still in Pittsburgh

6,000 faculty members at Penn State has filed for a union.

These professors and other faculty will vote on unionizing in the coming year.

If they win their union it will be the largest public union in Pennsylvania.

Line graphic showing increasing ICE arrests using government data processed by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Prison Policy Initiative. Throughout 2025, local jails were sites of escalating ICE arrests. Jails collaborating with ICE are still enabling many more arrests than before, even as ICE arrests have spiked in courts, homes, streets, and workplaces in late January, late May, and September.

From @prisonpolicy.org: New analysis of government data from ICE via the Deportation Data Project shows federal agents reliant on local jails and police to reach their arrest numbers.

ICYMI Here’s your Friday long read:

My in-depth profile story of David Stevenson, the man who crushed America’s offshore wind industry.

Thanks to @motherjones.com for republishing. 🙏

There Is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone: 9780593237144 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE ATLANTIC’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Through the “revelatory and gut-wrenching” (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark...

If cost has kept you from picking up There Is No Place for Us (which is totally understandable), good news: the ebook is *$1.99* today—93% off!—on Kindle, B&N, Bookshop, and elsewhere.

So grateful to everyone who's been reading and sharing the book this year. It means a lot.

Where to find free or low-cost holiday meals in Pittsburgh this December Several Pittsburgh organizations are offering free holiday meals, grocery distributions, and food support for individuals who could use a little extra help this holiday season.

@pghcitypaper.com compiled this list for residents to find free or low-cost meals this holiday season:

www.pghcitypaper.com/news-2/socia...

Reminder on the anniversary: the best social science evidence we have suggests Florida Republicans stole the 2000 election.

"Did Illegal Overseas Absentee Ballots Decide the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election?" Kosuke Imai and Gary King
gking.harvard.edu/files/ballot...

Diaa’s fundraiser is moving very slowly and she needs some hope

John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett worked on Bush's legal team in this case. so yeah...

The Undocumented Underground Is Fighting Back Inside New York’s Notorious Immigration Court One day last month, a Peruvian mother and her daughter went into...

There is a network of court watchers who support immigrants at the ICE courts in Manhattan.

They have learned the movements and "personas" of the masked agents.

One told me: "Some of them are very sadistic." talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/new-...

Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle

Wondering why you'd not learned this history before?

Read & share our report, "Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction." In full online ⬇️.

Speak to school board about need to teach Reconstruction.
www.teachreconstructionreport.org

Dec. 12, 1870: Joseph H. Rainey First African-American in U.S. House of Reps Joseph H. Rainey, from South Carolina, was the first African-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Once again did the monster rebellion lift its hydra head in renewed defiance, cruel & cowardly, fearing the light of day. . ." -- Joseph H. Rainey on KKK

#tdih 1870 Rainey became first African American to serve in U.S. House of Reps #TeachReconstruction ⬇️ 🧵
www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jo...

This is your seasonal reminder that Bookshop.org and libro.fm exist as local-supporting not-Amazon options for all your physical and audiobook needs! Bookshop even gives you the option to add a card and a pretty fabric bag and ship it directly to your giftee!

Text on graphic: The right to know is vital. Help us protect it. Donate now.

When you give to ProPublica, you’re directly supporting journalism that holds the powerful accountable.

We pursue the investigations the public needs. Readers like you make it possible. Donate now: https://propub.li/4iDFe6a

Closer to 550,000 as of today, in fact.

acasignups.net/ira-subsidy-...

Chip in! Show your support with a contribution.

🚨 Senate Republicans just voted to more than double avg. health insurance premiums for 24 million Americans.

Today would be a good day to help Democrats flip the Senate. #Blue26

secure.actblue.com/donate/senat...

“No More Terrorizing Families”: Minnesota Workers Rally Against ICE Deportation Flights - Workday Magazine Workers are demanding facilities for rideshare drivers and an end to the airport’s operation of deportation flights.

Just one example of how Minnesotans are rallying in the freezing weather to defend their neighbors.

👇🏽

Ready to become citizens, some immigrants in Louisville turned away at the door Immigrants who had received letters inviting them to a citizenship ceremony in downtown Louisville were turned away at the door Thursday. All are from countries deemed “high-risk” by President Donald ...

NEW: Immigrants who had received letters inviting them to a citizenship ceremony in downtown Louisville were turned away at the door Thursday. All are from countries deemed “high-risk” by President Donald Trump. From @byrobertor.lpm.org at @lpm.org

The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂

Booking available here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...

Do You Live in the Omaha Area? Sign Up for Free Lead Testing of Your Soil. An Omaha lead smelter spread dust that seeped into the soil and bodies of many residents for over a century. Focus areas include the Superfund site and neighborhoods east of 72nd Street; Bellevue;…

ProPublica and @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social want to help Omahans understand the lead risks in their own yard.

Sign up for our free soil testing 👇

The EPA Was Considering a Massive Lead Cleanup in Omaha. Then Trump Shifted Guidance. The Trump administration says it will speed cleanups, but residents of the largest residential lead Superfund site worry fewer properties will be remediated.

NEW: For more than a century, a smelter spewed lead dust over Omaha.

For decades, the government cleaned it up.

But a shift in guidance from the Trump administration may stop thousands more from potential cleanup, exposing families to the harmful metal.

With @flatwaterfreep.bsky.social

This morning, in the largest expansion yet, hundreds of new union baristas are walking off the job in 34 cities.

That means there are now:
🗣️ 3,800 baristas
☕️ across 180 stores
📍 in over 130 cities
on an open-ended ULP strike!

We’re 👏 only 👏 getting 👏 stronger

“Growing concerns about the job market… most layoffs since the start of the Great Recession…”

No wonder Trump is hiding the data

Good morning. Today, Senate Republicans have one last opportunity to vote to save the ACA tax credits.

If they refuse, they are CHOOSING to let premiums more than double, and they would force millions of Americans to go uninsured.

UPDATED: Senate Republicans come up with one big pile of Crapo. (sigh) Via Peter Sullivan & Stef Kight of Axios: Scoop: Senate GOP chairs circulate health plan as clock ticks on ACA subsidies Two key Senate Republican chairmen are circulating the outline of a heal...

🚨 Reminder: Here’s the details of the bill most Senate Republicans will be voting for today instead of simply extending the fucking ACA tax credits:

acasignups.net/25/12/09/upd...

Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 5: Too Big to Fight When a well-off, widely respected pillar of the community and member of the hospital’s board can’t get the care he needed at Phoebe, it raises the question: Who can?

When a well-off, widely respected pillar of the community and member of the hospital’s board can’t get the care he needs at the town’s only hospital, it raises the question: Who can?

Read the 5th and final part of our "Sick in a Hospital Town" series:

Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 4: The Last Safety Net As a community hospital, Phoebe’s mission is to care for people no matter their ability to pay. But in a town where the uninsured rate is twice the national average, even some Phoebe employees are una...

“They all know us over there,” Nedra Fortson, who runs the free Samaritan Clinic, said about Phoebe Memorial employees who turn to her office for care. “Their cafeteria workers, their janitors, their clerks, their nursing assistants and so on.”

This is Part 4 of "Sick in a Hospital Town":

ICE detain U.S. citizen for looking Somali—use illegal chokehold to tackle him to ground.

Man repeatedly begs agents to look at his digital passport ID—they refuse.

Drove him 7 miles away before releasing him alone into Minnesota snow storm—told him to "walk home" in freezing weather advisory.

they withheld food from people so they could force through healthcare cost increases they knew would kill people.