Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Gail Cornwall

@gailcornwall.com

1.5K followers 380 following 300 posts

Former teacher & lawyer who now works as a mother & writer. Bylines for the Atlantic, Nation, NYT, Good Housekeeping, Guardian, New York Mag, USA Today, & many more. Stories tackle education, psychology, parenting, etc.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · Nov 11

A little-known requirement meant to incentivize academic performance has been doing the opposite for decades, disqualifying capable students from financial aid for life & becoming “a de facto end” to their education. It’s not fair or smart. My latest for @hechingerreport.org & @washingtonpost.com.

The hidden financial aid hurdle derailing college students

Little-known rules requiring that students make ‘satisfactory academic progress’ to receive federal grants have derailed countless college students. But legislators are finally taking notice.

hechingerreport.org

1 6

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 23m

“Hardin, like many rural districts, relies on international teachers to fill out its staff,” b/c there aren’t enough American applicants. “Out of 150 teachers … about 30 are in the U.S. on teaching visas…. things are about to get even tougher.” Sequoia Carrillo 4 @npr.org www.npr.org/2025/10/15/n...

Many rural schools rely on international teachers. Trump's visa changes threaten that

The Trump administration announced a $100,000 fee to accompany each H1-B visa. The fee could wreak havoc on rural school districts that rely on them to bring in teachers.

www.npr.org

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 5h

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams

The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

www.thewrap.com

420 2.2K 3.5K

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 6h

“Top line is: it’s a win for Pfizer, but not a win for American patients” for whom prices will change little if at all. In related news, “Between 1998 and the middle of this year … Big Pharma spent more than $6.3 billion on lobbying.” @johncassidysays.bsky.social www.newyorker.com/news/the-fin...

Donald Trump’s Big Pharma Showdown Ends with a Whimper

Wall Street is celebrating the White House’s deal with Pfizer on drug prices. Patients shouldn’t be.

www.newyorker.com

3 5

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 6h

Beautifully rendered.

Heather Shaw for @brevitymag.com c/o @markisero.bsky.social of #ArticleClub

brevitymag.com/current-issu...

There Will Be Plenty of Time | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

brevitymag.com

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 1d

What’s driving Romancelandia’s success, and can other genres successfully emulate it? Spoiler alert: There’s a phenomenon called “an open-elite network.” @rebackermann.bsky.social for @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...

The Publishing Industry’s Most Swoon-Worthy Genre

Tight-knit but open-armed fans have made romance an especially hot commodity.

www.theatlantic.com

1 1

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 4d

This Is Fascism

690 13K 30K

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 5d

MIT showing the way

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

www.nytimes.com

15 61

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 5d

There's "a paradox bedeviling the U.S. nursing landscape." Huge need for nurses, thanks to retirement & burnout, and yet, programs can't accommodate the "tens of thousands" of applicants b/c of lack of 2 things. @teresawatanabe.bsky.social for @hechingerreport.org hechingerreport.org/nurses-are-i...

Nurses are in high demand but nursing schools struggle tp provide enough slots to train them

Across the country, there is enormous demand for nurses, as retirement or burnout push many from the field. Despite tens of thousands of students fighting to get into nursing programs, schools can’t a...

hechingerreport.org

1 1

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

New York Attorney General Letitia James @newyorkstateag.bsky.social · 6d

This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.

I am not fearful — I am fearless.

We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights..

1.8K 11K 39K

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 7d

“The movement against no-fault divorce is about walking back women’s rights & autonomy …. Although no-fault divorce hasn’t gotten to … Trump’s chopping block yet, rumors have proliferated, and people are justifiably anxious.” @amyshearn.bsky.social for @msmagazine.com msmagazine.com/2025/03/10/g...

The GOP’s Next Target? No-Fault Divorce and Women’s Right to Leave

The GOP’s Next Target, According to Trump, Vance and Johnson? No-Fault Divorce and Women’s Right to Leave Violent or Unhappy Marriages

msmagazine.com

2 5

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 7d

“TikTok's algorithm recommends porn & highly sexualised content to children's accounts, according to a new report by a human rights campaign…. ‘TikTok isn't just failing to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content - it's suggesting it to them….’” www.bbc.com/news/article...

TikTok 'recommends sexual content and porn to children', says report - BBC News

Researchers find TikTok's algorithm recommends sexual content to newly-created child accounts.

www.bbc.com

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 7d

The Trump administration is talking out of both sides of its mouth, claiming MAHA’s goal of improving child nutrition while disappearing USDA programs and cutting SNAP, the funding for schools and states to meet it. Small-time farmers and kids will take the hit. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

What Happens to School Lunches in the MAHA Era?

R.F.K., Jr., promised healthier food for kids, but the Trump Administration is cutting programs that achieve this goal.

www.newyorker.com

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 8d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

1.7K 21K 56K

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 8d

“New Mexico has quietly emerged as a progressive health-care sanctuary in the Southwest. Since the Dobbs decision, the number of abortion clinics in NM has more than doubled …. More than 10K women have travelled there to receive abortion care.” @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

How New Mexico Became a Sanctuary State for Health Care

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the number of abortion clinics there has doubled. With strong protections for gender-affirming treatment, and now universal child care, the state is betting on a prog...

www.newyorker.com

1 2

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · 10d

ICE admits that up to 50% of arrests in its Chicago raids are "collateral.” These aren't statistics. They are parents taken from their children, neighbors taken from our communities. When does a "collateral" U.S. citizen child's trauma matter? This isn't law enforcement; it's a campaign of terror.

820 11K 28K

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 13d

And super smoothly written.

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 13d

“raising the question of whether they are a generation maladapted to the world around them or the first generation to be thoroughly understood.” 2/2 Caitlin Moscatello for @thecut.com c/o @markisero.bsky.social’s #ArticleClub www.thecut.com/article/what...

What If a Child Was Terrified of Food?

The rise of ARFID, a new eating disorder driven not by body image but by fear.

www.thecut.com

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 13d

“ARFID may be more easily understood … as an anxiety disorder that centers on food. Its rise coincides with a pediatric diagnostic boom … as more and more children are treated for generalized anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and ADHD ...” 1/2 www.thecut.com/article/what...

What If a Child Was Terrified of Food?

The rise of ARFID, a new eating disorder driven not by body image but by fear.

www.thecut.com

2 2

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 13d

“If the playbook Doctorow describes involves promising benefits to people only to erratically renege on, and degrade, existing services, then Donald Trump is the enshittifier-in-chief.” @chaykak.bsky.social

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 13d

“Enshittification” was a term coined by Cory Doctorow, in 2022, to describe how the technologies that dominated our daily lives seemed to be all getting worse at the same time. Now, in a new book, he expands on the word that has become bleakly relevant.

The Age of Enshittification

In a new book, the technology critic Cory Doctorow expands on a coinage that has become bleakly relevant, in Silicon Valley and beyond.

www.newyorker.com

4 9

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 13d

I see you. And, yes. Yes it does.

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 13d

This is the brutality & tyranny the U.S. Constitution was drafted to prevent:

In the middle of the night, “she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building w/out any clothes on & into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers.”

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 14d

Omg, this #NewYorkerCartoons from @tysoncole.bsky.social is 🔥.

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 15d

NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.

I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.

Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”

1.3K 16K 32K

Reposted by Gail Cornwall

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 16d

In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists when unprovoked — what would we call it?

If federal agents marched down streets demanding papers — what would we say?

Authoritarianism — let’s not pretend it’s something else when it happens in our American cities.

660 10K 35K

Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 16d

“I wrote enthusiastically a few years ago that the mainstream media was leaning into playing a more pro-democracy role. That’s over now…. We are seeing a huge retrenchment, particularly in elite institutions, from caring about racial inequality and describing the Republican Party honestly.”