Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 6h

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 2h

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 4h

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 9h

I genuinely cannot express how vital it is that you train yourself to recognize AI-generated images and videos for your own good because none of this is going away and many, many people are counting on you to fall for their shit

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 20h

The editors of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) were apparently fired today.

The precursor to MMWR began in 1878 to address emerging public health threats rapidly.

We are not “great” without it. We are vulnerable to threats from sporadic foodborne illness to bioterrorism.

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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 5h

Read it all. From one small section:

Shortly after a man fired >500 rounds at CDC and killed a cop, the staff that safeguard employee, facility, and data security are gone. And the Office of Strategic Business Initiatives, that trains and supports risk management across the entire agency, is gone.

Beyond that, the CDC will not be able to function administratively, as the Office of Safety, Security, and Asset Management (OSSAM) office, which safeguards employee, facility, and data security at CDC lost its entire Occupational Health and Safety Office. Barely two months after a gunman shot more than 500 rounds at CDC and killed a police officer, the office devoted to employee safety has been The Workplace Health Office was also RIFed, as was the Office of Strategic Business Initiatives, which is charged with training and supporting risk management across the entire agency. Not only have the CDC employees been terminated, but the ones who remain will be forced to function within an organization that has eliminated mechanisms for looking after their well-being, safety, and ability to effectively do their jobs to carry out the CDC mission.

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Ken Tindell @kentindell.bsky.social · 10h

Another one for that book Benefits Of Brexit: four hours to catch up on all one’s podcasts.

UK travellers should expect

UK holidaymakers are being warned to expect four-hour queues as a new EU border system comes into force.

apple.news

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George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 11h

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 7h

If this was happening in any other country you'd have journalists and analysts discussing risks of state failure

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Sara Partridge, Ph.D. @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 7h

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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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 23h

Department of Justice lawyers, from Main Justice to AUSAs in the districts, have ALWAYS enjoyed a sort of aura of truth and justice and trust. That was arguably always unjustifiable but Trump DoJ has absolutely pissed it away with compulsive lying.

Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 1d

There goes another Trump admin talking point.

Claim: Abrego told an immigration judge that he fears persecution in Costa Rica.

Judge Xinis reads the immigration judge's ruling, which doesn't say that.

"That's very troubling to me," Xinis tells Ensign.

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 11h

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 10h

every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1d

“FPS could even enter a private residence containing an identified sniper blocks away from a federal facility in order to eliminate that exigent threat…we do not live in a world of sticks and stones, but Mausers and Winchesters.”

DHS top lawyer says 'no legal barrier' to actions officers can take to defend federal property

In a memo obtained exclusively by The Handbasket, Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers were given free rein.

www.thehandbasket.co

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 13h

Reminder: Trump vaccinates himself 👇🏽

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Leonid Baezhnev @rev-avocado.bsky.social · 12h

Really seems like a thing that a consortium of blue states could set up in exile, maybe with corporate donation help.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 22h

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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leftynavyseal.bsky.social @leftynavyseal.bsky.social · 14h

Politico: At a hearing yesterday to get Abrego Garcia out of immigration prison, his lawyers proved that ICE has made desultory attempts to deport him to Ghana, Uganda, and Eswaitini, all of whom refused. It’s all about ICE Barbie vowing Abrego Garcia would never walk the streets of America.

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 22h

RIFed:

OSSAM - Office of Safety, Security, and Asset Management

Let this sink in. They are getting rid of federal employees tasked w/ protecting sensitive public health data - that we would NOT want foreign entities to get access to.

(Foreign entities - China, etc. But can we add Vought🤮💩 too?)

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 19h

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 23h

UPDATE: Judge Perry issued an opinion explaining why she blocked the Texas National Guard deployment in Chicago.

She begins with Alexander Hamilton’s rejection of a “preposterous” idea that the Constitution lets a President deploy a State’s militia to a different State for political retribution. 🧵

OPINION AND ORDER
Since this country was founded, Americans have disagreed about the appropriate division
of power between the federal government and the fifty states that make up our Union. This
tension is a natural result of the system of federalism adopted by our Founders. And yet, not even
the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government believed that one
state's militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution, calling such
a suggestion "inflammatory," and stating "it is impossible to believe that [a President] would employ such preposterous means to accomplish their designs." But Plaintiffs contend that such
an event has come to pass, and argue that National Guard troops from both Illinois and Texas
have been deployed to Illinois because the President of the United States wants to punish state elected officials whose policies are different from his own.

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Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 1d

ICE left David, a 17-year-old boy, stranded on the side of Interstate 20 after pulling over his immigrant father, Hector, in Mississippi.

David began running in the scorching sun after the car and watched as it disappeared from sight—soon headed to a Louisiana ICE prison.

Here's their story.

ICE Stranded a 17-Year-Old on I-20 After Arresting His Father. The Mississippi Dad Now Faces Deportation.

A 17-year-old watched as ICE arrested his immigrant father, Hector, on I-20 in June. The family faces mounting legal fees and the risk of deportation.

www.mississippifreepress.org

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𝙹𝚊𝚢 𝙵 𝙰𝚛𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚍 @jayfarrellarnold.bsky.social · 1d

WHO IS FIRING WHO??

The president cannot fire federal employees. He appoints a relatively small group of officials:

Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, and some other political appointees (about 4k total).

Vought can’t either. Only within the OMB, which has roughly 500.

We still have laws, yes??

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

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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Anti-Trumpism @forabettertomorrow.bsky.social · 22h

YES: A Wyoming librarian fired for refusing to pull LGBTQ books just won a $700,000 settlement for violation of her First Amendment rights. 👏 Let this be a warning to every censor-happy official in the country.

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Lyric Rivera | NeuroDivergent Rebel @neurodivergentrebel.substack.com · 20h

North Texas law enforcement officials utilized thousands of license plate surveillance cameras in an attempt to find and prosecute a woman who had recently had an abortion, despite repeated claims that the query had merely been a welfare check, new information shows.

83,000 License Plate Cameras Later, North Texas Cops Exposed for Abortion Hunt
Law enforcement officials and the surveillance company previously told reporters the camera queries were to aid a missing persons investigation.
By Emma Ruby
October 10, 2025

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