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Melissa Lewis

@melissa.news

13K followers 900 following 520 posts

data reporter, Center for Investigative Reporting (@motherjones.com + @revealnews.org) ❦ melissa.news

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · Apr 20

TIL: The 2000s piracy PSA used a font designed by the fantastic Just van Rossum, whose brother Guido created the Python programming language.

“Piracy. It’s a Crime.” PSA

From Wikipedia: “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” is the first sentence and commonly used name of a public service announcement that debuted on July 12, 2004 in cinemas, and July 27 on home media, which wa...

fontsinuse.com

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Reposted by Melissa Lewis

Leah Millis @leahmillis.bsky.social · 1d

The @chicago.suntimes.com photographer who risked their personal health and safety to take this photograph is Anthony Vazquez. Please credit photographers and media outlets. In this age of misinformation, a photo with no context could be anything at all.

50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 1d

Please remind us who the domestic terrorists are again.

Photo from Chicago: DHS militarized agent holding a gun up directly in someone’s face as the victim has their hands up, pleading for them not to shoot.

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 1d

Especially harrowing: He and his family were at the departure gate when they learned someone had canceled their reservations for the final flight out.

The first time we tried to fly out of the country, we successfully got our boarding passes and made it through security. We were at the gate.

I think, for 99.9 percent of the time, that’s it, right? But they told us there was an error. They made a bunch of phone calls and basically said that, somehow, someone at the very last second had canceled our flight reservation—which I didn’t even know was possible.

Reposted by Melissa Lewis

matthew @pahuski.com · 2d

Happy Columbo’s Day

Screenshot from Columbo. He his talking to his dog, which is sitting is the drivers seat of a car. “Okay, I’m gonna put you in charge. You take care of the car. You’re a responsible dog. When I get back, if the car’s okay, I’ll give you another cookie.”

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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 2d

ICE agents blocked an ambulance that was trying to take an injured protester to hospital.

"We are still not being allowed to leave by ICE officers.” an EMT said on radio

When driver tried to get out, an agent yelled, "DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I WILL SHOOT YOU"

www.wweek.com/news/2025/10...

Documents Allege a Federal Agent at Portland ICE Threatened to Shoot an Ambulance Driver

Feds delayed medics who had come to pick up an injured protester. Then, according to confidential incident reports, the agents became aggressive.

www.wweek.com

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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 14d

feels like we're living through some kind of cultural gas leak

The Verge @theverge.com · 16d

Microsoft launches ‘vibe working’ in Excel and Word

Vibe working is all about Office’s new Agent Mode.

buff.ly

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 14d

From a story published yesterday by @nlanard.bsky.social

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The judge goes on to write that the case he is deciding is “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court.” He concludes that there was not an “ideological deportation policy” targeting pro-Palestine speech. Instead, there was something more sinister:

“[T]he intent of the Secretaries was more invidious—to target a few for speaking out and then use the full rigor of the Immigration and Nationality Act (in ways it had never been used before) to have them publicly deported with the goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen (and other) pro-Palestinians into silence because their views were unwelcome.”

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Noah Lanard @nlanard.bsky.social · 15d

Very much worth reading parts of Judge William G. Young's ruling taking on the Trump admin's assault on the First Amendment.

Notable that a decision from a Reagan appointee is filled with paragraphs like this one.

Story here: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 14d

I’m a person who has never gotten cholera, without even trying. Sewage systems are sexy.

Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 14d

I’m a socialist mayor. Sewage systems are sexy.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD
@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy.
• Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.s... • 4h I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 15d

I know very little about military decorum, but I wouldn’t have expected applause in this context. Even if Hegseth or anyone else did, can the silence really be taken as an indicator of sentiment?

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 15d

If you want some solace, and this may be copium, it does appear this shit bombed.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 15d

“To our enemies: FAFO”

(holds for applause that doesn’t come)

Cringey awkward moment as Hegseth summons all 🇺🇸 generals to hear him do a one-man show about how strong we are

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Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 15d

The Conviction Integrity Unit helped overturn 248 wrongful convictions between 2016 and 2024. It's overturned exactly 0 in the last year.

Important work here by @danhinkel.bsky.social!

www.injusticewatch.org/project/deny...

Cook County’s new prosecutor has weakened an already broken system for freeing the innocent

State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s Conviction Integrity Unit hasn’t exonerated anyone in her 10 months on the job, and she has done little to confront more than a dozen coercion allegations again...

www.injusticewatch.org

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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 16d

For the November/December issue of @motherjones.com, I dove into the history of the word "able-bodied"—including how it's been harmful to disabled Americans since the 1930s and it most certainly will be when Medicaid work reqs come into play again. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The deceptive phrase behind Trump's Medicaid purge

How the idea of “able-bodied” is abused

www.motherjones.com

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 16d

““We welcome the court’s decision to stop a rushed, lawless attempt to make essential funding contingent on a community’s compliance with harmful and unlawful restrictions the Trump-Vance administration is trying to impose,” they wrote.”

Advocates Sue HUD to Preserve $75 Million Homeless Grants

Lawsuit filed by homeless advocates over federal funding criteria tied to Trump administration policies on sanctuary cities.

www.washingtoninformer.com

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Jeremiah Hayden @jeremiahhayden.bsky.social · 17d

A total about-face by Metro Chamber and allies, trying to repeal the portrait of Portland crime they drew up during the post-COVID years, when it seemed politically advantageous.

Now, the crime narratives are “outdated,” because the people who constructed them decided so. Sleight of hand.

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

An Oral History of Tim Curry’s Escape to the One Place Uncorrupted by Capitalism

How an unforgettable performance in Red Alert 3 became legend.

www.vice.com

Reposted by Melissa Lewis

Future Games Show @futuregamesshow.bsky.social · 19d

the Command & Conquer series is 30 years old today we so have an excuse to share this iconic moment with Tim Curry

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

I have not been able to think about the word at the end of this video—*without* thinking of this video—since I first watched it.

Future Games Show @futuregamesshow.bsky.social · 19d

the Command & Conquer series is 30 years old today we so have an excuse to share this iconic moment with Tim Curry

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

nom de mer*

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paris martineau @paris.nyc · 19d

tuesday marked the 5th time in 5 weeks that shrimp was recalled for possible radioactive contamination

yesterday, two NEW recalls were issued. then, literally as i was reporting those out, *another* company announced a radiation-related shrimp recall www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

Three New Recalls Issued for Possibly Radioactive Shrimp - Consumer Reports

Multiple brands of frozen and ready-to-eat shrimp sold in over 40 states are being pulled from shelves at Kroger, Food Lion, and other stores.

www.consumerreports.org

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

Possibly Radioactive Shrimp is my new nom de guerre

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 23d

even the high lifted and chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two thousand miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without committing burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious perquisites

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

you don’t need to!!!!!!!!

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Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

losing my mind

A still from the game depicting a happy-looking light green frog on a large lily pad, replete with another leaf and stem structure on it like a tiny parasol

Melissa Lewis @melissa.news · 18d

Anyone else hoping to spend all their free time this weekend on Hades II?

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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 19d

Medicaid work requirements are just bad. But, as I wrote for @motherjones.com, there’s an extra level of vileness going on with them being implemented as more work-from-home jobs disappear.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The biggest hurdle to Trump's Medicaid work requirements: the war on disabled workers

The White House is telling Medicaid users to get jobs—while attacking everything that makes that possible.

www.motherjones.com

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