Eric Kelderman

What a “Melania” Cinematographer Hoped to Accomplish Dante Spinotti has had a legendary Hollywood career. Why is he making propaganda for the Trump family?

Proposing a new journalism term when an interview subject is "chotinered"

www.newyorker.com/culture/q-an...

Trump and His Team Have a Well-Worn Crisis Playbook. It Backfired in Minnesota. The president has called for a “de-escalation” and his advisers are rushing to limit the fallout from a shooting that killed a U.S. citizen.

President Trump rose to power following a simple creed in moments of crisis: Cede no ground, never admit mistakes and attack. Now he and his aides are rushing to limit political damage as they point fingers and shift strategy in Minnesota. on.wsj.com/3ZDxEzP

TROrder012826

BREAKING: Judge Patrick Schiltz cancels contempt hearing Friday where ICE chief Todd Lyons was to be forced to testify, but excoriates ICE for defying almost 100 court orders in last month. "ICE is not a law unto itself," Schiltz writes. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Is Columbia’s New President Up to the Task? Jennifer Mnookin, the chancellor of UW-Madison, will be the Ivy League institution’s fourth leader in less than four years.

If someone can lead a massive research university in a state with divided political control, they should be just fine at a somewhat smaller private institution. I would ask the title question if someone moved from Columbia to Wisconsin to take the helm, not the other way around.

Naturally, I’m on vacation when this drops…

U.S. Department of Education Announces Negotiated Rulemaking to Reform and Strengthen America’s Higher Education Accreditation System The Department today announced its intent to establish the Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization negotiated rulemaking committee to develop proposed regulations to reform accreditation.

Buckle up for another federal negotiated rulemaking session, this time on accreditation.

Watching America Unravel in Minneapolis

Lots of good insights in this piece.

“What was clear… were the limits of this performance of power. The agents had no capacity to maintain order or much interest in doing so. Their presence was a vector of chaos, and controlling it was not in their job description.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/m...

Your mom is still waiting for her prize for bringing you into the world :)

Since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process.

This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Timeline: How the Shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti Unfolded A moment-by-moment analysis of video from the scene shows that Mr. Pretti was already restrained when fatal shots were fired, which appears to contradict the federal government’s account of the event.

“Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Higher Ed’s Secret Provost Club In 10U, chief academic officers at private research universities gather, share ideas, and commiserate.

GOSSIP!

Chicago, Rochester, WashU, Dartmouth, MIT, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, and Case Western got a secret Provost club.

Gotta thread this

(lol stay true to you Dartmouth)

www.chronicle.com/article/high...

Denyce Graves sings her swan song on Met stage Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves is retiring from the stage after a last performance as Maria in the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, and looking ahead to directing and mentoring.

Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves is retiring from the stage after a last performance as Maria in the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, and looking ahead to directing and mentoring. n.pr/4aanwDN

Preschooler and three other students detained by ICE, school district leader says The detentions of Columbia Heights students come after weeks of heightened concern and enforcement presence near and on Twin Cities school property.

"Liam’s teacher, Ella Sullivan, teared up when thinking about Liam. 'He’s a bright young student,' she said, 'and he’s so kind and loving. His classmates miss him.'"

www.startribune.com/preschooler-...

A College Fired Its President. Now He’s Been Reinstated. Kevin James got his job back at Morris Brown College. But in a Tuesday statement, the board referenced ongoing workplace issues and said retaliation against whistleblowers would not be tolerated.

www.chronicle.com/article/morr...

The cognitive dissonance of constantly reading that I need to spend some time mastering generative AI while not knowing a single person in my industry who uses it to do good work 🤙

‘Morally acceptable’ for U.S. troops to disobey orders, archbishop says Timothy P. Broglio, who heads the Archdiocese for the U.S. Military Services, expressed concern at President Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland by force.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Archdiocese for the U.S. military services, says Trump’s threat to seize Greenland by force “tarnishes the image of the United States”; troops can refuse “immoral” orders. The former USCCB president is seen as a church conservative (Gift link)

wapo.st/45kMRJz

GOP’s Civics-Education Push Gets Boost With Millions From Trump’s NEH The U. of Texas at Austin, the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Ohio State U. will receive over $25 million as part of dozens of grants announced Thursday.

www.chronicle.com/article/gops...

The grants were among dozens announced Thursday by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which detailed $75 million allocated for 84 humanities projects in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

12 ways the Trump administration dismantled civil rights law and the foundations of inclusive democracy in its first year At its one-year mark, the Trump administration is dismantling the systems that once helped the US move toward a more open and equal democracy.

One year in, the Trump administration has rolled back civil rights enforcement wherever it could—removing Smithsonian exhibits, restoring Confederate monuments, and enabling employer discrimination, a law professor explains. buff.ly/UJJFsI9

Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw Will Republicans in Congress ever step in?

The message of Trump’s letter to the prime minister of Norway signals that the president “genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him,” @anneapplebaum.bsky.social argues.

The Game Is On — and Colleges Are Making Their Pitch Bowl-game TV ads were once all about rah-rah recruitment. Now they’re fighting to convey higher ed’s value to a restive public.

Can college football change Americans’ minds about higher ed? Bowl-game TV ads used to woo students and donors. Now they try to sell the public on the sector’s research prowess and community service.
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Shelter throws party for 80-pound dog who has lived there 4 years “It’s a celebration of this little guy’s tenacity,” said Debbie Duquette, who works at the shelter and is trying to help Percy get adopted.

Percy, a pit bull mix, was dumped at a shelter in Ohio in 2021. He’s been there since. After several unsuccessful social media campaigns, the shelter is employing a new approach: throwing him a “paw-ty” and inviting prospective adopters.

SAME!

New tariff just dropped.

Americans set to pay an additional 10% tax on all goods from Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

It starts in two weeks, rising to 25% by June.

(Aside: A trade war with one EU country is a trade war with the entire EU).

U.S. Department of Education Delays Involuntary Collections Amid Ongoing Student Loan Repayment Improvements ED announced that it will delay the implementation of involuntary collections on federal student loans, including Administrative Wage Garnishment and the Treasury Offset Program, to enable the Departm...

On the Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend, the Department of Education announces that borrowers will not have their wages or tax refunds garnished for being in default on their student loans. This could be driven by political considerations or difficulties in actually collecting funds.

A Small College Made Big Cuts. Now Some Are Being Reversed. In a Thursday message, Mary Baldwin University’s board said it was adding back four minors and four faculty lines after protests. Its president will resign for “family and personal reasons.”

www.chronicle.com/article/afte...

😳

Getting a lot of questions about how the Nats moving to MLB as a broadcast partner instead of MASN will affect fans. Tried to answer some of them here.

New U. of Michigan President’s Pay May Set a Record Kent Syverud’s base salary will top $2 million annually, more than any other campus leader as of 2024, according to <i>Chronicle</i> data.

www.chronicle.com/article/new-...

Enrollment Ticked Up 1% Last Fall, With Most of the Growth at Community Colleges The increase at public two-year colleges chiefly came from certificate and dual-enrollment programs.

www.chronicle.com/article/enro...