Kelly Tilden

Advocate in and out of court. Learning and stumbling through parenthood.

[Jennifer Sey @JenniferSey]

Early morning interview on CO initiative 109 to protect girls sports.

Them: What is the proof that there is an issue?
Me: Well, in 7 states boys have won titles in track and field. This year. This past weekend a boy won the shot put in West Virginia. A boy is sweeping the jumping events in California. Again.

Them: Yeah but is it an issue in CO?
Me: In JeffCo county over 60 boys have taken roster spots from girls in school sports.

Them: Why do you care so much?
Me: I care about fairness and equal opportunity for girls. For my daughter. Not to mention safety.

Them: Who says it's not fair or safe?
Me: Boys are 10-50% stronger/faster depending on the sport. That's why Title IX exists. The intent of Title IX was to protect girls'/women's rights. Not "gender ID."

Them: Why are you doing this?
Me: Title IX was created for a reason in 1972. I was a beneficiary as a young athlete. Girls deserve that same opportunity today. This just serves to reify Title IX, which we shouldn't have to do. But we do.

Them: But what about the trans athletes?
Me: I care about the girls. What about them?

Them: Doesn't everyone deserve to compete?
Me: Everyone can compete. The boys can compete in boys. Bodies compete not identities. 16 year old boys can't play little league.

Them: But what's the difference? If there's just a few?
Me: Would we allow one athlete on performance enhancing drugs to compete and steal medals? One would be too many. One is too many.

Them: How will it work?
Me: The same way it works to show proof of age. Show a birth certificate, or passport or paperwork from doctor.

Them: Isn't that onerous?
Me: No. My daughter had to show her passport a few weeks ago to compete in the U10 category in a tournament.

Them: Not everyone can do that.
Me: Everyone did. It was an Hispanic league tournament. More than half the families didn't speak English as a first language. They all showed proof of age for their kids.

Back to the beginning on loop. Over and over again. At least there were no questions on genital checks.

[Tom Elliott @tomselliott]

NYT's @NickKristof to fellow progressives: "A black kid in Mississippi is 2.5 times as likely to be proficient in math & reading by 4th grade as a black kid in Calif. Do we need to look a little bit less at what the Trump Admin is doing ... & look a little more in the mirror?"

[Brandi Kruse @BrandiKruse]

Update: The women lost.

[Kelly Tilden @Notteagh]

@RickSantorum You are a failed politician. No one cares what you think.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

The fall of Portland, Oregon

Here are major retailers that left Portland over declining conditions due to Democrat policies from 2022–2026

- Nike Community Factory Store (Operated since 1984, 40 years)
Closed permanently because of 276 shoplifting reports in one year. They cited deteriorating public safety. Nike sent a letter to the mayor citing conditions

- Walmart (Both Portland Locations)
580 employees laid off

- Target (Three Stores)
Reason: Explicitly cited organized retail crime and shoplifting

- REI
Reason: Highest break-in rate in two decades; over $800,000 spent on extra security in 2022 (including multiple incidents, one with a vehicle through the doors on Black Friday)

- U.S. Bank (U.S. Bancorp Tower)
Announced it would not renew its long-term lease
Building Sale: Sold in July 2025 for $45 million (down from $372 million in 2015 — ~88% value decline).

- Wells Fargo
Announced plans to exit Portland

- Starbucks
Closed at least 5–6 Portland locations in September 2025 alone.

- Nordstrom Rack (Downtown)

- CVS Pharmacy (SW Broadway)
Reason: Employee cited shoplifting as a factor

Malls Major Retail Centers also closed

Pioneer Place Mall: Once had roughly 100 stores. It’s now down to 20. Described as a “dead mall.”

• Lloyd Center Mall: Confirmed for full demolition. Now 90% vacant

PacWest Center: Sold October 2025 for $55.7 million (down from $170 million in 2016. That’s a 67% drop)

- Montgomery Park: Sold August 2024 for $33 million (down from $255 million in 2019, that’s a 87% drop)

[Cultura Inquieta @culturainquieta]

El clip colaborativo del rapero sueco Yung Lean y GENER8ION supera los límites de un simple videoclip musical y ya es un festín visual extraordinario. 🔥

La coreografía, a cargo del gran coreógrafo francés Damien Jalet. 💥

Hoy, 29 de abril, Día internacional de la danza.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Having a baby physically shrinks part of a woman's brain. Having a second baby shrinks a totally different part. Scientists in Amsterdam just figured out why, and the explanation involves the same process that happens in teenage brains.

This is from a research group in Amsterdam called the Pregnancy Brain Lab. They published their findings in Nature Communications on February 19, 2026. The team scanned the brains of 110 women. 40 were about to have their first baby, 30 were about to have their second, and 40 had never been pregnant. They scanned everyone before pregnancy and again after birth.

The results were so consistent that a computer program could look at any of those brain scans and correctly tell whether the woman had been pregnant. Every single time.

When a woman has her first baby, the biggest changes happen in the part of the brain that handles thinking about yourself and other people. The same region that runs daydreaming and inner monologue. That whole area visibly shrinks. And it stays shrunk for at least six years after birth, according to a 2021 follow-up study by the same team.

When she has a second baby, that same area shifts a little more, but the biggest changes happen somewhere else. They happen in the part of the brain that controls what you focus on, and the part that controls how your body moves. Even the wiring between the brain and the muscles becomes more efficient. Lead researcher Milou Straathof said it looks like the brain rewiring itself for taking care of more than one kid at a time.

The shrinking sounds bad. The lab compares it to what happens in teenage brains during puberty. Hormones flood the brain and trigger a kind of cleanup. Weak connections between brain cells get cleared away. The strong ones stay and get stronger. The brain ends up smaller, but the connections that remain work faster. The hormonal flood of pregnancy seems to do the same thing.

Elseline Hoekzema, who runs the Pregnancy Brain Lab and has been studying this since 2017, told CNN: sometimes less is more.

The pattern is layered. The first pregnancy does the deep work on identity and how a mom thinks about her baby. The second pregnancy adds a new layer focused on attention and movement.

About one in five new mothers globally develops postpartum depression. The same brain circuits being remodeled here are the ones tied to mood and bonding with the baby. Mapping what a healthy maternal brain looks like is the first step toward catching when something goes wrong.

[60 Minutes @60Minutes]

“We’ve never lived in a world where 22-year-olds couldn’t assume that the work they did they would be able to do until death or retirement, and we’re never going to have that world again,” says former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse.

[Kelly Tilden @Notteagh]

@60Minutes @andersoncooper Ms. Goldberg-Polin has taught us so much during the most horrific time in her life.

[Kelly Tilden @Notteagh]

@ick_real Tanie.

[Overton @overton_news]

RFK Jr. just schooled Democrat Congresswoman Judy Chu on Hepatitis B vaccines.

Chu claimed the Trump administration has “no regard for the health, safety and well being of Asian-American communities.”

RFK Jr. hit back with the facts she didn’t want to hear.

KENNEDY: “You want me to reply?”

“Hepatitis B is a terrible disease, but babies are not at risk unless...they essentially have zero risk...unless their mother is infected.”

“Mothers are tested when they go into the hospital to have a baby and for all those people who are infected the vaccine is still a recommended vaccine.”

“Everybody else, it’s available. Parents can assess the risk themselves, through informed consent.”

“We did not remove the vaccine from being insured and we just believe that Americans should have that choice.”

“That the state should not make that choice for them.”

“Hepatitis B vaccine was not safety tested. It had a 4-day test with no placebo.”

“So we don’t know what the risk profile is and parents are allowed to ask that question.”

[Kelly Tilden @Notteagh]

@Dudley4Oregon Thank you for standing up for safe and fair sport for gilrs and women.

[WeRateDogs @dog_rates]

This is Sadie. She was finally reunited with her human, astronaut Christina Koch, after her mom’s voyage around the moon took her the furthest any human has ever been from their dog. She can't wait to hear all about the universe. 14/10

[Portland Moderate. @pdxmoderate]

Anthony Effinger and his team at Willamette Week just dropped a chart and analysis that should make every Multnomah County taxpayer furious!!

Between 2015 and 2025, County revenue didn’t just grow—it exploded, jumping from $1.1 billion to $2.7 billion. That’s an 80% increase even after inflation.

And yet somehow, despite this windfall, Chair Jessica Vega Pederson is now telling departments to slash budgets. You can’t make this up.

Effinger points to three main drivers: the expiration of urban renewal districts, a hike in the Business Income Tax from 1.45% to 2.0%, and a flood of new taxes—most notably the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) tax, the so-called “Pre-School for a Few” tax, and a 5-year library bond.

The real problem is that third category.
The SHS tax massively ballooned operating grants from $351 million to $1.14 billion. But this isn’t flexible funding—it’s locked into programs that don’t address the County’s core responsibilities like public safety and public health.

Worse, Vega Pederson chose to spend it on policies that enable street camping—tents, tarps, and low-barrier shelters—while homelessness surged 177% over the same period.

That’s not a coincidence; that’s a policy failure.

Then there’s the “Pre-School for a Few” program—another Vega Pederson pet project. It’s a narrowly targeted, inefficient system that serves a fraction of families while duplicating existing state efforts.

Instead of empowering parents broadly, it props up a limited supply-side model that leaves most people out.

And because income tax revenue is volatile, the County has socked away a staggering $600 million reserve—effectively insulating politically favored programs from the very instability they created.

That reserve is now even inflating reported “investment income,” adding another $92 million to the books. So yes, they’re now making money off the taxes they over-collected.

Meanwhile, the County’s core functions—like the DA’s office and the Sheriff—are stuck relying on a General Fund that barely grows thanks to property tax limits.

So while specialty programs swell, the basics of governance are left to scrape by.

Bottom line: this isn’t a revenue problem. It’s a priorities problem.

Effinger’s piece is essential reading. The next step? Someone needs to run this exact same analysis on City of Portland spending.

@jvegapederson @MayorKWilson @GovTinaKotek

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

Monty Python lives !!

[Daniel Sugarman @Daniel_Sugarman]

I don't care whether you like Bari Weiss or not.
Daniel Pearl, a journalist, was murdered by Islamist fundamentalists because he was Jewish. Bari Weiss was asked to give his memorial lecture this year. For a (non-Jewish) professor to cancel that is wrong.

https://t.co/UAWxdi0Cv5

[Valerie Anne Smith @ValerieAnne1970]

"SIDS ‘DISAPPEARED’ In Japan After Raising The Age of Vaccination To 2yrs Old."
— Dr. Pierre Kory, MD

In 1981, Japan delayed the DTaP vaccine until children turned two years old.

Japan holds one of the lowest infant mortality rates, while the US ranks among the highest.

During the 1970s, following only two reported infant deaths linked to the whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DTwP), intense public concern prompted the Japanese government to halt routine DTwP vaccinations.

They later introduced the acellular pertussis version (DTaP) in 1981, but limited its use to children aged two and older.

In 1993, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare discontinued the combined MMR vaccine after it triggered a significant increase in severe adverse reactions — particularly aseptic meningitis resulting in serious harm and fatalities.

Japan now provides separate measles and rubella vaccines and has never reintroduced the mumps component or the MMR combination shot.

In 1994, Japan revised its Immunization Act, changing all childhood vaccinations from mandatory to voluntary/recommended status.

This removed any penalties for declining vaccines and moved administration from mass public health clinics to individual choice via private doctors — prioritizing personal decision-making and informed consent.

The U.S. continues to have the highest infant mortality rate among 16 other developed nations.

As of 2022, the CDC reports the U.S. rate at 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. Japan’s rate remains among the world’s lowest at 1.7 per 1,000 — the U.S. rate is more than three times higher.

[Calley Means @calleymeans]

Historic segment.

[Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD @NIHDirector_Jay]

The Hill is more interested in mischaracterizing my remarks than engaging with the facts. Secretary Kennedy and I are fully aligned in their determination to identify the root causes of autism and confront it as the serious public health crisis it is. NIH is doing exactly that by conducting rigorous research through the Autism Data Science Initiative, following the evidence as it develops, and refusing to prematurely rule anything in or out. We will not be distracted by media spin. We will follow the science wherever it leads, period.

https://t.co/ZfNsbyWD0i

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Dozens of Christmas carolers gathered at Portland International Airport to greet and send travelers off with a holiday song, "O Holy Night."