Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 11h

All Dems could talk like this. It’s a little crazy that so many still don’t.

Bulldog @harpua.bsky.social · 15h

Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo humorously criticizes Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, leading to laughter from CNN's Boris Sanchez.

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 11h

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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delrayser @delrayser.bsky.social · 12h

everything is on fire these days, sure, but how is it that 50% of all news stories are not about how I just spent $20 on a bag of store brand coffee at fucking costco

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 13h

This is good, from Hakeem Jeffries. More of this please, in every conceivable forum:

"Sycophants who aid and abet the President’s vengeful schemes will not be able to hide from the serious legal consequences of their behavior. They will be held accountable."

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 11h

omg-he-admit-it.gif

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 11h

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 13h

Are we great yet?

Mark Bray, a Rutgers University professor and expert on anti-fascist groups, is fleeing to Spain with his family due to death threats that stem from a campaign by Turning Point USA and other conservative groups to get him fired, falsely labeling him as an antifa member.

Antifa expert at Rutgers University says he is moving to Spain because of death threats

An expert on anti-fascist groups who teaches at New Jersey’s flagship state university is moving his family overseas.

apnews.com

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 12h

New Yorkers know Attorney General James for who she is: a champion for justice who fights relentlessly for the people. Donald Trump knows her only as an obstacle to his corruption.

My full statement:

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Willow @rockshrimp.bsky.social · 13h

Abject bad faith will continue until abject bad faith as personal and professional consequences

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 17h

I believe this is what ICE is calling "a beard being ripped from an officer’s face" by a Chicago protestor x.com/ICEgov/statu...

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Aaron Cynic @aaroncynic.bsky.social · 16h

Chat is it fascism when the government has been disappearing people for months, terrorizing whole cities, and a lawyer for the gov says this about the president? Just checking.

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 18h

Hamilton: “The president’s power is unreviewable.”

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Amy Hoy @amyhoy.bsky.social · 22h

sing it with meee

you can't appease abusers!
they don't care what you do!
the only thing they love at all
is abusing folks like you!

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 1d

incredibly, bleakly funny that trump is going after christopher wray, who spent his entire tenure at the fbi with his head down desperately trying to avoid trump's attention and did nothing to protect the bureau from trump's attacks www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Other prosecutors are investigating former CIA director John Brennan, another prominent Trump critic, and former FBI director Christopher Wray, who was originally appointed by Trump but enraged conservatives who came to believe he had wielded the bureau’s powers against them. Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 13h

The DOJ’s case falling apart only 7 paragraphs in is just so deeply embarrassing.

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 13h

I think it’s pretty easy to see the gap in the logical progression between paragraphs 6 and 7 that will doom the case.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 15h

NEW: Here's the two-count indictment against NY AG Letitia James. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Prosediva @prosediva.bsky.social · 13h

They keep doing this.

The Independent @the-independent.com · 13h

Trump and White House used footage from Florida to show ‘chaos’ in Chicago, report claims

Trump and White House used footage from Florida to show ‘chaos’ in Chicago: Report

www.independent.co.uk

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 13h

There’s a difference between relying on cops to take their own initiative to act, vs calling in a perceived, armed threat in a public place, which 1st responders are required to respond to.

Any stranger w a gun raises alarms w me, & it’s not off-base to treat them as potential shooters.

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 13h

The sermon was even more alarming than the gun-pointing!

He said congregants must learn how to “clear a room in faith,” “overwhelm your enemy with a violent action of faith,” & practice faith with “a force of violence,” because “the enemy in hiding is working to keep you in a spirit of unbelief”.

Juliette Rihl @julietterihl.bsky.social · 20h

I don’t usually cover breaking news, but this story is truly wild.

A pastor in central PA brought an AR-15 to church and pointed it at people during his sermon. Gun safety experts and internet commentators are, predictably, not happy!

(Paywall free link below)

www.pennlive.com/news/2025/10...

Dauphin County pastor under fire for pointing assault-style rifle during sermon

In a move experts called a serious safety violation, he pointed the unloaded weapon at churchgoers, while asking for a 'violent action of faith.'

www.pennlive.com

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Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 23h

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 13h

I wonder what would happen if we normalized calling 911 to report open carry folks we spot as being suspicious armed individuals who make us fearful for our safety. (& then we then GTFO the area.)

All these gun-toting assholes deserve to be treated as potential mass-shooters.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 14h

Floridians will be able to openly carry firearms while shopping at Publix, the largest supermarket chain in the state, the company said on Thursday. The announcement came after a state appeals court ruled that a Florida ban on people openly carrying firearms was unconstitutional.

Customers May Openly Carry Firearms in Florida’s Publix Stores, Company Says

The supermarket chain said it was complying with state law, including a ruling last month that overturned a ban on openly carrying firearms.

nyti.ms

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Tormented🕷Abroad @jjgass.bsky.social · 14h

As long as Congress isn't in session, they can busy themselves drafting articles of impeachment.

This is cut-and-dried, unfit-to-serve, high-crime-or-misdeamor, get-his-ass-out-of-the-Oval Office stuff.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 15h

NEW: Here's the two-count indictment against NY AG Letitia James. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

INDICTMENT
October 2025 Term - at Alexandria, Virginia
THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT:
GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
At all times relevant to this Indictment:
1. Letitia A. James ("JAMES) was a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and the borrower on a
Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for the property located at 3121 Peronne Avenue,
Norfolk, Virginia.
2. OVM Financial (also known as Old Virginia Mortgage / AnnieMac) was a mortgage lending business located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, engaged in the business of originating and underwriting residential mortgage loans, including those backed by the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"). OVM Financial qualified as a "financial institution" within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 20(10).
3. Fannie Mae was a federally chartered corporation that purchased and guaranteed mortgages,
operating as a government-sponsored enterprise under the oversight of the Federal Housing

Finance Agency ("FHFA").
4. First Savings Bank was a state-chartered, FDIC-insured financial institution (Certificate
#29961), headquartered in Jeffersonville, Indiana, which acquired mortgage loans through assignment or acquisition. First Savings Bank qualified as a "financial institution" within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 20(1).
5. On or about August 17, 2020, JAMES, as sole borrower, purchased the three (3) bedroom,
(1) bathroom property located at 3121 Peronne Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia 23509 (the
"Peronne Property"), for approximately $137,000, financed with a mortgage loan of approximately $109,600 (Loan #4430025978) backed by Fannie Mae.
6. The loan was originated by OVM Financial under a signed Second Home Rider, which required JAMES, as the sole borrower to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence, and prohibited its use as a timesharing or other shared ownership arrangement or agreement that requires her either to rent the property or give any other person any control over the occupancy or use of the property.
7. Despite these representations, the Peronne Property was not occupied or used by JAMES as a secondary residence and was instead used as a rental investment property, renting the property to a family of (3).
8. This misrepresentation allowed JAMES to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties, including a note rate of 3.000% (avoiding a 0.815% higher
comparable investment property rate of 3.815%, resulting in approximately $17,837 in rate savings over the life of the loan), a seller credit of approximately $3,288 (exceeding the seller credit for investment properties by approximately $1,096), for total ill-gotten gains of approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan.
9. JAMES' Universal Property application for homeowners' insurance indicated "owner-

occupied non-seasonal use," further misrepresenting the intended use of the property.
10. JAMES filed Schedule E tax forms), under penalties of perjury, treating the Perrone Property as rental real estate, reporting fair rental days, zero personal use days, thousand(s)
of dollars in rents received, and claiming deductions for expenses relating to the property, further contradicting the second home classification.
11. The loan was acquired by or assigned to First Savings Bank by March 2021, exposing it to risks associated with the misrepresented loan.
12. The acts described herein occurred within the Eastern District of Virginia.
COUNT ONE
(Bank Fraud - 18 U.S.C. § 1344)
13. The allegations in paragraphs 1 through 12 are re-alleged and incorporated herein.
14. From on or about August 7, 2020, through at least January 2024, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the Defendant, LETITIA A. JAMES, did knowingly execute and attempt to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud OVM Financial and First Savings Bank,
financial institutions, and to obtain moneys, funds, and credits owned by and under the custody and control of OVM Financial and First Savings Bank by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.
15. The scheme involved falsely representing the Peronne Property as a secondary residence to obtain favorable mortgage terms, while using it as an investment property with no intended
or actual personal occupancy or use by her.
(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344).
COUNT TWO
(False Statements to a Financial Institution - 18 U.S.C. § 1014)
16. The allegations in paragraphs 1 through 12 are re-alleged and incorporated herein.

17. From on or about July 28, 2020, through at least August 31, 2020, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the Defendant, LETITIA A. JAMES, did knowingly make and cause to be made false statements and reports for the purpose of influencing the action of OVM Financial, a Fannie Mae-backed lender, upon an application for a loan, in that JAMES represented and affirmed in uniform residential loan applications and related documents that
the Peronne Property would be used as a secondary residence, when in truth and fact, as JAMES then knew, the property was intended and used as an investment property with no intended or actual personal occupancy or use by her.
(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1014).
FORFEITURE NOTICE
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(a) and Title 18, U.S.C. §
982(a)(2)(A), upon conviction of the offenses in Counts One and Two, the Defendant, Letitia
A. James, shall forfeit to the United States any property constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of such violations, including but not limited to a money judgment in the amount of $18,933.
If any of the property described above, as a result of any act or omission of the Defendant: (a) cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence; (b) has been transferred or sold to, or deposited with, a third party; (c) has been placed beyond the jurisdiction of the court; (d) has been substantially diminished in value; or (e) has been commingled with other property which cannot be divided without difficulty, the United States shall be entitled to a forfeiture of substitute property pursuant to Title 21, U.S.C. § 853(b), as incorporated by Title
18 U.S.C. § 982(b)(1).
(In accordance with Title 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C) and 982(a)(1); Title 28, U.S.C. § 2461(c); and Title 21 U.S.C. § 853(p).)

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 14h

Ferocious, commanding, fearless.

Trump picked the wrong one to fuck with.

New York Attorney General Letitia James @newyorkstateag.bsky.social · 15h

This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.

I am not fearful — I am fearless.

We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights..

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Jeremiah Genest @jeremiahgenest.bsky.social · 14h

Tesla is a perfect case study on why quality and safety regulations are good and poor enforcement because a company is ‘cutting edge’ is bad.

Also we should start indicting executives.

Ben Goggin @bengoggin.bsky.social · 14h

Tesla's Full-Self Driving software is now under federal investigation, including its behavior at train crossings, after an NBC News investigation.

In September, NBC News found that Tesla owners repeatedly complained about Teslas failing to detect oncoming trains.

www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...

Tesla's Full Self-Driving software under investigation after railroad incidents

NBC News reported last month that Tesla vehicles using Full Self-Driving software sometimes fail to stop for train tracks.

www.nbcnews.com

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 14h

Damn. Didn’t know The New Yorker was in such a snarky mood to blast some cruel fascists.

Brandi Buchman @brandibuchman.bsky.social · 14h

From The New Yorker

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 14h

Love how there’s never any serious repercussions for all of these sites & businesses & agencies that fail to adequately protect our data.

404 Media @404media.co · 21h

BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 14h

The pope is supposed to be American (laudatory) not American (derogator)

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 15h

LMAO

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 14h

INBOX — New York AG Tish James' statement on Trump's retaliatory indictment of her:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2025

Attorney General’s Press Office/212-416-8060 nyag.pressoffice@ag.ny.gov

Attorney General Letitia James Issues Statement on Donald Trump’s Weaponization of the Department of Justice

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today issued the following statement after she was indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Eastern District of Virginia.

“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General.

“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.

“His decision to fire a United States Attorney who refused to bring charges against me – and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law, but to the president – is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country. This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice.

“I stand strongly behind my office’s litigation against the Trump Organization. We conducted a two-year investigation based on the facts and evidence – not politics. Judges have upheld the trial court’s finding that Donald Trump, his company, and his two sons are liable for fraud.

“I am a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space. And so today I am not fearful, I am fearless, and as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights. And I will continue to do my job.”

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hilzoy @hilzoy.bsky.social · 15h

I too feel like a broken record, but: if we’re going to compensate farmers, we need to compensate everyone who has been harmed by the Trump administration. We could start with damages for people abducted or held illegally.

Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 18h

I feel like a broken record, but I have to keep saying it over and over again: a farmer bailout won’t do much of anything because the market is gone. There will be no incentive to plant next year.

The bailout will help payoff farmer debt to the banks. That’s all.

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Serenity Now! @cpo10za.bsky.social · 15h

We need a reckoning for all of these heinous, wrongful arrests.

amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 15h

Earlier today, prosecutors dismissed the felony charges against Paul Ivery, the man being arrested in this video.

amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 12d

A man was just chased and arrested outside of the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago. When legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild asked why, an agent threatened to arrest them too.

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