Annelise

it took an expensive, coordinated effort & a lot of people saying “this doesn’t matter” to get from a bathroom ban costing one state $400 million & a gubernatorial race to “trans people must turn in their documents which become invalid in a few hours or face fines & potential jail time” in 10 years.

Rebuilding a stadium that has one of the Bay Area’s two major faults running right through it was an engineering feat, to be sure. Getting sign-off on bond refinancing that stretches the payments out until 2112 (repeat, 2112)? Mind-boggling

Cal’s sports spending soars to over $165 million in school’s first year in ACC A recent financial report offers a glimpse into the finances of Cal athletics at the dawn of a new era in college sports. Expenses have already climbed more than 30% over three years.

I don’t know if this is juicy enough to merit inclusion in the @fieldofschemes.bsky.social weekly wrap-up but the news from Berkeley is not encouraging for Cal Athletics, and a contributing factor is the fiscal mess that Memorial Stadium has become

www.sfchronicle.com/sports/colle...

I was going to wear one of my Team USA jerseys to the game to celebrate Laila Edwards (tomorrow night is the Sharks’ Celebration of Black Excellence and you can’t get much more excellent than Edwards) but in light of all the compound fuckups on the men’s side, naaaah

Macklin Celebrini brings Olympics momentum to Sharks: ‘Now the whole world knows’ Macklin Celebrini, 19, returned Wednesday to the San Jose Sharks and a landscape transformed by his incredible performance at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

@annkillion.bsky.social is absolutely on target in this piece. I’ll be at the Tank tomorrow night to see what the Sharks come out of the Olympic break with www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annki...

An official letter from the Kansas Division of Vehicles dated February 23, 2026, with a redacted recipient address. The letter notifies the recipient that due to the enactment of Senate Bill 244, all Kansas driver's licenses and IDs must reflect the holder's sex at birth. It states that the recipient's current credential will become invalid immediately upon the law's publication on February 26, 2026, with no grace period. The recipient is directed to surrender their current ID to receive a new one matching their sex assigned at birth. The document concludes with instructions on how to appeal the notice if received in error, along with contact information for the department.

Kansas is sending letters to trans people telling them that their licenses will be revoked as of tomorrow and that they risk arrest for driving on a suspended license.

This is pure cruelty.

www.erininthemorning.com/p/kansas-sen...

I found this to be an especially powerful commentary on the state of publishing today. Reaches beyond the topic of criticism/recommendation/whatever it is when someone says “hey! look at this!”

Text that reads: "Starting March 25, 2026, we will remove the option to restrict purchases from third-party sellers for list items. When this change takes effect, gift purchasers will be able to purchase items sold by third-party sellers from your lists and your delivery address will be shared with the seller for fulfillment. This change will provide gift purchasers with access to a wider selection of items when shopping from your lists. Important note: When gifts are purchased from your shared or public lists, Amazon needs to provide your shipping address to sellers and delivery partners to fulfill these orders. During the delivery process, your address may become visible to gift purchasers through delivery updates and tracking information. To help protect your privacy, we recommend using a PO Box or non-residential address for any list you share with public audiences."

Sex workers! Amazon is changing their policy when it comes to sharing gift lists. Your address may be visible to purchasers if you have a public Amazon wishlist.

The U.S. Hockey Men Spoil The Fantasy | Defector To be a U.S. Olympian is to represent the best that your country has to offer. That sounds extremely lofty when it’s written out like that, but I think that’s really how it works, ideally, if you’re t...

On the ideals of the Olympics, the fiction of hockey romance, and the real world: defector.com/the-u-s-hock...

Hearty congratulations to all the about-to-be-even-more-conflicted Winnipeg Jets fans

OH COME ON

The town is heading in the right diirection bsky.app/profile/sfch...

Flavor Flav is among women's hockey team fans outraged by presidential snub The rapper, who also serves as the official "hype man" for multiple U.S. Olympic teams, invited the female hockey players to Las Vegas for a "real celebration."

This is how you cover women’s sports (quote @thefrankiedlc.news extensively)

www.npr.org/2026/02/24/n...

Are. They. Out. Of. Their. Minds?!

I bet Mike hasn’t been this grateful for an appointment in a long time

The Best and Worst of USA Hockey’s Brotherhood, All at Once For just a few hours, Americans were able to enjoy double hockey gold. Then politics came crashing through the men’s locker room door.

Hockey culture is frustrating, maddening and has parts of it that are so just fuckin' beautiful that it makes you want to fix all the bad stuff. Its really interesting seeing that intersect with a lot of new viewers coming from a fandom space. But thank god for this piece:

My first reaction is: not enough

My second thought is I hope somebody keeps an eye on the gallery to see who all leaves early

Twenty U.S. men’s Olympic hockey players to attend Trump’s State of the Union address The majority of the roster arrived in Washington on Tuesday morning via a military jet that picked them up after a celebration in Miami.

usa women’s hockey > usa men’s hockey

An Uber logo in the window of a rideshare vehicle in Los Angeles on Aug. 20, 2020. Photo by Mike Blake, Reuters

Opinion | Uber’s propaganda claims its initiative will protect people from “billboard lawyers,” but that’s far from the truth. Uber’s real goal is getting richer by dodging accountability and driving a wedge between victims and lawyers.
bit.ly/3OJqIil

📝 Jamie Court & Nick Rowley
📸 Mike Blake

Shouldn’t this cross somebody’s line, someplace?

Mass media: report this, please.

I’m looking at you, @npr.org – an organization I don’t think is yet compromised on this subject. Yet.

This is sooooooo fascinating to me because

1. you couldn't go to beijing 2022 lol
2. the last us men's team hyped at this level was 2010 and I cannot tell you how many time I've worn my David Backes jersey from that team because I've worn it everywhere, it was so easy to buy, too.

Check out West of the West, for example (literally, check it out; there’s a good chance it’s available at your local library)

We’re told that this thing was ghostwritten by Mark Arax, a Central Valley kid like me who has written some of my favorite books about California’s past and the state of the state today

It would be fun to know what he’s thinking about this book’s critical reception

For an insightful analysis of painting yourself into a corner, read on:

Democratic party chair and senator clash in 'petty' and 'unprofessional' public spat At a convention themed "Together, we win," two Democratic heavyweights got into a public fight over an endorsement that exposed party divisions.

So this is fun: endorsement follies in my new vaguely salamander-shaped Congressional district

(which is where the “mander” in gerrymander comes from) calmatters.org/politics/202...

Segment from an article from The Athletic: "U.S. team general manager Bill Guerin, also the Wild's GM, told The Athletic via text that he's fine with Wild players Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber going to the State of Union and White House if they want to. He said he's not sure what other teams will decide. The Wild resume their season Thursday night at Colorado. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic that players can decide on an individual basis if they want accept the invitation and then it'll be up to their individual teams whether or not to grant permission. Trump said if they can work it out, "I would be honored to have you." Patel, invited into the locker by his friend, Guerin, responded, "I got it, boss. I got it. ... I'm on it. I'm f-ing on it." Trump told the players, "You're going to be proud of that game for 50 years as you grow older".

This is the guy (more importantly GM of an NHL team and the National team) that orchestrated the Patel appearance btw: www.nytimes.com/athletic/706...

It was always going to happen this way. Those of us in the media space have been a) warning new fans that this was what men’s hockey culture was really like, & b) warning the NHL that they should maybe not alienate all the new fans they said they were excited to be receiving. And yet, here we are!

The far better question will be whether they get an invitation to the White House (with or without the other national team) and what the players do with it

This goes for all the Olympic athletes, especially medal winners

I see folks here pouncing on news that the USA women’s hockey team was invited to the SOTU and declined.

C’mon, people. The SOTU is *tomorrow night.* Most of the eastern seaboard is snowed in. It’s ridiculous to think you could get the team together and into DC in time, whatever the politics