Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

TR Cavallaro

@trcava.bsky.social

1.5K followers 990 following 230 posts

Fungi 🍄 | Plants 🌵 | Epigenetics 🧬 | Eco-Evo-Devo 🌀 | PhD Student, Stanford 🌲(he/him/il) #FirstGen #QueerinSTEM 🏳️‍🌈 🌎 Science is for everyone. 🍄‍🟫 Views are my own.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

TR Cavallaro @trcava.bsky.social · 8d

I made a flyer! Know anyone in CA, OR, WA, or BC who might be interested in collecting mushrooms for research purposes? #mycology #citizenscience

Please share widely! 🧪 🍄‍🟫 🌲

A PDF version can be found here: drive.proton.me/urls/W1MM4FG...

A help-wanted poster seeking volunteer mushroom collectors in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

The poster provided some background info about the research project and study system and how folks can contribute if they are interested.

REQUEST | Calling all mycophiles, naturalists, and citizen scientists in CA, OR, WA, and BC!

Going for a hike in the woods or a walk in your neighborhood park?
• Please keep your eyes peeled for the purple mushrooms of L.a-o!
• Collect the mushrooms* if you are able to access them safely.
• If you can, please take a photo of the mushrooms and the tree(s) you find them under.
*If you find a mushroom that is clearly rotten or moldy, please don't collect it.

"I collected some purple mushrooms. What should I do now?"
1. Please keep the mushroom fresh:
• Store in paper, not plastic.
• Keep cool/ refrigerate, but do not freeze.
• Store mushrooms away from light.
2. Email me to arrange pick-up, delivery, or shipment* of your sample.
* will cover packing and shipping expenses!

"What's in it for those who contribute to this work?"
• You will receive acknowledgement in presentations and publications stemming from this research.
• You will receive copies of journal publications from this research (data available upon request).
• You are invited to attend presentations of this research and to visit the lab at Stanford University.

Page 2 of the help-wanted poster includes reference photos of the study organism and a map of where this species has been observed. All images and the map are sourced from iNaturalist.

7 53 61

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Tom Schaller @schaller67.bsky.social · 31m

Make sure this gets circulated widely:

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

18 27

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 14h

Source: Charitie Ropati, Intersectional Environmentalist, and Feminist reporting on Typhoon Halong ravaging western Alaska

1 140 170

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Rick Thoman @alaskawx.bsky.social · 16h

If you're able, please consider a donation to the Alaska Community Fund to help people in western Alaska impacted by ex-typhoon Halong even as winter is bearing down. All the money donated goes to the region. Quyana. #Alaska #AlaskaSky

alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

Screen shot of the ACF Western Alaska Disaster Relief 2025 Fund:

"In response to recent severe storms, including Typhoon Halong, that devastated Alaska's western coast, local community organizations and regional partners have come together to establish the Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund, housed at the Alaska Community Foundation.
Two major storm systems struck western Alaska in rapid succession, bringing record flooding, extreme winds, and extensive damage from Kwigillingok to Kotzebue. Homes have been damaged and destroyed, critical infrastructure compromised, and subsistence resources disrupted. The Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund will provide support to affected communities for immediate relief, recovery support, and long-term resilience, including disaster preparedness initiatives. Distribution decisions will be guided by advisors including regional leaders and stakeholders, ensuring resources reach affected communities based on locally identified needs.

The Western Alaska Disaster Relief Fund brings together a growing list of local, regional, and statewide partners endorsing the fund, including:

Association of Village Council Presidents
Alaska Federation of Natives
Alaska Native Heritage Center
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Bethel Community Services Foundation
Calista Corporation
Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation
First Alaskans Institute
Kawerak, Inc.
Native Peoples Action
Maniilaq Association

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation"

4 72 88

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 6d

If you had written this as a fake news headline a year ago, you would be called hysterical.

Reuters today. Fascism.

Reuters story headlines:

Trunp calls for jailing Democratic leaders as troops prepare for Chicago deployment

14 190 480

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 1d

We should be asking this
c o n s t a n t l y.

160 5K 15K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: There’s a disaster unfolding in Alaska right now. And no major network is covering it.

The remnants of Typhoon Halong battered western Alaska overnight. Homes, with people in them, have literally been swept into the Bering Strait.

At least 20 are missing. No comment from any federal agency.

990 8.8K 14K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 1d

Photos coming out of Western AK are devastating.

Hardest hit are indigenous villages off road system, many miles by air from supplies. Most built on river deltas w/ no high ground to which to escape.

Cuts to NASA/NOAA mean worse weather data. Cuts to EPA mean no grants for erosion control. Etc.

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 1d

These are mostly indigenous communities in Alaska that have been slammed by the storm.

The local manager of a small airline fleet says he is the only one doing evacuations right now!

Defund FEMA and people are abandoned. Defund public media and no-one knows.

FYI, today is Indigenous Peoples Day.

Flooding seen with water up to the crash barriers of local roads

Sheds and debris lie scattered in the storm

A small blue house has been blown onto its roof

3 240 360

TR Cavallaro @trcava.bsky.social · 1d

And of course, I saw some fungi! 🍄‍🟫

These are fruiting bodies of Turbinellus floccocus that I found beneath a fir tree.

Wolf lichen (Letharia vulpina) growing on Sierra Juniper

TR Cavallaro @trcava.bsky.social · 1d

This never gets old 🌲 🏔️

A picture of me holding a massive sugarpine cone while I admire an even more massive tree trunk.

A picture of me holding a sugarpine cone.

A nature scene in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Peaking through the trees, we see a large tree leaning over the river below.

1 10

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 2d

This Is Fascism

690 12K 30K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 2d

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

280 5.5K 19K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Meidas Charise Lee 💙🌊🌴🥥🫘 @chariselee.bsky.social · 2d

WE NEED LAWYERS AT ALL THESE PROTESTS‼️ He was incredibly calm, well spoken & respectful‼️

32 290 620

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 2d

Republicans feel empowered by their leader's autocratic coup against the Constitution to pursue their most cartoonishly evil agenda items, like literally making it easier to kill seals and whales

abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

Republicans try to weaken 50-year-old law protecting whales, seals and polar bears

One of the U.S.’s longest standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction, is the subject of an effort for cutbacks from Republican lawmakers who now feel they have the political will to do so

50 450 1.5K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3d

The prosecution of Tish James is the product of a broken system that allows lawless billionaires to rule alongside corrupt politicians.

It’s as much a story of New York City as Washington, D.C.

But it's here in New York where a new era of politics will be born.

73 910 4K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 2d

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

76 1K 2.4K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 2d

So now the Administration are saying that the mass firing of CDC scientists, including many responsible for preventing outbreaks, was an “error” and many will be brought back.

Whether by intention or incompetence, dismantling public health will kill people.

130 940 2.9K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

James Kelleher @jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie · 4d

If my wait time to speak to a customer service agent is 50 minutes, you can be sure that I'll be spending every minute of it researching how to switch to one of your competitors

2 9 94

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 3d

This is it. Very glad to see this full-throated welcome to queer people — and recognition of trans people’s history — from Zohran Mamdani in the closing month of his campaign and on National Coming Out Day.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

6 210 930

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Piotr Gąsiorowski @piotrgasiorowski.bsky.social · 3d

Some beautiful colonies of Hemitrichia decipiens. Kicin, Wielkopolska (Western Poland).
#slimemoulds #slimemolds #śluzowce #myxofriends #Myxogastria #Eumycetozoa #Amoebozoa.

1 8 45

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 3d

ICE left David, a 17-year-old boy, stranded on the side of Interstate 20 after pulling over his immigrant father, Hector, in Mississippi.

David began running in the scorching sun after the car and watched as it disappeared from sight—soon headed to a Louisiana ICE prison.

Here's their story.

ICE Stranded a 17-Year-Old on I-20 After Arresting His Father. The Mississippi Dad Now Faces Deportation.

A 17-year-old watched as ICE arrested his immigrant father, Hector, on I-20 in June. The family faces mounting legal fees and the risk of deportation.

www.mississippifreepress.org

160 3.3K 6.5K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 3d

Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 3d

A new Noem video is being played at airports trashing Democrats.

310 1.8K 6.5K

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Annalysa Lovos @annalysalovos.bsky.social · 4d

Tucson city council just voted unanimously to recommend that University of Arizona do the same

1 5 28

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Jose A. Esteban @jaestebancbm.bsky.social · 3d

Será interesante hacer de nuevo este gráfico dentro de 20, 30, 40 años.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

3 4

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

Mr Halloween @jarjarfan69.bsky.social · 4d

I think it should be a bigger story that the administration is very publicly expressing their desire for officers to shoot Americans in the streets

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 4d

EXCLUSIVE — DHS Acting General Counsel sent out a memo Wednesday to all Federal Protective Service staff (the sub-agency that guards federal buildings) letting officers know they could take any action necessary "in the vicinity" federal property to protect themselves.

The Handbasket reports:

DHS top lawyer says 'no legal barrier' to actions officers can take to defend federal property

In a memo obtained exclusively by The Handbasket, Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers were given free rein.

www.thehandbasket.co

3 37 170

Reposted by TR Cavallaro

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · 4d

Congrats, Joe Ecker @salkinstitute.bsky.social, to receiving the McClintock Prize! Joe has been a visionary leader of the field of genetics and genomics – not only for plants – for decades
www.salk.edu/news-release...

38 130