Mary Beth Williams

@mbwilliams.bsky.social

1540 Followers 926 Following

Made from Maine Wabanakiak, Isles of Shoals fishermen, and Welsh coal miners. Exiled to Oregon. Constitutional law and state/tribal/fed gov't wonk (JD). North Atlantic historian obsessed with wampum, cod fishing, and dual-host pathogens.

Photo of Lyme Regis beach, taken from shore-side pub.
Pic of rocks and beach at low tide at Sidmouth, Devon.
Twitter quote from Graham on 3 May 2016: "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."
K and me, Bristol Pride. (Ignore the tag on my newly purchased finery.)
View from high on a tor in Dartmoor National Park.
Credit: Dan Regan. Photo of crowd filling the street for blocks in Bristol's 2025 Pride Parade.
Police station in Looe, Cornwall, used in the fictional town of Shipton Abbott, Devon.
Stock image of Southside Street in the Barbican in Plymouth, Devon.
Service Unavailable This service is no longer available in the United Kingdom due to the Online Safety Act.
Plaque memorializing connection between Shapleighs of Kingswear and their emigration to Kittery, Maine.
View from the top of Birch Tor in Dartmouth National Park.
Memorial for John Graves Simcoe in Exeter Cathedral.
Blue door with sign “Mister Blue Sky”.
National Trust 2026 Handbook
Headline from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-disability-opinion-community-care/: States aren't required to provide community-based care for people with disabilities, new DOJ opinion claims
Photo of stormy North Atlantic taken from balcony of QM2.
Screenshot from vesselfinder.com showing a few dozen fishing vessels off the coast of Newfoundland.
Screenshot of eastern North Atlantic on vesselfinder.com, with many vessels, but only one passenger ship a few hundred miles due south of Newfoundland.
Photo from a distance of the Queen Mary 2 in port.
Poll results showing polling on a race between Collins and Platner is tied at 46 percent each.
Chart of polls of the Maine Senate race in 2020 showing Democrat Sara Gideon leading incumbent Republican Susan Collins in all polls. Collins won the general election.
“This was the first conspiracy prosecution in Eastern Washington history under 18 U.S.C. Section 372—a Civil War-era law dusted off to punish members of the Spokane community who stood up for two young men who were unlawfully detained by ICE,” former acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker told The Spokesman-Review in a statement. “I hope that moving forward DOJ will focus on the crimes that matter most to keep our families safe and to build trust with the communities that most need and deserve law enforcement protection.”
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) - The Ho-Chunk Nation announced that the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin issued a significant ruling affirming the Nation’s authority to enforce the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and protect tribal gaming sovereignty against unauthorized online sports betting operations. According to a press release from Ho-Chunk Nation, the court denied efforts by Kalshi Inc. and affiliated entities to dismiss the Nation’s core IGRA claims. The court found that the Ho-Chunk Nation sufficiently alleged that Kalshi’s online sports event contracts constitute Class III gaming on tribal lands without authorization or compliance with the Tribal-State Gaming Compact. Tribes have the authority to bring legal action against outside entities conducting unauthorized gaming on Indian land.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
Following the start of the Iran conflict on February 28, 2026, media focus on the Epstein files dropped by approximately 95%. While The New York Times heavily covered the files in late January and February, significant reporting ceased or was largely overshadowed by the war starting in March 2026. Read more about the coverage at The New York Times.
Rate My Professor post where prof is rated 1.0 on a scale of 1-5, and comments state "difficult to understand, moody, bitter, hide-the-ball exam."
86 47 written in seashells on a beach.
Many older adults and people with disabilities require assistance with self-care such as bathing, dressing, and eating. Help with such services is known as “long-term care” and may be provided in institutional settings such as nursing facilities or in people’s homes and the community, including assisted living facilities. Four-in-ten adults incorrectly believe that Medicare is the primary source of coverage for low-income people who need nursing or home care, but Medicaid is the primary payer—covering nearly two-thirds of all home care spending in the United States in 2023.
Photo of a hand holding a "I voted!" sticker from a Western Virginia County.
More than 40 million borrowers are saddled with federal student debt, and a record number — 7.7 million — have defaulted on their loans, according to recently released data from the Education Department.
Quadruple amputee cornhole player fatally shoots man, officials say
Computer generated image comparing the RMS Titanic (1912) with the modern Queen Mary 2 (2004). The QM2 appears almost twice the size of the Titanic.
Photo of the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner.
THE CLERK CLERK: HOUSE MESSAGE TO ACCOMPANY S. 1383, AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE VETERANS ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EQUAL ACCESS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
Ignoring every limit on federal courts’ authority, the Court takes the unprecedented step of staying a state trial court’s decision in a redistricting dispute on matters of state law without giving the State’s highest court a chance to act. Because that order violates basic principles of jurisdiction, federalism, and equity, I respectfully dissent.
Dubai Says ‘Limited’ Flights Will Resume From Its Airports Emirates and FlyDubai said they would make a small number of flights to and from Dubai starting Monday night after shutting down because of airstrikes in the region.