Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

NEW: When a health insurer refuses to pay for your treatment, you may have the right to have the denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider.

Here are six steps experts suggest to help you through the external appeal process.

This Little-Known Appeal Could Force Your Insurer to Pay for Lifesaving Care. Here’s How to File It.

You may have the right to get a denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider. Here’s how experts suggest you do it.

www.propublica.org

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4h

#WarRavagedPortland

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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 15h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 16h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · 18h

Because you called Brad Raffensperger at Trump’s request to talk about the vote count in GA because Trump couldn’t accept losing a free & fair election. Enough of Graham’s constantly playing the victim card & his amoral service in the Senate. SC can do better by electing @drannieandrews.com.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 21h

Graham: Can you tell me why my phone records were sought by the jack Smith agents. Why did they ask to know who I called and what I was doing from January 4th to the seventh? Can you tell me that?

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Jen Wunder @jenwunder.bsky.social · 17h

Just in case anyone needed something good today. Karma had a fine walk.

A very happy black pup standing on a trail scattered with leaves and winding through a forest. The leaves on the trees are still green and dappled with sunlight.

A closeup of the same scene, focused on the black dog who is looking at the camera and smiling happily with her tongue out.

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 20h

Window Screen

xkcd.com/3151/

4-panel comic. (1) [person in front of window, shaped like a trapezoid with a curved top] This weekend, I had to make an oversized screen for a porch window. (2) [person sitting with hands on head surrounded by images of assorted equations and measurements] It involved countless tiny problems, each somehow way harder than it should be. Oblique angles. Curved edges. Noncoplanarity. (3) [person in front of window with screen on it, with building detritus strewn on the ground] ...I solved them all. I measured precisely. I did trigonometry. I made custom parts. And it fit *perfectly.* No gaps, no ripples. (4) [person typing at computer] I know that your foundation normally limits its purview to physics, medicine, peace, chemistry, and literature. However, if you review the attached photos showing how well the screen fits into the...

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution @ajc.com · 20h

How much did investors pay for the Krog Street Market district? A lot.

The price makes the sale one of the most expensive commercial real estate transactions of the past few years in Atlanta.

www.ajc.com

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Sarah-Maria Schober @smschober.bsky.social · 22h

Want to work on the history of hair? I am looking for a doc and postdoc to join my project team researching #earlymodern hair, race, trade and multispecies history at the University of Lucerne.

Do apply and spread the word!

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

PhD position in History (100%, 4 years) - Vacancies - University of Lucerne

Assistant or doctoral positions, employment or internship: Looking for a job at the University of Lucerne? Find our listed open positions and apprenticeships here.

www.unilu.ch

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J.D. Connor @jdconnor.bsky.social · 20h

We're hiring. It's a real needle-in-a-haystack search for an experienced teacher who can help reimagine our flagship (i.e., huge) intro course for a new era. 3/3 load. Convenient to Hollywood and Holbox.

usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...

Open-rank Assistant, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at USC

usccareers.usc.edu

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Renegade Roo @renegadekangaroo.bsky.social · 2d

I just learned about the hyrax. An animal that looks like they're just done with everyone's bullshit

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Erik Simpson @erikthesimpson.bsky.social · 1d

Job Alert! Tenure-track, Creative Non-Fiction (broadly conceived), Grinnell College. joblist.mla.org/job/2000443/...

Assistant Professor of English: Creative Writing Tenure Track job with Grinnell College | 2000443

Research and teaching interests might include: screenwriting/tv writing, memoir, lyric essay, narrative journalism, graphic storytelling.

joblist.mla.org

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Jen Wunder @jenwunder.bsky.social · 1d

And, fwiw, my house payment isn’t that large — ~$2,000/month.

Jen Wunder @jenwunder.bsky.social · 1d

So, anecdotally, I live in GA and pay for private insurance — a bronze plan that is identical to the ACA plan but I don’t qualify for subsidies, so I pay full price. Monthly premiums are approximately $300 more/month than my mortgage payments. And unfortunately, they’re about to be $1,000+ more.

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New York Magazine @nymag.com · 1d

Mike Johnson seems to be stalling to block the Epstein-files vote. The Speaker claims he can’t swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who plans to sign the discharge petition, during the government shutdown. That’s not true.

Johnson Seems to Be Stalling to Block Epstein-Files Vote

Mike Johnson seems to be stalling to block the Epstein-files vote. The Speaker claims he can’t swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who plans to sign the discharge petition, during the government shutdown. That’s not true.

nymag.com

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Jake Tapper did a whole interview with Trump by text message? Which means he can't actually confirm it was him. And now everyone's asking even more than before very reasonable questions about the wannabe dictator's health.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

The CNN anchor did not explain how he verified that it was the president — not any of his aides — who authored the written responses to his questions.

He also did not explain whether he’d made any effort to speak with the president by phone, something that has become commonplace for reporters covering the second Trump administration because Trump has maintained use of his personal mobile phone since returning to the presidency and frequently uses it to contact reporters directly.

The president’s purported text message exchange with Tapper was also unusual because Trump is not known to be a frequent user of his phone’s text message capacity.

He also famously eschews email and other written forms of communication and during his first term he openly complained when attorneys working for his administration took notes during meetings.

Trump’s unconventional use of text-based communications to purportedly respond to Tapper comes as questions continue to swirl about the state of his health

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Jen Wunder @jenwunder.bsky.social · 1d

I guess when you’re a Republican who has health insurance for life, you neither know nor care to learn that November 1 is a date that matters to the little people — regular Americans — who need to shop for healthcare and figure out how to pay for it.

Call your GOP congresspeople and let them know.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson on spiking healthcare premiums: "They've been saying that some of the insurance companies will be sending out notices in early November. The last time I checked it's October 6. We have the entire month of October."

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Jen Wunder @jenwunder.bsky.social · 1d

One of my more recent failing up examples re: Weiss: Her anti-woke college funded by billionaires started by stealing another school’s trademark, while also violating TX code, and the THECB had to repeatedly help and give them extra chances bc they kept failing basic code and edu requirements.

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 2d

The building was in bankruptcy. This explains why there were moving trucks hauling out residents' possessions - including residents who were not detained - basically immediately after the raid. A building depopulated of residents is easier to sell etc.

CNN @cnn.com · 4d

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken. https://cnn.it/4pPCXIt

37 people arrested and American kids separated from parents after ICE raid at Chicago apartments | CNN

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken.

www.cnn.com

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John Fabian Witt @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social · 2d

Political violence, post-pandemic one-party rule, vast economic inequality, and immigration backlash? The 2020s are the 1920s all over again--and that may show us a way out. Adapted from my book, to be published next week. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | How to Save the American Experiment

www.nytimes.com

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 2d

Things to consider:

Document the violence & violations--on camera, w/photos, saving images--any way you can. Speaking as a historian- it will matter

Point out violations--w/images & text--even if you think it won't matter. It will. It needs to be called out & exposed

You are a witness.
Expose it.

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 3d

A marvellous #Egyptian #frog amulet, made of porphyry (height 1.2 cm).
Because of their numerous offspring, #frogs were considered a symbol of fertility.

Dating ca. 1295–1185 BC, New Kingdom.

📷Metropolitan Museum

🏺 AncientEgyptBluesky

A small frog-shaped amulet carved from dark reddish-brown porphyry, patterned with irregular white spots, shown in a crouching position against a plain light background.

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Rakesh Khanna @blaftrakesh.bsky.social · 3d

When I was researching my book Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, I learned of a 1000-year-old myth about Roman tech being used to build killer robots to guard the Buddha's remains in Pataliputra, and a Hungarian folklorist read my book & got excited about it, & she managed to dig up a🧵(1/3)

Romanised Pali manuscript of the Lokapannati

Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India
p. 60
Bhoota Vahana Yanta
Bhoota Vahana Yanta means “spirit movement machine.” The term is used
for several varieties of robot drone assassins and sword-wielding machine-
men mentioned in the Lokapannati, a Pali-language text written between
1000 and 1200 CE by Saddhammaghosa of Thaton, but concerning
events that took place much earlier, around 500 to 200 BCE.
According to the story, robots were first invented by engineers of the
early Roman Republic. These robots were used for commerce, in agriculture,
as a police force, and as executioners. The secret of how to build these
spirit-engines was fiercely protected. If any engineer dared to take the designs
out of the city, one of his own executioner robots would come after
him and kill him.
At that time, in Pataliputra (then in the kingdom of Magadha, now
Patna in the state of Bihar), there lived a young man who had heard of the
Romans’ magical androids. He became so determined to learn the secrets
of their manufacture and share them with the people of Magadha that he
arranged his own death. Then, on his deathbed, he vowed to be reincarnated
as a Roman.
This indeed took place. In his new life, the man grew up to join the
Roman guild of engineers. He even married the daughter of the Master
Robot-Maker, and had a son by her.
Once he learned the secrets of the Bhoota Vahana Yanta, the man resolved
to transfer the information back to Pataliputra. But he was well
aware that now, since he was a member of the guild, he would be killed as
soon as he left. So he cut a gash in his thigh, inserted the plans in his flesh,
and sewed the wound back up.

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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 3d

In the Network State ideology, tech billionaires gut existing institutions and swap in parallel knockoffs that serve their agendas.

Example: a tech billionaire creates a fake university run by a columnist ... or buys a major news outlet and puts an unqualified crony in charge.

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Indivisible ATL @indivisibleatl.bsky.social · 3d

Three days left!

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