Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 8h

If red state schools accept this we are going to get a two-tiered system of higher ed. One set of states will be based in empirical reality and the other will be subject to the whims of a conspiratorial movement that is increasingly detached from facts.

Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 9h

After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.

Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT

The Trump administration is inviting all US colleges to participate in a compact — initially rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that would grant preferential federal funding in re...

www.bloomberg.com

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

The faux feminism at work here is exactly the kind of shit that @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social was writing about when he wrote Elite Capture, the essay and book!

www.bostonreview.net/articles/olu...

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Shana V. White (she/her) @shanavwhite.blacksky.app · 1d

This is how to respond to liars on TV.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 2d

I prefer “anti-fascist“ for a host of reasons and this is a nice practical one.

Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 2d

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 2d

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Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 2d

Yesterday I was told that the class I’m scheduled to teach this month, Confronting Oppression & Injustice, is no longer part of our curriculum. This is a required class yet there was no discussion, no faculty vote, just an email saying the class no longer exists. This is what it’s like in Texas now.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 2d

🧵 regarding the shutdown:

The Democrats aren’t being clear enough about this but we can be: this shutdown is about saving lives.

If we don’t reverse the Medicaid cuts (and the ACA subsidies on insurance bought through the exchanges) that Republicans made this year, people will die.

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Sara Partridge, PhD @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 2d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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TrooperBari @trooperbari.bsky.social · 4d

The same people who turned "safe space" into an object of ridicule and lectured others about their "echo chambers" sure do like to seal themselves off from the outside world whenever the melanin rises above Mayberry levels. But I'm sure Lee Greenwood and Ted Nugent will put on a great show.

The Athletic @theathletic.com · 4d

Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, announced that it will be hosting its own Super Bowl halftime show to rival the NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny.

www.nytimes.com/athletic/670...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 2d

Genuine question: for those enthusiastically pushing AI tools into every part of our education system—what checks/guardrails are there around algorithmic biases like this?

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”

OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT

GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.

www.theverge.com

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Waldo Jaquith, but Spooky @waldo.net · 2d

Five years after it was published, I still think about this @highcountrynews.org project that connects land-grant universities back to the land they were granted, what tribe owned it immediately prior, how much it was worth then, and how much it’s worth now. A complete reframe of land grants.

Land-grab universities - High Country News

Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.

www.hcn.org

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 3d

Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”

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Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 3d

Vivek was apparently shocked to learn that the kids in Charlie Kirk's TPUSA groups are Christian Nationalists who will never accept him. They want the entire country to be white Christians, and the very idea that he could hold a position of power offends them.

newrepublic.com/post/201664/...

Surprise! Vivek Ramaswamy’s Turning Point Event Derailed by Racism

Event attendees asked Ramaswamy why he felt he could be the governor of Ohio even though he isn’t Christian.

newrepublic.com

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It’s Oui’d O’⏰ somewhere 😶‍🌫️ @monat1190.blacksky.app · 3d

Oh she TORE and ended HIM!

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Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 3d

I’m a tenured professor with an endowed chair.

Looking back, I don’t think the freshly minted PhD version of me could land a job in today’s market. I was smart, I was driven — but mostly, I was lucky.

More of us in academia need to admit that.

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 5d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Shana Gadarian @sgadarian.bsky.social · 4d

Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 4d

CHICAGO — Outside an elementary school during dismissal… horrifying. What have we become?

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

Two points:
1) for all the talk of restoring merit, in many cases we are seeing highly qualified people replaced by less qualified White people.
2) Trump and allies have made it harder and harder to explain to students why this is happening.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 4d

Without comment.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 4d

just include the link in the main post, y'all. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 5d

Oh — new reporting on Pope Leo from El Paso Matters, citing footage they have of yesterday's meeting.

Sounds like the pope was even *more* forceful in urging U.S. bishops to speak out about immigration than first reported.

I mean, that's…not subtle. elpasomatters.org/2025/10/08/e...

“I was struck at the beginning (of the video), it talks about the feeling of powerlessness, which I think is so much. I think it’s so important that we as a church give a message of hope in the midst of these horrible struggles, what’s going on in so many cities in the United States right now. At least the church cannot be silent,” the pope told the El Pasoans, according to a video of the meeting provided to El Paso Matters by Hope Border Institute.

Seitz responded: “You’ve spoken very strongly. We’re trying to do the same in our country and yet not get into the political fray the best that we can.”

Pope Leo told Seitz that he’d like to see the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops become more vocal on immigration issues.

“I mean, even within the conference, there are challenges. That’s one place they should be … I wish they were stronger in their own voice,” Leo said, adding that Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the conference, should speak out more on immigration.

“There’s been some good movement in that sense, but I certainly intend to continue to encourage” U.S. bishops to address immigration, Leo said.

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 6d

NEW: I spoke to clergy and faith leaders who've joined protests at the Chicago-area ICE facility.

Three say they've been shot with pepper balls, sometimes while praying.

All say ICE is also violating their religious freedom, and one is arguing it in court. religionnews.com/2025/10/07/i...

Religious protesters say ICE threatens religious freedom in Chicago

(RNS) — Despite potential danger, religious leaders and faith activists have been a visible presence at Chicago-area ICE protests, some waving signs with slogans such as ‘Love thy neighbor’ and ‘Who w...

religionnews.com

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Air-rum @aarum.bsky.social · 5d

She cooked & correct ✅

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Solomon @solomonmissouri.bsky.social · 6d

Trump to Unveil Farmer Aid as China Shuns U.S. Crops www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/u...

Trump to Unveil Farmer Aid as China Shuns U.S. Crops

www.nytimes.com

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