I took part in last week's Minns Lecture series on Unitarians and the Port Royal Experiment, 1862-1865. Particular focus on Rev. William Channing Gannett, one of the "Gideonites" at Port Royal, and later minister in St Paul and Rochester. Video link here: vimeo.com/1080847549?s...

The Great Fear has now reached UW-Eau Claire. Faculty or staff holding or seeking a federally funded grant now must get UW System General Counsel review and approval before spending or applying. Why? To “ensure compliance with evolving federal requirements.”

I’m a respondent for the 2025 Minns Lecture series of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I’ll be commenting on Rev. Dr. Wayne Arnason’s lecture on the work of Rev. William Channing Gannett, one of the Unitarians who went to the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862-1865. www.minnslectures.org

Re: Cass Sunstein’s Feb 26 *NYT* op-ed on the so-called unitary executive and 1789 department enabling acts: War, State, and Treasury. War & State were clearly meant to be under presidential direction, but Congress intended to keep Treasury on a short leash, with regular reporting to both houses.

I serve as an external reviewer for a US Dept of Education grant program. I got a midnight email from [email protected] cancelling my access to the online system. Routine IT maintenance? Maybe. Or “DOGE” deciding there won’t be any 2025 grants, or, indeed, there won’t be any more Dept of Education?

A check of WorldCat shows that 674 libraries across the globe have copies of *Budapest Blackout: A Holocaust Diary.* It is satisfying to know that Dr. Maria Madi's story is available to readers at both academic and public libraries.
To order from the publisher:
uwpress.wisc.edu/books/6027.htm

Made an end-of-year donation to my graduate alma mater, the History Department at the University of Rochester.

Chippewa Falls, WI guy who was part of the mob on January 6, newly arrested for trying to sign up for Russian Army duty against Ukraine.