Tag Archives: Angela Alsobrooks

Guardian: Democratic senators call on education department to stop ICE raids by schools

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Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools

A group of Democratic senators have demanded that the Department of Education stop immigration enforcement activities from taking place close to schools, following several violent crackdowns near school grounds in Chicago.

Although the raids are conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the senators are making an appeal directly to the education secretary, Linda McMahon.

They said aggressive actions were affecting the safety of students.

“Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and wellbeing of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the senators wrote, according to NBC News.

“We demand you pressure your colleague, secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, to reinstate restrictions on federal immigration enforcement operations in and around places of education.”

Democratic senators call on education department to stop ICE raids by schools
Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/24/democratic-senators-ice-raids-schools

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democratic-senators-call-on-education-department-to-stop-ice-raids-by-schools/ar-AA1P7vQK

Associated Press: NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump’s deep cuts in public health research

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In his confirmation hearings to lead the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya pledged his openness to views that might conflict with his own. “Dissent,” he said, ”is the very essence of science.”

That commitment is being put to the test.

On Monday, scores of scientists at the agency sent their Trump-appointed leader a letter titled the Bethesda Declaration, challenging “policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.”

It says: “We dissent.”

In a capital where insiders often insist on anonymity to say such things publicly, 92 NIH researchers, program directors, branch chiefs and scientific review officers put their signatures on the letter — and their careers on the line. An additional 250 of their colleagues across the agency endorsed the declaration without using their names.

The letter, addressed to Bhattacharya, also was sent to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and members of Congress who oversee the NIH. White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the administration’s approach to federal research and said President Donald Trump is focused on restoring a “Gold Standard” of science, not “ideological activism.”

In other words, screw the experts and follow the lead of Robert “Brainworm” Kennedy, Jr.

Got bush meat? The road kill is a bit chewy today.

NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump’s deep cuts in public health research
President Donald Trump’s National Institutes of Health director says some employees’ critical letter to him has “fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken.”

https://apnews.com/article/nih-letter-bethesda-declaration-bhattacharya-89724aee201f3e99fc1159adcbf9ac94

More here:

An Uproar at the NIH
Jay Bhattacharya, the the agency’s director, has made a point of welcoming dissent. A letter from his officials will test that.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/06/nih-bethesda-declaration-bhattacharya-letter/683081