Laura Helferstay

Just say no!

Based on the number of locals who seemed shocked that there was snow in the forecast today, I feel obligated to report that my 2 for 2 weather app is predicting more wintery stuff in Cville on Friday...

We also got Jimmy Carters! And I'm so mad that all the Christmas cards got snowflakes without my review.

No.

We were at a children's parade, sir

What is wrong with you!? By what mechanism do you intend to have the Republican House vote on this?? A "promise" 🙄🙄🙄

Primary all of them, man. Don't know what else to say.

An American Tail poster with lil ol mouse immigrant Fievel

It’s hard to believe but there was a cartoon about an immigrant mouse and it was seen as totally fine and not controversial and not woke because it was an aspirational and nice thing about America that people could come here and find a better life

I briefly explored Microsoft Lists for this in the online 365 environment. It's like Access lite. But it was frustrating enough that I gave up and made an Access database anyway that my Mac colleague simply can't use, so not a ringing endorsement.

This. The president can't extort corporations to pay essentially taxes to him personally so that he can use that money at his personal discretion to do government work.

CAN NOT leave Miyares in place

The UVA deal is linked below. I'll have more later, but it seems like this clause here (UVA agreeing to "internally" accept this really dubious DOJ guidance) as is the critical part.

federalinfo.virginia.edu/sites/federa...

To the University of Virginia community: On Monday of last week, Rector Rachel Sheridan and I shared a message with the community regarding the proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We were asked to provide comments on the proposal no later than October 20. Today, I sent the letter below to the Secretary of Education and to White House officials. The letter confirms our core values and commitments while expressing our view that federal research funding should be based on merit. I want to thank personally the Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, Student Council, and many other members of our community who expressed their opinions on the proposed Compact, through the online form we provided and other means. Your thoughtful feedback shows a profound care for the University and a strong commitment to its future. We will continue to work to strengthen free expression and free inquiry, protect academic freedom, ensure affordability , promote intellectual pluralism, and maintain institutional neutrality in an increasingly polarized world. I am grateful for your continued dedication to the University and I look forward to working with you on these vital projects. Paul Mahoney Interim President University of Virginia

October 17, 2025 The United States Department of Education Washington, DC 20202 Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, Thank you for your letter inviting comment on the proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We wholeheartedly agree that “American higher education is the envy of the world.” We also agree with many of the principles outlined in the Compact, including a fair and unbiased admissions process, an affordable and academically rigorous education, a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students, faculty, and staff in all aspects of university operations. Indeed, the University of Virginia leads in several of these areas and is committed to continuous improvement in all of them. We seek no special treatment in exchange for our pursuit of those foundational goals. The integrity of science and other academic work requires merit-based assessment of research and scholarship. A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education. Higher education faces significant challenges and has not always lived up to its highest ideals. We believe that the best path toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative conversation. We look forward to working together to develop alternative, lasting approaches to improving higher education. Sincerely yours, Paul Mahoney Interim President University of Virginia

UVA says no to the compact

If you're in Charlottesville, there's a rally against the compact this Friday at noon at the Rotunda!

Poster: Unite Against the Compact! Rally on Friday Oct 17 noon at the Rotunda.

This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States.

America is on the brink of martial law.

Do not be silent.

Trump’s proposed “compact” with the selected institutions “demands a near-complete surrender of core academic freedoms of the university.”

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

reminder that public comment signup for Thurday’s ACPS Board meeting opens at 8:30am tomorrow through a form on the Board’s website, if you would like to speak in support of Allison Spillman as she handles the disingenuous right wing campaign against her

for any UVA folks that follow me you should circulate this among your networks balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Resolution Opposing the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" WHEREAS the United States Secretary of Education has requested that the University of Virginia enter into a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”, and WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions antithetical to the mission and traditions of the University, and WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions which endanger the independence and integrity of the University, and WHEREAS the compact likely violates state and federal law, and infringes upon the constitutional rights of members of the University community, and WHEREAS the University of Virginia exemplifies American academic values of the highest standard, including universal right to free speech and the cultivation of academic freedom; therefore BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia firmly opposes this Compact as written and calls upon Interim President Mahoney and the Board of Visitors to also reject this Compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the University.

UVA Faculty Senate passed a resolution strongly opposing the Trump “Compact.” We, at least, remain committed to the historic values and mission of the university.

Purely from a pragmatic standpoint, letting people bleed out while you verify their citizenship is impractical

ACTION FOR ALBEMARLE CO residents: Do you think our teachers deserve a guaranteed lunch break? Or that when they retire, teachers s/b compensated for their *earned* unused sick days?

Email the school board-say you support our school staff:
schoolboard@k12albemarle.org
Info: tinyurl.com/AEABARGProp

Sorry, bud. It's always illness.

Cost of Trump's D.C. Occupation: $1.1M per day.

Cost to operate public housing for D.C.'s entire homeless population: $169,226 per day.

It's not about what this country can or can’t afford.

It’s about priorities.

Walz is a good speaker, but the approach he's taking in this clip, with a few tweaks here and there, is available to pretty much any Democrat.

This isn't the language of the party's left wing. It's just the simple rhetoric of an opposition party in a time of domestic crisis.

Sign the Petition Police in Charlottesville City Schools: Community Recommendations

If you don’t like how the city schools is bringing SRO’s back into the schools, take a minute to sign this petition!

School division leadership has done an incredibly poor job with this process and policies. They need to hear pushback!

www.change.org/p/police-in-...

The Institute of Education Sciences lost 90% of its staff. Combined with the contract terminations, the federal research infrastructure in education is on life support.

As someone who has lived my whole adult life in cities deemed “dangerous”—NYC, NOLA, and SF—I think a lot about how dense cities require patience, calm, and tolerance in the midst of social difference, which are of course exactly the civic virtues that the right resents being told to cultivate.