iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Great lede, from the @missouriindependent.com, about the secretary of state overseeing the Missouri election. missouriindependent.com/2026/09/28/d...

Screengrab from the Missouri Independent. Quote: "There are rough months in politics.

And then there are months when you get summoned before the Missouri Supreme Court, found in contempt, sued repeatedly, accused by a former employee of retaliating against him for raising concerns about misconduct and singled out for criticism by the highest court in the nation.

"Denny Hoskins had the second kind."

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

While we’re at it, the ambulances also looked cool in WWII. wapo.st/4wqjGiV

Color photo of the Dodge 4C54, the U.S. Army’s main ambulance in World War Two. The ambulance is Army green, with a big Red Cross on a white background, as well as a white star. It is parked on the grass. A green field tent is in the background.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

President Trump’s new plane comes with a constant reminder of the Reflecting Pool built in. 🦆🔵 🟢 www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/u...

Paragraph from the New York Times:

“The interior design of the plane includes a mix of leather and various shades of tan and gold. The plane houses a conference room with four captain’s chairs around a square desk, as well as a television and a framed print of a duck swimming in the Reflecting Pool on the wall.”

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

This chart says "Alert! Alert!" >The last 30-year Treasury to carry a 5% interest rate was sold in 2007, on the brink of the global financial crisis and US economic recession. Gift link from Bloomberg: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Line graph from Bloomberg, captioned: "US 30-Year Bond to Pay 5% for First Time Since 2007: Interest rate set based on result of new-issue auctions."

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Rating Trump on his handling of inflation and prices: --80% of Texas independents disapprove --25% of Texas Republicans disapprove "a significant decline" in approval since February texaspolitics.utexas.edu/blog/april-p...

Vertical bar chart from University of Texas polling; "Donald Trump Job Approval: Inflation and Prices (April 2026). The article explains: "On inflation and prices, the 56% who disapprove of his performance is statistically indistinguishable from August and October 2025 polling, but again, represents disapproval highs in the time series among both independents (80% disapproval, 9% approval) and Republicans, among whom one in four say that they disapprove of how Trump is handling the issue of prices and inflation, with 59% approving. This result represents a significant decline from just February, when 70% approved of his handling of prices and only 17% disapproved."

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

The drop in *Republican* support for Congress (while it has been Republican-led) is quite something.

A line graph from a Gallup poll question titled "Partisans' Approval Rating of 119th Congress, 2025-2026."

A solid blue line shows approval among Democrats dropping from +20 to about 3.

A dotted line shows slightly higher approval among Independents at first, then dropping from about 25 to 11.

A red lines shows approval among Republicans peaking above 60 percent in the first few months of 2025, then falling to 20 percent now.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Today, I am fully up for being charmed by this. "We had sung to the whales, and they had remembered." www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-m...

Caption from Seattle Times: A narwhal swims near the sea ice edge on Inglefield Fjord, near Qeqertarsuaq Island, outside the village of Qaanaaq, Greenland. (Kiliii Yüyan, 2023)

Photo shows tail of narwhal diving in an open stretch of water.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Happy John Donne Day, to all who celebrate. "Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines, and silver hooks." on and on and on and on. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44094/...

Text from "The Bait," by John Donne:

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun;
And there the 'enamour'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Reckon the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate will next work on health care in ICE custody?

Screengrab from Tucson.com showing one headline, the opening image for a video, and a second headline or caption over the video.

First headline reads: "Florence ICE detaine dead after untreated tooth infection, official says."

Image from video shows an apparent press conference by lawmakers. The speaker at the mic is a woman wearing a cowboy hat. Behind her are two men, one of them in a cowboy hat.

The second headline or caption, placed over the video, reads "Republican-controlled Arizona Senate votes to outlaw Sharia law."

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

DHS says everyone on the ICE flight stuck on the tarmac yesterday in the blizzard had meals, meds, bathrooms, etc., and dignity. What do you suppose they mean by dignity? www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/23/m...

Screengrab from the Boston Globe, showing a statement from DHS. The text reads:

“Detainees are being provided catered meals, continuous access to drinking water, and appropriate restroom facilities for the duration of the delay,” the DHS spokesperson said. “All required prescription medications are being supplied at no cost, and medical personnel are available to provide proper medical care. ICE personnel are conducting regular welfare checks to ensure everyone’s well-being, comfort, and dignity while awaiting departure.”

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Then there's Minnesota, where a federal judge yesterday held a U.S. prosecutor in contempt. The prosecutor expressed deep regret, blamed the workload for their treatment of someone they arrested, and promised to fix it. www.startribune.com/federal-judg...

Screengrab from a Star-Tribune article. Text reads:

According to court records, Soto Jimenez is a Mexican citizen who has lived in Big Lake, Minn., since 2018 with his spouse, who is a legal resident. Federal agents arrested him on Jan. 14 at his job.

Provinzino had granted Soto Jimenez’s petition challenging his detention and ordered his release by Feb. 13. Four days later, Erin Lins, Soto Jimenez’s lawyer, wrote to the judge that ICE had instead released him from a facility in El Paso, Texas, with no way to return to Minnesota.

Lins said the Texas ICE facility did not return his driver’s license and Mexican Consular ID card.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Reckon anyone told ICE they were going to a state with its own medal count in the Winter Olympics? www.startribune.com/2026-winter-...

Screengrab from the Star-Tribune. It says "Follow live updates below on the Olympics with Minnesota ties. Then it shows a chart labeled "Minnesota medals," with categories for alpine skiing, curling, Nordic skiing, biathlon, hockey, snowboarding and speedskating.

The chart shows a bronze medal for alpine skiing, a silver for curling, and a bronze for Nordic skiing.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

"Modern man is presently having a rendezvous with chaos, not merely because of human badness, but because of human stupidity." --The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., from a sermon called "Love in Action." www.mcnallyjackson.com/book/9780807...

Screengrab from a Martin Luther King, Jr., sermon:

So we have a mandate both to conquer sin and also to conquer ignorance. Modern man is presently having a rendezvous with chaos, not merely because of human badness, but because of human stupidity. If Western Civilization continues to degenerate until it, like twenty-four of its predecessors, falls hopeless into a bottomless void, the cause will be not only its undeniable sinfulness, but also its appalling blindness. And if American democracy gradually disintegrates, it will be due as much to a lack of insight as to a lack of commitment to right. If modern man continues to flirt unhesitatingly with war and eventually transforms his earthly habitat into an inferno such as even the mind of Dante could not imagine, it will have resulted from downright badness and also from downright stupidity.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

If I could just be real for a moment, I know this might be a minority opinion. I know it is not same experience for everyone. But I truly, unbreakably love New York City and New Yorkers when it’s cold.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

A brief remarkable portrait of life in Minneapolis, through the lens of Bicycle Retailer.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

From Ellard Studios in Lewiston, Maine, which has invited people to help fold origami bunnies for Liam, for sale in a fundraiser tomorrow. www.instagram.com/p/DUHRX5AAaZl/

Photo shows five origami bunnies made from colorful paper, on a table in an arts studio.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

"The inescapable reality is that the Federal Government is engaging in a dangerous and ongoing assault on the State of Minnesota and its residents." -- Letter today from 22 state attorneys general to Attorney General Bondi and DHS Secretary Noem.

Screengrab from the state attorneys general letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem:

The inescapable reality is that the Federal Government is engaging in a dangerous and ongoing assault on the State of Minnesota and its residents. You and other federal officials demand that we
ignore the unlawful acts that our eyes clearly see and accept pretextual justifications or outright fabrications instead.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Headlines on the Minneapolis Star-Tribune right now point toward a lack of trust.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

The family's lawyer describes federal agents using the mom for leverage. www.mprnews.org/live-updates

Screengrab from hometownsource.com:

Maria Velasco Hurtado was detained on her way to work. According to attorney Brian Clark, agents took her to her home and offered the family inside the house an ultimatum: "Either come outside immediately and be detained if you want to see your mother anytime soon, or stay in that house, in safety, and have their mother taken away and flown out of the state away from them."

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Among the first arrests in Maine: A mother of four who had just dropped her kid off at high school. Her older daughter says her mom has a pending asylum application. I've heard this before, that people who are trying to follow the law are getting picked up. themainemonitor.org/mother-of-4-...

Screengrab from the Maine Monitor:

Agents wearing police tactical vests detained Micheline Ntumba, a Portland resident, before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday after Ntumba dropped off one of her four children at Portland High School, according to her 20-year-old daughter.

Plamedi Sifa, the daughter, said agents she believed to be from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement followed Ntumba from the high school back to the parking lot of their apartment near Deering Oaks Park in Portland. Ntumba noticed them following her and called Sifa, the daughter said.

Sifa was on the phone with her mom and watching from their apartment above the parking lot as the officials took Ntumba’s phone and wallet, and ended the phone call with Sifa. The agents did not ask for identification or give any explanation before they got Ntumba out of her car and put her in their vehicle, Sifa said.

Two videos taken by people nearby and posted online showed agents wearing vests with the word “police” on them standing with Ntumba in the parking lot.

Ntumba is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has no criminal record, according to her daughter. Sifa has an older brother, younger brother and younger sister. She said her mother has been in the United States for almost 10 years and has a pending asylum application.

The Maine Monitor ran Ntumba’s name through TLOxp, a background check system from TransUnion, which found no criminal record. The Monitor could not talk with Ntumba’s lawyer, and ICE did not immediately answer questions about why it had detained Ntumba.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

The Minneapolis paper tracks down what we know about the (very small) portion of people taken by ICE whose names the administration has released -- about 240 of 3000 or so people. www.startribune.com/the-trump-ad...

Screengrab from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The majority of the immigrants on the list are men from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Despite the Trump administration’s justification that Operation Metro Surge is aimed at stopping fraud in social services programs perpetrated by Somalis, only 23 linked to Minnesota are from Somalia.

In about a third of the instances, the Minnesota Star Tribune wasn’t able to fully verify the alleged criminal histories documented by the federal government or find a record of the individual at all.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

On the question of reparations in Fulton County, Georgia. www.ajc.com/news/2026/01...

Screengrab from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Republican County Commissioner Bridget Thorne asked if the reparations task force analyzed “benefits that were provided to the Black community to try to help repair the harms.”

“Oh no,” Sims-Alvarado replied. “That data does not exist because the act has not occurred, which is what we’re asking for now.”

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

NYT editorial board, January 3: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...

$Screengrab from a New York Times editorial: If there is an overriding lesson of American foreign affairs in the past century, however, it is that attempting to oust even the most deplorable regime can make matters worse. The United States spent 20 years failing to create a stable government in Afghanistan and replaced a dictatorship in Libya with a fractured state. The tragic consequences of the 2003 war in Iraq continue to beset America and the Middle East. Perhaps most relevant, the United States has sporadically destabilized Latin American countries, including Chile, Cuba, Guatemala and Nicaragua, by trying to oust a government through force. Mr. Trump has not yet offered a coherent explanation for his actions in Venezuela. He is pushing our country toward an international crisis without valid reasons. If Mr. Trump wants to argue otherwise, the Constitution spells out what he must do: Go to Congress. Without congressional approval, his actions violate U.S. law.$

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

That was from memory. This is the proper text.

Screengrab of a poem:

The City Is So Big by Richard Garcia

The city is so big
Its bridges quake with fear
I know, I have seen at night

The lights sliding from house to house
And trains pass with windows shining
Like a smile full of teeth

I have seen machines eating houses
And stairways walk all by themselves
And elevator doors opening and closing
And people disappear.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

In the smaller towns of Washington State, they're still counting up the Democratic wins -- a lot of council seats, a lot of legislative seats. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

Screengrab from the Seattle Times. Full text reads:

In Longview, two Democratic-backed city council candidates defeated more conservative opponents, including ousting the town’s incumbent mayor. In Sunnyside, progressive and Democratic-aligned candidates flipped city council seats. And in Camas, a former Republican “America First” congressional candidate lost her city council seat to a Democratic-endorsed challenger.

Those results capped a Democratic sweep in nine special legislative elections, including expensive contested senate races in Pierce and King counties. In Bellevue, longtime city Councilmember Conrad Lee, who donated $50,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee, also lost to a 27-year-old Democratic challenger.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Heard in Chicagoland (Mount Prospect): “They came and took my dad 10 minutes ago.” www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/08/c...

Screengrab from the Chicago Tribune. Highlight begins at "About two weeks later".

Full text of screengrab:
She was yelling “a lot of not-safe-for-work things,” she said.

She remembers one interaction, when an agent that day asked her if she was “OK with criminals in the neighborhood.”

“You’re the criminals,” she told them. “You’re the ones kidnapping people off the street.”

About two weeks later, Porter received a text from a neighbor. ICE was back. Porter made her way to her neighbor’s house but by the time she arrived the agents were gone. It left locals feeling uneasy and angry again. On the way home, Porter noticed a young man mowing a nearby lawn. She flagged him down and offered a warning:

“I just want you to be safe,” she told him. “ICE is in the area.”

But he already knew. What he said in response has lingered in Porter’s mind.

She can still hear him saying it:

“They came and took my dad 10 minutes ago.”

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Health insurance stories like this one from Maine, times all 50 states: "her premiums would jump from $478 to $1,262 per month... "more than $15,000...of her $65,000...income as a self-employed mental health counselor." www.pressherald.com/2025/10/31/h...

Screengrab from the Portland Press-Herald. Text reads:

Merrill, 59, of North Berwick, said the letter indicated her premiums would jump from $478 to $1,262 per month if ACA tax credits, which help pay health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, expire this year. That would amount to more than $15,000 per year for health insurance, of her $65,000 annual income as a self-employed mental health counselor.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

This sounds like a problem.   Gift link: wapo.st/48Iuil5

Screengrab from the Washington Post:

The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that “the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens” is threatening “the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.” “Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow,” with increased funding for immigration enforcement from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Labor Department said in the Federal Register

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

I am delighted and proud to have a sticker of my wife’s “Life After Cars” book on my new notebook. Book hits the stores Oct. 21, available for preorders now at lifeaftercars.com #lifeaftercars

A purple notebook with two stickers:

One with a drawing of four red tomatoes on the vine and three white flowers with red centers.

The other shows the cover of a new book, “Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.” Lifeaftercars.com

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Yesterday in London, President Obama described the autism spectrum and why there has been a big jump in the number of people who know they're autistic. Worth seeing. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Obama began by invoking “the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproven.”

“The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic — which, by the way, itself is subject to a spectrum, and a lot of what is being trumpeted as these massive increases actually have to do with a broadening of the criteria across that spectrum so that people can actually get services and help,” Obama said. “All of that is violence against the truth.”

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Senator Mike "Rounds is trusting the Trump administration to move $9.4 million in funding from an undisclosed account to more than two dozen tribal radio stations" utahnewsdispatch.com/2025/08/28/r...

Screengrab with first part of second paragraph highlighted:

Unlike most government spending deals, the handshake agreement South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds negotiated with the White House budget director in exchange for Rounds’ vote on the rescissions bill wasn’t placed in the legislation, so it never became law.

Instead, Rounds is trusting the Trump administration to move $9.4 million in funding from an undisclosed account to more than two dozen tribal radio stations in rural areas of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin that receive community service grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

But neither Rounds’ office, the Office of Management and Budget, nor the Bureau of Indian Affairs responded to emails from States Newsroom asking when the grants would be sent to those radio stations and whether the funding levels would be equal to what they currently receive.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

If you read the news out of Alaska, you start to recognize this formulation: -Trump cuts something Alaska wanted. -Murkowski feels betrayed and wants the decision reversed. -Sullivan and Begich are out hunting crickets. www.adn.com/business-eco...

Murkowski joined her Alaska colleagues in voting for the bill, which contained unique provisions to benefit Alaska, such as potentially more oil development and revenue on production from federal lands.

But Joe Plesha, a spokesperson for Murkowski, said the senator does not agree with the environmental agency’s decision.

“We disagree with EPA’s termination of all obligated funding under the Solar For All program,” Plesha said.

“The reconciliation bill explicitly rescinded unobligated balances and we had assurances from the agency through the morning of the announcement that no Alaska recipients would be harmed,” he said.

“After an investigation and potentially litigation, we expect EPA to reverse course and reinstate previously obligated funds for this program,” Plesha said.

Murkowski has previously complained that she felt “cheated” by the Trump administration on a concession in the bill she won to support wind and solar projects through a temporary, one-year retention of Biden-era tax credits.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich were unavailable for comment Friday about the Solar for All termination.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

The glories of Washington State, fouled by the decisions of Washington, D.C. www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoor...

Screengrab from the Seattle Times:

The Enchantments are a wildly popular hiking, backpacking and climbing destination in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Central Cascades. While crowds overwhelming the fragile alpine zone are a longstanding issue, this year’s severe staffing shortage is new. The lack of a ranger presence has prompted a crescendo of voices to call for an emergency restriction that limits access — before the problems cause irreparable harm.

Visiting the area last week, five weeks into the peak Enchantments season, was palpably worse than a similar visit last year. Pit toilets overflow with human waste, garbage mars backcountry trails and illegal campfires threaten a bone-dry forest. Social media-driven crowds are flocking to Colchuck Lake, many underprepared for the trek. Search-and-rescue calls, including one for an Aug. 3 fatal drowning, tax county resources. Camping permits issued via an oversubscribed lottery mostly go unchecked.

Local government and recreation groups in the Wenatchee River Valley directly attribute the deteriorating state of affairs to staffing cutbacks at the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the Enchantments.

Last year, the Forest Service employed 11 wilderness rangers to patrol the Enchantments and several thousand acres beyond in the Wenatchee River Ranger District. This year, the district is down to one as a result of Trump administration staffing cuts that followed a Biden-era hiring freeze on seasonal workers.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Parenthetical of the day. Good to know Putin at least hasn’t said he wants Alaska along with a lot of Ukraine? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/u...

Screengrab from the New York Times, with the last sentence highlighted and in parentheses. The screengrab reads:

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, himself invited such comparisons in a speech to his people hours after Mr. Trump raised the specter of deciding Ukraine’s fate in a one-on-one meeting in Alaska, territory that was once part of the Russian empire. (While Mr. Putin has made clear that he regards Ukraine as rightful Russian territory dating back to the days of Peter the Great, the Russian leader has not called for the reversal of the $7.2 million sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, during a period of financial distress for the empire.)

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Reporting from the aftermath of an ICE raid in Omaha last month. The local paper says ICE denied the women's accounts, "citing a policy to protect parental interests." omaha.com/news/local/c...

An extended quote from the Omaha World-Herald:

When she said she was here on a work permit and had legal status, they told her she’d be deported anyway, she said.

A mother in her early 40s said an agent presented her with a piece of paper and demanded she sign over custody of her kids.

"He got really aggressive," she said.

She said he told her that if she didn’t sign, he would go to her house and pick up her children.

A 46-year-old mom said agents pressed her for information and asked if she had children. When she said yes, she said they threatened to detain her 7-year-old daughter.

A mother in her late 40s said an agent called her “a disgrace” when he discovered she had a son and asked if she had kids just to ruin this world.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

A story from my college in Mississippi: "in the immediate aftermath of last November’s election... Bowley canceled that day's class to allow the three Black students to 'mourn and process this racist fascist country.' " For which he was fired. www.clarionledger.com/story/opinio...

Millsaps College’s reluctance to reinstate Bowley is all the more surprising because of the remarks made by Millsaps President Frank Neville in welcoming the participants and audience to this year’s mayoral debate in March, which was supported by the League of Women Voters and held at Millsaps College.

Neville stated that as an academic institution, Millsaps welcomed hosting the debate because comparing different perspectives instilled critical thinking in students. Some in the audience were taken aback, because they knew of the treatment that had been meted out to Bowley for expressing his contrarian perspective on the direction of the country.

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Laura Conaway @oleta.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Finally, someone else who eats the apple, core and all. Thank you, David Souter, for keeping your beat. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/u...

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