Laura Mariani
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lauramariani.bsky.social
Laura Mariani
@lauramariani.bsky.social
Award-winning pun artist. Posting about science, movies, #mapoli, horror, birding, and dogs from Worcester, MA. Posts = my opinions. (she/her)
Reposted by Laura Mariani
NEW from me: a new report found that national resistance to data centers skyrocketed between March and June of this year—especially in red states like Georgia and Indiana:
The Data Center Resistance Has Arrived
A new report finds that local opposition to data centers skyrocketed in the second quarter of this year.
www.wired.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history.

Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX
November 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Hopefully people are remembering that sexual assault victims can read what they’re saying
November 13, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
all kinds of guys in this country with too much money and no idea what to do with it and not one will pay a john goodman impersonator to follow larry summers around with his blown-up epstein emails on a placard going "is this your homework, larry? is this your homework, larry? is this your homework,
Just a couple of days ago, the Moral Avatar on the Charles (and Jeffrey Epstein pen pal) was trying to get an investigation launched against Harvard’s excellent student newspaper
November 13, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
It is really getting harder and harder to glibly dismiss the data centre driven growth of demand in the US, which is causing coal growth domestically and impacting the entire planet's emissions

Yes you can present it with a huge denominator to make it look small but that doesn't change the dynamics
Chinese and EU emissions were more or less flat in 2025 (Chinese emissions may have actually declined slightly, but its too early to know for sure: www.carbonbrief.org/...).

US emissions increases drove much of the increase in global emissions in 2025.
November 13, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Survivors are going to be feeling a lot of feelings today. I am holding survivors in my heart, today and always.
November 12, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Your power shouldn't be shut off during government shutdowns when Republicans freeze the release of funds that help families pay for heating and cooling. My bill would push utilities to keep the heat on for working families who are being blocked from the help they deserve.
November 12, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Just learned that my apartment qualifies for this program and I am excited to have a cheaper electric bill this winter!! The goal is to encourage more people to install electric heat pumps and move away from fossil fuels.
We updated the story about the new (cheaper) electric rate for heat pump users in Massachusetts.

TLDR: The vast majority of heat pump owners will be automatically enrolled, so be on the lookout for an email or letter from your utility. You should get it before Nov. 1
www.wbur.org/news/2025/08...
What to know about Mass.' new electricity rates for heat pump users
To encourage more heat pump adoption, Massachusetts is offering discounted electric rates in the winter.
www.wbur.org
November 12, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Today’s hike was a nice flat 5 miles at Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge on perhaps the last “hiking in a T-shirt” day of fall.
November 8, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
A🧵about Dr. Josh Fessel who spoke candidly with me about why he had to leave his dream job at NIH in this story out today about lives upended by the Trump's first 100 days. www.statnews.com/2025/04/25/t...
Trump’s first 100 days, seen through 5 lives: Grants terminated. Dreams crushed. Futures in the balance
STAT spoke with people living through the historic disruptions threatening the future of biomedical research in the U.S. These are their stories
www.statnews.com
April 25, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
ICE deported him anyways.

They literally put a man who was at death’s door on a plane to Costa Rica.

Doctors there found he had encephalopathy, rhabdomyolysis and the inability to eat on his own.

What happened to him in ICE custody to cause this?

He died a few weeks after deportation:
Family speaks out after death of man deported by ICE in vegetative state
Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel’s family alleges negligence and inhumane treatment
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
More people have died in ICE custody in last 9 months than in the entire prior 4 years.

We hear of a few, but most barely make the news.

Cases like Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel.

He was in perfect health when ICE detained him.

He disappeared in June & by August was in a vegetative state.
November 6, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Commentary: I am a primary care physician in Boston, taking care of particularly sick and structurally marginalized patients in the heart of the city, writes Divya Manoharan. Many of the patients I worry most about are currently living with their families in emergency assistance shelters.
Housing is a public health imperative
At first glance, limiting emergency assistance shelter looks like it will save the state money, writes Divya Manoharan. But forcing people – especially those with uncontrolled illness – back into home...
www.wbur.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
🧵My latest:

An inside look at how the Trump admin has deployed shrouded budgetary maneuvers to undercut outbreak response, HIV treatment, dementia care & more across America.

“No one thought this was possible or legal, but that is what’s happening."

abcnews.go.com/Health/red-t...
Red tape and budget constraints: How the White House is undercutting public health
Through shrouded bureaucratic maneuvers, White House budget director Russell Vought and DOGE have quietly undercut outbreak response, HIV treatment and dementia care.
abcnews.go.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
In 2023, I interviewed the parents who organized this effort to oust Moms for Liberty. If you want to know more — and maybe learn from them! — check it out.

Congrats to them for getting rid of them all!

www.salon.com/2023/10/10/m...
November 5, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
With all the excitement about the election I don’t want this story to get lost. This morning 8 car wash workers in Boston were kidnapped by federal agents in the largest workplace raid in the area in recent memory.

The details are horrifying.

🧵
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/04/m...
Immigration agents raid Allston car wash and detain several workers - The Boston Globe
Many of them held legal status but were unable to immediately produce their documentation to the agents, according to their manager.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Ocean State Job Lot announced that all food in its 17 Rhode Island stores is discounted by 20 percent until the federal SNAP program is fully reinstated. That includes coffee, tea, peanut butter, jam, cooking oils, spices, and hundreds of Bob’s Red Mill products.
November 4, 2025 at 4:54 PM
I keep thinking about @alexsteed.bsky.social's regular reminders that Action is the best antidote for Despair and as such, I spent part of my weekend making veggie lasagnas for local community fridges. It felt so good to gather with a group of like-minded folks and do something for our neighbors.
November 3, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Never in the history of the SNAP program - including during government shutdowns - has SNAP funding ever been suspended or only partially funded.

While some funding is better than none, the Trump Administration has the means to FULLY fund this program and is CHOOSING not to. It's reprehensible.
November 3, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Hiked to 3 different states today! (Tri-State Trail at Douglas State Forest)
November 2, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
Lots of lovely folks want to cook for neighbors, fill community fridges during SNAP shutdown but are intimidated. A mutual aid group in Flatbush, Brooklyn has been feeding 80+ people every single week for a year and a half or so now. Nobody is born knowing how to cook for 80, so here's our guide!
October 28, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Laura Mariani
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
October 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM