New Olympia Time newsletter traces today’s immigration panic to Hoquiam’s 1912 vigilante war and Albert Johnson’s rise to the 1924 Immigration Act, then imagines an alternate, more inclusive path. Plus links on homelessness services, climate gaming, and WA-3 politics buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...

PragerU created “Freedom Trucks” funded with $14M diverted from library grants after the takeover of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The agency was gutted, rebranded around America250, and turned into a propaganda machine starving libraries buttondown.com/wellsourced/...

Lean In Olympia explains how Sergio’s Service Center supports unhoused people with showers, laundry, medical care, and emergency shelter, while stressing teamwork, partnerships, and empathy to counter myths about homelessness. youtube.com/watch?v=7s9Q...

A lecture at Evergreen State College argues gaming can be a powerful tool for climate justice. Through simulations and “protopian” futures, games help people imagine solutions, avoid burnout, and creatively explore paths to a better, more inclusive world. www.deschutesestuary.org/dishing-the-...

A 1912 vigilante purge of immigrant workers in Hoquiam became the blueprint for U.S. immigration restriction. In this blog post, I trace how local panic fueled national policy and imagine an alternate path where solidarity, not fear, defined American identity. olympiatime.com/2026/01/31/t...

ATproto can be an enshittification killswitch: users own their identity and data in portable personal repositories, not platforms. Apps plug into shared data, enabling interoperability, easy exit, developer freedom, and prosocial tech without lock-in. www.techdirt.com/2026/01/27/a...

The entire "for a tech city it took a long time" conversational frame for PNW problems ignore that Amazon engineers don't volunteer to solve civic problems and cities get outbid for their labor when they do try to

Burien’s newly progressive City Council voted 4–3 to drop proposed downzones in three wealthier neighborhoods, signaling a post-election shift toward equity-focused housing policy and keeping higher density allowed citywide. www.theurbanist.org/2026/01/30/n...

Abundant housing is one of the strongest climate solutions: it cuts car dependence, lowers emissions, supports transit, preserves green space, and improves equity, while NIMBY claims against infill housing contradict climate science. www.theurbanist.org/2026/01/29/o...

After two bystanders were killed by federal officers in Minneapolis, MAGA influencers pushed “antifa” and left-wing extremism narratives to deflect outrage, targeting anti-ICE Signal chats and prompting an FBI probe despite debunked claims. blog.openmeasures.io/p/flash-repo...

Seattle leads U.S. metros in affordable apartment production, building 14,290 units from 2020–24, edging NYC and Austin. Affordable homes now make up a growing share of new apartments nationwide, though Seattle still falls far short of long-term housing needs. www.theurbanist.org/2026/01/28/s...

GOP chair Rep. Jim Walsh wrongly blames Gov. Ferguson for unrest after ICE shootings of U.S. citizens. Walsh ignores ICE abuses, Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, and years of GOP-driven tension, misplacing blame instead of condemning federal actions. andrestepankowsky.substack.com/p/walsh-diat...

In Washington State we combine the idea of temperance and democracy with Temperance and Good Citizenship Day. Also Temperance doesn't mean abstinence, it just means a healthy amount. But this is a good idea hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/the-need-f...

California approved Verizon’s Frontier merger but forced “woke” concessions: $20/month internet for low-income households for 10 years and required fiber + 5G buildout in underserved areas. Most states approved the deal with zero public-interest strings. www.techdirt.com/2026/01/29/c...

Pittsburgh’s political polarization is driven less by ideology than by economic neglect and uneven local governance. Neighborhoods judge politics by whether basic services work. When institutions fail, trust erodes and populist appeals grow. theconversation.com/political-po...

The first slave patrols in what is now US soil began in 1704 in South Carolina. That today roving bands of agents are forcing people to "show their papers" or face being snatched into bondage is like getting an awful postcard from our past. buttondown.com/natebowling/...

New Olympia Time newsletter: Ballots are out: listen to The Olympia Standard on the tech, safety & facilities replacement levy (vote by Feb 10) Plus: how we accidentally made downtown one-way, prioritizing cars over people, and why it may be time to go two-way again buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...

You’ve already received your ballot, so this week Erika sat down with Superintendent Mr. Dr. Patrick Murphy and Marc Elliot, Chief Information Officer, to talk about the replacement levy. Don’t forget to vote by February 10! theolympiastandard.com/2026/01/24/1...

Olympia’s one-way streets weren’t planned, they were a temporary fix after the 1949 earthquake. The state then turned them into a de facto highway, prioritizing speed over walkability. We reshaped our town into a commuter corridor we’re still living with today olympiatime.com/2026/01/24/1...

Today’s panic over teen screen time mirrors past moral panics. New large studies show moderate use correlates with better teen well-being, while claims that phones cause mental health crises are overstated and used to justify harmful surveillance and policy. www.usermag.co/p/the-new-sa...

A far-right “Save Our Sheriffs” rally in Puyallup, drew few sheriffs but many WA GOP officials. Speakers attacked sheriff accountability laws, promoted election denial and anti-immigrant rhetoric, and pushed conspiracies linking sheriffs to defying state and fed authority irehr.org/2026/01/23/i...

Spokane County alerted GEO Group to a public records request for ICE transport van photos, prompting the contractor’s lawyer to contact the requester. Third-party notifications can be used to delay or deter records releases; the county released one photo days later. rangemedia.co/county-tips-...

Moderation in all things: research on 125k kids debunks the social media panic. Data shows that moderate use is best for well-being, while total abstinence or excessive use is worse. UK findings show zero impact on mental health. www.techdirt.com/2026/01/21/t...

Cliff Mass likes to debunk drought calls by experts, but the data suggests Mass' recent drought dragging was short-lived. While he saw a "stunning recovery," Jan 19th data shows the 3rd worst snowpack since 1985 as the warm "snow battery" failed. theconvergencezone.com/2026/01/19/p...

Behind every racist jump scare, there is a systemic evil that would really knock your socks off. Far larger, systemic fraud comes from major corporations, especially health insurers like UnitedHealth. www.nationalmemo.com/fraudsters

Court filing reveals a DOGE staffer signed an agreement to share Americans’ Social Security data with an election-denying advocacy group to probe voter rolls. SSA referred the staffers to the Office of Special Counsel for possible Hatch Act violations. popular.info/p/doge-staff...

This is a fascinatingly detailed map of Presidential approval, including a population level visualization (sage brush doesn't vote!) www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-very-det... /1

Sponsored by Rep. Rob Chase, HB 2222 writes the chemtrail conspiracy into law, banning “chemtrail events,” weather control, nano particulates, and tech like 5G or lasers. It criminalizes activities scientists say don’t exist, treating contrails as threats. app.leg.wa.gov/BillSummary/...

RSS still matters in 2026: it delivers every post from your favorite sites chronologically, without algorithms. Cleaner, calmer, and complete, RSS gives you control over what you read, with modern apps like Feedly and Inoreader keeping it alive. lifehacker.com/tech/why-eve...

Thread: Investing in Washington’s Information Future 🧵 1/ Have you heard about House Bill 2579? It’s a new proposal in the 2026 session aimed at strengthening local news and closing the digital divide in Washington. Here is a breakdown of the bill. #WAleg app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?...

New Olympia Time newsletter: Marcus Whitman is our Robert E. Lee statue. With Billy Frank Jr.’s statue coming, the Capitol still dodges the obvious: retire Whitman. Plus: a session preview podcast, school funding, local art, and winter lights love. buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...

They had to pull Darnold early because he needs to stop by Home Depot to get a jump on his honey do list for the long weekend

Did you see how Coach McDonald isn't chasing Charbonnet in the concussion tent?

new state flag dropped

Can't believe I Iive in a state where we're wringing out hands about taking down a white supremacist statue but SeaTac erasure is pedal to the metal

Throw the idea of a 100-Justice Supreme Court in the pile of good government ideas that need to happen, including uncapping Congress and the state legisiture, folding special districts into general government and normalizing political boundaries of local governments www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/t...

Baton Rouge PD will deploy a $1M military-grade Stalker VXE30 surveillance drone used in war zones. Its long-range, high-powered monitoring marks a dangerous escalation in police militarization and demands strict oversight. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

🧵 What’s happening in this DCYF debate isn’t misinformation or simple concern trolling. It’s malinformation: real facts arranged to imply something more sinister than the evidence supports. That distinction matters. /1 mynorthwest.com/john-curley/...

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank publicly rejected the Legislature’s authority and vowed to defy state law, violating his oath to uphold Washington’s Constitution. That breach of duty is explicit grounds for recall under the state constitution and statute. www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2026/...

The Marcus Whitman statue in Olympia functions like a Confederate monument: built to promote a false, harmful myth that justified colonization and white dominance. The state should stop debating relocation and fully remove it to tell the truth about history. olympiatime.com/2026/01/17/t...

Here is to normalizing post Christmas lights in the northern latitudes.

Why is voter turnout among young people consistently low? We often blame apathy or lack of education, but the real answer might be hidden in our biology. It’s time to look at how brain development shapes our democracy. 🧵 /1

Seattle’s Latino murals, led by artist Rene Julio Diaz, use public walls to explore migration, identity, and community. His work blends culture and current issues, fostering dialogue, connection, and belonging across neighborhoods. thefulcrum.us/community/se...

"Of course they’re going to do what the algorithm demands—which, on today’s right, means snappy, confrontational, fact-agnostic propaganda for the regime. That’s what the ecosystem rewards... If you think that’s grim today, wait till you see the future." www.thebulwark.com/p/if-you-thi...

A fundraiser for an ICE agent that wasn’t just pro-police but white supremacist, using antisemitic language, “America First” signals, and Great Replacement rhetoric, showing how extremist ideology sits at the core of some anti-immigrant fundraising. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Interfaith leaders protested at the Idaho Capitol, accusing lawmakers of misusing Christianity to justify laws harming trans, immigrant, and marginalized communities. Clergy called for church–state separation, compassion, and moral courage as the legislative session began. favs.news/faith-leader...

If you live in Washington State, don't take your lights down

There's A LOT going on right now in struggle b/w democracy & authoritarianism, so it's hard to keep up. But it's going to be REALLY important that we pay attention to (and keep pushing back against) how election lies (from 2020) are being mobilized in ways that threaten election integrity in 2026.

Post your favorite Star Trek character. Wrong answers only.

Last week I wrote about how these rumor disasters happen and a little comms advice on how to prep and respond. But the @cip.uw.edu recently wrote a approach that could be expanded to inoculate communities by covering in real time how rumors spread. 🧵 /1