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Major Good News Updates!!

Aaron Parnas Feb 15

Good morning, everyone. I want to start today with our good news update. I believe it’s important to keep this Sunday tradition going—because there is so much good in the world, even when it feels hard to find. I will have a regular news update for you this afternoon too.

I’d love for you to share one piece of good news from your own life this week in the comments so we can keep building this community together.

For me, this past week has been long—but incredibly meaningful. I just hit my one-year anniversary of being a full-time journalist. I still remember making that leap. It was the scariest decision I’ve ever made—walking away from stability, stepping out on my own without financial security or any guarantee that it would work. I was genuinely terrified. But because of your support, encouragement, and belief in what I’m building, it became real.

And as if that milestone wasn’t enough, last night I had my first long-form TV appearance on CNN’s Have I Got News For You. A year ago, I couldn’t have imagined this. Thank you for being part of the journey.

Thank you to everyone who supports this work with your time, your trust, and your heart. If you’re able, please consider subscribing so we can keep growing this positive, truth-driven community together.

Here’s the good news:

• Minnesota tow truck owner Juan Leon, who recently started Leo’s Towing, began noticing a pattern of abandoned vehicles left behind after ICE arrests during Operation Metro Storm. Realizing the hardship this created for families, he decided to help by returning the vehicles free of charge. Over the past four months, he has brought roughly 250 cars back to owners or their relatives, sometimes responding to family requests and other times tracking them down himself. Despite the high costs of operating and insuring a tow truck, he funds the effort through private donations and says the emotional reunions make the work worthwhile.

• After walking 2,300 miles barefoot over 15 weeks from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., 19 Theravada Buddhist monks arrived at the National Cathedral, drawing thousands who gathered in respectful silence to welcome their message of peace and compassion. Led by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, the monks practiced and taught Vipassana meditation along the journey, captivating millions online and inspiring large interfaith gatherings at venues including American University and the Lincoln Memorial.

• An 8-months pregnant woman in Martin County, Florida, survived a terrifying crash after becoming dizzy while driving on I-95 and veering into a pond, where her sinking car quickly began filling with water and trapping her inside. As she struggled to open the submerged doors, passing motorist Logan Hayes jumped into the water, reached the vehicle in time, and pulled her out through the back door before it went under.

• An unidentified neighbor in Arlington Heights, Illinois, has been hailed as a hero after using a sledgehammer to break into a burning home and rescue an 85-year-old wheelchair-bound woman trapped inside. The fire broke out on February 3rd, and while her 90-year-old husband managed to escape, he had to be restrained from reentering the house as flames spread and firefighters were en route. Acting quickly, the neighbor forced entry, carried the woman to safety, and helped ensure both residents were transported to the hospital and later discharged, with fire officials praising the resident’s swift, decisive action as a life-saving example of community courage.

• After Storm Goretti’s 110 mph winds blew a young endangered loggerhead sea turtle hundreds of miles off course, the “cold-stunned” reptile was found washed up on the Island of Jersey and taken to a local animal hospital, where veterinarians stabilized her with warmed seawater before determining she needed long-term care. To avoid the stress of a rough boat journey across the English Channel, Loganair granted the turtle—nicknamed Crush—a VIP seat on a flight to Southampton, England, from where she was transported to the SeaLife Centre in Weymouth for rehabilitation.

• Every February, visitors travel from across the UK and beyond to the small Wiltshire village of Lover—dubbed the world’s most romantic village—to send Valentine’s Day cards bearing its special postmark, with thousands of letters reaching recipients worldwide, even as far as Antarctica. What began as a small local tradition grew so popular that residents formed the Lover Community Trust a decade ago, and volunteers now process more than 10,000 cards annually, operate the Darling Café for tourists, and sell themed gifts, with proceeds funding community projects like renovating the Old School building into a community center.

• A major conservation victory in California’s Bay Area was secured when the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) purchased more than 6,100 acres of the 6,500-acre Sargent Ranch in southern Santa Clara County, ending a decade-long battle over a proposed 403-acre sand and gravel mine. The land, once sacred to the Amah Mutsun Indian Band and ecologically vital for species such as mountain lions, bald eagles, and steelhead trout, was acquired for over $63 million raised largely from private donors, with the remaining acreage expected to be conserved by late 2026.

• Scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), working with an Army Major, have developed a spray-on powder called AGCL that can seal life-threatening wounds in just one second by reacting with calcium in the blood to form a strong, adhesive hydrogel barrier. Designed for combat and disaster conditions, the powder absorbs more than seven times its weight in blood, withstands significant pressure, remains stable for up to two years in harsh environments, and is made from naturally derived, antibacterial materials such as alginate, gellan gum, and chitosan.

• New research reveals that the roughly 1,000 whiskers covering an elephant’s trunk have a unique stiffness gradient—stiff at the base and soft at the tip—that allows elephants to precisely detect where contact occurs along each whisker, enabling them to delicately manipulate objects as small as peanuts or as fragile as tortilla chips.

• At the 2025 Summer Deaflympics in Tokyo, organizers introduced innovative technology to make events more immersive for deaf and hearing spectators alike, including holographic smart glasses displaying athlete stats and real-time cues, and haptic feedback devices worn around the neck that translated judo throws, strikes, and crowd reactions into precise vibrations. Using sensors and microphones to capture impact data, the system allowed audiences to physically feel the power of judo slams on the tatami mat, creating a shared, visceral experience that enhanced accessibility and brought fans closer to the intensity of the competition.

• Ten months after a powerful wave swept Brenda Ogden’s custom-made titanium prosthetic leg into the North Sea—just one week after she received it and moments before her first-ever ocean swim—the 69-year-old former nurse was astonished to learn it had washed back onto a beach in Hornsea, East Yorkshire, where it was discovered by fossil hunter Elizabeth Forbes. Ogden, who had waited over a year for the $2,000 blade-style prosthesis following a below-the-knee amputation from a car crash, had given up hope of ever seeing it again and described mourning the loss as if she had “lost a part” of herself.

• New archaeological research suggests that nutrient-rich seabird guano was a key driver behind the prosperity of the Chincha Kingdom, a powerful pre-Incan coastal society in Peru, by dramatically boosting maize production in one of the driest regions on Earth. Analysis of 35 maize samples from burial sites revealed unusually high nitrogen levels consistent with guano fertilization, likely sourced from the nearby Chincha Islands, while artwork depicting seabirds, fish, and maize indicates the fertilizer also held cultural significance.

• Scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a promising vaccine candidate for the highly fatal Nipah virus—an often deadly disease with mortality rates between 40% and 75% that spreads from bats to humans and can transmit through bodily fluids—by inserting Nipah genetic material into a modified measles vaccine platform.

• India has doubled its wild tiger population since 2006, reaching more than 3,600 tigers by 2018 and accounting for roughly 75 percent of the global total, driven by expanded protected habitat, nationwide monitoring across 20 states, stronger conservation policies and the international Tx2 initiative, even as the country balances rapid human population growth and human-wildlife conflict.

• During a brutal Midwest cold snap with temperatures plunging to -19°F, Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary in Green Bay, Wisconsin, opened its doors to people turned away from overcrowded homeless warming shelters, offering couches, heat, Wi-Fi and companionship from its special-needs cats to help protect vulnerable residents from life-threatening conditions.

• The green and golden bell frog, once wiped out in Australia’s capital region by chytrid fungus, is being reintroduced around Canberra after captive breeding and immunization efforts, with scientists deploying specially built “frog saunas” and warm, slightly saline “frog spas” to create fungus-killing conditions that help the endangered amphibians survive and rebuild wild populations.

• Toronto’s Don River, once so polluted it caught fire and was declared biologically dead in 1969, has rebounded after a CAD$1 billion restoration that re-naturalized its course, rebuilt wetlands and added climate-resilient infrastructure, with surveys now documenting more than 20 fish species including Atlantic salmon, walleye, northern pike and largemouth bass thriving in the revitalized waterway.

• Two original 1903 watercolor illustrations created by twin artists Edward and Charles Maurice Detmold for a deluxe edition of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book were rediscovered hanging unnoticed for decades in a London family home, bringing the number of known surviving originals to just six out of the original sixteen. The paintings, depicting Mowgli with Bagheera and the Bandar-log’s “Cold Lairs,” were commissioned by Macmillan & Co. and published in a limited portfolio of 500 copies, many of which were later broken up for framing, making complete sets extremely rare.

See you soon.

— Aaron