Adam Willems

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

Today, I was laid off from Cascade PBS along with my entire team and most of the newsroom. I'll have more to say, but I have loved my time as news editor alongside some of the best journalists I have ever worked with. Every time a newsroom closes, stories go with it. The silence that follows is loud

Key Harrell political strategist was paid for years at City Hall in unusual arrangement Some current and former city staff and elected officials say the arrangement represented a thorny conflict between politics and governance.

All mayors seek political advice, but Mayor Bruce Harrell had his campaign strategist on a city funded contract for the first 3 years of his term, a legal but “strange” and “different” arrangement. W/ @jimbrunner.bsky.social
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

The Loophole Turning Stablecoins Into a Trillion-Dollar Fight The GENIUS Act barred stablecoin issuers from paying interest. But in allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to offer rewards, it set off a high-stakes clash with the US banking industry.

The GENIUS Act barred stablecoin issuers from paying interest. But in allowing cryptocurrency exchanges to offer rewards, it set off a high-stakes clash with the US banking industry. www.wired.com/story/genius...

46 Seattle journalists and media workers have now signed onto our open letter condemning Israel's killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and calling for their protection

ah, very exciting

For @wired.com, I covered the fundraise of Erebor Bank, the “pay to play” regulatory landscape allegedly taking shape, and its potential implications for banking writ large

going to keep saying: a society that would like to maintain its basic functions has really got to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by people in positions of authority

notable that the WHPC still hasn't taken this step in response to the unlawful barring of the Associated Press from events.

“total rethinks of education” is how we got here. Maybe we need less rethinking it and more doing it.

ChatGPT Is Everywhere — Why Aren't We Talking About Its Environmental Costs? One estimate found that a single ChatGPT search uses 10 times the energy of a normal Google search.

yes, ChatGPT is in schools; there are K-12 school districts and DOEs entering into AI contracts, too. so rather than panicking over the death of academia as a foregone conclusion—particularly when LLMs are frequently wrong—why don't we talk about the climate costs of AI?

my latest @teenvogue.com

UN food agency says its foods stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel's blockade The World Food Program says its food stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel’s nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory.

BREAKING: The World Food Program says its food stocks in Gaza have run out under Israel’s nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory.

This should be the top story in Axios’s morning read. But it isn’t. It’s the FIFTH top story.

@axios.com
www.axios.com/2025/04/23/t...

The government being down with subscription military tech is an advanced state of oligarchy.

Correct

Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’ Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out tens of thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data. The next step: Unleash the AI.

Today we're publishing a monster feature that dives deep into the initial six weeks over Elon Musk's government takeover. Our entire newsroom came together to help make this story happen. Read this culmination of our blood, sweat, and tears:

Then the mayor says the following, re: Khalil: "What I'm finding surprising is the level of support you're all displaying, but I didn't see that support for me"

"The choice of victim is extremely strategic. Defending Khalil invokes political costs they don’t believe either Columbia University or the Democrats are willing to incur. So far, they are correct."

Buckle up

Line graph: "Evolution of Atlanta Fed GDPNow real GDP estimate for 2025:Q1." Previously hovered between 2% and 4%, and has fallen to almost -3% over the past two weeks.

Atlanta Fed's Q1 growth forecast slipped last week from 2.3% to -1.5%. It's down to -2.8% as of this morning.

It’s presented in point-counterpoint fashion alongside a plea for greater trans inclusivity, but framing trans rights as a “debate” is inherently dangerous and has had demonstrably harmful social outcomes when platformed as such in other media outlets.

Photo of opinion piece by Carol Brown and Anne Simpson in the Feb 25 print edition of the Seattle Times. Full text can be found here: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/youth-sports-in-wa-allowing-trans-athletes-on-girls-teams-violates-title-ix/

This morning, Seattle’s paper of record published an op-ed claiming that trans kids’ participation in WA girls sports “gives boys access to girls teams and locker rooms” and tells “all of our young female athletes that boys are more important than they are.”

Screenshot of CFPB tip line on X

HuffPost reporting confirming the tip line’s authenticity: “In a statement to HuffPost, a spokesperson for Vought's office — who has also been detailed as a spokesperson for CFPB - confirmed the X account's authenticity. "CFPB launched a tip line today," the spokesperson said. The statement added a warning: "Now-former employees of the CFPB continued their activities after the stop-work order was first issued by Scott Bessent and any others found to be doing so will be dealt with accordingly." RealClearPolitics first reported the tip line.”

A few days late to this but CFPB now has a tip line (on X, of course) for people to complain if agency employees are still doing their jobs. HuffPost confirmed it was legit.

DOGE has left the Hanford nuclear cleanup site with a “skeleton crew,” according to Sen. Patty Murray.

The Bonneville Power Administration is also in DOGE’s crosshairs, which may affect energy reliability and costs in the PNW.

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Dozens of CFPB Workers Fired in After-Hours Blitz Some affected employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were notified with an email that addressed them as [EmployeeFirstName][EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division].

I'm hearing now that *every* technologist CFPB hired to investigate Big Tech was fired this evening. That's somewhere between 70-100 people.

wired.com/story/dozens-of-cfpb-workers-terminated-in-after-hours-firing-blitz/

We won!!!!!!!

Seattle businesses have spent $500K against social housing tax

New @cascadepbsnewsroom.bsky.social, Seattle businesses including Microsoft & Amazon have spent more than $500K to oppose a new tax to fund social housing that's going before voters on Feb. 11. A new poll found voters are nearly evenly split between Prop 1A & 1B www.cascadepbs.org/briefs/2025/...

Katie Miller, 33 Spokesperson In December, during the transition, Trump named Miller, who served in the first administration as a press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, as one of the first members of DOGE. She is the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. After reports that DOGE personnel accessed internal USAID data, Katie Miller defended the group, saying that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”

Stephanie Holmes, 43 Human Resources Holmes is running human resources at DOGE, according to government workers who have been in meetings with her. A former lawyer with Jones Day, a firm that frequently represents Trump, she was previously the chief people officer at Oklo, a nuclear energy company chaired by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. She also ran her own HR consulting firm, BrighterSideHR, which advised companies to pursue “non-woke” approaches to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Brian Bjelde, 44 Senior Adviser Connected to: Office of Personnel Management Musk link: Vice president of people operations at SpaceX Bjelde is a longtime SpaceX employee who’s spent more than 20 years at the company, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he’s had a variety of jobs, including as managing director of the “food services group.” He previously worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s been referred to in press reports as a “top DOGE Lieutenant,” working at OPM to slash head count. CNN previously revealed that Bjelde had informed OPM staff of a plan to cut 70% of the agency’s workforce. The New York Times reported that Bjelde helped Musk cut staff at Twitter following its takeover.

Anthony Armstrong, 57 Senior Adviser to the Director Connected to: Office of Personnel Management Musk link: Worked on Musk’s purchase of Twitter Armstrong is a technology banker at Morgan Stanley who worked on Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter — since rebranded as X — in 2022. He has been given an influential role at OPM, which handles personnel issues across the federal government. Since Trump took office, OPM has spearheaded the new administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce and roll back telework and remote work policies.

So much attention has been paid to Elon's college-age DOGE bros.

But @propublica.org's roundup of 20+ members of Musk's demolition crew shows that it's largely comprised of alleged adults, including Katie Miller (wife of Trump whisperer Stephen Miller)

projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-do...

The South Seattle Emerald welcomes Florangela Davila as its new Executive Director, succeeding Michael McPhearson. A longtime journalist and newsroom leader, she brings a deep commitment to community storytelling and equity.

Read more here: https://soseaem.org/4hFjmFZ #SeattleNews

Elon Musk’s Bureaucratic Coup Welcome to the “rapid unscheduled disassembly” of the United States government.

I wrote about Musk and this bureaucratic coup as plainly as I could. There's reporting in here & the particulars are overwhelming but what's happening is so clear: He's not trying to run the federal govt like a software company He's trying to turn it into a political weapon. (gift link)