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Julia O'Malley

@jomalley17.bsky.social
893 followers 196 following 68 posts

Alaskan. Writer. Editor. Mama. Cook. James Beard🏅🏅winner. Alaska food 📖: “The Whale and the Cupcake.” Find me at juliaomalley.com

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Reposted by Julia O'Malley
Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 15/09/2025
If you need a little hope this morning - the current tween trend involves decorating clothespins with affirming messages, then clipping them on friends' backpacks when they're not looking. Here are a few that my 11-year-old decorated this weekend ❤️
Clothespins decorated with paint markers and pens, with affirming messages. Like "bee you" with a drawing of a bee. And "you're sweeter than pie" with a checked motif. And "you can do it" and "unleash your creativity."
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Shannon Kelly Donahue @shannonkellydonahue.com · 19/08/2025
Apparently I wasn't the only one who found the appearance of Halibut Olympia on the menu for the dictators luncheon to be one of the more surreal points of the day. Thanks to @jomalley17.bsky.social for bringing this absurdity to national attention! 😆 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/d...
nytimes.com
At the Alaska Summit, an Unlikely Local Dish Gets a Cameo
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
This week’s newsletter with all eyes on Anchorage:
open.substack.com
Anchorage is a circus. This lunch spot will regulate your cortisol.
Notes on: Secret Service guys, grilled zucchini pizza, astrological portals, killer food-cart tamales, the last of the Beach Boys and a hipster Alaska guidebook
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James Brooks Cascade @alaska.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
The wireless emergency alert system has gone off in Juneau as the Mendenhall Glacier prepares to flood. #Alaska #Juneau
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Got to help out with this story — so curious how they’ll work out the logistics for this visit in the middle of tourist season.
nytimes.com
Trump and Putin May Get a Cold Reception From Some Alaskans
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Curious about my Alaska food newsletter? Here’s what subscribers are saying:
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
This week in the newsletter: Notes on SALMON, the women’s page in Alaska’s old newspapers, dry-brining for dinner, a new way to fillet, Thai Village, delicious tonics, gluten-free peach muffins, quick pickles, working women, local news and sourdough. juliaomalley.substack.com/p/i-found-an...
juliaomalley.substack.com
Anchorage's first newspaper recipe 🗞️ 🍽️
Notes on: SALMON, dry-brining for dinner, a new way to fillet, playground b-ball, Thai Village, gin and tonics, gluten-free peach muffins, quick pickles, working women, local news and sourdough
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 14/07/2025
On today's episode of "The Daily," a family physician in western North Carolina explains what she thinks will happen to her patients as a result of Republicans' domestic policy bill.
trib.al
One Rural Doctor on the Real Cost of Medicaid Changes
A family physician in western North Carolina explains what she thinks will happen to her patients as a result of Republicans’ domestic policy bill.
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Jeff Weiss @passionweiss.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
What form of sociopathy required them to need a court order to stop doing this?
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
If you are grilling salmon tonight, make a little extra for breakfast. 🍳❤️ www.adn.com/alaska-life/...
adn.com
Turn last night’s salmon leftovers into savory hash and eggs with fresh herbs and Tabasco cream
Leftover grilled fish makes an easy, beautiful high-protein breakfast.
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Climatologist49 @climatologist49.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
There was a visitor to the Mt. Shishaldin volcano webcam in the eastern Aleutians about a week ago. 🐻
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difficulthuman.bsky.social @difficulthuman.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
First actual paper book I have finished in over a year. Thanks, @jomalley17.bsky.social ! I know I’m late to read it but now I’m looking forward to trying out the recipes! Loved how the book captured a sense of what it is to live in Alaska through the lens of food.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that. The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one. This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

I work as an elder and hospice caregiver, which I am oddly passionate about. I can love on them shamelessly and no one complains about my codependence. It's a win-win situation. 

Many of my caregiving colleagues complain about the repetitive questions and, sometimes reactions, of the elderly, especially when those patients happen to read the newspaper, especially with the current downward spiral of our country — as if these people haven't lived through enough horror...

I love my dementia peeps, but sometimes wonder if there's a Guinness Book World Record for how many times an hour a dementia patient can repeat the same question — it's got to be in the hundreds. At least with small children, they ask different questions. Dementia patients will get stuck on one short question and ask it until you can interrupt their train(carousel) of thought and successfully redirect their attention. That carousel is pretty manic sometimes. 

A couple days ago, I picked up my mail from the post office and drove over to the nursing home to take (let's call her "Miss Daisy") Miss Daisy out for a drive. Before we took off on our road trip, to the end of The Road and back, in our landlocked little town (Juneau, Alaska), I set my copy of The Onion down in front of her. 

Over our two-hour excursion, tiny Miss Daisy read that front page at least a dozen times and each time she would snicker, giggle, and guffaw, then put it down on the dash board and, a minute later, discover it anew. I think it was the best afternoon of my life. We don't often hear them laugh and when they do, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard. 

...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the really important work all of you do. You make the world a better place.
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New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 23/06/2025
“The rapid rise in autism cases is not because of vaccines or environmental toxins, but rather is the result of changes in the way that autism is defined and assessed — changes that I helped put into place,” writes the psychiatrist Allen Frances.
nytimes.com
Opinion | Autism Rates Have Increased 60-Fold. I Played a Role in That.
The addition of Asperger’s disorder to the D.S.M. had enormous unintended consequences.
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Judge Luttig @judgeluttig.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
The Wall Street Journal had a piece last night that the Judicial Conference of the United States — the policy making body for the federal judiciary — is discussing whether the Judiciary should have its own armed security force rather than rely on the U.S. Marshals for federal judges’ protection.
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Kyle Hopkins @kylehopkinsak.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
An Alaska village of 160 people raked in $1 million a month from a payday-loan style business. But here’s who was making the real money … www.adn.com/business-eco...
adn.com
A 700% APR lending business tied to Dr. Phil’s son is dividing an Alaska tribe
Tribal lender Minto Money has boosted the economy of an Alaska village. But some tribal members are appalled by the millions it’s made off desperate borrowers — much of which, lawsuits allege, has gon...
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Alaska Public Media @alaskapublic.org · 16/05/2025
Filipino organizations in Alaska have worked to bring a documentary to Alaska called "Nurse Unseen." The film was shown at the Anchorage Museum Wednesday to spotlight a group of immigrants whose service and sacrifices are often overlooked.
alaskapublic.org
Film about Filipino nurses resonates in Alaska
A documentary on how Filipino nurses were among the unsung heroes of the pandemic comes to Anchorage.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
In this week’s Alaska food newsletter: how to love Anchorage, Walmart's immaculate vibes, perfect avocados, the People's Carrs, the smoothest hummus, Tang ice cream, chicken cutlet, ordering Top Bop, "Feeding Ghosts,” peeping other people’s shopping carts. juliaomalley.substack.com/p/join-the-f...
juliaomalley.substack.com
Join the fall-in-love-with-Anchorage challenge
Notes on: Walmart's immaculate vibes, perfect avocados, the People's Carrs, the smoothest hummus, Tang ice cream, ordering Top Bop, "Feeding Ghosts" and other people's shopping carts.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
This fellow is such a treasure — a smart, helpful, highly valuable resource.
ktoo.org
Alaska could lose a beloved climate communicator if NOAA cuts happen
The draft cuts would eliminate several research institutes the agency funds in Alaska, including the one where Rick Thoman works.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
This week, a word on meal trains — In Alaska, when our friends and neighbors grieve, we bring over loaves of bread and jars of soup and fillets of fish and backyard honey and, sometimes, we just set them on the porch. This is a custom here, in this dangerous place where everybody knows everybody.
open.substack.com
In Alaska, when my neighbors grieve, this is what I bring to their doorstep
Notes on: meal train comfort food, the loss of a friend, an excellent breakfast burrito, Italian bread soup, homemade falafel, hummus tricks, Pati Jinich in Alaska
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 24/04/2025
NEW: The total loss of NOAA’s office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research —a nerve center of global climate science, data collection and modeling — represents a setback for climate preparedness that experts warn the nation may never recover from. By @abrahm.bsky.social
propublica.org
White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On
Potential funding cuts for NOAA and its research partners threaten irreparable harm not only to climate research but to American safety, competitiveness, and national security.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
I had a lot of fun eating a messy halibut sandwich and talking about Alaska’s food culture with Pati Jinich last summer for her show “Pati Jinich Explores PanAmericana.” It airs tomorrow night on @alaskapublic at 8 p Alaska time or it can be streamed on the @pbs app. Here’s a clip!
pbs.org
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana | What Makes Alaska… Alaska? With Author Julia O’Malley | Episode 1
Anchorage-based author Julia O’Malley and Pati Jinich discuss what makes Alaska unique.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
Support Alaska’s public radio and television stations!
alaskapressclub.com
From the board: Public media should have public investment
March 28, 2025 Alaskans, When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act into law in 1967, he said it would “enrich man’s spirit” as we pursued excellence in America. He e…
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
“Some FAA personnel have been implicitly threatened with having their lives ruined by potential criminal charges from the Trump Justice Department if they blab about Project Lift, according to a person familiar with the situation…
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Jo Ann Gruber @jgruberak.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
alaskapublic.org/news/alaska-...
alaskapublic.org
‘Incredibly damaging’: Yukon premier urges Alaskans to speak out against Trump’s trade war
In an interview with KHNS, Ranj Pillai said Alaskans’ support for Canada has been widely appreciated.
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Rick Thoman @alaskawx.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
We are pulling out the stops to save our program. If possible, please join us May 1 at 2pm for listening session. Tell us why ACCAP matters to you so we can pass it up. Register at the link: if that time doesn’t work for you, fill out our short survey. Basi’. #climate uaf-accap.org/event/specia...
uaf-accap.org
Special ACCAP Listening Session | ACCAP
Why are we having this listening session? ACCAP may be losing funding and would no longer be able to provide trustworthy information about environmental change to Alaskans. Your stories will help u…
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Rick Thoman @alaskawx.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the org I work for, is funded through OAR. We’re in our 20th year of providing Alaskans with reliable and actionable info. If OAR is destroyed, so is ACCAP.
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akmk @akmk.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
and Alaska's Congressional delegation, especially Sullivan and Nick Begich, are pulling that zipper down.. 😥
thewalrus.ca
Tariffs Are Unravelling the Lifeline Between Yukon and Alaska | The Walrus
For one Northern community, the cost of friendship with Trump's America is too high
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
In this week’s newsletter: Taking a clear-eyed view of the possibility of tariffs and a potential Canadian toll on top of inflation in a place with some of the most expensive groceries in the country, I made a shopping list for your Alaska pantry. open.substack.com/pub/juliaoma...
open.substack.com
Here's a tariff times shopping list for your Alaska pantry
Notes on: Which groceries are about to get more expensive here, green goddess dressing, joining CSAs, arroz caldo, matcha red bean cake, Arctic Entries tickets and a new Medium Build song
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
In this week’s newsletter: Anchorage’s crispiest hash browns, not waiting for breakfast, Wild Scoops’ latest pie and other local food notes. (Plus: I’m trying to get to 1000 subscribers!)
juliaomalley.substack.com
Anchorage's best diner hash browns bingo
Notes on: breakfast restaurants with no wait, wild berry lamb, crispy parm potatoes, Instant Pot polenta, kitchen thermometers, Wild Scoops' latest pie and sake I can't get off my mind.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
For @adn.com I’m making my family’s classic ‘70s bunny cake but swapping out the box mix for a vintage olive oil carrot cake recipe with coconut, pineapple, walnuts, golden raisins and cream cheese frosting.
adn.com
Make a bunny cake, but swap the box mix for a vintage carrot cake recipe
With walnuts, golden raisins, coconut and pineapple, this cake turns a kid-pleasing dessert into something adults will also enjoy.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
In this week’s newsletter: Google alerts me when my name shows up online so I can tell when my stories publish. This is how an obituary for a woman with my exact same name came zinging out of the ether into my email and shot me in the heart. (Plus swanky poke, DIY refried beans, and bunny cake…)
juliaomalley.substack.com
A '70s bunny cake as an act of self love
Notes on: A new Anchorage poke restaurant, pickled beets, marshmallow bunny ears, local seeds, homemade refried beans, a Rothko and strangers with your same name
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Alaska lays off 30 public health workers as Trump cuts ripple through state government alaskabeacon.com/briefs/alask...
alaskabeacon.com
Alaska lays off 30 public health workers as Trump cuts ripple through state government • Alaska Beacon
Public health saw the first big layoff to hit state government after a wave of cuts at the federal level and among grant-reliant nonprofits.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
In this week’s Alaska food newsletter, notes on: perfect little lunch spots, hamburger healing, kimchi, copy-cat Starbucks lemon loaf, Costco flatbread, a 🤯 croissandwich and Journey songs at hockey games.
juliaomalley.substack.com
A treasure map to hidden Anchorage lunch spot gems
Notes on: Hamburger healing, kimchi, copy-cat Starbucks lemon loaf, Costco flatbread, a 🤯 croissandwich and Journey songs at hockey games
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Corinne Smith @corinne-smith.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
This story is so darling and well written, from Robert Woolsey with KCAW in Sitka. I can't even pick a favorite line ! What a guy, "now a hale and hearty eighty-year-old" - Burgess www.kcaw.org/2025/03/31/a...
kcaw.org
After five decades, Sitka's pro bono veterinary practice closes its doors - KCAW
Sitka’s oldest veterinary practice has closed its doors. Dr. Burgess Bauder retired on January 1, after 51 years serving Sitkans and their pets. That Bauder’s practice was unusual is an understatement...
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
In this week’s newsletter, notes on: A mail carrier's funeral, disaster-preparedness baking, Kenai dip, TikTok sushi bake, Costco cocktails and chicken wings you've got to try 🍪🌋
juliaomalley.substack.com
Work potlucks in a fractured world
Notes on: A mail carrier's funeral, disaster-preparedness baking, Kenai dip, TikTok sushi bake, Costco cocktails and chicken wings you've got to try 🍪🌋
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
😬
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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
“One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. *** He “began to whimper,” as his head was roughly shaved, “folding his hands in prayer as his hair fell.” He “asked for his mother & cried as he was slapped again.”
time.com
What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced
Exclusive photos of the arrival of Venezuelan detainees deported from the U.S.
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Eva Holland @evaholland.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Signs of the times: the Haines Borough Assembly in Haines, Alaska, has passed a resolution recognizing Canadian sovereignty. www.hainesalaska.gov/media/88586
WHEREAS, the nations of United States and Canada, where they meet at 59°27'02"N, have enjoyed a peaceful and mutually beneficial relationship for more than 100 years; and,
WHEREAS, the Tlingits of the Chilkat Valley and the Southern Tutchone of the Lower Yukon established family and trade bonds for centuries that are still in place today; and,
WHEREAS, the modern-day interests of Haines, Alaska and the cities and villages of the Yukon Territory are often similar and, in some cases, identical; and,
WHEREAS, our federal status as separate and sovereign nations serves as complementary to our mutual efforts by establishing a partnership of equal and autonomous members; and,
WHEREAS, this historic partnership serves as an honorable example of international peace and cooperation; and,
WHEREAS, the friendship, trust and affection we hold for our Canadian neighbors extends to their identity as citizens of the nation of Canada.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Haines Borough fully and sincerely recognizes and supports the sovereignty of the nation of Canada, and recognizes the historic trade and relations of tribes on both sides of today's border.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
washingtonpost.com
Amid ‘DEI’ purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser
Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers and other minority service members were also erased.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
www.axios.com/local/salt-l...
axios.com
Navajo Code Talkers get "DEI" label as military info disappears under Trump order
Also vanishing: The Civil War regiment from "Glory," women pilots from WWII and a Medal of Honor winner.
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Anchorage Daily News @adn.com · 17/03/2025
A draft lawsuit floated to attorneys general in several states argues Congress must call a constitutional convention over the national debt. Alaska is the only state listed on the draft. (Via Wisconsin Watch and ProPublica)
adn.com
How a push to amend the Constitution could help Trump expand presidential power - Anchorage Daily News
A draft lawsuit being floated to attorneys general in several states argues Congress must call a convention over the national debt. But the legal theory mixes and matches petitions from states dating ...
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years.”
apnews.com
Trump demands unprecedented control at Columbia, alarming scholars and speech groups
The Trump administration has delivered an extraordinary ultimatum to Columbia University, threatening to permanently end federal funding to the school unless it cedes control of an international studi...
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Rick Thoman @alaskawx.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
What I did today. #Alaska alaskapublic.org/shows/progra...
alaskapublic.org
What cuts at NOAA could mean for Alaska | Alaska Insight
We discuss what a reduction in service at NOAA could mean for Alaska.
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 15/03/2025
Struggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on unproven remedies endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and postponing doctor visits until the illness has worsened.
nytimes.com
Keeping With Kennedy’s Advice, Measles Patients Turn to Unproven Treatments
In West Texas, some with severe illness have not been taken to a doctor until their conditions worsened, officials said.
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NPR @npr.org · 12/03/2025
The president of the American Bar Association says that the Trump administration is targeting judges and lawyers who make decisions it disagrees with.
npr.org
American Bar Association president speaks out against attacks on judges and lawyers
The president of the American Bar Association says that the Trump administration is targeting judges and lawyers who make decisions it disagrees with.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Alaska part of this suit 👇 wapo.st/3DxOwR5
wapo.st
Disabled Americans fear losing protections if states’ lawsuit succeeds
An ongoing lawsuit challenges Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which legally mandates access and accommodations across wide swaths of the public.
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New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 09/03/2025
"The answer to a politics of scarcity is a politics of abundance; a politics that asks what it is that people really need and then organizes government to make sure there is enough of it," writes our columnist Ezra Klein.
nytimes.com
Opinion | There Is a Liberal Answer to Elon Musk
Right-wing populism thrives on scarcity. The answer is abundance. But a politics of abundance will work only if Democrats confront where their approach has failed.
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
In this week’s Alaska food newsletter — my favorite old school Anchorage restaurant dishes, DIY breakfast focaccia, when Golden Donuts are freshest and what not to buy at Costco.
open.substack.com
Anchorage restaurant dishes that never get old
Notes on: Four favorite old school menu items, Golden Donuts, DIY breakfast focaccia, trying to eat at Eyetooth, halibut Olympia and one thing *not* to buy at Costco
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Julia O'Malley @jomalley17.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
They Saved Taxpayers Billions. Trump Fired Them Anyway. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump Purged These Watchdogs From Government
President Trump promised to investigate waste and fraud in the government, but he’s fired the watchdogs who did exactly that.
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