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SDBaker

@sdbaker.bsky.social
355 followers 127 following 1.2K posts

Let's start with the truth and end with it.

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Reposted by SDBaker
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
(NYT) - Artificial intelligence agents created by Anthropic, acting on their own, tried to gain access to a range of government websites, filled out visa applications on the State Department’s website and sent a fake homicide tip to Philadelphia’s Police Department. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/t...
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The one Trump statement I agree with about the midterms is that people should vote like he is on the ballot.
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 09/10/2026
The South African-born jurist and former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, who is currently an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/10/2026
Trump tries to start a race war: "The once Great State of Minnesota is being taken over by Somali Immigrants ... The Somalians should not be allowed to get away with what they are doing. They view you as weak and stupid people. Fight back Minnesota, fight back!"
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 08/10/2026
ICE has launched a new crackdown just weeks before the midterms. trib.al/Jbg3XAS
trib.al
“Go After Anybody”: ICE Gets Terrifying Marching Orders in California
ICE has launched a new crackdown just weeks before the midterms.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
ICE is already setting record arrests, fueled by a growing push towards arresting people with no criminal records and people who are technically out of status but are checking in with the government and waiting for a bureaucrat to decide their applications. Now they want to ramp up arrests by 50%.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
WHOA. This is big news. Mr. Soliman is a 31-year-old gay man from Egypt who came here at 3 with a green card. He lost his green card after a conviction, but an immigration judge found that he would be persecuted in Egypt and barred sending him there. He's locked in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea now.
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return Ahmed Soliman to the United States, five months after he was expelled to Equatorial Guinea, a country where he has no ties, in a decision that could have far-reaching implications for thousands of others subjected to the Trump administration’s third-country removal scheme.

Arizona District Court Judge John C. Hinderaker, a Trump appointee, ruled that DHS violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and “must facilitate Plaintiff’s release from custody in Equatorial Guinea and return to the United States and must ensure his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to Equatorial Guinea.”
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Daniel Suitor @danielsuitor.com · 07/10/2026
September eviction numbers from @homelinemn.org: Minneapolis remains on pace for its highest number of evictions in decades, tracking 4.8% ahead of 2025 which was already a high-water mark. St. Paul is on pace for a 15% *reduction* in eviction filings year-over-year homelinemn.org/12175/evicti...
Data on monthly eviction filings for Minneapolis and St. Paul

Minneapolis Eviction Filings: January-September 
January February March April May June kJ/ August Sept Total
2023 432 439 494 317 471 430 405 472 444 3,904
2024 281 442 444 449 425 374 497 461 428 3,801
2025 496 521 282 393 417 454 438 433 519 3,953 2026 435 434 452 494 428 478 469 471 480 4,141
Compared to '25 -12.3% -16.7% 60.3% 25.7% 2.6% 5.3% 7.1% 8.8% 4.8%
Compared to average '23-25 up 7.9% -7.1% 11.1% 27.9% 14.0% 5.0% 3.4% 3.5% 6.6%

St. Paul Eviction Filings: January-September
January February March April May June July August Sept Total
2023 306 246 271 232 280 264 280 292 268 2,439
2024 166 203 257 170 269 213 266 233 315 2,092
2025 A 345 257 261 250 237 245 318 233 337 2,483 2026 342 246 281 268 213 74 174 262 241 2,101
Compared to '25 7.7% 7.2% 12.4%
Compared to average '23-25 25.6% 4.5% 6.8% 23.3% 3.7%
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Before he was appointed, Kash Patel was flagged by FBI counterintelligence agents as being deeply enmeshed in influence operations run by the Russians and Chinese. After he took over, Patel began systematically eliminating all Russian and Chinese counterintelligence capacity. What to make of that?
npr.org
As Trump focuses the FBI on immigration, counterintelligence is falling behind
The cuts come as a consequence of President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel's focus on violent crime and immigration, leaving other priorities understaffed.
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Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · 06/10/2026
A year ago, @propublica.org told you immigration agents had detained more than 170 U.S. citizens. We’ve updated our count, and we’ve got all the receipts. The tally: At least 506 citizens detained. Sometimes held at gunpoint, handcuffed, or even deported. projects.propublica.org/american-cit...
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Christina Jewett @by-cjewett.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
NEW: Ken Paxton's office is investigating pediatricians for vaccinating children. He alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation. 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/h...
nytimes.com
Texas Pediatricians Face Paxton Investigations for Vaccinating Children (Gift Article)
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate, has alleged a sprawling profit-driven conspiracy. Pediatricians say the accusations are an attempt at intimidation.
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Minnesota Reformer @minnesotareformer.com · 05/10/2026
Max also published a story Friday about how the HCSO will no longer classify some deputies as “undercover,” which previously allowed them to conceal their body-camera footage from the public — even when they had been doing regular police work. This came after Max’s reporting this summer.
minnesotareformer.com
Hennepin County sheriff conceals bodycam footage by calling officers ‘undercover’ • Minnesota Reformer
Allanzo Johnson had just left a corner store in north Minneapolis when he noticed a black pickup truck pull out behind him. It trailed him for half a dozen blocks and then its police lights flicked on...
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Sahan Journal @sahanjournal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Multiple immigration detainees in Minnesota have been ordered released by federal judges only for them to be immediately re-detained by immigration officers at the doors of the Whipple Federal building.
sahanjournal.com
Catch, release, catch: Inside ICE's new 'farce' tactic
Multiple immigration detainees in Minnesota have been ordered released by federal judges only for them to be immediately re-detained by immigration officers at the doors of the Whipple Federal buildin...
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Of course when Russia said Ukraine had bioweapons labs what they really meant was that they did. There's a lot we don't know about the current situation. Russia should be bringing in experts from the WHO to clarify and advise. Will they? www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
U.S. officials seeking details of reported Russian plague death, quarantines
Officials said they need to learn more about the evolving situation before determining the potential threat to the United States.
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 04/10/2026
Tim Snyder: The term that I came up with… is superpower suicide. I just can’t see an example of a major country losing so much power so quickly as the United States under Trump. We’ve encouraged our enemies and we’ve made our allies not trust us.
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A great piece by Benedicte Callan of @defendpublichealth.bsky.social. www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...
medpagetoday.com
Opinion | Lessons From a Year of RFK Jr. Disinformation
His lies hide an ugly political agenda that is disastrous for public health
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
When historians reflect on this regime, cruelty will be the word most often used to define it. www.commondreams.org/news/trump-dep…
commondreams.org
'Monstrous' US Deportation Hearings for Children Who 'Have No One' Shock Consciences | Common Dreams
Children as young as 3 facing deportation orders without legal representation in immigration court hearings. How can we
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
🤡 Schmitt beclowns himself 🤡 Schmitt concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory that Smith traveled to Atl for a Hawks game and to collude with Fani Willis, & flashed his "evidence" before accusing Smith of perjury. There's just one problem -- his facts were totally wrong. Here's the whole sequence:
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The rise of 287(g) programs has meant that ICE is increasingly using local police as a very significant force multiplier, with up to 1 in 8 arrests of noncitizens in the interior now being carried out by state and local police. This is going to have profound impacts on community relations.
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Allen Orr @allenorr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
$75 billion. 22,000 staff. 2,500 local police agreements. ICE has not softened its approach; it has made mass enforcement harder for the public to see. @urbanviewradio.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever
After public backlash, the Trump administration changed its tactics from ‘siege’ to ‘soft feet’. Now, ICE is everywhere
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Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com · 28/09/2026
In November 2022, Michele Tafoya published an open letter urging Trump not to run again. By August 2024, Tafoya reversed course, declaring, “I have come to like Trump so much more through the years.”
startribune.com
From ‘difficult to accept’ to ‘he’s got a backbone’: Tafoya’s evolution on Trump
The Republican Senate candidate’s podcast shows her shift from discouraging Trump from running to praising his leadership.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 28/09/2026
A warming Earth is accelerating the melting of the planet's two major ice sheets, with five-sixths of the melt not coming from hotter air, but from warmer waters eating away at the ice sheets from below and the sides, according to a study in the journal Scientific Data. to.pbs.org/3UN86kP
to.pbs.org
Earth lost more than 12 trillion tons of ice from Greenland and Antarctica in 47 years, satellites show
A major report has found that 12.5 trillion tons of ice from Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979. The massive glacier melt is mainly attributed to warmer waters eroding the ice sheets from...
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 26/09/2026
Trump’s DOJ claims it has turned over unredacted handwritten FBI notes from four interviews with a woman who alleges Trump sexually and physically abused her as a minor. But there’s a major question about what else Todd Blanche actually handed the judge.
meidasnews.com
Trump DOJ Claims It Complied With Latest Epstein Order in Katie Phang Case
Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered Attorney General Todd Blanche to submit unredacted FBI notes and support disputed victim redactions, while a temporary appellate pause now blocks foreign-language file rev...
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
lol holy shit I wouldn't talk about literally anything else if I was the guy running against him. —"What do you think about trans kids in sp-" —"Did you hear my opponent had his patient, who was 8 months pregnant, arrested in front of her son because she didn't pay a $50 medical bill?"
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Nick Benson @ottergoose.net · 24/09/2026
Our ICE Air tracking work here at MSP is featured in this report; thank you @amnesty-usa.bsky.social 🫡
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Chinese media allowed at WH. American media banned in defiance of a court order.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 24/09/2026
Judge orders Trump White House to restore access to CNN, MS Now and Politico
theguardian.com
Judge orders Trump White House to restore access to CNN, MS Now and Politico
US district judge orders temporary lifting of Trump’s ban on the three media outlets, saying it was likely unconstitutional A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore ⁠White House ⁠access ​to journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico, ⁠saying his ban on the three media outlets was ⁠likely unconstitutional. US district judge Tim Kelly issued his order in a lawsuit that the news organizations filed ‌contesting the ban that the president announced ​on 18 September. Continue reading...
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 23/09/2026
A 36-year-old Costa Rican man whose family says he complained of not receiving proper care for his diabetes is the third detainee in less than six months to die at a U.S.
bit.ly
Costa Rican man complained of lack of care for diabetes before his death in ICE custody, family says
A 36-year-old Costa Rican man whose family says he complained of not receiving proper care for his diabetes is the third detainee in less than six months to die at a U.S.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is a common lie from DHS press flacks. They claim that people who came through CBP One — who registered for an appointment through a government app, went to a port of entry, and were issued a grant of humanitarian parole by a CBP officer letting them enter — "entered illegally." Total nonsense.
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PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 @patriottakes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Trump working hard to lower diesel prices this weekend
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@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Credit to Jon Karl for fact checking Steve Scalise on this 'but Biden took 400 press credentials' bullsh*t. This is MAGA's big talking point on Trump's disgraceful press lockout and it's a lie.
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Corey Rayburn Yung @coreyryung.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
From the official Dept of Education account on X, an endorsement of Bo French's racist tweet about Indian students at a University of Texas football game. Just awful.
A photo of a Texas football game with a largely white audience shown and the caption "Make college football great again."
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 19/09/2026
The AI industry wants you to say "the AI just did that thing on its own!" Like, United Health's AI that's denying a shitload of claims with a 90% error rate? They wanted you to think it's just the AI.
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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 17/09/2026
If I could flag the single most important theme in this piece, it's that when you use AI to replace your writers and pollute the internet with noxious clickbait, you are affecting real people's lives in horrible ways around the globe
As she described her experience with BBM, one former writer began to choke up. “It’s just really difficult… I still really love writing,” she said through tears. “With the current economy, it’s just been really difficult.”

“People need to know that writers and artists are being replaced with AI,” she added.

Asked about the ethical implications of firing writers in the developing world and replacing them with a cornucopia of AI-generated personas that were overwhelmingly presented as white and living in Western countries, BBM didn’t respond.

“I mean, I’m from Southeast Asia,” said a former BBM writer in the Philippines. “I think them hiring from here was always a cost-cutting effort.”

But the firings were “still shocking,” a different Filipino writer added. “And of course, it felt a little dystopian, honestly, to have your writing used to train AI, and then to have that AI replace you.”
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Dylan Freedman @dylanfreedman.nytimes.com · 17/09/2026
A short little piece on a subject that's finally sufficiently in the public interest to write about: A.I. alignment. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/s...
nytimes.com
What Happens When A.I. Stops Doing What Humans Want? (Gift Article)
“Alignment” is the science of teaching A.I. to do what is in line with human preferences, ethics and judgment. But, at times, the systems have gone rogue.
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WIRED @wired.com · 18/09/2026
Anthropic’s CEO says that safety hinges on understanding how AI “thinks.” So far the evidence is disturbing. www.wired.com/story/if-the...
wired.com
If the AI Industry Followed Its Own Research, It Might Have Paused Already
Anthropic’s CEO says that safety hinges on understanding how AI “thinks.” So far the evidence is disturbing.
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Howard Sinker @howardsinker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I can't recall a time when sports has done so much to bring out the worst among us. Violence against women mocked, delusional parents, grifters using sports to beg for media attention. I shared my anger and annoyance in this week's Sports Take before getting to the stuff I'm happier to share.
thedailyagenda.com
sports take | If You’re Not Upset, You’re Not Paying Attention
9.17.26
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Jon Collins @jcollins.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"A Microsoft executive called the training of artificial intelligence models the 'largest theft of labor in human history,' [and] 'an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions.'" www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Microsoft exec called AI the ‘largest theft of labor’ in history, court records show
The quote headlined an unsealed document in the New York Times’s copyright case against Microsoft and OpenAI.
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Minnesota Reformer @minnesotareformer.com · 15/09/2026
Operation Metro Surge led to over 2,300 immigrants leaving the country, according to updated ICE data from obtained by the Deportation Data Project. The new data includes immigrants deported to Laos and Somalia in the months since the surge.
minnesotareformer.com
2,300 immigrants arrested in Operation Metro Surge were deported or left country • Minnesota Reformer
The winter surge of 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minnesota eventually led to over 2,300 immigrants leaving the country, according to updated federal data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enfor...
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Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Of course Alito and Thomas dissent like the whiny pains in the ass they are.
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 15/09/2026
Genuinely an insane paragraph from Sam Alito. “Voter fraud is real and scary and we have to stop it, so the fact that implementing Trump’s mail ballot rule will disenfranchise millions is legally irrelevant.” Brain melted. A right-wing podcaster in a robe. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
___, (slip op., at 9) (internal quotation marks omitted).
As for the equities, the Government has a strong interest
in enforcing the rule, and implementing it will also “en-
hance the visibility of Federal Ballot Mail” in order to better
detect election fraud. 91 Fed. Reg. 54972. On the other side
of the balance, the plaintiff States invoke the practical ef-
fects of implementing the rule close to the midterm elec-
tions. I take that problem very seriously, but it is not
enough to convince me to deny the application.
First, as the District Court acknowledged, the States dis-
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
There have to be so many prosecutions. This all can’t just be forgotten or papered over.
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Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
"Statisticians who are tracking mass deportation said that 287(g) arrests—named for the section of a 1996 law that authorized the program—involving local police went from less than 3% of the total under Joe Biden to about 15% now, and will only climb higher as hundreds of new departments sign up."
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This “game” on the White House website, a version of Snake where you play as a white man in a suit and you run around picking up identifiably black, Asian, and Latino men and putting them in orange jumpsuits, might be the most openly white supremacist thing I’ve ever seen the US government produce
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Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
NEW: The federal prosecutor in MN who pushed for stronger charges against lying ICE agent, Christian Castro, has now been FIRED from his job for doing the right thing. And he's under investigation. I've got the latest details of this perversion of justice & Castro's cases: youtu.be/Ok_4kxkoy7M?...
youtu.be
Trump DOJ PANICS & FIRES Prosecutor After ICE Agent Charges SPARK OUTRAGE!!
YouTube video by Katie Phang
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Page One in Fort Worth:
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
My gosh. Fetterman pretended to be sick to avoid meeting three paralyzed veterans from rural PA…and then went to do a Fox interview on Israel. He agreed to meet a lawmaker who drove from PA to talk about homeless and working people…and then bailed & met pro-Israel Bruce Pearl.
One morning in June, three paralyzed military veterans in wheelchairs from rural Pennsylvania arrived at the office of Sen. John Fetterman for a long-awaited meeting to discuss legislation that would improve their care.
Fetterman's staff greeted them with bad news: The Pennsylvania Democrat had to cancel. He'd told his staff he may have eaten something bad and wasn't feeling well, according to people familiar with the matter.
Less than an hour after his staffers met with the veterans in his place, Fetterman walked into his office, showing no signs of illness. He had an appointment he didn't want to miss, he told staff: an interview on Fox News to discuss Israel and the war in Iran."He was available. He just chose not to meet with us," Williams said.
Even when Fetterman does agree to meetings, he often cancels, according to former staffers.
Also last April, Fetterman agreed to take a meeting with another state lawmaker, Liz Hanbidge, who drove down from Pennsylvania to introduce herself, and to discuss programs that help the homeless and working poor in her county. But when Hanbidge arrived, according to staffers who were present, Fetterman claimed he hadn't agreed to the meeting. The aides spent more than an hour pleading with him to talk to her; staffers eventually met with Hanbidge in his place.
Fetterman did take another meeting that day-with Bruce Pearl, the former college basketball coach and Israel advocate. The pair discussed legislation that would affect college sports, and Pearl thanked Fetterman for his stance on Israel, Pearl said in an interview.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 03/09/2026
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may soon be outfitted with electric shock gloves that can deliver painful jolts when they come in contact with a person's skin. to.pbs.org/4clHZHE
pbs.org
‘A perfect tool for abuse.’ Why experts are concerned about ICE’s $17 million electric shock gloves contract
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may soon be outfitted with electric shock gloves that can deliver painful jolts when they come in contact with a person’s skin. While ICE says the new g...
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 02/09/2026
The brutality and inhumanity of ICE continues to grow www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/w...
nytimes.com
Deportees Recount Harrowing Journeys to Africa: Shackles, a ‘Freezer’ and Blows (Gift Article)
Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 02/09/2026
Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find
theguardian.com
Almost half of world’s farmers poisoned by pesticides every year, experts find
Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalities Almost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found. Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network, found there to be an estimated 402-433m cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm workers every year. Continue reading...
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