Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

ProPublica @propublica.org · 7h

Your periodic reminder that you have the right to find out why your health insurer denied your claim.

We built a tool to help you do it: projects.propublica.org/claimfile/

Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim

You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file f...

projects.propublica.org

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 7h

Go Toronto!

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 12h

Amazing, valuable thread.

Not a TL:DR, but perhaps its most important message: be kind to the people who are trying to help you and they well be able to help you better and faster.

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 1d

A life update: this wound up paying off. I'm still applying to several jobs that are hopefully careers, but I've got my survival needs covered by a job at the airport that I'm apparently pretty good at.

And instead of being in an office alone, which was driving me mad, I see 20k people a day.

Nome @nome.bsky.social · Aug 12

There is a line around this building to get to the line entrance to wait to get into this job fair.

At the airport. For airport jobs.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 12h

Do you like this person?

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Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

Zack Colman @zcolman.bsky.social · 14h

Trump & his Cabinet say wind & solar are making electricity more expensive.

Federal data say the opposite.

Our analysis showed states w/ > avg wind/solar generation & > avg acceleration of wind/solar since ‘21 were likelier to have < avg power prices.

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

The government’s own data rebuts Trump’s claims about wind and solar prices

The Trump administration has targeted renewable energy for driving up electricity prices, but POLITICO’s analysis shows states that are growing their wind and solar power typically have lower power co...

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 15h

I'm on the record saying that Russ Vought will do things during the shutdown that will make his illegal rescissions visible in the way they otherwise weren't. And boy howdy, threatening to ignore the law on backpay is a great example. [corrected]

Shaheen, a retiring Dem Rs are looking to flip on shutdown, says of OMB threats on back pay:

“It would be a lot easier to resolve the situation if Russ Vought would stop talking.”

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 15h

This whole thing is an example of degenerate Trump thinking. Vought had references to the law deleted from OMB shutdown guidance. It's still the law.

Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 15h

Let me be clear: backpay for these workers is required under a federal law I wrote with former Senator Cardin — which Trump signed — during the last Trump shutdown.

This is just more fear mongering from a president who wants a blank check for lawlessness. It won't work.

Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims

Federal workers may not be entitled to back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office wrote in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up te...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

very cool that if you are working on behalf of right-wing culture warriors, you no longer need standing to have your claim adjudicated by the supreme court

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 16h

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 16h

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 12h

Would help to include the link, wouldn't it?

From Nature:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 12h

Here's a better brief account of today's physics Nobel Prize announcement than the NYT one I posted earlier.

An aside: how weird it must be to go to sleep an ordinarily distinguished researcher and wake up a laureate. That flip doesn't make everyone crazy, but there sure are some for whom it does.

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Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 15h

This is Adelita Grijalva.

She was elected to Congress two weeks ago, officially making her the final vote needed to force the release of the Epstein files.

She has still not been sworn in because Mike Johnson refuses to do so.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 13h

Lemme ask my wife.

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Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 14h

If the National Governors Association chooses to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.

We should be standing as one against the idea that Donald Trump can call up the National Guard against our will.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 16h

How it should be done.

Silverman on Security @silvermansecurity.bsky.social · 16h

@tomlevenson.bsky.social

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 17h

Ed is spot on here.

To repeat myself: Ed could not be more correct.

Science Vs @sciencevs.bsky.social · 6d

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

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Reposted by Boston Tom Levenson

Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 19h

Including Trump's first Surgeon General.

Opinion | Six surgeons general: It’s our duty to warn the nation about RFK Jr.

We took an oath to declare dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

wapo.st

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 17h

2/ So consider this: Nobel prizes are lagging indicators of research prowess. The results honored this year were achieved 40 yrs ago.

With the Trump/MAGA attack on the US research infrastructure, now pressed on every front, where will future Nobel winners choose to work going forward?

/fin

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 17h

Two things of note in today's announcement of the 2025 Nobel physics prize (besides the work being honored).

1: The US institutional dominance of the prize continues.
2: 2 of the three laureates are immigrants, drawn here decades ago by the then-unmatched opportunities for science here...

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Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded for Work in Quantum Mechanics

www.nytimes.com

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 19h

"The issue is going to come down to who decides the facts..."

Republicans' relationship to facts has always been shaky, and it's getting worse.

Gift link

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

www.nytimes.com

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 21h

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Plenary Popehat Power @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

It’s important to flood social media and news channels with news about how ICE lies, so that potential jurors see it.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19h

the chris caldwell of 1948 would have been arguing against desegregation of the armed forces www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | That Hegseth Speech Was Actually Pretty Good

www.nytimes.com

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Jake @tonymagoni.bsky.social · 20h

Adenauer fired all the nazi-sniffers

A screenshot from Conrad Adenauers wiki page, the section on denazification and how he ended it in West Germany

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University of Minnesota Infectious Diseases @umn-idim.bsky.social · 19h

There’s now an app for all things fungi 🦠🍄
Dr. Matthew Pullen, Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, helped launch Dr Fungus—a free app that brings the trusted resource to your phone.

Explore fungal infections, antifungal treatments, and case-based learning—all in one place.

Home - Doctor Fungus

Welcome to Doctor Fungus! An Educational Website of theMycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium (MSGERC) [View Legal Information] Where to Start Mycology Case of the Month An Introducti...

DrFungus.org

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 19h

Which is, of course, why Trump and MAGA are trying (and will fail) to drag us back to 19th c. energy technology.

Jonathan @renewableenergy.bsky.social · 20h

Huge historic turning point — Renewables surpassed coal as the world’s leading electricity source for the first half of 2025!

#greensky #energysky #renewableenergy

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