Mark Abraham

If there’s going to be a wave of unemployment, it’s probably time to talk about how a billion dollars spent on public transportation produces 16,419 job-months (even more if cycletracks and pedestrian infrastructure is included), whereas a billion dollars spent on freeways produces 8,781 job-months.

Graphic that shows that among republicans, support for school vaccine requirements has dropped from 79% in 2016 to 52% in October 2025.

Wanna see a visual on the result of the Republican attack on public health?

I’ve got you covered. This is from Pew Research Center’s most recent survey, showing a 27% drop in Republican support for school vaccine requirements from 2016-2025.

ct mirror data chart

ct mirror data chart

ct mirror data chart

From today's @ctmirror.org: " #Connecticut residents are struggling more with mental health issues and some basic needs than they were in 2018, according to a survey released this month by @datahaven.bsky.social, a nonprofit organization producing data for the state." ctmirror.org/2025/11/20/c...

It was a 4% spread before. Maybe doubling people’s health insurance premiums, bragging about starving 20,000,000 US children, and imposing a 107% tariff on pasta isn’t popular?

Yale Budget Lab has estimated the cost of the Trump tariff checks "is about twice as large as the total revenue that will be raised by the administration's tariff hikes."

Point is, it's not a dividend, it's borrowing from the future.
budgetlab.yale.edu/research/est...

Agree — it seems that successful cities create more housing units of all types by taxing all luxury consumption/income. To the extent IZ is a regressive tax that would be one huge problem, though not necessarily a deal-breaker, for the other reasons I am curious about. @charlesincities.bsky.social

Interesting. Not sure if production is only goal. @charlesincities.bsky.social writes how in YVR’s taller towers, residents said the addition of subsidized housing (through IZ) was the “best thing happening” in their area because it drew families with kids, which created more of a sense of community

One of the best articles I've seen on the subject. There are a lot of ongoing discussions about AI in education (some constructive; others dangerous), and I think most of those discussions are pretty bad, on balance. Glad to see some good stuff.

“Leaving consumers the choice to engage intimately with A.I. sounds good in theory. But companies w/vast troves of data know far more than the public about what induces powerful delusional thinking. A.I. companions that burrow into our deepest vulnerabilities will wreak havoc on our mental health”

"32 outstanding students will commence their studies at Oxford in October 2026, selected from a pool of 965 candidates who had been nominated by their colleges. Harvard, Yale, MIT and the U.S. Military Academy led the way with three U.S. Scholars each." www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/office-of-th...

This is a better chart for rise in renter cost burden since 2019, especially for renters >$45K (many families earning under that amount would not be able to afford to pay more anyhow) -- so the rising concern is higher than an average of all renters might suggest www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/housing...

data chart

Large increase in renter cost burden
www.jchs.harvard.edu/state-nation...

I understand the idea it's a tax, so curious if there is empirical evidence that IZ reduces production. I also wonder how researchers might model the value of any secondary impacts that IZ might have, such as on broader political support for (or opposition to) new housing, regional segregation, etc

Ungrading seems to be working?

"I learned that 90 percent of the final grade is now based on a trio of three-hour written exams. Homework is worth 0 percent... Strong scores on the first exam suggested that students were indeed learning, just without human help."

The approach seems to be changing so fast just from one year to another. "I learned that 90 percent of the final grade is now based on a trio of three-hour written exams. Homework is worth 0 percent... Strong scores on the first exam suggested that students were indeed learning"

By the end of the spring semester, Gwen reached a breaking point with AI. “I felt like I didn’t deserve to be a Yale student,” she said. She thought that she was throwing away her education and the scholarship paying to support it. She decided to quit using ChatGPT altogether. She didn’t ask AI to help her sentences flow or to strike the right tone. She didn’t even use it to brainstorm. “I think that’s a skill you need to have on your own. That’s the core of being original, anyway.” Gwen recalled completing her final assignments without AI, sitting in the middle of a crowded library so that she felt watched. “I struggled. And they weren’t very good.” It was only then, she said, that she started to understand just how much learning she had missed out on. ∎

New feature article from TNJ (nation's best student magazine): Inside Yale’s Quiet Reckoning with AI thenewjournalatyale.com/2025/10/insi...

“People have left, expertise is gone, networks and collaborations have been dissolved entirely — research is rotting.”

“It is a pattern she plans to continue: Spend SNAP funds early, when she gets them, and invest in foods that can be frozen or shelved for the long haul.

“I’m not quite out of the woods, mentally,” Ms. Mayne said, adding, “I think I’m still in the mentality of starvation.”

Although some #SNAP benefits will be restored as the government reopens, 58,000 families in #Connecticut are still projected to lose SNAP benefits (losing an average of $194/month per household) due to H.R.1. Learn more about how these changes impact each CT and legislative district on our site.

Katie Wilson elected Seattle’s next mayor Wilson took a 1,976-vote lead over Bruce Harrell. With a maximum of 1,320 ballots remaining, it is mathematically impossible for Harrell to catch up.

Katie Wilson has been elected Seattle's next mayor
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

The Penny Dies at 232

“With the penny’s demise, coin enthusiasts’ worried eyes now turn toward its longtime associate, the nickel. Its purchasing power has also shrunk to nearly nothing, and it costs more than a dime to make.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/b...

Even if the shutdown ends, "5.3 million American families, including 58,000 Connecticut families, will lose at least $25/month in #SNAP benefits due to policy changes in H.R.1. These 58,000 Connecticut families will lose an average of $194 in benefits each month." www.ctdatahaven.org/reports/food...

“To the extent states sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” wrote Patrick A. Penn, a top official at the Agriculture Department. “Accordingly, states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025.” David A. Super, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said it would not be “legal” for the government to claw back benefits that it had already provisioned without affording people due process.

Some states got full benefits out after the courts ordered them to. The White House is saying that was illegal. But it would also be illegal to claw back those benefits. The net result is that some SNAP users got full benefits, and some did not depending on how aggressively their state acted.

Low-income households denied SNAP due to administrative barriers suffer downstream consequences. Process-related denials increase debt, delinquencies, and decrease credit scores, from Tatiana Homonoff, Min S. Lee, and Katherine Meckel www.nber.org/papers/w34434

Trump's winning 2024 coalition has evaporated Claims of a conservative realignment of non-whites, the working class, and young voters have been highly exaggerated

Dem gains in this week's elections erased the inroads Trump made with non-white, young, and low-income voters in 2024. In fact, the R-to-D shift from 24 to 25 is double Trump's gains from 20-24. Claims of a GOP political realignment have been highly exaggerated
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trumps-win...

New data from @datahaven.bsky.social ’s large annual survey in #Connecticut collected from August through October 2025, including on SNAP, healthcare, housing, evictions, immigration, and quality of life www.ctdatahaven.org/blog/2025-da...

Families are making impossible trade-offs 51% of respondents have already skipped meals 40% say they have had to buy cheaper or lower-quality food Nearly 40% are delaying bills to put food on the table, while 42% are relying on help from family and friends 80% say they have not been able to prepare for the possibility of another delayed deposit 49% expect to visit a food pantry next week – up seven percentage points from those who planned to visit in the first days of November

SNAP surveys SNAP users. Already half of them are saying they are skipping meals.

Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total...

By this time next week, the estimated deaths due to the illegal destruction of USAID and the shuttering of its aid efforts will breach 400,000.

More than 260,000 will be children.

Source: www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...

That Extra ICE Funding Could Buy a Lot of School Meals Whatever their views on America’s immigration laws, most Americans probably have no idea how much the US is spending to enforce them. That’s in part because congressional Republicans and President Don...

The One Big Beautiful Bill dedicates $170 billion to immigration enforcement, or $12,142 per unauthorized immigrant. By comparison, the federal government spends $8,990 per child each year.

Money talks; Congress is saying kids aren't as important.

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Four military contractors spent $89 billion on buybacks and dividends in four years. Taxpayers funded $58 billion of it, based on each company’s government revenue. Stock buybacks and dividends, by contractor, in billions of dollars: Lockheed Martin, 34; Raytheon (RTX), 31; Northrop Grumman, 14; General Dynamics, 11; total, 89. Estimated stock buybacks and dividends funded by taxpayers: Lockheed Martin, 25; Raytheon (RTX), 14; Northrop Grumman, 12; General Dynamics, 7; total, 58. Data: 2021 to 2024. Taxpayer-funded buybacks and dividends estimated by multiplying reported buybacks and dividends in company 10-K filings by each firm’s share of revenue from U.S. government sales. Company totals may not match column totals due to rounding. Chart and analysis by Stephen Semler.

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon/RTX, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman spent $89 billion on stock buybacks and dividends over the last four years.

Two-thirds of that came from US taxpayers: