Benjamin Scherrer

I think this deserves at least as much sustained attention from US media as Claudine Gay's dissertation

Wyoming lawmakers' proposal to ban 'explicit' books from libraries falters as clock runs out The Legislature was advancing a bill that backers saw as a common sense way to keep "sexually explicit" books out of kids hands. Critics saw it as a book ban, and Teton County librarians have lined up...

Let's head into the weekend with some good news out of Wyoming! Legislatures around the country are learning that book bans are losing policy

An elementary school in the Iranian capital Tehran’s Niloufar Square has been struck in US-Israeli attacks, according to Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei. Baghaei on Friday shared a video on X, purportedly showing Shahid Hamedani School with students before and after the attack, without elaborating on the circumstances or the number of casualties.

The US and Israel have apparently attacked another elementary school in Iran, this one in Tehran.

www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/202...

The U.S. war on Iran is now estimated to cost $1 billion per day. Meanwhile Americans are told there’s no money for healthcare, hospitals, or basic social programs.

Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently

The report highlights the grim state of freshwater ecosystems, degraded marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and the risk of extinction for many species. But it also emphasizes the potential for improvement through conservation, restoration, and renewed connections between people and nature.

The Unbroken Line: Golden Grain — West Africans and rice in Colonial Louisiana Rice cultivation can be traced back to 1500 B.C. in West Africa.

The Unbroken Line: Golden Grain — West Africans and rice in Colonial Louisiana

Rice cultivation can be traced back to 1500 B.C. in West Africa.

Mourners attend a funeral for girls and staff who lost their lives when a primary school in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province was hit on the first day of US-Israeli attacks on Iran. [Anadolu]

A woman hold a photograph of pupils during the funeral.[Anadolu]

Mourners carry Iranian flags as they gather for the funeral in Minab. [Anadolu]

Coffins draped with Iranian flags are carried on trucks during the funeral. [Anadolu]

Iran mourns 165 girls, staff killed in school strike during US-Israel war https://aje.news/t0pz7y

A Warming Planet Makes Nor’easters & Other Storms More Intense: Climate Scientist Michael Mann As the Northeast United States contends with the aftermath of a historic bomb cyclone blizzard that blanketed the region, we speak to climate scientist Michael Mann about the causes and effects of inc...

“We expect to see that increase as long as we continue to warm up the planet by burning fossil fuels and putting carbon pollution into the atmosphere."

“the Department of *War* displayed a deep respect for safety” according to the guy who is being sued eleventy times because his product tells children to kill themselves

War is fundamentally unsafe and so is your piece of shit chatbot but COOL STORY BRO

I don't know if we will win. But it's worth trying cuz we deserve better.

And I agree with Angela Y. Davis, who said, "We can never predict the outcome of our work. As Stuart Hall said, 'There are never any guarantees.' At the same time, you have to act as if it were possible to change the world."

Toxic tap: Lead detected in 6 of 10 New Orleans homes' water Because of contract disputes, cost and legislative hurdles, it will likely take years before the remainder of the city’s tens of thousands of lead pipes are replaced. In the meantime, experts say resi...

New Orleans has one of the oldest water systems on the Gulf Coast, with pipes dating back more than a century, and lead experts point to the city’s corroding lead water lines as a significant public health hazard. veritenews.org/2026/02/19/e...

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Peter Thiel Is Unleashing a Neocolonial Billionaire Fantasy in Honduras Tech billionaires want to create their own city-states. Hondurans pay the price.

"Peter Thiel's Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs)."

"ZEDEs are the tech billionaire representation of neocolonialism; taking hold of Honduran land, resources, and a workforce to build playground empires for tech billionaires."
#Honduras #USA #Labour #Surveillance #Climate

😭

‘The goal has been to demystify’: how a colonial Nairobi library was restored and given back to the people Once a whites-only enclave, the grand McMillan Memorial library is one of three in the Kenyan capital that have been transformed for the community

‘The goal has been to demystify’: how a colonial Nairobi library was restored and given back to the people www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Whether it's emissions standards, vaccines, arms control agreements, alliances, gun controls, protections v. white collar criminals, int'l agreements, medical research, or our Constitutional rights, this administration has systematically removed critical protections Americans have depended on.

Black Residents Win Key Ruling in ‘Cancer Alley’ Environmental Racism Case The lawsuit could force a jury to decide if turning Black communities into sacrifice zones is a legacy of slavery.

A judge ruled that groups representing residents of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley can proceed with their landmark lawsuit seeking a pause on toxic industrial plants in two majority‑Black districts

The best case scenario is that Trump will waste $38 billion. The more likely outcome is that these will become warehouses of human suffering, and a permanent stain on America's history.

Poison at play: Unsafe lead levels found in half of New Orleans playgrounds Even trace amounts of the toxic metal can cause learning problems and behavioral issues in children.

Poison at play: Unsafe lead levels found in half of New Orleans playgrounds

Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why

Joan Scott on why the attack on gender studies by powerful patriarchal men is not a coincidence, but an attempt to silence critique and analysis of their abusive behavior. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu

Mamdani read @pookleblinky.bsky.social and was like "OK let's try some more of that"

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

The Washington Post has laid off least 14 climate journalists, newsroom sources told @sammyroth.bsky.social, effectively decimating one of the most important reporting teams in American climate journalism.

A sad, terrifying, enraging day for the planet.

www.commondreams.org/news/militar...

A large CAVA bag stuffed with what it says is $50,000 for White House Border Czar Tom Homan.

It’s been reported Homan took bribery money when he was recorded by the FBI accepting a bag full of $50,000 in cash.

“ICE GTFO OF MN”

Minneapolis February 4, 2026

‘ICE conveyor belt’ illegally detaining, moving Minnesota children to Texas faster than courts can respond ICE is pulling Minnesota immigrant families with legal status out of their driveways, homes and school commutes and sending them to Texas within hours — in at least two cases against a judge’s order. ...

Columbia Heights has now connected the located child and her family with legal counsel. But TX lawyers told MPR they have spoken to MN families at Dilley who were not provided required legal counsel before being shipped out of state. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

“There are other students with whom we have lost contact who might also be in a detention facility,” Columbia Heights district officials said today.

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

I don't say this often but: I'm so proud to be a climate and environment reporter. We cover an issue that is vitally important to humanity and the natural world. 14 of my climate colleagues at the Post were laid off today and I'm devastated.

www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...

Kindergarten teacher wants kindergartener deported YouTube video by Ben Palmer

Kindergarten teacher called a prank ICE hotline thinking it was real. She called to report her 6 year old student to ICE to try to get them and their family deported.

6 years old.

She does not enjoy hearing her own words and actions played back to her.