Elizabeth Mitchell 🌈🦄♋️😮‍💨🌊

Opinion: DCPS middle-schoolers should be reading novels Many parents like myself were shocked by a recent change to the English curriculum at Alice Deal Middle School.

I wrote an op-ed for The 51st arguing that DCPS middle-schoolers need to be reading full-length novels to build concentration, empathy, and strong foundational reading skills
51st.news/opinion-dcps...

By focusing directly on foundational skills and dedicating scheduled time for support, middle and high schools can empower teens to become a confident, successful readers.

Opinion: DCPS middle-schoolers should be reading novels Many parents like myself were shocked by a recent change to the English curriculum at Alice Deal Middle School.

Late to this party but @aaronweso.bsky.social is right! 51st.news/opinion-dcps...
This summer st @ncslorg.bsky.social one of the most staggering stats I saw was that close to 1/3 of 8th graders haven’t read a book in the last year. That’s up from closer to a 1/4 before

Vast Number of Windows Users Refusing to Upgrade After Microsoft's Embrace of AI Slop Huge numbers of Windows users are refusing to upgrade to Windows 11 -- and many of them are citing its AI features as the reason why.

"Stop this nonsense. No one wants this."

#TheLensNola🔍 In the letter, Murrill cited policy in the NOPD Operations Manual that bars NOPD officers from assisting federal immigration authorities except in limited instances.

✍ Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator

Full Story 🔗: buff.ly/EFd3TWv

#NOPD #ICEenforcement #neworleans #louisiana

Really grateful to @alaskaairlines.bsky.social for showing #burlesque on this flight.
Not enough @alancumming.bsky.social Stanley Gucci or Cher but still fabulous

“The Daily Nebraskan found in the leaked spreadsheet that every program eliminated appeared to be profitable…every program that the chancellor proposed eliminating generated more money from tuition dollars than the department costs to run”

Bronze plaque saying "A Letter to the Future. Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it. August 2019. 415ppm CO2"

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

I think the four pieces I edited by incarcerated queer journalist B Speaks may be the thing I'm proudest of this year. Speaks is an incredible writer, with an ability to take you into the world of the GA prison, and its trans and queer inmates, that takes my breath away.

Selling the Poor on Spending Like They’re Rich - The American Prospect How plutonomy, premiumization, and social media squeeze the middle class.

"Citigroup executives coined the term “plutonomy” almost exactly 20 years ago in a memo sent to investors. The bankers didn’t coin the term as an intellectual exercise; the goal was to curate stocks accordingly." prospect.org/2025/12/01/p...

That entire movement is built on the ingrained and indelible belief that women are shit at everything.

Trump Train

As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined The five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?

15/ Today we’ve published a deeply reported 5-part series. It’s about Albany, Georgia.

It’s about getting sick in America.

And it’s about what happens when the most powerful institution in town is a hospital.

BASH: The president said very clearly this week he doesn't want Somali immigrants in America. He called them 'garbage.' Is that the real reason this operation is happening?

HOMAN: No. I think President Trump is referring to public safety threats & natl security threats

BASH: He didn't say that

Wilson Building Bulletin: The Chuck Brown post office is no-go Also: D.C. gets no deference from Congress, and there won't be a referendum on the tipped wage (though the fight isn't over)

The Republican-led House has been on a tear this year when it comes to messing with D.C.

A House committee continued its offensive this week by passing a bill that would eliminate any deference that judges could give to city agencies in interpreting local laws, @maustermuhle.bsky.social reports:

Perfect

Ya think?!?!?!?

CURTIS: All of us need to wake up every morning & say, 'what am I doing to make immigrants feel welcome' regardless of an individual says

BASH: But he's not just an individual. He's the president calling an entire community garbage

C: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter

it's not a Waffle House, it's a waffle home

Bigfoot with big titties

One of the greatest shots in Television History

NEW— DC Metropolitan Police just shared a tiny bit more body cam footage from the March US Institute of Peace raid in response to my FOIA lawsuit w/ @rcfp.org

One clip shows USIP President George Moose being escorted out.

Moose: You know we're gonna see you all in court.
MPD: Yea we figured that.

North Carolina’s worst export

As awful as this, the focus on whether the woman was complying obscures the more important issue: in a democracy, there should not be armed agents demanding to see papers of every passing person.

MENDELSON: So Chief Wright, are MPD officers cooperating with ICE or with HSI? Yes or no, are they cooperating with ICE or HSI? [00:00:21][2.9] WRIGHT: No. Not at all. And when you say cooperate, what do you mean? MENDELSON: Well, I would think the answer is yes, because if they have a judicial warrant, they may want MPD to help them. So I would think the answer is yes. So let's start again. Are MPD officers cooperating with ICE or HSI? WRIGHT: [00:00:47] I think in if in the instance that you're I think you're bringing up that there's a judicial warrant signed by a judge, criminal judicial warrant, and there's an assist, there's an ask for an assist to to apprehend the individual for that judicial warrant signed by a judge, then I think in that instance we certainly could assist.

This hearing also featured some pointed questions from councilmembers about how much MPD is still cooperating with ICE.

MPD Assistant Chief Andre Wright repeatedly denied it...but also allowed that ICE/HSI will ask for help on warrants and does attend daily MPD roll call.

PARKER: there were reports that the president would deploy five hundred additional National Guards people to the district and that there would be a different level of coordination between MPD and National Guards. Can you give an update on what that might look like? APPIAH: That was a short term, so in the wake of the shooting which happened a week ago, MPD just quite frankly, like we they often do in the wake of a shooting, after Capitol Jewish Museum, increasing presence around synagogues or otherwise, for a short period of time, which I believe that's ended at this point. PARKER: So residents should not expect to see National Guards, armed National Guardsmen with MPD officers. APPIAH: That's correct.

Some National Guard news: Lindsey Appiah, Bowser's top public safety deputy, said in a hearing Thursday MPD is no longer patrolling with the guard, as they did after last week's shooting.

We've heard reports of the NG alongside MPD as recently as yesterday, so we'll see...

“We have bug tent but we have a lot of room dividers” AG Anne Lopez of Hawaii about the Democratic Party.

Picture of the lgbtq+ victory fund stage with the AGs from Hawaii, Michigan and Arizona

“No one has done more to defund the police than Donald Joseph Trump” - @krismayes.bsky.social AG of Arizona talking about how he’s streaking the national guard from places like Arizona where they would and should be helping her capture and prosecute Mexican drug cartels.

Something important to take into account with Venezuela: When Obama did the drone strikes extrajudicially, he did it under the 2001 AUMF. That was a dubious pretense but Congress made the authorization too broad. Trump and Hegseth have no such authorization to do those strikes.

Magaziner: "This is not about the drugs. This is about oil."

Newsom Dropped the Ball on Menopause, But Others Are Ready to Lead From Illinois to Maine, states are rewriting the rules on menopause.

The bill Gavin Newsom vetoed (twice):

"The measure would have ensured insurance coverage for evidence-based treatments and required physician training: practical, cost-effective steps backed by leading medical experts."