Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Robert Stilling

Kendra K. Levine @kklevine.bsky.social · 1d

Libraries have been moving to rely more on networks to fill the gaps of austerity, and now they are unraveling.

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 1d

“ALL of Florida lost its [interlibrary loan] services as of October 1. This, of course, most harms those in rural communities. That means those with the most to lose and with the weakest access to education and entertainment materials are now wholly dependent on what their own library owns…”

The Current State of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (October 2025 Edition)

Grant money that should be going to library projects is going to state-sponsored propaganda, among other IMLS updates.

buttondown.com

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StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 1d

Federal Secret Police and plainclothes ICE agents kidnap multiple people from a neighborhood in Chicago. They then deploy teargas and brutally beat neighbors who come out to express their concern.

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Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 1d

Portland is showing the way.

Bill Madden @maddenifico.bsky.social · 1d

WARNING: This horrific video by a war correspondent reporting from the front lines of war ravaged Portland is not for the squeamish. 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣👇

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Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPH, SM @jennifernuzzo.bsky.social · 3d

Some of these people have now been fired and rehired TWICE since January. The current state of dysfunction is mind boggling.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 3d

OOOPS! UPDATE: Two HHS officials tell me that disease detectives, measles response officers, global health officials and the MMWR staff were laid off by mistake and will be reinstated. But Washington office is still RIFed

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 4d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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kristinmahoney.bsky.social @kristinmahoney.bsky.social · 4d

If you are at the MSA conference, stop by the JHUP table to take a look at the beautiful latest issue of Cusp.

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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 7d

"So, Democrats have three words for this: no fucking way. It's literally life or death. We will not let Republicans blow up our health care system."

This is, hands down, the best comms work Chuck Schumer has done in YEARS. Surprisingly good.

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jen sometimes aph 🌻 @bunnibytz.bsky.social · 8d

Here’s the CBS News report about ICE making bogus 911 calls and filing false police reports in Chicago.

ht: @mikenellis.bsky.social

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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 9d

At what point does a governor call up their National Guard to oppose the deployment of an out-of-state National Guard?

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Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 9d

“In reality, the “compact” is a maximalist document, demanding a near-complete surrender of core academic freedoms of the university. “

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9d

for any UVA folks that follow me you should circulate this among your networks balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Delegate Katrina Callsen @katrinacallsen.com · 12d

UVA is one of 9 schools being targeted with a “compact for academic excellence” in exchange for federal funds. They are being told to limit the political expression of their staff and students, open their finances to the Trump administration, limit foreign students from attending, and more.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13d

Some schools will be starved of resources. Other schools will be offered bribes. The end goal is the same. To make the universities an extension of the Trump administration. Shame on any of these institutions willing to take the bribes.

Letters on Wednesday were going out to solicit agreement and feedback from Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia, according to an administration official.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13d

This is the sort of thing where Dems on higher education committees should be saying things like they view this as illegal, and expect they will withdraw funds from schools who go along with Trump when they regain power.

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Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 13d

I’m very pleased to have a chapter on “Wilde in Africa and the Caribbean” in the newly published Oxford Handbook of Oscar Wilde, ed. Kate Hext and Alex Murray. Lots of great stuff here, can’t wait to dig in.

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

global.oup.com

Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 13d

Donate!

NPR @npr.org · 13d

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.

Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.

Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 16d

So far today, Chuck Schumer has said his strategy for preventing Trump sending troops into blue cities is to win over Republican senators (!) while Hakeem Jeffries praised Eric Adams's courage and authenticity (!!) while refusing to endorse Mamdani. Again.

These two gotta go.

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 18d

BREAKING: The FBI has fired agents photographed kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest that followed the death of George Floyd, AP sources say.

FBI fires agents photographed kneeling during 2020 racial justice protest, AP sources say

The FBI has fired agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

bit.ly

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 18d

Why do headlines say "norms shattered" when what is meant is "laws broken" or "Constitution violated"?

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Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 18d

Awesome, looking forward to this.

Brian Glavey @glavey.bsky.social · 18d

I'm over the moon that my book, Relatability: Sharing and Oversharing with the New York School Poets, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in the not too distant future.

Book contract language for Brian Glavey's Relatability: Sharing and Oversharing with the New York School Poets

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 20d

The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?

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Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 22d

“According to our sources faculty have been told that if they make any statement implying that there are more than two sexes or genders (male and female) they will be fired.”

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 22d

Under pressure from Texas government officials, Angelo State University in Texas is banning all discussion or mention of the existence of trans people along with banning the LGBTQ pride flag from campus and forced misgendering of trans people.

conchoobserver.com/2025/09/19/a...

Alt text: Screenshot of a document outlining a new university policy. The bullet points state:

No discussion of transgender topics or anything suggesting more than two genders.

All information in syllabi about transgender topics must be removed.

Instructors must use students’ given names, not preferred names.

Safe-space stickers, LGBTQ flags, etc. are banned and must be removed.

Employees must remove pronouns from email signatures.

The university will not support faculty who teach or discuss these topics in class.

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NAVSA @navsa.bsky.social · 24d

bit.ly/3IxZOqW Fellowship: Curran Fellowships (Application deadline: 10/15/25)

Fellowship: Curran Fellowships (Application deadline: 10/15/25) | NAVSA

bit.ly

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 24d

So Trump gets DOJ to drop an obvious bribery case against Tom Homan, then fires the US Attorney who found insufficient evidence to prosecute Letitia James, then threatens to fire Pam Bondi and replace her with dunce Lindsey Halligan unless she immediately indicts his enemies.

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Robert Stilling @rstilling.bsky.social · 24d

Blatant corruption.

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 24d

“On Sept. 20, with hidden cameras recording the scene, Homan accepted $50,000 in bills, according to an internal summary of the case.”

Homan was being investigated for allegedly “soliciting payments in exchange for awarding contracts should Trump win the election”

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.

The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a “deep state” probe in early 2025.

www.msnbc.com

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 27d

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say.

This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.

All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

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