Dear John,

Hi there. Amanda here, kicking off a new season of our News Digest. We’re returning to the roots of the News Digest. It was born in 2016 to help make meaning of the chaos/grief/upheaval of the first Trump Presidency. In 2025, we find ourselves in this place again – with a lot to make sense of, and still grounded in what’s possible if we organize together.

This week, we’re sharing the most helpful reads we’ve found so far, as we make meaning of the beginning of the second Trump Presidency. As we shared on Instagram, to them chaos is the point.

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Here’s what we’re reading, watching, and listening to this week.

1. Is Elon Musk staging a coup? Unelected billionaire seizes control at Treasury Dept. & other agencies.
Elon Musk continues interfering with our government, this week in the United States Treasury Department. Waleed Shahid on Democracy Now! said “In any other situation this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it but in the United States we’re not used to this kind of level of creeping authoritarianism” emphasizing that these actions are not that of someone seeking to improve the effectiveness of our government, but someone who is attempting to subvert the courts for personal financial gain.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBmFx5rUglA

2. President Trump’s tactics go beyond the Shock Doctrines of the past.
Check out Naomi Klein’s carousel on Instagram, outlining how President Trump and his administration’s tactics are working to “reassert dominance and impose hierarchies they consider ‘natural’ on every level. Men over women. Parents over children. White people over everyone else. America over the rest of the world. The goal is far more ambitious than deregulation and privatization.”.
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3. Trump’s call for U.S. control of Gaza draws rebuke from Minnesota activists and academics.
Activist groups from across Minnesota, including the Twin Cities chapter of American Muslims for Palestine and the Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, are rallying against the absurd proposition from President Donald Trump to take ownership of war-torn Gaza. The people of Gaza are only now able to return to their decimated homes with the fragile ceasefire in place after 15 months. They need the right to self-determination, not to be displaced once again and have the rubble of their homes sold off as beachfront property.
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4. AFL-CIO launches Department of People Who Work for a Living.
In a press release on February 5th, AFL-CIO announced the launch of the Department of People Who Work for a Living (DWPL) “A new campaign to hold Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, accountable and make sure the federal government is responsive to working people and not just the whims of an unelected CEO like Musk”. In the launch video for DPWL, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler stated the department will bring in workers on the ground, union leaders, and important voices in the movement to make sense of what is going on and what you can do about it.
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5. MN House DFL, Republicans reach power-sharing deal, ending struggle that stalled session.
In a lesson to federal Democrats, House DFLers just showed what it looks like to govern - and win - for the people in the time of undemocratic and authoritarian takeovers. After weeks of negotiations, “Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican leaders in the Minnesota House announced they had reached a power-sharing agreement for the current legislative session late Wednesday, ending a weekslong standoff that ground activity at the state Capitol to a halt,” from Alex Derosier at the Pioneer Press. More details to come on the deal, but “Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, will serve as speaker of the House until the end of the chamber’s two-year term in 2026, according to people familiar with the negotiations.” The deal includes an agreement to seat Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee, sending the election contest to the evenly split House Ethics Committee, which will not interfere with Tabke’s seating.
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6. Bison, not prison: Activists buy a prison site to rewild the land.
The Appalachian Rekindling Project purchased 63 acres of land that was once a mine and is slated to be turned into a federal penitentiary. The Appalachian Rekindling Project “wants to rewild the site with bison and native flora and fauna, open it to intertribal gatherings, and, it hopes, stop the prison,” writes Katie Myers from Grist.
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7. The AFGE, largest federal employee union, membership skyrockets.
In anticipation to Elon and his billionaires takeover of the federal government, and their pushes for firing so many of the federal workforce, the AFGE, the largest federal employee union, saw skyrocketing membership in January, according to an internal document reported by The xxxxxx. “The union grew by 8,693 members, compared to 14,996 new members in the 12 months prior.”
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8. Chappell Roan calls out major labels during Grammys speech: ‘We got you, but do you got us?’
Your favorite artist's favorite artist, Chappel Roan, used her first ever Grammy award speech for Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys to call out corporate labels’ treatment of artists, signing their artists to 360 deals, no livable wage or even providing access to healthcare. She demanded they offer “a livable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists…. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” In Minnesota TakeAction is working with Twin Cities United Performers (TCUP) and organizing to make Minnesota a state where musicians and performers are in community and solidarity with each other, treated with dignity, and supported to thrive as artists – not just survive.
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9. How bad are gas stoves for your health? Some Minnesota families get real-time data.
Minnesota nonprofits Fresh Energy and COPAL are working on an indoor air quality project with Minnesota families, placing uHoo air quality monitors in homes to monitor the unseen pollutants released while cooking on a gas stove. This project “aims to educate Minnesotans about health risks posed by gas stoves, and to encourage them to take advantage of programs to replace polluting cooking equipment with electrified alternatives.” wrote Andrew Hazzard at the Sahan Journal.
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10. Twin Cities theaters launch wave of new productions midwinter.
Audiences can expect new productions of “Milo Imagines the World” from the Children’s Theatre Company, “School Pictures” from the Theater Latté Da, and “This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing” from the Ten Thousand Things Theater. Classics like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” also return at the Guthrie Theater.
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And that’s a wrap!

Send us what you’re reading, watching and listening to.

Until next time,

Amanda Otero
Deputy Director


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