Colleen Mondor
banner
chasingray.bsky.social
Colleen Mondor
@chasingray.bsky.social
Aviation journalist, especially on Alaska. Never met a federal database I didn't love. "Probable Cause" newsletter is here: https://colleenmondor.substack.com/
Pinned
Newsletter went out last night wherein I wrote about some 2025 aviation issues that we haven't talked much about, namely small commercial operators under Part 135.

Absent a major crash (like Bering Air 445), no one talks about Part 135 operators. /1 colleenmondor.substack.com/p/39-theres-...
#39: There's some other 2025 aviation issues we need to talk about
I’ve got seven years of Part 135 data I want to share from 449 accidents.
colleenmondor.substack.com
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
Firing up Zillow for all who need a distraction. Will start posting around 9 p.m. with hashtag #FridayNightZillow
January 24, 2026 at 1:07 AM
You need to read this, if for no other reason then to see how profoundly incapable of doing their jobs ICE is.
Two women trained as first responders were abducted by three ICE agents. One of the agents starts seizing. The other two don’t know what to do. The women jump into action and save the agent’s life, only to be re-handcuffed and processed.

www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
Detained by ICE, two women became first responders during agent’s seizure
The women say they guided agents through the emergency, later raising concerns about medical protocols, weapons safety and accountability.
www.startribune.com
January 24, 2026 at 1:00 AM
Think about it.
Britney Spears albums that are older than ICE:

...Baby One More Time

Oops!... I Did It Again

Britney
January 23, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
They didn't wreck this many cars in the Blues Brothers movie
NOW: At 32nd and 15th in South Minneapolis. federal agents smash up their car, leaving the car there while hopping in another vehicle, per bystanders. Reports of a person taken as well.

Minneapolis January 23, 2026
January 23, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
Our salmon are vanishing — and the State of Alaska is letting it happen, writes Brooke Woods in a commentary for the @alaskabeacon.com alaskabeacon.com/2026/01/23/o...
Our salmon are vanishing — and the State of Alaska is letting it happen | Alaska Beacon
Today, summers mean less time on the river, empty smokehouses and fish camps, and no intergenerational learning.
alaskabeacon.com
January 23, 2026 at 10:41 PM
As most of the country freezes, this is happening in the Arctic…
Utqiaġvik, Alaska's northernmost community, up to 30F (-1.1C) at 6am Friday, easily exceeding the record high temperature for January 23 of 25F (-3.9C) set in 1930. #akwx #weather
January 23, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
New in PN: What if we just stopped paying taxes?

"Like many other blue states, Minnesota pays more to the federal government than it takes in. But why should the state continue to subsidize a government bent on destroying it? What if it just … didn’t?"
What if we just stopped paying taxes?
Where there's a will there (might) be a way.
www.publicnotice.co
January 23, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
Dear #BookSky Minneapolis has an absolutely incredible literary culture. In fact, three of the most important small presses call the city home; Coffeehouse Press, Graywolf, and Milkweed. There are also a ton of great bookstores in the Twin Cities. So here's the assignment...
January 21, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
My @mprnews.org colleagues today produced a ton of great journalism today around the ICE surge in the Twin Cities. Here's a link to our daily liveblog. It's an easy way to get a quick look at much of what happened Thursday.
www.mprnews.org/live-updates
The latest on ICE in Minnesota
Live updates on ICE enforcement in Minnesota, with the latest developments and links to deeper reporting as events unfold.
www.mprnews.org
January 23, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
Our community deserves someone willing to stand up and deliver impactful leadership. And yet Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez, along with 6 other Democrats in the House, just voted through a funding bill that will give ICE billions of dollars with minimal guardrails.

1/6
January 22, 2026 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
WA-3 primary challenge is likely to be Brent Hennrich (brenthennrich.com). Decent guy, not a millionaire, and appears to understand the moment.
Home - Brent Hennrich
Brent Hennrich is a candidate for Washington's third congressional district for the 2026 midterm elections. Brent Hennrich is focused on the affordability crisis and the threat Trump poses.
brenthennrich.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:50 PM
So succinct and so true.
Jack Smith: "My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it."
January 23, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
The ombudsman for Stars and Stripes, the deployed servicemember's paper of record, writes in its pages that the publication "is in peril of losing its editorial independence and becoming nothing more than a public relations arm of the Pentagon."
www.stripes.com/opinion/2026...
Pentagon wants a ‘refocus,’ but Stripes hasn’t wavered from its true mission
www.stripes.com
January 22, 2026 at 11:50 PM
I’m unfollowing everyone who doesn’t know how to count votes in the House for my own sanity.
January 22, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 (over Truman's veto) to make general strikes so incredibly difficult to organize that there hasn't been one since.

That there is a general strike happening in a major US city on such short notice is nothing short of a miracle.
National media should really be covering the fact thay every major school, museum, and arts institution in the Twin Cities, and hundreds of local businesses are closed tomorrow to protest federal occupation.

Nothing like this at this scale has happened anywhere in America anytime in living memory.
January 22, 2026 at 9:28 PM
I get that folks turn to social media to blow off some steam but based on what is being posted here lately, some folks really need to seek professional counseling.

These posters not coping well and I can only assume their friends & families are suffering because of it.
January 22, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
***DEEP SIGH***

This is just the latest in our centuries-long fight over how to commemorate George Washington's involvement in slavery. It began while he was still alive, and continued immediately after his death, in the lead-up to Civil War, through Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter.
Signs about the history of slavery in the U.S. and the 9 people George Washington enslaved are being removed right now at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, months after the Trump administration threatend to do so.

How far we have not come in 250 years.
January 22, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
I need a cigarette…. And i don't even smoke. Holy hell what gaslighting
January 22, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
Jan. 22 @ 2:05 PM — Most of Rhode Island and Massachusetts' Bristol County could see 1 to 2 feet of snow on Sunday & Monday, according to our meteorologists' latest predictions. Get details and updates on 12 News and WPRI.com .
January 22, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
NEWS: The FAA has moved to codify existing helicopter restrictions around DCA airport into law, according to a new interim final rule posted today.

via @theaircurrent.com theaircurrent.com/feed/dispatc...
FAA moves to codify existing DCA helicopter restrictions into law
Helicopters and powered-lift operations now permanently limited in airspace following fatal January 2025 crash
theaircurrent.com
January 22, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
tonight, we learned that nearly 100 students have withdrawn from mount edgecumbe high school this year

that’s 1/4 of the entire student body

also, sitka tribe of alaska council just unanimously approved a resolution requesting alaska dept of ed create an ad-hoc committee on student safety at mehs
January 22, 2026 at 5:06 AM
Reposted by Colleen Mondor
this is why I included Katie Miller's phone call in FIRESTORM.
January 22, 2026 at 12:48 AM
Meanwhile, in my personal life, the plaintiff appealed my anti-SLAPP win from 2024 & we should have an Appeals Court date soon for their last ditch attempt to discredit my journalism.

Having this hang over your head for two years is exhausting and expensive as hell.

Reporting isn't easy, folks.
January 21, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Usually I love an aviation angle but this is stupid.
As weight-loss drugs grow in popularity amongst Americans, U.S. airlines could be surprise beneficiaries, a new report suggests.

The lighter a plane is, the less fuel it requires — and fuel is one of an airline’s biggest costs, according to an equity analyst. https://wapo.st/4sW6ZMc
January 21, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Oh, FFS.

Go read BAD BLOOD by @johncarreyrou.bsky.social and see what a criminal Elizabeth Holmes is.

Sigh. That probably means he will grant her request. abcnews.go.com/US/elizabeth...
Elizabeth Holmes asks Trump administration to commute her prison sentence
Holmes, 41, has almost six years left of her sentence after she was convicted of defrauding investors with false claims about her company's blood-testing technology.
abcnews.go.com
January 21, 2026 at 10:47 PM