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Laura Myers

@lauramyers

Public defender. Views are mine and, during baseball season, largely the city of Cleveland’s. ND ‘11, NDLS ‘18. Go Irish.

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16.08.2023
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Latest posts by Laura Myers @lauramyers

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Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. The decisions amount to a huge legal rebuke, but the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely.

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

14.02.2026 17:19 👍 2248 🔁 1079 💬 71 📌 110
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The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023.

The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets.

https://ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3

03.02.2026 17:27 👍 4396 🔁 2273 💬 81 📌 320

One day, if we are lucky, the erasure of American history will itself be remembered as a shameful chapter in American history

23.01.2026 01:30 👍 4471 🔁 1382 💬 106 📌 47
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Fourth Circuit publishes an opinion to make a point that otherwise would go unseen.
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

13.11.2025 23:55 👍 234 🔁 74 💬 6 📌 6

Don’t let the frogwater that’s boiling us alive let you skip over this: we murdered another country’s citizens in cold blood, and when their leader objected, we called him a drug dealer and cut off aid to his country. That’s freakish.

19.10.2025 13:55 👍 7687 🔁 2677 💬 111 📌 36

Pay close attention to who wants you to do The Reading and who only wants you to read their interpretation

29.09.2025 11:34 👍 712 🔁 142 💬 7 📌 9
Guardians 9, Rangers 8: With Detroit losing nearly an hour earlier the Guardians had already clinched the AL Central. But winning this game like they did – with a four-run tenth inning rally capped off by a walkoff three-run homer from Brayan Rocchio – bolstered a theory of mine: that the Guardians are possessed of more Devil Magic that any team since the La Russa-era Cardinals.
They had a massive comeback here. They clinched their playoff spot on Saturday night on a walkoff hit-by-pitch. They beat Detroit with 57 dinks-and-doinks last week, with the rally being kicked off by their own dude getting hit in the damn face with a hundred mile-per-hour heater. And, of course, they came back and won the AL Central from 15.5 games down despite ending the season with a negative run differential. There is nothing natural about any of this. And they don't friggin' care, man. That's the most unsettling part.
The Cleveland Guardians can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. I don't actually think that means they're World Series favorites or anything, but it does mean that we toy with them at our peril. If they eventually get knocked out of the playoffs it's probably because they just get beat, but it's also possible it will be because they accidentally ran their car over the entire opposing team and were deemed to have forfeited. And now they get the Tigers again after playing them six times in the last two weeks, winning five of those contests in no small part because Detroit seemed utterly spooked and intimidated.
It's almost cruel.

Guardians 9, Rangers 8: With Detroit losing nearly an hour earlier the Guardians had already clinched the AL Central. But winning this game like they did – with a four-run tenth inning rally capped off by a walkoff three-run homer from Brayan Rocchio – bolstered a theory of mine: that the Guardians are possessed of more Devil Magic that any team since the La Russa-era Cardinals. They had a massive comeback here. They clinched their playoff spot on Saturday night on a walkoff hit-by-pitch. They beat Detroit with 57 dinks-and-doinks last week, with the rally being kicked off by their own dude getting hit in the damn face with a hundred mile-per-hour heater. And, of course, they came back and won the AL Central from 15.5 games down despite ending the season with a negative run differential. There is nothing natural about any of this. And they don't friggin' care, man. That's the most unsettling part. The Cleveland Guardians can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. I don't actually think that means they're World Series favorites or anything, but it does mean that we toy with them at our peril. If they eventually get knocked out of the playoffs it's probably because they just get beat, but it's also possible it will be because they accidentally ran their car over the entire opposing team and were deemed to have forfeited. And now they get the Tigers again after playing them six times in the last two weeks, winning five of those contests in no small part because Detroit seemed utterly spooked and intimidated. It's almost cruel.

Draft of the recap for the Guardians game in tomorrow's newsletter.

Subscribe to Cup of Coffee for similar hard-nosed baseball analytics. www.cupofcoffeenews.com

28.09.2025 23:02 👍 71 🔁 11 💬 12 📌 0
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NACDL - News Release ~ Criminal Justice Act Payment Delays New Report Showcases Impact of Criminal Justice Act Payment Delays on Defense Attorneys; Criminal Legal System– Washington, DC (Sep. 25, 2025) – A report from the National Association of C...

Feds failure to pay defense lawyers...

"Panel attorneys are forced to lay off staff, forgo essential case resources such as investigators and experts, and even stop taking CJA cases altogether. As a result, the accused will be deprived of a complete defense, court backlogs will grow"

By @nacdl.org

26.09.2025 14:32 👍 10 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 2

Autistic and neurodivergent people deserve far better than a government looking to prevent their existence, let alone one that will invent fictitious ways to do so that puts everyone in danger

22.09.2025 21:30 👍 4335 🔁 1163 💬 36 📌 22
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👇🏽

10.09.2025 21:41 👍 4429 🔁 1453 💬 231 📌 104

Condemning another absolutely disgraceful act of gun violence. My thoughts & prayers are w/ Charlie Kirk & his family in this terrible moment & we are all grateful for first responders who immediately jumped into action.

We must categorically reject all violence in our society.

10.09.2025 19:27 👍 2767 🔁 419 💬 248 📌 21
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Rand Paul: "The reason we have trials & we don't automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator? ... off our coast it isn't our policy just to blow people up ... even the worst people in our country, they still get a trial."

03.09.2025 23:26 👍 20802 🔁 5640 💬 1370 📌 760

As a lawyer, I'll tell you that there's nobody who knows this law better than Ryan and Brian. Sure looks like murder or war crime to me. But as a human, I'll tell you that the Rubio statement -- we could have stopped the boat but we blew it up to send a message -- is sickening and depraved.

03.09.2025 22:09 👍 2418 🔁 829 💬 60 📌 21

One thing I've learned from a) having been a juvenile offender for a violent crime, and b) being in recovery and getting to talk very openly with people from all walks of life, is that wealth primarily buys you privacy from the police.

I can't even begin to tell you the number of suburban dads...1/

17.08.2025 20:24 👍 257 🔁 48 💬 6 📌 1
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This is still sound advice.

26.07.2025 23:46 👍 34 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
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Spot on. This is the clearest explanation I’ve seen. It ‘s relatable, and humanizes the issue in a way everyone can understand.

28.06.2025 02:15 👍 31749 🔁 13443 💬 1276 📌 1353
The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison

The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison

26.06.2025 07:19 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I like to think the universe intervened after my parents decided they were going to name me Michael Myers. In 1989.

15.06.2025 21:16 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

In the late 80s they had blood tests that looked for certain markers. (My mother is a nurse and can explain much better!) Based on the “levels” of whatever they looked for in those tests, my parents were told I’d be a boy with down’s syndrome.

15.06.2025 03:37 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Was going to say the same thing. Our director would have lost his mind if we went down the street like this.

15.06.2025 00:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Screenshot of Wikipedia page stating: The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern of argument:
1. Person 1 asserts proposition X.
2. Person 2 argues against a superficially similar proposition Y, as though an argument against Y were an argument against X.
This reasoning is a fallacy of relevance: it fails to address the proposition in question by misrepresenting the opposing position.

Screenshot of Wikipedia page stating: The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern of argument: 1. Person 1 asserts proposition X. 2. Person 2 argues against a superficially similar proposition Y, as though an argument against Y were an argument against X. This reasoning is a fallacy of relevance: it fails to address the proposition in question by misrepresenting the opposing position.

10.06.2025 05:10 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

😂

10.06.2025 04:06 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

No, anonymous porn account, I am not kidding.

10.06.2025 03:39 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I don’t know enough about Mr. Smith to opine on him specifically but as a general matter it actually seems like a very good idea to put someone in BOP leadership who knows what it’s like to be incarcerated within that system.

10.06.2025 02:18 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0

At the risk of being pedantic, “less than lethal” rounds can in fact kill people. “Less lethal.”

07.06.2025 22:49 👍 122 🔁 23 💬 5 📌 0

Have you seen Alex's catfrog thread, with catfrog illustrations contributed by many Bluesky artists? It's not too late!

01.06.2025 04:09 👍 162 🔁 42 💬 7 📌 2

"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."
- Abraham Lincoln

26.05.2025 15:33 👍 7831 🔁 1834 💬 146 📌 65
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“We Need to See the Bigger Picture”: How Cuts to Medicaid Hurt Public Safety - Bolts When a state made cuts to Medicaid, depriving people of access to health insurance, the crime rate increased: That’s the finding of a new academic study, supported by the National... Read More

Good time to read up on how Medicaid cuts increase crime rates:

boltsmag.org/medicaid-cov...

22.05.2025 18:02 👍 528 🔁 254 💬 24 📌 17