“Doing social media well is about clicking the right buttons or posting at the right time or using the right phrases for the SEO...But fandom is about building a community that cares about values.” @makenakelly.bsky.social captures how fandom fueled Mamdani's campaign www.wired.com/story/zohran...

To civil servants transitioning out of government: Your institutional knowledge does not have to leave with you. Share your expertise through @popvoxfdn.bsky.social's Departure Dialogues. Your insights could help Congress build more effective government services. Learn more: popvox.org/departure

“Things that look obvious in the Executive branch...are absolutely mind-blowing over on the Legislative branch” @popvoxfdn.bsky.social Foundation's Anne Meeker on why departing federal employees hold the key to better governance & how Departure Dialogues bridges this divide. Learn how you can join!

“When politics starts shaping how data is collected or shared, the damage doesn’t end with one administration — it lingers.” @votebeat.org newsletters.votebeat.org/newsletter/t...

Friends in the #tsunamiwarning zone, check here to see if you are in an evacuation zone dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/public...

😢 “In time, US citizens may find themselves trapped in a diminished, nightmare America—like a post-Musk Twitter at scale—where everything works badly, everything can be turned against you, and everyone else has fled.” www.wired.com/story/enshit...

Actual good news out of Congress. Senate Leg branch appropriations won’t slash GAO & Library of Congress funding rollcall.com/2025/07/10/a...

On the 1-yr anniversary of SCOTUS overturning the Chevron doctrine, Congress has not only failed to step up, but is now slashing sources of nonpartisan expertise. The First Branch is sadly validating critics & failing the Loper Bright test. t.co/Es622hMHPP

Wow, there were 26,000 people asking Senator @schatz.bsky.social questions on his tele-town hall today. He said that's unprecedented. Keep speaking up, folks! And mahalo nui loa to his staff for their tireless work to answer all. the. questions!

Hey First Branch, do your oversight job! They’re creating a master database about us using government data www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

Notable #LoperBright citation in Abrego Garcia decision by Judge Wilkinson of the 4th Circuit re: definition of "facilitate" 👇 "We are not bound in this context by a definition crafted by an administrative agency and contained in a mere policy directive." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

In her testimony, Danielle will highlight our support for: - a feasibility study for establishing a House Casework Support Office - further exploration and investment in remote voting technology - in-house development of AI training and resources for Members and staff

Tomorrow, Danielle Stewart, POPVOX Foundation's Advisor for Congressional Initiatives, will testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch. Tune in at 11 AM ET: appropriations.house.gov/schedule/hea...

This baby has participated in more notices of intent to offer a motion to discharge than like 99% of the House of Representatives.

Electoral reformers: Want to make a persuasive case for multi-member districts? Consider how it affects constituents’ access to Congressional services — this report shows how. Read the report: protectdemocracy.org/work/how-wou...

With 83% of Americans saying elected officials "don’t care about what people like me think," constituent casework shows Congress’ direct impact on people's lives — key for rebuilding public trust.

NEW REPORT: “Constituent Services in Multi-Member Districts: How Would It Work?” @popvoxfdn.bsky.social @newamerica.org & @protectdemocracy.org research by Anne Meeker & @leedrutman.bsky.social explores Congressional casework under proportional representation: protectdemocracy.org/work/how-wou...

Proportional electoral reforms are getting more attention as a way to improve democracy. Anne Meeker & @leedrutman.bsky.social explore how constituent services could work under the new system in a paper from @popvoxfdn.bsky.social, @newamerica.org, and us.

Learn all about proxy voting and why it’s important now from a former GOP Chief of Staff and new mom from @popvoxfdn.bsky.social www.popvox.org/blog/congres...

Speaker Mike Johnson and the Freedom Caucus are trying to kill a discharge petition that would allow new parents to proxy vote for 12 weeks. www.notus.org/congress/har...

Majority leadership hating the discharge petition is a tale as old as time in the House. But making it way harder to use because of something led largely by a member of your own party as opposed to because the minority is trying to circumvent you is...unexpected. www.notus.org/congress/har...

Still time to RSVP for Monday's in-person and virtual event!

I dunno, Elon, I wouldn’t mess with Goddess Pele if I were you www.civilbeat.org?p=1701975&ut...

If you know any Congressional staff or interns, please share this invitation. Thanks! 🙏

On 3/24, join us & @niskanencenter.bsky.social for a discussion on how to address the critical but often overlooked issues with implementation across the Executive branch. Feat: @marcidale.bsky.social @pahlkadot.bsky.social & @andrewgreenway.bsky.social www.popvox.org/events/imple...

Love this and know it’s a natural progression. Following tech blogs before they were blogs got me into tech policy in the late 90s. Also dig the scenius of Silicon Valley that he describes vs “the dangerous delusion of the ‘great man’ theory of innovation”

"Layoffs in the Executive branch lessen agencies’ abilities to deal with citizens. So citizens turn to Congress to expedite casework and that’s starting to overwhelm Congressional offices." -Dep. Director Anne Meeker on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/202...

"Look at the people behind me. Do we look like we're dark money? We are out here, most of us are retirees that give up our time out here in the cold. None of us is getting any money, and the organizations that we belong to, it's all volunteer grass roots." www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-n...

The @goldmanschool.bsky.social is hosting its Data Skills for Congress course on March 4 and our Deputy Director Anne Meeker is teaching a session on modernization, AI, and district work! Learn more: gspp.berkeley.edu/programs/dat...

With Trump's EOs causing chaos across federal agencies, Congressional offices are being swamped w/requests for help by constituents — this is casework. Learn how to report on this public-to-federal gov feedback loop with our new reference guide, written by a former Director of Constituent Services

NSF and CDC are scrubbing from reports and websites in what I perceive to be a form of anticipatory self-censorship. Words like "women," "female," "systemic," "political...." gizmodo.com/the-list-of-... WOMEN!

Congress is one of the last institutions where people can actually reach a human being to express their political frustrations. And with a 40x increase in daily calls and over 9,000 threats reported last year, this raises urgent questions about designing advocacy and civic engagement for the AI age

Words matter. Let’s choose them wisely. Let’s manifest with our language, our framing 🙏 open.substack.com/pub/reframin...

If someone makes art, or food, or crafts, or whatever that you really like and that brings you comfort and happiness these days, _tell them_. They're probably wondering if it's worth doing at all.

Great new job resource: Civic Match, Work for America’s new initiative connecting cities and states with talented public servants ready for their next chapter. It's a great opportunity for communities to tap into a wave of expertise. Learn more and sign up at www.civicmatch.org

With limited staff resources, the Hawai’i Campaign Spending Commission was able to bring corruption case against Ala Moana developer Timothy Lee for illegally funneling money to Honolulu mayoral candidates in 2020 Imagining them w more capacity 🙏 www.civilbeat.org/2025/02/hawa...

"In the absence of this transparency, it is appropriate for Congress to ask for clarification and should be a bipartisan priority." www.nextgov.com/people/2025/...

Thoughts on #DOGE shared with NextGov/FCW: "It's not, in itself, problematic if authorized government employees access programmatic data or use AI tools to process information... more transparency "would potentially help alleviate some of the concerns that lawmakers have raised"

My colleague, Anne, is a former Director of Constituent Services and a thoughtful expert on the future of civic engagement. Love that she gets the chance to share her wisdom as more people are contacting their Reps. Her advice here on developing a relationship with your delegation is spot on

Anyone who cares about the core principles our of government will need to protect civil servants who defend the law. But a defensive crouch is the wrong response. If you’re mad about what Musk is doing to government, it’s time to go on the offense to reform it. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/o...

You have opportunity after opportunity to create something lovely for yourself or others. Every moment you choose to sit and think about horrors beyond your control, every time you make the choice to look for more and more details about just HOW bad... you are turning away from those opportunities.

🚨Is this the end of FARA, a law passed in 1938 to protect the US from WWII-era foreign propaganda, that creates transparency about foreign lobbying? www.justice.gov/ag/media/138... Learn more about FARA from @opensecretsdc.bsky.social www.opensecrets.org/fara/backgro... (and please support them 🙏)

Seems like a good time to say this again.

Silver Jews AND wise advice for progressive funders to support political and institutional change, from the one and only @nehls.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/nowwhatn...

🚨 THREAD: How AI is Transforming Legislative Transparency in Brazil’s Senate 🇧🇷🤖 Brazil’s Senate is using AI to simplify laws & speed up analysis. From tax reform to transparency, here’s how it’s working! 🧵👇 t.co/lPZWe5myTS

Civic engagement & advocacy nerds, bookmark this! We identified 40 ways to engage Congress - "even the staff I spoke with were surprised as we walked down the list of engagement methods and they stepped back and realized how many separate channels they are responsible for monitoring and managing"

The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...

The layoffs …. Via @wayanvota.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/posts/wayan_...

👏 “WIRED built software to systematically check the status of 1,374 government domains. The tool runs periodic scans, tracking whether sites remain accessible, how their servers respond, and if the domain names still resolve.” Makes this former Sunlighter verklempt ❤️

Today’s Hawaiian word of the day: noʻonoʻo: thought, reflection, thinking 🤔