Sara Soderstrom

Mark and Melissa lie peacefully at the center of our state and our hearts today. Their memorial, guarded by service dogs and men and women in uniform, casts a momentary shadow over L'Étoile du Nord as we honor their life’s work to make Minnesota shine brighter for all.

The United States Is About to Embark on a Terrifying Experiment in Mass Statelessness This scenario, until recently, might have read like a dystopian projection. But after the court’s decision on Friday, it is no longer hypothetical.

"For the child born this summer in Texas, whose parents receive no documents, whose name never appears in any system, and who grows up asking why she can’t go on field trips, apply for scholarships, or open a bank account, the consequences are not legal theory. They are her life."

This cannot be overstated, and I suspect private industry is underestimating how much it will lose in this equation over the long term.

Long term private profit stands on the shoulders of giants just as much as foundational science for the public good does.

So let me get this straight: masks are bad and un-American if worn to fight a pandemic, but good if worn by people claiming to be government agents when they kidnap people off the street

The cost of Grok: "I can't breathe at home, it smells like gas outside. How come I can't breathe at home and y'all get to breathe at home?"

And Ono is out! Let’s see who ends up next…

I remember in 1989 when our basketball coach announced he was leaving after the NCAAs and was told “Nope. You’re out now.” It’s time for Ono to be told that. Let’s have someone as interim who is reflecting Michigan values, fighting for us, and advocating for higher ed. We don’t need to wait.

E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program

Brilliant to eliminate Energy Star, a program that costs $32m but delivered $40b in annual savings. None other than the US chamber of commerce tried to save it as a model of business/government partnership. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/c...

Opinion: Santa Ono Flees for Florida He might be better suited to red-state politics.

"As previously honored norms of shared governance are eroding, university leaders increasingly refuse to even talk to faculty anymore, preferring to govern by decree, by badly written email, and, now, by op-ed."
www.chronicle.com/article/sant...

Opinion | Head Start is government that works. No wonder the Trump administration wants to get rid of it. The gutting of Head Start would force vulnerable people to labor in more difficult or demeaning conditions for the benefit of the privileged.

Why is the administration trying to get rid of Head Start?

Because it challenges their narrative of waste, fraud, and abuse. And because it gets in the way of their efforts to trap people in precarity and make them easier to exploit.

My latest for @msnbc.com:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

U.S. Texts Barnard Employees and Asks if They Are Jewish A questionnaire from a federal commission also inquired about whether professors and other college staff members had been harassed.

Ah yes, the government asking Jews to register as Jewish, in the name of protecting the Jews. No way that could go wrong www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/n...

A few thoughts on the day, regarding the op/ed: If you haven't read it, its here: t.co/uonKEbl17p

Yes, Your Friends and Neighbors Want to Talk to You About Climate Change • The Revelator Really, they do — they just don’t think you want to talk about it. So stop being afraid of pushback, break the “climate silence,” and start a conversation.

@therevelator.org: “Yes, Your Friends and Neighbors Want to Talk to You About Climate Change”
By @johnrplatt.bsky.social

Really, they do — they just don’t think you want to talk about it. So stop being afraid of pushback, break the “climate silence,” and start a conversation. #The89Percent

My PhD student's NSF grant was terminated today. Her dissertation investigates why air pollution monitoring, metrics, and regulations don't properly capture the harms experienced by marginalized communities--esp in the most polluted Detroit neighborhoods. She and I are happy to talk with press etc.

Browsing articles on AI and environmental justice (across all disciplines). So many of them are like "how to use AI to achieve environmental justice," and totally miss the point that AI is the environmental injustice.

The NYT wants you to think universities became dependent on government. This is false.

The government invested in the national research infrastructure by competitive grants to universities. The taxpayers built this. It got us to the moon. Won the Cold War. Created Silicon Valley. Made the McRib.

Personally, I think it should be front page news for at least a month if a sitting US President is using falsified evidence to try and deny due process to a man who has committed no crime, but that’s just me

How Universities Became So Dependent on the Federal Government For decades, universities got billions in federal dollars for research. The relationship was mutually beneficial, until President Trump decided it wasn’t.

There are so many ways one could provide context for this data.

For example, in the last five years universities have received 52-55% of their research funding from the federal government. That's the lowest percentage since the 1950s. 1/x ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/high...

This is the policy process in a Trump White House.

Rival factions jockey for access to the Oval, race to get POTUS to run their thing up the flagpole publicly before another faction can shoot it down.

This is not a healthy policy process...

This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, setting up a possible Earth Day strike against organizations seen as sta...

White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some enviro nonprofits of tax-exempt status for Earth Day, by @jendlouhy.bsky.social & @akshatrathi.bsky.social

🎁 Gift Link: Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The Trump administration justifies a lot of their racism and transphobia through “protecting women from violence.”

But this is just another reminder that they’re pro-rape. And using rape victims as a shield is just another form of objectification.

'New Kind of Antisemitism': Jewish Students Slam Trump's Detention of Mohsen Mahdawi The Columbia student, a green card holder, was detained by ICE at his citizenship interview on Monday.

Jewish classmates of Mohsen Mahdawi speak out—

One, an IDF refuser, recalls how Mohsen met with Zionists, including those cruel to him—or how, while seeking to heal campus, he even expressed sympathy for administrators (the same who ignored his pleas for help).

"Most profound person I've ever met"

When Andrew Tate was charged with rape and human trafficking, Trump intervened to fly him back to the US.

When a working-class father of a disabled 5-year-old child was wrongfully deported and charged with NO crime, Trump refuses to lift a finger.

A tweet by Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25 ) reads: "He’s threatening media companies who are critical of him. He’s talking about sending Americans to foreign prisons. He’s signing executive orders to investigate former staff members who spoke out against him. Don’t you see what’s happening here?"

I see it. I have lived it. 83 years ago, the U.S. government turned upon a group of its own citizens and residents and sent them to internment camps without due process. I was there among them. American fascism is back. It is here. It is now.

With current border policies, it is unethical to continue holding so many important science conferences in the US. In addition to moving conferences to safer international locations, US organizers must reorganize meetings around remote participation.