Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Louise Seamster

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 13h

Virginia State Senate Dems just brought down fire and fury regarding the “Compact,” notifying the President and Rector that UVA would lose ALL STATE APPROPRIATIONS if it signs and cedes the University to “federal political control.” Notably, their letter directly restates points made here by @siva.

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 15h

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down

How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education

newrepublic.com

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 6h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Baltimore Banner @thebaltimorebanner.com · 8h

Baltimore home inspector pleads guilty to falsified lead-free certificates

The guilty plea comes around two months after Maryland environmental regulators voided hundreds of lead-free certificates issued by Green Environmental in Baltimore and around the state.

buff.ly

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✪ Jonathan H. Gray: “Professor of Halloweenery” ✪ @jongraywb.bsky.social · 13h

Speaking as a Birmingham native, Bessemer ain’t nothing but black folks — and I find it oh so interesting that black neighborhoods are where they keep shoving all these data centers

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 1d

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that all these data centers are going into communities that have been historically targeted for exploitation and have the least amount of civic power wielded by the people living there.

wordinblack.com/2025/09/alab...

Why Are Plans for This Alabama Data Center So Hush-Hush?

Officials in Bessemer, Alabama, are mum on Project Marvel, a proposed data center the size of 18 Walmart Supercenters.

wordinblack.com

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 10h

The anti-DEI anti-woke movement has always been transparently white supremacist. Nonetheless, moves like canceling a game about the Klan being the bad guys really drives home the point.

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 11h

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Steven W. Thrasher is finishing The Overseer Class @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 14h

“CBS first raised the ire of modern conservatives in the early 1950s, when it stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy at the height of his anticommunist witch hunts.” Great history by @ajbauer.bsky.social time.com/7318570/cbs-...

CBS Has Been in Conservative Sights for Decades

It was once deemed the "Communist Broadcasting System" by conservative activists.

time.com

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 17h

“Bucking tradition and legal precedent.” Lol.

I guess according to the sanitizing standards of mainstream media’s neutrality-theater journalism, you can “buck tradition and legal precedent” so hard that you end democratic self-government and the constitutional order altogether.

NPR @npr.org · 1d

President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Trump's power to deploy National Guard, explained

President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.

n.pr

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 1d

If appropriations bills are not seen as enforceable contracts, why should any Member of Congress vote to fund any part of the federal government under Donald Trump? You're voting to provide money for lawlessness. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Persis Yu @persisyu.bsky.social · 18h

A healthy environment is critical for students to succeed. As a Boston Public School mom, I know firsthand that improvements to our schools' buildings and infrastructure are long overdue.

Our kids deserve better.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/07/m...

Image of children in a school cafeteria. Text reading: Higher-income, suburban school districts get more state building aid despite lower levels of need, report says
By Christopher Huffaker Globe Staff,Updated October 7, 2025, 5:44 p.m.

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 18h

The real news in this is the first sentence. “It is not exactly clear what UNC plans to use the faculty workload report for…”

I would argue that it is very clear. I have, in fact, argued that it is very clear.

John Robinson @jrobin.bsky.social · 19h

“the average percentage of time that all faculty spend on teaching is 28 percent.”

As an adjunct, i spent — let me see, oh yeah — 100 PERCENT of my time on teaching.

www.dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

Workload report shows breakdown of time UNC faculty spend teaching, researching

It is not exactly clear what UNC plans to use the faculty workload report for, but some professors are confused about how the data was calculated.

www.dailytarheel.com

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 19h

just got the honor of meeting with the great Howard Winant who mentioned this David Graeber essay on the threat "giant puppets" pose the police, along the same lines theanarchistlibrary.org/library/davi...

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 20h

Dutch merchant in 1647: “Yes I've sold my land for a handful of bulbs, but there is nothing especially alarming about price of tulips.”

Bloomberg Opinion @opinion.bloomberg.com · 20h

Is AI a bubble about to burst, bringing down the economy? Although the spending is massive, at this point there’s nothing especially alarming.

The AI Spending Boom Is Massive But Not Unprecedented

The boom in capital expenditures related to generative artificial intelligence is generating lots of questions about whether it is sustainable. Coming up with definitive answers to them is something of a fool’s errand. Quantifying the size of the capex surge seems like a more productive endeavor — and one that may offer some hints as to its sustainability.

bloom.bg

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

This was one of the eeriest things I ever read on the internet, and unfortunately, it turned out to be also one of the more relevant things for understanding where we are now. medium.com/@jamesbridle...

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Kye @gxldsociety.bsky.social · 2d

PAY ATTENTION: ICE is filing fake 911 calls in Chicago, weaponizing emergency services to provoke local police.

Ordinary citizens would be charged with a felony. ICE calls it strategy.

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Lois Beckett @loisbeckett.bsky.social · 1d

With all this reporting, and 3 journalists on the story, you'd think the @nytimes.com could have interviewed at least one or two other undocumented professionals who could offer context on Roberts' trajectory and choices.

Or what his high-profile arrest meant for other undocumented people in Iowa.

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flipinidaho @flipinidaho.bsky.social · 1d

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

The building is in a 27 million dollar foreclosure filed by Wells Fargo. The next day, Wells Fargo filed an emergency motion for receivership. The fascist regime kindly emptied the building for donor Wells Fargo.

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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Education Now Lab @edunowlab.bsky.social · 1d

Don't miss our next outstanding speaker, Dr. Roderic Crooks, on October 15, 2025, @ 7:00 pm CT. He will speak on his book "Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality." Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...

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Anna Smith @anna-phd.bsky.social · 1d

Next up is Dr. Roderic Crooks on "Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality." This one is for you #EduSky #literacies @civicsoftech.bsky.social and more! Hope you can make it!

Education Now Lab @edunowlab.bsky.social · 1d

Don't miss our next outstanding speaker, Dr. Roderic Crooks, on October 15, 2025, @ 7:00 pm CT. He will speak on his book "Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality." Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...

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Reposted by Louise Seamster

Luke Herrine @lookheron.bsky.social · 1d

Just want to make some deals, Mr President

Debt Collective 🟥 @debtcollective.bsky.social · 1d

Now: Debt Collective Raises Hand to Purchase Chunk of Federal Government Student Debt Portfolio

The Debt Collective has purchased billions in household debt over the past decade

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, after a new POLITICO report that the Trump administration is “exploring options to sell off parts of the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the private market,” the Debt Collective is announcing its willingness to purchase the entire portfolio for its true market value. The Debt Collective will then subsequently cancel the debt.

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Debt Collective 🟥 @debtcollective.bsky.social · 1d

New POLITICO report: Trump admin is “exploring options to sell parts of the government’s $1.6T student loan portfolio to the private market.”

We're announcing our willingness to purchase the portfolio for its market value. We will then subsequently cancel the debt.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Trump administration considers sale of federal student loan debt

The discussions have taken place among senior Education Department and Treasury Department officials.

www.politico.com

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Debt Collective 🟥 @debtcollective.bsky.social · 1d

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KLM @klm.bsky.social · 1d

"The idea reflects an appetite from administration officials to shrink the size of student loan debt on the government’s balance sheet"

have you heard of the one simple trick guaranteed to reduce the size of the student loan portfolio?

loan forgiveness
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Trump administration weighs selling parts of $1.6T federal student loan portfolio

The discussions have taken place among senior Education Department and Treasury Department officials.

www.politico.com

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Lauren Working @laurenworking.bsky.social · 1d

Delighted to share some initial research that Stephanie Pratt (Crow Creek Dakota) & I have started at Knole @researchnt.bsky.social. How can its transatlantic connections also centre Indigenous presence? What new interpretation might such frameworks allow?

www.historyworkshop.org.uk/indigenous-h...

Indigenous Plant Stories in an English Treasure House

Delve into the links between Knole and Indigenous American histories as we investigate its colonial connections.

www.historyworkshop.org.uk

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 1d

As a historian, I truly like the "foreverized pastness" part of this. And I agree, on a daily basis we are floating towards a permanent establishment of badly manipulated memories. A plural of nonsense histories. #skystorians

Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 1d

So-called #genAI means the abolition of the future through the proliferation of endless streams of stochastically rendered generic pasts. Having turned large parts of the cultural archive into training data, it now traps us in a foreverized pastness, a 24/7 nostalgia for a past that never existed

QuoProQuid @quoproquid.bsky.social · 2d

have just come across a YouTube account that has been using Sora to upload reels of fake, AI-generated “90s sitcoms” every few hours

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Louise Seamster @louiseseamster.bsky.social · 1d

here’s instructions for chapters in a document from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, reflecting its new commitment with the "National Shooting Sports Foundation” to each “act in the best interests of the other”.

"The document directed chapters to “engage in partnerships, conferences and events which include at least one of the following: firearms retailers, shooting range owners, firearm safety instructors, and/or the firearms-owning community.” What then followed was a list of “do’s” and “don’ts”, including warnings about summits that use “gun safety” and “gun violence” language, and participation in any gathering that has an unclear agenda and does not involve the “firearms community.”

“If AFSP is invited to sponsor or speak at a conference or event, the program and speakers need to include some representation from the firearms community,” the first “do” said.

The second “don’t” instructed, “If AFSP is invited to engage in any partnerships, or speak at any conferences or events with a gun control group or gun violence group, please decline participation, unless the firearms community is also involved in the program.”"

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