11 rounds of user testing. Real residents. Real input.
On March 19, we’re showing states exactly how to implement Medicaid work requirements without burying people in paperwork. @civilladetroit.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.com/e/protecting...
the current position of the US government is that NVIDIA should be allowed to sell chips directly to China but banned from using Claude, because the latter is a larger national security risk. that is the level of absolute insanity coming out of the White House & Pentagon nowadays
It's just insane the degree to which the federal government has simply declared war on a U.S. state. A punitive war with no discernible objective other than to immiserate its people. bsky.app/profile/apne...
Medicaid work requirements take effect Jan 1, 2027. The risk isn’t compliance — it’s a process that fails people before they get the chance.
@civilladetroit.bsky.social built something to help.
civilla.org/stories/medi...
Thursday: Prosper Canada and Civilla CEOs Elizabeth Mulholland and @thejuliadale.bsky.social share how to drive change in risk-averse public institutions. Join us: civillaandprospercanada.eventbrite.com
At GSA, we had a water fund that staff donated to so we could have a Culligan water cooler in the corner. There was a kitchenette, but it was completely empty. We had to provide soap to wash dishes.
Long-term change demands reflection and openness. Join us on Feb. 26 for a conversation with Prosper Canada CEO Elizabeth and Civilla CEO Julia on leading change inside risk-averse public institutions—and what it takes to make lasting change in government.
civillaandprospercanada.eventbrite.com
This entire piece is spectacular, but this bit is a little grenade
There must be trials. Not as an emotive aspiration, rhetorical meme, or empty threat. A concrete plan. A dedicated special court for it. Structural legislation and prosecutors and funding and all the rest of it. Everything necessary for it can be done constitutionally. All it takes is the will.
Give Heart off the Beast $1000 and carte Blanche and you’ll have the coolest celebration in the planet. Instead were gonna get Target activations with branded Minneapolis Strong t shirts
People are wondering when AI will be helping people navigate government services. The answer is, uh, right now.
Here's Gemini (built into Chrome!) giving both accurate and helpful information to a common and high stakes question on a SNAP application.
"Maybe all we do is frustrate," Star said. "Give someone one more day with their daughter or their dad.
"But if you lost your dad, or you lost your daughter, you would give anything to have one more day with them. And that’s what we can do.”
My latest for Slate
Legal status doesn’t matter: if you exceed ICE’s melanin threshold, you get snatched. It is ethnic cleansing. There is no other word for it.
The news has shown you video of these often violent detentions. What you don’t see is what happens to these individuals after.
I’ve had a front row seat.
7/
One of the key lessons of this moment of resistance is it takes so many people doing so many different things. The number of ways to support your community is huge and everyone is needed.
I think we need to post more of our wins vs ICE, at least I do. Northside RR successfully got a few abductions deterred this morning. We also have seen an uptick in folks joining doing stationary observation in the last week since we started doing that.
Probably asking for too much for that feature to allow neighborhoods to automatically track ICE cars but it would be a hit in Minnesota.
This is my family’s Saturday routine now. We try to hit as many immigrant owned and ICE Out businesses that we can and most are packed.
LawHelpMN is building out a clearinghouse of resources for people who are detained or at risk of detention by ICE. It'll be continually updated as new resources come online. Available in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali
www.lawhelpmn.org/detained
They just blindly shot through the fucking door.
"Additional photographs show damage consistent with a bullet fragment lodged in a bedroom wall down the hallway — suggesting it traveled between a mattress and a portable crib in a room where several small children sleep."
Is this the shrewd, tough but necessary, private sector efficiency that I’ve been hearing so much about?
It feels like there is so much grief and anger that the city can sustain small protests and vigils, large organized events every day, and constant ICE observation. You couldn’t attend them all even if you wanted to. There is a lot of energy here still.
M P MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS Minneapolis Public Schools MPS Community, As a social studies teacher, I remember teaching my students about some of the darkest moments in history to try and understand how they could have happened in order to prevent them from repeating. We studied the constitution, civil rights movements, government checks and balances, and the rule of law. I never imagined we would experience what is happening now in our own community, a moment that will itself be taught in future social studies classes. While I know history will ultimately remember that our community united and was resilient, the trauma, pain, and loss that our students are enduring will have a dire and lasting impact. As educators and leaders, it is our responsibility to protect our students. We are called to act and speak the truth on their behalf. The truth is that it is unsafe for our students and staff to live their lives as normal right now. Students are being detained, families separated, and lives are being taken and disrupted in our city. Our students are witnessing all of this and they are afraid. Each day, I hear about heartbreaking and infuriating first-hand experiences from students and staff that nobody should ever have to live through.
For our children, this must stop now. Our students need and deserve safety, stability, and calm for their well-being and to ensure they can learn. I call on federal officials to immediately restore the policy that designates schools as sensitive locations where immigration enforcement does not take place. Our teachers and staff have once again shown why public education is the foundation of our community as we have supported our students in incredible ways. In a short time, we have created online learning opportunities, developed food supports with community partners, provided alternative transportation options, and connected families with other needed resources and supports. I am so grateful for our staff and honored to be your Superintendent. I am also sorry you're being asked to do more while also navigating this personally. Our community's response has been incredible and humbling. I've seen the many ways in which neighbors have wrapped our schools in support from safety patrols to food support to advocacy. Thank you for everything you are doing and for showing the world that Minneapolis is a place that will stop at nothing to support our students. Our students continue to inspire me with the care they show to their friends and community and by the leadership they are demonstrating. It's a collective failure of adults when students must stand up for justice like this. They are rightfully demanding that leaders take action to keep them and their communities safe.
Our students continue to inspire me with the care they show to their friends and community and by the leadership they are demonstrating. It's a collective failure of adults when students must stand up for justice like this. They are rightfully demanding that leaders take action to keep them and their communities safe. No matter what, MPS will always be here for our students and community. If you need support, please contact your school or visit this website to learn more about our response to increased immigration enforcement. History will remember how we respond in these moments. I am proud of how MPS and Minneapolis have shown up. I encourage everyone to consider how you want to be remembered for this moment, because now is the time. Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams Minneapolis Public Schools would like to continue connecting with you via email. If you prefer to be removed from our list, please contact Minneapolis Public Schools directly. To stop receiving all email messages distributed through our SchoolMessenger service, follow this link and confirm: Unsubscribe
This is Minneapolis:
Message from our superintendent
My position on L'affaire d'Stancil is that if you don't want to work with someone who submits himself humbly as a contributor to the work, then turns around and uses his considerable platform to evangelize for the cause in a way that constantly decenters himself, you aren't serious about the work.
Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning
I was sent this video of agents at her door:
I certainly would not have been able to write my story about all the bravery I witnessed in Minneapolis without the access I was given! bsky.app/profile/whst...
I think the songs from Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen rightly are getting a lot of attention but this is what completely wrecked me yesterday. 😭
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHx...
If you're from outside MN and feel weird about sending a "Hope you're okay!" text to someone here, don't. Haven't talked since high school? Ex-coworker from 6 years ago? Already sent one a week ago? Doesn't matter.
Every time I get one it's a big relief that people are paying attention.
ICE is changing tactics in Maine: "Now, the volunteers in Maine say federal agents have started showing up at their homes and intimidating them or threatening arrest. Some of them, masked and wearing tactical gear, have issued stark warnings not to follow them." www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/i...
“Overall, this community has exercised enormous restraint,” Allison Sharkey, the executive director of the Lake Street Council... “But we have been pushed, probably intentionally, towards civil unrest.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
— W.H. Auden, Sept. 1, 1939
