Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 9h

Remember when Stephen Miller claimed the Chicago apartment raid was on a building “filled with Tren de Aragua terrorists”?

Well, DHS has now dropped the number of alleged TdA members arrested in the building from 2 to 1.

Just one "verified" Tren de Aragua member and one U.S. citizen with an active warrant were among the 37, DHS said, without saying how it had verified that gang affiliation. Others taken that day, the agency said, were "illegal aliens."

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 6h

If you know of any litigation resulting from/related to this, please reach out. Email and Signal are in my bio.

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 8h

BREAKING: Marco Rubio's State Department announces publicly that it is exercising unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in revoking people's visas based on comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Department of State v
@StateDept
g..
The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:
5:55 PM • Oct 14, 2025 • 34.1K Views

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16h

Q: We've seen images out of Chicago of federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and arresting journalists. Where's the limit for you on what's acceptable conduct by federal agents?

MIKE JOHNSON: I've not seen them cross the line yet.

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 19h

6/ Sure the House isn't here so Rs don't have to explain why they want premiums to go up and why they want to fund Trump's corruption.

But also because they don't want to swear in member-elect Adelita Grijalva. Since she would be the deciding vote to RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES.

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 19h

5/ But here's the even darker kicker.

The House Republicans aren't even in town. Speaker Johnson told them to stay away from DC. They haven't been here in nearly a month. Refusing to show up for work. An unprecedented, unplanned 4 week recess.

And why?

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 19h

4/ Ok, so then the obvious next step is to negotiate a compromise. That's how we've always avoided shutdowns. And Republicans need to convene those talks, bc they're in charge.

But here's the kicker - Trump is telling them to BOYCOTT NEGOTIATING. And they are following orders.

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 19h

Senate is back in session today.

1/ So a quick 🧵on where things are at on the shutdown.

You get a lot of propaganda and spin thrown at you, so I want to give you the real, behind-the-scenes tea.

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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 19h

"A Crushing Year for Science in America"

A Crushing Year for Science in America

www.nytimes.com

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 20h

Today, Mike Johnson will continue to keep the House adjourned for the 71st day out of the last 83, with Republicans refusing to show up to work again to avoid having to vote on the Epstein files or negotiate with Democrats.

Epstein Shutdown

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Rei Takver @rtakver.bsky.social · 1d

OpenAI *really* isn't hiding its intention to power the AI boom with fossil fuels.

New from me @desmog.com

www.desmog.com/2025/10/13/o...

OpenAI’s New Energy Chief Is a Trump Administration Natural Gas Evangelist

The ChatGPT creator hired John McCarrick, a gas-loving former Trump energy official, to guide how the company will source huge quantities of power for its colossal supercomputers.

www.desmog.com

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NPR @npr.org · 21h

Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says. n.pr/4q87Jwb

Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass

Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scenes and not accepting wholesale what any government or administration says.

n.pr

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 20h

New from @agreenberg.bsky.social and me: For three years, security researchers pointed a satellite at the sky and found highly sensitive data being sent unencrypted

They found: calls and texts on T-Mobile’s network; military info from the US and Mexico; in-flight Wi-Fi browsing, and a lot more

Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data

With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypte...

www.wired.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.

Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street
earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk.
Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.

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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 1d

Tomorrow:
"You may only protest from inside the community gym from 8am-9am on the first Tuesday of every third month. You are only allowed to use your inside voices."

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 1d

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson's full statement, in which she says she will sign an EO permitting protest "only at the safety zone located at the ICE facility on Beach Street," is up on the village's website.

"There are too many protesters abusing their right to protest," Thompson says.

Image text:

Broadview Shrinks Protest Safety Zones

The following statement can be attributed to Village of Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson:

“The protests at the ICE facility on Saturday night degenerated into chaos. There were 15 arrests, and 10 of those were around the age of my own daughter. As a mother and a mayor, I am mad. Broadview didn’t choose to have the ICE facility in our community. But it’s here. And so are Broadview residents. There are too many protesters abusing their right to protest. Too many are raising their fists rather than their voices, creating chaos at the expense of the people who call Broadview home. Broadview residents lack the protestors’ privilege to return to calm, quiet neighborhoods for undisturbed rest.

Therefore, I have issued a new executive order, in consultation with the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff, that permits protests only at the safety zone located at the ICE facility on Beach Street.

There will no longer be a designated protest safety zone at 2000 South 25th Avenue between Lexington and Fillmore.

Additionally, it has been only God’s grace alone that a protester has not been struck and killed by a motorist on 25th Avenue given how frequently protesters dash onto this busy, four-lane street. This new
measure will provide for both the serenity of residents and safety of protestors.

As I have repeatedly said, I respect, support, and defend the protesters’ free and – peaceful – speech against the outrageous injustices and deplorable unprovoked chemical arms attacks by ICE agents against American citizens, journalists, and ministers that put Broadview police and firefighters in harms’ way.

Nevertheless, my first priority is to defend public safety and the residents who live here and people who work here. They deserve stability, safety, and respect, a quality of life that is currently being denied to them. They deserve the love and kindness that they expect by being Broadview residents.”

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Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 1d

Local immigration advocates said the presence of ICE agents in Chicago, as part of President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement, affected how some runners trained for the marathon and whether their families came out to support their efforts.

Supporters turn out for Chicago Marathon runners despite fears about immigration crackdown

Advocates said Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” affected how some runners trained and whether their families came out to support their efforts.

trib.al

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

ICE is all over the city and burbs today, including Waukegan. Multiple reports on social media from people who have found empty work vans and are trying to locate family of their owners. This is a near daily occurrence now.

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI, here is the press release for my study with @drjuliawester.bsky.social - we surveyed over 800 scientists who use social media. They overwhelmingly agree that Twitter is no longer useful or pleasant, and that for all professional online scientist goals, Bluesky is superior.
🧪 #SciComm 🌍

“Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky:” Our new survey shows that scientists no longer find Twitter professionally useful or pleasant

My colleague Dr. Julia Wester and I have a new paper out in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology reporting on the results of a survey distributed to over 800 scientists, science educator…

www.southernfriedscience.com

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 1d

Bloomberg analysis reveals that electricity in areas near data centers has risen, a lot: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Energy is up to 267% costlier in areas w/ a data center nearby:

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 1d

You don't have to judge Columbus by the standards of today. His tenure as governor of Hispaniola was so horrific that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to answer for his many crimes.

Plus he never set foot on any land that would ever be a part of the United States of America.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 2d

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2d

Co-sign. Under no circumstances should you EVER consider doing something so insanely reckless, dangerous, and illegal.

I hope this is a false flag; if not, whatever person did this thinking that they were striking a blow for justice is a moron.

Jake @jakeythesnakey.bsky.social · 2d

This is such an astoundingly bad idea that I kinda think it’s a false flag or an op of some sort

Merits aside, it is insanely easy to be caught if you do this and the punishment for doing this is much more severe than you’d guess.

(@faineg.bsky.social often writes on stuff like this)

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chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 2d

elmo from sesame street is surrounded by flames

ALT: elmo from sesame street is surrounded by flames

media.tenor.com

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 2d

Another illustrative example of how we are in a social media war for democracy. “Twitter is not real life” except when the administration consumes more sm than an ai web crawler.

Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 2d

The Texas Military Department confirmed to @taskandpurpose.com it had replaced some of the 200 National Guard troops sent to Chicago for not being "in compliance" with validation standards. This came after photos of heavyset NG members were widely mocked. taskandpurpose.com/news/texas-n...

Some Texas National Guard troops replaced in Illinois after failing to meet standards

An unspecified amount of Texas National Guard troops were replaced in Chicago, shortly after photos of their appearance were mocked.

taskandpurpose.com

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Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 2d

Mali has announced that US nationals visiting the West African country will be required to post a bond of up to $10,000 (£7,500) for business and tourist visas, in response to a similar requirement the Trump administration has imposed on its citizens.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Mali imposes $10,000 visa bond on US visitors in reciprocal move

The West African state says it has introduced an "identical visa programme" for US travellers.

www.bbc.com

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Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 2d

ICE / Border Patrol threatening to arrest a cyclist for following and recording in Chicago

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