What Happened Was...

A lightning fast comprehensive recap of the week's biggest events for Jan. 9th - 15th, 2023

US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) departs from his office for a series of votes in the U.S. Capitol Building on January 09, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/via Getty Images)

Below is a catch-up of the significant events of this past week. You can check in with a minimal time commitment, read about the big stuff, and stay in the know before we’re on to the next. If you want more information on the past week's events, you might want to scroll through my Twitter feed for more detail on other topics I don’t mention below.

I have set up accounts with the handle @girlsreallyrule at Counter Social and Post Social and am confirmed at Mastodon. You can still find me full-time on Twitter, and I will post all of my SHERO newsletter articles on all four of these platforms.

Gun Violence This Week

There were seven separate mass shooting incidents in the US last week, where six people were killed and 23 were injured. I document all mass shooting incidents for the week every Sunday, so please take a moment to review them and remember to keep up the fight for sensible gun reform. 

1. Sunday, January 8, 2023: Albany, Georgia

2. Sunday, January 8, 2023: Minneapolis, Minnesota

3. Monday, January 9, 2023: Minneapolis, Minnesota

4. Monday, January 9, 2023: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

5. Monday, January 9, 2023: Denver, Colorado

6. Friday, January 13, 2023: Cleveland, Ohio

7. Saturday, January 14, 2023: St. Louis, Missouri

• Fun fact: The House of Representatives is set to have more members of Congress named "Mike" than women serving as committee chairs under the new Republican majority.

  Amee-Hakeem Jeffries is the man-Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule

  Pretty sure @BadLipReading is the only thing that will get us through this 118th Congress.

• The Heritage Foundation spent more than $5 million on lobbying in 2021, as it worked to block federal voting rights legislation and advance an ambitious plan for voter suppression measures in battleground states.

• The world’s oceans were the hottest ever recorded in 2022, demonstrating the profound and pervasive changes that human-caused emissions have made to the planet’s climate.