John W. Curtis

As we begin a new week, just a reminder to keep sending news tips my way. I'm marisakabas.04 on Signal and mkwrites4000@proton.me via email. Be safe out there.

@cbb1000.bsky.social

Among the many amazing things about Adams pleading his case here is that he openly supports and now is asking for help from… people who cancelled funding for cancer research.

The President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, PPFP, has been a jewel in the crown for faculty development and recruitment at the University of California for years and the results have been an expanded faculty with almost 100% tenure rates — unprecedented success.

If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!

Trump posts crazy stuff like this at times where he feels like he’s not getting enough attention and wants people to start talking about him again. It’s deranged, narcissistic behavior.

Mount Pleasant’s sidewalk astronomer might have to leave his home But Gael Gomez wants people to keep looking up — at the sky and in life.

In Mount Pleasant, a tight-knit D.C. neighborhood where immigrants are deeply embedded into the social fabric, the Trump administration’s targeting of migrants has shaken the community.

From @samdelgado.bsky.social, here's one poignant example of the impact this loss is leaving:

Opinion | The White House's sweeping overhaul of ICE is creating a Frankenstein force The recent wave of ICE senior official reassignments has a clear motive.

Last week, the Trump admin purged senior leadership at ICE ERO, which leads internal immigration enforcement. Gregory Bovino and the Border Patrol are now increasingly in charge. As former ICE Chief of Staff Jason Houser writes, what we're getting now is theater, not serious law enforcement.

This whole thread is wild.

The shutdown is ultimately a legislative negotiation about a budget.
Hard to resolve it when the controlling party in one part of Congress refuses to negotiate, will not re-open the House, is not in DC.

SNAP benefits feed essential needs while still leaving many hungry for more Journalist and author Adam Chandler explains what so much of the conversation about them gets wrong.

“70% of wage-earning adults who rely on government programs like SNAP and Medicaid work full-time, many at hugely profitable companies like Walmart and McDonald’s whose low wages are effectively subsidized by tax dollars without any of the blame or paternalistic lectures.”

Just to be clear. MAGAs are gutting:
•Medicaid—which 60M Americans rely on to survive
•SNAP—which 42M Americans rely on to eat
•School Lunch—which 30M kids rely on daily
•Housing Assistance—which 5M families rely on to live

ALL to cut $4.5T in taxes for 800 Billionaires

This Is Barbaric.

This is flat out false. SNAP cannot be used for that. It’s not permitted under federal law and no states have an exemption for it.

In Late, Obscure Notice, DHS Turbocharges Trump’s Voter Purge Database, Evading Privacy Protections Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: The Department of Homeland Security quietly formalized sweeping changes to a federal immigration database, turning it into a national “voter verification” tool that appears to sidestep federal privacy protections and will make it easier to remove large numbers of voters from the rolls.

D.C. residents speak out against MPD’s work with ICE at D.C. Council Local cooperation with immigration enforcement has become a flash point since the federal surge in D.C.

“To say that D.C. residents are traumatized by the surge of federal agents and stepped-up immigration enforcement is not hyperbole,” Councilmember @brianneknadeau.bsky.social said this week.

Here's @maustermuhle.bsky.social's report on testimonies at the Council hearing she called on the issue:

State Dept Finds Israel Has Committed “Hundreds” of Potential Violations That Would Render Arms Transfers Illegal The State Department has a bespoke process for probes into Israel that is deferential to its military.

A classified State Department report released just days before the current ceasefire agreement went into effect found that Israel has committed “many hundreds” of potential human rights violations in Gaza that would render it illegal to continue sending weapons to many Israeli military units.

JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵

The racism is just spewing out.

A partial list of what Bovino does not have to tell a federal judge happened today:
*An agent pushed a City Council member in Albany Park
*Agents deployed pepper spray in Albany Park & Evanston
*Agents were involved in a car crash in Evanston
*An agent pointed a gun at a woman in Evanston

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

Early planning documents reviewed by WIRED describe a statewide transport grid designed for steady detainee transfers across Texas, with ICE estimating each trip to average 100 miles. Every county would have its own small, around-the-clock team of contractors collecting immigrants from local authorities deputized by ICE. It is a subtle transfer of the physical custody process into the hands of a private security firm—authorized to carry firearms and perform transport duties “in any and all local, county, state, and ICE locations.”

NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.

My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...

Citing a Trump executive order banning "gender ideology," the VA is withholding coverage and treatment for male veterans with breast cancer, an increasing condition among veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service. 100 male veterans a year are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Let me be very clear. It is not enough that RFK Jr. was forced to admit today that no causal relationship between Tylenol and autism has been shown.

We know that while disinformation spreads like wildfire on social media, corrections most often die on the vine.

This is an incredible LIE being told by the guy that manages the agency that oversees the ACA. It's obscene how easily, how frequently and how dramatically these Trump folks lie to us.

✅Fact check from the extremely reliable @kff.org (& no, KFF did not retract this.)

Michigan Republicans Want to Share Full Voter Roll With Trump Admin — Unredacted Michigan is one of several states being sued by the DOJ for refusing to share unredacted voter rolls with the agency.

Nearly two dozen Michigan House Republicans have signed on to a resolution calling for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to share the state’s complete voter rolls with the Trump administration, without redactions of potentially sensitive identifying information.

Our latest blog post debunks claims that the recently terminated Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey was “redundant.”

In reality, no other survey is capable of replacing it.

🔗 dataindex.us/newsletter/a...

I just spoke with Capital Area Food Bank CEO Radha Muthiah about how they are preparing for a possible lapse in SNAP funding. She told me that for every meal they provide, SNAP provides *nine*.

"The magnitude of the SNAP program is significant," she says.

I'm shaking almost too hard to type. I entered SLC airport and heard screams and cries for help. I could see people gathered around, watching. I sped over to discover this woman face down on the floor, four grown men pushing her down, while she cried "HELP ME" and pled for her child.

Our Long National Nightmare by Tom Tomorrow Relive the trauma of the last five years through the cartoons of Herblock Award winner and Pulitzer nominee Tom Tomorrow.

ok friends, this is it, the final eve before the close of the campaign. www.kickstarter.com/projects/tom...

Democrats are furious that the Trump Administration held a briefing on Capitol Hill today about U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats. Only Republicans were invited. This is from Sen. Mark Warner D-VA.

It's becoming chillingly clear: an administration that gleefully dismantled USAID and consigned countless people to slow death by starvation and preventable disease will not hesitate to inflict hunger on tens of millions of Americans by cutting off SNAP funds.