Heather Silber Mohamed

Four states and counting sending help to dig out R.I. and Mass. - The Boston Globe Vermont, New England’s snowiest state, has sent heavy-duty trucks and drivers to southern New England after record-setting snowfall, and more help is on the way.

Sounds like help is coming - but why did it take so long?! www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/25/m...

The City of Providence will provide free salt to Providence residents on Saturday, February 21, ahead of potential snowfall on Sunday. Pickup will be available at 30 Shipyard Street from 8am-1pm. Residents must bring their own 5-gallon bucket and proof of Providence residency. Please be advised that this material comes directly from the City’s snow operations supply. It is a mixture of industrial-grade road salt and sand and should be handled and used with appropriate caution.

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NBC News poll

“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the issue of border security and immigration?”

JUNE 2025
51% approve
49% disapprove

FEBRUARY 2026
40% approve
60% disapprove

A 15-point rise for “strongly disapprove.”

www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Screenshot of a map and table listing ICE warehouse purchase data.

🚨 New: We built a visual tracker of the warehouses ICE is targeting across the US.

Working off an idea from @actualkatherine.bsky.social, we’ve mapped active searches, canceled deals, and linked state property records.

Explore the map here: tinyurl.com/ICEWarehouse...

I was thinking this too, but also couldn't remember for sure!

Abstract Once an exclusively white enterprise, the last forty-five years have witnessed the emergence of a disproportionately Latinx immigration law enforcement workforce. This article addresses the question of why Latinxs elect to work for agencies that have systematically targeted the ethnic communities to which they belong. Where existing scholarship has often implied Latinxs may self-select into immigration law enforcement due to a lack of identification with the immigrant-experience, a dissociation with ethnic identity, and generally restrictionist immigration attitudes, this article finds little empirical evidence to support such an assumption. Analysis of interviews with sixty-one Latinx Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents across Arizona, California, and Texas reveals, instead, Latinxs elect to work in immigration law enforcement in service of economic self-interest and survival, with “money,” “a good job,” and “benefits” cited as the primary motivation(s) behind applying for and accepting a job in immigration. This pattern holds irrespective of individual agents’ levels of identification with the immigrant-experience and particular attitudes toward immigration, and suggests a diversity in the demographics of immigration law enforcement agencies that extends beyond mere race and ethnicity, to include a diversity of perspective and potential for empathy.

Probably a day to promote this research from David Cortez. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.

@poliscimonica.bsky.social probably has some good ideas!

My kids love doing that. They also do foster to adopt and work with you to find a good match for your family (for instance, no trauma history, good w kids, etc depending on your pref). I think most good NE rescues do that for fostering, and usually they provide everything you need (food crate etc).

Felt stressful committing without meeting her, but I think that’s often how it works for v young pups bc they get adopted so fast. She is the sweetest, we wouldn’t change a thing! We now volunteer for a diff rescue (Hotel for Homeless Dogs in RI) that lets you take dogs out for afternoon playdates.

We did this! We adopted thru Gals Best Pal in MA. Had a great experience! A good rescue can usually talk to you about the dogs’ histories and help find a good match for your family. We got a puppy who was born in foster in Mississippi. She had always been in a home/ no trauma history.

Yup, I feel all of this :/

2 dead, 9 wounded in shooting at Brown University; suspect still at large Brown professor says shooting happened in a study session for her economics class

"Rachel Friedberg, a Brown economics professor, said the mass shooting happened in a review session for the final exam of her Principles of Economics course. She said she learned what happened from a teaching assistant who led the session. Friedberg herself was not present."

"Captain Gains" on Capitol Hill Shang-Jin Wei & Yifan Zhou WORKING PAPER 34524 DOI 10.3386/w34524 ISSUE DATE November 2025 Using transaction-level data on US congressional stock trades, we find that lawmakers who later ascend to leadership positions perform similarly to matched peers beforehand but outperform them by 47 percentage points annually after ascension. Leaders' superior performance arises through two mechanisms. The political influence channel is reflected in higher returns when their party controls the chamber, sales of stocks preceding regulatory actions, and purchase of stocks whose firms receiving more government contracts and favorable party support on bills. The corporate access channel is reflected in stock trades that predict subsequent corporate news and greater returns on donor-owned or home-state firms.

令 1 1 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Year Figure 2: Estimated dynamic quasi-difference-in-differences coefficient, di, of equation(3), with vertical dashed lines representing 90 percent confidence intervals. The point estimate of the year in which the lawmaker became a congressional leader (Year 0) is normalized to zero. BHAR over the 250 days following each trade is the dependent variable and calculated using the Fama-French five-factor plus momentum as the benchmark model.

After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts

www.nber.org/papers/w34524

via @florianederer.bsky.social

Beshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.

Rhode Island too!

My local school district in Alachua County, Florida is making free breakfast and lunch available to children of families who receive SNAP, with directions on how to apply www.alachuaschools.net/o/acps/page/...

Welch: "This has nothing to do with the shutdown. The law requires and the funds are available to continue SNAP right now without any interruption. So that is a decision the president is making on his own to allow people to go hungry."

When donating to food banks, MONEY goes the furthest bc they can purchase food way cheaper than us. If you are going to get food: pasta, sauce, peanut butter, canned fruits & veggies. Also, food kids can make on their own like ready Mac & cheese. Whatever you can do is a spiritual gift to humanity.

With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness.

Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.

I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
-Article 1, Section 8, US Constitution

Not a "norm" violation. A legal and constitutional violation.

Proud papa moment: my son J published a letter in the @nytimes.com today (in print tomorrow) on the need to think our definitions of autism.

If you live in Everett, Mass. and have any information about the 13-year-old boy abducted by ICE, please message me on Signal at marisakabas.04

Map of Regional Public Health Coalitions Northeast Public Health Collaborative (Blue) West Coast Health Alliance (Yellow)

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative.

The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

A 76% point gap between how satisfied Republicans are with the country versus how satisfied Democrats are. The largest partisan gap ever. news.gallup.com/poll/694370/...

Just an outstanding choice. Well-deserved for @jamellebouie.net!

Actually I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States with my hand on @bpl.boston.gov’s 1782 edition Aitken Bible—also known as the Bible of the Revolution.