For awhile, I was blocking a ton of accounts every time I logged in. Now they seem to mostly be gone for me. It took awhile to get to this point though.

So I was a federal employee for years and I am going to repeat a fact that people forget every time a politician sings this song. The government is wildly understaffed and you will feel these kinds of cuts immediately because the people eligible for retirement make up the bulk of knowledgeable staff

Tons of critical reporting here. I also think that the effects of the Mexico-Ecuador tensions on Southwest border encounters is a story that needs more reporting, not to mention statistical analysis.

Carter used the power of his post presidency to nearly eradicate guinea worm. There were 3.5 million cases when the Carter Center’s work began in 1986. He said in 2015 that he wanted to see “guinea worm completely eradicated before I die.” There’ve been 7 cases this year. www.npr.org/sections/goa...

Stories like this make me think: Our groceries should be more expensive, if it means paying fair wages and ensuring reasonable working conditions.

If insurance companies were forced to disclose whether they use companies like this, it would influence my benefit elections during annual enrollment periods.

Using the same data, research teams composed of pro-immigration researchers estimated more positive impacts of immigration on public support for social programs, with estimates at both extremes receiving lower peer evaluations
www.nber.org/papers/w33274

Ooh, also, @ryancbriggs.net and co-authors have some cool work where if I remember the findings properly, they show that support for immigration is higher if perceived border control is higher.

Paging @akoustov.bsky.social here.

Important new book by @alichtenheld.bsky.social draws on field research in Uganda & Syria and an original dataset of 166 civil wars to show how armed groups use strategic displacement of civilians to "sort" rather than eliminate, inferring "guilt by location": www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

Fascinating study. Two big caveats useful:

1) Data ends in 2016, so it does not address the huge changes since then.
2) Authors state that their data is not representative. Sample has high legal representation and has cases that look likely to have protection needs.

What if the majority of people denied asylum in the United States are:

a) Telling the truth,
b) In real danger of persecution, and yet
c) Still denied asylum on legal technicalities?

That's the bombshell finding of a landmark new study. bclawreview.bc.edu/articles/317...

If I was working with data at the right spatial level to use this, I would totally be diving into it.

Very excited to follow this newsletter.

Back from a vacation, so now I will belatedly share this podcast episode that I participated in with @mararevkin.bsky.social , @weigand.bsky.social , and @katharinefortin.bsky.social on civilian agency and decision-making during armed conflict. Thanks for including me!