Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 7d

We were told this morning that NSF will override our out of office emails with their own generic one, so forget what I said. ☹️

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 7d

NSF’s doors will be closed at 1:30 pm today. While you may be able to submit things, there will be no staff to process anything. In fact it is illegal for us to even open our work computers or email during a shutdown. A very few rotators may be able to communicate, so check out of office responses.

Navigating A Government Shutdown: One-Stop Resource Page

As of 12:01 AM on October 1, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have shut down the government.

raskin.house.gov

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Reposted by Leslie Rissler

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 14d

New from #SCIMaP - analysis of the White House’s Proposed FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget.

Take-home: Slashing NSF by >50% will lead to ~$11 billion in economic loss and extensive job loss and reduced training opportunities in communities nationwide.

Report: osf.io/e8rnc

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Economic loss from the White House's NSF FY 2026 Proposed Budget

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Reposted by Leslie Rissler

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 23d

My quote of the day

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

Isaac Asimov

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Sep 6

Congratulations! ❤️

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Reposted by Leslie Rissler

Kaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · Sep 3

If there’s one thing that I have learned from engaging with primary sources, it is that people in the past weren’t smarter or more principled than we are today they just weren’t drowned in omnipresent propaganda and/or prosperous enough to be detached from material conditions

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Aug 19

Think how I feel taking conflicts of interest and ethics training when I work for the executive branch.

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Aug 8

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

www.whitehouse.gov

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Aug 7

“This Executive Order is nothing short of obscene," said Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "In what world does Donald Trump think that Americans want political appointees – who, need I remind the President, are unelected bureaucrats – making decisions on what science gets funded?”

Ranking Member Lofgren Calls Trump Out for Corrupt Executive Order Requiring Political Appointees to Approve Federal Grants | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

democrats-science.house.gov

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 28

“Federal workers can hold prayer circles with members of the public and tell colleagues to rethink their religious beliefs, according to new guidance the Trump administration released...” 🤯

Well as long as I can tell people to rethink their religious beliefs, I’m good. Thanks for the reminder.

Trump administration reminds federal employees they can proselytize in the office

Supervisors can solicit employees to attend their church, OPM says in new guidance.

www.govexec.com

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 27

NSF’s Union President epitomizes moral leadership. I’m proud to have him as a colleague and friend.

Jesús Soriano, union leader in the scientific rebellion against Trump: ‘You’ll go to a restaurant and won’t know if the meat is contaminated or not’

The Spanish doctor, of the US National Science Foundation, is the only employee to put his full name to a letter against the dismantling of the government agency

english.elpais.com

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 27

The best week of my summers is spent doing this grant workshop, sometimes in VA and sometimes in CO. It’s always filled with amazing people, and I am inspired by you!

Geoff Zahn @geoffzahn.bsky.social · Jul 26

Y'all, I just did this and it was total bliss, a terrifyingly immersive write-a-thon, full of excellent people, massively educational... And I wrote a whole-ass draft from scratch! 5 stars.

Group of grant writing workshop participants in front of waterfall

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 22

Letter to Representative Lofgren - Appeal to Defend Civil Service Protections and the Mission of the NSF

democrats-science.house.gov

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 22

“More than 140 employees of the National Science Foundation have signed a letter denouncing what they described as efforts to undermine one of the country’s main science funding agencies. … Out of fear of retaliation, all but one of the employees’ signatures are redacted.”

Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent

www.nytimes.com

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 22

As in it’s worse than you think.

Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 8

Today!

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · Jul 8

A focus on the futures we will lose if the WH continues to dismantle research across agencies spanning the EPA, DHS, NIH, NSF, USAID, and DoD (via NASA Watch).

When: Tuesday, July 8, 2025, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
Where: Rayburn Foyer, Rayburn House Office Building

nasawatch.com/congress/con...

Congressional Event: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants

The Things We’ll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants.

nasawatch.com

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jul 4

Started the day by reading the Declaration of Independence.

Happy 4th - the original No Kings Day 🇺🇸

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · Jul 4

He has refused his Assent to Laws…

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury…

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences…

A Tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 25

Another day testing the limits of resilience.

The Alexandria NSF building was designed for the NSF merit review process (gold standard), complete with a floor devoted to panels.

Now we aren’t allowed to have in person panels.

The loss of US science leadership will haunt this country for decades.

‘This is bull——”: National Science Foundation employees protest HUD's takeover

Dozens of National Science Foundation employees crowded the agency’s headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday to protest the news that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, w...

www.nbcwashington.com

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 24

You summed it up well.

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 24

HUD has been touring the building for months. NSF says nothing…”nothing to see here”.

I’m quite sick of gaslighting, bullying, and lack of respect for science and academia. It’s getting harder and harder to take.

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Jun 24

NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years.

NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 23

Join NSF-DOE Vera C.Rubin Observatory team at 11 am EST to see first images from world’s most powerful survey telescope!

youtube.com/live/Zv22_Am...

First Images from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory | #RubinFirstLook

YouTube video by Rubin Observatory

youtube.com

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 17

“The humiliation and censorship of the world's leading scientists and doctors, destroying research grants on a completely arbitrary collection of buzzwords linked to an imagined ‘woke mind virus,’ is a pathetically childish temper tantrum with utterly criminal impacts on the nation ...”.

Jay Bhattacharya is Not the NIH Director

Seventy-Five Days of Embarrassing Ineptitude

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Leslie Rissler

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Jun 15

It sickens me that the Trump administration is using antisemitism as a pretext for so much destructive behavior.

This is cynical and disingenuous.

Don't fall for it.

/fin

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 14

Old Town Alexandria, VA
No Kings!

Biking on Mount Vernon trail to Old Town

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Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · Jun 10

“…we need federal leadership that supports, not dismantles, the U.S. science enterprise and whose actions follow a bold positive vision for the future of science. …we must defend scientific integrity not just as a professional obligation, but as a cornerstone of democracy…”

(STAT - 3 free articles)

Trump’s ‘gold standard’ order is a blueprint for politicizing science

The Trump executive order is not a pathway to a “gold standard” — it is a blueprint for politicizing science and marginalizing expertise, write Jacob Carter and Gretchen Goldman.

www.statnews.com

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