Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · 12h

One in five working adults don't have paid sick leave. They're supposed to take three times as many days off to go to the pediatrician, with no pay and potentially getting fired, so these anti-vax weirdos can pretend they care about kids' health?

HELLody SchreiBOO @melodyschreiber.com · 12h

The acting director of the CDC called for new, separate MMR shots. That would be "remarkably complicated, time-consuming, costly, but more importantly unnecessary," @jasonlschwartz.bsky.social told me:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Alarm as CDC calls for separate MMR vaccines despite measles outbreak

Concerns that three separate shots would be more costly and time-consuming, and keep kids from being vaccinated

www.theguardian.com

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Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · 1d

thanks to mike here and his buddies the odds are pretty good that if you’re a young pregnant woman who shows up at an ER you’re not going to get treated at all

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

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SimpsonsQOTD @simpsonsqotd.bsky.social · 6d

"Relax. I'm just boning up on the old constitution."

"You're going to regret that, pinko.
Oh, I am so sick of people
Hiding behind the bill of rights.
Look, he got chocolate on it."

"I didn't mean to."

"Mm-hmm. You just licked off the part
that forbids cruel and unusual punishment."

"Beautiful."

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Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 9d

Today's the last day for 150K+ feds who took the "Fork" (deferred resignation program), including 800+ at the Social Security Administration.

The experience at SSA demonstrates 3 things about the DRP:

1. It's the tip of the iceberg
2. It wasn't really voluntary
3. It hurts service to the public

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MTH @megt.bsky.social · 9d

I was so physically ill after reading through a bit of my following feed tonight I went in search of diversion classifying wildlife in my volunteer gig at Snapshot Wisconsin (Zooniverse, citizen science). Here's some critters that made me feel less lost. 🌿📷🌎 1/10 red fox

Red fox in a snowscape, Racine Co. Wisconsin

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · 16d

TERFs: "We are the only true defenders of women's rights!"

Also TERFs: "Women can be basically considered a form of currency"

Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 17d

What it sounds like when philosophers who are also anti-trans activists submit an amicus brief to a US court where they argue for banning trans girls and women from women's sports.

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the option of interpreting the Idaho and West Virginia
statutes as motivated by the justified aim of excluding
all males from female sports, it is quite invidious to
interpret them as instead motivated by the unjustified
aim of excluding males who identify as female in par-
ticular.
Consider a simple analogy. Imagine that we are
back in Medieval Europe. Gold is the currency of the
land. Consequently, many merchants prefer to accept
gold and only gold as payment. However, a new move-
ment is afoot, whose members are known as the alche-
mists. The alchemists purport to have found a way of
turning iron pyrite (fool’s gold) into gold. Some people
are convinced by the claims of the alchemists, though
many others are not. This difference in attitudes
starts to lead to time-wasting interactions in which an
alchemist or fellow traveler tries to purchase a good
using iron pyrite from a merchant who, unmoved by
well-publicized insistence on the part of the alche-
mists that only irrational prejudice could lie behind
lingering doubts about the possibility of converting
iron pyrite into gold, continues to insist on only ac-
cepting gold as payment. One such merchant, whose
unofficial working policy has hitherto been to accept
only gold as payment, decides to make his policy offi-
cial by putting up a sign on his store saying, “Only
gold accepted (no iron pyrite!).”

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · 22d

What a waste of District resources, at a moment when we're cutting services for non-billionaire people.

Mayor Muriel Bowser @mayorbowser.dc.gov · 22d

BREAKING: The Council just officially passed the RFK Campus Redevelopment Deal.

This is the final step in securing our future at the new RFK Stadium.

Our businesses, our people, our project. Now, let's get to work.

Reposted by Jessica Mason

David Armiak @armiak.bsky.social · 23d

Brilliant letter!

The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 23d

"Of course, I am not K, but I find myself uncannily identified with his predicament." Judith Butler's open letter to UC Berkeley.

Kafka-land at UC Berkeley

The 160 members of the university notified that their names were forwarded to the DOE's Office for Civil Rights were not informed of any specific allegations against them.

www.thenation.com

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · 29d

I am a pacifist, I believe in gun control because I believe nobody should be shot, ever. None of that requires me to fluff the posthumous reputation of someone whose life's work was entirely antithetical to everything I value.

Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · 29d

the "work" of this vile man with odious views was making a fortune fomenting racism and sexism, so... no

Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 29d

The best way to honor Charlie's memory is to continue his work: engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse. In a democracy, ideas are tested through words and good-faith debate — never through violence.

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 29d

man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence

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Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · Sep 9

SSI lifted millions from poverty last year. The Trump Administration plans to cut it next year, harming nearly 400K low-income disabled and older people.

www.cbpp.org/blog/analyzi...

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · Sep 1

Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time.

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · Aug 20

Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy!

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Economic Policy Institute @epi.org · Aug 20

Unions boost wages 🚀

On average, a union worker earns 12.8% more in wages than their nonunionized peers.

But unions don’t just help union workers—they help ALL workers by raising standards.

Read our new report about how unions are good for workers AND communities: www.epi.org/publication/...

Unions aren’t just good for workers—they also benefit communities and democracy

Rebuilding worker power by strengthening unions is not just good policy—it is a democratic imperative in the face of authoritarian backsliding.

www.epi.org

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · Jul 31

My friend wrote a book! Go read it on a beach!

MTH @megt.bsky.social · Jul 29

Ends soon! Only hours left to get #Book 1 of THE ENCHANTERS WEB at 50% off via #smashwords! Finish your summer #fantasy reading escape with an epic, nobledark journey! Sorcery, intrigue, war, romance. Free sample: oaklandhillsfarm.com/novel
Sale link www.smashwords.com/books/view/1... 📚🪐📚💙 #readers

Specters from a Dream

Specters from a Dream, Book I of The Enchanter's Web, is an epic fantasy of intrigue and sorcery. Shande's unlikely heroes must learn to manage powers beyond their control in a desperate war against s...

www.smashwords.com

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · Jul 21

see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when love once comes to bend them

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · Jul 19

I realize we're all in the business of normalizing the fertility panic now, but what the heck is this. Folks, even if the birthrate magically quadrupled tomorrow, millions of infants could not backfill a deported immigrant workforce. Why mention fertility here at all? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/u...

Excerpt from New York Times reading: The administration’s attempt to clamp down on immigration comes at a time when the industry faces another challenge: the growing number of seniors. The U.S. population age 65 and older has been increasing at a rapid clip, meaning the long-term care industry will need more workers in the coming years to keep up.

“Barring some major change in fertility rates, we’re going to need immigrants to continue to supply the work force that the country needs for aging care,” said Julia Gelatt, the associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute.

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · Jul 16

15 states (I include DC) now have paid sick leave! But 18 prohibit local laws without guaranteeing coverage. The 73 million workers in those states desperately need a national law. nationalpartnership.org/report/nearl...

Nearly 73 Million Workers Live in States That Block Local Communities from Making Progress on Paid Sick Days | National Partnership for Women & Families

Lawmakers in 18 states across the country – the majority of which are in the South – fail to guarantee that workers can earn paid sick days, and at the same time block local governments from setting t...

nationalpartnership.org

Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · Jul 16

Enraging -- but the story you may not know is that local and state governments have been dramatically expanding paid sick leave in recent years with laws that protect low-wage and part-time workers as well as others. nationalpartnership.org/travesty-27-...

Chart illustrating the increasing rate of access to paid sick leave among workers overall, as well as part-time, full-time, management and professional, and service workers, from 2009 to 2024. The lowest bar, for part-time workers, almost doubles from 26% in 2009 to 55% in 2024. Gains for service workers were also large, from 42% to 64%, and workers overall from 61% to 79%. Access for management and professional and full-time workers began at 73% and 84% and increased to 87% and 92%. At the bottom of the chart, bars illustrate the number of states with paid sick leave laws, just 1 in 2009 and 15 in 2024. Data from the National Partnership for Women & Families.

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CM Janeese Lewis George @cmlewisgeorgew4.bsky.social · Jul 14

Today, we protected I-82 and the fair wages of tipped workers, upholding the will of 74% of DC voters.

I'm grateful to my colleagues for rejecting a repeal that would ignore the realities workers face while trying to live and work in one of the most expensive cities in the country.

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · Jul 15

last night’s thunder turned our compasses

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Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · Jun 27

Today’s ruling on birthright citizenship has the potential to cause chaos at the Social Security Administration, which assigns Social Security numbers to over 99% of all babies born in the US in an automatic data exchange with states.

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Jessica Mason @jessicamason.bsky.social · Jun 27

We found a big, persistent gender gap in unpaid caregiving. But a gender gap is not a gender war. This isn't a story of women versus men -- it's about all of us versus an economic system we need to fix, together.

But in an economy that forces so many workers to choose between putting food on the table and providing the care their loved ones need, everyone gets the short end of the stick. The financial and job consequences tend to be more stark for women, who end up doing more caregiving, while men may work more hours but struggle to be the involved caregivers they’d like to be. This shows up as a big gap in the average time spent caregiving, and it’s persistent across race and ethnicity.

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Kate Gallagher Robbins @kfgrobbins.bsky.social · Jun 26

Fresh off the presses with @jessicamason.bsky.social: Americans’ unpaid caregiving is worth more than $1.1 trillion annually – and women are doing almost two-thirds of the work. #CareCantWait nationalpartnership.org/if-americans...

Pie chart titled Americans' Unpaid Care Is Worth More Than $1.1 Trillion Annually showing the gender breakdown of the total value of unpaid care. About one-third of the pie, colored gold, is labeled Men $413 billion, and the remaining two-thirds, colored teal, is labeled women, $683 billion. Source: National Partnership analysis of American Time Use Survey, 2024. Based on an hourly wage of $16.38, the midpoint between mean wages for child care workers and home health/personal care aides per hour (BLS OEWS).

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