Blizzard conditions continue to pummel Duluth and the North Shore, closing schools and knocking out power to thousands. The winter storm also prompted state transportation officials to close Highway 61 between Duluth and the Canadian border.

An observer arrested in Suth Minneapolis. Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The RFK, jr effect.

"The Great Lakes Science Center in Michigan would lose 108 of 137 positions." via @eenews.bsky.social

How #climatechange is reshaping fish communities in the United States as temperatures rise and non-native fishes proliferate: @ian-vaughan.bsky.social overviews recent extensive work by @rumschsl.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Changing water temperatures and human-driven introductions of fish have altered the composition of fish populations in streams and rivers across the USA over the past three decades, a study in Nature suggests. go.nature.com/47ZCcWH 🧪

Our research group just published a study in Nature on how fish biodiversity in U.S. rivers and streams has been changing over the past 27 years (1993–2019). The results show sharply diverging trends depending on historic and changing water temperature. 🧵 rdcu.be/eH0l8

Exciting collaboration with colleagues from the US and Frederik de Laender - lead by S. Rumschlag and Mike Mahon - on how climate change has lead to alterations in US fish diversity over the last decades. Paper just out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

EPA has ordered scientists in its Office of Water to immediately pause almost all research & stop publishing studies. Researchers were told that, unless scientific journals had already returned proofs, studies will be subject to an additional EPA review. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Looking for a great photo of a freshwater fish (North American) to submit as a journal cover image for a manuscript on fish biodiversity trends! If you have one you’d be willing to share (with credit, of course!), please reach out. 🎣📸 #fishphoto #freshwaterfish #scicomm

NEW: per multiple sources, apparently there may be punishment/retaliation coming for EPA employees who signed the Declaration of Dissent this week. People are starting to get letters putting them on administrative leave, seems like potentially targeted at those who signed with their names.

Amazing: MIT researchers revealed how ChatGPT etc are destroying our brains and booby-trapped the report to expose those who want to use AI to ostensibly summarize the results. t.co/JXeTALBPds

Authorities have taken 57-year-old Vance Boelter into custody in Sibley County. He's the suspect in the targeted fatal shootings of Minnesota House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her spouse, and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his spouse.

Make it seven: DOJ just sought emergency relief from #SCOTUS in the AFSCME/mass-RIFs case. It’ll be docketed as 24A1106. In case you’re keeping score, this marks the 15th emergency application from Trump in 16 weeks. Across 16 *years,* the GWB and Obama administrations filed a total of … eight.

FLASH: Federal judge blocks RIFs/Trump administration reorganization plans for 20 federal agencies. SF-based Judge Susan Illston (Clinton) says they appear to exceed executive branch authority to implement without Congressional approval. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Glad to see the MRCC is back up! Funding restored by NOAA/Dept of Commerce. But ridiculous that funding for regional climate centers was removed in the first place.

New preprint finding that eliminating US global health funding over the next fifteen years would cause: - 15.2m deaths from AIDS - 2.2m deaths from TB - 7.9 additional child deaths

From the editorial: "If the Duluth EPA lab is being indiscriminately targeted, the cutting and slashing (in D.C.) clearly isn’t being done with the care, consideration, or thought such a process demands."

I don’t remember going on a baseball podcast…

Anyone in Duluth looking to support their local EPA employees, come out tomorrow morning!

ANOTHER UPSET. Drake is heading to the second-round of the men’s NCAA Tournament.

Welp. What a way to find out that my colleagues and I may be soon out of jobs.

Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bigge...

Do you want water that’s safe for your family to drink, air that’s safe for your family to breathe, or a livable climate? We’re apparently cutting 2/3 of our capacity, so pick one of those three. 🤷 www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/c...

Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com

New PFAS analytical method from our Great Lakes contaminants lab. We had issues reliably extracting PFAS from whole fish samples using Method 1633, so we found that lipid-extraction resulted in clean extracts. The work was led by my awesome, but Bluesky-less colleagues. doi.org/10.1021/acs....

Dear federal scientists: If you have been affected by the probationary firings and would be willing to speak with Science, please reach out to me by email ([email protected]) or on Signal. We can guarantee annonymity.

UPDATE: The Trump administration had given more than 2 million federal employees until today to decide whether to stay or go. A federal judge in Massachusetts has paused the effort until Monday.

If you are reading this and you received any of the [email protected] emails and you are not a current employee of the Executive Branch please email or Signal me a copy of the emails.

In its simplest terms, the apparent demise of #USAID is the result of the world's richest man ending a program that helps millions of poor people. You don't need a Ph.D. in moral theology to see why this is an evil. You can just read Jesus's parables on the rich and the poor.

Musk’s allies were granted access to the U.S. Treasury payment system. Treasury stays silent. White House stays silent. Why the secrecy? Time for an explanation and full transparency.

A new analysis confirms links between early life #PFAS exposure and stunted “cognitive, motor, and language development” as well as “behavioral issues like hyperactivity.” #foreverchemicals appear to be damaging children’s brains, and not only highly exposed kids. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39888511/

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit is the largest tax cut for child care on the books today. It saves parents thousands of dollars per year. Republicans have plans to eliminate it.

BREAKING: A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the action Tuesday afternoon, minutes before it was set to go into effect. The administrative stay pauses the freeze until Monday.

I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012. Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place. A thread.

NOTRE DAME IS ONTO THE CFP TITLE GAME AFTER A GAME-WINNING FG 🍀 The Fighting Irish are back in the national championship game for the first time since 2013.

It happened 19 and a half hours later than planned, in front of a smaller-than-expected crowd and in an environment that felt neither normal nor abnormal. But it happened. Notre Dame won a major bowl for the first time in 31 years to move on to the CFP semifinals.

Me, a public health person, just sitting over here reflecting on the fact that the US has experienced a 7% increase in infant mortality post-Dobbs. Like, do you realize what that says about this society from an ethical perspective? That we made policy choices that caused this? #PHEthx

NEW: The Pop-Tart Bowl trophy is back and better than ever ... it is now a fully functional toaster trophy! Pop-Tart partnered with GE Appliances to build this one-of-a-kind toaster trophy. It is about 1.3x the size of a normal football + can toast full-size Pop-Tarts.

Biodiversity loss, climate change, chemical pollution and introduced species—all as a result of human activity—may be increasing infectious disease transmission, according to a meta-analysis in Nature. go.nature.com/4brvx6b 🧪