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Emmanuel Scott Jr. was born in New Orleans in June 2005, two-months premature, weighing just 3 pounds, 2 ounces. His mother, Tiffany Woods, suffered a placental abruption at week 31, necessitating an emergency C-section.

Emmanuel was in the NICU at Tulane Medical for over a month, during which time he tested positive for medium chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase deficiency, a genetic metabolic disorder that can lead to lethargy and liver problems, among other issues.

He came home for the first time on August 2, 2005, weighing 5 pounds, 6 ounces. He required special formula to help continue with weight gain. He went home with a heart and lung monitoring device.

He was scheduled for a follow-up appointment on August 29, 2005 — the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Tiffany, then 25-years-old, was forced to flee New Orleans with her recently-released newborn baby, having not been taught how to care for him by an overwhelmed medical facility.

Baby Emmanuel was just over two months old when Hurricane Katrina made landfall and caused widespread damage across much of the Gulf Coast.

For those who don’t remember or weren’t yet born, Hurricane Katrina changed everything for those of us who lived on the Gulf Coast. I don’t mean that in a melodramatic or over-exaggerated sense: thousands of people died, nearly a million people were displaced, and the landscape was forever scarred by Katrina’s record-breaking storm surge.

In the immediate weeks afterward, even clean water was scarce.

Power took weeks to restore in the near-coastal areas, and longer closer to the shore. Schools were closed for even longer, some shut down for a full year.

The roofs of houses peaked out beneath the brown waters of the Mississippi Sound.

I know this because I was there. I remember the panic. I remember not having clean water, not having records when we were displaced, not being able to even access a grocery store for weeks.

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Tiffany, like nearly 600,000 other New Orleanians, evacuated. And like hundreds of thousands of people who evacuated, Tiffany and her family stayed in shelters for several weeks after the storm, then bounced between staying with family and friends, and temporary housing units.

With the entire region in disarray, Tiffany was unable to get baby Emmanuel to see a specialist for his condition.

Just a few months after the storm, while living in a temporary housing unit in Shreveport, Tiffany woke up at about 6 am to feed baby Emmanuel then put him back to bed.

She woke up a few hours later to find Baby Emmanuel cold and not breathing. She immediately called 911, and began providing CPR. She continued CPR until the fire department arrived.

Despite her efforts, baby Emmanuel died.

Tiffany consented to a search of the house when officers arrived, and the investigator noted the house was very clean and in “good order,” with food in the cabinets, milk in the fridge, and all the other children’s rooms clean and comfortable.

Child services took the two other children at the scene in what is described in the case records as “standard practice” when a child dies in the home.

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The coroner ruled the death as malnutrition, not starvation. The difference in that finding is important: the parents had been feeding the child, but he was still malnourished. Starvation requires the intentional withholding of food, but that was not the case with baby Emmanuel.

The coroner also ruled the child had been malnourished for months — including the time he was under direct supervision of a specialist in New Orleans.

The investigation into Baby Emmanuel’s death was suspended upon receiving the coroner’s report, which stated there were no signs of abuse or intentional neglect.

Investigators then consulted with Dr. Shalinee Singh, an expert in pediatrics. Dr. Singh made the following observations about baby Emmanuel’s previous health and treatment:

• Emmanuel’s dietician believed he was not quite meeting the caloric requirements necessary for him to thrive once he began feeding orally;

• The dietician recommended that the formula intake be increased;

• Even at the hospital, the child was receiving only enough nutrition to meet the lower end of his energy needs, but not enough to grow;

• The treating physician recommended that the child’s intake be increased, but the nurses were unable to meet the child’s caloric needs, even with around-the-clock feedings;

• Dr. Singh was surprised that the baby was discharged, considering that the nurses had not been able to meet the child’s feeding goals;

• If the nurses couldn’t meet the feeding goals in the hospital, then a mother would certainly be unable to meet the goals at home

• And finally: Dr. Singh said she would never have released baby Emmanuel from the NICU if she had been his treating physician.

Baby Emmanuel would have benefitted greatly from remaining in the hospital longer, and with more time spent teaching his parents how to care for him, Dr. Singh concluded.

But Baby Emmanuel couldn’t have stayed for much longer than he did. Tulane Medical Center evacuated and shut down less than three weeks after he was discharged.

Tulane Medical Center didn’t reopen until February 14, 2006 — six months after the hurricane.

During that six months, doctors were reassigned all over the country, records were inaccessible or lost, and nobody knew how to find anyone connected to their treatment before the storm.

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There were serious medical errors and poor choices made by his doctors, Dr. Singh later testified.

Ten months after the investigation was suspended, however, arrest warrants were issued for both parents on second-degree murder charges

.

Louisiana’s legal system is unlike every other US state. It’s a civil law state, rooted in French and Spanish codes instead of English common law traditions everywhere else in the country.

In Louisiana, a second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence. In Baby Emmanuel’s case, the statute applied states:

“Second degree murder is the killing of a human being when the offender is engaged in the perpetration of cruelty to juveniles, even though he has no specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm. Cruelty to a juvenile, as it relates to this matter, is defined as the intentional or criminally negligent mistreatment or neglect by anyone 17 years of age or older of any child under the age of 17, where by unjustifiable pain or suffering is caused to the child.”

At no point did any medical professional claim that baby Emmanuel, or Tiffany’s other children, were neglected. At no point did police feel abuse or neglect was a factor.

It’s hard to recall this case without sympathy for both parents. It’s hard to read about the grave injustice of their arrests and prosecution without getting angry.

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And the racism — on the part of the system and the court — was evident early on.

Tiffany’s partner, Emmanuel Scott, had only a ninth-grade education and no GED. He was young, overwhelmed, and his entire life up-ended by the double hits of both his prematurely born son’s serious medical condition and Hurricane Katrina. He was exhausted, working up to 14 hours a day, perhaps inattentive, but not abusive.

The police referred to him as Tiffany’s “baby daddy” in their official report. They mentioned that the two had fought the night before, as if it was relevant. They began making their case against these two young, black refugees before the medical team stopped CPR.

Statements Tiffany made while still in shock that day were used against her — like her question to a social worker about whether or not baby Emmanuel was going to “die anyway” despite her efforts to provide for him, an obvious cry to be reassured that it wasn’t her fault.

Both parents opted for a bench trial without a jury. Both were found guilty by a white judge and sentenced to life in prison.

They appealed.

The appeals court sided with the original judge, outrageously claiming “neither defendant clearly and convincingly showed, under these facts, that unusual circumstances exist.”

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They were chastised for not seeking medical intervention, despite the fact that Shreveport hospitals were so over-run in the months after Hurricane Katrina that it would take patients who showed up to the ER several days of waiting to be seen.

While they were living in shelters, a volunteer medical team member used her own insurance to take baby Emmanuel for a check-up, in which no new diagnosis or conditions were reported and the infant was still growing.

Tiffany also kept Emmanuel up-to-date with his vaccines, utilizing the Shots for Tots program in Shreveport after the storm.

They faulted Tiffany for “not keeping critical medical appointments” in reference to the appointment that fell on the same day that Hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi and shut down the hospital where the appointment was scheduled.

They faulted the mother for not having enough money to buy the formula, even though she needed and could not get a prescription for the special formula during the chaos of post-Katrina Louisiana.

Two weeks before Emmanuel died, Tiffany ran out of WIC vouchers, and during the post-Katrina social catastrophe, parish-based programs like WIC were in turmoil.

The heart and breathing monitor given to them by their doctor in New Orleans broke, and they were waiting for a replacement.

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He had gained weight since being released from the hospital, and grew 11 centimeters, but that was not “sufficient” growth according the a judge with no medical training.

The court failed to meet its burden in finding the parents guilty.

And in doing so, they sent two parents to prison for life.

Tiffany told the court she tried her best, making sure she bought only organic milk for Emmanuel when the vouchers ran out. Back in 2005, organic milk cost nearly twice as much as non-organic milk, but still less than regular baby formula, and much less than specialized formula.

Sociopaths who don’t love their children don’t buy organic milk. They don’t wake up all hours of the night to feed their babies. They don’t keep up with vaccines and regular check-ups.

Their child was sick. He was on a feeding tube the first month of his life, displaced and living in shelters for the next few months, and still gained weight and grew despite all of those difficulties.

Police noted that the parents’ stories never changed, and the medical history supported their statements.

Tiffany and Emmanuel Sr. have been in jail ever since. It’s been 18 years.

While in prison, Tiffany completed seminary training and Blackstone Career Education courses for inmates studying paralegal work. She mentors and counsels other incarcerated women and has no disciplinary record.

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The couple is eligible for sentence reduction once every five years.

Had I known about this case sooner, I would have been there to advocate at her last parole hearing this past February.

The prison staff, including the warden, testified on Tiffany’s behalf.

But DA Leone Fitzgerald, another white woman, in one of the most offensive statements I can imagine someone making, especially someone from the area, said her office was “getting a little tired of hearing about that (Hurricane Katrina) because, while we don’t undermine that, I know it had to be chaotic and stressful and unprecedented, but it wasn’t a reason for Miss Woods to not feed her baby.”

Tiffany’s parole plea was approved by two out of the three members of the Louisiana Board of Pardon and Parole. But the vote has to be unanimous, so her request plea denied.

Tiffany won’t be eligible for parole again until 2031. Next time, I’ll be there. And I hope all of you reading this will write to the board or be there, too.

Here’s who you can write/call:

Caddo Parish District Attorney’s office
501 Texas St #5400, Shreveport, LA 71101
318-226-6826

Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole
603 South Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70802
225-342-6622

Send mail/support to Tiffany:

Tiffany M. Woods
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
6923 Highway 74, St. Gabriel, LA 70776

Send money to her here

Prison phone number: (225) 319-2701

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A “Quiet” Hurricane Season

There’s a particular kind of risk that only shows up in the margins in the years when the numbers look reassuring, when forecasters hedge toward “below average,” when the headlines drift elsewhere.

That’s where 2026 is shaping up to live.

Researchers at Colorado State University released one of the first major forecasts for the Atlantic hurricane season:

13 named storms
6 hurricanes
2 major hurricanes

For context, in 2025 we had:
13 named storms
5 hurricanes
4 major hurricanes

After years of hyperactive seasons fueled by record ocean heat, a step down feels like a break in the pattern.

The central driver behind this year’s forecast is the expected development of El Nino in the Pacific.

El Nino tends to increase vertical wind shear across the Atlantic — essentially tearing apart developing storms before they can organize. That’s why forecasters are leaning toward fewer hurricanes overall.

But hurricane seasons don’t unfold neatly according to a single variable.

Even as El Nino suppresses storm formation, other signals are pushing in the opposite direction. Sea surface temperatures in parts of the Atlantic (particularly the western basin) remain anomalously warm, providing fuel for any storm that does manage to form.

This is the paradox of modern hurricane seasons: fewer storms doesn’t necessarily mean weaker ones, and it certainly doesn’t mean safer coastlines.

Between 1991 and 2020, the Atlantic averaged roughly 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes per season.

Colorado State’s forecast sits just under that line.

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But that baseline itself is already elevated by decades of warming oceans and shifting atmospheric patterns. In other words, a “quiet” modern season would have been considered active a generation ago.

And even within that quieter framework, other forecasts are less restrained.

• AccuWeather projects 11–16 named storms, including up to 4 major hurricanes.

• The Weather Company similarly expects a near- to below-average season, but still with multiple hurricanes and at least two major storms.

Even in a below-average year, the probability of landfall isn’t zero. Recent analyses put the chance of a hurricane affecting parts of the U.S. coastline this year at levels that remain significant, even if slightly reduced from average.

And history has already made the point more brutally than any model ever could.

1992 was a quiet season — until Hurricane Andrew.

One storm is enough. It always has been.

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Seasonal forecasts are built on large-scale signals — ocean temperatures, atmospheric circulation, patterns stretching from the Sahel to the Pacific.

Colorado State’s methodology reflects that complexity, incorporating variables like:

• Relative sea surface temperature contrasts

• Atlantic Meridional Mode (AMM)

• African monsoon dynamics

• Saharan dust outbreaks

Each of these influences whether storms form — and how they behave once they do.

This April forecast is just the first pass.

Colorado State will update its outlook in June, July, and August as the atmosphere begins to reveal what it’s actually going to do.

Between now and then, the key signals to watch are:

• Whether El Nino fully develops — or stalls

• How warm the tropical Atlantic remains relative to the Pacific

• Early-season storm formation patterns

• The evolution of wind shear across the Caribbean and Gulf

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The Washington, D.C. City Council is poised to make permanent a policy that does not solve youth violence, does not make communities safer, and does not respect the rights of children.

Instead, it risks doing something far more dangerous: normalizing the idea that young people themselves are the probl…

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Most outlets don’t dig into the data on controversial or overlooked issues. But I do.

If you want consistent, data-driven reporting that follows the story all the way through, support this work by subscribing to Mesoscale.

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If the Trump regime’s proposed 2027 budget is passed, it will undermine science as we know it in the U.S.

With cuts of nearly 70% in some areas, the current administration seems determined to destroy our nation’s overall leadership in the sciences, with disproportionate reductions for geography, climate, …

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This work exists because of you.

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After nearly a year of additional votes, the analysis is holding strong. The worst of the worst have gotten worse, and the fighter for good are still fighting.

With primary elections well underway and running through September, there’s still time to look at the candidates running against incumbents who have failed to stand up for our democracy.

You can see when your state’s primary and general (or runoff) elections are here.

Rep. Cueller (TX) took the top spot, but other than shifting places, not much has changed.

We can’t keep voting in Fetterman’s and Moskowitz’ and expect to save our Democracy.

The updated analysis includes bills from the second half of 2025, in addition to select bills from 2026, including: HR 8029, HR 5103, HR 1958, HR 556, HR 7744, H Con Res 38, H Res 1099, HR 4758, HR 4626, HR 2189.

Based on the index, here are the representatives Democrats need to start working toward primarying, starting with the worst for our democracy:

1. Cueller (TX)

2. Golden (ME)

3. Davis (NC)

4. Perez (WA)

5. Gonzalez (TX)

6. Moskowitz (FL)

7. Gray (CA)

8. Landsman (OH)

9. Suozzi (NY)

10. Vasquez (NM)

11. Gillen (NY)

12. Costa (CA)

13. Gottheimer (NJ)

14. Lee (NV)

15. Pappas (NH)

    ---

You can read the original post with the original methodology below.

I’ve developed an index which Democrats should use as a guide for challenging those in our ranks who do not support us or democracy in 2026, based on the voting records and bill proposals of every member of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives in 25 key legislative votes1,

I looked at legislation during the 118th and 119th congressional sessions in which only a small percent of Democrats broke with the party in voting for GOP-sponsored legislation.

Most of the legislation considered fell under one of five umbrellas: immigration, the environment/climate change, economic welfare, free speech, and MAGA “show laws” (like the absurd “Gas Stove Freedom Act”).

This is not simply a liberal-or-conservative scale and it does not consider tweets, dramatic speeches on the house floor, or one-liners and talking points on the news, only their legislative record.

Which, at the end of the day, is all that really matters when electing someone to congress to legislate.

There are 213 Democrats currently serving in the House of Representatives.

Sixty-one Democrats scored highly enough to be considered outside the normal clustering pattern for the party, though there were 32 amongst them who broke away even from that group.

The top nine voted more with the GOP on divisive legislation than they did with Democrats.

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I will warn you: you might see representatives on this list that you like. I was surprised and even hurt to see someone I campaigned for in the last cycle on this list.

But this is the reality.

Remember that a large part of running for and staying in Congress now is marketing.

What someone says and what they actually do on their job can be two entirely different things.

Based on the index, here are the representatives Democrats need to start working toward primarying, starting with the worst for our democracy:

1. Moskowitz (FL)

2. Perez (WA)

3. Davis (NC)

4. Golden (ME)

5. Gillen (NY)

6. Gottheimer (NJ)

7. Costa (CA)

8. Cuellar (TX)

9. Landsman (OH)

10. Craig (MN)

11. Gonzalez (TX)

12. Gray (CA)

13. Lee (NV)

14. Pappas (NH)

15. Suozzi (NY)

16. Ryan (NY)

17. Shrier (WA)

18. Kaptur (OH)

19. Torres (NY)

20. Morelle (NY)

21. Horsford (NV)

22. Soto (FL)

23. Vindman (VA)

24. Budzinski (IL)

25. Case (HI)

26. Davids (KS)

27. Goldman (NY)

28. Harder (CA)

29. Houlahan (PA)

30. Scholton (MI)

31. Stanton (AZ)

32. Wasserman-Schults (FL)

What about the good ones?

If you want to know who is out there voting to save democracy, the way I created this index allows me to pull out lists from within subject areas.

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Here are the top 10, starting with the highest scoring at #1, for those working hardest to ensure our civil rights and freedoms are not trampled out, that our universities are not dismantled, and that agencies continue to protect the people as they’re supposed to.

1. TLAIB (MI)

2. OMAR (MN)

3. OCASIO-CORTEZ (NY)

4. PRESSLEY (MA)

5. LEE (PA)

6. GARCIA (IL)

7. CASAR (TX)

8. RAMIREZ (IL)

9. FROST (FL)

10. GARCIA (CA)

On these issues, for example, Moskowitz (FL) ranks #357 out of 438 for all representatives — in the bottom 20% of ALL of the House of Representatives (even Republicans).

If you want to know who is working the hardest on fighting for economic justice, working class people and families, and unions, here are your top ten, from the highest scoring at #1.

1. GARCIA (TX)

2. TURNER (TX)

3. ANSARI (AZ)

4. BELL (MO)

5. WATERS (CA)

6. CASTEN (IL)

7. JAYAPAL (WA)

8. CLARKE (NY)

9. SIMON (CA)

10. SCHAKOWSKY (IL)2

Nothing has changed in Texas, though, and a story today in New York Magazine shows that the people most responsible for these girls’ deaths pl…

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What happened:

A pregnant woman went to a Georgia hospital to give birth.

The infant was in breach, in distress, and heart rate was dropping.

The doctor said they needed to perform an emergency C-section.

…

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I found myself perplexed recently watching a segment of the typically otherwise liberal online community insist—often belligerently—that Remmick, one of the antagonists in Sinners, should be interpreted as a colonial villain.

This framing seemed to take hold almost instantly in online discourse, despite the fact that the film’s director, Ryan Coogler, has explicitly said the character was not intended to represent a colonizer, nor to symbolize racist power structures or cultural appropriation.

Setting aside the filmmaker’s own explanation for a moment, what struck me most about the argument was something deeper: the insistence that the character’s Irish identity somehow fit neatly into the historical role of “oppressor.”

That claim reflects a remarkable erasure of Irish history.

During those conversations, it became clear that many people advancing this interpretation simply did not know the historical reality of Ireland or the experiences of the Irish diaspora.

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Let's start with the basic facts, which may be difficult to confront. That makes it all the more important that we do.

The internet runs on viral misinformation. The real world still runs on facts.
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You would assemble a newsroom the way scientists assemble research teams — bringing together people who actually understand the subjects they’re writing about. Climate scientists writing about climate. Labor historians writing about labor. Epidemi…

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MesoscaleNews exists to explain the forces shaping our future — from climate systems to political systems to the rapidly accelerating world of artificial intelligence.

Reporting like this takes time and research, and it’s only possible because readers support the work directly.

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