NEW: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years — despite warning voters that “it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records.” with @texastribune.org

Signed into law on July 4 last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will make SNAP substantially and detrimentally less responsive to economic downturns, @laurenhlb.bsky.social and Diane Schanzenbach warn. Read more:

Trump celebrating Balogun’s eligibility to play for Team USA when his administration would strip Balogun’s citizenship tomorrow if he didn’t play world class soccer is really a chef’s kiss.

Mamdani: "As we mark 250 years ... we see the wealthiest country -- one where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more ... we see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans"

There is nothing more patriotic than wanting better lives for your neighbors.

Incredible moment where Fox News puts up a graphic with all the reasons it opposes the DSA and why people should be afraid of them

Here’s an partial list of govt agencies that will no longer be “independent,” but more closely controlled by the president (and what they regulate): SEC (stocks), NRC (☢️), CIA (🕵️‍♂️, NSF (🧪), EPA (🌲), FCC (📺), FTC (trade), CPSC (consumer safety), SSA (Social Security), USPS (📪), FDIC, FEC (elections).

Republican backers of Trump’s signature domestic policy bill repeatedly claimed that revisions to the food benefits program wouldn’t affect the most vulnerable. But reports from a dozen states show children are losing access.

“The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,” Gawande wrote.” hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...

Children weren’t the target of federal food program changes, but they’re increasingly “collateral damage,” one expert said. The drop in the number of children receiving SNAP benefits is a “public health crisis” in the making, said another expert.

Second here (2/2): academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...

Diversity is 3rd most common open-ended response in 2 recent surveys I conducted. First one here (1/2): www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The world's first trillionaire did this

Michigan Governor caught on hot mic with Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, discussing citizen opposition to AI data centers, bragging how she ignores their concerns: “We’re used to people saying 'f*ck no,' & doing it anyway.”🇺🇸

🪼 Your tax dollars paid a scientist to squeeze jellyfish through cheesecloth. Osamu Shimomura processed tens of thousands on an NSF grant to understand why they glow. He found a protein that glowed green under UV light. Called it "green protein." Nobody cared. For decades.

This entire administration is an exercise in discovering why you need government and then scrambling to assemble an arm while cutting off another leg.

New at Can We Still Govern? Trump is relocating more federal employees, this time for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees SNAP. The rationale is to bring services closer to the public. But that is not what the data shows, says Jon Schwabish. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/why-is-tru...

This story by @spettypi.bsky.social is extremely important because she documents in Arizona - SNAP participants losing access to the program who should be exempt from changing eligibility criteria - The state admitting that they need to deny eligible participants access to reduce their error rate.

For their concept explanation assignment, a couple of my students recruited friends to create a poli sci video akin to Inside Out to depict the role of emotions in public opinion, and I’m once again reminded that I have the best job ever. These students are so thoughtful and creative!

As states scramble to respond to unprecedented federal cuts, we're seeing more stories of eligible low-income people losing the SNAP benefits they need. Here's a 69-year-old whose benefits were fully reinstated — after a reporter asked about his case: www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

When the Trump administration cut off food aid to one of the world’s largest refugee camps, it left hundreds of thousands of people to starve. This is the story of one mother’s daily battle to keep her three young sons alive. From our “The End of Aid” series, a 2026 Pulitzer finalist:

* U.S. AIRLINES SPENT $5 BILLION ON FUEL IN MARCH, UP 56% OVER PRIOR MONTH -- USDOT @reuters.com #$JETS

Bishop Menjivar-Ayala in West Virginia today: “Above all, I want to listen to the poor. Those in the margins of the church and society. To workers, to the immigrants, because as Matthew 25 says, the way we treat the least is the way we treat Jesus."

Apparently, journals, universities and publishers cannot do it but the Oscars can

ICYMI: The House Appropriations Committee voted 35-25 yesterday to advance a bill that would underfund WIC and cut fruit and vegetable benefits for almost 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, new moms & pregnant women in low-income families.

Amendments House Republicans allowed to be considered: adding or subtracting specific food items that people can buy with SNAP. Amendments they didn’t allow to be considered: addressing the fact that millions of low-income people are losing SNAP altogether thanks to H.R. 1.

Open-mindedness was the strongest predictor of *rejecting* conspiracy theories in a sample of 46,745 participants in 68 nations In particular, participants who were threatened by people who disagree with them were the most likely to believe conspiracy theories. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

In July, Trump enacted the largest cuts to food assistance in US history. Then he indefinitely cancelled the survey that measures hunger in America. Meanwhile, official data show the number of people who receive food assistance in America plummeting. Reminder: OBBBA took food from hungry children

Grading my students’ food log assignments for my food politics class and beaming with pride as they make connections between their food choices and relevant actors and policies involved in our food system. Food is political, and these students get it!

To combat bird flu spread, other countries have authorized poultry vaccines. The U.S. hasn’t, amid political and economic pushback. Without a vaccine, experts say the virus poses an escalating threat: “The minute it transmits to humans, it’s done.” (Published Nov. 2025)

In the first eleven months of 2025, 10,109 doctoral-trained scientists left the federal government. The losses were concentrated in agencies that fund medical research, regulate environmental standards and model climate. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/more-than-...?

It's not hyperbole in the least to say Musk purchased a six-month shadow presidency for $280 million and used the power of that shadow presidency to 1. Steal the government’s data, 2. Permanently damage the state’s ability to regulate his businesses, and 3, kill non-white people.

The next president's Attorney General needs to act with urgency to investigate and prosecute the crimes being committed to effectuate the mass deportation agenda.

New paper documenting a negative association between childhood exposure to local wealth inequality and inter-class social ties in adulthood. If children have fewer chances to meet peers from different class backgrounds, those divides may persist far beyond childhood.

Trump said Direct File was too expensive to operate. This feels like an indictment of our willingness to build things. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, had *more lobbyists* than the Direct File team had employees. The cost of Direct File is a fraction of the tax breaks given to Intuit.

Lina Khan helped Joe Biden set this up, but he never pushed it hard to take credit for it. Now, with Khan working for Mamdani, he's doing it for NYC residents. And actually telling them he's doing it. Good policies aren't good politics unless you take credit constantly for them.

Hot off the press, my op-ed in MSNOW on Trump’s budget request. Proud of this one, but particularly happy they let me keep the final paragraph with only light editing. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

More than 10,000 veterans lost their homes to foreclosure since May of last year, when the Trump admin shut down a key safety net in the VA home loan program, according to the latest industry data. That is the highest pace of foreclosures for VA loans in a decade.

Reminder that #rabies is 100% fatal unless you get immediate post-exposure #prophylaxis with #vaccines. And among the most miserable deaths I can think of

1/ My first story as a @propublica.org climate reporter: I discovered that the Trump appointee in charge of rewriting methane rules at the EPA was – just four years ago – an unnamed author of an oil industry response to those same rules. His name isn't in the document itself, but…

Food policing poor families isn't a win for nutrition--it's a loss for dignity and joy. As Brea Perry and I find in our research (see reply), low-income parents buy food treats for their kids because they want their kids to feel happy and normal--and they can't afford to do so in bigger ways.

Elizabeth Banks

Me, when students ask if they can use whatever citation style they were taught at school.

Today's New Yorker cartoon, by Ivan Ehlers

A 13-year-old girl tried to take her life by cutting her wrists with a plastic knife from the cafeteria after guards took away drawing materials, and was put into isolation without seeing a doctor. The teen was deported to Colombia after nearly two months in confinement

look at this baby beaver and feel better briefly (@ wildheartrescue on TT)

The Trump administration is gearing up to kick an estimated six million more people off of food assistance programs — including nearly two million children. The move would save just $1 billion a year, while Trump spends upwards of $1 billion per *day* on his new forever war. Priorities.