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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

@jb4nay.bsky.social

420 followers 510 following 1.9K posts

Chemistry magazine editor 🧪 freelance journalist & grad student. 📚, puns, 🏀, supporting good journalism, art, and 🎮. I be posting links, yes ma'am. Trying to be a little less wack every day (he/they) | Texas ➡️ (D)MV | linktr.ee/jb4nay | Signal: j_forney.85

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · Aug 5

Did some tweaking on my portfolio site. You can find my previous work and subscribe to my free newsletter! forneys-findings.beehiiv.com/authors

Forney's Findings

Essays and published work by Jonathan (JB) Forney

forneys-findings.beehiiv.com

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Alerts from NWS Baltimore MD/Washington DC (UNOFFICIAL) @was.nws-bot.us · 8h

🚨 Freeze Watch issued October 15 at 10:06PM EDT until October 17 at 9:00AM EDT by NWS Baltimore MD/Washington DC 🚨
Additional Details Here.

* WHAT...Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 27 possible.

* WHERE...Portions of north central and western Maryland, northwest
and western Virginia, and eastern and panhandle West Virginia.

* WHEN...From late Thursday night through Friday morning.

* IMPACTS...Frost and freeze conditions could kill crops, other
sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor
plumbing.

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Baltimore Banner @thebaltimorebanner.com · 20h

Banner poll: 54% approval for Moore, but voters can’t identify his accomplishments

While a majority of Marylanders approve of the job Gov. Wes Moore is doing, they struggle to identify his achievements and offer only soft support, according to a new statewide poll from The Banner.

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Baltimore Banner @thebaltimorebanner.com · 13h

Annapolis restricts short-term rentals

The new rules will limit each side of a city block, defined as a “block face,” with no more than 10% of short-term rentals.

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Talking Biz News @talkingbiznews.bsky.social · 15h

@wsj.com layoffs occurring. If you were laid off and would like a post on Talking Biz News that you're looking for something new, we can be reached at [email protected]

Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 1d

It's promising to see a lot of the people in the chat have lost opportunities in the immediate aftermath of this reporting. If nothing else, maybe the fear of consequences will keep them from being so overtly racist and xenophobic. Good on Politico for naming names

Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 1d

Words mean things. When the President and others use their platforms to promote bigotry, people who want a crumb of that power will match the language www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In his 2024 campaign, Trump spread false reports of Haitian migrants eating pets and, at one of his rallies, welcomed comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and joked about Black people “carving watermelons” on Halloween.

Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, rejected the idea that Trump’s rhetoric had anything to do with the chat members’ language.

“Only an activist, left-wing reporter would desperately try to tie President Trump into a story about a random groupchat he has no affiliation with, while failing to mention the dangerous smears coming from Democrat politicians who have fantasized about murdering their opponent and called Republicans Nazis and Fascists,” she said. “No one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than President Trump and his supporters.”

Few minority groups are spared from the Young Republican group’s chat. Their rhetoric — normalized at most points as dark humor — mirrors some popular conservative political commentators, podcasters and comedians amid a national erosion of what’s considered acceptable discourse.

Art Jipson, a professor at the University of Dayton who specializes in white racial extremism, surmised the Young Republicans in the chat were influenced by Trump’s language, which he said is often hyperbolic and emotionally charged.

“Trump’s persistent use of hostile, often inflammatory language that normalizes aggressive discourse in conservative circles can be incredibly influential on young operatives who are still trying to figure out, ‘What is that political discourse?’” Jipson said.

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 1d

🫩 www.axios.com/2025/10/14/j...

between Mills, 77, and Platner, 41, could deepen rifts within the Democratic Party over age, ideology, gender and experience.
• Days before Mills entered the race, Sanders urged the governor to not launch a campaign, saying on X that the party should "not waste millions on an unnecessary & divisive primary."
• Mills played up her history of breaking glass ceilings in her launch video, saying, "I heard my father's voice when the bullies in power said a woman couldn't be a prosecutor or an attorney general or a governor."

Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 1d

A string of words I never thought I’d see together www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

What happened to MrBeast's East Carolina University academic program? No one will say

In 2022, MrBeast, the most subscribed to YouTuber, and East Carolina University announced an academic program. Years later it stalled without reason.

www.usatoday.com

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Montgomery County (MD) Department of Transportation - Ride On @rideonmct.bsky.social · 6d

Congratulations to Ride On Operator Luis Reyes Flores, who was named the Transportation Association of Maryland's Driver of the Year at this week's annual conference. We're proud of our exceptional employees! Montgomery County (MD) Department of Transportation

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Montgomery County (MD) Department of Transportation - Ride On @rideonmct.bsky.social · 6d

Ride On was named the Transit System of the Year at the Transportation Association of Maryland's annual conference this week in Stevensville, MD. We're proud to offer award-winning service to Montgomery County! Montgomery County (MD) Department of Transportation

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 1d

What a mess. So much unnecessary harm affecting these employees wapo.st/3W0KJ4z

One of the OPM employees described a chaotic, ongoing mess.

“No strategic direction, no strategic plan, statutorily required duties gone by the wayside, no backups for things people did when they left … budget questions that can’t be answered, big holes in institutional knowledge, no ability to backfill priority positions,” the employee said.
Kupor said that he thinks his staff is working “more efficiently now at lower numbers of head count.”

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Common Dreams @commondreams.org · 1d

"The public has a right to know how the government and military are operating."

As Deadline Nears, News Outlets Have No Plans to Sign 'Flatly Unconstitutional' Pentagon Press Policy

Major news outlets are refusing to sign a Pentagon agreement restricting their reporting on the Department of Defense. This threatens the public's right to know and violates journalists' First Amendment rights. Is the Trump administration trying to silence the truth about the US military? #PressFreedom #FirstAmendment

www.commondreams.org

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 2d

🗣️🗣️🗣️ www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-...

$Whether or not the change had anything to do with Beyoncé, it matches a consistent Grammy pattern: Instead of admitting that genres bleed together, they double down on splitting hairs. The truth is, genres themselves have already splintered beyond recognition. Country exists in two realities at once — the fiddles-and-steel-guitar traditionalists on one side and glossy crossovers on the other. See: Lady Gaga’s Joanne, or Post Malone’s yeehaw experiment F-1 Trillion. If country is fractured, pop is positively shattered, less a sound than a survival tactic. Reinvention used to mean a new hairstyle; now, it means a genre takeover. Beyoncé went from disco-diva futurism on Renaissance to cowboy boots on Cowboy Carter without blinking. In her acceptance speech, she all but dared the industry to keep up: “I think sometimes ‘genre’ is a code word to keep us in our place as artists. And I just want to encourage people to do what they’re passionate about and stay persistent,” Queen Bey said.$

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Word In Black @wordinblacknews.bsky.social · 7d

Pulitzer winner Percival Everett linked book bans to fascism — and reminded us why every page turned is resistance. “When we read, we become critical. We’re open to ideas. We think,” he said. “And that’s what fascists do not want us to do."
wordinblack.com/2025/10/perc...

Percival Everett: 'Reading Is the Most Subversive Thing We Can Do'

The Pulitzer winner linked book bans to fascism — and reminded us why every page turned is resistance.

wordinblack.com

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 2d

wordinblack.com/2025/10/disa...

Indeed, a new study from The Thomas Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank, finds the share of Black Americans who sit on their local school board has been cut in half, dropping from 8% in 2001 to 4% in 2023. Meanwhile, the proportion of white Americans, long the majority of school board members, remains virtually unchanged — going from 86% to 87% in the same time span.

That disparity isn’t just about optics. This study comes as school boards across the country are being put in the national spotlight over hot-button issues such as votes on Critical Race Theory and book bans.

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

s. eek smith 👻 @sesmith.lol · 6d

'What we may be reluctant to acknowledge even now is that these brutal dismissals are an expression of deep-rooted antiblackness that says Black people are never qualified to hold the jobs they have, whatever their actual qualifications.'

Trump’s Purging of Black Officials Makes Latent Racism Official Policy

President Trump's firings send a clear message that white mediocrity is always preferable to Black achievement.

capitalandmain.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Capital & Main @capitalandmain.bsky.social · 7d

The purging of Black people from government jobs is an expression of deep-rooted antiblackness that says Black people are never qualified to hold the jobs they have, whatever their actual qualifications.

Column by Erin Aubry Kaplan

capitalandmain.com/trumps-purgi...

Trump’s Purging of Black Officials Makes Latent Racism Official Policy

President Trump's firings send a clear message that white mediocrity is always preferable to Black achievement.

capitalandmain.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Current Affairs @currentaffairs.bsky.social · 2d

Empathy is a powerful force indeed, which is why we must stick up for it when it is being attacked by those who seek justifications, whether divine or secular, for treating others abominably. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-rig...

The Right’s Latest Culture War Crusade is Against Empathy

Blessed are the unfeeling, for they shall inherit the GOP. Books, sermons, and tweets now warn that “toxic empathy” is destroying civilization.

www.currentaffairs.org

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Houston Public Media @houstonpublicmedia.bsky.social · 2d

Daniel Caesar's pop-up concert in Houston over the weekend drew 1,500 people before law enforcement shut it down for not having proper permitting.

Daniel Caesar’s pop-up show in Houston drew 1,500 people before law enforcement shut it down

The Grammy-winning R&B singer announced the impromptu performance at Bear Creek Pioneers Park just hours before it began. Law enforcement shut it down when he didn’t have proper permitting.

www.houstonpublicmedia.org

Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

Aftermath @aftermath.site · 6d

Chess dungeon crawler, yeah
aftermath.site/chess-dungeon-...

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Souleymane’s Story review – superb performance ballasts drama of man clinging on in the margins in Paris

Abou Sangaré is magnificent in a story that shines light on the enforced invisibility of economic migrants

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾)

The Verge @theverge.com · 2d

Slack is turning Slackbot into an AI assistant

Slackbot is getting a big upgrade.

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 3d

“We are now in a new reality, and we can no longer rely on the institutions and policies designed for the old one,” Manjana Milkoreit, who researches global governance at University of Oslo and coauthored the report, said
via @grist.org grist.org/oceans/coral...

Corals are disappearing, pushing Earth to its first major ‘tipping point’

A new report says Earth has reached a dire milestone with the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs. It's not too late to save what remains.

grist.org

Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 3d

dc.eater.com/restaurant-n...

“It’s been a rough couple of months to be in the restaurant industry in D.C.,” says Manuel Olivera, who runs Adams Morgan’s two-year-old Uruguayan hit, Ceibo. “I think it’s a combination of things – the economy and politics – that honestly makes this a particularly harsh time. I don’t see a government shutdown being positive for anyone in the city.”

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Jonathan Forney (JB 🕵🏾) @jb4nay.bsky.social · 3d

Still a handful of Pride events in the region www.washingtonblade.com/2025/09/29/l...

Guide to regional fall Pride celebrations

LGBTQ community festivals scheduled in cities across region