I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland. And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

I started making this R package 6 years ago. I finally have it in a state I'm happy with, thanks to Claude Code #Rstats github.com/MattCowgill/...

The American Statistical Association has an organizational sign-on letter urging Congress to exempt federal statistical agencies & units from Schedule Policy/Career. Are you a member in any orgs that value accurate, timely info about the U.S.? Please consider signing docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Jesus Christ these people are monsters.

For THREE decades now the place to go to understand the American Labor Market.

To explore the State of Working America Data Library on the web: data.epi.org

Want to explore the EPI State of Working America Data Library in #RStats? The 🐣 swadlr 🐣 package lets you search available datasets and pull time series directly economic.github.io/swadlr/

Key to efficient learning is realizing how we ACTUALLY learn, not just what FEELS like learning. I wrote a Claude Skill for some friends to help them think about this and they've liked it -- see Principles for some directions you could explore github.com/DrCatHicks/l...

Our grasp on reality is slipping. The response rate to the survey behind the unemployment rate (and the rest of the household survey) is now lower than during the pandemic. The decline in response rates during the first year of the Trump Admin 2.0 was larger than at any time outside the pandemic.

Absolute top notch R hex icon for a quality dataset package

”This is a world of compensations; and he who would *be* no slave, must consent to *have* no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

Really great resource for getting some key labor market indicators - incl college wage premium estimates over time from @epi.org

Want to explore the EPI State of Working America Data Library in #RStats? The 🐣 swadlr 🐣 package lets you search available datasets and pull time series directly economic.github.io/swadlr/

📢 Predoc Opportunity I'm hiring a full-time predoc to work with me at UC Berkeley, supporting my research on labor economics, the economics of education, and public policy. jesse-rothstein.com/rothstein_pr... Please pass on to anyone who might be interested. #econsky #econ_ra

gin + génépy + lemon juice + simple syrup + peychaud's + pernod

can you nose frida yourself

straight out of those Civil War histories where some ill informed white Union soldier got a view of slavery up close and became hyper abolitionist in an instant

These people are ghouls.

Social Security Admin staff are being verbally instructed to share information about in-person appointments with ICE, contradicting SSA's written policy and decades of precedent. Worse, recent policy changes are forcing millions more noncitizens to visit SSA offices. www.wired.com/story/social...

I'm going to start a history podcast aimed at kids in a few months - I've heard from SO MANY parents whose children are into history but haven't found age-appropriate material, and I've had a lot of practice with my kids, so we're going to give it a shot

Pam $50K Bondi. Tom $50K Homan. Who will be next?

an underappreciated layer of the AI agent threatening the matplotlib developer story is why the PR was initially rejected: matplotlib maintainers are actively trying to build a community of developers who understand the codebase and how to contribute to it

Black women bore the brunt of the economic slowdown in 2025, suffering far greater employment losses than other groups of women or Black men. The largest losses among Black women were college graduates and public-sector workers. Read the latest analysis from EPI's Valerie Wilson 👇

More than 400 people, including hundreds of citizens, were “sorted” at gun point into racial and ethnic groups by 200 ICE agents who fired flash-bang grenades into cars with people inside, pointed guns at children & demanded their zip tied parents not comfort them. apple.news/Ausdx6kWtT0e...

Scoop–CFPB just fired employee alexisgoldstein.bsky.social for allegedly disrupting &documenting a meeting a year ago between CFPB & DOGE www.bloomberg.com/news/article... She says she's being retaliated against after asking DOGE visitors who they were & if they'd completed training on handling info

Another breach of confidential data. A judge had explicitly banned IRS from doing this. bsky.app/profile/cram...

Wage and compensation growth has fallen steadily over the past couple years but private nonunion EIC growth has been stable for the last year and a half. The decline is all in union and government (which is mostly an product of lagged dynamics and convegence)

Private sector union elections fell by nearly 30 percent in 2025, via @jaureliaglass.bsky.social @americanprogress.bsky.social www.americanprogress.org/shareable/the-number-of-national-labor-relations-board-nlrb-private-sector-union-elections-fell-by-nearly-30-percent-in-2025/?r=148214&l=6

Great piece by @jamellebouie.net on the need for ICE hearings. Get it all out there. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...

3/ Prime working age employment population ratio rises to 80.9%, the highest since July 2024.

The National Labor Relations Book, a $10 introduction to private-sector labor law under the NLRA Interesting example of something that wouldn't exist without LLMs: @mattbruenig.bsky.social used Gemini & Claude to summarize each of the 100 most-cited cases based on their 100 most recent citing cases

#HiringAlert: The California Policy Lab is hiring for a mid- or advanced-career Researcher, focused on labor economics. First review is Feb 27th. Hybrid in Los Angeles, or remote. Full posting: capolicylab.org/careers/rese...

ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...

Congress should act to categorically exempt statistical agency staff from this schedule. Statistical agencies by definition do not set policy. Their only power and purpose is collecting data & publishing credible, informative stats. Without political independence, they can't do this.

Get yourself a union

TIL about dplyr's n_distinct() for counting unique values I especially love that if you're from the southern US like me, you'd pronounce it "indistinct"

New @nber.org paper with @caitlinpatler.bsky.social & @elizabethacox.bsky.social out! We examine how ICE arrests differ in Trump 2.0 vs. 1.0 Key Findings 🧵 1) MANY more arrests in Trump 2.0 than 1.0 2) When arrests spike, % arrested w criminal conviction falls www.nber.org/papers/w3479...

OK, *ongoing* thread of books to read on Palestine. Some recent, some not at all so recent.

has someone done the relevant sample size calculation (putting aside concerns about data transparency)? How many trips or miles are needed to claim the waymo accident rate is lower than the human driver rate, given some confidence level?

"Whoever designed the human visual system has a lot to answer for. Maybe not as much as the knee group. Or the lower back team... who hired those people?"

I am doing research on examples of debunked cases where ICE/DHS made a claim about arresting, detaining, and deporting a criminal (e.g., "the worst of the worst"). If you have examples, please send them my way via DMs/comments. Thanks.

In addition to weak firearms controls, legalized sports gambling is another important driver of family violence Male-to-female assaults spike when the home NFL team is expected to win but loses, especially in states with legal sports betting

claude code knowers: do wildcard permissions like "Bash(cat:*)", etc. let claude access any path, even those outside the project directory?

Breaking, from me: An executive order from Oklahoma's governor directs most of the state's public colleges to "phase out tenure." #AcademicSky #HigherEd @chronicle.com www.chronicle.com/article/tenu...

For no particular reason, re-upping this great explainer on why adding crypto and private equity to 401k plans is a bad idea

School enrollment fell for teens with likely undocumented mothers as deportations and detentions increased in 2025

After substantial gains over the last several years, wage growth at the low end slowed sharply in 2025. The 10th percentile wage actually fell in real terms as the labor market weakened. Nice analysis from @elisegould.bsky.social and @joe-fast.bsky.social

NEW: Abigail Spanberger this afternoon ordered that all state agencies leave ICE's 287(g) program. This means that the state police (and some other agencies) will no longer be empowered to detain and arrest people for ICE. Big, big move by the governor within weeks of coming into office.

Latest ICE data show deportations actually dropped in January, perhaps as the agency concentrated on detention, which hit record levels

This cannot be something a civilian law enforcement agent is allowed to wear in the US — and an agency that has a culture that tolerates this cannot be saved.