New Year, new Wikipedia list.
Wrote a quick stub for Valorie Taylor, the Republican chosen by the Governor to replace Jim Harrison who resigned from the Vermont House of Representatives because he's moving to New Hampshire. Taylor had previously resigned from her town's selectboard (where she served as chair) citing "stress" as the reason. No official portrait yet, so here's her running a race.
Last year's list is here. https://glammr.us/@jessamyn/113755586410070454
One more quick stub for one more appointed Senator, this one is mine! A staggering 35 years of volunteer firefighting service for this civil engineer and currently his town's Selectboard chair. I'm a little surprised he's got time to work in the legislature. Good luck John Benson!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Benson_(Vermont_politician)
Randy Riley was the State Librarian of Michigan until his untimely death this week. He seemed like a wonderful man, a librarian's librarian, who really believed in access and outreach. Thanks to an interview he did with IMLS, there was a public domain image of him available. It can be hard, sometimes, for librarians to get a lot of media mentions, so much of what they do is just about the institution, not the person. I am sorry I did not know him better.
Funny thing about Wikipedia, if someone's name is a "redirect" (i.e. goes to the name of their band, not them) and you turn that into an article, you don't get credit for an article creation. I mostly don't care about getting credit, but I do a tiny bit
ANYWAY, I wrote a stub for Steve Wilson, one of many Steve Wilsons, who is the current drummer for the Dead Kennedys and the only one in the band's footer template without a page. Here he is with my partner's dad. RIP DH
When Helen Macdonald says you've got the best author photo she's ever seen and gives your first book a glowing review, people take notice. But maybe not Wikipedia people. Now that Jonathan Slaght's got a second book about Amur tigers (and the first one about fish owls won a lot of awards) it's high time he was in Wikipedia.
"Patrons" always impact the editorial decisions of public interest information institutions.
Examples:
1. David Koch joining the PBS board of directors.
https://truthout.org/articles/the-corporate-dictatorship-of-pbs-and-npr/
Nova & Frontline never did another hard hitting expose of Koch Network's anti-democracy, policies of immiseration, & climate denial again.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/27/a-word-from-our-sponsor
https://www.pbs.org/publiceditor/blogs/ombudsman/global-warming-koch-and-nova/
https://harpers.org/archive/2014/10/pbs-self-destructs/
https://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/pbs_pulls_ads_from_harpers_mag.php
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2. Bill Ackman & Harvard University -- The destruction of reputation at elite universities
The venal think their megadonations gives them control of legacy admissions, partisan slant, management, and endowment fund looting.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/jan/03/bill-ackman-billionaire-attacks-claudine-gay-harvard-twitter-x
The White Supremacist curriculum...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/arts/national-humanities-endowment-grants.html
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/1/2/ackman-backs-gino/
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bill-ackman-war-harvard-mit-dei-claudine-gay.html
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/university-news/trump-admin-appeals-funding-restoration
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/12/business/bill-ackman-harvard-antisemitism.html
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3. Nikole Hannah Jones, Tenure, and UNC's donor Hussman.
Billionaires think their money gives them hire, fire, retire control of supposedly autonomous organizations.
https://zora.medium.com/unc-threw-shade-on-nikole-hannah-jones-1619-project-denying-her-tenure-78f0767f37ae
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/business/media/nikole-hannah-jones-unc.html
Institutions get bullied to abandon DEI, ESG, climate research
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2025/02/03/koch-spent-91-million-to-influence-higher-education-in-2023/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-claudine-gay-bill-ackman-diversity-and-inclusion/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/15/investing/bill-ackman-harvard
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/13/how-larry-ellison-worlds-richest-man-buying-oxford/
Jessamyn
Señor Baby, Sr.
Nicole Parsons
