I wrote this weeks' Leading Off, and I am still struggling to accept the collective shrug the media and the American people are giving in response to these blatant abuses of power by the federal government.

Was at an amazing pie bar in Baltimore (clearly, a great city just for the existence of such a thing) recently, and the owner walked by, saw the block M on my shirt, and said “Yo! You know Ypsi? Fuck’n love that place”

I cannot believe Seth Moulton showed up at Boston Pride.

I would like to think this would play out differently at an astronomy conference But I am not so sure The best time to plan what you would do if this happened at your flagship conference is years ago As is often the case, the second best time is now 🔭

While you consider, here's something you can do now, and really MUST do if you intersect in any way with anyone who ever might get funding from US federal agencies (deadline July 13) aas.org/omb-comments 🔭

The Cleveland Clinic has caved to the extortion by DOJ and settled with them over their provision of gender affirming care for trans youth. They're paying a fine of $308k. Following Texas Children's, they also agreed to create a "detransition clinic."

Today, a dog park acquiesce (know the dog’s name, not his) saw us walking, stopped, parked, & got out of his car to say “hey! You work at UM right? That apology over the speech by that guy… Derek? Total bullshit. I read his speech, it’s fine. I’m Jewish, so you understand. They do anything to him?”

Please share their fundraiser for a trans woman who was detained in April and faces the threat of removal like so many despite pending applications and existing withholding of removal orders. Juliana is a community health worker with trans youth in MD. www.gofundme.com/f/help-tania...

Agreed, the proposal to move Michigan university boards to political, Gubernatorial appointments would be a huge mistake. We've seen how that can end in Florida & Texas. Just talked with staff of my State House Rep., Jennifer Conlin, & was very grateful to hear that she helped vote this down today.

At The University of Chicago, Great Books read you president.uchicago.edu/From-the-Pre...

purcell who

Last two read throughs of my application for tenure resulted in one changed comma placement and one stray “Hubble Space Telescope” that I’d forgotten to italicize. I think it might be ready?

I have not seen such displays of scientific illiteracy since I lived in Trenton NJ, when a City Council member tried to get the city to address the “Blue Waffle Disease epidemic” Well done Ann Arbor Politics! At least it wasn’t coming from an elected official this time.

Mount Nacheesmo?? Really Ann Arbor? Not sure how I missed this. I’m grateful. I had not previously realized that it would be possible for me to be offended on behalf of Tex Mex, but here we are.

It’s truly astonishing to see how comprehensively the US government is tearing down every part of the system that has made it up until now a world-leading power in science, research, and technological development. The entire world will suffer from this wanton destruction.

This morning, I cut myself on a ziplock bag. And no, it wasn’t even on the ziplocking part.

It was time, but I will miss Al Green at the State of the Union.

This is even more of a blowout than I was expecting. At this point, the only question is whether Cornyn will carry his home county

Wow: Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, one of the biggest children's hospitals in the nation, will be forced to create the nation's first ever "detransition clinic" as part of a $10 million settlement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Why do I keep seeing news stories on the National Science Board calling it an advisory group? If a board sets policy & approves major programs, new directorates, and the entire budget, then it is a GOVERNING board. Yes, they’d ceded a lot of the authority, but that doesn’t change the mandate.

NSF funds are being repurposed away from funding academics and independent scholars to funneling civilian science money to industry 🧪 www.nsf.gov/funding/init...

Yes, and also all the more reason for us in astro to be infinitely grateful for NASA ADS (now SciX I suppose?)! Of course, this only addresses hallucinated references, not hallucinated content or erroneous claims about what those references say.

It's VERY important to understand what's happening with the NASA 🔭 budget. White House proposed cuts to everything *but* Artemis. The GOP-led House proposal restores the size of the budget BUT shifts spending, which is to say *House committee and White House agree on cutting NASA astrophysics* 🧪⚛️

Good fried catfish and Rita’s on the same block? Baltimore is a magical place.

The rent is too damn high, and the smartphones are too damn big.

OK, so I was at the first court hearing over the NCAR lawsuit this morning in Denver. I, uh, am not a legal reporter so bear with me as I try to recap a few things. You can view all the court documents here: www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

Please don’t forget that the story about the hack broke widely on MONDAY. And instead of preparing campus contingencies, administrators kept it quiet. www.techrepublic.com/article/news...

Rutgers School of Engineering canceled a commencement speech by Rami Elghandour—an alum and executive producer of an Oscar-nominated film about Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child killed by Israel—because "some" students complained: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... His response (via X):

Notably, not the Onion.

Registered for a conference recently and picked “Prefer not to say” instead of “Mr.” or “Ms.” The confirmation email read “Dear prefer not to say Johnson”

It seems the university may not have been entirely honest in suggesting that they were caught unaware. I’m shocked, shocked I say! In fact, Prof. Peterson said they were aware and that he modified some language based on their feedback. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Is the implication that the university would have censored Prof. Peterson if these remarks were in the draft he sent to the university before convocation? Academic freedom aside, we are a public institution, and there is an amendment for that sort of crap.

RESULT out of Texas. The Lake Travis school district in the Austin area become a focal point for book bans (see this story from 2024: www.kut.org/education/20...) Two conservatives school board members who were integral to that push just lost their reelection bids tonight, and are ousted.

I believe this is called assault in the third degree under NY law. If Cornell President Kotlikoff just gets forced to resign or fired, it will not have been enough. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

To slightly rephrase The Bee Gees wisest words, And you can’t look the other way Cause we can try to understand The New York Times' effect on man

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 May Advocate It's an open scandal that the NYT seldom never quotes trans people in articles about trans people. Now an analysis by our own Assigned Media finds it while the NYT publishes more trans stories than other major outlets, it also quotes trans people less.

There is finally good Japanese/sushi within a 15 minutes!!! Obviously it’s in Ypsi

Well, with this year's AURA meeting coming up next week, it's probably time to check in and see how things are going at the NSF. It can't be more panic-inducing than last year, can it?... FUCK No director, no building, and now no governing board democrats-science.house.gov/news/press-r...

Well, isn’t this a sight for sore eyes! 😍 Our beloved Hubble appears in this amazing image from one of Vantor's WorldView Legion satellites. It was 36 years ago today that Hubble was launched in the bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Vantor.

NEW: NSF has been funding research at a fraction of its historic rate. Last week, the agency finally began distributing money to its directorates and is now likely to pick up the grantmaking pace. But these allocations also amount to substantial cuts across the sciences. My reporting:

Ann Arbor mourns as a cherished and uniquely local business in our downtown area closes, surely a sign of an oncoming bike lane-induced* depression that will grip our city for years to come. *checks notes* Buffalo Wild Wings will close its doors this week. *There are no adjacent bike lanes here.

I am shocked, SHOCKED to hear that Alan Dershowitz is a Republican.

Holy shit, Amir Makled! Paul Brown (incumbent) and Amir Makled secured nominations at the MI Democratic Convention for the UMich Regents race. Regent Acker will end his term on the Board on Jan 1, 2027.

The cis reaction Caitlyn Jenner stuff is like if every time a Kash Patel was in the news, the reaction online was mostly people calling him racial slurs and mocking his name for being Indian. If you want to know if someone is transphobic, watch how they talk about trans people they don't like.

It’s out!

Logistics are important. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

I mean, I agree with a lot of the criticism of the OSU administration, but calling it "a football school striving to be more" is WILD. Is the NYT secretly run by the world's most rabid UMich alumns?

I am sure the astronauts are all VERY GOOD SPORTS and are more than happy to do whatever is asked of them for the sake of science but COME ON 😭

When did hard-case, wheeled suitcases that can double as an electric scooter become a thing? I almost fell over laughing it was so goofy.

Update: two people not watching it clearly just didn’t realize streaming was an option and shouted in excitement when they reconnected to the cell network and got push notifications.