The life of the hugely influential ‘people’s historian’ is explored in a wide-ranging new book that brings in everything from wars to civil rights to Matt Damon

‘Like if John Sayles directed Forrest Gump’: the incredible life of historian Howard Zinn

theguardian.com

DC area friends. We hope to see you this eve at @politicsprose.bsky.social with @edgeofsports.bsky.social for talk about Dave Zirin's new book about Howard Zinn. Or join us next Thursday at BBP -- or both! More tour dates: www.zinnedproject.org/materials/th... politics-prose.com/david-zirin-...

Dave Zirin — The People's Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn — at Conn Ave

politics-prose.com

ICE refuses a Freedom of Information Act seeking basic payroll information on ICE employees assigned to its Buffalo field office. buff.ly/Qm6cD8Q

ICE refuses to say who works for them in Buffalo, upstate NY

Investigative Post, through FOIA, attempted to learn more about who's employed by ICE in the Buffalo region. ICE rejected the request.

investigativepost.org

NARA proposing to shut down SF, Chicago, and Seattle facilities. Help us do something about that. Sign the change.org petition from SONA and write letters. @infodocket.bsky.social Petition link and more infor at freegovinfo.info/node/15060/

NARA proposing to shut down San Bruno/San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle facilities. We need YOU to stop it from happening! - Free Government Information (FGI)

The Federal News Network broke the news last month that the "National Archives to transition out of three federal records centers." NARA is proposing to close down the regional facilities in San Bruno...

freegovinfo.info

"Today is August 4, 2026," says an automated voice in a house devoid of people near the start of Ray Bradbury's post-nuclear-war tale "There Will Come Soft Rains". Bradbury's story first ran in the May 6, 1950 issue of Colliers, a few days before appearing in the book _The Martian Chronicles_ […]

Join UCS in calling for a better transportation future and an STR that puts affordability, public and environmental health, accountability, and transparency ahead of corporate profits. Take action:

Urge Congress to Support a People-First Transportation Future

Urge Congress to support people-first transportation legislation that puts affordability, public and environmental health, accountability, and transparency ahead of corporate profits.

secure.ucs.org

🚌Members of Congress are currently crafting the Surface Transportation Reauthorization—STR for short—and this bill will impact the options we have for getting around, our future climate and air quality, and even our wallets.🧵👇

🍽️ ICPSR datasets are like a research buffet: some are ready to grab & use right away, others are behind the chef’s counter & need approval before serving. Either way, there’s lots on the menu for hungry researchers. View the menu: myumi.ch/ICPSR-new-releases & join the email list: myumi.ch/5yzNV.

NEW: The Trump administration's recent banning of a data privacy protection technique that the Census Bureau used for decades has delayed the release of one-year estimates from the American Community Survey, which many local community leaders and researchers rely on www.census.gov/newsroom/pre...

just a reminder that PEDP datathon is tomorrow. You can register at bostonu.zoom.us/meeting/regi... @publicenvirodata.bsky.social

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) Metadata Datathon - August. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

How do you know that the data you come across is actually the data that you need? Metadata, or ‘data about the data’, can help you verify whether or not a data product contains the information that yo...

bostonu.zoom.us

All of this. Everything a transaction and a grift with this admin. And we’re left with no science and explosive diarrhea kottke.org/26/07/trumps...

OUT TODAY, the AAUP just released the first comprehensive account of how the Trump administration has taken the same playbook it's used on law firms & foreign governments & turned it on American universities. US higher ed has, in effect, become a target of a massive extortion racket. 🧵

New Report on Extorted Compliance Charges “Massive Extortion Racket” Against Higher Ed

A new AAUP report, "Extorted Compliance: A Threat to Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, and Shared Governance," exposes how the Trump administration has extended its pay-to-play approach to gov...

aaup.org

Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. Seeing cases reach levels not seen in more than three decades is a stark reminder of how quickly preventable diseases can return when vaccination rates decline. Link to tracker: publichealth.jhu.edu/ivac/resourc...

The fact that Miller and Rubio can make speeches that pull direct themes from Hitler and Himler writings should tell us everything we need to know about the current threat to American Democracy. #WakeUpAmerica @hcrichardson.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

July 22, 2026

“The Republican Party’s new favorite talking point is calling Democrats communists,” Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) said yesterday on the floor of the U.S.

open.substack.com

This is what I've been most worried about. No matter how much material we web archive and how much data are "rescued", if the admin doesn't collect data and publish info going forward, we all lose out! apnews.com/article/eeoc...

US civil rights agency moves to end demographic data collection after 60 years

The Trump administration is seeking to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment ...

apnews.com

Wow this looks like great effort. PenLight Prize for excellence in paywall-free public records reporting. Prize is $25k! Pass it around! penlightprize.org

The Penlight Prize ∙ Freedom of the Press Foundation

The Penlight Prize honors exemplary paywall-free public records reporting, from Freedom of the Press Foundation

penlightprize.org

Always makes me wonder why the media thinks it’s normal to say who appointed the judge, almost as if judges are assumed to NOT be impartial but partisan. What happened to just calling balls and strikes?!

Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 4w ago

JUST IN: 13th straight rejection of DOJ's legal effort to compel states to turn over their voter rolls. George W. Bush-appointed Judge Thomas Johnston wonders what DOJ is really driving at. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Current Affairs Magazine talks with Internet Archive’s Mark Graham & Chris Freeland on these and other challenges facing the creation and preservation of news and culture. @archive.org

a reminder that the president has nothing to do with the election of senators, that's the state's role Georgia ran those elections, determined in each who won, and sent Ossoff & Warnock to Washington so very very stupid

Ron Filipkowski@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 4w ago

An endless stream of batshittery.

relinquish this turbulence

NOOOO...!

Thanks @csmarcum.bsky.social for this timely update re the OMB proposed rule. "The Public Rejects OMB's Federal Financial Assistance Rule" www.techpolicy.press/the-public-r...

The Public Rejects OMB's Federal Financial Assistance Rule

Tens of thousands of scientists, clinicians, and ordinary citizens warned OMB about putting political appointees in charge of which research gets funded.

techpolicy.press

By popular demand, here is everyone in the climate and energy portrait series.

I know everyone’s making their jokes, but to be real: it’s an American sickness that the media and political class are praising someone who has spent last year calling for a genocide. Lindsay Graham was the worst of us. He wanted the blood of children to flow in the streets of Gaza and got his wish.

For folks coming to this thread later, I've gone ahead and made a CSV of hundreds of energysaver articles that are gone as of July 2026. archive.org/download/ene... is a direct link to the list. archive.org/details/ener... is the CSV and the HTML.

I'll summarize this: Mamdani asked NYers to keep air conditioning at 78 degrees. A wave criticism hit online. A MSNBC broadcast pointed out the US Department of Energy recommends that 78 degree figure. Immediately after, the US Department of Energy deleted 6,000 web pages related to energy saving.

In the 90 minutes after @theguardian.com article went live, BHL received more than US$2,500 in donations. Thank you to everyone helping keep biodiversity knowledge free and open. Please read, share, and help us build momentum.

A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an invaluable online archive of historic texts on species living and lost supplied by the world’s leading museums and universities. Now its future is in doubt

theguardian.com

@storytracer.com shows how volunteers or #GLAMS workers can be responsible actors in the current political climate by protecting datasets from war, political censorship and defunding! #glamlabsfutures

This Is What 500 Days of Trump's Corruption Looks Like. Senator @chrismurphyct.bsky.social lays it all out. youtu.be/DaQ_95hPhu4?...

This Is What 500 Days of Trump's Corruption Looks Like

YouTube video by Senator Chris Murphy

youtu.be