Kelly Smith

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

Screenshot of table from IPUMS blog. Full text at link in post.

❗❗❗ You may have heard that USDA ended a long-running data collection on food insecurity and called it "redundant." Our friends @kcww.bsky.social and Isabel Pastoor at @ipums.bsky.social fact-checked that claim.

Read what they found:
blog.popdata.org/food-securit...

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

New homelessness data: The number of people becoming homeless in San Diego County continued to outpace the number moving into homes in September. @rtfhsd.bsky.social reports that 1,106 people became homeless for the first time and 1,032 exited homelessness.

"We need help deciding what to look for, which school districts and cities to seek public records from, and need leads on where we should point our reporting efforts."

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

Yellow graphic with photos of books falling in the background. Text on the graphic reads: "Happy Banned Books Week! To celebrate, we’re going to: Read our favorite banned book, Defend freedom of speech in schools, Show appreciation for librarians and educators, Remind our community how books allow us to learn about new perspectives, experiences, and places, Get another banned book from our local library"

We have the right to read what we want, no matter what politicians or school officials say.

Let us know what your favorite banned book is below. 📚

Friendly reminder that the good folks at the Congressional Research Service have an appropriations process tracker going back to fiscal 1999, showing what each chamber did or didn’t do in a given year.

www.congress.gov/crs-appropri...

Earlier this year, Dr. Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace, took part in a deeply reflective interview for the Netflix show Famous Last Words, recorded to be shared only after her passing.
Now, as the world mourns, her voice answers the question of who she was. ♥️

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

Thanks for sharing. Just added to my Trump Trackers page. ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/trumpt...

What's behind the health care fight that led to the government shutdown It's Obamacare health insurance prices — and how much help 24 million Americans will get with their premiums — that are in dispute.

It's Obamacare health insurance prices — and how much help 24 million Americans will get with their premiums — that are in dispute.

Not that this does anything for the larger problem, but I’ve tried to capture all IG reports in the Wayback Machine pretty much every day for the past several years.

It's like a Choose Your Own Hatch Act Violation.

What do Trump and Hegseth’s inflammatory speeches to military generals signal? | Moira Donegan The Trump administration evidently seeks to transform the US military into a partisan tool of the president’s regime

What do Trump and Hegseth’s inflammatory speeches to military generals signal? | Moira Donegan

If it might be helpful to anyone, I have compiled agencies' contingency plans since OMB isn't doing it this time. ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/shutdown

Since OMB isn't compiling agency contingency plans for a shutdown, I've done a first pass through updating the list from the Biden administration. I'll continue updating if/as new plans are published. ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/shutdown

I somewhat expected other departments to follow suit as shutdown time draws closer, but I'm not seeing that yet.

The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.

Amazing splash on the HUD website.

White House to agencies: Prepare mass firing plans for a shutdown In memo, the Trump administration says the Reduction-in-Force plans would go beyond standard shutdown furloughs.

Setting aside the question of legality, this would be an action of enormous self-harm inflicted on the nation, needlessly ridding the country of talent and expertise.

It’s also extortive. “Give us what we want in a funding fight, or we’ll hurt the country.”

Lawsuit seeks release of Census data on sexual orientation and gender identity The information can help in enforcement of civil rights laws, the suit notes.

The information can help in enforcement of civil rights laws, the suit notes.

As US government shutdown nears, Trump administration mum on contingency plans With the U.S. government eight days from its 15th partial shutdown since 1981, Washington is in familiar territory with an important difference: President Donald Trump's administration has not widely shared its plans for what functions will cease and what will continue if Congress fails to act.

With the U.S. government eight days from its 15th partial shutdown since 1981, Washington is in familiar territory with an important difference: President Donald Trump's administration has not widely shared its plans for what functions will cease and what will continue if Congress fails to act.

As a government information librarian who archives a lot of federal web pages, I strongly recommend this approach. The Internet Archive and similar tools are great, but, as mentioned here, are imperfect tools and there is just too much uncertainty about continued access to federal resources.

Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism Most — but not all — political scientists are deeply troubled by the president's attempts to expand executive power, according to a national survey.

Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n...

Librarians Are Being Asked to Find AI-Hallucinated Books It’s a trippy time to have a library card.

Reference librarian Eddie Kristan said lenders at the library where he works have been asking him to find books that don’t exist without realizing they were hallucinated by AI.

🔗 www.404media.co/librarians-a...

The State Department has begun updating their website to reflect organizational changes. My latest GovSpeak link check identified many simple URL changes, but also many offices that appear to have been terminated - or, at least, don't have an obvious new page. ucsd.libguides.com/govspeak_err...

Anyway in other news today is Constitution Day

National Voter Registration Day National Voter Registration Day is a holiday celebrated on the fourth Tuesday of every September. It's goal is to focus attention on the importance of registering to vote and voting in our democracy d...

Your vote is your voice.

This #NationalVoterRegistrationDay, we join in solidarity with all who work to ensure that everyone has the right to vote and to be heard.

Check your registration status today!

nationalvoterregistrationday.org

As much as I enjoy working in academic libraries, issues like this make me miss working in public libraries. So many more opportunities to have personal, meaningful impact in library users’ lives.

Extremist murders by ideology, 2013 to 2022. www.pbump.net/o/reassessin...