Will be assigning this piece alongside @jessicacalarco.com's Holding It Together this year: apnews.com/article/stud...
Fish bio, climate & sustainability activist, and slow cyclist (he/him)
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Will be assigning this piece alongside @jessicacalarco.com's Holding It Together this year: apnews.com/article/stud...
A simple way to improve American downtowns: Make one-way arterials bidirectional. Doing so will improve safety, boost retail sales, and attract pedestrians. Me, in Bloomberg š§µ
Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House buried a major study on alcohol and cancer. Hereās what it shows. www.vox.com/health/46008...
He must know that air and water pollution are bad for human and environmental health. How does the gutting of pollution regulations fit into his MAHA mind? Maybe all these years he was just grifting as an environmentalist. I think he is telling himself now he's going to be the next president.
So much winning.
Great short video by TransLink explaining āthe empty bus lane mythā
Watch @premthakker.bsky.social confront Rep. Randy Fine about why he doesnāt support Congress disclosing files related to Jeffrey Epstein. He also speaks to Rep. Thomas Massie about how his GOP colleagues are hiding and not releasing the Epstein files.
America, 2025
Best part of the Harvard ruling from today is when the judge repeatedly quotes Trump boasting over and over again that what heās doing is exactly retaliation
Ha! The poorest 25% of workers LOSE money under this bill while the richest Americans get a $270,000 tax cut. They can rebrand all they want. The facts are the facts. They screwed working people to help their billionaire and corporate donors.
Big news: California, Oregon and Washington State just announced a joint "West Coast Health Alliance" to counter Trump/RFK destruction of our public health system. As I argued last week (see below), this is becoming a new frontier in Dem Gov resistance to Trump.
āāThe shift from old media to new media is a trend so big some people donāt even see it,ā [Peter Thiel] said [in 2007], noting that new media like Facebook [whose first major investor was Thiel] was going to kill off all others.ā By Kara Swisher, 5/26/16 ā¦ 1/ www.vox.com/2016/5/26/11...
crypto: it's not for laundering money! (it's mostly for laundering money) ai: it's not for disciplining labor! (it's mostly for disciplining labor)
This is the line for parents picking up kids at an elementary/middle school in East Tennessee. Parents sometimes arrive at 10 am for the 3 pm pick-up. There's got to be a better way. And there is... #backtoschool š§µ
I'm just going to keep noting that the owner and operator of Twitter -- the social media that too many politicians and pundits use to determine what's "normal" -- keeps on pushing the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory that has been the motivation for multiple mass shootings in this country.
Perfect encapsulation of the Trump administration: The guy suing Harvard for alleged antisemitism is a straight-up Hitler-admiring Nazi. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/02/m...
Results so stunningly clear they inspired this classic xkcd (xkcd.com/2400/):
What these Schatz posts say to me is that Dem elected officials like him seem incapable of perceiving the right as a *political movement.* The response to Covid mitigation and the Floyd protests was not a spontaneous reaction...it was a right wing backlash organized by a reactionary movement.
Oregon legislators are discussing the transportation funding bill in a work session following about two hours of public testimony. Rep. Drazan (R) acknowledged that people rely on transit to get to doctorās appts but suggested they could use OHP taxi/rideshare reimbursement instead.
As a friend recently put it: the venn diagram of people who assured us the gun violence was worth it because we need the guns to protect ourselves against a tyrannical federal government and the people cheering on Trump as he deploys the military to take over American cities is a circle
Late is the hour in which both William Broad and the New York Times (www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/s...) express concern over the Trump administration's promotion of antiscience: š§µ
The main "commie" issue is the govt run grocery stores. The Mamdani critics never say how they'd tackle access to healthy affordable food. Capitalism says "let them eat sh!t".
The way that housing co-ops work in Switzerland may seem foreign to many. But the central idea is simple: What if homeownership had no profit motive and no capital gains? Advocates say their model could reshape how the world thinks about affordable housing. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/r...
New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!
Cryptids
"Despite Lack of Federal Support, US Scientists Continue Work on Key Global Climate Reports" by @bberwyn.bsky.social for @insideclimatenews.org: insideclimatenews.org/news/3008202...
average Dem strategist: we must focus on bipartisan policies that undercut Republican attacks average Dem voter: having studied the denazification of Germany, we must raze the RNC and leave JD Vance clutching a single wool blanket in a cell after we strip him of everything
Recently, at a stop sign, biking home, the driver behind us starts honking. We're like, do we know you? He points at us and then the parking lane. It's so absurd that I think surely he's joking. He rolls down his window and shouts, you should be on the sidewalk. Nope, just a car-brained moron.
Thereās a persistent myth that new solar farms donāt really help tackle climate change because panels are āmade with coalā and ānever pay backā their carbon debt. This is simply false. - UN: solar ~8x cleaner than gas, ~19x than coal per kWh - panels repay CO2 in 4 months; save 57x over life
āOver the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces. Part of the payoff has been invisible ā in the air itself.ā Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris
Them: āCities are all rotting hellscapes!ā Cities:
ODOT is using our image for their updated Safe Routes to School guide! The photo has certainly made the rounds. My husband, Kyle, took it from the front of the Urban Arrow on one of our Bike Buses back in 2022. This little bike train that could began a cultural sea change in our rural county.
I'm The Mom Of A Trans Kid. Here's What I Want You To Know About The Minneapolis School Shooting. āVulnerable communities make for convenient scapegoats. Nothing new there. But the attacks on my sonās community have added thick, new layers to my fears about his safety.ā
RKF Jr. is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformationāleaving us unprepared for the next deadly pandemic and snuffing out potential cures while heās at it. My full statement.
The way you know this is culture war bullshit pushed by the fossil fuel industry is that buildings kill up to a billion birds per year and you can be sure our real estate developer president never cared one whit about it.
"The number of locations with pollution levels above the national U.S. standard rose to 308 in 2023, up from just 12 in 2022, according to the report. Forty-eight of the counties were in Ohio."
Always happy for a chance to say: I read every real study on the impact of bike lanes on street-level retail. They never hurt. They often help. Sometimes they help a lot: www.businessinsider.com/bike-lanes-g...
Massive walkout at #CDC. Tick tock. Tick tock. RFK Jr. your time is up. (typo fixed). Spread the word. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ7Q...
RFK Jr. promised not to restrict access to COVID vaccines. Yesterday, he proved he was lying. By rolling back access to COVID vaccines, Secretary Kennedy is putting up barriers between Americans and the care they need.
#NIH is hanging by a thread. The #CDC has been decimated. #RFK Jr. and Russell #Vought are psychopaths--I don't say this frivolously--they are cold, calculating, inflicting violence on millions through public policy. It is where we are right now. These men are not normal. 1/
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), top Dem on the Senate health committee, on this evening's chaos at CDC: āWe cannot let RFK Jr. burn whatās left of the CDC and our other critical health agencies to the groundāhe must be fired."
"Make Safety our Megaproject" credit: @qagggy.bsky.social OR gov't needs to pass this band-aid bill so ODOT and counties maintain/plow our roadways and transit continues. BUT, we need a much bigger $ vision that centers children and their safety. Cheeky tee š by @tomflood.bsky.social
She was brought to the US as an 8yo, worked hard, studied, earned a scholarship, planned to become a nurse. ICE kidnapped her. Held her for 6 MONTHS in a detention facility with conditions so miserable that she finally agreed to voluntarily move to Honduras, which her family left at gunpoint.
Despite the FDA restricting COVID vaccine access, the science tells us that getting vaccinated is still important for everyone: 1ļøā£ Anyone can develop serious and chronic illness from COVID 2ļøā£ Vaccines reduce days lost due to sickness 3ļøā£ Vaccines reduce transmission and protect others at higher risk
fellow authors, itās our duty to financially ruin the AI industry
This isnāt bad luck or coincidence or predestination. This is our choice. To live in a nation where our leaders teach hate, and military style guns are everywhere.
Posting my fun tour with Patrick from @ohtheurbanity.bsky.social featuring new stuff in Montreal.. - Two Public Spaces! - School Street with Giant Mushrooms! - Ample daylighting & bioswales! - 2-way bike lane conversion to two one-ways & more! @openplans.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmVm...
People love to blame the lack of cycling in their city on the āfundamentalsā: weather, geography, and density. But can those really explain why Chicago has four times more *walking* commuters than bike commuters, while Copenhagen is the opposite?
*Our new LTN paper out today* Do 'boundary road' junctions with minor roads get safer when minor roads are filtered (i.e. closed to through-traffic)? We tested this using police-reported casualty data (2012ā24) from 113 London Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) introduced between 2015ā24. 1/
Brutal. A humiliation ritual.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer is a disgrace. So glad I knocked on doors for her wonderful opponent Janelle Bynum.
Cost of Trump's D.C. Occupation: $1.1M per day. Cost to operate public housing for D.C.'s entire homeless population: $169,226 per day. It's not about what this country can or canāt afford. Itās about priorities.
Not suprisingly from RFK, pure misinformation. The biggest whale killers are climate change, boat collisions, and fishing gear entanglement. www.sciencefriday.com/segments/off...
LGBTQ people, especially transgender youth, are more comfortable being themselves than ever before. No president or administration will ever censor us away. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
The key to Trumpās authoritarian encroachments is pretext. He pairs some shockingly dictatorial move with an incredibly thin pretext everyone knows is false - fighting crime, concerned about fraud - and every public figure talking about the situation feels the need to debate the pretext.
Canada has fully approved Modernaās 2025-2026 COVID19 vaccine.
Ever stared at a table of regression coefficients & wondered what you're doing with your life? Very excited to share this gentle introduction to another way of making sense of statistical models (w @vincentab.bsky.social) Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf... Website: j-rohrer.github.io/marginal-psy...
New study shows health damage in US from oil & gas emissions, 90,000 premature deaths nationally, with California, New York, and Texas suffering the most. @doreenharris.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
If you saw the clip, watch the whole 12 minutes. This is it. Electedsāeveryone around Pritzker is knowingly putting themselves at riskāmeeting the moment. Itās not glib, itās not a meme, itās clear-eyed, brave, & necessary. www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...
This is Meeting The Moment, from Pritzker. Please watch this 90-second clip.
Pritzker exhorts the news media to "tell it like it is:" "Donald Trump wants to use the U.S. Military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents and score political points." "Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here."
Tony Bartelmeās goal in "Rising Waters" is to make the invisible snakes of climate change visible and āwake up ā¦ our nogginsā before we get bitten.
EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market āwithin months,ā one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.ās closest associates has told the Daily Beast.
āSmart cities also know that quality of bike-lanes is just as important as quantity, especially if whatās being built (or letās be honestāwhatās being painted) isnāt really safe, or comfortable.ā ā @brenttoderian.bsky.social in @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/90361034/if-...
These are as comfortable as they look. *discovered & enjoyed during my recent work with the City of #ReykjavĆk, #Iceland.
Kamala Harris at her closing campaign rally: "Donald Trump intends to use the United States Military against American citizens who simply disagree with him."
It really is wild to see the photos and images people are sharing of this billboard. All credit to the @visionzerovancouver.ca team for making this happen.
When people say we need giant fire trucks because we have skyscrapers.
So good, thanks for sharing this. In my liberal orbit before the election, I was astounded by disillusioned Dems and "both sides are corrupt" liberals who knew almost nothing about what Biden et al had passed. How did THEY not know any policy details during a time of maximum jeopardy to democracy?!
Very thorough, very sobering essay by the always astute Mike Lofgren. (His 'The Party Is Over,' in 2012, stands as one of the prescient works of our times. A former GOP staffer who saw where his party was headed.) www.salon.com/2025/08/24/w...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/08/m...
incredible that three overpaid consultants in a trench coat can get media play by urging democrats not to use words that literally no one in mainstream politics uses
Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he's causing families. We'll continue to follow the law, stand up for the sovereignty of our state, and protect Illinoisans.
So rather than invest in the country that provided the infrastructure, basic research, skilled workers, economy, and stability that made them rich, they want it all for themselves and will support a corrupt authoritarian in order to keep it. I'm ready to tax ALL billionaires out of existence.
I'm reposting this because I'm pissed that major news outlets like the NYT invented a bad economy story under Biden, which helped give us Trump cepr.net/publications...
I was dismayed by the number of environmentalists and sustainability folks in my orbit, most of them well educated, who were disappointed in the Biden/Dems over climate action AND knew almost nothing about the IRA! Not dumb or selfish. Were they lazily vibing on the RW-influenced media headlines?
Such a great thread! How much of this habit is a "bending over backwards" to leave the door open to uninformed, misinformed, misguided, gullible people who (for now) are enthralled by false conspiracies?Are they worried that calling them stupid and selfish will make them even less unreachable?
I really enjoyed this @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social pod about Covid & MAHA, but one thing it repeatedly revealed is a habit of liberals that drives me crazy. A short š§µ.
The US Administration is now deleting its internal communications, in brazen violation of the Federal Records Act, in order to conceal its other illegal acts. Those entrusted to enforce our Congressās laws sit, simply watching this happen, flaccid and impotent.
Robot meets bollard. Nothing beats the #WorldBollardAssociation
In todayās @latimes.com: My column on Gavin Newsomās growing list of climate failures, from rooftop solar to methane gas health impacts to oil industry accountability. Heās letting California start to backslide on climate: www.latimes.com/environment/...
STUDY: āTraffic simulations on large urban networks prove that emission reductions of over 10% can be achieved in the case of a well-chosen speed limit policy.ā In other words, smartly lowering speed limits in cities not only saves lives & improves quality of lifeā¦it can also reduce emissions.
i'll say it again, my loud and vigorous support for any democrat who calls for televised hearings and criminal charges for everyone involved in DOGE. this guy should never be able to live in peace again.
A Marine veteran intends to sue the federal government after twice being tackled to the ground last week by federal agents while protesting outside ICE headquarters in South Portland.
Itās time this city empowered small businessesānot bury them in fines, fees and endless bureaucracy. Hereās my plan.
Love this man!
I spent 5 years following Atlanta families working multiple jobs but still unable to afford a place to live. Now they fear losing food stamps and Medicaid ā but JD Vance has no interest in them. That's the real story: demonizing homeless people is cover for policies pouring gasoline on this crisis.
Grok showed up in my Tesla this morning, and started speaking to me without me trying to trigger it. I saw a tab called "conspiracy theories", clicked it and asked Grok about climate change. This is what Elon Musk is telling Tesla drivers about climate change.
Resistance www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Do you know how insane and infuriating it is to live in a country where one party claims, with media and public support, the mantle of being the ātough on crimeā party while its leader openly calls for convicted criminals to be released from prison āor elseā?
Why are 90% of op-eds scolding liberals for the way they talk about threats to democracy rather than scolding conservatives for threatening democracy
The Sound ID is a little newer though, right?
Merlin is the only app I've ever pushed on anyone and I push it on everyone!
One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is āThree things we can do now to reduce the risk of avian influenza spillovers.ā Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.
The EV's that the world needs more of have 2 or 3 wheels - not 4. theconversation.com/cycling-is-t...
A United States Senate investigation has identified more than 500 credible reports of human rights abuses in US immigration detention since January, including alarming allegations of mistreatment of pregnant women and children.
Watch D.C. residents chase federal agents out of the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Meanwhile, we spotted FBI and Homeland Security agents appear to respond to a *fare evader*. @premthakker.bsky.social reports. zeteo.com/p/watch-prem... youtube.com/shorts/99A29...
āSince you donāt burn calories on an e-bike, thatās not factored into the environmental impact like on a normal bike.ā Come ride with me on my 26 mile daily commute with a kid, gear and groceries pulling 1,600 feet of elevation gain. E-bikers burn calories. šÆ source.colostate.edu/sustainable-...
