With folks living in flood and fire zones, humans redirecting waterways, paving over permeable soil, and otherwise interfering with nature and causing weather changes, hundred-year events can now be ten-, five, even one-year events. In the not-too-distant future, they might be hundred-a-year events.

If you’re with a state agency or legislature who needs help figuring out how you’re going to modify your benefits systems to deal with federally mandated changes (e.g. employment verification), contact us at @usdigitalresponse.org. We can help for free, thanks to grant funding. There’s no catch.

“At their peak the renewables provided up to 162 percent of the grid’s needs — adding extra electricity California could export to neighboring states or use to fill batteries.”

JUST IN: Democrat John Ewing has defeated Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican who was running for a fourth term. Ewing, who currently serves as Douglas County's treasurer and will be Omaha's first Black mayor, leads Stothert 56 to 44 percent with most ballots counted.

“We’re getting birds nesting in places where they hadn’t nested before”

Wired reports on internet-connected car features that raise your risk of police surveillance: www.wired.com/story/...

Seems old-fashioned to expect a secretary to wear makeup at work, but I guess it’s in keeping with the values of this administration.

🔥 A North Bay environmental conservation nonprofit won a $5.9 million in Cal Fire grants to provide landowners funding for wildfire risk reduction and forest health projects in Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma and Napa counties. mendovoice.com/2025/04/nonp...

If you want to know how the dismantlement of the US government is going, there’s a website for that. www.project2025.observer

6/6 We only communicate moderation decisions via email, not via DMs. If anyone messages you claiming this, please report them as spam in the app.

Bluesky loves links! We don't downrank, and major publishers report that we're sending more link traffic than other sites. Here's the top links shared on Bluesky, updated hourly. theblue.report/week/

"Many federal resources that were commonly available are no longer viewable online...This guide provides alternate links to those sources as they are identified. In instances where alternate links to missing data cannot be provided, links to similar resources are." libguides.wcsu.edu/c.php?g=1450...

“The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming and should serve as a warning to consumers that food safety will not be a priority at USDA in the foreseeable future”

Opinion piece by Brett Wagner, now retired, who served as a professor of national security decision making for the U.S. Naval War College.

The once-dry lands in parts of Africa are slowly sprouting back to life—all thanks to a regreening initiative, which has restored 350,000 hectares so far. More about this #GenerationRestoration initiative: www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

Huge kudos to the team at Fulton Ring for rebuilding this digital infrastructure that we, the American people, paid for with our tax dollars!

A new $15 million jazz fellowship is granting 50 artists over the age of 62 a $100,000 grant, professional support and performance opportunities

“We have trees and vegetation that are planted to be flooded. We even have mulch that stays in place better when it gets flooded.”

I launched a Kickstarter this week to expand @govtrack.us's work to tracking executive orders and other White House actions. I probably don't need to tell you how it important it is to track this. Be among the first to make this happen! Please back and share! www.kickstarter.com/projects/gov...

"Yakubu Issah began planting baobab and shea trees on his farm five years ago... 'now, our millet grows healthier, the soil holds water longer'... He added that bees have returned, along with birds and squirrels: 'The farm feels alive again.'” news.mongabay.com/2024/12/agro...

“The StoryGraph, despite its ­climbing user numbers, is still run by Odunayo, who puts videos on Instagram and social media, talking about the app and her own reading, and answers direct messages personally.”

“Today it’s owned by twin Black sisters, Jo and Joy Banner. The sisters, who run the Descendants Project, a community organization focused on supporting formerly enslaved communities across the Gulf Coast, are on a mission. “

“There’s just the inefficiency . . . to have so many resources already put in and so many people working on projects all over the country that are now in jeopardy.”

Apparently the Maya people either called it Chactemal or nahá (sources differ), so maybe we could actually use one of those. But I felt like being silly, because fun is in short supply right now, and MapQuest has given us the opportunity for some fun. gulfof.mapquest.com?name=Gulfy+M...

I wonder if some bot followers are based on one's perceived demographic. Almost all of my (presumably) bot followers are older white men with no bio, and either no posts, or generic, possibly AI photos. The only time I follow back someone with no bio and no real posts is if I know them personally.

Also in the article, and very interesting: “South Dakota, Montana, and Iowa provided 110 percent, 87 percent, and 79 percent, respectively, of their electricity demand with renewables, particularly wind and hydropower.”

From @lizthegrey.com: "Providing visibility into government payments does not mean granting an insufficiently supervised individual or group the ability to delete the entire American economy with one misplaced keystroke." thebulletin.org/2025/02/why-...

Article photo caption: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, left, and Kimberly Ann Thomas, right, won two races for Michigan’s highest court. Here they are pictured at the Michigan Democratic Party’s election night watch party on Nov. 5, 2024.

Educators! For Black History Month, I am going to post curricular materials from NYC’s Hidden Voices project. Mary Seacole poster, art by Robyn Smith and caption by @walterdgreason.bsky.social. Download free high res version here: www.weteachnyc.org/resources/re...

Feeds I’ve started (will add to as time permits): Arts & Entertainment: bsky.app/profile/lori... Car-free Travel: bsky.app/profile/lori... Health & Science: bsky.app/profile/lori... Interpreting this reality: bsky.app/profile/lori... Journalists & News Orgs: bsky.app/profile/lori... 1/2

one time a vet convinced us to give Sandal fewer treats. "he'll get used to it," we thought. he did not. he decided we would not sleep again unless he got his crunchies. Sandal knows a crucial truth: just because you CAN get used to almost anything doesn't mean you SHOULD.

CPSC still here, and still great.

Hits differently right now (from the Renwick Museum across the street from the White House)

Papua New Guinea has 840 living languages — more than any other country. A living language is one that is spoken by at least one person as their first language. The chart shows the ten countries with the most living languages as of 2024.

"No 'process of national reconciliation' can begin when poor losers, whose preferred candidate loses an election, are glorified," a federal judge concluded. Some of the most striking reactions to Trump's Jan. 6 pardons have come from the courts, not politicians. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

A reminder of this elusive climate win win. foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/ai-i...

Introducing Civil Eats’ Food Policy Tracker, your go-to source for daily federal food and farm updates. ➡️ civileats.com/food-policy-...

BREAKING: In a victory for voters, the U.S. Supreme Court denies an appeal from Montana officials seeking to reinstate two voter suppression laws. The state wanted SCOTUS to use the radical independent state legislature theory to overturn a decision from the Montana Supreme Court.

doing more experimentation today irt follow spam. we'll see how it goes, but hoping that it is a fairly significant help to some of the problems.

We had to postpone our December holiday celebrations because reasons, so we decided to celebrate them today instead. Excellent distraction, 10/10 would recommend. Today was a good day to focus on family; everything else can have my attention again tomorrow.

While I haven't liked (local gas company) PG&E's price increases, I've got to say, when our neighbor called them because she smelled gas near our houses, the experience was actually kind of great. The guy who turned our gas back on after repairs answered every question I had. I learned so much!

It's 2025 and everything sucks and everyone is job hunting, please enjoy this slowly unfolding thread of tech jobs at places that aren't making the world worse. If you're hiring at not-evil (or even minimally evil) orgs, please reply w your tech jobs too?

Y’all heard of Pop Tarts right? Why are there no Mom Tarts? Because of the pastryarchy.

Scientists use GIS technology to guide the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, a 50-year initiative aimed at transforming 15,100 acres of industrial salt ponds back to tidal marshes to enhance biodiversity and combat climate change. www.esri.com/about/newsro...

Does anyone know of agents who represent nonfiction work about linguistics? Preferably Black/African. I'm only aware of Mariah Stovall and Renée Jarvis💙📚 #BookSky

See whether air pollution has increased or decreased in your country: https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/air-pollution

Antibiotics discovered in the soil of a Cameroon volcano half a century ago have finally been reverse-engineered, giving medical scientists a new potential drug in the fight against infection. www.sciencealert.com/scientists-r...

“The main question I was looking to answer when I started reading Hegseth’s collected works was whether he would follow a Trump command to shoot peaceful protesters. After having read them, I don’t think he would even wait for the order.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

I’m really enjoying the Mutuals feed by @bsky.app. It’s just posts from mutuals, no reposts. Feels quiet, and an easy way to engage in conversation (or just like a few posts).