Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield

In the coming century, there will be very few people who have seen a coral reef or a glacier.

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Ohio’s Cincinnati Public Schools is the first district in the nation to own and operate a parking lot where families experiencing homelessness can go to at night and sleep in their cars, and has served more than 300 people since opening this past spring ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/10/14/c...

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“There are always people who profit from war or government policies. The difference is that the people profiting should not be the people making the decisions to make that policy. And that is what is happening here...” www.cnn.com/2026/10/01/u...

I wrote for @thecut.com about the Cornell case and what it says that, at my institution and many others like it, protesters are often punished more harshly than sexual assailants www.thecut.com/article/what...

This man is a monster. He seeks out women survivors because he hates them. And he hates them because he hates himself. He has harassed me and other women survivors many times over the years. It must end. He should never have a job anywhere.

Kicking people, including hungry kids, off SNAP is something to brag about?

Thanks to @donmoyn.bsky.social for giving a platform to Lauren Supplee to highlight this important issue. This is something I wrote about early in the Trump administration when DOGE was running rampant... substack.com/inbox/post/2...

It really is striking how many authoritarian states have ended up in this exact same place, where the leader seizes control of scientific inquiry. Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, Aryan Physics in the Third Reich, Great Leap Forward (also related to Lysenko) in China.

This. Right here. www.inquirer.com/opinion/viol...

This is how it is and how it always has been The for-profits account for a hugely outsized share of student debt and especially loan defaults a community college is always better choice than a for-profit college

Nearly 5.5 million people have lost access to SNAP since H.R. 1 was enacted. FRAC is urging Senators to reject a Farm Bill that fails to reverse these devastating cuts and leaves SNAP costs shifts to states in place. Read more: frac.org/news/farmbil...

Good news! We have more time to fight for our national forests. The Forest Service has extended the public comment period on the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The new deadline is October 6.

The cost of Trump’s war that he will never talk about.

SNAP is linked to better math & reading scores, fewer school days missed due to illness & other positive outcomes for children. But well over 1.5 million kids nationwide have lost access to SNAP after unprecedented cuts were enacted last year.

Half of kids in America are covered by Medicaid or CHIP The MAHA Administration is instituting massive Medicaid cuts, which will have awful consequences for child health RFK Jr’s first MAHA Report was called “Make Our Children Healthy Again”—but MAHA policies are doing the opposite

This change grants Commerce political appointees veto power over data and research releases by scientists and statisticians at NOAA, NIST, Census, and BEA.

NEWS: DOJ announces new lawsuits against Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington for providing in-state tuition to undocumented students. DOJ says this brings them to 21 suits challenging such tuition.

TALLAHASSEE – In one of his first moves as education commissioner, Henry Mack has advanced a rule that would block undocumented students from attending the state’s postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) programs.

Insane and inhumane.

NEW: Trump's mass deportation push is costing U.S. taxpayers $2,358 each(!), new research from @epi.org and @nationalpriorities.bsky.social found this month. "I don't think people realize how much money is being spent on these mass deportations."

New in PN: Stephen Miller's secret campaign against helpless kids "Miller is making his dreams come true: accelerating the arrest and removal of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant kids. This is a scene taking place out of public view across the country, impacting 24,000 children."

Signing a new EO, President Trump suggested falsely that vaccines were linked to autism and that the combined measles, mumps and rubella shot could be lethal, among other claims. Here’s what the evidence actually shows. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/w...

Bill Cassidy “reluctantly” cast the key vote to make RFK Jr HHS Secretary-because Kennedy promised he wouldn’t do things like this Then-knowing this EO was coming-Cassidy “reluctantly” cast the key vote to make Todd Blanche Attorney General, despite his broken promises on Epstein and the slush fund

people with chronic pain warned us at the time but the criminalization of women and minority people’s pain after the opioid crisis is a public health disaster. I’ve had friends denied pain management after hysterectomies, dental extractions and broken bones.

SNAP has an outstanding ROI: every dollar we invest in SNAP generates $1.54 in economic activity. With SNAP cuts, people can’t continue to support these local grocers, so local businesses suffer. Everyone loses.

Trump‘s new CDC Director said “abortion surveillance” will be a big part of the CDC‘s role… Republicans will never stop. Never.

ICYMI: We looked at Sen. Durbin's 25-year quest to pass the Dream Act to allow immigrants who came to the U.S. as kids become citizens. There's a lot to unpack, but one question I kept coming to is: What does it mean to achieve success in politics? www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/02/d...

A must read - a preview of what’s to come en masse when Medicaid work reporting requirements start nationwide. A pregnant woman loses coverage by mistake.. long waits lines for the call center.. People are scared. nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news...

This guide can help you understand how to ask for free interpretation services at City agencies, housing applications and medical facilities.

As the UN Secy General says, the Euro wildfires are just an opening act to the El Nino bearing down on planet earth. It's time for smart politicians to stop climate hushing and start getting ahead of the heat. open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

A scoop from me: The Trump administration is about to release a proposed rule that would gut most of the quality standards that define Head Start while blocking undocumented immigrants from enrolling their kids www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Crazy and inhumane

What do you know? If you raise the minimum wage, earnings go up for the folks who most need a boost. And the adverse impact to employment is minimal. substack.com/home/post/p-...

I've seen Marc Caputo's internally inconsistent story — though he leads with the "It's dead for now" quote, he later says nothing's final until announced and quotes someone as saying "nothing is final until it's final" — so I'll read it more as, "Some WH folks realize this is a no-go in Congress."

Ossoff: This is what small men like Donald Trump and JD Vance and Stephen Miller will never understand—that our national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas.

So if you or I cheat on our taxes, we could spend time behind bars. But if Trump... or his kids... or his businesses cheat on their taxes, the law doesn't apply. This is insane & beyond corrupt. DOJ works for the American people, NOT Donald Trump.

The Tennessee Speaker of the House will remove all Democratic Caucus members from standing committees and subcommittees as punishment for their redistricting protests. Democracy dies in Nashville.

Microcosm of the horror of this post-Callais moment: the Mississippi House plans to hold its redistricting session in the Old Capitol where they seceded & instituted Jim Crow. They'll meet there aiming to erase Bennie Thompson's district — the one majority-Black district in a state that's ~40% Black

The Supreme Court is trying to *fast track* the elimination of Black Congresspeople in the upcoming midterms. Its destruction of the Voting Rights Act has devolved into a pure political power play for Republicans BY the Republicans on the Court. I explain in @thenation.com

Yes Congressional Rs are really trying to give Trump $1b for his ballroom!

'Persistently high' number of NYC kids rely on food pantries as aid cuts loom gothamist.com/news/persist...

Its actually bad that people with lower incomes are losing benefits at a time of rising prices. Clearly, its not because the economy is booming. Its because the administration has deliberately made these benefits harder to access.

“.. Colleen Heflin, a professor at Syracuse University who studies food insecurity, said larger state drops like Arizona’s were ‘beyond anything we’ve ever seen.’” @wsj.com #SNAP www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

We must understand that the Voting Rights Act was not merely about ensuring Black Americans rights, it was about democratizing America. This ruling is not just a decimation of Black rights and Black Americans’ ability to have representation, it is a fatal blow to multiracial democracy.

English writer Mary Wollstonecraft was born #OTD in 1759. Best known for her book, 𝘈 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 (1792). It is a foundational text for feminism that argued for equal education and rights for women--challenging the notion of female inferiority. #literature #litsky #booksky