hello minnesota and beyond! thank you for your kind messages. it is very weird to be the news when you cover the news. i love this beautiful state and journalism, and i am hopeful for better days. but we will be forever changed bc of the last two months.

A century ago, beavers were basically extinct in Massachusetts. Now, their numbers are in the tens of thousands. Their rebound in the state all started with an ill-fated love triangle involving three beavers named Paul Bunyan, Paula Bunyan and Big Swede.

All kinds of updates from @wbur.org today. First, what stairways have to do with housing in Massachusetts: www.wbur.org/news/2026/02...

"Meta’s internal memo said the political tumult in the United States was good timing for the feature’s release." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙

At apparel manufacturer American Roots in Westbrook, Maine, staff and community volunteers are trying to protect immigrant workers by standing watch as they arrive and leave for the day.

1/ Even in today's AI age, basic #NewsLiteracy skills are sometimes enough to get the facts of a story: 1 - Critical observation: What am I looking at? 2 - Sourcing: Who posted this? Do they have an agenda? 3 - Verification: Has this video or photo been verified as legit by other credible sources?

"While verified videos and witnesses showed how federal immigration agents tackled and shot Alex Pretti, 37, the posts tried to warp the events, including in ways intended to support the Trump administration’s claims that Mr. Pretti was at fault for his own death." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/u...

Here's a list of my @mprnews.org colleagues on BlueSky. Thanks for supporting our journalism. bsky.app/starter-pack...

From Boston this morning ❄️ "Massachusetts residents woke up Monday to a blanket of fresh powder from a massive weekend winter storm that is expected to keep battering the region into the night." www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

If you are tracking breaking news, read local sources: www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

A temperature of around minus 10 degrees did little to slow Minnesotans around the Twin Cities on Friday, with businesses closing, workers and students staying home, and demonstrators demanding that federal immigration agents depart. nyti.ms/3Zu4tiB

"The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, posted an image of Armstrong’s arrest at 10.21am on Thursday, less than an hour after Bondi’s announcement." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

A federal appeals court has paused an injunction barring immigration agents from “retaliating” against peaceful protesters and observers in Minnesota. This photo from today shows a federal agent spraying a protester on the ground with a chemical irritant.

"In less than six months, visitors from across the world will converge on Boston for the FIFA men’s World Cup." www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

Via @wbur.org "...a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that an immigration enforcement effort dubbed "Operation Catch of the Day" was underway in Maine, but did not provide specific numbers..." www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

"The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice ..." apnews.com/article/ice-...

The MBTA's transit plans for World Cup are still up in the air, just months before millions of visitors arrive in the Boston area.

Today from @wbur.org "The long-awaited New England Clean Energy Connect is a 145 mile high-voltage transmission line that carries power generated by hydroelectric facilities in Quebec to the commonwealth." www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

"New England has record-setting year for organ transplants" (from @wbur.org 's morning newsletter) www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

1/ The @startribune.com has put its live blog outside the paywall www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi... but here’s how you can support them even if you don’t subscribe …

New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...

Here's what we got @wbur.org this morning (🧵) "In her first term, Wu was untested — all possibility and potential in 2021 as Boston clawed its way out of the COVID pandemic. Now, her constituents expect her to deliver major improvements, and she does too." www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

NEW: 6 federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned today because of DOJ's push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an ICE agent and the department’s reluctance to investigate the shooter www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...

From @wbur.org this morning (🧵) "We're more than 1,100 miles away from Minneapolis, but the reverberations from the shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross are being felt here." www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

Millennials are still using Craigslist to find jobs, find love, and even to cast creative projects—eschewing other AI- and algorithm-dominated online spaces. “There’s a purity to it.” www.wired.com/story/is-cra...

We built a visual archive of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. In Chapter 4, we show how federal investigators found the rioters and built the largest criminal case in U.S. history.

A federal agent shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist when she allegedly tried to run over law enforcement officers during an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said Wednesday.

Latest from @wbur.org today (🧵) www.wbur.org/news/2026/01...

I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day. Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me. 🧵

last month, @wired.com broke the news about ai image generators being used to undress photos of women. my reporting resulted in a 200K+ subreddit getting banned for nonconsensual deepfakes. doing more software accountability reporting this year. reach out to me on Signal with tips! reece_rogers.01

BREAKING: The U.S. drops the number of vaccines it recommends for every child in an unprecedented overhaul of childhood health protections.

EXCLUSIVE: @laurenweberhp.bsky.social & I have spent the last year collecting school+county-level vaccination data from across the US and found that only about 28% of counties now have herd immunity for kindergartners from measles—that leaves about 5.2mn kids unprotected. Gift link: wapo.st/49zDc43

This is 404 Media's @jasonkoebler.bsky.social waving at himself through a Flock camera; one of 60 we learned was left exposed to the open internet. Not only could anyone with a link livestream it, but some admin portals were open with no login credentials required. www.404media.co/flock-expose...

How did Harvard find itself under attack by President Trump? There is no simple answer, but in a Globe report, a theme stands out: In the past decade of political and cultural upheaval, Harvard became the university that plenty of Americans loved to hate.

The MSPCA has seen a nearly 50% increase in animals being surrendered to their shelters for housing-related concerns over the last three years. The organization is now offering new resources for families and advocating for legislation to make housing more pet inclusive.

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal late on Thursday in a pair of consolidated lawsuits brought by Harvard and the American Association of University Professors. It prolongs a legal battle that has tested the government’s power to sway the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university.

Claudio Manuel Neves Valente was in Providence for two weeks before he opened fire on an auditorium of Brown University students preparing for a final exam. As investigators searched for a suspect, police say Neves Valente fatally shot an MIT professor at his Brookline home.

The 230-odd pieces Cognoscenti published this year were personal and political. The thing about working in the news business is, we never know what’s going to happen — that was never more true than in 2025.

🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

“Boston already has one of the highest prices in the country for a cup of coffee — and it's been rising. The median price of a cup of coffee in Boston rose to more than $4 last month … That's more than 45 cents higher than the national median.” www.wbur.org/news/2025/12...

“Nelson said it’s astonishing to see how anger and resentment over trade in what was then a small port city could spark a revolution that re-shaped the world.” www.wbur.org/upnext/2025/...

“…Or are we consigning ourselves to adopting the playbook written by companies optimizing for advertising revenue and user addiction?” www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/shor...

"Lead is an essential element in car batteries. But mining and processing it is expensive. So companies have turned to recycling as a cheaper, seemingly sustainable source of this hazardous metal." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"And the story of the city's slithering saurian appears to have a happy ending. The small alligator, spotted along the Charles River in Boston multiple times this week, has been rescued and delivered to safety, wildlife officials in Massachusetts said Thursday." 🐊 www.wbur.org/news/2025/11...

Here's what happened in Boston and beyond elections last night from @wbur.org : www.wbur.org/news/2025/11...

A name tag on Boston police officers might seem like a small change. But Mayor Michelle Wu said it's especially important now, given the prevalence of masked federal agents conducting immigration enforcement.

Authorities say they've arrested two Massachusetts men in connection with a weekend explosion at Harvard Medical School. The blast occurred early Saturday on the fourth floor of Harvard Medical School. No one was injured.