Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kara Yorio @karayorio.bsky.social · 24m

This Until It’s Done series has been so good. Sharing history while putting forward policy plans for the future.
“In a time of darkness, New York City must be the light.”
In a time when history is being erased, these videos documenting the past are vital.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2h

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 20h

George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 20h

"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized

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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 1d

Today my daughter's preschool is holding a farewell assembly for one of her classmates whose mother has no choice but to self deport. The school is hoping it will be joyful in tone, so we might make this less upsetting for this 3 year old.

There's just no words for the uselessness of this cruelty.

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 1d

Sometimes we need a moment, but if you tune out completely, they win. Fascism doesn’t need your support, just your silence.

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Kathy Ishizuka @kishizuka.bsky.social · 1d

Stickers emblazoned with “censorship is so 1984,” the ALA’s 2025 Banned Books Week theme, were also confiscated from the Lihue library. - KWXX

State Library System Bans Displays Referring to 'Banned Books Week | KWXX - Hilo, HI

Last week Lani Kawahara, who oversees the young adult section at Kauai's largest library, set up her annual display to mark Banned Books Week, a national campaign that kicked off Sunday to spotli

www.kwxx.com

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

The Education Department has hired at least 9 people from the America First Policy Institute, co-founded by Secretary Linda McMahon.

The think tank’s listed goals include ending the separation of church and state and “plant[ing] Jesus in every space.”

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

That got dark quickly.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 2d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Fallon Farokhi @thestoryspectator.bsky.social · 1d

What does author Derrick Barnes Hope children get from his books?

“They have the power to change things where they are. You don’t have to wait until you’re an adult.” ⤵️

#SLJDOD #schoollibraries

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2d

Hey, the NJ gubernatorial election is less than a month away.

If the Democrats here want to start rolling out any kind of ad campaign that tells voters what Mikie Sherrill will do, that'd be super.

And no, "I can fly a helicopter" doesn't count.

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Kara Yorio @karayorio.bsky.social · 2d

Good Comics for Kids Review: Refugee: The Graphic Novel
goodcomicsforkids.slj.com/2025/10/07/r...

Review: Refugee: The Graphic Novel

In this graphic adaptation of his best-selling middle-grade novel, Alan Gratz weaves together three stories of refugees in different times and places and brings them to a stunning conclusion.

goodcomicsforkids.slj.com

Reposted by Kara Yorio

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 3d

This South Side Weekly report on the Chicago building raid is well worth reading. Most striking to me are the indications of collusion between federal authorities and the building owner and management to effect a mass eviction at the blighted property. southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

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Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social · 3d

“I’m just trying to find any clues, ideas, see where they took him, why they took him. And what’s the whole purpose for this?”

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Frank Strong @frankstrong.bsky.social · 3d

GREAT NEWS from Leander ISD. To Kill a Mockingbird, House on Mango St, and Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass will be returned to classrooms after a massive outcry. Thanks to everyone who spoke up!!!

From an email to teachers today:

*An important update regarding the books that
were previously paused from curriculum use as a
result of concerns around Senate Bill 12.
Thirty-six of the forty books are being reinstated
to the secondary curriculum book list, with
revisions made to the curriculum to ensure TEKS
alignment and compliance with SB 12. Four
titles, Stamped, Melissa (George), Gracefully
Grayson, and The 57 Bus, will remain paused for
additional review of curriculum alignment. Please
note that all books, including these four, should
remain available, or be returned if removed, to
classroom libraries for individual student choice
reading.

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 3d

“Conversion therapy” is a euphemism for child abuse, and every mainstream medical and mental health organization has rejected this practice for decades. There is no evidence that it does anything besides harm children. It is one of the few subjects where there is an overwhelming medical consensus.

Conversion therapy is universally opposed as harmful by major medical organizations, including (but not limited to) the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, American Medical Association(AMA), American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association (APA), and the American School Health Association.
Links: https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/medical-experts-lgbtq-people-agree-conversion-therapy-is-no-replacement-for-health-care

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Banned Books Week @bannedbooksweek.bsky.social · 4d

“This concept that small group of people, whatever their motivations, get to choose for the overwhelming majority of people is absurd. It is tyranny.”

@halseanderson.bsky.social speaks up from the Big Chair!

w/ @sagepub.com

youtu.be/dhsqHBpU2Pk?...

#BannedBooksWeek #CensorshipIsSo1984

BBW 2025 from The Big Chair - Author, Laurie Halse Anderson

YouTube video by Banned Books Week

youtu.be

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God @thegodpodcast.com · 4d

Please watch her final words to us all. They are beautiful and have given me a grounding sort of hope. Maybe they’ll help you too.

Bless Dr. Jane Goodall’s Final Message To Humanity

In which she tells us who she'd launch into space.

www.thegodpodcast.com

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That Librarian: Amanda Jones @librarianjones.com · 5d

Take at least ONE action to help defend books from censorship and speak up for those who make them available. Find resources/tools + actions you can take in just 5 mins: uniteagainstbookbans.org/let-freedom-read-day #BannedBooksWeek #UniteAgainstBookBans @la-cac.org @aaslala.bsky.social

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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 6d

The Trump administration has cancelled 4,304 deliveries to food banks so far this year, refusing to deliver 94 million pounds of contracted-for food. Food banks simply can’t feed people enough anymore. Millions of Americans are going hungry as a result.

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

projects.propublica.org

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jenn m. jackson @jennmjacksonphd.bsky.social · 7d

The Vice President of the United States used his social media page to tell Joy Reid, a private citizen with no connection to the government, that she should express "gratitude" for how this country has treated her.

Black women remain the most consistent targets in all of this.

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Science Magazine @science.org · 7d

As government websites go dark, educators across the country have been reworking lesson plans and searching for reliable sources of up-to-date scientific information. https://scim.ag/46Vlwxu

Science teachers scramble as U.S. climate resources vanish

As government websites go dark, some nonprofits are trying to fill the void

scim.ag

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That Librarian: Amanda Jones @librarianjones.com · 8d

Censorship is un-American.

Way to go, Kim! @thelibrariansfilm.bsky.social

www.cnn.com/2025/10/02/e...

Director of ‘The Librarians": Censorship is ‘un-American’ | CNN

Kim Snyder joins The Lead

www.cnn.com

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Kara Yorio @karayorio.bsky.social · 7d

Thrilled to write and share this story about a volunteer-run initiative documenting history before the Smithsonian must "align with the president's directive."

School Library Journal @slj.com · 8d

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian Is Creating a Digital Archive of Exhibits
www.slj.com/story/Citize...

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian Is Creating a Digital Archive of Exhibits

The all-volunteer initiative is documenting exhibits at the more than 20 Smithsonian Institution museums and the National Zoo in response to the Trump administration's announcement that museums' conte...

www.slj.com

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Texas Freedom to Read Project @txfreedomread.bsky.social · 9d

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
School districts banning books because of “disagreeable” ideas they contain is censorship. Courts are siding with districts, not parents. Not students. In America. In 2025.

In this case we are talking about a nonfiction children’s picture book about a penguin family with 2 daddy penguins. 😑

Florida Freedom to Read Project @flfreedomread.bsky.social · 9d

The NYT article correctly points out that the judge dances around a decision on “government speech” while siding with the rest of the district’s argument that it can viewpoint restrict as it chooses because patrons do not have 1A rights in our libraries.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/b...

Florida Court Rejects Free Speech Argument in Book Removal Case

www.nytimes.com

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ACLU @aclu.org · 8d

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 8d

If there's one thing we know about people who use and sell opium, it's that they always keep their opium in bottles clearly labeled "OPIUM."

Also, opium?

Do they think he emigrated from the 19th century?

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 8d

Arkansas police pulled over an Indian GrubHub driver wh ois married to a U.S. citizen. They found a bottle of Opium-brand perfume, arrested him for narcotics possession, and turned him over to ICE, where he was held for 30 days.

He has now been stripped of his immigration status.

Traffic stop in Benton leads to ICE detention, deportation risk

What began as a routine traffic stop in Benton ended with a man jailed, detained by immigration authorities for a month, and now living under the threat of deportation —

www.bentoncourier.com

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