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“Clutch time” in the struggle to keep the republic: Frederick Haynes headlines stirring NN26 Friday evening keynote

Friday evening’s keynote at Netroots Nation 2026 brought together Philadelphia City Councilmember Rue Landau, Reverend Frederick Haynes, and three members of Congress (Summer Lee, Delia Ramirez, and Analilia Mejia) for a spirited discussion about building shared power and governing responsively to stop modern-day fascists from destroying American democracy. “Clutch time” in the struggle to keep the republic: Frederick Haynes headlines stirring NN26 Friday evening keynote is a post from NPI's Cascadia Advocate, the journal of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Published continuously since March of 2004, NPI's Cascadia Advocate provides thoughtful commentary and analysis on regional, national, and world politics. Keep The Cascadia Advocate going by making a contribution to sustain NPI's research and advocacy here.

The Architect of the Superunknown: Kim Thayil chronicles the dissonant legacy of Soundgarden in new memoir

The Architect of the Superunknown: Kim Thayil chronicles the dissonant legacy of Soundgarden in new memoir Off patr Fri, 06/05/2026 - 4:29pm

Second NN26 keynote celebrates return to Philadelphia with a call for radical community resistance, persistence, and joy

Speakers at the second Netroots Nation 2026 plenary session, including Helen Gym and Austin Davis, emphasized collaborative movement sustainability, urging engagement at the state and local level to enact structural changes for working families. Second NN26 keynote celebrates return to Philadelphia with a call for radical community resistance, persistence, and joy is a post from NPI's Cascadia Advocate, the journal of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Published continuously since March of 2004, NPI's Cascadia Advocate provides thoughtful commentary and analysis on regional, national, and world politics. Keep The Cascadia Advocate going by making a contribution to sustain NPI's research and advocacy here.

NPI, NPF unveil SearchTheLeft, an insightful new search engine for exploring and researching the progressive web

Developed to meet the need for tools that allow for the discovery of high quality journalism and commentary written by individuals and organizations at every level -- hyperlocal, regional, national, and international -- SearchTheLeft offers a human curated index of vetted sources and results that aren't buried below an AI prompt. NPI, NPF unveil SearchTheLeft, an insightful new search engine for exploring and researching the progressive web is a post from NPI's Cascadia Advocate, the journal of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Published continuously since March of 2004, NPI's Cascadia Advocate provides thoughtful commentary and analysis on regional, national, and world politics. Keep The Cascadia Advocate going by making a contribution to sustain NPI's research and advocacy here.

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The Forever Home: Frank Gross and the evolution of Thunder Road Guitars

The Forever Home: Frank Gross and the evolution of Thunder Road Guitars Off patr Thu, 06/04/2026 - 6:05pm

“We are here to activate progressive power”: Netroots Nation 2026 opening keynote uplifts fierce, effective activism

Markos Moulitsas, Anthony Robinson, Malcolm Kenyatta, Maurice Mitchell, Chris Rabb, and Minnesota organizers urged Netroots Nation attendees to secure democracy from fascists' clutches by building durable organizing infrastructure, turning resistance into governing power, and meeting fear with collective action. “We are here to activate progressive power”: Netroots Nation 2026 opening keynote uplifts fierce, effective activism is a post from NPI's Cascadia Advocate, the journal of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Published continuously since March of 2004, NPI's Cascadia Advocate provides thoughtful commentary and analysis on regional, national, and world politics. Keep The Cascadia Advocate going by making a contribution to sustain NPI's research and advocacy here.

A Visible Existence: ArtsWest unveils a bold 2026-2027 season exploring the human need to matter

A Visible Existence: ArtsWest unveils a bold 2026-2027 season exploring the human need to matter Off patr Thu, 06/04/2026 - 11:32am

At Netroots Nation 2026, Segann March makes the case for narrative as infrastructure

Progressive organizations are rich in stories, but too often those stories stay siloed, inconsistent, or disconnected from real power. One of the first trainings at Netroots Nation 2026 focused on narrative as infrastructure: the systems, practices, and discipline required to turn messaging into durable persuasion. At Netroots Nation 2026, Segann March makes the case for narrative as infrastructure is a post from NPI's Cascadia Advocate, the journal of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Published continuously since March of 2004, NPI's Cascadia Advocate provides thoughtful commentary and analysis on regional, national, and world politics. Keep The Cascadia Advocate going by making a contribution to sustain NPI's research and advocacy here.

Seattle Torrent Protect Wilgren, Murphy, Carpenter in Expansion Draft

The Torrent have made some interesting choices in the upcoming expansion process by choosing to protect Anna Wilgren, Hannah Murphy, and Alex Carpenter. Not exactly an expansion draft, the PWHL’s Expansion Roster Distribution Process is a six-phase series of very complicated (I would argue unnecessarily complicated) rules to add four new teams to the previously eight-team league, increasing the size by 50%. Because so many of the players are free agents, they couldn’t do a traditional expansion draft process, so we ended up with this. The Torrent signed Alex Carpenter and protected her, which was one of the three protection slots. The players on the roster eligible for protection are Fowards: Jenna Buglioni, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter, Lexia Adzija, Danielle Sardachny Defenders: Cayla Barnes, Anna Wilgren Goalies: Corinne Schroeder, Hannah Murphy Everyone else is a free agent, including Hilary Knight. It’s all turmoil these days with expansion. With two more slots to go, the Torrent chose to protect defender Anna Wilgren and goalie Hannah Murphy. “Ha ha, Zaiem,” I can hear you saying now with a tinge of contempt, “you’ve made a mistake. You accidentally typed some other name instead of Hannah Bilka’s! Nice journalism and attention to detail.” If only. Yes that’s right, forward Hannah Bilka was not protected. Now, I don’t know what GM Meghan Turner is thinking here, but one thing that is of concern is that Bilka did not return to the Torrent after sustaining an undisclosed injury en route to winning gold in the Olympics in Milan. Since hockey injuries aren’t required to be disclosed and therefore never ever are, we don’t know what it was (is?). Maybe it’s serious? Maybe they are betting that she won’t get taken by an expansion team because of the injury? Or maybe it’s just an interesting decision. Hannah Murphy is not a surprising pick. She’s 22 years old and she has a lot of upside as a goalie, a position that tends to peak later in age. I also find her impossibly charming, but that was probably not a factor in the decision to keep her (probably). Defender Anna Wilgren was the third protection slot, which was the real surprise. Bilka or Barnes were the ones I was expecting, but Wilgren was a surprise. I have, however, since talked myself into it. Steve O’Rourke, the recently fired Torrent coach, spoke highly of her and I do like her 200 foot game. He talked about how she altered her game to try to make the Olympic team and it messed with her a bit, but as the season went on, she got better and better. Anna Wilgren being protected by the Seattle Torrent is probably the one decision that stands out as a surprise to most.My mind immediately went back to the postgame after her 3-point game vs. Minnesota. O'Rourke is obviously gone, but it shows how the org feels about her. pic.twitter.com/EMlQuiKX2B— Kyle Cushman (@Kyle_Cush) June 3, 2026 And so we march on with this overwrought expansion process. Where were you when we moved from Phase 1 to Phase 2?

The NPI team has arrived in Philadelphia and is ready to bring you three days of Netroots Nation 2026 coverage

Founded twenty years ago, Netroots Nation is an annual gathering of progressive organizers and leaders that aims to foster collaboration and skill development in advancing all of the causes that we care about. A delegation from the NPI team will be reporting regularly on the goings-on, including through our special NPI@NN podcast series. The NPI team has arrived in Philadelphia and is ready to bring you three days of Netroots Nation 2026 coverage is a post from NPI's Cascadia Advocate, the journal of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Published continuously since March of 2004, NPI's Cascadia Advocate provides thoughtful commentary and analysis on regional, national, and world politics. Keep The Cascadia Advocate going by making a contribution to sustain NPI's research and advocacy here.

Seattle Torrent Sign Alex Carpenter, Protect Her From Expansion Thieves

The Seattle Torrent re-signed forward Alex Carpenter to a 3-year PWHL Standard Player Agreement on June 2, keeping one of the franchise’s foundational pieces through 2028-29 and committing one of the team’s 3 protection slots under the league’s Expansion Roster Distribution Process (proper noun) ahead of 2026-27. If that sounded like word salad, it’s the entire expansion process is word salad. Carpenter signed as one of Seattle’s foundational players in June 2025 and played all 30 regular-season games of the inaugural season, serving as one of the first alternate captains in team history. The 32-year-old from North Reading, MA, tied Julia Gosling for the team scoring lead with 20 points, led the Torrent with 12 goals, and ranked second with 8 assists. Carpenter came to Seattle after playing 2 seasons with the New York Sirens. She’s the third all-time leading scorer in PWHL history with 63 points (31, 36A) and she has 16 power play assists, the actual most in league history. She’s also an Olympic medalists, having won gold in the 2026 Winter Games, and winning silver in Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014. (She was left off the She represented the United States at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and won her first gold after silver in Beijing 2022 and Sochi 2014. (She was a shocking cut from the 2018 gold medal-winning Pyeongchang team, so Milan was her first Olympic gold). She has 18 Olympic points (11G, 7A), which is fifth all-time in U.S. Olympic women’s history. The PWHL is adding four teams this season, and since so much of the league is not under contract, they can’t do a traditional expansion draft, so they have this byzantine six phase process that is…well, the video does a good job explaining it. But Carpenter is locked into one of the 3 protection slots available to teams during Phase 1. Teams have until today at 2pm to finalize their three protection slots before Phase 2: Expansion Team Foundational Signing Period. (No, seriously, that’s how it’s officially communicated by the PWHL. That is a proper noun.) There’s going to be a lot of turmoil with the league expanding by 50% from 8 teams to 12 teams. In addition to all the roster turnover, the Torrent also fired head coach Steve O’Rourke. These first few years of expansion are real Wild West.