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Marcus Baram

@marcusbaram

Journalist: Capital & Main, Crain Currency Bylines: ProPublica, Documented, Fast Company, The New Yorker Author: Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a Man Skeptic + Dad (The views expressed here are personal)

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06.02.2025
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Latest posts by Marcus Baram @marcusbaram

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On Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, Residents Fume as Insurers Hike Rates and Invest in Fossil Fuel Projects Locals face a perfect storm — they can’t afford insurance and climate change threatens their livelihood.

My latest: “I’ve never seen it this bad.”

The perfect storm of climate change, expanding oil and gas production, and costly homeowners insurance is devastating residents of coastal Louisiana.

via @capitalandmain.bsky.social

capitalandmain.com/on-louisiana...

06.10.2025 21:35 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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On Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, Residents Fume as Insurers Hike Rates and Invest in Fossil Fuel Projects Locals face a perfect storm — they can’t afford insurance and climate change threatens their livelihood.

My latest: “I’ve never seen it this bad.”

The perfect storm of climate change, expanding oil and gas production, and costly homeowners insurance is devastating residents of coastal Louisiana.

via @capitalandmain.bsky.social

capitalandmain.com/on-louisiana...

06.10.2025 21:35 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
On Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, Residents Fume as Insurers Hike Rates and Invest in Fossil Fuel Projects Locals face a perfect storm — they can’t afford insurance and climate change threatens their livelihood.

Climate change.
Expanding oil and gas production.
Costly homeowners insurance.

This perfect storm of inextricably linked factors is devastating residents of coastal Louisiana. The trend has only accelerated. Story by @marcusbaram.bsky.social

capitalandmain.com/on-louisiana...

06.10.2025 20:36 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

NEW: Since DOGE was launched in early February, the cost-cutting initiative has had a major impact on Idaho — from federal job and service cuts to nonprofit funding freezes, via @idahostatesman.com

04.10.2025 17:30 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

NEW in the DOGE Impact Tracker:
In the wake of the Social Security Administration slashing 12% of its workforce, the agency’s field offices have struggled to adjust to their new normal with overburdened workers + frustrated recipients, reports @nytimes

capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

04.10.2025 14:27 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
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National Weather Service’s Plan to Hire Crucial Staffers After Mass Layoffs Will Be Too Late for Wildfire Season Key California weather forecast offices will remain

NWS Plan to Hire Staff After Layoffs Will Be Too Late for #Wildfire Season

@marcusbaram.bsky.social reports for @capitalandmain.bsky.social

#news #environment #climatechange

EJ Today Headlines: sej.org/headlines/list

capitalandmain.com/national-wea...

12.08.2025 11:52 👍 2 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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A Coal Miner’s Daughter Takes on DOGE to Protect Miners’ Health Since 1970, more than 75,000 miners have died of black lung disease. Now, researchers working to prevent those deaths get layoff notices.

Must-read by @megduff.com on @capitalandmain.bsky.social:
“It comes down to how much is a life worth,” Wolfe said. “You want more coal, but you don’t care about the coal miners and what’s happening to them.”

capitalandmain.com/a-coal-miner...

17.06.2025 20:05 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1

NEW: Due to staff cutbacks proposed by DOGE staffers at Social Security Administration, at least three dozen field offices lost more than a quarter of their staff, reports @nytimes. That resulted in long lines at offices overwhelmed by the public...

capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

17.06.2025 13:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA gave substandard factories banned from the United States a special pass to keep sending drugs to an unsuspecting public.

NEW: A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA gave substandard factories banned from the United States a special pass to keep sending drugs to an unsuspecting public.

17.06.2025 11:00 👍 3631 🔁 1567 💬 145 📌 102

If ABC News lawyers had guts (which they don’t), they would demand proof from the White House that Stephen Miller is NOT evil.

If Dems were smart and savvy (which they’re not), they would join in and make this a national debate over Stephen Miller’s soul.

08.06.2025 18:30 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Before Attacking Each Other, Musk and Trump Struck Blows Against Veterans, Children, the Hungry and the Sick The president and his former ally were united long enough to hurt millions of people here and abroad.

My latest: Missing from the feud and the media reaction is any sense of the devastating impact Trump and Musk have had on the lives of millions of people -- veterans, children, the sick and hungry.

capitalandmain.com/before-attac...

06.06.2025 19:35 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Before Attacking Each Other, Musk and Trump Struck Blows Against Veterans, Children, the Hungry and the Sick The president and his former ally were united long enough to hurt millions of people here and abroad.

Trump and Elon are fighting.

But missing from the feud and the media reaction was any sense of the massive impact that Trump and Musk have had on the lives of millions of people by slashing funding for essential federal agencies, writes @marcusbaram.bsky.social.

capitalandmain.com/before-attac...

06.06.2025 19:17 👍 6 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1

NEW: The budget cuts to Job Corps–—which provides free education, job training and a place to live for low-income people—will hit Kentucky hard, shuttering three locations that serve over 500 students, reports the @courierjournal.bsky.social

05.06.2025 21:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

NEW: DOGE cut more than 50 grants in Georgia’s 10th district – impacting programs that trained students in school counseling, outreach to historically underserved farmers + recruited more women into fields like computer science, reports Flagpole

05.06.2025 16:17 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

NEW: Just miles from the White House, DOGE hits after-school program for low-income families, reports @washingtonpost

The parents “who send their children…are the nurses, day laborers + janitors who make this community function for everyone else”
capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

03.06.2025 13:24 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
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Mississippi Food Bank Sees More Demand, but Less Federal Funding DOGE budget cuts are hurting the Hancock County Food Pantry in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, reports WLOX: The Hancock County Food Pantry is a source that many people in the area rely on during hard t...

DOGE budget cuts are hurting the Hancock County Food Pantry in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, reports @wlox.com:

capitalandmain.com/doge-posts/m...

02.06.2025 19:06 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From U.S. Aid Withdrawal Hits the World’s Most Fragile Locations Exclusive State Department records show: As the Trump administration abandons its humanitarian commitments, diplomats are reporting that the cuts have led to violence and instability while…

Refugees in Kenya have died at food distribution centers, officials noted, including a pregnant woman crushed to death during a stampede.

Aid workers said they expected more people to get hurt “as vulnerable households become increasingly desperate.”

02.06.2025 01:30 👍 1673 🔁 876 💬 65 📌 91
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Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding.

It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.

unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

30.05.2025 21:38 👍 1348 🔁 803 💬 35 📌 32

NEW: DOGE budget cuts are hurting food banks in Mississippi, reports WLOX:

capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

31.05.2025 14:18 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
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‘Chilling and dangerous’: Grassroots groups sue over Louisiana law that censors air quality data A new state law threatens massive fines for releasing air quality data, inviting a First Amendment showdown with community organizations.

‘Chilling and dangerous’: Grassroots groups sue over Louisiana law that censors air quality data.

A new state law threatens massive fines for releasing air quality data, inviting a First Amendment showdown with community organizations.

grist.org/accountabili...

#Law #Courts #Climate #Louisiana

30.05.2025 20:06 👍 73 🔁 47 💬 1 📌 4

Such a powerful piece, Michelle.

We’ve been tracking the human impacts of DOGE — how it affects childcare, veterans access to healthcare, food banks, learning-disabled students, working families, etc. here:

capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

30.05.2025 20:07 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Elon Musk made your life worse The billionaire may be on the outs with Trump. But the damage, much of it cruel and at times life-ruining, will continue to unfold.

Elon Musk led the dismantling of the federal government with absurd threats and actions; wreaked havoc at USAID; disrupted HIV programs; stayed up late to send harassing emails.

But what @inaeoh.bsky.social will remember most is his utter disdain for the workers he traumatized.

29.05.2025 15:11 👍 489 🔁 150 💬 41 📌 14
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The DOGE Impact Tracker Investigating Money, Power and Society.

Here you go… our DOGE Impact Tracker

capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

29.05.2025 23:29 👍 13 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 1
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🔎 NY Post “Catch and Kill”; Melber meetings; Cardinale & Air Mail MSNBC anchor in talks to leave; Post Trump story spiked; Telegraph owner's US Play

The NY Post had a big scoop about Trump’s pick to lead the DEA . . . then the political editor spiked the story.

www.breakermedia.com/p/ny-post-ca...

28.05.2025 01:05 👍 114 🔁 33 💬 4 📌 2

NEW in the DOGE Impact Tracker:
By cutting $1 billion in funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that enabled schools and food banks to buy food directly from local farmers, DOGE is having an impact in South Florida, reports CBS News.
capitalandmain.com/doge-impact-...

27.05.2025 18:06 👍 40 🔁 26 💬 4 📌 1

A basic part of the American promise is a just day’s pay for a hard day’s work. For too many workers, that promise has been broken for too long as productivity gains have gone to profits for the rich instead of wages for workers, and people have had to work longer hours just to keep up.

27.05.2025 16:23 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

NEW: Due to funding cuts by DOGE, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment lost a $1 million federal grant to address food insecurity in two counties with poverty rates above national and state averages, reports the Topeka Capital-Journal:

25.05.2025 14:55 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 3
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Trump Touts ‘No Tax on Overtime.’ But He Just Made It Harder for Millions to Earn Overtime. Department of Labor “walked away from” rule that expanded overtime to 4 million workers, says former agency head.

ICYMI: Trump touts ‘no tax on overtime.’
But he just made it harder for millions to earn overtime. via @capitalandmain.bsky.social

capitalandmain.com/trump-touts-...

24.05.2025 16:04 👍 20 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 1
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Trump Touts ‘No Tax on Overtime.’ But He Just Made It Harder for Millions to Earn Overtime. Department of Labor “walked away from” rule that expanded overtime to 4 million workers, says former agency head.

“You can’t benefit from ‘no taxes on overtime’ if you’re not even paid overtime," former Secretary of Labor Julie Su told @capitalandmain.bsky.social.

@marcusbaram.bsky.social reports:

capitalandmain.com/trump-touts-...

23.05.2025 01:30 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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DOGE Cuts ‘Hurting’ Residents in Elon Musk’s Backyard in Rural Texas While the tech billionaire slashes jobs and services, local food banks, veterans' health care and college students all suffer.

My latest: “I know it’s hurting people and I know it’s affecting people,” says one of Elon Musk’s South Texas neighbors. “And I know it’s going to continue if they keep cutting the way they’re cutting. It’s very obvious. How can it not affect you?”

capitalandmain.com/doge-cuts-hu...

16.05.2025 16:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0