JB Holston

A representative for one of the largest, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, said it had not been aware of Omni's role in deportation flights but had "contacted Stonepeak to seek additional information and under stand how these serious issues are being addressed."

So here's the rub: Dozens of Stonepeak's investors are public-employee retirement funds, including many in blue states. And the human rights abuses happening on Omni's ICE flights would probably violate a lot of their ESG policies -- IF THEY KNEW ABOUT THEM.

ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Longer and Crueler A private equity-owned airline profits off Trump’s migrant crackdown.

NEW: Meet the private-equity firm -- and its billionaire immigrant CEO -- making millions off some of ICE's cruelest deportation flights.

After a five-month investigation, my story for @motherjones.com:

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Change in Data Sources Led to Lower Inflation Reading

An obscure methodological tweak -- a change in the source of data on the price of legal services -- resulted in meaningfully lower monthly PCE inflation in January. That's prompting questions about why the change was made and why it wasn't disclosed publicly.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/b... #EconSky

The battle over solar on farms Agrivoltaics is either a green revolution or a poison pill for good land. Depends which farmers you ask.

As of 2024, there were 600+ agrivoltaics sites in the US producing 10 gigawatts of energy, enough to power 7.5M homes.

But the US is a small player compared with China, which generates more than 3x as much energy from such projects, or France, which gets 20% of its solar power from agrivoltaics.

My travel to Cosyne was barred by the Trump admin, so I'm here on my personal dime. I care about the COSYNE community, I committed to co-chairing. And I always learn here.

But the worst part about this travel ban is my lab colleagues— students and fellows—couldn't come. /1

The Colorado River will deliver less than a third of normal water flow this summer. And, Rocky Mountain ski season has been disastrously bad this year.

Quote by Dr. Carlos Martinez, Senior Scientist at UCS:“UCS strongly urges NSF to preserve NCAR as an intact national research center...recognizing that dismantling or fragmenting this proven model would undermine one of the nation’s most important scientific institutions."

The NSF has provided no evidence to justify dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Doing so would undermine one of the nation’s most vital scientific institutions. @ncar-ucar.bsky.social

Read the letter UCS submitted today:

🔗 act.ucsusa.org/3NeWZh1

How Trump hacked the judiciary His fake "emergencies" are pushing the country toward autocracy.

"The Department of Justice is an absolute shambles under Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Trump, given that the latter basically dictates what the DOJ does now, and he’s a crumbling mess of capriciousness and id. " open.substack.com/pub/aaronrup...

Trump’s military excursion, into an abyss The evident fact is that the president is nuts.

Also this: As Trump has descended into utter incoherence and is now nothing more than an assortment of adolescent (and frequently violent) urges, the US government has been remade into a tool for the immediate satisfaction of his wants and desires no matter how absurd or nihilistic they may be.

A striking feature of Trump and his team is: they somehow imagine a world in which they are the only actors, only ones with power, and whether it's Tehran or Minneapolis are surprised when it turns out others do. There are many kinds of power and many nations with power.

🎶Stuck in a Stagmire With You.... 🎶

First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says

The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.

Stagflation + Quagmire --> Stagmire? QuagStag??

More oops: "Reputational damage will linger in the Gulf. Beyond the wealth those countries possess, “the real currency was confidence” IIIS

Miscarriage Is Increasingly Dangerous for Women in Texas, Our Analysis Shows. Here’s How We Did It. Using seven years of hospital discharge data, we found that the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54% since Texas banned abortion.

Our analysis, which shows that more women nearly bled to death during miscarriage after Texas banned abortion, adds to a growing body of reporting revealing that maternal outcomes have gotten worse under bans.

(Published July 2025)

Trump has spent more in 10 days on his reckless war in Iran than America spends in two years on community health centers providing medical care for low-income and uninsured Americans.

Our priorities are out of whack in this country.

Schatz: We don’t know for sure, but the likely bombing of an elementary school with one of our Tomahawk missiles is not a one-off mistake. It is the result of a change in policy so that the United States has way looser rules of engagement — way more tolerance for civilian harm.

Oops.

After detainments and deportations, the lives left behind in Minnesota From abandoned possessions to unpaid rent, many Minnesotans had to lean on family, friends and community organizations for help with their unfinished business.

"Each person plucked from their day-to-day existence left a whole life behind. There are shoes by the front door and an empty bed. There’s a car in the driveway and a job undone. There are pets that need feeding, bills that keep arriving and leases with months left to pay."

Yann LeCun’s AI start-up raises more than $1bn in Europe’s largest seed round Meta’s former chief AI scientist launches AMI Labs with backing from Nvidia, Temasek and Jeff Bezos

Great to see this; www.ft.com/content/e524...

At ~$1 billion/day, the US has spent as much on the war in Iran in ten days as the entire FY25 budget for the National Science Foundation ($10 billion).

Trump's FY26 budget request for the agency declined to $3.9 billion, due to a "realignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment."

The 'fling poo' gambit ....

Always and ever random. Insiders love trading on this stuff.

Nick Mohammed looks back: ‘Magic became the superpower I needed, growing up a short, brown kid in 1980s Leeds’ The comedian and magician on his teenage survival tricks, the teacher who inspired Mr Swallow, and how Ted Lasso and Traitors changed his life

"The first time I went to America was to stand on stage at the Emmys." Lovely piece in @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Everythings, just fine, fine fine...

China’s AI Nightmare Is an Out-of-Control Welfare State As artificial intelligence threatens jobs and deflation strains growth, Xi Jinping may finally be forced to expand the nation’s social safety net.

" a consensus is emerging: AI will likely force governments worldwide to expand social safety nets, possibly with a universal basic income" www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Want a ready-made community AND a hot tub? Radish is selling their legendary Oakland co-living compound. BYO friend cohort. After six weddings, eight kids, and 2,000+ meals, the legendary Radish co-living compound is for sale.

"“We basically created a system by which it’s hard to argue about the things that you would most likely argue about,” Berman said, “and that has helped immensely.”" sfstandard.com/2026/03/08/r...

Drones > $1 Billion installations: Iran is hitting the radars that underpin U.S. missile defenses - The Wall Street Journal

Ah, the Newsgator , NetNewsWire, FeedDemon days …. Remember ‘em well…

A college student's perspective on using AI in class Instead of banning AI, why don't schools teach students to use it critically? College freshman Maximilian Milovidov shares what he has learned in an "AI writing" course at Columbia University.

Instead of banning AI, why don't schools teach students to use it critically? College freshman Maximilian Milovidov shares what he has learned in an "AI writing" course at Columbia University. n.pr/3MQbRCp