Eddie Valentin

North Carolina Republicans announced today they’re going to pass a new congressional map to draw a Dem out of Congress; they already did last cycle, going from 7-7 to 10-4. Thus would be 11-3. t.co/XLJIhe8vZn

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the 94 million pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the #Trump administration’s cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

My latest video for @propublica.org.

yearly reminder to people insisting that we view Christopher Columbus as "a man of his time" that *the people responsible for the Spanish Inquisition* thought Columbus was out of pocket

How a new firm with DHS ties won a $915 million contract to help immigrants "self-deport" The “rushed” deal was handed to a firm with “no track record” as a federal contractor, a rival's lawsuit alleges.

The “rushed” deal was handed to a firm with “no track record” as a federal contractor, a rival’s lawsuit alleges.

Nate Silver @NateSilver538 • 5h •.° I'm just one person, and my programming needs are somewhat unusual (building various kinds of statistical forecasting models). But I'm just not seeing the consistent productivity gains from LLMs that I would have expected if you'd asked me 6 months ago.

AI has lost the dunce vote. It’s over

Volume 56 Issue 3 | Western Historical Quarterly | Oxford Academic The official journal of the Western History Association. Publishes original articles dealing with the North American West. Each issue contains reviews and notices of significant books, as well as rece...

Always a good day when a new issue of the Western Historical Quarterly drops 🗃️
academic.oup.com/whq/issue/56/3

Trump Administration Is Bringing Back Scores of C.D.C. Experts Fired in Error

The Trump administration on Saturday scrambled to rescind layoffs of hundreds of CDC scientists who were mistakenly fired on Friday night in what appeared to be a substantial procedural lapse.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

We're looking for TWO postdoctoral scholars in African American history and history of the Civil War era. Fellowships are for two years, and the anticipated start date is July 1, 2026. The deadline to apply is NOVEMBER 1!

Links in the replies below.

In a classroom with a number of attendees, Dr. Lucien Holness stands at a lectern speaking.

Congratulations to our faculty affiliate Lucien Holness for his presentation of "Juneteenth: The Commemoration and Celebration of Emancipation and the Making of Freedom" at the Central Pennsylvania Civil War round table on Tuesday!

Happy to announce that after my Lillian Smith bio comes out in Sept 2026, a new 10 year anniversary edition of #MasterlessMen - edited down with a new introduction - will debut spring 2027 (@CambridgeUP).

It will also have a new foreword by Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Hahn!!!

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the headline for this article should’ve been some version of this.

Sure would be nice to highlight Lost Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, too.

Congrats!

Printed copy of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis held by the author in the background

Look what came in the mail today, @uncpress.bsky.social @simpsonvos.bsky.social @profsommerville.bsky.social! 🗃️

SCOTUS Is About To Make Trump’s Dreams Come True From voting rights to trans rights, presidential powers and beyond, the new Supreme Court term is a win-win for the court’s conservatives, and Trump.

with @mjsdc.bsky.social and @imillhiser.bsky.social on the term ahead

'Very difficult situation': Kristi Noem whines locals not letting ICE agents use restrooms Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem complained that her agents were not being permitted to use restrooms in Chicago because of opposition from residents.During a Sunday interview on ...

Wow, it must be terrible being told that you can’t use the bathroom.

‘Bodies of Labor,’ Hearts of Hope A new Black History Museum exhibition explores experience through toil.

‘Bodies of Labor,’ Hearts of Hope: A new Black History Museum exhibition at Richmond's Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia explores experience through toil
richmondmagazine.com/arts-enterta...

Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system has deep flaws, Army memo says The much-needed modernization of the U.S. Army's battlefield communications network being undertaken by Anduril, Palantir and others is rife with "fundamental security" problems and vulnerabilities, and should be treated as a "very high risk," according to a recent internal Army memo.

“Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system 'very high risk,' US Army memo says” 10/3/25… 1/ www.reuters.com/business/aer...

I view today's decision as yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. This Court should have stayed its hand. Having opted instead to join the fray, the Court plainly mis- judges the irreparable harm and balance-of-the-equities factors by privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the sta- bility our Government has promised them. Because, re- spectfully, I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.

NEW: By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants.

KBJ, dissenting, says she "cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference" while "lives hang in the balance."
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Took two days off after submitting the final draft of my Robert Gould Shaw bio, but now I am back to work on my new book project, which is a study of the Gettysburg Campaign from the perspective of the thousands of enslaved laborers forced to travel with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Screenshot of a prompt from OneNote that shows I have to check a box to allow "experiences that analyze your content" to use online features for OneNote

Conveniently for Microsoft, one of those required changes involves granting permission to analyze my content. Cloud storage has been super nice and convenient, but I might have to revert to just storing things on my physical machine and external storage devices again.

So with this unexpected time off, I decided to go back to working on the book. About a year and a half ago, I switched to OneNote to store and organize my research notes. I recently discovered that I can't sync changes to OneDrive from the desktop OneNote app without changing my privacy settings.

Finishing a Ph.D. on slavery in early American or Atlantic history this year? Consider applying for the University of California's President's Postdoc program. I'd love to sponsor at applicant if working with me @ucsantacruz.bsky.social might be a good fit!
ppfp.ucop.edu/info/how-to-...

Local News Trump seems to back off Portland military plan: 'Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'

I have been haunted by this statement all day www.kgw.com/article/news...

Justice Anthony Kennedy tells @npr.org's @ninatotenberg.bsky.social "very worried" about our country, and that "Democracy is not guaranteed to survive."

Kennedy wrote Citizens United and was the fifth vote in the rest of the Roberts Court's anti-democratic decisions.

www.npr.org/2025/09/27/n...

Ms. Halligan, who took over on Monday after her predecessor quit rather than prosecute James B. Comey with what he believed was insufficient evidence, had a little trouble with the first two tasks. At one point, she entered the wrong courtroom. When she found the right one, she stood on the wrong side of the judge, then appeared confused about the paperwork she just had signed.

Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy

George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen's World War II combat pilots, dies at 100 Hardy, a lieutenant colonel, became the youngest Tuskegee fighter pilot at 19, and was among the first Black military pilots in the United States.

George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen's World War II combat pilots, dies at 100

Trump asks Supreme Court to decide whether he can end birthright citizenship | CNN Politics The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to review the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, pushing the issue before t...

Here we go:

www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/p...

Citizen historians document Smithsonian exhibits under White House scrutiny The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. It's a public-private trust that has long operated at arm's length from the White House, but now finds itself...

Proud of my colleagues! 🗃
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...