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Brian Lyman

@brianlyman.bsky.social

7.1K followers 630 following 4.3K posts

Editor, Alabama Reflector. Podcaster, Becoming Lincoln. 2024 Pulitzer finalist. Past: MGM Advertiser; Press-Register; The Anniston Star; Norwich Bulletin; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Politics, history, science, horrific puns.

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · Nov 12

Here’s our mission statement at @alreflector.bsky.social. From my first column on launch day in February 2023.

Alabama Reflector: Covering the pain and promise of our home • Alabama Reflector

Laws are made in the State House. Alabama is made outside it. Alabama Reflector will cover these dynamics that shape our home.

alabamareflector.com

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 5h

Via Stateline: Parcels of land owned by faith-based organizations are starting to become a part of the housing solution for some states. At the same time, some skeptics question whether the movement could strip local communities of having a say in neighborhood development. https://ow.ly/FlVs50XaZJT

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 8h

Via Piper Hutchinson and Louisiana Illuminator: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear new arguments Wednesday over Louisiana’s congressional maps in case that could have major implications for Alabama's congressional districts and the Voting Rights Act. https://ow.ly/lBPl50Xb6Qp

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 8h

It's very hard to shake people's convictions about The Media, even the ones that come from Earth-4.

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 8h

I once made a joke that no one would believe the media could engage in conspiracies if they saw a newsroom try to order a pizza, and someone told me I was using pizza to distract from the conspiracies.

Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 8h

It's always funny to me when people make up conspiracy theories, as in, "the entire medical community is hiding the cure for cancer." It's hard enough to get three people on a Zoom call at the same time. How are these massive conspiracies coordinated? Maybe they have their own Slack channel?

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 8h

Via Pennsylvania Capital-Star : Cody Balmer, 38, will serve a total sentence of 25 to 50 years. He’ll be eligible for parole in 2050 when he is 63 years old.

Man pleads guilty to attempted murder and arson in Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence firebombing | Alabama Reflector

Balmer, 38, will serve a total sentence of 25 to 50 years. He’ll be eligible for parole in 2050 when he is 63 years old.

alabamareflector.com

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 11h

Will be interesting to watch how he handles Albany, which often likes to make NYC miserable just because it can.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11h

we’ll see how his mayoral tenure shakes out but i am convinced that Mamdani has the juice. not just the charisma to win an election but the temperament to govern and the measured pragmatism of someone who genuinely believes what they’re saying and wants to accomplish real things.

Inside the Improbable, Audacious and (So Far) Unstoppable Rise of Zohran Mamdani

www.nytimes.com

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 12h

Via Anna Barrett: Former U.S. Attorney and U.S. Sen. Doug Jones and former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley on Friday discussed the prosecutions of the men responsible for the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. https://ow.ly/BJgq50Xab5t

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 11h

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: A second arrest was made Monday evening in connection with a Montgomery mass shooting that left two dead and 12 injured.

Montgomery police make second arrest in connection to mass shooting | Alabama Reflector

MPD said in a statement posted to Facebook that McGhee, 19, had been charged with the same charges that an unnamed juvenile arrested on Friday faces.

alabamareflector.com

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 12h

He installed a bunch of solar panels on our new house 15 years ago. They were much smaller and so efficient that my parents could install air conditioning in the house and, with the power they generated, have a pittance of an energy bill each month.

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 12h

Side note: My dad — very much not a progressive — took advantage of Carter-era tax credits to install a solar water heater in our small house in the early 80s. The panels took up almost half of the roof; the heater was so big we didn’t have room for a dryer and used a clothesline.

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 12h

Almost 20 years ago, when I was writing a story about climate change, a businessman told me cheap solar panels would be as disruptive to utilities as the cell phone was to landline companies. I’ve thought a lot about that, particularly as Alabama Power does all it can to discourage rooftop solar.

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 13h

Side note: we’ve gotten used to it, but solar panels are kind of an insane technological advancement.

Virtually every other form of energy production, from coal to nuclear, is ultimately about turning a turbine to crank out energy.

But not solar. Solar just…sits there and makes energy. Like magic.

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 22h

You're living through one of the biggest technological transformations in world history and it has nothing to do with AI

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 22h

You're living through one of the biggest technological transformations in world history and it has nothing to do with AI

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 1d

Grid scale batteries are changing our electricity system. Excellent new visual story on batteries in FT today shows just how far this technology has evolved.

Fasten your seatbelts, this is just the beginning.

ig.ft.com/mega-batteri...

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 13h

Via Ralph Chapoco: A state bar association last week sharply criticized the U.S. Department of Justice for bringing felony charges against an attorney in a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s gender-affirming care ban. https://ow.ly/BoFe50XaO2e

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 13h

Expect some red-state public universities to be threatened by their congressional delegations if they don’t.

Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 1d

After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.

Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT

The Trump administration is inviting all US colleges to participate in a compact — initially rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that would grant preferential federal funding in re...

www.bloomberg.com

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 1d

Iliad, Inferno, Candide, Wuthering Heights (not my cup of tea but lots of Big Emotions), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Song of the Lark, The U.S.A. Trilogy, The Great Gatsby, Native Son, The Bluest Eye

Mediocre White Man @prestemon.bsky.social · 1d

Some of the classics are incredibly boring and some are riveting and someone should tell me which are which (beyond everyone telling me Moby Dick is great actually)

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 1d

Via Maryland Matters: Work began last month to restore the prominent memorial honoring Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, but stopped almost as quickly as scaffolding was erected behind the bronze statue of the Maryland native. https://ow.ly/Ka4L50XaBeN

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 1d

Via Jennifer Shutt and Ariana Figueroa: The Trump administration plans to send paychecks to active duty troops this week, despite Congress not passing legislation to allow it during the ongoing shutdown.

Pentagon to shift research dollars to pay troops during shutdown | Alabama Reflector

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to send paychecks to active duty troops this week, despite Congress not passing legislation to allow it during the ongoing shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has refused to bring the House back into session to pass a stand-alone bill to provide pay for troops, welcomed the action during […]

alabamareflector.com

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 1d

I grant that you can’t trust anything The Party says, and it’s entirely possible Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia are complete fictions.

Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 1d

The geopolitics of 1984 make no sense

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 1d

Congrats on a great run, man.

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 1d

Just three states — Arkansas, Idaho and Virginia — enacted laws this session that establish or amend rules for law enforcement agencies using automated license plate readers. https://ow.ly/Zliy50XaAn0

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 1d

In the wake of a Montgomery shooting, state GOP leaders accused city officials of not taking public safety seriously. Editor Brian Lyman writes that Republicans can't be taken seriously on the issue when they've flooded Alabama with the No. 1 threat to public safety: guns. https://ow.ly/jAgZ50Xa3mo

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 1d

My column this week. In the wake of a horrific shooting in Montgomery, Alabama GOP officials accused city leaders of not taking public safety seriously. It's hard to take their concerns seriously when they support permissive state firearm laws that have created nation-leading levels of gun violence.

The GOP outrage over Montgomery isn't about public safety | Alabama Reflector

It's hard to believe that officials scolding Montgomery really care about violence when they've flooded the state with guns.

alabamareflector.com

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Alabama Reflector @alabamareflector.com · 1d

The new HBO documentary, "The Alabama Solution," tells the story of the state's prison crisis through video shot in Alabama's correctional facilities by people incarcerated in them. https://ow.ly/XOU650Xa7HS

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 1d

William Lloyd Garrison in a frog suit dancing with Wendell Phillips dressed as a banana

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