Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mandi Spishak-Thomas

@aspishakthomas.com

960 followers 1.4K following 180 posts

Research professor @ Rutgers studying Medicaid. Social worker and health policy wonk. Union organizer (AAUP-AFT) and member of Brooklyn CB6. Baseball #LFGM and WNBA🗽enthusiast. Free 🇵🇸. ACAB. Still 😷. she/her. aspishakthomas.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 26d

New blog out today for @milbankfund.bsky.social where we reflect on state-funded solutions to insurance coverage for children, regardless of immigration status. To date, 15 states have a policy covering immigrant children and 7 have gone a step further to include undocumented adults or older adults.

Milbank Memorial Fund & The Milbank Quarterly @milbankfund.bsky.social · 26d

Longstanding evidence shows that insuring children, regardless of immigration status, improves access to preventive care, reduces uncompensated care costs, and enhances long-term health outcomes.

Covering Uninsured Children: State Solutions for Immigrant Children | Milbank Memorial Fund

As of 2023, nearly 3 million children in the United States remained uninsured, largely due to immigration-related exclusions in public insurance programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insura...

www.milbank.org

1 6

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

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.

110 1.2K 2.8K

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 2d

None of us can do everything but each of us can do SOMETHING.

8 380 1.2K

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 2d

Thorough and important coverage on Medicaid estate recovery, a policy that continues to be understudied, misunderstood, and deeply harmful to families. Behind every bad policy is somehow always, disturbingly, private equity. Follow up this article with our recent MER paper in @jhppl.bsky.social

3 4

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3d

Solidarity!

RutgersAAUP-AFT @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social · 3d

This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray came under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union condemn this campaign and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Read our full statement here: https://loom.ly/BDXasRY

8 220 1K

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 3d

Public comment period at our CB6 meeting in the Court Street bike lane. First comment: “I’m in favor of a bike lane on Court Street, just not this design.”

9 4 57

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 4d

Absolutely, agreed!

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 4d

3) Cyclists are safer !! Bikes can now travel safely in a protected bike lane on one unified side of the street making them more visible. Now, cars can predict where to look for cyclists before making turns and cannot pull into a bike lane for loading/unloading forcing bikes into traffic.

1 16

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 4d

2) Pedestrians have an easier time crossing the street. Prior to the redesign, as a pedestrian you had to frogger across the aforementioned double parking and two lanes of fast traffic. There are more cross walks and simply less cars not to mention those that remain are traveling the ~speed limit~

1 17

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 4d

1) Court is quieter. There is less honking as cars previously had to navigate double parking on either side of the street from cars and delivery vehicles as well as bikes who were inconsistent about what side they biked on without any bike lane protected or otherwise.

1 16

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 4d

One week in from someone who lives on Court Street: the new single traffic lane street and protected bike lane has been life changing, here are just 3 reasons why (in no particular order).

Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 4d

A sure sign of anti-bike concern trolling is an elected official who lives nowhere near the bike lane in question suddenly becoming *very* concerned about emergency response time, a thing she would never do if this were just normal bumper-to-bumper traffic on a street with no bike lane.

Post on X from Joann Ariola:

Joann Ariola NYC Council District 32
@JoannAriola32
Can somebody at
@NYC_DOT
please explain to me how this is even remotely acceptable? With the new parking lane, cars can't pull out of the way to let this ambulance pass.

When every second counts in an emergency, this could literally mean death for someone in a crisis. I have heard from so many people about how this Court Street redesign was a terrible idea, and this really seals the deal. Someone could be dead because of this.

Local Law 6 of 2025 - which I introduced, and was passed - mandates that local firehouses MUST be consulted before changes like this go into effect. Did the local firehouse sign off on this?

3 4 38

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Lisa Schiff @lschiff.bsky.social · 5d

Book bans are a symptom; library governance ensuring intellectual freedom is the prevention and cure. Join your library board or Friends of the Library group and become a #LibraryDefender! Check out librariesforthepeople.org to learn how! #BannedBooks

For The People

librariesforthepeople.org

5 5

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 5d

This #BannedBooksWeek it is more important than ever to celebrate the freedom to read and step into roles that continue to fight for one of the last free spaces, libraries. We created a Friends of the Library zine so you can learn how! www.librariesforthepeople.org/resources#fo...

Resources — For The People

www.librariesforthepeople.org

1 4

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 7d

Happily @adrianna.bsky.social and colleagues have this covered in @jhppl.bsky.social : read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

2 13 36

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 8d

👇🏼This. People who can work, want and do work. Work requirements only serve to increase the number of uninsured people in America.

The Commonwealth Fund @commonwealthfund.org · 8d

The majority of people with Medicaid who can work are already working.

However, in 2027, #Medicaid will add national work requirements for the first time.

When Arkansas added work requirements in 2018, more than 18,000 people lost coverage.

See our explainer to learn more about work requirements.

Work Requirements for Medicaid Enrollees

Explore Medicaid work requirements, current federal and state updates, and their impact on enrollees in this explainer.

bit.ly

1 5

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 8d

🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨

16 1.2K 1.5K

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 8d

New: Broad support across the political spectrum for extending enhanced ACA premium tax credits.

2 13 40

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Katie Bergh @katiebergh.bsky.social · 10d

Important #WIC update: With available federal funding sources, WIC should be able to continue operations for now. States should also do everything they can to prevent disruption & communicate with families so they don't miss out on benefits. @zoeneuberger.bsky.social has the details 👇

Zoe Neuberger @zoeneuberger.bsky.social · 10d

Bottom line for #WIC under the shutdown: WIC should continue operating uninterrupted for about 2 weeks (varying by state) & states should use their own funds to keep it open beyond that so babies, young children & new & expecting parents don’t miss out on critical benefits.

4 7

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Gideon Lukens @gidlukens.bsky.social · 10d

Premium tax credit enhancements help tipped workers, veterans, small business workers, farmers, and older people afford health coverage. Their premiums will soon spike and millions of them will lose coverage if the enhancements expire. (1/5)

2 9 5

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · Oct 7

I’m going to make individual posts for the Palestinian accounts I’m boosting today so they don’t get lost in a thread but if you are looking for them all in one place I’ll link them here 🔽

120 1.5K 2.4K

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 11d

Approximately 75% of households on the Upper West Side are car-free. Plus, 13,000 parking spaces in a neighborhood that's home to about 214,000 residents is nothing. This is an elected official listening to a loud and entitled minority and prioritizing the storage of private cars over public safety.

Streetsblog NYC @nyc.streetsblog.org · 11d

UWS Council Member Gale Brewer changed her mind on the daylighting bill after DOT officials projected that the street safety initiatives would remove 13,000 parking spaces per district — double the 6,500 avg. spots that DOT officials previously estimated under oath in April.

Gale's A-Blowin': Brewer Abandons Daylighting Bill After Push By Parking-First DOT - Streetsblog New York City

DOT's anti-daylighting "scare tactics" have peeled off Council Member Gale Brewer, who says the policy will gobble up too many parking spots.

buff.ly

6 25 160

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 11d

This is a great thread. When I was on the bargaining committee of my grad student union we secured a contract with compensation increases, health benefits, and other key wins that would be implemented after I graduated that year. We need to move beyond ourselves and think generationally.

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 12d

I've been thinking about that Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates convo. Specifically, how Klein kept saying that Coate's pragmatism in positioning his work in line with those who came before him fighting for rights they knew were unlikely to come to fruition in their lifetimes was depressing /1

1 6

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 11d

Israeli soldiers were filmed detaining two Palestinian children in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, while demanding to know their father’s whereabouts.

When a passerby intervened and urged their release because of their young age, a soldier replied, “I don’t care”.

50 450 520

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 12d

The healthcare service and delivery system is crushingly difficult to navigate now. We're seeing entire organizations cancel telehealth visits because of the impending-gov-shutdown-Medicare-telehealth-expiration

Those healthcare orgs aren't willing to accept *any* risk they won't get paid.

5 28 89

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 13d

As regular people, we can do a few things. Lobby venues to require masking and HEPA air filtration, and lobby powerful voices to demand these things as part of their appearance. But mostly and most effectively, we can mask. Your mask can be decorated or bedazzled! But it should be on.

5 24 130

Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas

Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 13d

It’s time to be honest about Covid. If you’re a healthy person, no one is suggesting you live in lockdown in 2025 (if you’re a disabled people they tell you to do this constantly.) But events refusing to consider covid are knowingly endangering your health, and the health of those you come home to.

2 52 190