tomorrow is with one of the biggest election days of the year. there's so much to go over it's hard to know where to start.
so, let me help:
here are the *10* elections i'm watching the most closely, *at the state and local level* (=no federal elections included!)
🧵:
this local election i posted about here is happening in 48 hours.
this one is less interesting for what the outcome will be (it's a Trump +50 district) than the fascinating rhetoric of the campaign (see below), but i'm still very interested in seeing how it ends up.
The DA in Minneapolis is investigating Bovino and others.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. JUSTICE KAGAN would grant the petition for a writ of certiorari. JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE JACKSON joins, dissenting from denial of certiorari. This case asks whether federal law prohibits the poorest prisoners from splitting the $350 fee required to file a federal lawsuit when it allows everyone else to do so. The answer statutorily appears to be no. Because the decision below held otherwise and deepened a split among the Courts of Appeals, the Court should grant the petition for a writ of certiorari.
Petitioners Topaz Johnson and Ian Henderson were incarcerated at High Desert State Prison in California when they filed this lawsuit in federal court. According to their complaint, corrections officers forced them and a third prisoner to stand in filthy cages that reeked of urine and measured 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet. They alleged that the officers forced them to stand in those cages for nearly nine hours with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
By a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS refuses to review a judge-made rule that bars indigent prisoners from splitting the filing fee among themselves when filing a federal suit—even though everyone else is allowed to split that fee. These defendants were allegedly tortured. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
Our (@psjpbc.bsky.social) next policy briefing is on the use of Sentinel Event Reviews as a tool for changing deadly police policies and practices. March 10th on Zoom. RSVP in comments.
There is a real argument that the Trump administration's ICE excesses are radicalizing judges of all political stripes against him and his admin. Decisions made by ICE (and the agency's general shrug at court orders) have dramatically brought down DOJ's reputation along with it.
Columbia President with NEW details:
5 DHS agents entered a residency with no warrant.
They said they were police looking for a missing kid.
Security camera even captures them showing pictures of the "kid."
A campus officer asked for a warrant & their boss.
They ignored him & took the student.
They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.
Changes to USPS guidelines on postmarks could be an obstacle to people looking to register to vote, especially people who already face barriers to access such as people with disabilities and rural voters.
During last night’s State of the Union address, President Trump repeated his well-worn playbook of fearmongering around crime and immigration.
🎥 Watch to learn more: www.tiktok.com/@verainstitu...
They found him. He died.
Another murder by our immigration goon squads
My latest, with @propublica.org + @nytimes.com:
An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of domestic violence survivors who fought back -- women who are serving long sentences for killing their abusers. Why are nearly all of them still in prison?
www.propublica.org/article/okla...
A MN protester accused of assaulting ICE officer had case dropped after vids showed no assault.
LA protester accused of assaulting ICE w/ “hat” had case dropped; judge said govt acted in “bad faith”
In Chicago, 92 ppl were arrested for assault/impeding ICE; 0 convicted
DOJ keeps lying and losing:
ICE officers often tell people tracking and watching them that they are breaking federal law in doing so, but legal experts say the vast majority of observers are exercising their constitutional rights. n.pr/4qPmLGr
Introducing Selling Safety! A report that lays bare the ethnically dubious world of marketing and selling police surveillance technology, how effectiveness numbers are manufactured, the role police play in a massive for-profit industry, and new critical questions for reporters and law makers.
By Chris Quinn, Editor, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer A college student withdrew from consideration for a reporting role in our newsroom this week because of how we use artificial intelligence. It reminded me again how college journalism programs are failing to prepare students for the workforce. I mentioned this in a column before, and readers asked me to explain
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
A child dying of cancer spent her final days fighting to free her wrongfully detained father from ICE custody.
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
Not one dime for this cruelty.
www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...
Indiana on the verge of adopting legislation with stringent requirements that local law enforcement & sheriffs help ICE.
The bill is aggressive — e.g. requiring full compliance with detainers; far-right AG still trying to make it even stronger. indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/01/27/i...
3️⃣ Iowa prosecutors have gotten used to a pretty shocking practice: pressuring defendants to plead guilty or else risk suffering major financial harm.
The Supreme Court struck down but now prosecutors and some lawmakers want to bring it back, @laurengill.bsky.social reports:
ICE plans to buy 23 warehouses across the country to convert to jails AKA concentration camps, would be largest expansion of immigrant detention in modern history. But these landlords don't have to sell: protests are erupting at these flash points- join them - #NoNewJails #AntiICE #FreeThemAll
One way concentration camps become zones where law doesn't apply is by neglecting policies & standards that would protect health & provide healthcare. You deny laws & norms & dehumanize your victim.
Read "Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin’s Gulag" by Alexopoulos
www.texastribune.org/2026/02/07/i...
DHS repeatedly said that an aggressive apartment raid in Chicago last fall was prompted by intel on a gang takeover.
New documents show the real story behind the raid was to target alleged squatters — with the landlord's blessing.
This is a very big deal.
It is almost (but not entirely) because of “flood the zone” Trumpism.
Americans are so overwhelmed with awful actions, the consequences can’t possibly keep up.
Disastrous for our nation and society.
Nine DAs are coalescing to work on prosecuting federal agents for 'overreach':
—L. Krasner in Philly
—J. Creuzot in Dallas
—M. Moriarty in Minneapolis
—L. Conover in Tucson
—S. Descano in Fairfax (VA)
—R. Fatehi in Norfolk (VA)
—S. Morales in Portsmouth (VA)
—P. Dehghani-Tafti in Arlington (VA)
This is in small-town Minnesota. This is not in one of those demonic blue cities that the GOP talk about. This is pretty goddam rural. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
“Agents are at my door right now”
In addition to Don Lemon the Trump regime also Arrested Georgia Fort👇🏽 for covering the church protest (where an ICE field director is a pastor)
🚨"They're stealing the car!"
As Tom Homan vows "safer" ICE operations, ICE rammed into a driver's car in Minneapolis—in front of an elementary school—then chased him. After failing to catch him—they stole his car. "Back up before I f*cking spray you!" ICE yelled at observers ⬇️
This is accurate. Trump has not changed course. He is trying to contain political damage. That's it. There is not pivot. There is no shift at this point. Past experience shows the "new tone," if you can call it that, will be temporary.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
