Christine Gorman

In Minneapolis, clergy mobilize to manage expected ICE raids targeting Somali immigrants (RNS) — Preparing for ICE agents' presence in the city, an interfaith coalition shared best practices for dealing with law enforcement at houses of worship.

Via @fiona-ndre.bsky.social and @ulaakuzi.bsky.social: In Minneapolis, clergy mobilize to manage expected ICE raids targeting Somali immigrants —> religionnews.com/2025/12/04/i...

Sorry it has derailed your evening plans. But we count on you to explain why it's worse than it looks even at first glance.

As I have been lamenting for years, the clear erroneous standard for District Court findings of fact has been rendered null & void by this Court.
Justice Kagan in dissent:
“We are a higher court than the District Court, but we are not a better one when it comes to making such a fact-based decision.”

A Threat to Evidence-Based Vaccine Policy and Public Health Security at the FDA | NEJM Twelve former commissioners of the FDA express concern that the agency’s recent moves will undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure vaccine safety, effectiveness, and availability.

This is extraordinary. Prasad's memo was something else, but to have 12 former FDA commissioners get together so quickly and say what a threat it is...just wow. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... #medsky #vaccine #fda

Joint Statement from Lawmakers Slotkin, Kelly, Crow, Deluzio, Goodlander and Houlahan   - Senator Elissa Slotkin WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Representatives Jason Crow (D-CO-06), Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH-02), and Chrissy Houl...

www.slotkin.senate.gov/2025/11/20/j...

The Department of Health and Human Services is a disinformation op today.

Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.

Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.

Sedimentary block containing fossil leaves from the Clarkia Lake. The central leaf is reddish-brown, boat-shaped, and almost intact, surrounded by fragments of darker, almost black leaves. Photo: Dr. Yige Zhang.

A laurel leaf, newly excavated in the field, exhibiting its original autumnal red hue. Photo: Margret Steinthorsdottir and Helen K Coxall.

In Idaho's Clarkia fossil beds, ~15-million-yr-old leaves are sandwiched between rock. When exposed, the leaves momentarily retain their original colors—red, copper, sometimes even a chlorophyllic hue—before oxidizing and fading.

A sedimentary scrapbook. Reverse polaroids from Earth's deep past.

Chicago Presbytery issues call to action in face of ICE raids The Chicago Presbytery has released a powerful public statement and urgent call to action addressing the ongoing, federally sanctioned violence impacting communities across Chicago and its suburbs. Unanimously approved during the presbytery’s Nov. 18 meeting and published in both English and Spani...

Chicago Presbytery issues call to action in face of ICE raids

The presbytery seeks "creative action and stubborn hope" and vows to follow the lead of those bearing the brunt of the violence.

NEW: In his first interview since his arrest for protesting outside the Chicago-area ICE facility, @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social tells me he has "bruises all over my body."

Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...

First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, abolishes $1.78 million in medical debt for Hoosier families Congregation’s bicentennial celebration helps free more than 1,450 residents three counties from burdensome debt.

First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, abolishes $1.78 million in medical debt for Hoosier families

Congregation’s bicentennial celebration helps free more than 1,450 residents three counties from burdensome debt.

@pcusa.bsky.social

And right on schedule, I just received my first text asking for a donation from Jack Schlossberg. He only just announced he was running. Institutional Democrats really don’t understand what a huge turnoff that is.

Republicans have destroyed health care in our country. Millions will go without care, and people will die. Yet again, Republicans have shown their priorities begin and end with helping billionaires. Americans won't forget it the next time they go to the polls.

A good time to remember that the closest thing in the US to fully funded single payer healthcare

is the healthcare that members of Congress receive.

Rise up against this violation of First Amendment. If we can have prayer in public schools, we can have it on public streets.

Oh THIS First Amendment violation cannot stand. We’ve allowed prayer in public schools but not on public streets?

Religion note: The first plaintiff in this case pushing the Trump admin to fully fund SNAP benefits is the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.

By my count, that makes 62 religious organizations (including denominations!) that have been part of lawsuits against the Trump admin this year.

Please, please can we have an SNL skit? Writes itself.

ICE again prevents Chicago Catholics from bringing Eucharist to immigrant detainees More than 2,000 faithful gathered to pray outside the Broadview ICE Detention Center Nov. 1, but the group's main request — to bring Communion to detainees — was rejected by federal immigration offici...

After repeatedly requesting permission and following all the official guidelines, Catholic bishop, priests, sisters and lay people were refused permission to distribute Communion to migrants in ICE detention center, on All Saints Day. A religious freedom issue: www.ncronline.org/news/ice-aga...

'No help, no food, no water': Hurricane-hit Jamaican towns wait for aid Days after Hurricane Melissa hit, communities are isolated with little food, no water, and no idea of when normalcy will return.

Jamaica still needs help www.bbc.com/news/article...

Deep cuts made to CDC's flagship MMWR publication reversed hours later Deep cuts made to CDC's flagship MMWR publication have been reversed hours later.

Case in point: staff of Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, #CDC's critical information tool. Most MMWR staff were informed Friday they'd been RIF'd, leaving it unclear what the future of the publication would be. It appears these firings have been rescinded.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/11/c...

Absolutely agree.

More than 5,000 federal employees have received layoff notices. We’re working to ensure that the administration isn’t using state voter rolls to target registered Democrats for termination. More details soon.

Food pantry visits by military families are up over 30% since the #TrumpShutdown began. Our troops defend our country. They shouldn't have to worry about feeding their families because of Trump's political games. Fund our government. Pay our troops.

I cannot overstate what a huge loss this is to everyone in the country. State health officials are going to have to scramble to replace this on their own, and fast.

What??!!

Again, unclear how/if this interacts with the TRO handed down by a federal judge yesterday, which had a lot to say about how DHS agents were to treat journalists in the region: religionnews.com/2025/10/09/f...

“I extended my arms, palms outstretched toward the ICE officers, in a traditional Christian posture of prayer and blessing,” says the Rev. David Black (PCUSA). “Without any warning, and without any order or request that I and others disperse, I was suddenly fired upon by ICE officers.”

“I extended my arms, palms outstretched toward the ICE officers, in a traditional Christian posture of prayer and blessing,” says the Rev. David Black. “Without any warning, and without any order or request that I and others disperse, I was suddenly fired upon by ICE officers.”

I feel like a broken record, but I have to keep saying it over and over again: a farmer bailout won’t do much of anything because the market is gone. There will be no incentive to plant next year.

The bailout will help payoff farmer debt to the banks. That’s all.