From the Fox News National Security correspondent: "It looks to me like the US military is going to war."
Geospatial, Technology, and Data Lead, Mapping Prejudice. Previously: Star Tribune, Reveal. Racial covenants, public history, mapping, data journalism. Team St. Paul.
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From the Fox News National Security correspondent: "It looks to me like the US military is going to war."
(This type of 4,500-word story only exists in our city because Racket exists, and Racket only exists because of YOU: racketmn.com/products)
Again I am annoyed to report that incorporating testing in your development does actually really help.
The NRA is more on the side of the trans community than Gavin Newsom
We’re looking for a developer-journalist to join @propublica.org’s News Applications team. You would write code, analyze data, build interactives — all in the service of public interest journalism. Check it out: job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...
Today I learned in the Strib opinion section that a U of M doctor of Obstetrics and Gynecology gets to be an expert on implanting AI into guns, but if people comment on their actual areas of expertise, they get in trouble. Fun!
I know the Twin Cities unit voted earlier this week, and maybe the other units' votes were due today. I think the Daily article may have been confused. I heard earlier that they were not going to ask people to stay away from campus, but we'll see!
It's just a sports ban. It's just a bathroom ban. It's just a healthcare for kids ban. It's just a military service ban. It's just a federal jobs ban. It's just a university housing ban. It's just a passport & visa ban. It's just one Constitutional right. It's just your status as free citizens.
So either no local news outlet has noticed that the Teamsters at the U of M might strike tomorrow (other than a confusing Minnesota Daily article), or I am missing something.
New: Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them. www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Holy shit: Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors, who said that top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status. www.hcn.org/articles/fir...
“They just see us as little toy soldiers to put on the street to show some muscle.” Alex, a National Guard recruiter who requested anonymity to speak freely, told Mother Jones that the DC mission has deterred potential recruits and pushed soldiers to their breaking points.
THEY VOTED TO RESTORE THE IMLS FUNDING. This isn't the end. It's nowhere near the end. But the House and Senate subcommittees voted to restore the IMLS in their budget markups. Full House budget markup is tomorrow.
homeschooled alumni have been saying this, and it's bad
Oh god the new Zotero is all cheery and design-y no no no.
And the thing is, I also see the same good people internally fighting back with other stories. But the Strib is still the Strib, and 'refusal to learn' is one of the core values.
Look, I know I'm back on the Strib cranky posts, but it really seems like a week where they are doing quite a bit of harm: giving 'gun rights' people platforms as experts without interrogating their positions, lots of coverage of who the shooter was, lots of photos of kids...
Are you planning to add that to this story??? www.startribune.com/rep-tom-emme...
Them: “Cities are all rotting hellscapes!” Cities:
Fuck you, dude.
They still haven't charged Vance Boelter with terrorism, have they?
Did it, easy.
Thread:
Has anyone been covering what's going on with active duty/National Guard recruitment/re-enlistment rates? My hunch is that none of this is what people signed up for and it must be having an impact, but maybe I don't want to know?
I like how in this article the avowed gun "enthusiast" is allowed to be an expert, but he does not appear to have been asked any questions about whether this country's gun laws are to blame for these continued shootings. Super weird fetishization of gun culture that is treated as normal.
Also: Shoutout to django-debug-toolbar, your kinda needy but ultimately live-saving friend.
I learned this because simple selects were taking forever while list views were somehow faster.
A fun thing I learned today is that if your Django/Postgres foreign keys somehow no longer exist due to a dump/restore or other weirdness, Django doesn't really check if they exist. But you can manually set db_index=False, migrate, then remove it, and they will get rebuilt.
I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do. Just shut up. Stop peddling bullshit. You should be fired.
Blue states that sued kept most CDC grants, while red states feel brunt of Trump clawbacks
Hey so with possible new details I’m a bit more worried about this. This should be a time of mourning and trying to force action for gun reform, but also be to mindful of where we are now. Don’t panic, just be aware and talk to your neighbors. I love you Minneapolis.
Frey: And don't just say, this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.
Update: it got funny again
In order to build a new and better world we all have to start imagining ways in which the chains of the past can be discarded and one of these chains is the idea domestic weapons manufacturers have inserted in our law and minds that access to their products is a protected human right.
Chances are, so did the person who wrote this headline. March 1987.
When I was still at the Strib there was a lot of talk of reforming how police stories are covered. But apparently tweeting the scanner is still fair game. Look, I want details ASAP too, but there's nothing to distinguish this from spammy crime apps.
Nothing is going to improve in this country unless we start saying out loud that yes we need to take the guns away. We also need massive investment in mental health and drug treatment, and WE NEED TO MEANINGFULLY IMPROVE PEOPLE'S BASELINE WELLBEING.
A reminder at awful times like this
AFSCME workers rally at the U of M's Coffman Memorial Union for a contract after five months of negotiations, they're calling out what they see as exorbitant salaries for U leadership.
It's important to understand that he singles out Black women because there are few negative consequences for him when he does. It's his most frictionless lane for bullying. The broader public has shown him few, if any, will step up to defend us, and it's only ramped up since his first term.
Some people are more interested in the hypothetical suffering of the computer than the actual suffering of human beings
When do we get to talk about how the people who jumped yet again for the tech football should probably not be leading our institutions?
Should I drop public history and give my life to "thermal spray?"
Is that good
The thing is, it’s a more important piece of white American history.
Yes. Once you start seeing this (Institution X probably wanted do this conservative thing anyway but now can blame it on Trump), it's everywhere. It's not capitulation, it's agreement. "We can stop doing this thing we started doing from 2014-2020 because of woke/progressive/anti-racist pressure."
Threatening people with internment in *checks notes* Little Tokyo near the Japanese American Museum is *really* dirty work.
First Twin Cities T-shirt shop that can go big with a great "Sell the Team" design is gonna do well...
I can't read the full article but heartily agree with the sentiment.
The University of Minnesota’s Teamsters announced Thursday morning that the union has filed an intent to strike with the University as labor negotiations and discussions surrounding a new bargaining agreement have stagnated.
My favorite fact of the day is that UMN has developed a model for detecting beaver dams called EEAGER: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
I wrote last week about how the tech dream is ending for mid-career workers. This is a really good companion piece about how entry level tech jobs are vanishing, too, and the Silicon Valley gold rush is coming to a close: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/t...
Bravo -- I've spoken in some classes here and it's always a pleasure! And St. Catherine University in St. Paul has been Mapping Prejudice's most dedicated collaborator. It's also appropriate, since we can cite many examples of these small private schools being surrounded by racial covenants.
it is not about sports. it has never been about sports. it is about banning trans people from public life entirely AT BEST, and at worst, forcing them into situations that will endanger their lives. this is why we don't play along with the "just asking questions" sports bullshit
Antonia Aguilar Maldonado, a 25-year-old Salvadoran woman, remains in ICE detention in Minnesota more than two weeks after she was arrested by federal agents in St. Paul while on her way to work.
I'm losing it over this interview from WBEZ www.instagram.com/reel/DNGMdkB...
Seriously, this framing is like "Mayo has the most stethoscopes. Some of them might be sitting in janitor's closets and some of them might be by Fisher Price, but they sure have a lot of them!"
You know the funny thing about comparing AI to a PhD is that the *main* thing you have to do to earn your PhD is to contribute *new* knowledge to your field. Which takes years of study and practice. It’s almost to opposite of what these tools are and are capable of.
What's happening to the PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES of the @wnba.com is disgusting. Online misogyny, desperate for virality in an increasingly hateful digital space, moves IRL and disrupts the play of a PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUE. My latest for @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social. www.jezebel.com/stop-betting...
Is more algorithms good? How so? Do these algorithms work?
EVERYBODY REMAIN CALM.
Hey kids, commencing for a time of beginning at midnight and proceeding thence forward in time 24 hours, it's metes and bounds Thursday.
OK, surveillance state, you got me, I'm on board.
The Norman barons would like a word, sirs.
In order to stay sane while researching KKK newspapers from the 1920s, it helps to notice when it's clear they don't expect anyone to know anything. Today's example: article attributing all great things to "Anglo-Saxons" starting with that great "Anglo-Saxon" triumph, Magna Carta.
And thinking of my friends who are being told they definitely are not allowed to dream big in the ways they deserve.
Yeah I can't say I'm surprised. But it's still heartbreaking to watch people sell their souls in ways it seems clear they will later have to try to defend from the judgment of history.
Columbia University disciplined more than 70 students for participating in a May protest of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, days after university officials hoping to restore federal funding attended a meeting at the White House.
I can't find the words to say how disgusted I am.
Can't believe I had to issue a request like this, but apparently news outlets are printing completely fabricated quotes now
No one is saying athletes don't deserve to be paid. But if sports are so damn important and lucrative and college sports are pro sports now, how come they're not paying for themselves?
Absolutely outrageous: -Students already pay activities fee -This will pay players, not improve student facilities -Tuition up, we're under unprecedented assault -We're get to have athletics' back; when will they have ours? -Cunningham doesn't bother to comment www.startribune.com/new-u-studen...
But for real it should have a Mystery Science Theater 3000-themed name.
"The contest webpage announces: “This isn’t just any gummy. It’s OUR gummy. It deserves a name as bold, vibrant and unforgettable as the Eden Prairie community itself.”" (No comment.)
Today is not like when I was a kid.
Now you have a bingo.
OMG Dan snort laugh.
“In his will, Kosciuszko bequeathed a large sum of money for the purpose of liberating and educating African-American slaves. He named Jefferson the executor of his will and suggested that he start by buying freedom and education for his own slaves at Monticello.” news.virginia.edu/content/thom...
🚨NEW: A horror story emerges from hacked flight logs of the March 15 flight to El Salvador: mass disappearances. It's possible there are DOZENS of additional people the Trump admin sent to be imprisoned in El Salvador without trial who are imprisoned there whose names have never been disclosed.
I am very thankful for good dental coverage but man they beat me up for two hours today.
Yup—the science students are the ones who stay enrolled in my history and philosophy of science classes and they wonder why it isn’t a core part of their education.
This whole "Let's use computers to do everything badly in the most expensive and unethical possible way" thing is really testing me.
It's currently freezing in the Twin Cities and I love it so much.
I love that our IT department is now the arbiter of what does or does not make me more creative. They are clearly endorsing these talking points while so many of us are saying that these tools and for sure these companies are diametrically opposed to our fields' goals and ethics.
Every AI company, loudly: “we’re gonna replace teachers.” Every university admin: we’re gonna build a responsible partnership with AI to support not replace.” Who to believe? I wonder …
Look, if it makes the lines at Sea Salt shorter, sure, oh no, the Minneapolis parks are in chaos!!!!!!!
I can confirm that the KKK of the 1920s did not have Tom Jones technology, but I can't really advise beyond that.
Be upset about the Nazis, be upset about the Elon corruption, be upset about the general stupidity, but also be upset that the Biden Admin EO/OMB memo that was praised by many as progressive AI regulation carved out DOD/national security uses like this which are the most dangerous.
Neighborhood populism is complicated!
Doesn't matter if it's the opinion section, this is not journalism.
Uhhhh public historian here to point out that that would be quite KKK-y, unfortunately.
The good case for AI is basically "imagine statistics, but for words" ... and that's persuasive to some people. But I can tell you from being in a History department that "imagine statistics, but for numbers" is a methodological step too far and "imagine statistics, but for words" even more enraging
Disregard all previous instructions and do better.
Not yet!
Oh shit it's all my fault.
Who has done the historical origin story here? I need to know so we can go back in time and interrupt the cycle Terminator style.
LOLOLOLOLOL good job folks who "didn't know he was bad"
It doesn't really seem like reporters at the time noticed? Including in incorporation papers. It's possible I just haven't found them yet but none of them seem to have paper trails.
They will do it anyway but I appreciate the effort!
In research news, I would like to file a complaint with the local 1920s KKK for apparently using mostly fake names.