Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 8d

Come join us at the @capolicylab.bsky.social as our new policy director in Sacramento!

The California Policy Lab @capolicylab.bsky.social · 8d

Please share with your networks: The California Policy Lab is hiring a policy director to amplify our policy impact in Sacramento. We're looking for a seasoned policy professional with deep experience in California state government. First review date is Oct. 10th: capolicylab.org/careers/poli...

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Lauren Bauer @laurenhlb.bsky.social · 17d

This is unacceptable.

www.wsj.com/economy/trum...

Exclusive | Trump Administration Cancels Annual Hunger Survey

The government has been measuring food insecurity since the mid-1990s, but now says the report has become “overly politicized.”

www.wsj.com

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · 20d

That perfect @streetsforall.org quote comes from this great article by @frombenc.bsky.social

calmatters.org/housing/2025...

Your neighborhood could get seven-story buildings if it's near a train station

A bill California lawmakers approved allows dense apartments near transit stations, overriding local zoning to address the housing crisis.

calmatters.org

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · 20d

Marc Vukcevich, a policy director for the LA-based transit and pedestrian advocacy group Streets For All, a co-sponsor of the bill, said he didn’t think the city of Los Angeles’ opposition to the measure carried much weight.

“The Legislature knows that LA is a deeply unserious actor when it comes to housing,” he said.

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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · Sep 1

“a university, non-profit, or media outlet that engages in union-busting in 2025 is making a strategic mistake, prioritizing limited short-term benefits over the big picture.”

www.acslaw.org/expertforum/...

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Erika McEntarfer @erikamcentarfer.bsky.social · Aug 2

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

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Ben Zipperer @benzipperer.org · Aug 1

From @hshierholz.bsky.social: Trump's firing of BLS commissioner is undemocratic and economically dangerous. Between illegal firings, starving data agencies of resources, and now political intimidation, the US looks set to run into the next economic downturn flying blind

www.epi.org/press/trumps...

screenshot of the linked post titled "Trump’s firing of BLS commissioner is undemocratic and economically dangerous" by Heidi Shierholz, which reads:

Today, Trump directed his team to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) because he didn’t like the jobs numbers they released. This is a move straight out of an autocratic playbook.

BLS is one of the most respected statistical agencies in the world, known for its methodological rigor, independence, and transparency. The president’s belief that the BLS commissioner personally “produced” the jobs numbers is preposterous and shows a complete misunderstanding of how government statistical agencies operate. These data are the product of careful work by hundreds of expert economists, statisticians, and civil servants following transparent, well-established methodologies.

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Aug 1

👇👇👇

Jed Kolko @jedkolko.bsky.social · Aug 1

For six months, I've said that threats to economic data have been more collateral damage than intentional harm.

No longer.

Firing the head of the BLS is five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system.

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Arin Dube @arindube.bsky.social · Jul 24

A timely and trenchant piece by Suresh Naidu. When future generations sift through the wreckage of our era, they’ll find it strewn with the institutional and personal failures of leaders both great and small.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

Opinion | Columbia’s Administrators Are Fooling Themselves

www.nytimes.com

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Conor Lamb @conorlambpa.bsky.social · Jul 24

I hope Pope Leo continues to speak against starvation and barbarity in Gaza and U.S. bishops continue to defend those targeted for arrest and internment here. The Church has a unique, non-ideological voice on behalf of the dispossessed and displaced, like Jesus himself was.

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Jul 15

BLS and Census are planning to put the CPS online within a few years to help address these nonresponse issues, but currently have nowhere near the funding they need to test the new internet instrument or study how that transition will impact official statistics.

Gbenga Ajilore @gbenga-ajilore.bsky.social · Jul 15

The Bureau also needs additional funding to start addressing declining response rates and other problems that increasingly threaten the reliability of survey data, such as the unemployment rates used to track the economy. (5/7)

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Jul 15

Do you remember when child poverty fell to a record low in 2021 thanks to the expanded CTC?

It turns out that the SPM for kids was just as low in 2020 thanks to historically generous unemployment benefits. We missed it because UI is so under-reported in the CPS ASEC.

The figure includes three charts showing alternative estimates of the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The first figure shows the rate for everyone, the second for kids and the third for seniors. The estimates from a blend of survey and administrative data find lower poverty rates than those just based on survey data.

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Joshua Smith @smithmachine.bsky.social · Jun 21

Senate Parliamentarian advises several more GOP provisions violate the Byrd Rule, including the provision to mandate states cover a portion of SNAP benefits.

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Ben Casselman @bencasselman.bsky.social · Jun 18

Powell says he is concerned about the impact of cuts at the statistical agencies. High-quality statistics are "a huge public good," he says. "I hate to see us cutting back on that... I would want to continue investing in that for the good of the general public."
#EconSky

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SEIU California @seiuca.org · Jun 8

Military style ICE raids in our communities. David Huerta was beaten and dragged away.

Because he saw them and stood up for justice. Because he’s not afraid.

Neither are we.

On MONDAY let's #FreeDavidHuerta, #FreeThemAll

11:00 AM @ Grand Park in Downtown LA (200 N Grand Ave)

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Jon Rothbaum @jlrothbaum.bsky.social · May 25

If you use Stata and parquet files, I developed a stata plugin that could help: ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode.... You can read/write parquet files directly from stata (Caveat: tested on windows and linux, but not mac)

PQ: Stata module to read, write, and manage Parquet files in

pq provides commands for working with Apache Parquet files in Stata. Parquet is a columnar storage file format designed to efficiently store and process large datasets. This package allows Stata users

ideas.repec.org

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Mike Konczal @mtkonczal.bsky.social · May 23

I was curious how the Medicaid cuts the House passed stacked up historically. That's a big lift, but @standorn.bsky.social did the numbers.

It's the largest on record, twice the size of the early 1980s Reagan cuts. Same is true for SNAP. Here's my write-up:
mikekonczal.substack.com/p/the-house-...

The House Just Passed The Biggest Medicaid Cut in U.S. History, Twice the Size of Reagan's Cuts

So much for realignment. New analysis from UnidosUS shows the House’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP are unprecedented, twice as large as anything under President Reagan,

mikekonczal.substack.com

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Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · May 23

The reconciliation bill passed by the House GOP yesterday alters the social safety net in many significant ways that are easy to miss if you blink.

Let’s take, for one, SNAP, a program where the federal government currently pays 100% of benefits.

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Erica Groshen @ericagroshen.bsky.social · May 8

Not a good idea to convert the leaders of the federal statistical agencies into political appointees. It would undermine trust.
Send in your comment today to object to this change in the federal civil service. This article has the link.
#econsky

Cornell ILR School @cornellilr.bsky.social · May 7

A proposed rule would reclassify 50,000 federal employees as “Schedule Policy/Career." @ericagroshen.bsky.social, senior economic advisor at #CornellILR, spoke to ILR’s Center for Applied Research on Work about the possible impacts of this change.
www.ilr.cornell.edu/carow/carow-...

“Schedule Policy/Career poses a significant threat to the effectiveness of federal statistical agencies and to the integrity and quality of their products. By undermining the principles of merit-based employment and threatening the job security of senior career civil servants, Schedule Policy/Career could lead to politicization, loss of trust and expertise, decreased morale, and disruption of agency operations,” says Erica Groshen, senior economic advisor at the Cornell University ILR School and former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Ben Zipperer @benzipperer.org · Apr 17

IRS Direct File is clear-cut government success story, a shining example of efficiency and social value

Every year it will save Americans billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of hours in tax preparation costs

So of course Trump and Musk want to kill it

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Apr 17

The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS' Direct File program, an electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free, according to AP sources.

Trump administration plans to end the IRS Direct File program for free tax filing, AP sources say

The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program. That's the electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free.

bit.ly

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Apr 11

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Screenshot from an article describing staffing cuts in the HHS office responsible for calculating federal poverty guidelines.

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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · Apr 11

In a nuts-and-bolts sense, I think I have a good sense of how this happens. But in a much more important sense, it’s incomprehensible that schools are still taking this stance when democracy is on the line

Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · Apr 10

Great piece on our union battles here at USC, where our employer is fighting democracy in the most extreme, reactionary way possible (arguing that the NLRB shouldn't even exist). If you have a job in America, this affects you too.

USC Follows Amazon and Musk’s SpaceX in Calling Labor Board Unconstitutional

To block a union that would represent 2,500 faculty members, the private university echoed a corporate argument.

capitalandmain.com

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Apr 1

The cruelty is the point.

Federal Workers Walk Into Chaos Amid Return to Office (Gift Article)

President Trump has described his new in-office requirement as a way to ensure workers are doing their jobs. He sees potentially leading more employees to quit as an added benefit.

www.nytimes.com

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Mar 24

Allowing remote work is a highly cost-effective way for the govt to recruit and retain talented staff. Census can hire economists, statisticians, sociologists and demographers from around the country.

Plus, it's cheaper. Less govt office space, and workers trade lower wages for the flexibility!

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Matt Unrath @mattunrath.bsky.social · Mar 24

Consolidating Census, BLS and BEA in Suitland only made sense if staff could telework.

There's simply not enough space in the building for everyone to work there everyday.

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