Whew-Breathe Again, For A Bit

Democrats Successfully Strip All Anti-Trans Riders From Final Appropriations Bills

The HHS and Education bills once contained the most sweeping anti-trans provisions in congressional history. Now they contain none.

Erin Reed Jan 20, 2026

Early Tuesday morning, final appropriations bills for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education—and related agencies—were released, marking the last major funding measures to be negotiated in the aftermath of the record-breaking government shutdown fight in 2025. That standoff featured multiple appropriations bills loaded with anti-transgender riders and poison pills for Democrats, ultimately ending in a short-term continuing resolution that punted many of those provisions to the end of January. While other “minibus” packages funding individual agencies moved forward, the Education and HHS bills were conspicuously absent, as they contained some of the most sweeping and consequential anti-trans riders ever proposed in Congress. Now, with the final bills released, it is clear that no anti-transgender riders were included—meaning transgender people will largely be spared new congressional attacks through most of 2026 should they pass as-is.

As the government shut down on Oct. 1, the state of appropriations bills needed to reopen the federal government for any extended period was extraordinarily dire for transgender people. Dozens of anti-transgender riders were embedded across House appropriations bills, even as those provisions were largely absent from the Senate’s versions. The riders appeared throughout nearly every funding measure, from Commerce, Justice, and Science to Financial Services and General Government. The most extreme provisions, however, were concentrated in the House HHS and Education bills, including language barring “any federal funds” from supporting gender-affirming care at any age and threatening funding for schools that support transgender students. Taken together, those measures would have posed a sweeping threat to transgender people’s access to education and health care nationwide.

Those fears eased somewhat when the government reopened under a short-term continuing resolution funding operations through the end of January. In the months that followed, Democrats notched a series of incremental victories for transgender people, advancing multiple appropriations “minibus” packages that stripped out anti-trans riders as the government was funded piece by piece. As amendment after amendment fell away, those wins grew more substantial, including the removal of a proposed ban on gender-affirming medical care from the NDAA—even after it had passed both the House and Senate. Still, the most consequential question remained unresolved: what would ultimately happen to the high-impact anti-trans provisions embedded in the HHS and Education bills.

Now, the package has been released—and for the moment, transgender people can breathe again. The final HHS and Education bills contain no anti-transgender provisions: no ban on hospitals providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, no threats to strip funding from schools that support transgender students or allow them to use the bathroom, and no mandate forcing colleges to exclude transgender students from sports or activities like chess or esports. The bills are strikingly clean. As such, they avert yet another protracted shutdown fight in which transgender people are once again turned into political bargaining chips—and, at least for now, remove Congress as the immediate vehicle for new federal attacks, should they pass as-is.

When asked about the successful stripping of anti-trans provisions, a staffer for Representative Sarah McBride tells Erin In The Morning, “Rep. McBride works closely with her colleagues every day to defend the rights of all her constituents, including LGBTQ people across Delaware. In the face of efforts by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress to roll back health care and civil rights, she was proud to work relentlessly with her colleagues in ensuring these funding bills did not include anti-LGBTQ provisions. It takes strong allies in leadership and on committees to rein in the worst excesses of this Republican trifecta, Rep. McBride remains grateful to Ranking Members DeLauro, Murray, and Democratic leadership for prioritizing the removal of these harmful riders.”

This does not mean that transgender people will not be targeted with policies and rules that affect them in all areas of life. The Trump administration has acted without regard to law in forcing bans on sports, pulling funding from schools and hospitals, and banning passport gender marker updates. The Supreme Court has been increasingly willing to let the office of the presidency under Trump do whatever it would like to transgender people. However, the lack of passage of bills targeting transgender people means that these attacks will only last for as long as we have Trump in the White House, and a future president should hopefully be easily able to reverse the attacks.

https://open.substack.com/pub/erininthemorn/p/democrats-successfully-strip-all?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Extra Josh Johnson

I caught this on TV the other day while I did a jog. It’s great, not very long.

Another Thing We Can Do

and we know they’ll be doing it for us when it’s our turn! This is a partial copy of their page.

https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

Stay Informed

Testimonies

Minnesota is under occupation by federal agents from ICE and CBP, and they need your help.

Not just Minneapolis, and not just people protesting. Across Minnesota, ICE continues to stop, harass, and detain people regardless of their citizenship status. Normal life in Minnesota has been interrupted, as schools have been forced to close or go virtual, as people live in fear of leaving their homes or going to work.

Minnesotans are organized and activated to respond to this violence. But they need our help.

This directory of places to donate to all comes from activists on the ground, plugged into the situation. Everything is vetted, with the exception of individual GoFundMes (not everyone is in our networks, and we don’t want to pick and choose who is worthy of help.)

If you don’t have resources to give, please amplify what you are hearing and seeing about Minnesota, across social media, but also to your networks, friends, and family offline.

Read our testimonies and know what life is like in Minnesota right now.

Overwhelmed by the amount of listings here? Donate to the Immigrant Law Center of MN, who is providing assistance to hundreds of people with families detained by ICE, or the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund, a fund assembled by a coalition of Twin Cities Foundations committed to getting assistance out the door as quickly as possible.

Mutual Aid & Materials Purchasing

These funds are administered by neighbors helping their neighbors, not large organizations. This is one of the most direct ways to help and to get cash and resources into people’s hands quickly.

Diaper Fund

Rent Relief Funds

Mutual Aid Funds

Provide Food Support

Buy/Donate Materials

Crowdfunding Campaigns

We are only including campaigns which have not met their goals. To get a campaign added please email contact@standupforminnesota.com

Funds for Employees

For Individuals

Funds for Schools & Students

Funds for Communities

And there is so much more on the page. Please thoughtfully consider what you can do, including simply telling people about this when it comes up (or when you bring it up, maybe?) And thank you!

https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

Martin Luther King, Jr. Was Born in Atlanta, Georgia

on January 15th of 1929. The US, or most of it, observes a day of service and quiet celebration on the 3d Monday of January; this year that’s tomorrow. Because of the good he did while he was alive, I like to mark one or another day over the long weekend with a post about one or another (or more than one!) of the things he did.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the son of a Baptist pastor, and followed in his father’s footsteps. He also became a leader in the U.S. civil rights movement, and also was vocal and visible in the movement to halt the war in Vietnam. About five years after his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, about a year after his address to the Moblization To End The War in Vietnam, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

I’m guessing we’re all very familiar with Rev. King’s “Dream” Speech. The Letter From A Birmingham Jail found here, The address mentioned above is found here, with snippets below.

I come to participate in this significant demonstration today because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this mobilization because I cannot be a silent onlooker while evil rages. I am here because I agree with Dante, that: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.“ In these days of emotional tension, when the problems of the world are gigantic in extent and chaotic in detail, there is no greater need than for sober thinking, mature judgment, and creative dissent.

In all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war by the American people. Polls reveal more than ten million explicitly oppose the war. Additional millions cannot bring themselves to support it, and millions who do assent to it are half-hearted, confused and doubt-ridden.

Tens of thousands of our deepest thinkers in the academic and intellectual community are adamantly opposed to the war; distinguished church and theological leaders of every race and religion are morally outraged by it; and many young people in all walks of life believe it a corruption of every American value they have been taught to respect. Let no one claim there is a consensus for this war — no flag waving, no smug satisfaction with territorial conquest, no denunciation of the enemy can obscure the truth that many millions of patriotic Americans repudiate this war and refuse to take moral responsibility for it.

Nor can the fact be obscured that our nation is increasingly becoming an object of scorn around the globe. The respect we won when our course was right is rapidly being lost as even our closest allies leave our side embarrassed with our pretense that we are bearers of a moral crusade. (snip)

All of this reveals that we are in an untenable position morally and politically. We are left standing before the world glutted with wealth and power but morally constricted and impoverished. We are engaged in a war that seeks to turn the clock of history back and perpetuate white colonialism. The greatest irony and tragedy of it all is that our nation which initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of this modern world, is now cast in the mold of being an arch anti-revolutionary.

One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society.

This confused war has played havoc with our domestic destinies. Despite feeble protests to the contrary, the promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam. The pursuit of this widened war has narrowed the promised dimensions of the domestic welfare programs, making the poor, white and Negro, bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home.

While the anti-poverty program is cautiously initiated, zealously supervised and required to be an instant success, billions are liberally expended for this ill-considered war. The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode at home, they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

It is estimated that we spend $322,000 for each enemy we kill, while we spend in the so-called War on Poverty in America only about $53 for each person classified as “poor.” And much of that $53 goes for salaries of people who are not poor. We have escalated the war in Vietnam and de-escalated the skirmish against poverty. It challenges the imagination to contemplate what lives we could transform if we were to cease killing. (snip)

Let us save our national honor — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us save American lives and Vietnamese lives — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us take a single instantaneous step to the peace table — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us put an honorable peace on the agenda before another day passes — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let us be able to face the world with a concrete deed of genuine peace — STOP THE BOMBING.

Let our voices ring out across the land to say the American people are not vainglorious conquerors — STOP THE BOMBING.

During these days of human travail, we must not permit ourselves to lapse into pessimism. We must organize for peace. We all owe a debt to those student body presidents, Peace Corps volunteers and others who have raised their voices to question the war. I would like to urge students from colleges all over the nation to use this summer and coming summers educating and organizing communities across the nation against the war. I have already talked with students who are organizing in this vein from such schools as Harvard University on the banks of the Charles River in Massachusetts and my own Morehouse College in the red hills of Georgia. We must all speak out in a multitude of voices against this most cruel and senseless war. The thunder of our voices will be the only sound stronger than the blast of bombs and the clamor of war hysteria.

I have tried to be honest today. To be honest is to confront the truth. To be honest is to realize that the ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and moments of comfort, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy. However unpleasant and inconvenient the truth may be, I believe we must expose and face it if we are to achieve a better quality of American life.

A few weeks ago, the distinguished American historian, Henry Steele Commager, told a Senate committee: “Justice Holmes used to say that the first lesson a judge had to learn was that he was not God … we do tend, perhaps more than other nations, to transform. our wars into crusades … our current involvement in Vietnam is cast, increasingly, into a moral mold … it is my feeling that we do not have the resources, material, intellectual or moral, to be at once an American power, a European power and an Asian power.”

I agree with Dr. Commanger, and I would suggest that there is, however, another kind of power that America can and should be. It is a moral power; a power harnessed to the service of peace and human beings.

All the world knows that America is a great military power. We need not be diligent in seeking to prove it. We must now show the world our moral power. It is still not too late for our beloved nation to make the proper choice. If we decide to become a moral power, we will lead mankind in transforming the jangling discords of this world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we make the right decision, we will be able to transfer our pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. This will be a glorious day. In reaching it we can fulfill the noblest of American dreams.

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Whew. Well, now here is a timeline of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, from the Peace & Justice History newsletter:

Since 1986, the third Monday in January has been designated a federal holiday honoring the greatness and sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A chronology:
April 4, 1968 Dr. King was assassinated. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced legislation to create a federal holiday to commemorate Dr. King’s life and work.
January, 1973 Illinois became the first state to adopt MLK Day as a state holiday.
January, 1983 Rep. Conyers’s law was passed after 15 years
January, 1986 The United States first officially observed the federal King Day holiday.
January, 1987 Arizona Governor Evan Mecham rescinded state recognition of MLK Day as his first act in office, setting off a national boycott of the state.
January, 1993 Martin Luther King Day holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.

Some Stuff I’ve Run Across This Week

A jumble, of a sort.

Josh Johnson is up for an NAACP Image Award for The Daily Show.Take a look, and vote! Right now!

Also he’s hosting The Daily Show next week, T-Th nights. 🙂

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxX7xdrgo6C73tJ3UlZKTEAPyRmpTcEsB7?si=qZ4LDDE713mt-7yx

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In their words: Greenlanders talk about Trump’s desire to own their Arctic island

U.S. President Donald Trump has turned Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it (Note: there is a video of this report on the page, if you prefer; click the title just above -A)

By EMMA BURROWS AP european security correspondent January 16, 2026, 12:17 AM

In their words: Greenlanders talk about Trump’s desire to own their Arctic island

(Snippet:)

NUUK, Greenland — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.

The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark’s foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “fundamental disagreement” remains with Trump over the island.

The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and “people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.

Here’s a look at what Greenlanders think:

Trump has dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, suggesting it’s “two dog sleds.”

By saying that, Trump is “undermining us as a people,” Mari Laursen told AP. (snip-MORE)

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(It’s like another world inside my state, which is sorta nice. -A)

‘This is what you built’: Kansas workers rally in solidarity at the Statehouse

By:Sherman Smith-January 14, 20262:11 pm

TOPEKA — Union leader Jake Lowen told the hundreds of workers who gathered Wednesday in the first floor rotunda of the Statehouse to look around and take in “the house that labor built.”

He referenced the stonemasons who cut every piece of limestone in the walls. The iron and steel workers who raised the dome, with the help of operating engineers who ran the hoists built by machinists. Plumbers, boilermakers and electricians brought light, heat and water.

Lowen, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Kansas State AFL-CIO, said some of the workers who started building the Statehouse, which took 37 years to construct, never saw it finished. At least seven gave their lives in the process, he said.

“The work was hard and the price was high, and yet they persevered,” he told the crowd that was gathered for an annual “solidarity day” labor rally.

He said the workers were building a Statehouse by day and a movement by night. In 1890, the year they raised the Statehouse dome, workers formed the Kansas State Federation of Labor, he said. (snip-MORE)

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Update about Minnesota ICE reporting

Ben Werdmuller

16 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

After today’s post, Seth Larson let me know that the Minnesota Attorney General, Keith Ellison, has established a portal for sending in evidence of ICE activity.

I’ve updated the web version of the post, but I wanted to send out an email update too so that readers on the ground in the Twin Cities are aware of the resource.

I’ll republish Governor Walz’s quote for emphasis:

“Tonight, I want to share another way you can help: Witness.

Help us establish a record of exactly what’s happening in our communities.

You have an absolute right to peacefully film ICE agents as they conduct their activities.

So carry your phone with you at all times.

And if you see ICE in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record.

Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans – not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.”

If you are local to the Twin Cities, and feel safe and able, this is a concrete way in which you can help.

Here’s that link to the submission form again.

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One of those young Democrats I keep writing about. We can help her get elected.

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Some humor:

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Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding

I love Erin’s posts and reporting. The attack on trans rights and health was planned and coordinated by religious conservatives who felt they lost the culture war on gay acceptance and same sex marriage so they decided to jump quickly on the trans issue with lots of money. Their first attempt failed because they went after the idea of trans people itself. So then they changed to the old “protect the children” play book with the entire focus on protecting little cis girls but they never mention the trans boys that cis boys need to be protected from. See how patristical it is? It is all about males needing to protect the little womans. They don’t care about trans kids, they don’t care about female sports. It is about not letting trans kids transition with puberty blockers and the correct hormones as then the kids will grow up as they are fitting the societal view of what men and women look like. That scares the straight cis male religious guys because they are terrified they will be attracted to a trans woman. Imagine the horror if trans people moved freely in society not raising any question of their gender because they conformed to how society sees each gender. That sounds like a grand thing to me, but it terrifies these fanatical religious grifters that want to control how everyone lives to please their god. They make up untrue and scary what ifs, what if a man uses the letting trans people use the bathroom of their gender ID to go into a girls … notice they phrase it girls not womans because that make people more protective from the start, and they harm a little girl, your little girl? Well nothing stops a man from doing that now! Predators don’t need permission and won’t wait for it. And that has happened where a straight cis male dragged a little girl into the male bathroom and raped her while his friend watched. There was a famous court case on it. Look it up if you want. Want to know what has not happened, a trans woman going into the female’s bathroom and assaulting a female. Sorry. The right has tried hard to make one happen, but each claim of a trans person in a locker room or bathroom acting inappropriate has been debunked and disproven. This is all a made up scandal and crisis by people who can not accept the society progressing beyond the old traditional binary they grew up with and they think their holy books claim must be as their god insists on it. Weird how it is always how their god insists on what they already believe or promote. Handy that. So many people can not move past the idea that if it dangles you MUST be a boy regardless of how you feel and if it is an inny you must be a girl regardless of anything else idea. They can not seem to grasp personal feelings, needs, or medial science. Hugs

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/vermont-bill-would-create-state-trust?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3nse02&triedRedirect=true

The bill would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, administered by the State Treasurer, to support clinics and providers outside the reach of federal funding threats.

Erin Reed

Jan 07, 2026

Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding

The bill would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, administered by the State Treasurer, to support clinics and providers outside the reach of federal funding threats.

Erin Reed

Jan 07, 2026

Vermont Statehouse, Adam Fagen, Creative Commons

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Across the United States, gender-affirming care has come under sustained attack in Republican-led states and from the Trump administration. For transgender youth, those attacks have been especially severe, with roughly half of U.S. states now banning such care outright. At the federal level, the administration has waged an intense pressure campaign against hospitals, threatening funding and prompting many systems to drop their care programs altogether. That campaign has now escalated further, with the federal government moving to threaten hospitals’ entire Medicaid and Medicare funding if they continue providing transgender youth care. In response, some states and cities are beginning to fight back by establishing their own funding mechanisms for trans healthcare. The latest example comes from Vermont, where lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a trust fund for gender-affirming care designed to be entirely insulated from federal funding threats.

H.576, introduced by Representatives Daisy Berbeco, Tiffany Bluemle, and Troy Headrick, would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund. Administered by the State Treasurer, the fund would provide direct monetary support to healthcare providers and nonprofits offering gender-affirming care in Vermont. It would cover costs for patients who would otherwise go without treatment, fund the establishment of Vermont-based clinics, and pay for malpractice and liability insurance for clinicians who continue offering care. The bill is part of an increasing movement towards private clinics as a mechanism to survive federal threats.

The bill also includes provisions designed to protect patient information from both federal pressure and out-of-state threats, going further than the recent “refuge” or “shield” laws passed in several blue states to protect transgender youth care. It explicitly bars the board and other state actors from disclosing patient-identifiable data, the identities of providers, or the identities of award recipients to the federal government. This is a significant protection given the wave of abusive legislation and attempts to subpoena transgender healthcare records nationwide. While federal preemption may ultimately be litigated, these provisions give clinics a stronger legal footing to resist such demands—particularly as similar subpoenas have been repeatedly quashed in recent court cases.

The bill comes as families scramble to locate alternatives to hospital systems that are abandoning them. With more than 20 hospitals closing their doors to transgender youth care out of fear and preemptive compliance with the Trump administration, many families have been forced to seek alternatives. Just this week, major hospital systems across Colorado, for example, have stopped providing care. Groups like the Trans Youth Emergency Project say they have the capacity to refer displaced patients to private clinics, and in many places those clinics do exist and are absorbing demand. But as hospital-based programs continue to shut down and demand rises, those private providers will need sustained support—and more clinics will need to be created. Bills like this are a targeted way to do exactly that.

If this bill passes, Vermont would be the latest state to protect care in this way—but it would not be the only one. Massachusetts passed a similar measure last year, allocating $1 million toward transgender youth care clinics, though that funding has already come under criticism as insufficient to meet statewide need in the wake of major clinic closures. In New York City, newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged $65 million for transgender healthcare. If that funding is realized, it would position New York City as a major hub for private clinics capable of absorbing demand created by hospital closures across the country. This strategy could prove to be a critical backstop for private providers that are already emerging—and that are likely to come under increasing strain in the years ahead.

The bill allows funding from state appropriations, private donations, grants, and—importantly—federal funds under a future administration that is protective of transgender healthcare. It would take effect immediately upon passage, with the board required to convene by August 1, 2026. There are still hurdles ahead: the bill must advance through committee, pass both chambers, and ultimately receive meaningful funding to function as intended. But its introduction alone signals something important. At a moment when hospitals are retreating and families are being forced into crisis planning, Vermont lawmakers are putting forward a concrete framework to protect access to care rather than surrender it. For Vermonters who want to see their state take a clear stand, residents can find and contact their legislators through the Vermont General Assembly website to make clear where they stand on protecting transgender healthcare.

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

ICE posing as utility workers to detain immigrants, Gresham lawmaker warns

ICE gang thugs have no restraint and the government has shown that they do not have to follow any laws governing police conduct or honor people’s US civil rights in the constitution or laws. The current people joining ICE are white supremacist gang militias who feel they are on a mission to ethnically clean the US making it a white people only population. That is the wet dream of Stephen Miller and project 2025 author Russell Vought. This is genocide as much as in Gaza. It just has not got to the mass killing stage. I just listened to a Native person describe her interactions with ICE thugs where they tell her that she and her kind are next to be rounded up. ICE / DHS has budgeted 47 million dollars a year for the next 4 to create “Prisons” that look surprisingly like concentration camps. How soon do those camps become death camps? As for those that ask where is tRump during all this. He is being managed and his media viewing is designed to make him think in his declining mental state that the ICE is going after only the worst of the worst, and the ICE people are in terrible danger, and that he should work on his pet projects and let Stephen Miller handle the ICE situation. He is clueless as to what is going. But as long as he is getting rid of the non-white people along with terrorizing the public into obedience the right wing media will support him full throatily and lie / mislead the maga public as to what is happening. Hugs

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/08/ice-utility-workers-gresham-oregon/

By Mia Maldonado (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Jan. 8, 2026 1:10 p.m.

Oregon state Rep. Ricki Ruiz said three people were detained in his district after ICE agents posed as utility workers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers can’t enter someone’s home without a warrant, but that doesn’t stop agents from using tactics to get to people.

ICE agents have altered license plates and placed Mexican flag stickers on their vehicles to try to lure and detain people, NPR reported. And now, Oregon utilities are taking steps to ensure their customers don’t mistake ICE agents for their employees.

In December, NW Natural, a natural gas utility serving 2 million people in Oregon and Southwest Washington, published guidance in seven different languages on how to identify if someone is actually one of their employees. Portland General Electric has similar guidance on its website.

NW Natural employees wear a uniform and a utility badge that says “contractor,” and they will never ask for immediate access to a customer’s home. Its workers usually ask for access to a back or side yard to access a meter, the guidance says.

NW Natural spokesperson David Roy said the company was made aware of incidents of people posing as utility workers and decided to issue the guidance.

“We translated the message in order to reach as many individuals and communities as possible,” Roy told the Capital Chronicle.

FILE – Rep. Ricki Ruiz, D-Gresham, in February 2024.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB

Rep. Ricki Ruiz, D-Gresham, said he was already concerned about scammers going door to door taking people’s money in his district, but he contacted NW Natural and Portland General Electric in December after hearing that three people in his city were detained after ICE agents posed as utility workers.

“They lured him out of his house, and they took him,” Ruiz said in an interview about the first instance he heard about.

Ruiz represents Oregon’s 50th House District, a diverse region that includes parts of East Portland and Gresham. According to census data, more than 16% of Gresham residents were born outside the U.S., and 44% of those residents are from Latin America.

ICE did not respond to the Capital Chronicle’s request for comment.

Oregon, particularly the Portland area, has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, especially within the Portland metropolitan area. U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents revealed in court in early December that the federal government brought ICE agents from around the country to Portland as part of what they’re calling “Operation Black Rose.” Agents use advanced surveillance technology to locate and detain people, often stopping people in their vehicles and using violence, according to an analysis from Stephen Manning, the executive director of Portland-based immigration law firm Innovation Law Lab.

As the February 2026 short legislative session approaches, several Democratic lawmakers have indicated they plan to sponsor bills addressing federal immigration enforcement in the state. Ruiz said he will sponsor legislation to support lawsuits against federal agents if they come into a person’s home without warrants and a bill to prevent ICE agents from wearing masks.

“As a state representative, I get the great honor of representing my constituents not only as a Democrat,” Ruiz said. “I represent Republicans. I represent unaffiliated voters and I represent people who can’t vote.”

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Bluesky.

This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.

For Science! And For Species Protection & Diversity, Too

New study reveals that 1,300 new species have been added to the global mammal count

Jan 12, 2026 1:24 PM

According to a new study published in the Journal of Mammalogy, the number of living mammal species has increased by 25% since 2005 — meaning that more than 1,300 new species have been added to the scientific record.

Just a few mammals in that crowded class include new creatures like the mouse opossum (Marmosa chachapoya) of the Peruvian Andes, the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) of Ecuador, and the dwarf shrew (Crocidura stanleyi) of Ethiopia.

“Our recognition of 25% more mammal diversity now than 20 years ago indicates an overall improvement in our understanding of how global mammals interact with their environments,” Dr. Nathan Upham, lead researcher and Arizona State University professor, told A-Z Animals.

“Each species is genetically unique, not interbreeding with their close relatives, and thus presumably doing something unique on the landscape — specializing in different food or habitat type or location of activity,” he explained.

Upham’s research centered on a series of mathematical equations.

Since 2005, the Mammal Diversity Database has listed an additional 1,579 species.

Of those new species, 805 were newly described and 774 were “splits,” or offshoots, of what was originally thought to be a single species. 226 species were also merged after new evidence came to light.

In total, that means 1,353 species have been discovered since 2005, amounting to an average of 65 new mammal species being introduced to the scientific record every year.

In his interview with A-Z Animals, Upham emphasized that species are not evolving at a faster rate; they are simply becoming easier to find and identify.

“Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies have dramatically lowered the cost of obtaining DNA across the genomes from hundreds of individuals simultaneously,” Upham said.

Upham’s spotlight on mammalian research is supported by a larger, separate study published in Science Advances by John Wiens, a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Together with his fellow researchers — Xin Li, Ding Yang, and Liang Wang — Wiens estimated that 16,000 new species are discovered each year.

“These thousands of newly found species each year are not just microscopic organisms, but include insects, plants, fungi, and even hundreds of new vertebrates,” Wiens told the University of Arizona.

In 2025, Wiens also spearheaded research on the rate of species extinction and found that it lags significantly behind new species identification.

“Our good news is that this rate of new species discovery far outpaces the rate of species extinctions, which we calculated to about 10 per year,” Wiens said.

“Discovering new species is important because these species can’t be protected until they’re scientifically described,” he added. “Documentation is the first step in conservation – we can’t safeguard a species from extinction if we don’t know it exists.”

Photograph of a newly discovered mammal, the Bassaricyon neblina, or “Olinguito,” taken in the wild at Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador. Header image via Mark Gurney / Wikimedia Commons (C. C By 3.0)

Taking Joy In Ourselves

21 Inspiring Quotes from Transgender Activists

Supporting and learning from trans people is essential in fostering an inclusive and compassionate world. Members and allies of the trans community recognize the unique struggles and challenges that trans individuals currently face: discrimination, marginalization, and dangerous legislation.

By actively supporting and learning from trans activists and leaders, we can better understand these challenges and work together to create an environment where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their gender identity.

We’ve compiled a list of impactful quotes from trans activists to foster understanding and appreciation for the trans community.

Please share and utilize these quotes to promote support for trans people and create a more inclusive, respectful, and supportive environment for everyone.

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Explore inspirational transgender quotes and captions — to help celebrate trans liberation & fight for trans rights

“I’ve never been interested in being invisible and erased.”
— Laverne Cox

“Trans people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, persistent and resilient. We have to be. And we will not stand for the picking and choosing of rights. We still have hope.”
— Grace Dolan-Sandrino

“Despite the constant hatred we face as the LGBTQ+ community, we must stand united and strong in spreading our message of love.”
— Jazz Jennings, in a tweet

“I think trans women, and trans people in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms.
A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you’re supposed to be to live a more authentic life.”
— Laverne Cox

“They can try to ban us. They can try to get rid of our health care. They can try to deny us housing, credit, and public accommodations. They can try to shame us. They can try all they want to erase us, but at some point, they will realize the trans community is never going away.
Trans people are everywhere.
Every country, every race, every ethnicity, every religion, every socioeconomic level, every period of human history — we are everywhere. We are natural. You can’t rid of what’s natural. I think they know that, and it terrifies them.”
— Charlotte Clymer

“I want to make a difference in the world by speaking out and spreading hopeful messages. I want to send the message of “you are not alone and you are safe” to other transgender kids.”
— Rebekah Bruesehoff

“I don’t know what I am if I’m not a woman.”
— Marsha P. Johnson

“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.”
— Sylvia Rivera

“Being transgender is not just a medical transition. … [It’s about] discovering who you are, living your life authentically, loving yourself, and spreading that love towards other people and accepting one another.”
— Jazz Jennings

“We have to remain visible. They have to see us, they have to know that we’re not going [nowhere], that we’ve been here ever since God made man and woman, and they have to get over it.
I don’t need their permission to exist; I exist in spite of them. I want you to train and teach and love on and create families within my community and gender non-conforming people, so that we can understand that we have a culture, we have a history, we have a reason to be here.
We have a purpose.
We’re entitled to be loved, and seek happiness, and share that with the people that we care about.”
— Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Snip-There are a few more, and some graphics with the quotes that we can snag and share, too.

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/transgender-quotes