Laura Conaway
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oleta.bsky.social
Laura Conaway
@oleta.bsky.social
1.7K followers 180 following 98 posts
Maddow/MS NOW. (↖️ In this picture, I'm the cyclist. http://nyti.ms/3f8MIPR)
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oleta.bsky.social
In the smaller towns of Washington State, they're still counting up the Democratic wins -- a lot of council seats, a lot of legislative seats.

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
Screengrab from the Seattle Times. Full text reads: In Longview, two Democratic-backed city council candidates defeated more conservative opponents, including ousting the town’s incumbent mayor. In Sunnyside, progressive and Democratic-aligned candidates flipped city council seats. And in Camas, a former Republican “America First” congressional candidate lost her city council seat to a Democratic-endorsed challenger. Those results capped a Democratic sweep in nine special legislative elections, including expensive contested senate races in Pierce and King counties. In Bellevue, longtime city Councilmember Conrad Lee, who donated $50,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee, also lost to a 27-year-old Democratic challenger.
November 11, 2025 at 5:51 PM
oleta.bsky.social
Heard in Chicagoland (Mount Prospect):

“They came and took my dad 10 minutes ago.”

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/08/c...
Screengrab from the Chicago Tribune. Highlight begins at "About two weeks later". Full text of screengrab: She was yelling “a lot of not-safe-for-work things,” she said. She remembers one interaction, when an agent that day asked her if she was “OK with criminals in the neighborhood.” “You’re the criminals,” she told them. “You’re the ones kidnapping people off the street.” About two weeks later, Porter received a text from a neighbor. ICE was back. Porter made her way to her neighbor’s house but by the time she arrived the agents were gone. It left locals feeling uneasy and angry again. On the way home, Porter noticed a young man mowing a nearby lawn. She flagged him down and offered a warning: “I just want you to be safe,” she told him. “ICE is in the area.” But he already knew. What he said in response has lingered in Porter’s mind. She can still hear him saying it: “They came and took my dad 10 minutes ago.”
November 8, 2025 at 6:17 PM
oleta.bsky.social
Health insurance stories like this one from Maine, times all 50 states:

"her premiums would jump from $478 to $1,262 per month...

"more than $15,000...of her $65,000...income as a self-employed mental health counselor."

www.pressherald.com/2025/10/31/h...
Screengrab from the Portland Press-Herald. Text reads: Merrill, 59, of North Berwick, said the letter indicated her premiums would jump from $478 to $1,262 per month if ACA tax credits, which help pay health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, expire this year. That would amount to more than $15,000 per year for health insurance, of her $65,000 annual income as a self-employed mental health counselor.
October 31, 2025 at 5:18 PM
oleta.bsky.social
This sounds like a problem. 

Gift link:

wapo.st/48Iuil5
Screengrab from the Washington Post: The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that “the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens” is threatening “the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.”
“Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow,” with increased funding for immigration enforcement from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Labor Department said in the Federal Register
October 11, 2025 at 11:33 AM
oleta.bsky.social
I am delighted and proud to have a sticker of my wife’s “Life After Cars” book on my new notebook. Book hits the stores Oct. 21, available for preorders now at lifeaftercars.com #lifeaftercars
A purple notebook with two stickers: One with a drawing of four red tomatoes on the vine and three white flowers with red centers. The other shows the cover of a new book, “Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.” Lifeaftercars.com
October 5, 2025 at 12:27 AM
oleta.bsky.social
Yesterday in London, President Obama described the autism spectrum and why there has been a big jump in the number of people who know they're autistic.

Worth seeing.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Obama began by invoking “the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproven.” “The degree to which that undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant, the degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic — which, by the way, itself is subject to a spectrum, and a lot of what is being trumpeted as these massive increases actually have to do with a broadening of the criteria across that spectrum so that people can actually get services and help,” Obama said. “All of that is violence against the truth.”
September 25, 2025 at 2:49 PM
oleta.bsky.social
Senator Mike "Rounds is trusting the Trump administration to move $9.4 million in funding from an undisclosed account to more than two dozen tribal radio stations"

utahnewsdispatch.com/2025/08/28/r...
Screengrab with first part of second paragraph highlighted: Unlike most government spending deals, the handshake agreement South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds negotiated with the White House budget director in exchange for Rounds’ vote on the rescissions bill wasn’t placed in the legislation, so it never became law. Instead, Rounds is trusting the Trump administration to move $9.4 million in funding from an undisclosed account to more than two dozen tribal radio stations in rural areas of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin that receive community service grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But neither Rounds’ office, the Office of Management and Budget, nor the Bureau of Indian Affairs responded to emails from States Newsroom asking when the grants would be sent to those radio stations and whether the funding levels would be equal to what they currently receive.
August 29, 2025 at 6:34 PM
oleta.bsky.social
If you read the news out of Alaska, you start to recognize this formulation:

-Trump cuts something Alaska wanted.
-Murkowski feels betrayed and wants the decision reversed.
-Sullivan and Begich are out hunting crickets.

www.adn.com/business-eco...
Murkowski joined her Alaska colleagues in voting for the bill, which contained unique provisions to benefit Alaska, such as potentially more oil development and revenue on production from federal lands. But Joe Plesha, a spokesperson for Murkowski, said the senator does not agree with the environmental agency’s decision. “We disagree with EPA’s termination of all obligated funding under the Solar For All program,” Plesha said. “The reconciliation bill explicitly rescinded unobligated balances and we had assurances from the agency through the morning of the announcement that no Alaska recipients would be harmed,” he said. “After an investigation and potentially litigation, we expect EPA to reverse course and reinstate previously obligated funds for this program,” Plesha said. Murkowski has previously complained that she felt “cheated” by the Trump administration on a concession in the bill she won to support wind and solar projects through a temporary, one-year retention of Biden-era tax credits. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich were unavailable for comment Friday about the Solar for All termination.
August 24, 2025 at 10:03 PM
oleta.bsky.social
The glories of Washington State, fouled by the decisions of Washington, D.C.

www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoor...
Screengrab from the Seattle Times: The Enchantments are a wildly popular hiking, backpacking and climbing destination in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Central Cascades. While crowds overwhelming the fragile alpine zone are a longstanding issue, this year’s severe staffing shortage is new. The lack of a ranger presence has prompted a crescendo of voices to call for an emergency restriction that limits access — before the problems cause irreparable harm. Visiting the area last week, five weeks into the peak Enchantments season, was palpably worse than a similar visit last year. Pit toilets overflow with human waste, garbage mars backcountry trails and illegal campfires threaten a bone-dry forest. Social media-driven crowds are flocking to Colchuck Lake, many underprepared for the trek. Search-and-rescue calls, including one for an Aug. 3 fatal drowning, tax county resources. Camping permits issued via an oversubscribed lottery mostly go unchecked. Local government and recreation groups in the Wenatchee River Valley directly attribute the deteriorating state of affairs to staffing cutbacks at the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the Enchantments. Last year, the Forest Service employed 11 wilderness rangers to patrol the Enchantments and several thousand acres beyond in the Wenatchee River Ranger District. This year, the district is down to one as a result of Trump administration staffing cuts that followed a Biden-era hiring freeze on seasonal workers.
August 12, 2025 at 9:30 PM
oleta.bsky.social
Parenthetical of the day. Good to know Putin at least hasn’t said he wants Alaska along with a lot of Ukraine?

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/u...
Screengrab from the New York Times, with the last sentence highlighted and in parentheses. The screengrab reads: Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, himself invited such comparisons in a speech to his people hours after Mr. Trump raised the specter of deciding Ukraine’s fate in a one-on-one meeting in Alaska, territory that was once part of the Russian empire. (While Mr. Putin has made clear that he regards Ukraine as rightful Russian territory dating back to the days of Peter the Great, the Russian leader has not called for the reversal of the $7.2 million sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, during a period of financial distress for the empire.)
August 10, 2025 at 3:06 PM
oleta.bsky.social
Reporting from the aftermath of an ICE raid in Omaha last month. The local paper says ICE denied the women's accounts, "citing a policy to protect parental interests."

omaha.com/news/local/c...
An extended quote from the Omaha World-Herald: When she said she was here on a work permit and had legal status, they told her she’d be deported anyway, she said. A mother in her early 40s said an agent presented her with a piece of paper and demanded she sign over custody of her kids. "He got really aggressive," she said. She said he told her that if she didn’t sign, he would go to her house and pick up her children. A 46-year-old mom said agents pressed her for information and asked if she had children. When she said yes, she said they threatened to detain her 7-year-old daughter. A mother in her late 40s said an agent called her “a disgrace” when he discovered she had a son and asked if she had kids just to ruin this world.
July 11, 2025 at 6:09 PM
oleta.bsky.social
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
May 23, 2025 at 7:44 PM
oleta.bsky.social
A story from my college in Mississippi:

"in the immediate aftermath of last November’s election... Bowley canceled that day's class to allow the three Black students to 'mourn and process this racist fascist country.' "

For which he was fired.

www.clarionledger.com/story/opinio...
Millsaps College’s reluctance to reinstate Bowley is all the more surprising because of the remarks made by Millsaps President Frank Neville in welcoming the participants and audience to this year’s mayoral debate in March, which was supported by the League of Women Voters and held at Millsaps College. Neville stated that as an academic institution, Millsaps welcomed hosting the debate because comparing different perspectives instilled critical thinking in students. Some in the audience were taken aback, because they knew of the treatment that had been meted out to Bowley for expressing his contrarian perspective on the direction of the country.
May 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
oleta.bsky.social
Finally, someone else who eats the apple, core and all.

Thank you, David Souter, for keeping your beat.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/u...
May 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM