Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Abby Polter

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

Actual resident of Washington, DC: the only time there’s been a serious crime near my current residence was DURING the occupation (an elderly lady was carjacked in the quiet and normally very safe alley behind my house). I am not happy with that outcome.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Rep. Riley Moore: "I think the actual residents of Washington DC are very happy with the outcome. And I think the actual residents of Chicago and our other great cities here in America would actually like to have safe streets and not people murdered every night."

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 1d

“The records show that the police retroactively created a separate document about the Flock search a week after our article was published, in which they justify the search by saying they were concerned for her safety.”

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: In May, a Texas police department said they used the powerful Flock surveillance network against a woman who had an abortion "for her safety"

Newly obtained court records show it was a 'death investigation,' and they considered charging her with a crime

www.404media.co/police-said-...

Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion for Her 'Safety.' Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime

Court records show that the narrative Flock and a Texas Sheriff's Office has told the public isn't the whole story, and that police were conducting a 'death investigation' into the abortion.

www.404media.co

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 4d

Hey what have you got against alligator clips!

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 4d

Red line. Orange line. Tips line.

#ICYMI, you can now catch ProPublica’s tips line on the DC metro 🚆

Federal workers and contractors: We want to hear from you. You can reach us at https://propublica.org/tips or 917-512-0201 on Signal.

Interior of a WMATA train. Near the exit doors, above the blue accessible seats is a ProPublica ad that reads "Someone on this train has the next big story. Is it you? Signal: 917-512-0201. propublica.org/tips." The poster's illustration features a Black woman wearing business attire, standing while holding on to a guardrail. Next to her is a seated white man in a button-down shirt. He wears his backpack and is looking down intently at his phone.

Close-up of a D.C. metro ad. Tagline reads: "There are thousands of federal staffers with stories to tell. Share yours. Signal: 917-512-0201. propublica.org/tips." Background illustration shows a man in a dark suit standing on an escalator that's heading out of the metro station, holding his phone out as he looks back.

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 4d

There are new horrifying stories and videos like this every day. I don't know how people don't understand that the horrible nightmare regime they fear is coming is already here.

alexjungle.bsky.social @alexjungle.bsky.social · 5d

Breaking news: ICE stops family at gunpoint—smash car window on top of newborn baby.

"I was screaming that there was a baby. But they didn’t care," cried mother.

“I covered my baby with my body—I was so scared he was going to be hurt because glass was landing on him."

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 5d

Matthew 15:29-31: And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them after verifying their citizenship status.

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Talia Lerner @talialerner.bsky.social · 5d

Read this and do not pretend not to have known what was happening. My fellow scientist, even if you can still get your next grant, everything will not be fine.

Jessica Pishko @jesspish.bsky.social · 5d

This raid is disgusting, abominable behavior, traumatizing children and families in their homes.
abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"

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Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 6d

UPenn professors have responded forcefully to the Trump administration's that colleges sign a "compact" in order to secure funding:

"When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation." aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn

October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...

aaup-penn.org

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 5d

We're basically inventing new items for the ACEs questionnaire at this point

Jessica Pishko @jesspish.bsky.social · 5d

This raid is disgusting, abominable behavior, traumatizing children and families in their homes.
abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

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David Avallone @davallone.bsky.social · 6d

A great piece that hasn’t aged a day since 1941.

Play the game the next time you’re in a room full of people. I’ve played it. I think for some people it’s almost a reflex. “Which one of you would call the Gestapo on me, and which would watch, relieved, as I was taken from my home in the night?”

Plenary Popehat Power @kenwhite.bsky.social · 6d

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 6d

Why do all these baseball players have mullets? Do they not have girlfriends to tell them the error of their ways?

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 7d

Government shutdowns hit the DC area very hard. Consider throwing some money at Capital Area Food Bank-they are already struggling to keep up in the face of rising demand and food costs and reduced support. They will be busy in the days and weeks to come. give.capitalareafoodbank.org

Capital Area Food Bank Monthly

give.capitalareafoodbank.org

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Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 7d

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 7d

Government shutdowns hit the DC area very hard. Consider throwing some money at Capital Area Food Bank-they are already struggling to keep up in the face of rising demand and food costs and reduced support. They will be busy in the days and weeks to come. give.capitalareafoodbank.org

Capital Area Food Bank Monthly

give.capitalareafoodbank.org

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 7d

Oh I looked at those, most are ages 3+... they're coming

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 7d

Check with aunts and uncles I gave my niece a tambourine when she was 16 mos and I don't intend to stop

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 8d

Strict scrutiny is awesome!

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 9d

Truly Kafka-esque and imagine this situation multiplied by hundreds of thousands or millions placed in this uncertainty?

Lizzie O'Leary @lizzieohreally.bsky.social · 9d

I am a well educated, pretty media literate person whose job it is to be professionally annoying. I cannot figure out if my cancer medication, which costs $17k a month (I do not pay anything thanks to a combo of insurance/access programs), is going to be tariffed 100%.

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 9d

I also recently learned this as a non-outlook user. I had been getting these thumbs up emails from students and just chalked it up to "kids these days sure are bad at email". Oops.

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Dara Lind @daralind.bsky.social · 9d

#seeumbrellapostumbrella

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 9d

While I’m at it: You guys know what to do!!

youtu.be/jPCJIB1f7jk?...

Lip Sync Battle - Tom Holland

YouTube video by Comedy Central Latinoamérica

youtu.be

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Abby Polter @ampolter.bsky.social · 11d

My "this forced gathering of military personnel is a lecture on warrior ethos not a purge" t-shirt is raising a lot of questions already answered by the shiet

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 11d

Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to travel on short notice from around the world to hear him make a short speech on military standards and the “warrior ethos.”

New details emerge on Hegseth’s unusual mass gathering of top brass

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals for what is expected to be a short lecture on the “warrior ethos.” But top brass is bracing for possible firings or demotions.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 12d

This paper does a great job with a "It's a Wonderful Life" scenario about NIH, supposing the consequences of the bottom 40% of the funding NIH grants never existed.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

tl:dr The world would lose a lot, but directly and indirectly