Dan Vock

From my cold, dead hands.

My university received a few years ago the promise of the largest single gift to a public university in U.S. history. It was equivalent to 12 hours of bombing Iran.

Slurs Filled a Chat Created by a Republican Party Official in Florida

passive voice final boss grand champion honorable mention award for turning slurs into a sentient thing that can do actions www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/u...

What's the big idea? If you've got it, World Business Chicago wants to know

The city’s influential economic development organization, World Business Chicago, said the time has come for this town’s next really big thing, and on Thursday, the group announced a design competition in hopes of finding it.

Trump’s Unauthorized War The Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the power to mobilize the military—and for good reason.

“Democracy allows people the freedom to make stupid decisions, so long as they make them collectively. But a system that allows a country to be dragged into war at the whims of a single person is not much of a democracy at all.”
@qjurecic.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Rep. Tony Gonzales drops reelection bid amid affair scandal The San Antonio Republican was pushed into a runoff in the primary for his border district. Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP members had called on him to exit the race.

Breaking: Rep. Tony Gonzales drops reelection bid amid pressure over affair scandal.

I thought they had a bureau in Atlanta for a long time. Are they opening a new location? Just trying to get up to speed

“When you think about it, we weren’t trying to make history or trying to rewrite history. We were responding to the problems of the particular time.”

What a life! Rest in power.

Fabulous read on a great local politician

This is honestly one of the most anti-Jewish things I’ve ever seen from the United States government.

Trying to kill Luke Skywalker…

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

Reuters Exclusive

"U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school."

"The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East."

The annual Selma Bridge Crossing celebration is this weekend.

imagine being a history buff and getting this random tattoo on your chest that you look at every day in the mirror and then when you watch history documentaries for the next 20 years you never notice that all the nazi uniforms had your chest tattoo on their hats?

ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ Protestor A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the ...

New from 404 Media: Proton Mail, the privacy-focused email service, gave authorities data that let the FBI unmask an anonymous 'Stop Cop City' protester. It was payment data linked to the anonymous email account. From that, FBI ID'd them, then tracked their movements www.404media.co/proton-mail-...

With Washington Post Local diminished, other news sites step up their D.C. coverage The 51st, City Cast, and The Baltimore Banner are among the outlets to announce expansions of Washington, D.C. metro area coverage since the Post layoffs.

These models — a worker-owned coop, a for-profit outlet that’s part of a national network, and a powerhouse nonprofit — reflect the patchwork range of news orgs attempting to take up the mantle of local coverage when metro dailies buckle. www.niemanlab.org/2026/03/with...

Affleck/Damon ‘28 Electoral College sweep

Moral of the story? Congressional oversight matters. Congress should do it more.

Trump Is Preparing to Fire Kristi Noem The president has already been asking aides and congressional Republicans for names of potential replacements.

gift
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Report: Nearly 95k science employees left government as Trump downsized agency workforces The Trump administration also has cut spending on science contracts and grants.

Talk about a brain drain.
95k is a lot!
www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

But he told me the air in D.C. must be a little rarified when I asked him about closing Chicago schools (during a talk in D.C. about education). 🤔

“What has David Ellison and Larry Ellison promised Donald Trump with regard to what they’re going to do with CNN?” said one former executive. “Before you even get through the hurdles of doing this, that’s the overriding question. Are they going to fire anchors Trump doesn’t like?” There is also apprehension at CBS News, where David Ellison installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief in October, with a mandate to have network’s coverage appeal to the political center.

What's this nonsense about BW being hired to move CBS to the center?! CBS was already a middle of the road news outlet. Weiss was hired to make it more Trump friendly (especially while the Ellison's worked on their expansion plans!) & that's exactly what she's done. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Illinois Municipal League wants more funding for local governments The Illinois Municipal League wants more funding for local governments and quicker permitting process from state agencies to build infrastructure.

“Flat funding during a time of rising cost is a cut, reducing the rate formula eliminates any natural growth in revenue growth that municipalities rely on to keep pace with inflation,” Chalmers-Currin said.

In Criminal Justice Elections This Year, ICE Contracts Are on the Hot Seat With roughly 2,400 elections for prosecutor and sheriff in 2026, Bolts reviews the map and early hotspots that will shape criminal punishment and law enforcement practices.

Pro-ICE sheriffs in competitive counties all over, including Maryland, New York, Montana, and Wisconsin, are up for reelection in 2026. These races will test voters’ appetite for complying with Trump’s deportation agenda.

RFK Jr. has wide discretion to choose evidence to support vaccine decisions, DOJ argues A Justice Department lawyer argued that the HHS secretary has broad discretion to issue vaccine guidance and choose what evidence to consider.

RFK Jr. has wide discretion to choose evidence to support vaccine decisions, DOJ argues www.statnews.com/2026/03/04/k...

A quote from me - “it’s pretty insulting to see scholarship used this way when the academic humanities are currently under attack from every possible angle — as though the actual people who do the thinking and produce the scholarship are reducible to their work itself, and can be removed entirely from the equation”

Went on record saying, essentially, “AI sucks, fund the humanities” today

Kansans on food assistance can’t buy candy, soda beginning in February 2027 • Kansas Reflector Kansans receiving food assistance can’t buy soda or candy with those dollars beginning in 2027, Gov. Laura Kelly said Wednesday.

Kansans on food assistance won't be able to buy candy or soda after a waiver was approved this week by the USDA. kansasreflector.com/2026/03/04/k...

Local Scout executive in D.C. area sent out a statement saying no child will be excluded from Scouts but the statement doesn’t mention the word “transgender” and avoids pretty much anything controversial.

Interesting comparison. Not sure I agree but FWIW