Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 36m

DHS is so desperate to preempt the buzz around Zach Bryan's "fuck ICE" message in Bad News that they chose another Zach Bryan song about a bunch of fake Christians having one last night of debauchery before they're sent to prison.

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 2h

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 2h

Portland is meeting the moment with spontaneous protestor parties featuring middle-age white people grooving to Bad Bunny and young people dancing around in inflatable animal costumes.

In other news, Oregon is behind only 4 other states (VT, NM, AK, and ME) in share of adults who use marijuana.

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 3h

No university that signs the compact will be a university, in the accepted sense, anymore. They will be mere Trump Institutes, teaching only what subjects Trump doesn't bar them from teaching -- and only until he does. Signing is an abdication of responsibility and an act of great moral cowardice.

Benjamin Nathans | Autonomy or obedience

Guest Columnist Benjamin Nathans urges Penn’s leadership to resist the White House’s demands in its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

www.thedp.com

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Climatologist49 @climatologist49.bsky.social · 6h

Let's check in and see how September temperatures have changed in the U.S. and Canada over the last 75 years. 🔥😢

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 13h

Aside from obvious electoral shenanigans, a new Census could become a massive ICE op:

- ICE agents follow Census takers around, yank anyone "suspicious" (not white, accented) who opens door for Census taker out of home.

- People who don't respond are breaking law (Title 13), now easier to deport.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19h

Tommy Tuberville on the 2020 census: "The Democrats were letting illegals come in for a different count. They obviously had a census going that was all rigged. The 2020 election basically was rigged."

(Believe it or not, Donald Trump was president in 2020.)

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jordan @jordantyranny.bsky.social · 18h

"Ballerina Aesha Ash wandering around inner city Rochester breaking the stereotypes about women of color and to inspire young kids."

its a picture of a ballerina teaching future young ballerinas!!!

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 18h

Sec of Transport Sean "I Once Visited the Real World on TV" Duffy: "You don't have roads in Alaska."

Yup, roads cause too much damage to the paws of the sled dogs that all Alaskans use, winter & summer.

(TBF, he's not wrong about rural communities' reliance on air travel to connect to the cities.)

"The number one user of this air space is Alaska," Duffy told reporters. "You don't have roads in Alaska. They travel by air, and a lot of these are small communities..."

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 19h

I wonder how many generations of biology graduate students have made up drinking songs about generations of Drosophila.

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 19h

Academic freedom means that a course that teaches students to critique settler colonialism can be taught alongside one that teaches students to maximize shareholder value.

Both are "biased" in their framing.

Only one is currently at risk of being cancelled by state and/or institutional actors.

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Andrew Mercer @awmercer.bsky.social · 1d

Terrific piece from @gelliottmorris.com this morning.

Whenever you ask if something “might” happen or “may” be necessary, it’s very easy for respondents to think of scenarios where the answer is yes, no matter how unlikely.

Why most polls overstate support for political violence

Misperceptions about the popularity of violence increase public support for it — but you can help change that.

www.gelliottmorris.com

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Inletkeeper @inletkeeper.bsky.social · 1d

Alaska’s wetlands are losing protection after Sackett v. EPA—and developers are already exploiting the rollback. Stand up for science and learn what it means for our waters and communities in our recent blog: Clean Water Act Rollbacks. #DefendTheWestSu #Alaska #SaveOurSalmon

Clean Water Act Rollbacks - Inletkeeper

Alaska houses more than half the wetlands in the United States, making it vulnerable to the impacts of the 2023 case Sackett vs. EPA. This case changed which wetlands fall under federal jurisdiction a...

inletkeeper.org

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 1d

My new op-ed with @lkfazio.bsky.social:

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.
Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

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Trustees for Alaska @trusteesforalaska.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump administration is once again prioritizing foreign mining interests over Alaskan communities and wild lands. Check out Alaska Wilderness League's statement on the new executive order directing the government to approve the Ambler road. #noamblerroad

alaskawild.org/blog/america...

America First? Not When Public Lands Are Being Used to Profit a Foreign Company. | Alaska Wilderness League

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: October 6, 2025 Contact: Anja Semanco | 724-967-2777 | [email protected] ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Alaska Wilderness League

alaskawild.org

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 1d

Just filled out a web survey with a bunch of Likert-type items. The response categories were in the same order on each item, but not the order you'd expect:

fairly important
important
unimportant
very important

Pretty sure "alphabetize response categories" is not best practice in survey design.

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 3d

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 3d

It's administrator-speak for "we're going to wait to see what our rich trustees think."

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 4d

This smacks of a familiar story: a rich donor who wants to leave a mark meets an administrator who wants to build something shiny and new, rather than support existing programs, b/c former is more beneficial for administrative careers.

It's neither efficient nor, ultimately, good for students.

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 4d

Demography is science, but it's not rocket science. Journalists and related professionals could understand crude birth rate, general fertility rate, and total fertility rate - and use the terms consistently. So I made this annotated table: familyinequality.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/l...

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 4d

Not surprisingly, the Republican lawmaker who complained is a dead ringer for Dolores Umbridge.

Matt Buxton @matt.akmemo.com · 11d

Leave it to Homer GOP Rep. Sarah Vance to try to cancel a local paper for describing a man who once said Black women like Justice Jackson do not have "the brain processing power to be taken seriously” as holding “racist and controversial views."

My latest from the Memo:

#akleg

Cancel culture, it turns out, is conservative

All aboard the conservative cancel culture train!

www.akmemo.com

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 4d

America's version of the Canadian loonie.

Bill Kuchman @billkuchman.bsky.social · 4d

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin

The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

www.politico.com

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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 4d

"Only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities." 31 USC 5114(b)

Bill Kuchman @billkuchman.bsky.social · 4d

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin

The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

www.politico.com

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 5d

Very few chairs/DGSs respond to the USNWR surveys that ask them to rate other programs. It follows that a small number of raters could do real damage to the rankings of a program in any university that signs the Trump "compact."

Hit administrators and trustees where they'll pretend it doesn't hurt.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, New College is incredibly inefficient but it also dropped 60(!) spots on the US News & World Report rankings. Not easy!
Everytime Chris Rufo is introduced as an impt voice in higher ed, remember that the one time he had a hand in running an institution has been a disaster.
Competence matters.

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 7d

You'll be shocked to learn New College of Florida is on the brink of implosion just a couple of years after DeSantis engineered an extreme right-wing takeover

Fun fact: NCF's new overlords spend $134K per student (!!...the average at other FL publics is $10K) www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

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Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, because when you are organizing a large public protest, you definitely want to keep the location a secret.

(TBF, it could be that they don't have a permit yet.)

No Kinds Ithaca advertisement. Gives the time, but the location is listed as "this event's address is private."

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 5d

"This is extortion, plain and simple.... The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education."

A sobering analysis of the illegality of the administration's "compact" and its stakes for higher ed. 🎁🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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