Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by J. Michelle Coghlan

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 9h

I’m not trying to give @pbs.org ideas for raising money—but I am. I would buy women’s fit T-shirts of all my favorite childhood shows. Reading rainbow, 321 contact, square one, zoobiliee zoo. I feel like two generations will run to donate even more money for shirts with Levar Burton on them…

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NPR @npr.org · 4h

Baldwin: A Love Story, a book by Nicholas Boggs, has a singular focus on the redemptive power of devotion.

A new James Baldwin biography explores how his lovers influenced his work

Baldwin: A Love Story, a book by Nicholas Boggs, has a singular focus on the redemptive power of devotion.

n.pr

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Jason Coupet @professajay.bsky.social · 6h

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 4h

A policy expert described Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s push in favor of private schools as a “great American heist,” funneling money from public schools: “It’s a strategic theft of the future of our country, our kids and our democracy.”

By @megomatz.bsky.social & @jsmithrichards.bsky.social

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

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Alan Dettlaff @alandettlaff.com · 9h

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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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 8h

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

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

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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Iva Vukušić @vukusiciva.bsky.social · 1d

This self-destruction of the US will be studied by historians forever.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

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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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 12h

This is what it looks like when your community stands up.

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Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 7h

“No, Speaker Johnson — the No Kings rally on October 18 is not a hate America rally. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: It’s a love America rally.” #NoKings

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 19h

‘Farage ending up in Downing Street would be of a piece with the confusion, complacency and contradictory political behaviour that led Britain first to stumble into Europe and then to stumble out again.’

David Runciman on the road to Brexit: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

David Runciman · Down the Rabbit Hole: Britain’s Europe Problem

From Macmillan to Wilson to Heath to Thatcher to Major to Blair to Cameron, a succession of prime ministers persuaded...

www.lrb.co.uk

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

The forever chemical PFNA is so hazardous that the EPA struck an agreement with 8 companies to phase it out nearly two decades ago.

Now an EPA report on its harms sits in limbo, and the Trump administration won’t say when it will be released.

By @fastlerner.bsky.social

Scientists Completed a Toxicity Report on This Forever Chemical. The EPA Hasn’t Released It.

Agency scientists found that PFNA could cause developmental, liver and reproductive harms. Their final report was ready in mid-April, according to an internal document reviewed by ProPublica, but the ...

www.propublica.org

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 22h

‘Like James Baldwin, she thought social revolution required a reckoning of all relationships, including the individual’s relationship to herself.’

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@keeanga.bsky.social) on Audre Lorde: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor · I do not have to be you: Audre Lorde’s Legacy

Lorde never had to persuade her comrades about a strategy, tactic or new idea, lose an argument in order to maintain a...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Women's History Network @womenshistnet.bsky.social · 22h

For National Coming Out Day, read about the National Lesbian and Gay Survey #NationalComingOutDay #LGBTHistory #QueerHistory womenshistorynetwork.org/everyday-gay...

Everyday Gays, Ordinary Queers, and the National Lesbian and Gay Survey – Victoria Golding

Pride 1987, 10.10am: ‘Helped E. to throw pills down the cat with cystitis. Washed breakfast dishes. Brought Gay Vegetarian placard up from cellar. Fed goldfish.’ (Correspondent No.157)[1] This Nat…

womenshistorynetwork.org

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Council for the Defence of British Universities @cdbu.bsky.social · 19d

We are pleased to publish our Position on the Unsustainability of UK University Funding Models. Visit our website to read it in full:

The Unsustainability of University Funding Models | CDBU

cdbu.org.uk

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Jeff Asher @jeffasher.bsky.social · 1d

San Francisco had the fewest murders in a year since before 1960 last year and murder is down 20% this year. It's almost impressive how divorced from reality these deployment suggestions are. YTD change in SF crime as of Oct 5:

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Rianamator 🦇🎃👻 @riana.bsky.social · 1d

"Stanford's Pfefferkorn warns that while US tech companies are not state-controlled, they have in her view become 'happy handmaidens' when it comes to 'repressing free speech and dissent.'"

www.wired.com/story/apple-...

Apple Took Down These ICE-Tracking Apps. The Developers Aren't Giving Up

“We are going to do everything in our power to fight this,” says ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron after Apple removed his app from the App Store.

www.wired.com

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 1d

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 1d

Today my daughter's preschool is holding a farewell assembly for one of her classmates whose mother has no choice but to self deport. The school is hoping it will be joyful in tone, so we might make this less upsetting for this 3 year old.

There's just no words for the uselessness of this cruelty.

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Forbes @forbes.com · 2d

James said the charges against her were “baseless” and added, “The president's own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.”

‘President’s Desperate Weaponization Of…Justice System: Letitia James On Her Indictment

James said the charges against her were “baseless” and added, “The president's own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost.”

www.forbes.com

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Michael Li (李之樸) @mcpli.bsky.social · 1d

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to advance democracy “in the face of ever-expanding authoritarianism in Venezuela.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/w...

Who Is María Corina Machado, Winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize?

www.nytimes.com

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Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 4d

Fascinating marker of how far the Tory target voter has shifted from ‘middle class parents wanting their kids to go to uni’ to ‘old people who didn’t go and don’t see what anyone else should either’. (Obv there’s a solid case for apprenticeships, but not convinced that’s what this is about)

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 4d

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce plans to cut the number of UK university places by about 100,000 annually by reintroducing student number controls, reports Patrick Jack #edusky
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/badenochs-number-caps-plan-would-cut-100000-university-places

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 3d

I learned all the skills that have served me well for 35 years of working life studying medieval English history at university. I helped build what is now a very big British business on the back of them. Training people to think critically, analyse evidence and present arguments is never a waste.

Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 4d

The Rees Moggs will still do History degrees. The Johnsons will still do Classics.
Sadly, the Wilsons from South Bank in Middlesbrough won't get the intellectual stimulation of studying a subject of interest for a degree.

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Chris Hanlon @chrishanlon.bsky.social · 1d

actionnetwork.org/petitions/un...

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts

The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

actionnetwork.org

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Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 1d

Hell YES MIT 🙌 this is how you do it

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 1d

MIT's response to the Trump admin's proposed "compact" is excellent and should be a model for other universities. orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

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American Library Association @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social · 1d

In 2024, ALA tracked 821 attempts to censor library materials, targeting nearly 2,500 unique books. That’s 10× more than five years ago.
Join the fight for the freedom to read: UniteAgainstBookBans.org
Donate to ALA: ilovelibraries.org/1984
#BannedBooksWeek

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