21 January 2026 @ 11:50 am
Ice

US justice department subpoenas Minnesota Democrats accused of impeding ICE efforts
Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey among officials who received subpoenas
Sam Levine in New York
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/20/minnesota-democrats-subpoenas-justice-department

“Three local law enforcement leaders expressed concern over federal immigration agents’ behavior over the last few weeks, including stopping off-duty officers of color,” reports Sahan Journal. … The law enforcement leaders also said federal agents don’t seem to be coordinating their work across the metro, and that a small group of federal agents are causing problems by stopping community members in traffic and in the street with no cause, and demanding that they produce paperwork proving they’re in the country legally.” 
https://sahanjournal.com/public-safety/minnesota-police-concerns-federal-immigration-agents/

“Last week, Minnesota-based faith leaders, unions, and other community groups called for a strike and economic blackout on Jan. 23 in response to the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge,” Bring Me The News reports. The news site has a list of businesses closing on Friday, Jan. 23. 
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-lifestyle/growing-number-of-minnesota-businesses-announce-plans-to-close-for-jan-23-strike

https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/how-to-help-if-you-are-outside-minnesota/

Other News Read more... )
 
 
20 January 2026 @ 05:37 pm
Title: In a Grain of Sand
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: PG
Length: 392
Content notes: My sweethearts: Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Author notes: The beach trip takes place just before Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Summary: Steve remembers Natasha.
 
 
20 January 2026 @ 10:04 am
ICE

Local Hugo Award winning author, Naomi Kritzer has compiled a list for locals who want to help on her blog. (She's going to compile a list for nonlocals.)
https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/19/how-to-help-twin-cities-residents/

Christian leaders urge protection of worshippers’ rights after protesters interrupt service
The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention called the intrusion in a St. Paul church ‘an unacceptable trauma.’
by Giovanna Dell’Orto, AP
https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2026/01/christian-leaders-urge-protection-of-worshippers-rights-after-protesters-interrupt-service/

‘2020 never ended’: Minneapolis organizes amid Trump’s ICE crackdown
From community watch to mutual aid, grassroots networks in the Twin Cities build on efforts spurred during the 2020 George Floyd protests
Alyssa Oursler in Minneapolis
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/20/minneapolis-organizes-trump-ice-crackdown

Noem backtracks on ICE pepper spray denial amid tension in Minneapolis
US justice department announced it is investigating protesters in Minnesota who disrupted church services
Edward Helmore
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/19/kristi-noem-pepper-spray-minneapolis-ice

‘Gestapo tactics’: Bruce Springsteen condemns Trump team’s ICE crackdown
New Jersey musician said during concert in home state that US core values ‘have never been as endangered’ as now
Eric Berger
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/19/bruce-springsteen-trump-ice-concert

Other News Read more... )
 
 
19 January 2026 @ 11:51 am
ICE

A Minnesota-based ICE agent is also a pastor at a church in St. Paul, where protesters interrupted service on Sunday, the Pioneer Press reports. The U.S. Department of Justice says it’s investigating. Via MinnPost
https://www.twincities.com/2026/01/18/protesters-interrupt-st-paul-church-service-citing-pastors-ice-ties/

Retired police officer: The Renee Good shooting was a failure of tactics and law
It’s likely that ICE’s behavior in Minnesota is due to a mix of incompetence and impunity granted to the agency by the current administration.
by Matt Koncar
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2026/01/retired-police-officer-the-renee-good-shooting-was-a-failure-of-tactics-and-law/

Who is on the frontline of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown?
These are the federal agencies detaining people across the US – mostly, but not all, under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security
Roque Planas and Andrew Witherspoon
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/19/donald-trump-immigration-crackdown

Other News

Donald Trump links threats to seize Greenland to Nobel prize snub in letter
US president says he no longer feels the need to think ‘purely of peace’ in letter to Norwegian prime minister
Jon Henley Europe correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/19/donald-trump-greenland-threats-nobel-prize-snub-letter Read more... )
 
 
18 January 2026 @ 10:16 am
Revolutionary imaging of black hole aims to prove they are not ‘evil vacuum cleaners’
Newly appointed Cambridge professor says feat would accelerate scientific knowledge by an order of magnitude
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/18/astronomers-revolutionary-moving-image-black-hole-cambridge-science

Dublin Bay’s oyster graveyard rises from dead in effort to restore rich ecosystem
Pioneering scheme hopes species that thrived for thousands of years in Irish waters can do so again
Rory Carroll in Dublin
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/18/dublin-bay-oyster-reefs-restoration Read more... )
 
 
17 January 2026 @ 10:41 am
ICE Read more... )

Judge to protect noncitizen academics involved in case from ‘authoritarian’ Trump
Reagan appointee moves to protect those challenging arrest and deportation of pro-Palestinian activists
Alice Speri and agency
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/16/authoritarian-trump-court-protection-order

Trump set to pardon ex-Puerto Rico governor after ‘political prosecution’
Wanda Vázquez Garced, who accepted plea deal over campaign finance violation, endorsed Trump in 2020
Maya Yang and agencies
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/16/trump-puerto-rico-governor-pardon Read more... )
 
 
17 January 2026 @ 10:54 am
Challebge #3 'Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.
Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it



Dear fandom,

I’m supposed to write you a love letter, but I am kinda stumped this year. The political situation in the US and health issues have conspired to come between us. My imagination seems to have dried up and characters that spoke to me for many years seem to have moved on to greener pastures and maybe just left the galaxy all together. Who could blame them?

I’m hoping to get reacquainted and spend a lot of time with you this year. Maybe I can even find all my old fiction friends and tell some more of their stories again OR maybe I could even meet some new people to write about. I do live to tell a love story/

I guess I should also mention how important the real people in fandom are. I’ve lost touch with many of the folks I’ve met in my various fandoms, so it’s also time to make new friends and look up some of the old ones. Fandom friends have kept me same for a long time and sanity is in short supply these days.

What do you say, fandom? Can we do this? I surely hope so.



Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.
 
 
16 January 2026 @ 10:49 am
ICE Read more... )

Giving Trump the Nobel peace prize medal is ‘absurd’, say Norwegian politicians
US president criticised for accepting medal awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado
Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/16/maria-corina-machado-giving-trump-nobel-peace-prize-medal-absurd-say-norwegian-politicians

At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich
George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/16/super-rich-inequality-politicians-extreme-wealth Read more... )
 
 
15 January 2026 @ 05:34 pm
In such a mood for poetry today! This one by Emily Dickenson always felt personal to me, but now it addresses the nation. 

Not with a Club, the Heart is broken
Nor with a Stone –
A Whip so small you could not see it
I’ve known

To lash the Magic Creature
Till it fell,
Yet that Whip’s Name
Too noble then to tell.

Magnanimous as Bird
By Boy descried –
Singing unto the Stone
Of which it died –

Shame need not crouch
In such an Earth as Ours –
Shame – stand erect –
The Universe is yours.

This musical version it absolutely worth your time. 


 
 
15 January 2026 @ 11:41 am
poem posted in park strip 
One of my neighbors has a tiny bulletin board in the park strip where she posts a new poem every couple weeks. Love walking the dog by here. 
 
 
15 January 2026 @ 10:10 am
All ICE: Read more... )

The full list of 75 countries where Trump is suspending visa processing
The Trump administration indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing from 75 countries – see which nations have been affected
Joseph Gedeon in Washington
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/full-list-75-countries-visa-processing-suspended

Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests
Exclusive: US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies feel ever more distant, results show
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/global-survey-suggests-trump-is-making-china-not-america-great-again

Suspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donations
Tens of thousands of dollars raised for TJ Sabula after he reportedly calls Trump ‘pedophile protector’ during Ford plant tour
Michael Sainato
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/trump-suspended-michigan-autoworker

Wolf’s dinner preserved in Siberia for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino
Decoded genome of meat in pup’s stomach helps scientists build picture of what caused extinction of species
Ian Sample Science editor
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/14/wolf-cub-preserved-permafrost-woolly-rhino Read more... )
 
 
14 January 2026 @ 03:53 pm
 

Still not dead yet!

Major stuff I've read lately:
- Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell - A somewhat dated but solid book on plot and structure. It's kind of genre-oriented rather than literary-oriented, and very much toward the mystery and thriller genres, but it's got some very good advice on plot and characters, which I imagine many subsequent books on plot and characters have repeated and reworked in the meantime.

- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel - A really good book to read early on when you're investigating the personal-finance-o-sphere. This is not a cookbook, 'do this' sort of personal finance book, but more a "seriously think about how you THINK about money before you set your goals" kind of book. I've read a lot in this sphere, and still I thought this was an excellent and fresh take, highlighting how some serious introspection can help you avoid serious mistakes.

-  How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman - ...meh?  I dunno, maybe I've read too much in this area to find this particularly thrilling.  Also, it suffers a bit from being too "explain the experiments" to really appeal to the average reader while at the same time just rehashing things that actual informed readers already know.  So, it retreads some common ground, I felt.

- Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - I've now read this book three times, and still love it. A witty, exciting story about a former hench who gets injured by a superhero and uses her considerable data analysis-fu skills to calculate the cost in property damage and human life of deploying superheroes/WMDs for basic crime. This gets her hired by the world's scariest supervillain, and away we go. A neat world mashup of super heroes and corporate drudgery, with a lot to say on exploitation and capitalism. Also I loved the main character's voice and I am WAITING (not so) PATIENTLY for the sequel that's set to come out in a few months, as I really, really want to see how Anna's arc progresses and how her relationship with Leviathan evolves.

Reading now:
- Reading the next Morgan Housel book, The Art of Spending Money.  Am less impressed than with The Psychology of Money, mostly because i'm about a third of the way in and it's making the exact same points.  It also seems, more than Psychology of Money, focused on the problems of rich people (all the ways super rich people fritter away their money) rather than issues seen by more average folks.  I've also started reading Little Bosses Everywhere, which...someone here might have suggested?  Interesting book on MLM/pyramid scheme history.


 
 
14 January 2026 @ 08:58 am
Thompson, colleague resignations cast scrutiny on Justice Department’s probe into Renee Good’s death
Upheaval in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota comes amid divisive Justice Department actions in the wake of Good’s shooting.
by Ana Radelat
https://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2026/01/thompson-colleague-resignations-cast-scrutiny-on-justice-departments-probe-into-renee-goods-death/

Trump plans to illegally stop over $2 billion in Medicaid payments, state says, in latest twist to fraud saga
The Minnesota Medicaid head says that feds will shut off spigot in 13 programs.
by Matthew Blake
https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2026/01/trump-plans-to-illegally-stop-over-2-billion-in-medicaid-payments-state-says-in-latest-twist-to-fraud-saga/ Read more... )
 
 
13 January 2026 @ 10:48 am
ICE enforcement: Via MinnPost
–The federal government has made more than 2,000 arrests in Minnesota in the immigration enforcement surge that began this month, MPR reports. Federal officials did not say how many people face deportation or provide other details.  
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/12/latest-monday-on-ice-shooting-in-minneapolis

-Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara criticized ICE tactics in an interview with the New York Times, the Star Tribune reports. On the Times’ “The Daily” podcast, O’Hara said the shooting death last week of Renee Good by an ICE agent was “predictable and entirely preventable.”
https://www.startribune.com/in-new-york-times-interview-minneapolis-police-chief-brian-ohara-rails-against-ice-tactics/601562616

-A video captured ICE agents ramming a door and pushing their way inside a home to arrest a man in the Twin Cities. The AP report says a document agents that handed to a woman in the house is different than a warrant signed by a judge and does not authorize forced entry into a private residence.
https://www.twincities.com/2026/01/11/video-captures-minneapolis-immigration-arrest-in-a-city-on-edge-after-shooting-of-renee-good/ Read more... )
 
 
12 January 2026 @ 10:10 am
“Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith said Sunday that the Trump administration was ‘attempting to cover up what happened‘ in the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday,” ABC News reports. “‘I think what we are seeing here is the federal government — [Department of Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem, Vice President [JD] Vance, [President] Donald Trump — attempting to cover up what happened here in the Twin Cities, and I don’t think that people here and around the country are believing it,’ Smith told ABC News’ ‘This Week’ co-anchor Martha Raddatz.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/minnesota-senator-white-house-attempting-cover-good-shooting/story?id=129100690

Four members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe were detained by ICE agents in Minneapolis, according to WCCO. “President Frank Star Comes Out [said] in a Facebook post said the four men are homeless and were living under a bridge near the Little Earth housing complex in the East Phillips neighborhood. Attorneys who represent the tribe were “instructed” [to] reach out to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan about where they are being detained and what their names are, he said.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/oglala-sioux-tribe-members-detained-ice-minneapolis/ Read more... )
 
 
11 January 2026 @ 10:22 am
US protests condemn ICE killing of Renee Good and ‘a regime that is willing to kill its own citizens’
In Philadelphia, protesters demanded ICE leave US communities and Trump end warmongering in Venezuela
Lex McMenamin
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/10/protests-ice-renee-nicole-good-philadelphia

U.S. Reps. Omar, Morrison and Craig denied access to immigration detention facility at Fort Snelling
The three House Democrats were briefly allowed into the Fort Snelling holding facility on Saturday, then told they did not have the right to access it.
by Shubhanjana Das
https://sahanjournal.com/immigration/omar-morrison-craig-denied-access-detention-facility/ Read more... )
 
 
10 January 2026 @ 11:17 am
MinnPost's The Glean is all ICE again: https://www.minnpost.com/glean/2026/01/trump-targeted-minnesota-long-before-fatal-ice-shooting/

Leaders alarmed about fairness of FBI inquiry into Minneapolis ICE shooting
State and local officials say they do not believe investigation into shooting death of Renee Nicole Good will be objective
George Chidi
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/10/fbi-investigation-minneapolis-ice-shooting-renee-nicole-good Read more... )
 
 
09 January 2026 @ 09:30 am
Trump administration unleashes torrent of untruths after woman shot dead by ICE
Victim-blaming began almost as soon as Renee Nicole Good was killed – we examine the claims and the reality
Richard Luscombe
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/09/white-house-minneapolis-ice-killing

Democrats threaten to withhold funding after ICE killing in Minneapolis
Lawmakers issue warning about homeland security budget after shooting death by federal agent of Renee Nicole Good
Lauren Gambino
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/08/democrats-homeland-security-renee-nicole-good Read more... )
 
 
08 January 2026 @ 12:21 pm
MinnPost's Glean is all ICE related this morning
https://www.minnpost.com/glean/2026/01/more-on-the-ice-shooting-in-minneapolis-federal-agents-renee-good/

Thousands gather at vigil for woman slain by ICE agent in Minneapolis
Mourners filled an entire city block on Wednesday night following the early morning shooting of a woman who was trying to drive away from ICE agents.
by Katelyn Vue
https://sahanjournal.com/immigration/minneapolis-vigil-woman-slain-ice-agent/

Yes, state and local prosecutors can charge federal law enforcement agents with crimes. But it isn’t easy
Minnesota officials are demanding a role in the investigation of Wednesday’s fatal shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
by Shadi Bushra
https://www.minnpost.com/public-safety/2026/01/minnesota-ice-shooting-yes-state-and-local-prosecutors-can-charge-federal-agents-law-enforcement-with-crimes-but-it-isnt-easy/

Viewed From Across the Pond: Read more... )