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Bill Franko

@billfranko.bsky.social
177 followers 113 following 0 posts

Political & economic inequality, class politics & policy. Associate Professor of political science at WVU. #FirstGen www.williamfranko.com

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Reposted by Bill Franko
Drew Engelhardt @amengel.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Handy tool for design stage choices here (from another author team on power for interactions in experiments) intxpower.com
intxpower.com
INT×Power
Web site created using create-react-app
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Charles Franklin @pollsandvotes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Gallup ends presidential approval polling. There are plenty of alternatives but having one firm back the 1930s was a great continuity. Here is my last update of their series. RIP. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 29/01/2026
Finally got around to a bit of research I'd been meaning to explore, and: There is no documented instance of an ICE officer being identified and assaulted while off duty because he wasn't masked. www.pbump.net/o/ices-excus...
pbump.net
ICE’s excuse for wearing masks has never actually manifested
There have been incidents of harassment and threats. But there are no apparent incidents in which identified ICE officers have been assaulted off-duty.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional! ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The Gravamen of the Disclosure

4. The gravamen of the disclosure is as follows: 
a. By memorandum dated May 12, 2025 (“the May 12 Memo”), Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter into certain people’s homes without a judicial warrant, consent, or an emergency.

b. Specifically, in the May 12 Memo, the Acting ICE Director authorized ICE Agents to rely on Form I-205 (which is not a judicial warrant) to enter the residence of an alien subject to a final order of deportation, without consent, including by “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”2c. While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
It is in fact illegal under CIPSEA (44 U.S.C. 3561 et seq.) if we’re still keeping score. Penalties up to 5 years in prison and up to $250K fine.
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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today. This could be you.
Distraught woman says ICE killed her wife in video after deadly Minneapolis shooting
"They killed my wife," the distraught woman says, adding, "They shot her in the head."
An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman who was driving an SUV in Minneapolis on Wednesday. / Screenshot/@Breaking911"They killed my wife. I don't know what to do," the woman says through sobs in the footage, with a damaged SUV visible in the distance behind her. "We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head," the woman cries.
"We have a six-year-old at school," she says, almost unable to breathe, as a chaotic scene in which federal officers prevented at least one doctor who was on the scene from assisting the shot victim unfolds. "We're new here," the distraught woman says in despair.
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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
January 6 in History Wrote this two years ago: “If the insurrectionist-in-chief returns to power without ever facing any real consequences and while explicitly declaring his intent to establish a vindictive autocracy, then January 6 will have been successful.” And here we are.
steady.page
January 6 in History
Was it a key moment in the republic’s eventual demise or a milestone on the road to democracy’s ultimate triumph? The meaning of January 6 is yet to be determined
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Sam Levin @samtlevin.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
NEW: An Irish tourist visiting the US was jailed by ICE for 3 months after overstaying 3 days due to medical issue. Thomas agreed to be deported, but instead went to federal prison where he recounted horrific conditions + no medical care. “Nobody's safe from the system if they get pulled into it"
theguardian.com
Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’
Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation
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Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Remember the recent middle-of-the-night apartment building raid where children were dragged outside naked & zip-tied in the street while black & Latino residents were _sorted by race_ and piled into separate vans while their apartments were ransacked & robbed? That raid? So it resulted in 0 arrests.
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
The largest solar project in Nevada has been canceled amidst the Trump administration's federal permitting freeze. It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power. heatmap.news/sparks/esmer...
heatmap.news
Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says
It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Out of the blue, Trump called the Norwegian finance minister to ask when he would get the Nobel prize suggesting he would impose tariffs if he did not www.dn.no/politikk/fre...
dn.no
Kilder til DN: Trump tok opp nobelpris i tolltelefon med Stoltenberg (+)
Ut av det blå, mens finansminister Jens Stoltenberg gikk på gaten i Oslo, ringte Donald Trump fra Det hvite hus. Han ville ha Nobelprisen – og diskutere toll.
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 08/08/2025
The White House is taking new steps to undermine every international student at our universities. It has approved a new rule restricting student visas to 4 years max. That's not long enough for PhD students, or about half of undergrads, to finish their degree. Likely to enter force within days.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
ICE detained a veteran and U.S. citizen for three days. They didn’t let him contact his family or a lawyer. They didn’t let him change or shower. They didn’t give him a reason for his detention. Under this regime, no one is safe. apnews.com/article/us-a...
apnews.com
Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone
A U.S. Army veteran arrested during an immigration raid at a California marijuana farm says he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle on his way to work.
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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Lawyers for ICE are increasingly hiding their identities in court. This is completely unprecedented. “We’re not really doing names publicly,” said Judge ShaSha Xu — after stating her own name and those of the immigrants and their lawyers. theintercept.com/2025/07/15/i...
theintercept.com
ICE Lawyers Are Hiding Their Names in Immigration Court
ICE attorneys fighting to deport immigrants are able to obscure their identities — no masks required.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
NEW: Sec. Noem has now admits "last mile" disaster communications weren't up to par in the Texas catastrophe. But while bodies were still being recovered on Tuesday DHS canceled a $3 million grant focused on improving precisely those kinds of "last mile" comms. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dhs-c...
talkingpointsmemo.com
DHS Cancels Extreme Weather Comms Grant While Bodies Still Being Recovered in Texas
As more than a hundred fatalities have been confirmed in Texas flash...
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Big Data Kane @cmwitko.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
People who think there is going to inevitably be a big pro-Dem backlash against Medicaid cuts should read this article. You have to remember there is an entire proganda apparatus that will blame the Dems for the effects of these Republican cuts. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The Politics of Rural Hospital Closures - Political Behavior
Who do citizens hold responsible for outcomes and experiences? Hundreds of rural hospitals have closed or significantly reduced their capacity since just 2010, leaving much of the rural U.S. without a...
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years. NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Trump administration cuts to NSF will result in more than 200,000 FEWER people per year involved in basic science, training, and education - what should have been the next generation of US scientists. This isn't even eating your seed corn, it is setting your seed corn on fire and salting the earth.
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Read through this thread about the appeals court opinion just released by the fourth circuit, written by famous conservative Judge Wilkinson. "This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear."
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Bone chilling. A court ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia to stay in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he was illegally removed. Trump is pretending he won the ruling 9-0. 1/ You may not think this case means anything to you. But let me tell you why it does.
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
This feels like the defining image from this year’s Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting. The National Science Foundatipn paid for a booth in the exhibit hall. But the booth sits empty, because NSF has been DOGE’d, and there is no one left to send.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
As a candidate, Trump promised to end surprise medical billing.   Just weeks into his second term, DOGE has slashed the federal office charged with implementing a bipartisan law cracking down on surprise medical bills. Yet another Trump lie.
npr.org
Trump vowed to end surprise medical bills. The team working on that just got slashed
Trump's first round of staff cuts to federal agencies eliminated dozens of positions at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, in charge of implementing the No Surprises Act.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Authoritarians threaten to arrest and deport protestors against the regime in power. Not democratic leaders.
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Megan Ranney MD MPH @meganranney.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
This is horrible for the future of American science and innovation and economic wellbeing and all the things Pitt is not a small institution It has nearly 10K grad students It is where Salk discovered the polio vaccine
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden "represents the agency in immigration court hearings where judges decide whether an individual is removed from the country"
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
On Friday night, HHS ordered CDC to take down all flu vaccine campaign materials from its website. Materials are starting to come down. For example, a campaign explaining that flu shot can reduce flu severity from "wild to mild" is now offline. Left image is from Friday, right is now Meanwhile...
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Scoop: The databases powering DOGE.gov are insecure, and people outside the government have already pushed their own updates to the site to prove it: www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...
404media.co
Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website
"THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN."
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Ben Casselman @bencasselman.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
The partisan swing in inflation expectations since the election is WILD. Yes, you're reading the chart right -- Republicans on average expect *zero* inflation over the next year. (Data here is through January.) h/t to @mikedonnelly.bsky.social for flagging this.
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Conservative budget wonks (Manhattan Instiutte, Tax Foundation) confirming that this is a consittutional crisis. Not liberal hysteria. Happening right now.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Do older Americans know that Elon Musk now controls access to their Social Security and health insurance?
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
So, um, one of the top people at OPM (Office of Personnel Management) just graduated from high school in 2024 — but he did have a summer role in an Elon company. www.wired.com/story/elon-m...
wired.com
Elon Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over the Office of Personnel Management
Sources tell WIRED that the OPM’s top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir. One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin.
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Heidi Przybyla 🎤✍️ @heidireports.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Full & unconditional pardons. More than 100 officers were injured. Rioters beat and shocked officer Fanone with a stun gun at the base of his skull. Fanone lost consciousness, which his body camera captured on video. Others yelled "kill him with his own gun." apnews.com/article/capi...
apnews.com
Man who dragged officer into 1/6 mob gets more than 7 years
A Tennessee man who dragged a police officer into a mob of rioters during the U.S. Capitol attack has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
This is an excellent longer read that shows the power of university boards and the way a few key people can change the direction of an entire institution and their local area www.teenvogue.com/story/north-...
teenvogue.com
What Happened When the Far-Right Took Over This Community College
The takeover of North Idaho College reveals the Far-Right’s blueprint for destroying higher education.
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Big Data Kane @cmwitko.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Blog post on research with Toby Heinrich on how self interest and knowledge of AI shape preferences for AI regulation @ssncentralpa.bsky.social #AI #artificialintelligence
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
All the ‘Free Speech!’ centrists, leftists-turned-conservatives, Intellectual Dark Web types will have nothing to say about this dangerous and authoritarian trend. (They’re too busy policing placards at campus protests.)
nytimes.com
Trump and His Picks Threaten More Lawsuits Over Critical Coverage
The small flurry of threatened defamation suits is the latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Super happy to announce that the State Democracy Index 2.0, covering 2000-2023, is done and about to be publicly posted (probably tomorrow). Hope fellow nerds find it useful.
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Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Hey folks, I have updated the list of WV Journalists covering the Mountain State (WV) for folks who might be interested. The latest includes @blackbygod.bsky.social. Give them and others on the list a follow if you want to stay up to date on WV, Appalachian politics, and policy. go.bsky.app/DfnRjWW
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Kris-Stella Trump @kstrump.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I'm teaching a course on American public opinion in the spring. Do you have recommendations for new-ish papers to use in the weeks on media / social media / trust? Not my direct area of research, would love to hear what others use. #polisky
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Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Interesting looking paper on how the economics of fracking diffuses through socially connected localities regardless of geographic proximity - transient labor seems the root of it. EnergySky
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Matt Grossmann @mattgrossmann.bsky.social · 20/12/2023
Coming in 2024!
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Alex Hertel-Fernandez @awhf.bsky.social · 22/11/2023
👋🏻 Sharing two new pieces I've written recently reflecting on my experience in the Administration working to get more community participation in the "hidden levers" of government that can make a real difference for policy! Here's the first one, in the Forge: forgeorganizing.org/article/usin... 1/
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Jack Santucci @jacksantucci.bsky.social · 02/12/2023
I am looking for teaching work. Currently based in US Northeast. Long list of courses in my repertoire: American parties, Congress, urban politics, state politics, comparative institutions, methods, etc. Pipeline: party-in-elections, effects of electoral reform on descriptive representation. CV 👇
jacksantucci.com
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