the main account of one group; the others left. “There’s a lot less fear going around, which is great,” said Megan Davern, a local bartender. Listen to journalist Eric Reidy discuss the story on The Mother Jones Podcast. (Mother Jones)
• Paying it forward. In October, George P. Smith won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Last month, the University of Missouri professor emeritus decided to give his $243,000 prize money to the school. “I prospered here,” Smith said in an interview. “I think I owe a lot to Mizzou, and this is a pretty appropriate place to give the money to. It’s also money for a healthy, academic institution.” (Columbia Missourian)
• The Recharge Quote. “Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call ‘American Virtues’ who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.” That’s from Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, to a 10-year-old fan, in 1970. See the full letter on Twitter. (Erin Ruberry)

Slovakia's President-elect Zuzana Caputova in Bratislava, Slovakia.Ladimir Simicek/AFP/Getty Images

Every once in a while, decency triumphs. On Saturday, Zuzana Caputova overwhelmingly won Slovakia’s presidential election, beating an opponent backed by the governing party to become the nation’s first woman president.

In front of her supporters Saturday evening, Caputova promised to fight corruption: “Maybe we thought that justice and fairness in politics were signs of weakness,” she said, according to the New York Times. “Today, we see that they are actually our strengths. We thought that the barrier between conservative and liberal is unbreakable, but we managed to do it.”

Caputova, a 45-year-old lawyer, entered the presidential race last year after the high-profile killing of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova. The two were allegedly shot by a hit man trying to stop Kuciak’s investigation into government corruption. The assassination prompted Caputova and tens of thousands of Slovaks to protest Slovakia’s corrupt, anti-migrant, anti-European Union leadership. Caputova campaigned on the slogan “Let’s fight evil together” and championed transparency in government, as well as abortion and LGBTQ rights. (In Slovakia, same-sex marriage is illegal).

Caputova began her activism in the late 90s, when she tried to stop an illegal dump from poisoning her hometown. Her organizing efforts led to huge street demonstrations. She stopped the dump—and also won the esteemed Goldman Prize for environmental activism.

In victory, she sounded an optimistic note. “I am happy not just for the result, but mainly that it is possible not to succumb to populism, to tell the truth, to raise interest without aggressive vocabulary.” In a nod to the nation’s ethnic minorities, she delivered her acceptance speech not just in Slovak, but in Hungarian, Czech, Roma, and Ruthenian.

At the end of election night, Caputova lit a candle in memory of the slain journalist and his fiancée, Kuciak and Kusnirova.

Recharge is a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. Sign up at the bottom of the story.

• A prize-winning teacher. A math and physics teacher from rural Kenya has won a $1 million prize. “This prize does not recognize me but recognizes this great continent’s young people,” said Peter Tabichi, who gives away 80 percent of his monthly income to help the poor. Though Tabichi’s school only has one computer and one teacher for every 58 students, his students have taken part in international competitions and won awards. (CNN)
• Beyond “dead white guys.” Oboist Ashley Ertz wanted classical music performances to celebrate more female composers—so she founded an ensemble to do just that. “Our community here in Chicago is not just all white guys, so why is that all that we’re performing?” said Ertz, a graduate student at DePaul University. Since last April, the 115-member 5th Wave Collective has performed 12 concerts throughout the Chicago area, featuring works by more than 50 female composers. According to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, only 1.3 percent of works performed by American symphonies during the 2016-17 season were written by women. (Chicago Tribune)
• The Recharge Quote. “There are thousands of people who are fighting to survive, to find some work, to receive a decent salary, to get a little dignity, and a little bit of happiness, and millions of human beings who are seeking refuge.” That’s from director Agnès Varda, who kept a spotlight on people in the margins of society during her path-breaking six-decade run in cinema. Varda, considered the godmother of the French New Wave, died Friday. She was 90.

Former President Jimmy Carter at a Habitat for Humanity building site in Memphis, Tennessee.Mark Humphrey/AP

He has never sought great riches, or to capitalize on the presidency for personal gain. He lives in a home that is assessed for a lesser value than the armored Secret Service vehicle that sits outside it.

Last week, at 94, Jimmy Carter became America’s oldest living former president, prompting praise for the human rights champion and Navy veteran. When in power, he looked ahead, installing solar panels in the White House and promoting a slew of judges of color and women to the federal bench, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Out of power, he oversaw election monitoring in many tight votes worldwide and has spent decades volunteering to build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

“We…are grateful for his long life of service that has benefitted millions of the world’s poorest people,” said the Carter Center, an Atlanta-based nonprofit focused on public policy.

As a public servant and after the presidency, Carter embodied the traits we feature each week in this newsletter. He thought of others and refused to take credit for the daring rescue of six US diplomats in Iran (an episode later made famous by the movie Argo). The reason? Carter didn’t want to endanger the lives of other US diplomats held hostage there.

Carter took the hard road internationally, seeking to burnish America’s standing by refusing to coddle strongmen, such as Chile’s authoritarian leader, Gen. Augusto Pinochet. As a young reporter in neighboring Argentina, I witnessed testimony from Carter’s human rights chief, Patricia Derian, on how she directly confronted a leader of that military government on torture. (Busted, Argentina’s naval chief rubbed his hands and replied: “You remember the story of Pontius Pilate, don’t you?”)

Although reviews of Carter’s presidency have been mixed, political scientist Robert A. Strong writes that “some consider him to be the nation’s greatest former President,” and that his work is admired by people on both sides of the aisle.  

In a Washington Post interview last fall, the former president said it was difficult to abide President Donald Trump’s constant lies, and he called the current presidency a “disaster.” Carter recalled that he would have been expelled from the Naval Academy for a lie, and hinted that his father, who whipped him six different times with a peach tree branch, would not have tolerated mistruths, either.

“I always told the truth,” he said simply.

From this columnist to President Carter: Live long and well.

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• Homeless no more. Eight-year-old refugee Tanitoluwa Adewumi drew accolades after winning a New York state chess championship. After being profiled by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Adewumi, who lived in a homeless shelter, received $200,000 in donations, offers to attend private school, and, now, a home for his family. Adewumi has decided to stay in the public school that helped him learn chess. His family, which is currently seeking asylum, has just moved into a modest apartment. The bulk of the donations will go toward other struggling kids seeking opportunity, according to his father. Adewumi told Kristof that he doesn’t mind: “I want to help other kids.” Thanks to readers Neil Parekh and Jordan Beard for this story suggestion. (New York Times)
• Watching out for others. Toronto Star journalist Joanna Chiu was sitting on an airplane over the weekend, hoping to get some sleep. However, in the row behind her, she overheard an adult man openly flirting with a teenage girl who was sitting alone, even suggesting she send him dirty pictures. Chiu told the man to stop, found passengers who corroborated her account, and got the flight attendants to ask him to move. He did. This thread, highlighted by Mother Jones’ Julia B. Chan, has more on how you can intervene in similar situations. (Twitter)
• In better travel news. Passengers on a Delta flight earlier this month had a pleasant surprise: The pilot and first officer were mother and daughter. Captain Wendy Rexon and her daughter, Kelly Rexon, piloted the jetliner from Los Angeles to Atlanta. “Great flight. Inspiring for [young] women,” passenger John R. Watret tweeted in a post that went viral. (New York Post)

A woman places a candle near Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.Carl Court/Getty Images

For members of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, the mosque shootings that killed at least 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand felt all too familiar. After hearing about the shooting last Friday, the congregation quickly began raising funds for the New Zealand victims and their families.

“We’re unfortunately part of a club that nobody wants to be a part of, and we wanted to reach out to New Zealand in the same way everyone reached out to us,” Sam Schachner, Tree of Life president, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The synagogue lost 11 of its own members after a shooting last October.

“To the families going through the most difficult moments in your lives: the Jewish community of Pittsburgh is with you,” reads the congregation’s GoFundMe page, which hopes to raise $100,000. “Show them that love is stronger than [hate].”

In New Zealand, groups across the country have shown an outpouring of support by performing the haka, a Maori dance, to commemorate and pay respect to the victims. (One particularly emotional video is here). And some New Zealanders even turned in their semi-automatic weapons to authorities. “This is one of the easiest decisions I have ever made,” said one gun-owner who had owned a firearm for 31 years.

An impromptu haka by a small group of #Christchurch schoolchildren in tribute to 2 of their murdered classmates becomes a powerful & cathartic expression of grief & anger as scores of students join the deafening chorus. #NewZeland #ChristchurchTerrorAttack pic.twitter.com/0olwX80uCC

— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) March 18, 2019

Jacinda Ardern, the nation’s prime minister, has proved a model of compassion and efficiency, showing up before the Muslim community in a hijab as a sign of respect and earning praise worldwide. “She symbolically covers her head when she goes to a home for condolences; she boldly underlines her respect and solidarity,” wrote Turkish lawmaker Cihangir Islam. “How thirsty we have become for justice and mercy in state administration.”

“We represent diversity, kindness, compassion,” Ardern said Friday. “A home for those who share our values. Refuge for those who need it. And those values will not and cannot be shaken by this attack.”

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• He didn’t need to cheat. Dylan Chidick was determined to get into college on his own. Chidick, who used to be homeless, has been accepted to 17 colleges so far—and is aghast at the recent college admissions scandal in which parents paid test-takers and falsified claims about their children’s athletic achievements. “I think it is unfair that people could just buy their way in,” said Chidick, who will be the first in his family to go to college. Last Thursday, he said a benefactor would cover his college costs after being inspired by his story. (New York Times)
• Amazing dogs among us. Thanks to the hashtag #uglydogs, a rookie musher raised more than $60,000 for schools along the route of the famed Iditarod in Alaska, one of the most famous dogsled races of the year. Elsewhere, a stray dog named Mera tagged along for three weeks with mountain climbers in Nepal and ended up scaling a 24,000-foot Himalayan peak. The BBC reported the dog had enough energy for a romp at the top. Thanks to Recharge readers Laurie Putnam and Dwayne Fuhlhage for the tips. (NBC News)
• Truth to power. Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister, Leo Varadkar, used a St. Patrick’s Day ceremony with Vice President Mike Pence to underline the importance of inclusion. At Pence’s home in Washington, Varadkar introduced Pence to his boyfriend, Dr. Matthew Barrett. “I lived in a country where, if I tried to be myself at the time, it would’ve ended up breaking laws. But today that has all changed,” Varadkar said at a press conference. “I stand here, leader of my country, flawed and human, but judged by my political actions and not by my sexual orientation, my skin tone, gender, or religious beliefs. And I don’t believe my country is the only one in the world where this story is possible.” (NowThis News)
• A fluttering boom. They’re black and orange. They’re 2 to 3 inches wide. And they’re back. In the midst of a butterfly crisis in California, painted lady butterflies are migrating across the state in tremendous numbers. Scientists say the last time there were so many of the butterflies was in 2005, when a billion of the flighted wonders traveled over interstates and deserts. James Danoff-Burg was biking when he encountered a pack of the butterflies earlier this month. “They were flying parallel to me, just bobbing along as I rode past the date palms,” he said. “It was absolutely magical. I felt like a Disney princess.” (Los Angeles Times)

Isaam Hadhad with Frank Gallant in the chocolate factory. Jonathan Keijser/Courtesy of the Atlantic

In Syria, Issam Hadhad ran one of the largest chocolate factories in the Middle East. But after a bombing destroyed his factory, Hadhad and his family fled to a refugee camp in Lebanon, eventually gaining asylum in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2016. Without money or English-language skills, rebuilding his business was difficult, but he started small, baking sweets and selling them at the farmers market.

Locals noticed and soon came to Hadhad’s support. His new neighbors—including carpenters, plumbers, and electricians—helped him build Peace by Chocolate, Hadhad’s Canadian chocolate factory.

One of Hadhad’s new friends is Frank Gallant, who often works beside him in the factory. Their unlikely friendship is the subject of a new 12-minute film, Brothers, recently published in The Atlantic. “It’s harder for us to have a deeper conversation about life…versus just doing an activity,” says Gallant, but they’re learning to communicate.

“Frank and I, how we interact…it’s like two brothers. He encouraged me to live,” says Hadhad. “If all people walked together as if they had one heart, there’s hope for the future.”

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• An innocent man. Alfred Dewayne Brown spent nearly a decade on death row for murder. But in 2015, a judge tossed out his conviction after discovering that an assistant district attorney hid evidence supporting Brown’s claims. Though he was released, Brown was never declared innocent, which prevented him from receiving compensation for the wrongful conviction. Thanks to a new district attorney reopening his case, Brown was finally exonerated earlier this month, allowing him to receive as much as $80,000 for each year he spent in prison. “It’s been a long, long road for him,” said Brown’s lawyer, Neal Manne, “and it feels really good that the district attorney is now on his side.” (Texas Tribune)
• Beating the trolls. Seventy-five thousand people have joined a Swedish Facebook Group that fights trolls with love. The group, called #jagärhär, Swedish for “I am here,” aims to do what governments and tech companies have not: change the conversation. Members enter comment sections that have turned toxic and leave positive notes; other times they support people who have been harassed. “We want the comment section to look more like society and the way to do this is enable people to speak and participate,” says Mina Dennert, the group’s founder. (The Guardian)
• Love and nature. One of DC’s oldest hiking clubs is proving to be quite the matchmaker. Thanks to the Wanderbirds Hiking Club, at least 10 members have met through the hikes and gone off to marry. One of the couples, Marsha Johnston and Emil Friberg, even brought the club’s trail-marking red arrows to their wedding ceremony. Friberg said another club member encouraged him to ask out Johnston after seeing them together, saying, “Just do it!” So he did. (Washington Post)

This article has been updated. 

Courtesy of Elecia Dexter

Elecia Dexter was shocked when her boss, the editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper in Linden, Alabama, wrote an editorial encouraging the return of the Ku Klux Klan. Goodloe Sutton’s story, headlined “Klan Needs to Ride Again,” drew nationwide coverage, as did Sutton’s follow-up interviews, in which he spoke approvingly of lynching “socialist-communists” in Washington, DC.

Dexter, a communications and human resources specialist, had worked as an administrator at the Democrat-Reporter for several months. But after Sutton’s February 14 editorial, she planned to quit. “I couldn’t believe it,” Dexter, who is black, told the Guardian. “I was in shock.”

Succumbing to media pressure, Sutton stepped aside the following week. He offered the role to Dexter, who accepted. Last Wednesday, in her first editorial, she promised readers a new direction. Under a photo of her, the headline read: “I am Alabama too!”

Dexter has been welcomed by many Alabamians eager to move past Sutton, who had a history of demeaning black people and once referred to the former president as “Leroy Obama.”

“The good people of Linden deserve so much better than these racist rants and I am confident they will get it with new editor, Elecia Dexter,” tweeted Sen. Doug Jones (D-Alabama).

Dexter, who moved to the area last year, tells me that her next editorial will address the support she has gotten from local residents, as well as her plans for the paper.

“It’s a blessing,” Dexter says of her new job. “But it’s surreal, too.”

Recharge is a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. Sign up at the bottom of the story.

• “Tucked-in Tuesdays.” A new Texas elementary school principal is making bedtime stories personal. Each Tuesday evening, Belinda George hosts a Facebook Live and reads a children’s book. Her videos have become popular, even spreading to families outside the Lone Star state. George, whose readings have included books such as Ladybug Girl, Madeline’s Christmas, and Astronaut Handbook, says that she does anything she can to help build relationships and connection: “If a child feels loved they will try.” Recharge reader Karen Weintraub, who suggested this article, said she’d volunteer to read Wednesday nights. Any other takers? (Washington Post)
• Where no woman has gone before. Director Hanelle Culpepper will become the first woman to launch a new series in the Star Trek franchise’s 53-year history. “Proud to join the #StarTrek legacy,” tweeted Culpepper, who has worked on TV shows such as Parenthood and Criminal Minds, as well as two episodes of Star Trek Discovery. The as-yet untitled series will include Sir Patrick Stewart, reprising his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Culpepper will direct the first two episodes. (By the way, the world would have never known of Star Trek if a woman, then-studio head Lucille Ball, hadn’t given the original project a key push.) (Shadow and Act)
• Return of the what? In 2013, the population of Devils Hole pupfish, one of the world’s rarest fish, fell to record lows: Only 35 of the fish were counted in its only known habitat, a submerged limestone cavern in Nevada. To keep the endangered species alive, scientists created a second habitat and breeding site, and they quelled a nasty beetle predator. Their work has paid off: Last fall, scientists counted 187 of the inch-long, electric blue fish in the wild—a 15-year high—in addition to about 70 more in a controlled lab. (National Geographic)
• A Great Lake with rights. Upset over farm runoff and algae blooms that have poisoned their water, voters in Toledo, Ohio, last week gave Lake Erie the same rights as people. The ballot measure, supported by 61 percent of voters, gives the lake the right to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve.” Supporters say the measure will allow them to survey the biggest polluters in the region and to sue on behalf of the lake. Disclosure: Your columnist grew up on the shores of Lake Erie, which the EPA says supplies drinking water for 11 million people. And for more background on the first-of-its-kind proposal, read Mother Jones‘ report from last month. (CityLab)
• The latest from Hilde. Last week we wrote about the pre-teen reporter who was stopped and threatened by a cop while reporting in Patagonia, Arizona. Since then, Hilde Lysiak has gotten an apology from the town’s mayor, Andrea Wood. “We are sorry Hilde, we encourage and respect your continued aspirations as a successful reporter,” Wood said at a town council meeting last Wednesday. “We believe and fully support the constitutional right to freedom of speech in the public sector. We will not tolerate bias of any kind including infringement of freedom of speech.” (Orange Street News)

A specimen of the giant Galapagos tortoise Chelonoidis phantasticus at the Galapagos Archipelago.Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images

Scientists have discovered a species of giant tortoise in the Galapagos Islands that has not been seen since 1906. The species, Chelonoidis phantasticus, more commonly known as the Fernandina giant tortoise, had been listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered and possibly extinct.

The female tortoise, believed to be more than 100 years old, was found in a patch of vegetation on a remote part of the island of Fernandina. Tracks indicate there may be even more of these tortoises elsewhere.

The discovery brought hope that in a world of species decline, bee-colony collapses, and insect disappearances, one species thought lost may still remain.

Stuart Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke University, is optimistic the species can go on if scientists can find other living members.

“They will need more than one [tortoise], but females may store sperm for a long time,” Pimm told the Associated Press. “There may be hope.”

That may not be the only species-saving news in the past week. Villagers in rural southeastern Taiwan said they recently spotted a Formosan clouded leopard, according to Taiwan News. Scientists are working to verify their claims: The last confirmed sighting of the leopard was in 1983, and the species was declared extinct in 2013.

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• Hidden no more. NASA has named one of its buildings after Katherine Johnson, the 100-year-old mathematician at the center of the movie Hidden Figures. Johnson’s work was essential to the agency’s early astronaut missions into space. The Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility, publicly dedicated to her last Friday, is in her native West Virginia. (ABC News)
• Defending themselves with cameras. About a decade ago, Prince Peter watched as his barber shop, along with the homes of 19,000 others, was demolished by bulldozers in his hometown city of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Soldiers killed 12 people who protested. Peter and the other residents left homeless had little recourse against the well-connected developers who flattened their waterfront shantytown to build more modern structures in its place. Now, he and 40 other volunteers are fighting back by documenting smaller-scale government demolitions, using videos, songs, and radio shows to pressure leaders against dispossessing the poor. Participants note that there haven’t been any government-sponsored mass evictions since. For Peter, it’s a bittersweet victory. If there had been such a community effort a decade ago, he said, maybe his neighborhood would still be standing. (Christian Science Monitor)
• Hellraiser in training. When we last profiled 12-year-old star reporter Hilde Lysiak, she had already broken the news of a murder in her Pennsylvania hometown and reported on drugs in her local high school. While on assignment in Arizona, she hopped the US-Mexico border fence and had a run-in with a cop who threatened to put her in juvenile detention. When he said it was illegal for her to film him, she asked, “What exactly am I doing that’s illegal?” Hilde’s video of the encounter has racked up more than 400,000 views on YouTube, and has earned her the support of the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona. “One can only imagine,” said coalition lawyer Dan Barr, “what sort of stories she will be turning out once she has a driver’s license.” (Washington Post)
• Meet one of the Grand Canyon’s oldest junior rangers. Rose Torphy, 103, said she would do her bit to protect the national treasure for her great-great-grandchildren. “My parents taught me to care for the land but not all kids have that,” she said. Relatives added that Torphy has been wearing her ranger pin since she was sworn in at the Grand Canyon National Park in January. (ABC News)

Have a Recharge story of your own or an idea to make this column better? Fill out the form below or send me a note at recharge@motherjones.com.

Zach SkilesCourtesy of Zach Skiles/The Christian Science Monitor

Zach Skiles lost four of his buddies while serving as a Marine in Iraq. For years, he struggled to deal with his trauma, often relying on alcohol and marijuana to cope. He finally admitted he had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after checking into a residential treatment program in California’s Napa Valley.

Skiles spent four months of 2010 at the Pathway Home, an intensive program that helps veterans come to grips with PTSD. The experience changed him—and led him to a life of helping others. Stiles now counsels vets at a VA clinic in Martinez, California, and says that his background allows him to connect with others dealing with self-blame, survivor’s guilt, and unresolved anger.

His determination to help grew even more last year, when a vet killed himself and three clinicians at Pathway. The program has been closed ever since.

“Some people see what happened as a reason to turn away from veterans,” Skiles told the Christian Science Monitor. “To me, it showed exactly why these programs are important.”

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• Another way. In one hospital, Walker Hughes was pinned to the floor, screaming. In another instance, he was handcuffed to a bed. So in December, when the normally gentle autistic man was approached by public safety officers in a hospital emergency room, his mother, Ellen, feared the worst. But Sergeant Keith Miller, on duty that night at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, tried something different. He and his team first sought to understand Walker, who was having an adverse reaction to medication. Then they sang James Brown songs and the theme to “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” They danced. For two and a half hours, Miller’s team helped calm Walker, who is 33 years old. Miller credits his approach to having an autistic son of his own, and he is trying to teach other hospital officers similar techniques. “Walker loved it,” said Ellen. “We’ve been to the doctor and the hospitals a million times and I’ve never seen anything like these guys.” Thanks to Recharge readers Karen Weintraub and Ilyse Levine-Kanji for the story suggestion. (Chicago Tribune)
• Stepping in and stepping up. Todd Morrison could not stand by while the parents and guardians of his students were rounded up in immigration raids. A superintendent for the Honey Grove Independent School District in Texas, Morrison accompanied families to court appearances and made sure counselors were available to help. He also raised money to pay for gas and electric bills, groceries, and doctor appointments. “These families are great Honey Grove parents and families,” Morrison said. “They are pillars of our community.” (Hechinger Report)
• “Whose future? Our future.” Defying threats of detention, thousands of British teens skipped school Friday to call for action on climate change. “We’re passionate, articulate and we’re ready to continue demonstrating the need for urgent and radical climate action,” said Anna Taylor, 17. The protests have taken place for weeks throughout Europe, with tens of thousands of teens participating. The movement was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a teenager who held a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament in August. (The Guardian)
• Paying it forward. A church in Alexandria, Virginia, donated $100,000 to Howard University earlier this month, helping to pay off remaining fees and debts for 34 seniors. “I thought, ‘What better way to celebrate Black History Month than investing in the young, black heroes of HBCUs?’” said the Rev. Marc Lavarin, of Alfred Street Baptist Church. “They have lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders,” said senior Mya Thompson, who owed about $2,500. The church also donated $50,000 to help Bennett College, one of the last two women’s HBCUs, stay open. (Washington Post)

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This post has been updated. 

Courtesy of High Point University

Just two months ago, Bennett College looked like it might have to close its doors. One of the last two remaining historically black colleges for women, Bennett lacked the funds needed to meet its accreditation requirements.

But over 55 days, the 146-year-old North Carolina school used social media and found an array of allies in its mad dash to raise $5 million by the February 1 deadline. Bennett ended up raising $8.2 million from 11,000 donors, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Of that total, $1 million came from nearby High Point University, another Methodist-affiliated institution. The university’s graduates and staff made significant individual donations.

“In your toughest times, you know who your friends are,” said Bennett President Phyllis Worthy Dawkins.

High Point’s president, Nido Qubein, put it this way: “We as a neighbor school cannot just stand by.” Later, at a news conference announcing that Bennett had reached its fundraising goal, he added, “This isn’t about money. This is about the future of tens of thousands of young women who will exit Bennett to serve the world and plant seeds of greatness.”

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• An end run to help kids—and their mothers. New moms in jail often miss out on the opportunity to breastfeed their babies. But thanks to a new program in Philadelphia, they can now pump their milk and have a relative or friend feed it to their children. This can help keep infants healthy—studies show that breast-fed babies suffer fewer infections and hospitalizations than formula-fed babies—while giving moms a greater sense of purpose as well. “I can still have some type of connection with my daughter, a connection through the milk,” said Cierra Jackson, one of the mothers participating in the program. (Next City)
• “Hi crochet friends.” Jonah Larson started crocheting at five years old. Now 11, he has a business selling his creations online. “After a very hard, busy, chaotic day in this busy world with school, it’s just nice to know that I can come home and crochet in my little corner of the house while sitting by the one I love most: my mom,” Larson told NPR from his family’s Wisconsin home. The crochet prodigy donates a portion of his profits to the Ethiopian orphanage from which he was adopted. Larson says he wants to refine his work at a crocheting summer camp, then attend West Point and eventually become a surgeon. (La Crosse Tribune)
• Rushing to help. A video of three rappers helping an elderly woman and her husband get into their car in Florida went viral last week. “I kept thinking, ‘She could have been my grandmother,’” said one of the men, who goes by Marty. “It was a beautiful thing to see,” said Kenesha Carnegie, a sheriff’s deputy who posted the video. “I know these men from the neighborhood, and I wanted them to have that moment to show who they really are.” Thanks to Joanne Dixon for the link. (Atlanta Black Star)
• How one city made Election Day a holiday. City leaders in Sandusky, Ohio, wanted to remove Columbus Day as a holiday, but the city’s unions didn’t want to lose a paid day off. The compromise? Swapping in Election Day and making it a paid holiday for the city’s 250 workers. “We don’t have to wait necessarily for states or the federal government to make this change,’’ said City Manager Eric Wobser. (NPR)

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Behrouz BoochaniCourtesy of Amnesty International

Kurdish Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani has spent nearly six years locked in a detention center on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, barred from entering Australia under the nation’s hardline immigration policies.

But prison didn’t stop Boochani from writing a book, composed one WhatsApp text at a time to his translator. Now Boochani’s autobiographical book, No Friend But the Mountains, has been awarded the 2019 Victorian Prize for Literature, which comes with a $100,000 reward. (His book also won the $25,000 prize for nonfiction.) Judges described the book, an account of his long struggle for freedom, as “a stunning work of art and critical theory which evades simple description.”

Australia has kept asylum-seekers and migrants, often for years, at offshore processing centers, akin to how the United States treated Haitian refugees at Guantanamo in the 1990s. Boochani, who fled persecution in Iran and was captured at sea en route to Australia, said he had “a paradoxical feeling” when learning his book had won.

“My main aim has always been for the people in Australia and around the world to understand deeply how this system has tortured innocent people on Manus and Nauru in a systematic way for almost six years,” Boochani told the Guardian by text message. “I hope this award will bring more attention to our situation, and create change, and end this barbaric policy.”

In his acceptance speech, delivered by video from prison, Boochani said that maintaining an image of himself as a writer helped him uphold his dignity, even as he endured difficult and humiliating moments in prison.

“I have been in a cage for years but throughout this time my mind has always been producing words, and these words have taken me across borders, taken me overseas and to unknown places,” he said. “I truly believe words are more powerful than the fences of this place, this prison.”

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• “I just want to inspire them.” Ana Chavarin had to drop out of school at age 13 to work in a factory in Mexico to help her family. At 37, after years spent undocumented in the United States, Chavarin bucked the odds: She obtained legal status, returned to school, and got an associate’s degree.”To me, it was an addiction,” Chavarin said about her first days in class. “I wanted to be there in class every day. I wanted to learn more.” Chavarin, a house cleaner and community organizer who wants to be a therapist for sex-assault survivors, said she hopes to set an example for her four children. Her oldest, Jorge Lopez, who is studying to become a nurse, says his mom has inspired him: “Her being so motivated to first get her GED and then be the first one to go to college definitely gave me that motivation to [be] like, ‘I got to do it as well.'”

  Chavarin intends to keep studying and get a Ph.D. (PRI’s The World)

• She had to act. As temperatures plunged to negative 20 degrees last week in Chicago, Candice Payne, a 34-year-old real estate broker, made a spur-of-the-moment decision to help the city’s homeless. She put 30 hotel rooms on her credit card and housed 100 homeless people from the worst of the cold. Additional donations doubled the number of rooms available, allowing them to extend their stay through Sunday. Restaurants pitched in food, and Payne handed out care packages of toiletries, snacks, and prenatal vitamins.

  “I am a regular person,” Payne said. “It all sounded like a rich person did this, but I’m just a little black girl from the South Side.” Having taken the lead, she was struck by how many strangers joined to help. “After seeing this [response] and seeing people from all around the world, that just tells me that it’s not that unattainable. We can all do this together.” Thanks to reader Neil Parekh for this story suggestion. (New York Times)

• A fitting tribute. Captain Rosemary Mariner became one of the first six women to earn her Navy wings, the first woman to fly a tactical fighter jet, and the first to command a squadron. At her funeral on Saturday, the Navy honored her with another first: a flyover of fighter jets piloted exclusively by women. Though she is honored now, Mariner faced resistance throughout her trailblazing career, says longtime friend Martha Raddatz, an ABC correspondent. “She would say the problem first was that men were afraid [women] couldn’t do the job. And then they were afraid that they could.” (Washington Post)
• Hands across the water. Back in November, we highlighted the story of a Dutch church protecting an Armenian family from deportation by holding continuous religious services. After hearing about the church, Joel Miller, a minister from Ohio, traveled to the Netherlands to help, joining 800 other clergy members who have also delivered services. Miller had something in common with the church: His congregants at the Columbus Mennonite Church had also offered sanctuary to an immigrant facing deportation.Miller praised the power of churches working together: “As Martin Luther King [Jr.] says, we’re ‘small in number but big in commitment.'” (PRI’s The World)
• A marathon save. Khemjira Klongsanun ran 19 miles of a marathon carrying a lost puppy she saw on the road, finishing the race with the pup in her arms. When no one claimed the puppy after the race in Thailand, she adopted him. Carrying the pup made the marathon twice as tiring, she said, “but I did it anyway, just because he is adorable.” Thanks to Erin Ruberry for this story suggestion. (Runner’s World)

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Alysa Liu during her free skate at the 2019 US Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire/AP

Before Alysa Liu, only three American women were able to land a triple axel—one of the most difficult skating moves—in a national competition. Last week, Liu became the first to land two in one program.

At 13, Liu is also the youngest figure skater to win a national individual championship, with her stunning free skate Friday night at the US Figure Skating Championships in Detroit.

The 4-foot-7 skater from Richmond, California, first hit the ice at the age of five, at a public skating session. Her father, recognizing her potential, soon got her private lessons, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tara Lipinski, an NBC commentator who previously held the record for the youngest woman to win a skating championship, called Liu “the future of US ladies’ figure skating.”

Liu says she tries to keep it in perspective. “I tell myself, ‘Don’t think you’re the best in the world. You’re not the best yet.'” Watch highlights from Liu’s free skate and her adorable reaction to winning here.

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• Saved. Milwaukee police officer Alberto Figueroa, 26, had just pulled over several people in a truck for a traffic stop when he was hit by a car. Figueroa suffered broken bones and a cracked hip, but it could have been worse if the people in the truck hadn’t jumped out to help, assistant chief Steve Caballero told Milwaukee TV station WISN. “They began checking his vitals [and] some of them performed CPR on him because they were unable to locate a pulse,” Caballero said. “That right there saved the officer’s life.” Thanks to Recharge reader David Plata for this item. (ABC News)
• Smashing the gender divide. When 13-year-old Alice de Rivera tried to attend New York’s highly regarded Stuyvesant High School in 1969, she was told she couldn’t because she was female. At the time, the public school was one of several in the city that only admitted males. Her legal challenge helped end single-sex public schooling in New York, and she instantly became an icon: Rock star Jimi Hendrix sent her an album and a note. When asked if her presence would disrupt Stuyvesant, she replied: “I intend to be disruptive not with my presence, but with my ideas.” Rivera moved and never ended up going to Stuyvesant, but half a century later, as a general practitioner in Maine, she’s proud of her role in ending gender discrimination and happy to have not attended the super-competitive school: “The alternative path allowed me to explore alternative parts of myself.” (The New Yorker)
• Free suits. Designer Christopher Schafer once got two bags of gently used suits from a client who didn’t want them anymore. Other clients did the same thing. A friend suggested he set up a nonprofit to provide tailored suits for unemployed, homeless, or retired men. The goal: A look that would help “customers” stand out during interviews or other events requiring formal wear, such as funerals. The nonprofit has served 7,000 men so far from storefronts in Baltimore and Los Angeles. Schafer, who fought his own battles with drugs and alcohol, says his mission to reinforce confidence is deeply personal. “We give them the clothes, but we want it to be clothing that they feel good in.” (Christian Science Monitor)
• From lawyer to advocate. When President Donald Trump announced the travel ban in January 2017, Hassan Ahmad knew he had to help. The immigration lawyer headed to Dulles International Airport, where he volunteered to offer legal assistance. Hundreds of people joined him at the airport, where officials refused to speak to lawyers and elected officials about how they were enforcing the executive order. The event changed the focus of Ahmad’s practice—and led to his decision to run for a seat in in the Virginia state house. His activism was unplanned, and he acknowledges his foray into politics is a bit scary. “When [the Trump administration] started changing the rules on us, that’s when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to look back on my career and not do something to change the system, or at least protect due process,” Ahmad said. (Mother Jones)

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Suzanne Kreiter/Boston Globe

For a decade, a dedicated team of volunteers at Rev. Judith Hanlon’s Hadwen Park Congregational Church has helped more than 150 gay and transgender immigrants make a life for themselves in America.

Mainly from Africa and the Caribbean, many of these men and women seek out the little wooden church in central Massachusetts, sometimes arriving without notice, looking for refuge from a homeland that showed them little but hostility and prejudice. Hanlon has made helping them a mission of her flock.

“I couldn’t take the constant harassment,” says Vanessa Okumu, a 26-year-old from Uganda, who the church has placed in an apartment in Worcester, a city where 21 percent of the population is from another country.

Under the program, which is free of state and federal funds, Okumu will receive the help she needs to obtain a Social Security number and a work permit.  “I was so lucky,” Okumu says of the church’s assistance. “I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she tells the Boston Globe.

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• Maximizing his time. Bob Charland was a former bouncer with a fatal diagnosis. The Springfield, Mass., mechanic resolved to use what time he has left to fix up bikes for underprivileged kids. “I realized that I could still get up every day and do the projects that I want to do to help people,” Charland said. Since spring of 2017, he’s spent $10,000 to rehab and distribute about 1,000 bikes to underprivileged children. He works with local police to deliver the bikes to local schools and give safety lessons. (Washington Post)
• Still a nice guy. We’ve profiled Yassin Terou before, after the Syrian refugee’s falafel shop in eastern Tennessee was named “the nicest place in America.” Now he’s among the many food providers offering free meals to federal workers during the government shutdown. “These guys are our brothers and sisters, and they already did the work, and they aren’t getting paid,” he said. (Good Morning America)
• Serving millions. Isabelle Kelley created a program that now helps feed 38 million Americans—a program that started with milk and expanded to food stamps. More than two decades after her death in 1997, Kelley was honored last week with a New York Times obituary as part of a series on under-recognized women leaders. (New York Times)
• Prevention for homelessness. Hailing from Geelong, Australia, a new approach to tackling youth homelessness is headed to Seattle. The key steps to this program is identifying, through school surveys, the students most at risk for homelessness, and help them. “We’re not going to end youth homelessness without actually keeping young people from coming into homelessness in the first place,” says Casey Trupin, of the Seattle-based Raikes Foundation, which is aiding the effort. (Seattle Times)
• A trim—and talk. Lorenzo Lewis found that people who need therapy often don’t seek it, so the barber started bringing therapy to them at his Arkansas barbershop. “The barbershop is a staple in the black community, and I want it to be a safe space where people can go and talk honestly about themselves,” said Lewis, who is training other barbers to recognize signs of depression and instability, ask questions, and guide customers to help. (The Philadelphia Citizen)

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Phelan M. Ebenhack/The Washington Post

He did his time. Now, 14 years after being released from prison, Desmond Meade is registered to vote.

Submitting his voter registration form last week, Meade described the moment as “very, very emotional.” And he has himself to thank: Meade led Florida’s successful effort to overturn the felon disenfranchisement law and restore voting rights to most ex-prisoners who had done their time. “Across the state of Florida, our democracy is being expanded. That’s a great thing.” Previously, 10 percent of voter-age Floridians were barred from casting a ballot.

“We don’t care about how a person may vote. What we care about is that they have the ability to vote,” Meade tells Mother Jones‘ Ari Berman. “That is our compass.”

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• Simply mind-blowing. On Saturday, Katelyn Ohashi catapulted into viral fame after her joyful floor routine at the Collegiate Challenge, a gymnastics event in Anaheim, California. Yet that joy, Ohashi said, came only after the one-time Olympic hopeful turned away from the intense pressure of elite competition. “It’s not the outcome,” Ohashi once said. “It’s not me standing on the podium with medals. It’s me being able to walk out with a smile on my face and truly being happy with myself.” (Washington Post)
• The Little Tree Library. I’m a big fan of the Little Free Libraries, those wooden, street-side book collections that encourage sharing in a neighborhood. But have you heard of the Little Tree Library of Idaho? Sharalee Armitage Howard and her family carved the library from a massive old tree stump in their front yard and added a roof and lights. Yes, you guessed it—Howard is a librarian. (Colossal)
• Soaring new heights. After fleeing Syria, Shoushi Bakarian made it to Canada in 2016 and is now enrolled in an aerospace engineering program at Montreal’s Concordia University. And at 21, she’s built her first invention: a ventilation device for Cessna aircrafts. That’s not all. Bakarian leads a young Scout troop, too. “I want to reach girls and tell them they don’t have to limit themselves to traditional jobs, like teachers,” she said. “I want to become an example.” (Globe and Mail)
• Investing in kids. In 2012, Alabama made a big investment in preschools by increasing funding 47 percent. It’s paying off big time: A recent study showed that third-graders who had gone to preschool scored far higher on state math and reading tests than kids who hadn’t. Despite its educational system’s low rankings, Alabama has some of the most successful preschool programs in the country. (Mother Jones)
• Bees bouncing back. Hurricanes Maria and Irma killed off about 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s bee population. But beekeepers, armed with new hives and “protein patties,” have been more successful than anticipated at restoring the population—which is now up by 50 percent. The Puerto Rican bees, a gentler variant of African “killer bees,” have high honey yields and are resistant to a parasite that has killed off colonies elsewhere. (Mother Jones)

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Earlonne WoodsMark Murrmann/Mother Jones

While he was an inmate at San Quentin State Prison, Earlonne Woods helped create a podcast that dealt with everyday life behind bars. Woods, 47, had spent 21 years in prison for attempted armed robbery. He saw how fellow inmates were kind to spiders, treating them as pets, and how the prison’s informal party planner navigated race.

His podcast, Ear Hustle (prison slang for eavesdropping) has been a hit—and it certainly caught the attention of then-California Gov. Jerry Brown. In November, Brown commuted Woods’ sentence, citing Woods’ work with Ear Hustle and his leadership in helping other inmates. “He has set a positive example for his peers,” Brown wrote, according to the Associated Press. “And, through his podcast, has shared meaningful stories from those inside prison.” Woods was released on November 30.

Now that he’s free, Woods says he will continue working on the podcast, earning considerably more than his prison pay, which was less than $1 an hour. For a deeper dive into Ear Hustle, check out Mother Jones’ behind-the-scenes story from our March/April 2018 issue.

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• A shutdown didn’t stop their love. As former congressional staffers, they’d each been through government shutdowns before. Still, when Danielle Geanacopoulos and Dan Pollock went to get their marriage license at Washington, DC’s Superior Court on December 27, they were stunned to discover it was closed because of the shutdown. They had a wedding scheduled in two days. What did they do? As Geanacopoulos put it on Instagram, they had “a really really really good party with those we love most.” (BuzzFeed News)
• The “women’s wall.” It takes a lot of women to form a 385-mile wall of protest, but that’s what happened last week in the southern India state of Kerala. Between 3.5 and 5 million people, the vast majority of whom were women, rallied for gender equity and protested a religious ban that stopped women of menstruating age—between the ages of 10 to 50—from entering a Hindu shrine. Despite a Supreme Court ruling blocking the ban, some men have threatened women trying to enter. “I wanted to be a part of this because I believe it’s time for awareness and for change,” said one of the participants, 39-year-old teacher Rakhee Madhavan. (NPR)
• Getting a new mom. Growing up, Shay Roberson bounced between a dozen foster homes. One of her only constants was Ginnie Wing, a school resource officer who watched out for her—whether it was getting her food, toothpaste, towels, and soap for her dorm room, or mailing blood pressure medication when Roberson had trouble picking it up. Last February, Roberson, 24, heard her pastor say that people should ask for what they want. On the way home, Roberson texted: “Can you think about adopting me one day? I really want a mom.” Wing’s response: “In a heartbeat.” (Indianapolis Star)
• Fighting for their due. Howell Begle loved R&B, and it made him sick to discover that record companies often mistreated many of his heroes, giving them skewed contracts that promised as little as 1 percent of royalties. Many R&B artists from the 1940s to the 1960s were left destitute. As a lawyer, Begle spent years fighting—and eventually winning—royalties owed to singing stars such as Ruth Brown, Sam and Dave, the Drifters, the Coasters, and more. Begle died December 30 in New Hampshire. (Washington Post)
• History times three. Not only was Sandra Oh the first person of Asian descent to co-host Sunday’s Golden Globes, she also set two more milestones: She became the first Asian woman to win two Golden Globes (this year for Killing Eve and in 2006 for Grey’s Anatomy), and she was the first Asian woman to win best actress in a TV drama since 1980 (when Yoko Shimada won for Shogun). Of co-hosting, Oh said: “I said yes to the fear of being on this stage tonight because I wanted to be here to look out into this audience and witness this moment of change.” Your Recharge columnist got a little misty when Oh accepted her award Sunday night and thanked her parents—who were sitting in the audience. (Vox)

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Wallowa Whitman National ForestCalvin Hodge/Getty

At age six, Cody Sheehy was playing with his sister in the woods of Oregon’s rugged Wallowa County when he got separated—and lost.

Sheehy was gone for 18 hours, but managed to hike nearly 20 miles to find his way out. During his journey, he fell into a creek, climbed a tree to escape two menacing coyotes, and developed acute tendonitis in his ankles that would put him on crutches for a week afterward.

His resilience at such a young age made national news at the time and inspired people across the country: Some sent letters to him, simply addressed to “The Lost Boy of Wallowa.”

Sheehy, now a 39-year-old filmmaker and sailor, recently retraced his steps with Emma Marris and her six-year-old son for Outside magazine. Sheehy told Marris that the ordeal forced him to push himself beyond normal barriers and to stay focused.

“As a little kid,” Sheehy said, “I had this opportunity to be tested and learn that there really aren’t any barriers. I think a lot of people figure that out. They just might not figure it out at six.”

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• Pen pal. When nine-year-old Tony Hood heard that the San Francisco 49ers’ Solomon Thomas lost his sister to suicide, he decided to help. Hood knew what Thomas was going through: His father, a police sergeant, had also killed himself. Hood wrote a letter to the football player offering to be friends. Thomas wrote back and invited the family to San Francisco for a game—and to talk more. Thomas said that Tony and the Hood family “have helped me more than they’ll ever know.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Holiday gift. A man who flies hundreds of thousands of miles each year gave away most of his frequent flyer miles to help people travel home for the holidays. This will be Peter Shankman’s fifth year in a row offering his miles to strangers in a social-media contest on Imgur, an image-sharing platform. Other frequent flyers have now joined his effort and contribute their own miles. “I can’t think of a better way to use miles,” said Shankman. (Washington Post)
• Saving an island. Kokota was on the brink of disaster, with fisheries that had been depleted, rivers that had run dry, and forests that were almost gone. Now, after a decade of reforestation and a new rainwater collection system, the Tanzanian island is on the road to recovery—and has even opened its first school. The efforts offer lessons for larger communities. (National Geographic)
• Another “Hidden Figure.” At 87, Gladys West is finally getting her due. In the 1970s, West helped developed GPS while working as a mathematician at the US Naval Weapons Laboratory. She was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame last month. (The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)

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Gary Benjamin and Melody Hart with Ansly Damus, a Haitian asylum-seeker who was freed after two years in detention.Matt McClain/The Washington Post

After a gang beat him for criticizing a local politician, Ansly Damus fled Haiti. The former teacher came to the United States seeking asylum—but instead, immigration officials put him in a windowless cell in an Ohio jail for almost two years.

A judge had granted Damus asylum twice, but officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept appealing the decision, leaving Damus locked in jail. He was rarely allowed to step outside.

Though Damus’ story is heartbreaking, it’s also one that involves persistence, courage, and kindness. When a local couple heard about his case through an immigration activist, they immediately offered to help, agreeing to house Damus so he could get paroled. “We are empty nesters and have a large home,” Gary Benjamin and Melody Hart wrote in a letter to ICE.

Benjamin and Hart worked to keep Damus’ spirits up. Nearly every week, they visited him in jail and sent him letters. When the jail refused to allow him to receive books, they made photocopies and sent him 20 pages at a time—the maximum length allowed, according to Mother Jones. Another supporter relayed his local phone calls to his wife and family in Haiti so they could hear him—international calls and letters were not allowed.

On November 30, Damus and his lawyers won his freedom. A federal judge ordered Damus to be released while the case continued. Upon entering Hart and Benjamin’s home, Damus said a prayer.

“I said thank you,” Damus told the couple, according to the Washington Post. “Thank you for taking me.”

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• Pretty precocious. Which teens stepped up this year? Here are 25, including the founder of #1000BlackGirlBooks, Parkland students, and an eighth-grader who developed medical software to better examine the pancreas. (Time)
• Good news for the climate. Two decades ago, world leaders signed on to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a historic agreement to limit the amount of ozone-depleting chemicals that are released into the atmosphere. Now, a UN report shows just how successful that initiative has been: Holes in the ozone layer are actually closing, and if current reductions continue, they could be completely closed in the Northern Hemisphere and mid-latitudes by the mid-2030s—and worldwide by 2060. (Mother Jones)
• A helping hand. The Woolsey wildfires in Malibu, California, destroyed almost 100,000 acres of land. But miraculously, they left a popular biker bar and restaurant in the Malibu Hills still standing. In the days after the fire, the Rock Store became a makeshift community center: The Red Cross set up shop out front, and the owners cooked all the food they had and shared it with their neighbors—without letting anyone pay. The Rock Store officially opened its doors again earlier this month. (NPR)
• Mailing in a solution. Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a cheap and simple way to attract high-achieving, low-income students: Mail them, their parents, and their principals a personalized letter telling the students that, if admitted, they would qualify for a full-tuition scholarship. Sixty-seven percent of the students applied, more than twice the rate of a similar group that only got a postcard about the school’s application deadlines. Researchers hope this method can help encourage more low-income students to apply for selective schools. Thanks to this column’s editor, Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn, for this and many other terrific suggestions this year. (Mother Jones)
• Finally, looking back. As we end our last edition of 2018, here are some of my favorite stories from the year: How one quick-thinking shopper kept hostages alive at Trader Joe’s; in Mexico City, ballerinas dance in traffic—and it’s absolutely captivating; he was told he couldn’t let migrant kids comfort each other, so he quit; these middle schoolers flipped an overturned car to save a trapped couple; teeny-tiny libraries are sprouting up all over the world, and this guy started it all.

Have a Recharge story of your own or an idea to make this column better? Fill out the form below or send me a note to me at recharge@motherjones.com.

Charles Barkley, right, and Lin Wang, second from right, on the set of TNT’s NBA postgame show, "Inside the NBA."Courtesy of Shirley Wang

Lin Wang was known for talking rubbish at times, but he was right about having a good friend in Charles Barkley, the retired NBA star. A cat litter scientist, Wang struck up the unlikeliest of friendships with Barkley—and both came to each other’s side when it mattered.

When Barkley’s mother died two years ago, for instance, Wang flew from Iowa to Alabama for the funeral. “Everybody’s like, ‘Who’s the Asian dude over there?’ I just started laughing,” Barkley told Wang’s daughter, Shirley, who produced this intensely personal radio story for NPR’s Only a Game. “I said, ‘That’s my boy, Lin.’ They’re like, ‘How do you know him?’ I said, ‘It’s a long story.'”

It’s an incredible story, too, that began when Wang spotted Barkley in a Sacramento, California, hotel bar. One drink turned into a meal, and dinners for two days after that, and get-togethers in other towns. They talked about pride in their kids and difficult upbringings, and they found they had, surprisingly, a lot in common. One hope they shared: If they worked hard enough, the color of their skin wouldn’t matter.

Their friendship continued until the very end, when Lin contracted terminal cancer. Last June, as Shirley and her family sat at his funeral service at a house outside Iowa City, a 6-foot-6-inch friend of her father’s walked in—and comforted her.

A raft of readers praised and comforted Shirley after the 14-minute story aired last Saturday. She tells me she has been humbled by the outpouring. The recent Tufts University grad had taken a semester off school and cut short an internship to be with her father, and now she feels like he left her the gift of his spirit and his story. “I feel like I can dream big now,” she said.

Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. Sign up at the bottom of the story. 

• Celebrating bravery. Christine Blasey Ford kept a low profile after her testimony at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing. That was, until last week, when she made one of her first public statements at a Sports Illustrated ceremony honoring Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse serial sexual predator Larry Nassar. She told Denhollander via video: “You galvanized future generations to come forward, even when the odds are seemingly stacked against them. The lasting lesson is that we all have the power to create real change.” (Mother Jones)
• A real tech pioneer. Evelyn Berezin, who died December 8 at age 93, invented and marketed the world’s first computerized word processor. Without Berezin, “there would be no Bill Gates, no Steve Jobs, no internet, no word processors, no spreadsheets; nothing that remotely connects business with the 21st century,” British writer and entrepreneur Gwyn Headley said in 2010. (New York Times)
• Hands on. A violence intervention program offering mentoring and other free services has led to a dramatic reduction in youth homicides across the United States. The program, called group violence intervention, has been successful in several cities and is now being studied by European countries as well. (The Guardian)
• Wiping out school lunch debt. One student was told she might not walk at graduation because her family had $300 in school lunch debt. In five days, parents and others raised funds to erase the debt for her and 514 other students in the Stow-Munroe Falls, Ohio, school district. “Every kid should be able to eat lunch,” said Heather Walter, one of the organizers. “No kid should be able to feel they’re putting their family into debt by eating a grilled cheese sandwich.” Thanks to reader Connie Schultz for this story suggestion. (Akron Beacon Journal)
• Real lives. One photographer chronicles migrants waiting at the US-Mexico border—and finds hope, ambition, and a desire to prove themselves capable and worthy of a new nation. (Washington Post)

We want to hear from you! Let us know your favorite Recharge-style story and why—whether it was about someone helping others, justice prevailing, or an action that inspired you. Even better: Tell us about something you did as a result of these stories. Email me at recharge@motherjones.com or fill out the form below.

The reVision soccer team relaxing with foosballMonica Rhor/USA Today

Umoja ni nguvu. Unity is strength.

For a soccer team of African refugees, this Swahili phrase has been a powerful rallying cry. Many of the players made their way to Houston, Texas, after years spent in refugee camps, knowing very little English except for a few phrases, such as “How are you?” and “Where is the food?”

Although adapting to their new lives was difficult, the players have found familiarity and friendship through their soccer team, the reVision Football Club.

“They are like my brothers,” Iluta Shabani, a high school honor student who grew up in a refugee camp in Tanzania, said of his teammates. “When I don’t have something, they give it to me. When they don’t have, I give it to them.”

The players worry about President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, but even in the face of racial epithets from opposing players or spectators, they’ve kept going—even rising up to defeat a former state champion last month.

Charles Rotramel, who runs a nonprofit that sponsors the team, credits the team members for building this community. “They were looking for a safe place and found it in each other,” he told USA Today.

Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. Sign up at the bottom of the story. 

• Courage, remembered. When North Carolina tried to impose a restrictive voting rights law in 2013, Rosanell Eaton fought back: In her 90s, she became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the measure—and eventually helped strike it down. Eaton, who died Saturday, has been fighting for voting rights since 1942, the year she outwitted three white men in order to vote. Those men told Eaton she couldn’t register to vote unless she recited the preamble to the US Constitution from memory. Eaton had no problem doing so.

  Said former President Barack Obama in a 2015 letter: “I am where I am today only because men and women like Rosanell Eaton refused to accept anything less than a full measure of equality.” Thanks to Mother Jones’ Ari Berman for suggesting this story. (New York Times)

• Helping the hungry. For years, renowned celebrity chef José Andrés has been helping feed kids and families in need with his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen. While the chef first began his nonprofit in response to natural disasters, he has now expanded his efforts to help families stranded on the southern border by the Trump administration. His crew has been serving about 3,000 meals a day. It’s “the human thing to do,” said the chef. Paraphrasing John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Andrés said: “Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people may eat, I will be there.” (Washington Post)
• The dog that waited. During California’s deadly Camp Fire, Andrea Gaylord wasn’t able to get home in time to retrieve her dog, Madison. When the evacuation order was lifted weeks later, Gaylord returned—and found the Anatolian Shepherd mix steadfastly guarding the little that remained. “You are the best dog,” she told Madison. (Washington Post)
• A feast for your eyes. An Orthodox Easter, a Korean reunion, and a flood rescue in North Carolina—check out some of the most hopeful images from 2018. (The Atlantic)

We want to hear from you! Let us know your favorite Recharge-style story and why—whether it was about someone helping others, justice prevailing, or an action that inspired you. Even better: Tell us about something you did as a result of these stories. Email me at recharge@motherjones.com or fill out the form below.

An Iranian family at the Haskell library on the US-Canada border. Courtesy of Yeganeh Torbati/Reuters

For many immigrants affected by the Trump administration’s travel ban, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a library straddling the US-Canada border, has become an unlikely haven. Families can meet there without risking being detained or prevented from returning to the US.

“This is a neutral area,” says Sina Dadsetan, an Iranian living in Canada who traveled to the library on the Quebec-Vermont border to meet his sister, who lives in the United States.

The library has separate parking lots in each nation, but just one entrance.

“You don’t need your passport. You park on your side, I’ll park on my side, but we’re all going to walk in the same door,” former library board member Susan Granfors told Reuters.

For Iranian student Shirin Estahbanati, the six-hour drive north from New York City was the first opportunity she had to see her parents in almost three years.

“The time I was just hugging my parents,” Estahbanati told Reuters, “I was thinking, I wish I could stop all clocks all over the world.”

Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. Sign up at the bottom of the story. 

• The pleasures of public libraries. BuzzFeed asked its readers how libraries have improved their lives—and collected 26 heartwarming responses. “If I couldn’t feed my bank account, I settled on feeding my mind,” wrote one reader. “Books helped me feel a bit less lonely,” said another. (BuzzFeed News)
• Giving away a windfall. Outdoor clothing company Patagonia said it is taking the extra $10 million it received from the Trump administration’s “irresponsible” tax cut and donating it to environmental groups. “Our home planet needs it more than we do,” Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario wrote in a LinkedIn post. The company already gives 1 percent of its sales to organizations that help preserve the world’s ecosystems. (The Hill)
• Soccer beats bullying. A crowdfunded campaign raised more than $200,000 for a 15-year-old Syrian refugee after a video of him being bullied went viral. The bully has been identified and ordered to appear in a youth court, while the goalkeeper of the local soccer team invited the high schooler and his family to a match. (New York Times)

• Girls can rock basketball sneakers, too. Nine-year-old Riley Morrison wanted to buy a pair of Steph Curry’s famous sneakers, but when she couldn’t find them in the girl’s section on the Under Armour website, Morrison wrote a letter to the Golden State Warriors star. “I hope you can work with Under Armour to change this because girls want to rock the Curry 5’s too,” wrote Morrison. Curry replied in a tweet and told her they were “correcting” the oversight and asked her to come to Oakland on March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day with him.

  Thanks to reader Sree Sreenivasan for suggesting this story. (CBS News)

• Fixes from the heart. Here are 14 of the best problem-solving stories this year from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit which promotes solutions-based reporting. One such eye-opener: How health clinics in rural Kenya draw in notoriously reticent nomadic herders for checkups by caring for their animals. (Solutions Journalism Network)

We want to hear from you! Let us know your favorite Recharge-style story and why—whether it was about someone helping others, justice prevailing, or an action that inspired you. Even better: Tell us about something you did as a result of these stories. We’re planning our end-of-year column and would love to feature your ideas. Email me at recharge@motherjones.com or fill out the form below.