The Monroe County Sheriff's Office quietly issued a new directive in February restricting which deputies can call Border Patrol — and it took a WXXI News FOIL request to surface it. The bulletin, dated Feb. 10, removes individual deputy discretion and requires supervisor sign-off before any contact with federal immigration authorities. A captain or above must make the final call. That's a meaningful accountability step. But the silence around it raises its own questions. Sheriff Baxter hasn't given a media interview on immigration in roughly a year. He didn't announce this policy. He didn't hold a press conference. The directive came out through a reporter's records request, two months after it was issued. In an era when immigrant communities are actively watching for signals about local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, that's a choice. The Democratic caucus sent Baxter a letter in January asking about exactly this — planning, policies, and the department's interactions with federal immigration authorities. Legislature Vice President Vazquez Simmons, myself, and others signed it. He never responded. We had to read about the new directive in WXXI News. The bulletin also quietly walks back a justification Baxter himself offered last year, when a deputy called Border Patrol on a pregnant Wegmans shoplifter, resulting in her deportation. Baxter defended that call at the time, in part because of a language barrier. The new directive explicitly bans using federal authorities for translation. We have contracts with civilian interpreters for that, it states. In other words: the old practice may have been wrong. The new policy implies as much. But there's been no public acknowledgment of that. There are provisions in this bulletin that didn't get highlighted in the WXXI story but deserve attention. Any request for MCSO to assist with federal immigration enforcement must have a criminal nexus — the Chief Deputy makes the call, and it applies even to personnel assigned to…

This article isn't getting enough attention: www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2...

A bill that would require the most dangerous drivers in New York City to install speed limiters in their cars is facing a major obstacle.

"It's like one guy who doesn't like this stuff, and unfortunately that one guy is the most powerful guy in the State Assembly."

hellgatenyc.com/stop-super-s...

Buffalo Niagara unemployment rate tops 5% as seasonal jobs end and hiring cools The February unemployment report released Tuesday by the state Labor Department indicates that the local job market is softening a bit and is not nearly as tight as it was in the years immediately fol...

The February unemployment report released Tuesday by the state Labor Department indicates that the local job market is softening a bit and is not nearly as tight as it was in the years immediately following the pandemic.
buffalonews.com/news/local/b...

RUIZ: Bloomberg reports that Trump & the WH have benched you because you're making the president look bad

RFK Jr: That's not true

RUIZ: I think the reporting is correct. You're making the president look bad. You talked publicly about snorting cocaine off a toilet bowl seat. Your words, not mine.

A photo of Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida gesturing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigns before House can sanction her in ethics investigation.

"Part of the reason the weaponization work has been difficult is that you need people who are MAGA and who are really competent," said Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff for Bondi. "Many career prosecutors are not interested in this kind of work. It's a very small group of people."

Bondi's former chief of staff Chad Mizelle: "Part of the reason the weaponization work has been difficult is that you need people who are MAGA and who are really competent."
From @paulareidcnn.bsky.social and other @cnn.com folks:

Our time is short @SaraGonzalesTX . Mass deportations will correct this, worst of the worst won’t. If Plano, Texas, of all places, has this problem, then you can see how there are 100 million illegal aliens in our country. Commence mass deportations . @nicksortor original post: At a park in Plano, TX with my 5-year-old. We are surrounded by foreigners, speaking multiple foreign languages, making it more difficult for my son to make friends. This is my hometown. It’s unrecognizable. I want my country back.

trump's former "commander-at-large" of the border patrol greg bovino says mass deportations, not deporting "worst of the worst" will "correct" places like Plano, Texas having a diverse population

* VANCE’S TRIP TO ISLAMABAD ON HOLD: NYT

This is an ugly, wildly unserious answer from Kevin Warsh. But then, that's not at all surprising. He is a wildly unserious person, with a long track record of being wildly unserious.

Again, you may not be familiar with his game, so here is a detailed set of receipts:

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

RFK Jr. just said HHS is "cleaning up the risk pool" (i.e., people who are unhealthy) to bring down healthcare costs.

@democracynow.org

Critics of new bill say Ohio women would be banned from sports bras, bikinis in public 'The peak of fear mongering.'

Media needs to stop with "critics say" and just quote the actual language of the bill.

HB 249 creates a new category of "seminudity" which can be used to arrest women who aren't nude, but are wearing clothing — leggings, t-shirts without bras — that religious groups feel is too provocative.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: "This is the greatest equipment in the world that we're deploying, and it makes the job of the air traffic controller that much easier. We're gonna use AI tools."

You are arguing for a far right immigration policy that will only result in the right wing moving further on immigration. Even if we ignore morality and throw away the concept of human rights and dignity it's still a losing issue. The only option is to defend the rights of immigrants and refugees.

not good

(FT) - Lufthansa has cancelled 20,000 flights between May and October to save fuel, one of the largest cuts by global airlines as jet fuel prices double following the Iran war.

@financialtimes.com $JETS
www.ft.com/content/bd0e...

pedocon theory mention #2 of the day for me.

Trump pardons allies who boost his crypto coin.

Trump invests in corporations that he's supposed to be regulating.

Trump cuts deals with autocrats to advance his family's real estate business.

The list goes on.

We must not become numb to this corruption.

Gandhi Writes Letters to Hitler: “We Have Found in Non-Violence a Force Which Can Match the Most Violent Forces in the World” (1939/40) Image via Wikimedia Commons It must come up in every single argument, from sophisticated to sophomoric, about the practicability of non-violent pacifism. 'Look what Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. ...

Gandhi Writes Letters to Hitler: “We Have Found in Non-Violence a Force Which Can Match the Most Violent Forces in the World” (1939/40)

👇

Today in life under competitive authoritarianism

Head of federal law enforcement stages authoritarian crackdown on political enemies in attempt to appease Trump because he's afraid the journalistic exposé of his uncontrolled alcoholism is putting his job in jeopardy

VAN HOLLEN: If the central bank were to cut rates, that would typically push prices up, right?

WARSH: Unlike many of my colleagues, I don't believe I should be previewing what a future decision might be

VAN HOLLEN: I'm not asking you that. Most economists would agree that would dive up prices

Donald Trump's Fed Chair nominee could not even say Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

He is nothing more than a sock puppet.

Culture of silence around abortions for active-duty military intensifies, researchers say • Stateline Speaking with active-duty service members about their experiences with accessing abortion has become more difficult in the current political environment, say researchers, who also confront long-standi...

Speaking of which.

Hegseth made ending facial hair waivers his all-consuming mission in the first months of the admin. Making it more difficult for (mostly POC) service members to receive exemptions to policy for medical and religious reasons. He also end travel allowance for abortions.

Sen. Kennedy to Warsh: "My worry is that a lot of this stuff about artificial intelligence making us more productive is a bunch of hype by people who want to sell stock and an IPO. I'd be careful there."

ICE detained more than 70 Minnesota children, data reveals Immigration officials detained more than 70 Minnesota children between Dec. 1 and March 10, a Sahan analysis of court records and federal deportation data shows.

This was never about the worst of the worst.

We have continually demanded answers about how many of our children were taken into federal detention. Trump’s DHS has continually refused to give us information.

sahanjournal.com/immigration/...

New lawsuit aims to block Trump DOJ from building national voter database via state voter roll grab The lawsuit calls the effort “a key component of the Trump Administration’s attempts to take over elections from states and subvert the 2026 midterms.”

🚨BREAKING: Pro-voting groups sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday to block its bid to build a national voter database using private voter data from every state. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

What they don't tell you about the runner's high is it lasts about 5 seconds.