Zenith City Indivisible News

2026-07-12

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

Say his name

"ICE officers in an unmarked car shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three, on his way to work. We demand justice for Lorenzo and accountability for all of Trump’s thugs."
— Indivisible

Remembering John Lewis

"Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part."
— John Lewis

"Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America."
— John Lewis

Contents

Upcoming Events ^

Unhappy Happy Hour

Zenith City Indivisible New opportunity!!

When:
July 16, 4:00–6:00pm
Where:
Duluth Tap Exchange
1905 W Superior St
Duluth, MN

Join Zenith City Indivisible for an Unhappy Happy Hour on Thursday, July 16th at Duluth Tap Exchange. A time to unwind and find common ground with people in our community. Find out how you can take action to bring about change, or share what you have been doing locally to move forward. Bring a friend!

Learn more

Charlie Berens & Data Center Awareness Event

Comedy & Information

When:
July 14, 6:00–8:00pm
Where:
Harbor Side Convention Center (DECC)
Duluth, MN

Stop the Hermantown Data Center is pleased and honored to host Charlie Berens and expert panelists from MN and WI on Tuesday, July 14th from 6-8 pm at the DECC's Harbor Side Convention Center in Duluth. Please join us for a night of AI Data Center awareness and comedy! Reserve your seat now.

Learn more

Election Protection Tabletop Workshop

Duluth Indivisible hosts the Groundworks Institute

When:
July 25, 9:30am–12:30pm
Where:
Radisson Hotel Duluth — Harborview Great Hall
505 West Superior Street
Duluth, MN

Come work through scenarios generated in conjunction with the offices of the Minnesota Secretary of State and Attorney General about possible disruptions in our upcoming elections, and what we as a community can do to be prepared. This workshop is meant to calm our minds by thinking through concrete examples together regarding our upcoming elections. If something untoward happens, we’re executing a plan, not trying to create and execute at the same time. It’s a long road from voter registration to election certification and for most of us it has operated in the background our whole voting lives. This year, 2026, is different.

Register
Learn more about Groundworks
Learn more about Duluth Indivisible

Concerts and Cider for Canoe Country

Save the Boundary Waters

When:
July 25, 2:00–8:00pm
Where:
Duluth Cider
Duluth, MN

Join Save the BWCA and other local conservation groups at Duluth Cider on July 25th. From 2:00 - 8:00pm, come visit with us and listen to live music on the patio!

Learn more

Indivisible for Peggy Flanagan

Indivisible U.S. Senate Phone Bank Series

When:
Jul 27–Aug 10, 5:30–7:30 CT
Where:
Anywhere

We’ll be telling voters all about this exciting candidate and why they should be voting to send Peggy to represent them in DC. Help make calls to voters in Minnesota, and let’s send a real fighter for families and a defender of democracy to the Senate!

A short phonebanking training will be included at the beginning of each phonebank, so both first-time dialers and phonebank pros are welcome to join. Be sure to have both a computer and a phone so that you can make calls to voters.

Learn more

MN Primary Election

Voting open now!

When:
August 11

A primary election determines which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election

Learn more
What's on my ballot?

Ongoing Events ^

Bridge Brigade Fridays

When:
Fridays, 4:00–5:00pm
Where:
35W Overpasses
Bridge at 25th Street East
(park behind Perkins)

Visibility politics is the new happy hour!

Grab a friend and join us at one of our Bridge Brigade pedestrian overpasses on Friday afternoons, 4-5 PM.

We will be waving signs and flags to raise awareness about current issues.

Bring signs if you have them, don't worry if you don't. Wear sturdy shoes!

poster for event

Tuesday at the Coppertop

When
Every Tuesday, 4:30–6:00pm
Where
Coppertop Church intersection

Immigrant Solidarity Protest

When
Every Wednesday, 12:00–1:00pm
Where
60th Ave E & Superior Street

Women in Black Gaza Vigil

When
Every Sunday, 12:00–1:00pm
Where
Belknap & Tower, Superior WI

Other event calendars

Search for actions near Duluth

Mobilize

Strategy & Action ^

ACLU Know Your Voting Rights

Good Trouble Lives On

When:
July 13, 7:00pm CT
Where:
Online

We’re honoring the courage, sacrifice, and struggle of those who came before us by protecting and defending our right to vote.

This training will break down how to exercise your right to vote, including how to resist voter intimidation efforts and access assistance at the polls.

Learn more

ACLU People Power

Organize during August recess

When:
July 14, 7:00pm CT
Where:
Online

For months, members of Congress have been making decisions in Washington that affect our rights, our communities, and our futures. Now they're coming home. During August Recess, lawmakers return to their districts to meet with constituents, attend community events, and hear directly from the people they represent. Join ACLU People Power on 7/14 at 8 PM ET to learn how to engage your elected officials, hold them accountable, and advocate for the civil liberties and democratic values our communities deserve.

Learn more
Watch recording of SCOTUS training

Justice for Lorenzo

Day of Action & Accountability Movement Call

When:
July 15, 7:00pm CT
Where:
Online

Join us for the Justice for Lorenzo: Day of Action and Accountability Movement Call on July 15th at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT, where we will gather in solidarity to hear from Lorenzo’s loved ones, get updates about the case, and learn how you can take action over the coming weeks to demand justice and accountability for Lorenzo and his family.

On the call we will provide tips and tactics to support you in taking actions that include a powerful visual symbol to lift up during the World Cup final (Lorenzo’s son was named Ronaldo after the soccer star) and vigils to be held across the country on or around July 25 in solidarity with community vigils taking place right now in Houston and across Texas.

The violence that took Lorenzo's life cannot be hidden behind secrecy, lies, or impunity. Justice for Lorenzo means justice for everyone living under the threat of unchecked immigration enforcement violence in our country.

Learn more

Election Protection Tabletop Workshop

Duluth Indivisible hosts the Groundworks Institute

When:
July 25, 9:30am–12:30pm
Where:
Radisson Hotel Duluth — Harborview Great Hall
505 West Superior Street
Duluth, MN

Come work through scenarios generated in conjunction with the offices of the Minnesota Secretary of State and Attorney General about possible disruptions in our upcoming elections, and what we as a community can do to be prepared. This workshop is meant to calm our minds by thinking through concrete examples together regarding our upcoming elections. If something untoward happens, we’re executing a plan, not trying to create and execute at the same time. It’s a long road from voter registration to election certification and for most of us it has operated in the background our whole voting lives. This year, 2026, is different.

Register
Learn more about Groundworks
Learn more about Duluth Indivisible

Immigrant Justice Summer

a training series from Indivisible

When:
July [9], 23, & August 6 (& more), 7:00 CT
Where:
Online

The Trump administration is buying up warehouses across the country to expand its detention and deportation regime while planning for more militarized surges in major US cities. The threat is escalating. This resource breaks down what we're demanding, how communities are fighting back, and how you can get trained to respond when ICE comes to your community.

Learn more
Register
Session #1 recording
Session #1 slides
Session #1 workbook

Neighbor2Neighbor

Indivisible

We're going all in to help Peggy Flanagan win her Senate primary, and last week we launched our Neighbor2Neighbor canvassing tool statewide in Minnesota.

Neighbor2Neighbor (N2N) is our revolutionary voter contact program that makes getting out the vote quick and easy. There's no app to download. No need for fancy tech. Just complete the signup form and we'll connect you with 10 likely progressive neighbors who may need a reminder to vote.

Then, you can knock on doors whenever is most convenient for you.

People who hear from a trusted neighbor are up to two times more likely to vote than those who don't. The key to turnout-and the success of our Neighbor2Neighbor program-is connecting on a personal level with those we live closest to.

Sign up

Beyond the BWCA: Sulfide Mining Looming Threat to Minnesota

with Water Over Nickel, Friends of the Mississippi River, and Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA)

When:
July 28, 12:00pm
Where:
Online

"Talon Metals/Rio Tinto plans to mine a 'massive sulphide mineralization' with high levels of sulfide and toxic metals. Drilling in the huge 31,000 acre area where Talon controls private land and state leases (about 85% of the size of Minneapolis) controlled by Talon Metals in central Minnesota’s Aitkin County, Talon has already found sulfide ore both in the Sandy River and Tamarack River watershed, which flow through the Big Sandy Lake Flowage to the Mississippi River and along the West Branch Kettle River, which flows downstream to the St. Croix River."

Read on
Register
Learn more

Upcoming

  • August 5: DNR Public Meeting McGregor High School
  • August 12: DNR Public Meeting Blaine Sports Arena

Building Trust with Community Works

from the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative (RUBI)

When:
July 22, 5:30 CT
Where:
Online

Find out how to get involved in RUBI’s on-the-ground work to build trust, address concrete local needs, and increase collaboration across the ideological divide in rural and working class communities.

Register
Learn more about Community Works

What Physics Tells Us About Defeating Fascism

The rules apply everywhere

"When you excite an atom, it transfers energy to the atoms around it. It doesn’t use Roberts Rules of Order, coordinate with the receiving atoms, or need a central command structure telling it which direction to move. Energy transfers through matter according to laws that predate every government that has ever existed and will outlast every government that will ever exist. An atom moves around more, that creates what we call heat, sufficient heat applied to any system then produces changes that system; movement and time are the only variables.

"Every person who files a complaint, makes a call, sends a letter, shows up at an office, crashes a fundraiser, or loudly shows up somewhere they were not expected is an atom now excited and generating energy. They transfer energy to the people immediately around them, those people transfer it further, their actions can even become amplified, this movement and energy generates heat. Heat softens and melts and allows reformation."

Read on

The Blueprint for Beating Trump

"Democrats need to fight harder and prioritize outcomes to defeat Republicans"

"Marc Elias sits down with Brian Tyler Cohen to discuss his new book, "The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World," which makes the case that Democrats need to fight harder and prioritize outcomes over institutional deference to defeat Republicans. They break down the Supreme Court's latest term and the case for court reform, but also dig into the bigger argument: that clinging to norms like the filibuster risks squandering a rare chance to win back disillusioned voters. Brian lays out what he believes Democrats need to be ready to act on from day one, including voting rights reform and election integrity. They also break down how independent media is reshaping political strategy heading into the midterms."

Watch now

Beyond Red and Blue

Nine groups show the conflicting values underlying today’s polarized politics

"American politics is deeply divided along partisan lines – and for many Americans, the choice between the two parties feels stark, even existential.

"But beneath that familiar red-blue partisan divide is a much more nuanced picture: Many Americans hold a complex mix of values and beliefs that don’t always fit neatly into either major party.

"Pew Research Center’s new political typology shows how this complexity plays out, sorting the public into nine distinct groups based on their political and cultural values, not their party. The result is a picture of American politics with far more than two colors in it."

Read on

The Rhythm of Reform

In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense...

"Today our Constitution and the institutions of self-government face extraordinary pressure. In the first two months of 2026 alone, we saw an invasion of Venezuela without congressional authorization, a threat to use military force to seize Greenland from a NATO ally, and a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve Board, which Powell decried as an attempt to coerce the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates. We saw the sickening sight of federal agents killing two civilians in Minnesota in separate incidents, including, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Veterans Administration who was witnessing and protesting abuse, followed by a fusillade of lies from top officials who labeled him a “domestic terrorist” and “an assassin.” These events unfolded alongside the launch of a full-scale war in the Middle East, undertaken without congressional debate or authorization and with scant public explanation at all.

"As Canadian prime minister Mark Carney put it in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, “[w]e are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”

"At the Brennan Center for Justice, which I lead, we work to counter abuses of power every day. We are deeply engaged in the broad campaign to counter the executive power grab, including filing or coordinating dozens of briefs in the flotilla of cases addressing executive authority. We are preparing to ensure that the 2026 election will be free, fair, and secure. In that effort, we work with election officials and law enforcement officers from both parties. We do so in the face of something unprecedented in our nation’s history: a coordinated campaign by the federal government to undermine elections.

"All of this is vital work. But that cannot be all that we do. We must begin, now, to imagine a better future—a future after the wreckage. What will matter most at this moment is not just what we are against, but what we are for.

"It is emphatically the time to begin mapping out the next reform agenda."

Read on

Hands Off Our Vote 2026

Hands Off Our Vote is Indivisible’s national program to ensure all eligible voters get to cast their ballot, and that those ballots get counted

"We know that Trump and his Big Lie cronies are plotting to do everything they can to undermine our elections in 2026. Whether it’s trying to end mail-in voting, targeting registration programs, blocking vote-counting, even trying to ban states from encouraging people to vote – it’s going to be no-holds-barred from them this year as they try desperately to block the free and fair elections.

"But we’re going to cut through the noise, and we’re going to be ready for whatever dirty tricks they try. And we’re going to do it with community power and preparation, not panic."

Learn more

5calls

Pick an action & make a call

Act now

Write Postcards to Swing States

Progressive Turnout Project

Sign up for our Get Out the Vote postcards. We'll send you the postcards for free, along with voter lists and instructions with proven message options. You will need to provide the Postcard Stamps (currently $0.61). All the mailing dates for these postcards are in October.

Learn more

Be a Walking Voter Registration Booth

Talk to neighbors, friends, family, co-workers — Make sure everyone has a plan to vote.

We have business-size cards you can print & distribute. Download & print on your own, send a digital version to your contacts, or arrange for us to get you already-printed cards.

Once you have a card in hand you can help people you encounter use a handy QR code to get straight to an online voter registration portal.

poster for event

poster for event

Download (pdf)
Website from side 1
Website from side 2
Other voting resources

Organizing to Protect Democracy

Recorded training from the ACLU

In a moment when our right to vote is facing relentless attacks, understanding how elections work has never been more important. Now, we have the electoral knowledge and skills to be active in protecting our democracy.

Watch now

Journalism Matters ^

Witness (& the power of the humble hyperlink in the midst of AI search-summary slop)

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

‘He did not deserve to die’: family of man fatally shot by ICE agent speaks out

"ICE officers in an unmarked car shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three, on his way to work. We demand justice for Lorenzo and accountability for all of Trump’s thugs."
— Indivisible

"Salgado, 52, was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official on Tuesday morning, while on his way to work at a construction site. Salgado’s family said he was a “hardworking family man”, had lived in the US for more than 30 years"

Read on
Read more
Read more
Artists respond

New terrifying levels

10 people fatally shot by immigration officials in Trump’s second term

"Early on Tuesday morning, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo took his coffee and a meal his wife had prepared for him, said goodbye to his dog, and left the house he built. He drove his white van, picked up three co-workers, and headed towards a construction site to work on some houses.

"Salgado’s death marks the 10th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials nationwide since the second Trump administration took office, a review of public reports by the Guardian shows, as the Trump administration continues with its anti-immigrant crackdown.

"The homeland security department has been grappling with its agencies’ involvement in high-profile deaths in the past year. Last month, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights released a report calculating that in the first 500 days of Trump’s second administration, 52 people died in ICE custody. The United Nations high commissioner for human rights has raised alarm about the increasing number of deaths in US government immigration custody."

Read on

Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members

The firings leave the federal election agency with no commissioners & unable to act as Trump seeks to reshape voting rules

"The firings leave the four-member commission with no commissioners, meaning it cannot take official action until new members are installed. They also come days after the Supreme Court granted the president power to fire leaders of independent agencies, weakening a legal framework that for decades had insulated bipartisan federal commissions from direct White House control."

Read on

Pod Save Patriarchy

or Whatever That Sorry Platner Spectacle Was

"For at least a decade we have been told that this and that and the other thing must be tolerated in pursuit of the elusive vote of the working class or the white working class which often means the white male working class which becomes in turn a way that "working class" is too often used by middle-class pundits and politicians to justify centering the needs, desires, and prejudices of white men while insisting that this is a very progressive position to take. In other words, "working class" becomes a Trojan horse for white men.

"On the one hand most of those in the USA who could be described as working class are neither white nor male, and on the other those who are telling us that the Hunt for the Working Class must take priority over all else tend to be middle-class white men when they're telling us we must give up our commitment to other issues – women's rights, racial justice, immigrant rights, climate action. There is immense condescension in their imagined Working Class White Man whose prejudices must be pandered to, and of course those prejudices are their own or at least something they're willing to accept. (There's also a lot of nostalgia in this version of the working class, an image of that class as masculine manual laborers of the industrial variety when a lot of the working class in our fairly post-industrial nation is disproportionately people of color doing pink-collar women's work, casual and gig-economy labor, urban workers, janitors, and farmworkers.)

"As sociologist and New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom put it last October, "Their rhetoric — and the conventional wisdom that flows from it — suggests that we cannot talk about economic solutions without abandoning our commitment to the Black, Latino, gay, transgender and female poor that are the lifeblood of the Democratic Party’s base. The conceit at the heart of that belief is that poor white people are too racist, and too uniquely ignorant of their racism, to vote in their best interests. Therefore, Democrats have to accept a little racism to win the working class." Cottom is a Black woman; Black women are the single most loyal constituency of the party, the ones who vote for it in the highest numbers, but I have never heard similar arguments about how we must bend to their needs no matter what. She continues, "Our culture is built to eternally forgive men, generally, and white men of means, especially, for their mistakes. Every single time, they were young and immature and it would be a shame to hold them accountable for anything they did wrong."

Read on

Graham Platner Must Go

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is proof positive that we need not tolerate such abuses in order to get politicians with working-class backgrounds that stay in touch with their roots"

"But it is not merely because he allegedly committed these crimes, it is because the entire mythology built up around him represents a danger to the small-d democratic movement. We will not defeat fascism by propping up the men who act as its mercenaries and collect their payment in entitlement over the lives and bodies of others. We need a diverse coalition; it will be messy, conflicted, and made of imperfect people with imperfect histories or imperfect politics; but there must, in the final analysis, be a line drawn on who we give power to. We can welcome the vote of Graham Platner the citizen, in the privacy of the ballot box, without arguing he is entitled to become one of the world’s most powerful lawmakers. In a nation of some 340 million people, we can surely do better.

"...it is profoundly insulting to armies of working-class Americans who have not committed rape, domestic violence, gotten Nazi tattoos, or posted bigoted screeds online, to suggest that such things define their class—and that acceptance of them is the only path that will connect them to high office. If nothing else, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is proof positive that we need not tolerate such abuses in order to get politicians with working-class backgrounds that stay in touch with their roots."

Read on

Red state? Blue state?

Here are the races that will likely determine party control at the Minnesota Legislature

"The largest district in surface area could be the most competitive. District 3 spans 14,809 square miles, slicing across the Duluth suburbs and Iron Range and bubbling over with debates over data centers, guns and mining.

"The Senate race is a rematch of the 2022 contest when DFLer Grant Hauschild eked by Republican Andrea Zupancich with just less than 51% of the vote."

Read on

Wall Street Wants to Change the Rules for Your 401(k).

It Could Put Your Retirement at Risk

"Financial firms want a bigger piece of the $10 trillion in America’s 401(k) plans, and the Trump administration is planning a regulatory rollback to encourage less-regulated — and often riskier — investments."

Read on

Inspiration ^

Remembering Congressman John Lewis

Good Trouble Lives On

"A civil rights icon and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Lewis of Georgia was a freedom fighter for more than 60 years. Called one of the most courageous activists the Civil Rights Movement ever produced, he dedicated his life to protecting human rights, securing civil liberties and building what he called the 'beloved community' in America."

Learn more
Mass Call: How to Make Good Trouble

Cloquet man named Bush Fellow for Ojibwe language preservation

"When Alex Kmett first became interested in learning his ancestral language of Ojibwe as a teenager, he didn’t have the resources available now.

"Twenty years later, Ojibwe language preservation efforts have been made both nationally and locally, such as the Ojibwe-language version of “Star Wars” and the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Ojibwe Language program. However, Kmett hopes to continue to strengthen language revitalization efforts."

Read on
Bush Foundation announcement

Follow us on Bluesky

for News & Calls to Action

We post breaking news, opportunities & calls to action on bluesky. You don't need an account to read our posts.

See more on bluesky