Colleen S. Good

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1775 Met according to adjournment. Agreeable to the order of yesterday, the Congress resumed the consideration of the report of the Committee on the post office; which being debated by paragraphs, was agreed to as follows: That a postmaster General be appointed for the United Colonies, who shall hold his office at Philad a , and shall be allowed a salary of 1000 dollars per an: for himself, and 340 dollars per an: for a secretary and Comptroller, with power to appoint such, and so many deputies as to him may seem proper and necessary. That a line of posts be appointed under the direction of the Postmaster general, from Falmouth in New England to Savannah in Georgia, with as many cross posts as he shall think fit. That the allowance to the deputies in lieu of salary and all contingent expences, shall be 20 per cent. on the sums they collect and pay into the General post office annually, when the whole is under or not exceeding 1000 Dollars, and ten per cent. for all sums above 1000 dollars a year. That the rates of postage shall be 20 p r cent less than those appointed by act of Parliament1 . 1 Suspended September 30.

That the several deputies account quarterly with the general post office, and the postmaster general annually with the continental treasurers, when he shall pay into the rec t of the S d Treasurers, the profits of the Post Office; and if the necessary expence of this establishment should exceed the produce of it, the deficiency shall be made good by the United Colonies, and paid to the postmaster general by the continental Treas r . On motion made, Resolved , That it be recommended to the postmaster general to establish a weekly post to South Carolina. That it be left to the postmaster general to appoint a sec y and comptroller. The Congress then proceeded to the election of a postmaster general for one year, and until another is appointed by a future Congress, when Benjamin Franklin, Esq r . was unanimously chosen. Adjourned till to Morrow at 8 o'Clock.

250 years ago today, the U.S. postal system was born.

More than a year before approving the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress agreed to appoint Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general to lead a post office for the "United Colonies"
www.loc.gov/resource/lls...

With RFK Jr. in Charge, Insurers Aren’t Saying If They’ll Cover Vaccines for Kids If Government Stops Recommending Them RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisory board could stop recommending some routine childhood immunizations, leaving insurers to decide whether to still cover them. For now, most are remaining tight-lipped.

RFK Jr.’s vax advisory board could stop recommending some routine childhood immunizations.

@wired.com asked 21 health insurance companies if they'd cover the shots regardless -- only one committed to doing so.

www.wired.com/story/insure...

Why Solitary Confinement Is a Safe Haven for Sexually Abusive Guards After eight years in “the hole” at Texas’ Lane Murray Unit, Kwaneta Harris documents the “daily reality” of staff sexual exploitation and violence.

“It is not uncommon for guards to withhold food unless we take our shirts off," writes prison journalist Kwaneta Harris in Texas.

YouTube removes 'gender identity' from hate speech policy TariffTokers, Gen Z’s ‘it couple’, Easter potatoes, anti-MAGA hats, Zuck's D.C. mansion, Amazon's TikTok bid, Silicon Valley's cupid, and the fastest growing political channels on YouTube

SCOOP: YouTube removes 'gender identity' from hate speech policy. "YouTube quietly removing ‘gender identity and expression’ from its list of protected groups is a major radical shift away from best practices in the field of trust and safety."

Fellow journalists, it's easy to write "at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic" when referring to 2020-2021, instead of putting Covid-19 in past tense.

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

How a Push to Amend the Constitution Could Help Trump Expand Presidential Power A draft lawsuit being floated to attorneys general in several states argues Congress must call a convention over the national debt. But the legal theory mixes and matches petitions from states dating ...

Important story: How a Push to Amend the Constitution Could Help Trump Expand Presidential Power, by @phoebepetrovic.bsky.social @wisconsinwatch.org

Brooklyn Public Library Offers Free eCards to Teens Nationwide Facing Book Bans in Local Communities | Brooklyn Public Library Librarians and Teen Volunteers Spearhead Books Unbanned Initiative to Combat Censorship

The Brooklyn Public Library has announced that any teenager in America is now eligible for a Brooklyn Public Library card.
Teens can sign out ebooks + audiobooks 
The move is designed to combat censorship, with some titles listed as "always available."

www.bklynlibrary.org/media/press/...

One way to calm down a bit is to consider that there is a class of objects, replete with virtues, that can go a long way toward establishing an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity in your house: paper books. Paper books are yours alone, yours for keeps. The words they contain are beyond the reach of corruption or avarice; they can’t be altered or shut off from afar. Nobody can tell which books you have, or what time you started reading them, or how much time you spent on each page or what you highlighted there.

Buy. Paper. Books.

(and download ownable ebooks onto your own devices)

New from me at @flaminghydra.com

flaminghydra.com/issue-261/

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.

Life-threatening infections in Texas have soared among women losing a pregnancy after the state’s abortion ban.

www.propublica.org/article/texa...

Quite literally, I have to say to myself, "I'm doing my best" 🥲😭😭, DAILY😭😭

3 men claiming to be from DOGE show up at San Francisco City Hall, demand records San Francisco city officials are investigating after three men who claimed to be from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) showed up at City Hall on Friday demanding records from offices bef...

So you can just say you work at DOGE and pillage anything from our documents you want. The law truly doesn't exist anymore! Cool!

The executive director of Fair Wisconsin, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, tells me she's heard from multiple families whose children's gender-affirming care was reinstated after my reporting.

I’ll have a book coming out soon with @atriabooks.bsky.social, but in the meantime I’m looking for new opportunities &I would like to write for you. You can reach me at mathias.christopher@gmail.com.

Father Missing a Limb and Son with Cerebral Palsy Weren't Able to Evacuate L.A. Fires in Time, Family Says A 67-year-old amputee along with his son with cerebral palsy died in the Eaton fire on Jan. 8, according to his daughter.

A 67 year old amputee and wheelchair user lived with his son who had cerebral palsy.

They were killed in the Eaton fire while waiting for an ambulance that never arrived.

Many disabled people can not evacuate on their own. They need to be included in evacuation plans (yet almost never are)

Meta's Fact-Checking Partners Say They Were 'Blindsided' by Decision to Axe Them Fact-checkers claim they had no idea the company was going to end their partnerships and are scrambling to figure out the financial implications of the move.

NEW: Fact-checkers claim they had no idea the company was going to end their partnerships and are scrambling to figure out the financial implications of the move.

“A lot of people refuse to do things because they don’t want to go naked, don’t want to go without guarantee. But that’s what’s got to happen. You go naked until you die.”

—Nikki Giovanni

(Thanks to @kristenchapman.bsky.social for this one.)

People who say they care about women’s and girls’ sports are noticeably quiet about how eliminating the Department of Education would end federal oversight of Title IX enforcement of the equal existence of women’s and girls’ sports

I wish there were a polite way to say, “I can see clearly that you are sick, and it would obviously be better for everyone if you were at home recovering, but since you’re here, I would greatly appreciate it if you took any kind of precaution to protect the people around you from your pathogens” 😷

FCC slashes cost of phone calls for inmates, capping decades-long effort Under the new rules, the cost of a 15-minute call to or from large jails will drop from as much as $11.35 to $0.90.

The cost of phone calls will drop dramatically for incarcerated people under new rules that federal regulators approved Thursday, concluding a decades-long effort to provide relief to the nation’s 2 million inmates and their families.

Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe Decades ago, Kris Hansen showed 3M that its PFAS chemicals were in people’s bodies. Her bosses halted her work. As the EPA now forces the removal of the chemicals from drinking water, she wrestles wit...

Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe

www.propublica.org/article/3m-f...

Jesus Christ.

www.reuters.com/world/us/pol...

Nude deepfakes of Taylor Swift went viral on X, evading moderation and sparking outrage Some of the singer’s fans said mass-reporting campaigns took the images down.

Twitter didn’t take viral sexually-explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift down — her fans did, via mass-reporting. Deepfake nude images, even ones of children, are still on Twitter. Why? Because it’s not illegal yet, and platforms aren’t liable for user-generated content.
www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinfo...

Housing is now unaffordable for a record half of all U.S. renters, study finds www.npr.org/2024/01/25/1...

please please tell your friends and loved ones about test2treat.org — a completely free site. they offer free tests, and FREE TREATMENT. no insurance needed. literally did not enter any insurance or payment info and i got a paxlovid script in an hour. please share.

huge h/t to @eboldy.bsky.social ♥️

it is snail girl season. slow it down

Putting my career on the line to make a run at Goliath: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Please share.

A lot of feigned hand-wringing over online and youth-led expressions of disapproval (so-called “cancel culture”) worked to overshadow actual successful censorship efforts that have now overtaken schools, college campuses, and the battle over the future of the internet

A card reads: "Breaking: U.S. Will Resume Offering Free At-Home Covid Tests. The website for the program, covidtests.gov, will begin accepting orders on Monday, and households will be able to receive four tests."

Breaking News: Americans will once again be able to receive free Covid tests by mail, U.S. officials said, ahead of a possible winter surge. nyti.ms/3POUsZy

I like to believe the Mothman, Mulder and Skully would become friends (once Skully was, begrudgingly, convinced it was real)