This week in #mapoli: baby bonds, judicial safety, and IDs for homeless youth. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

I'm planning a #mapoli feed in legislata.com to help capture a little bit of the value the old Twitter had in keeping us up to date with events in gov't and politics. What are the things you'd like to see in that? Daily update of news articles? Events? Shared press releases? Let me know!

It’s good politicians are doing streams to seem relatable, but when will a Senate candidate do a season of Football Manager and we can finally vote for someone who can win the Prem without a 4-2-3-1 gegenpress. @michaelcaley.bsky.social can this become an NKD litmus test?

With city and town officials elected last night across #mapoli, a reminder that Legislata has AI-generated transcripts of about 30+ municipalities, available for free for journalists and gov't employees. If your city isn't there, let me know and I'll try to add it. app.legislata.com/posts/267324...

Something may have gone wrong in the off-ball positioning in my football match engine

How long until the "what this race means for the nation" for the Somerville City Council at-large seats?

What in the world does that first sentence mean? Not to pick on the social media editor but that is not how you phrase "it's election day and one candidate looks very likely to win"

Learning some programming by making a football match engine and may have to tweak it a little bit.

A note on #mapoli Bluesky. I wanted to tag everyone who participated in this hearing for easier visibility. For Bluesky, I found only two people with accounts. On LinkedIn, it was 15. It's much harder to have a good political conversation when so many important perspectives aren't here

Halloween saw a very long #mapoli committee hearing on the Census. Speakers included: - @geoffreyfoster.bsky.social - @beccarausch.bsky.social and many others not on Bluesky Full transcript here: app.legislata.com/public_offic...

For all the talk that a salary cap isn’t needed because the Dodgers didn’t run away in the regular season, they just won back to back World Series, the first time that’s happened in 25 years. Some more competitive parity, please?

Are Arby’s steak nuggets just steak tips? Are they stealing New England’s thing?

Is there any candidate for Somerville elections that has come out in favor of starting our own Palio? We have lots of squares. We have lots of animals (dogs) who can race around in circles. We have neighborhood pride. What’s the holdup?

Big thanks to @simonkuper.bsky.social for this column that I’ll be using every time my wife asks me why I’m watching Tottenham not score from open play at 7:30 am on a Saturday

New #mapoli digest this week looks at how you can learn about what city officials care about by seeing how they testify at Beacon Hill. We look at a climate hearing with quotes from @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social, @mayorkatjana.bsky.social, and others massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/to-learn-a...

Has this host never met a South Asian person before?

Worst bit of umpiring I’ve seen this year. Wow.

Would love to get people's opinions about a prototype we built to make @bostoncitycouncil.bsky.social transcripts (sponsored by @bostonpolicyinst.bsky.social) more accessible using a chatbot form factor. Check it out and let me know how we should tweak it. bos-city-council-chatbot.streamlit.app

I love Spurs’ set piece goals. I hate what it means for the future of the Premier League that we can spend 50 minutes with barely a peep from our striker and still be up 2-0

This week in #mapoli, some speculation on a new way to analyze politicians, given we're starting to see some competitive races. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

Has anyone asked @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social the big question: T20, ODI, or test?

Sign of the times in how our politics works. I learned that @teamtram.bsky.social is running for Congress via a fundraising text message. Really shows how that first-day haul is now a crucial part of whether a candidate is viable

I’m tempted to become the Man Utd fan that didn’t cut his hair until United won five in a row, except for Spurs scoring from open play. #coys

Why working in state level politics is so difficult. Six hearings happened yesterday on Beacon Hill, meaning you had to choose which to cover AND miss out on Nazi tattoo discourse

If I run for office and they go through my social media history and leaked group chats, there’s going to be a lot of questioning of how someone can be so deluded at the start of every Premier League season

Either these are three different stories, or @wutrain.bsky.social is having a very busy October

My wife is watching Psych and I must have missed a backstory because I’m not sure why the guy who’s very good at solving crimes and whose dad is a cop has to pretend to be a psychic to solve crimes with cops

Happy deepavali to all! (My South Indian mother-in-law would not like if I called it Diwali)

People are really missing the funniest single word that Cuomo said at the debate last night. “Central Park is great. It’s Manhattan. But there are other boroughs. Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, etc.” What’s the etc?!

Today's the last day of Connecticut Public's fall pledge drive. Normally, October is when federal funding comes into our station. Because of Congress's vote to defund public media, we've got a $2.1 million budget gap. Your support can help us plug that hole & keep up the programming you rely on:

New Massachusetts Digest, where we look at a Joint Committee on Housing talking about the second-order effects of a housing shortage, a new skeet of the week feature, and what Dan Koh's announcement video means for politics today. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

Based on today’s @massterlist.com headline, I’d love to see a coffee table book of photographs from election night victory parties for uncontested candidates. A mix of elation and expectation.

Committee hearings let you see new political arguments emerge, like butterflies from a cocoon. This week we see - Beacon Hill is worried about the economy - The federal government is now an other - The OBBB is reshaping the political landscape massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/seeing-new...

To my friends in Philadelphia, this is your Bill Buckner moment

How long until sportsbooks start offering lines on the Sesame Street letter of the day?

Completed my semi-annual cancellation of SaaS products that no longer are worth the money and feel great! It's like spring cleaning for the digital age. Also, probably should be checking on those more often than twice a year

This week we take a look at what came out of the mid-year economic roundup. It's one of the dryest hearings you'll ever read, but it's vital to understanding what's happening in the state. Also, I learned that on Beacon Hill, the One Big Beautiful Bill is "OB3" open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

It’s important as a political analyst to accept your forecasting mistakes and learn from them so I now have to figure out why I had faith in this Red Sox team to win the wild card series

I don’t remember ever being so pessimistic about a Red Sox playoff offense. They don’t at all look like they can score 4 runs even if you spotted them a ghost runner every inning

I’m getting all my built up stress for Red Sox - Yankees out by watching Tottenham UCL right now. It’s like methodone but if I also planned on still taking heroin later

Reading the Kamala Harris campaign memoir. It’s good, but it reminds me how incredible US Grant’s memoirs are. Still the best book by a president or candidate in American history

First time I've seen a non-human chairing a committee at the State House. That, along with Raise the Age, service worker pay, and clean energy jobs this week massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/theres-no-...

This week we had so many hearings at the State House, I needed three screenshots to capture them all. Plus quotes from: - Cllr. Marc McGovern - @clarkziegler.bsky.social - Rep. Rob Consalvo - Se. Will Brownsberger massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/uncertaint...

Curious what @skoczela.bsky.social and @gelliottmorris.com make of the methodology of this poll from my grandfather's unit in WWII. While it may not be as representative as a modern poll, the cartoons are much better.

Working in public policy isn't always glamorous. But I don't know if I've come across a less glamorous example than this.

Lot of hearings this week in #mapoli. In fact, so many that I had to zoom out my browser screen to get a screenshot with them all for the newsletter. We've got coverage of Public Safety, Public Health, Public Service, Judiciary... massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/from-housi...

Good example of how misinformation can spread in social media even without AI. Favreau is criticizing Trump, but because the follow-up tweet is not included, it sounds like he's doing the opposite. Context is so easily stripped away and outrage allowed to run away before it's fact checked

What polarization? It’s a terrible tragedy, we can all agree on that. The killer was arrested and will go to jail for a long time.

I read the Epstein birthday book. Hard not to imagine that everyone back then knew, given how many letters are similarly creepy, one of which talks about hilarious adventures like "inspecting the Royal Schools girls dorm room" drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Just want to leave this here. The Fed should release data on a blockchain is an all-time Silicon Valley-who-doesn't-understand-government take.