Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · 8d

thank you!

Reposted by Sarah Smith

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 8d

BREAKING: A unanimous appeals court panel rules that reporter Catherine Herridge must testify about her source for a story that has become the subject of a leak investigation. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · 8d

Every culture’s death rituals are different, but they're all meant to allow us to live our lives even as we carry our dead. This is what happens when those rituals go awry.

Belatedly, my latest story (& first @esquiremag.bsky.social / @houstonchronicle.com collab!)

www.esquire.com/news-politic...

Cheating the Dead: The Undertaker and the Families Who Say He Scammed Them in Their Hour of Grief

A man stands accused of desecrating bodies at a funeral home. A bereaved mother will stop at nothing to get justice for her son. And the police trail on the case has gone cold. A requiem for the livin...

www.esquire.com

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 22d

man rolling rock up hill
how it started how its going

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 29d

NEW: The law is supposed to protect unaccompanied migrant children from being summarily whisked out of the country by ICE in the dead of night.

But that didn't seem to matter on Labor Day weekend, when the Trump administration tried to do just that.

My latest: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

The Judicial Learning Curve by Anna Bower on Lawfare
"District Court judges watch each other struggle with the Trump administration--and adapt."

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 29d

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

You Really Need to See Epstein’s Birthday Book for Yourself

This time, the conspiracy theorists were right.

www.theatlantic.com

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · 28d

it was the stupidest of times; it was the worst of times

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · 28d

And wildly misaligned with my salary but thanks, I guess

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · 29d

current writing stage

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · Sep 5

RFK Jr just buried a big report on the link between alcohol and cancer. Luckily, @smencimer.bsky.social had written this a few years back:

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · Sep 5

The research linking alcohol to breast cancer is deadly solid: Alcohol, regardless of whether it’s in Everclear or a vintage Bordeaux, is carcinogenic.

Drinking may have given me cancer. The alcohol industry has worked hard to downplay it.

The science is clear that alcohol raises the risk of breast cancer, but boozemakers have downplayed the link.

www.motherjones.com

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Sep 4

I respect it

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Sep 4

this is SUCH a pro tip omg

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Sep 4

Thank you for the intervention

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Sep 4

the punchline being, it may be me, depending on how the day goes

Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Sep 4

Currently on "who will eat the week old cupcakes in the newsroom" watch

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Sep 4

Currently on "who will eat the week old cupcakes in the newsroom" watch

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · Sep 4

🚨EXCLUSIVE:

Federal judges tell NBC News the Supreme Court has got to do a better job of explaining emergency rulings, with frequent decisions in favor of Trump at least appearing to validate harsh criticism of the judiciary at a time of rising threats:

www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

In rare interviews, federal judges criticize Supreme Court's handling of Trump cases

Ten judges tell NBC News the Supreme Court needs to explain its rulings better, with some urging Chief Justice John Roberts to do more to defend the judiciary against external criticism.

www.nbcnews.com

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · Aug 30

Found in the wild

HOW AM I DRIVING?
HOW DOES AN ENGINE EVEN WORK?
HOW CAN A LOVING GOD CAUSE SUCH AGONY?

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

Jack Mirkinson @jackmirkinson.bsky.social · Aug 28

Today in @thenation.com we have harrowing, unforgettable accounts of the Israeli massacre that killed Anas al-Sharif and 5 others—from three journalists, including al-Sharif's cousin, who were there.

Unfathomable that the world's media doesn't care about this. www.thenation.com/article/worl...

He recalls: “The tent was still burning. I saw the martyrs laid out on the ground. Moamen Aliwa was slumped killed on a chair. Beside him, Ahmad al-Harazin, the logistical man, was gravely injured. Then I saw Anas, Mohammed Qreiqa, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohammed Nofal lying motionless. The wall behind the tent was full of shrapnel. It was the most devastating strike I had ever seen.”

For 45 minutes, al-Hessi filmed the aftermath: the wounded carried out, the martyrs wrapped, the cries of relatives who arrived at al-Shifa’s overcrowded gates. “At one point, I broke down. I sat in a corner, sobbed, and cried intensely. But then I returned to my camera since there is no choice for me unless I document the Israeli crimes against my people in Gaza,” he says.

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Reposted by Sarah Smith

mollie bryant @molliebryant.bsky.social · Aug 27

I think/post about this a lot but I also wonder if I've underestimated the appeal of not thinking to other people

Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 27

Environmental impacts, errors and ethics aside, I personally just don't feel like ceding my thought process to a computer.

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 27

Right! Like there is use for it, I think (with proper disclosure etc) but I really just can't fathom the "use it to do something I can figure out myself" bit

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 27

Environmental impacts, errors and ethics aside, I personally just don't feel like ceding my thought process to a computer.

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 27

Zero percent. If someone can't make themselves do the 5-minute task with your own brainpower, I am 99.9% sure they will not spend the requisite 5 minutes to check whatever the AI threw up

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 27

The amount of reliance on ChatGPT in newsrooms to do a task that a human brain could do in a very short amount of time feels like if the dinosaurs had that asteroid in a slingshot and aimed it at themselves.

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thanks so much for taking the time to read!

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Sarah Smith @sarahesmith23.bsky.social · Aug 22

This ought to work -- it might ask for an email but should let you in

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Trump Burger’s untold story: A $250K murder plot, vaccine scam and ICE arrest

It’s a story with subplots involving a vaccine scam and a murder-for-hire scheme. It asks what we as a society require for legitimacy. And it’s a quintessentially American saga.

www.houstonchronicle.com

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