Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 5h

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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APDU @apduorg.bsky.social · 1d

❗❗❗ You may have heard that USDA ended a long-running data collection on food insecurity and called it "redundant." Our friends @kcww.bsky.social and Isabel Pastoor at @ipums.bsky.social fact-checked that claim.

Read what they found:
blog.popdata.org/food-securit...

Screenshot of table from IPUMS blog. Full text at link in post.

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Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

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Lisa Halverstadt @lisahalverstadt.bsky.social · 2d

New homelessness data: The number of people becoming homeless in San Diego County continued to outpace the number moving into homes in September. @rtfhsd.bsky.social reports that 1,106 people became homeless for the first time and 1,032 exited homelessness.

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 2d

"We need help deciding what to look for, which school districts and cities to seek public records from, and need leads on where we should point our reporting efforts."

404 Media @404media.co · 2d

Help us investigate book bans across the USA.

404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

🔗 www.404media.co/help-us-inve...

Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America

404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

www.404media.co

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 4d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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ACLU @aclu.org · 5d

We have the right to read what we want, no matter what politicians or school officials say.

Let us know what your favorite banned book is below. 📚

Yellow graphic with photos of books falling in the background. Text on the graphic reads: "Happy Banned Books Week! To celebrate, we’re going to: Read our favorite banned book, Defend freedom of speech in schools, Show appreciation for librarians and educators, Remind our community how books allow us to learn about new perspectives, experiences, and places, Get another banned book from our local library"

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Jennifer Shutt @jennifershutt.bsky.social · 5d

Friendly reminder that the good folks at the Congressional Research Service have an appropriations process tracker going back to fiscal 1999, showing what each chamber did or didn’t do in a given year.

www.congress.gov/crs-appropri...

www.congress.gov

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My Voice, My Choice @myvoicemychoice.bsky.social · 7d

Earlier this year, Dr. Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace, took part in a deeply reflective interview for the Netflix show Famous Last Words, recorded to be shared only after her passing.
Now, as the world mourns, her voice answers the question of who she was. ♥️

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Brian Soucek @brsoucek.bsky.social · 8d

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 8d

Thanks for sharing. Just added to my Trump Trackers page. ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/trumpt...

LibGuides: U.S. Government Information: Trump Trackers

Guide to information resources by and about the federal government.

ucsd.libguides.com

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Reposted by Kelly Smith

NPR @npr.org · 9d

It's Obamacare health insurance prices — and how much help 24 million Americans will get with their premiums — that are in dispute.

What's behind the health care fight that led to the government shutdown

It's Obamacare health insurance prices — and how much help 24 million Americans will get with their premiums — that are in dispute.

n.pr

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 10d

Not that this does anything for the larger problem, but I’ve tried to capture all IG reports in the Wayback Machine pretty much every day for the past several years.

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 10d

www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

Trump administration knocks out at least 15 oversight websites, saying IGs 'lied to the public'

It's not a shutdown issue: the White House is withholding funds from the umbrella organization for the government's inspectors general.

www.nextgov.com

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Jordan Fischer @jordanonrecord.bsky.social · 10d

It's like a Choose Your Own Hatch Act Violation.

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 10d

What do Trump and Hegseth’s inflammatory speeches to military generals signal? | Moira Donegan

The Trump administration evidently seeks to transform the US military into a partisan tool of the president’s regime

www.theguardian.com

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 10d

If it might be helpful to anyone, I have compiled agencies' contingency plans since OMB isn't doing it this time. ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/shutdown

LibGuides: U.S. Government Information: Shutdown

Guide to information resources by and about the federal government.

ucsd.libguides.com

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 11d

Since OMB isn't compiling agency contingency plans for a shutdown, I've done a first pass through updating the list from the Biden administration. I'll continue updating if/as new plans are published. ucsd.libguides.com/usgov/shutdown

LibGuides: U.S. Government Information: Shutdown

Guide to information resources by and about the federal government.

ucsd.libguides.com

Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 11d

I somewhat expected other departments to follow suit as shutdown time draws closer, but I'm not seeing that yet.

Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 11d

Amazing splash on the HUD website.

The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 11d

Amazing splash on the HUD website.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 17d

Setting aside the question of legality, this would be an action of enormous self-harm inflicted on the nation, needlessly ridding the country of talent and expertise.

It’s also extortive. “Give us what we want in a funding fight, or we’ll hurt the country.”

White House to agencies: Prepare mass firing plans for a shutdown

In memo, the Trump administration says the Reduction-in-Force plans would go beyond standard shutdown furloughs.

www.politico.com

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The Advocate @advocate.com · 17d

The information can help in enforcement of civil rights laws, the suit notes.

Lawsuit seeks release of Census data on sexual orientation and gender identity

The information can help in enforcement of civil rights laws, the suit notes.

bit.ly

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Reuters Legal @legal.reuters.com · 18d

With the U.S. government eight days from its 15th partial shutdown since 1981, Washington is in familiar territory with an important difference: President Donald Trump's administration has not widely shared its plans for what functions will cease and what will continue if Congress fails to act.

As US government shutdown nears, Trump administration mum on contingency plans

With the U.S. government eight days from its 15th partial shutdown since 1981, Washington is in familiar territory with an important difference: President Donald Trump's administration has not widely shared its plans for what functions will cease and what will continue if Congress fails to act.

reut.rs

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Kelly Smith @kellylsmith.bsky.social · 21d

As a government information librarian who archives a lot of federal web pages, I strongly recommend this approach. The Internet Archive and similar tools are great, but, as mentioned here, are imperfect tools and there is just too much uncertainty about continued access to federal resources.

Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 21d

This moment is disturbing even in the mundane: I’ve started taking screenshots of historical sources I’m using in research from the national park service, the smithsonian, and the national archives, just in case they get taken down. It’s now a part of my process and takes time I have to plan for.

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Amanda Becker @amandabecker.bsky.social · 22d

Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n...

Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism

Most — but not all — political scientists are deeply troubled by the president's attempts to expand executive power, according to a national survey.

www.npr.org

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404 Media @404media.co · 23d

Reference librarian Eddie Kristan said lenders at the library where he works have been asking him to find books that don’t exist without realizing they were hallucinated by AI.

🔗 www.404media.co/librarians-a...

Librarians Are Being Asked to Find AI-Hallucinated Books

It’s a trippy time to have a library card.

www.404media.co

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