Patty Simonton

Medical experiments on prisoners?

Where have we seen this before?

You don't want to read this, but you should.

BREAKING: Supreme Court rules for parents who objected on religious grounds to California restrictions on schools notifying parents about the transgender status of their children.

ProPublica Sues Education Department for Withholding Records About Discrimination in Schools Under Secretary Linda McMahon, the work of the Office for Civil Rights, which aims to protect students from discrimination, is cloaked in secrecy.

ProPublica has sued the U.S. Department of Education
W/ @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

www.propublica.org/article/educ...

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Blind Rohingya refugee dumped by CBP, dies in cold "They just left him."

“They just left him.”

Shah Alam, 56, did not speak English. He was lost. He could not see. Border Patrol didn't contact his family or lawyer. They left him on the streets of Buffalo, where he died five days later.

BREAKING: Protests have erupted at Columbia University after the school says DHS agents detained a student after making "misrepresentations to gain entry" to building.

Kansas informs trans residents their driver’s licenses become invalid on Thursday Some transgender Kansans said they had received the letters from the Department of Revenue. Others hadn’t by Wednesday evening.

Many trans people in Kansas lost their driver’s licenses overnight and now can’t legally drive until they get a new one with a marker that doesn’t reflect their gender identity amp.kansascity.com/news/politic...

CNN follows NPR and Politico in finding that DOJ scrubbed the Epstein files of evidence related to a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 years old.

Børge Brende, president and chief executive of the World Economic Forum, said he would step down from his role after the organization conducted a review into his past connections with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 🔗 on.wsj.com/4s9K2nn

If you’d have told me 15 years ago that RFK Jr. would be HHS Secretary, I would have laughed at your silly joke.

There are days when I feel a sort of mental numbness about what is happening to public health this country.

It is a self-defense mechanism, I think.

Incredulity and anger alternate.

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump. n.pr/4qTItsU

The Price of Democracy | Brookings The Price of Democracy, by Vanessa Williamson, uncovers how fights for fiscal fairness have defined American history, delivering a powerful message to the present: that taxes are the public’s most pow...

Great read, @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social! Too bad the @nytimes.com didn't include mention of your own book that just came out in your short bio at the bottom of the article. Not to be missed: www.brookings.edu/books/the-pr...

Vanessa Williamson speaks in a classroom

So thrilled to share this overview of a timely new book from @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social, as she talks with APEX about "The Price of Democracy" and how battles over taxes define who belongs in 'We the People' bit.ly/4aXIBSj @jacobhacker.bsky.social

"That a representative body should constrain the executive’s fiscal power dates to Magna Carta in 1215... the framers gave Congress alone the power 'to lay and collect taxes' [because] untrammeled executive power over public money opens the door to tyranny."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office – live The police raided Andrew’s Norfolk home this morning

The sudden arrest of the former Prince Andrew is the latest sign that the rest of the world is much more serious about Epstein-related crimes than the current US leader www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

BREAKING: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has told all Polish citizens to leave Iran IMMEDIATELY.

“In a few hours, there may be no more possibility to evacuate.”

(🎥 Sky News)

400 Christian leaders urge resistance to Trump administration on Ash Wednesday The statement’s signers include a mix of denominational leaders, seminary presidents, scholars and leaders of prominent congregations.

“A group of nearly 400 prominent Christian leaders called President Donald Trump’s administration ‘cruel and oppressive’ and accused the government of being corrupted by an aberrant form of Christianity, in an Ash Wednesday (Feb. 18) statement.” religionnews.com/2026/02/18/4...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights activist, Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate, has died aged 84.

Read more: www.lbc.co.uk/article/civi...

TL;DR

AI isn’t just a new load.

It’s a new grid participant.
• Training hits transmission
• Inference hits distribution
• Hybrid on-site power becomes standard

The future grid must be fast, flexible, local, and interactive — or it breaks.

Utilities have to change their culture.

This is an important thread re. AI’s grid use.

Wow.

Here’s more info from his comments made during the World Economic Forum: www.biospace.com/business/mod...

And yet so many would still rather be remembered for generations as supporters rather than admit they were wrong.

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.

Hundreds of kids are still detained.

We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

New version of GOP suppression bill would impose nationwide proof of citizenship, photo ID requirements The bill would undermine the right to vote in the U.S. ahead of the 2026 midterms.

NEW: House Republicans Friday unveiled an amended version of their voter suppression bill that, if it became law, would gravely undermine the right to vote in the U.S. ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

If you changed your last name after marriage and don’t have an updated US passport or birth certificate, the SAVE Act (aka SAVE 2.0) will stop you from voting. Millions of women lack these docs. Call your Senators—VOTE NO (202) 224-3121

If you changed your last name after marriage and don’t have an updated US passport or birth certificate, the SAVE Act (aka SAVE 2.0) will stop you from voting. Millions of women lack these docs. Call your Senators to VOTE NO (202) 224-3121

cover of The Washington Post on Wednesday Feb 4, 2026. Headline on bottom, right: Musk wanted to hook users; his chatbot got more sexual

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

The SAVE Act won't help America's elections. Quite the opposite.

The facts: over 20 million Americans don't have access to those documents and nearly 50% of Americans don't have a passport.

From 1982-2018, the Republican National Committee was barred from "ballot security measures" because of their record of using state actors to intimidate minority voters.
(H/t @rickhasen.bsky.social)
www.npr.org/2018/01/09/5...

Bezos orders deep job cuts at 'Washington Post' The Washington Post embarked on severe cuts despite appeals by the newsroom to owner Jeff Bezos. The paper is to narrow its focus largely to politics and national security.

Time to strengthen my list of local DMV independent sources on what's actually happening around here. www.npr.org/2026/02/04/n...