Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 26m

I go for stretches where instead of any languages I do math lessons. It's like going back to 8th grade and being amazing at it now.

Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 17h

Everyone across biomedicine should be very loud about this so this team's RIF status gets reversed. Nhanes has been key for tracking obesity & diabetes rates, identifying high blood lead levels in kids in the 70s, tracking progress on cholesterol lowering, guiding nutrient fortification programs etc

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Kevin C Klatt, PhD, RD @kcklatt.bsky.social · 17h

MMWR stole the show in the first round of headlines about CDC cuts but in the chaos, many missed that the NHANES mobile team remains RIF'd. This is the backbone of this key survey that contains some of the only representative anthropometric, biochemical, clinical and dietary data on the country.

STAT @statnews.com · 19h

Protecting the nation’s public health demands data, whether it be new measles cases, a surge in ER visits, or shifting patterns in obesity. The most recent job cuts at the CDC threaten the mostly unseen foundation of that research enterprise.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/14/c...

CDC team running top survey on health and nutrition is laid off

NHANES has collected data on eating patterns, diabetes and other common diseases for decades. The CDC team that runs it has been fired.

www.statnews.com

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 15h

Look who's running for Congress! Dr. Richard Pan was an effective and enthusiastic advocate for public health in California. He'll be a terrific US Representative.

Dr. Richard Pan @drpanmd.bsky.social · 17h

I’m Dr. Richard Pan, a pediatrician, father, and former state senator.

I’ve spent my career protecting kids and expanding health care. Now I’m running for Congress because Washington could use a little good medicine. #CA03 #DrPanForCongress

Watch our launch video, then share it.

Launch - Dr. Pan for Congress

YouTube video by Dr. Richard Pan for Congress

youtu.be

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 15h

Best news I've heard today. Go, go, go!

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 18h

I'm sorry, is the Trump Administration talking to a tech platform?

Is it...requesting content moderation?

Today following outreach from @thejusticedept, Facebook removed a large group page that was being used to dox and target @ICEgov agents in Chicago.
The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

If you're in Houston, please go to the City Council meeting 10/14, 1:30 pm. Emmanuel Gonzalez Garcia must be returned to his mother and protected. Why didn't HPD return him to his mother?

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

On October 4, Emmanuel, an autistic 15-yo, wandered away from his fruit seller mom in Houston. She reported him missing. When he was found the next day, police turned him over to immigration instead of his family. His mom's been trying to reunite with him since. Tonight he had emergency surgery.

Houston teen separated from mother gets emergency surgery amid immigration battle

Gonzalez Garcia, who has autism, disappeared on Oct. 4 while his mother was selling fruit on the northwest side of Houston. He went to use the restroom and did not return.

www.click2houston.com

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

The bathroom police is also a nightmare to families like mine. My autistic son cannot go to the men's room by himself; he has to go to the ladies' with Mom or Sis. This manufactured outrage does nothing to protect women, and it endangers disability families.

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

Part 3 exposes the cover-up.

www.bmj.com/content/342/...

The Lancet’s two days to bury bad news

In the third part of a special BMJ series, Brian Deer reveals what happened when he reported misconduct in Andrew Wakefield’s MMR research to the medical journal that published it Preparing to give e...

www.bmj.com

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

Part 2 outlines the scam:

www.bmj.com/content/342/...

How the vaccine crisis was meant to make money

In the second part of a special BMJ series, Brian Deer reveals a secret scheme to raise huge sums from a campaign, launched at a London medical school, that claimed links between MMR, autism, and bowe...

www.bmj.com

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

His 3-parter at BMJ in 2011 was a banger. Given British libel law, if he had gotten one word wrong, Brian Deer and editor Fiona Godlee would have been at extraordinary risk.

www.bmj.com/content/342/...

How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed

In the first part of a special BMJ series, Brian Deer exposes the bogus data behind claims that launched a worldwide scare over the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, and reveals how the appearance ...

www.bmj.com

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Kate Rothwell @kroth.bsky.social · 1d

www.instagram.com/reel/DKh5R_R...

uselesscops on Instagram: "I'd always wondered how supposedly good German people could just walk past the Gestapo arresting Jews in the street. I guess I have…"

I'd always wondered how supposedly good German people could just walk past the Gestapo arresting Jews in the street. I guess I have my answer... They just didn't care about anyone but themselves.View all 19,617 comments

www.instagram.com

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 1d

If you're wondering whether or not to get a flu shot, I didn't get one in time, and I just had a fever dream where I was in the Drew Carey Show because several days ago I was on the Wikipedia page for the Drew Carey Show. You don't have to do this to yourself.

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 1d

For those who don’t intimately understand how news works and why Bari Weiss’s unearned elevation to head of CBS News matters, I’d recommend watching this in entirety. Also, will forever point out irony of how an admitted DEI hire thinks her hire was meritorious while Black people’s aren’t.

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 1d

Holy shit go off John Oliver youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ?...

Bari Weiss: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight

youtu.be

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 2d

If those guys are ever arrested, I expect a lot of hits on the CODIS database.

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks! They look great.

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me about the boots?

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 2d

Tell him it's a globe with a man bun — the moon.

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 2d

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 3d

But they're standing on the bloodbath at the Department of Education, where they axed pretty much everyone administering federal funding to educate disabled kids.

Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 3d

Another Friday night massacre, at the Department of Education. Nearly everyone who administers funding for students with disabilities cut.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

USA TODAY
EDUCATION

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

The agency cut nearly everyone who works to administer federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, one staffer said.

Zachary Schermele

USA TODAY

Oct. 11, 2025, 3:24 p.m. ET

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 3d

Some of last night’s CDC bloodbath being reversed? What an absolute cluster. But great breaking reporting by @jeremyfaust.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

“Some of the reversals came after the Trump administration realized that they had accidentally terminated critically important staffers working on current measles and Ebola outbreaks.
A former CDC official was told that HHS communications officials were not happy with the media coverage of the RIFs, and may have felt that the move reflected badly on the administration, as outrage and accusations that the administration was using the government shutdown as a pretense to accomplish other political goals seemed to be sticking.”

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Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 3d

IDEA is the law that entitles students with disabilities to a free and appropriate public school education.

Alex Blackwood @alexblackwood.bsky.social · 3d

Another Friday night massacre, at the Department of Education. Nearly everyone who administers funding for students with disabilities cut.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

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Reposted by Alex Blackwood

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 3d

⚠️ USAToday reporter confirms the office in charge of special education funding has been “decimated”:

Zach Schermele
Follow
@ZachSchermele
NEW: The Education Dept. layoffs continued overnight, w/ the main office in charge of special ed funding being
"decimated," as one person described.
"They cut just about everyone that works with IDEA funding," said another.
"I'm not sure how these programs exist moving forward."
10:21 AM • 10/11/25 • 2.1K Views

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