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Shawna Williams

@coloradan.bsky.social
398 followers 472 following 162 posts

Freelance editor & writer, serial mover, mom. shawnawilliams.com

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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 5h
"It doesn’t matter that Mary Shelley, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Jane Austen never wrote those details; the stories have ballooned past their narrow literary beginnings, destined to be eternally rewritten by culture." thewalrus.ca/is-a-bad-jan...
thewalrus.ca
Is a Bad Jane Austen Adaptation a Victimless Crime? | The Walrus
Don’t get your bonnet strings in a knot if you’re disappointed by Sense and Sensibility. It was bound to happen
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Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Such a devastating loss. She was an exceptional journalist. "She thought her job was a gift," said her sister Brenda. www.statnews.com/2026/10/13/h...
statnews.com
Helen Branswell, whose reporting on infectious diseases and public health drew acclaim, dies at 69
Helen Branswell, STAT's infectious disease reporter who earned the respect of experts and public health officials with her accessible, prescient dispatches, has died at age 69.
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Beautiful piece of writing in the New Yorker - 'How tree rings challenged the myth of American wilderness' www.newyorker.com/science/elem...
newyorker.com
How Tree Rings Challenged the Myth of American Wilderness
By studying fire scars in ancient wood, many scientists have become convinced that Indigenous people transformed North America long before Christopher Columbus arrived.
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Nicole Foy @nicolefoy.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
For almost 2 years now, DHS has repeatedly told me they're not detaining U.S. citizens It's simply not true So @propublica.org published the receipts: a searchable database of the 500+ citizens detained by immigration agents during this Trump administration projects.propublica.org/american-cit...
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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NPR @npr.org · 07/10/2026
Researchers uncovered the graves of more than 1,000 children next to juvenile detention facilities in 29 states. At one Maryland gravesite, 230 Black boys are buried. n.pr/4zauALa
n.pr
Over 1,000 children are buried at juvenile detention centers nationwide
Researchers uncovered the graves of more than 1,000 children next to juvenile detention facilities in 29 states. At one Maryland gravesite, 230 Black boys are buried.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
science.org
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
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Aimai @aimaiami.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I would have loved my daughter to be able to follow in my footsteps and do a Ph.D in Anthropology but it’s just not going to be possible. I have found my training and the entire field to be so important to my life, even though I’m now a therapist. I mourn for all the great scholars who will never be
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HELL Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 02/10/2026
This thread is insane:
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Carissa Wong @carissacwwong.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We now know why a meningitis outbreak in the UK in March was so severe: it was caused by bacteria that took genes from harmless microbes. This helped the resulting bacteria evade the immune system and obtain iron from blood, boosting their growth. www.newscientist.com/article/2590...
newscientist.com
Severe meningitis outbreak caused by bacteria that took genes from microbiome | New Scientist
An unprecedented meningitis outbreak that occurred in Kent, UK, in March seems to have been driven by a bacterial strain taking genes from harmless microbes
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Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Urban heat island effects are bad enough. Clustering data centers in cities, each of which can produce the heat of 54,000 houses, will make it exponentially worse, especially in already hot places like Phoenix Gift link to this great @bloomberg.com infographic: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
AI Data Centers Release Heat, Posing New Problem for Cities
As facilities to power AI grow larger and are built in clusters, they are spreading hot air beyond their property lines
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Jesse Thorn @jessethorn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
NEW: In late 2024, FBI investigators had enough evidence to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. Then Trump was reelected and eviscerated the FBI and DOJ teams handling public corruption probes.
propublica.org
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump admini...
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Big Tech is using panic to suck the air out of the room just as people are demanding transparency and accountability for the sector’s egregious, monopolistic overreach into every facet of our lives. My latest column with bonus track open.spotify.com/track/403oiK...
open.spotify.com
Thieves in the Temple
Prince · Music from Graffiti Bridge · Song · 1990
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lukelukeluke @lukelukeluke.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Here are some nice mushrooms
A pair of tan mycena mushrooms grow from a crack in a damp and mossy log, set in a late summer forest. All photos by me
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 18/09/2026
Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses at Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding, including renting out a private island. National security experts say it raises an urgent question: What motivated Kremlev to spend a fortune cultivating the connection?
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The US National Science Foundation Directorate for Geosciences, which has funded most of my research over the past three decades, has been enshitified by Trump and his lackeys.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
NEW: DHS's Inspector General releases a scathing report about the Everglades detention camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The OIG finds that the now-closed camp, violated multiple ICE standards. The OIG also confirms detainees were punished with placement in a metal cage in the Florida heat.🧵
OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Staff also reported that time spent in the small metal enclosures is closely monitored, and
detainees are not locked in, even though we observed locking mechanisms on the enclosures.
Figures 11 and 12. Small Metal Enclosures; Observed January 21, 2026

Underneath is a picture of a metal cage that is 4 feet 3 inches wide by 4 feet 3 inches long, and 7 feet 9 inches high. The cage itself is placed on a tiny spot of fake turf, and then surrounded by another chainlink fence with razor wire on top. The cage is covered by a roof, but it's entirely exposed to the outside otherwise, meaning mosquitos and no air conditioning.
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Quick reporting trip to Philadelphia
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The Open Notebook @theopennotebook.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We’re so excited to announce Editing Forensics: a 5-week virtual course! This highly interactive training opportunity is designed to help you improve your editing and self-editing skills. Happening 10/14–11/18. Details & sign-up link here: www.theopennotebook.com/editing-fore...
theopennotebook.com
Editing Forensics: A 5-Week Virtual Course - The Open Notebook
Great writing depends on great editing—and great editing is a skill that can be learned. In this highly interactive 5-week course, participants will develop practical editing techniques that…
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Unprecedented corruption www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
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Sam @very-simple.com · 05/09/2026
NYC friends - I’m looking to get rid of this ottoman - it’s still in good shape (I’ve kept it slipcovered to protect from Sadie) but with more recent furniture acquisitions, it’s just too big. It’s 39” in diameter. Available for the low low cost of picking it up.
39” diameter cushioned ottoman covered in red/yellow swirled fabric.  Also has four skinny metal legs that could be removed if preferable.
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Jim Swift @jimswift.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The cruelty is the point. Shame on this administration and shame on the people who voted for this. www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/spring...
springfieldnewssun.com
Springfield Haitian student takes his own life after being fitted with ICE ankle monitor, advocates say
A 20-year-old Wright State student took his own life on Interstate 70 out of anguish over a required ICE ankle monitor, according to local community advocates.
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Hendrik Klaassens #FBPE #BanX #NoAfD #FBR @aurorablogspot.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation has found Facebook's parent company, Meta, is paying controversial content creators including a white nationalist with Neo-Nazi links and a prominent anti-vaxxer. Content produced by these creators appears to be, at times, in violation of Facebook's own policies.
abc.net.au
Facebook pays controversial creators to produce rage-bait content
An ABC NEWS Verify investigation reveals Facebook is directly funding some controversial Australian content creators including a white nationalist and an anti-vaxxer influencer.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
IN THE MIDDLE OF LOSING A WAR, Whiskey Pete appears to have fired General Randy George bc George refused to drop a probe into Kid Rock. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Exclusive
Before Hegseth fired him, top general was advised to drop Kid Rock probe
Gen. Randy George appeared troubled by the encounter with Gen. Chris LaNeve, the Army’s No. 2 officer now favored for the service’s top job, people familiar with the matter told The Post.

August 26, 2026 at 7:00 a.m. EDT51 minutes ago
8 min

Summary



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Make us preferred on Google

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth greets Gen. Randy George, then the Army's chief of staff, during a ceremony in September 2025. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
By Dan Lamothe and Noah Robertson
Days before the Army’s top officer was abruptly fired earlier this year, he was advised by a fellow general now vying to replace him to stop the military’s investigation into an unauthorized helicopter flyby of musician Kid Rock’s Tennessee estate, three people familiar with the matter said.

Gen. Randy George, whom Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed as the Army chief of staff without explanation, felt it was important to follow typical protocol and determine whether any safety regulations had been violated during the March 28 flyby, these people said. Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the episode.

Gen. Chris LaNeve, the Army’s No. 2 officer, told George that Hegseth did not want the investigation to proceed, one person said. The two others said that George later confided in colleagues that he seemed troubled by the encounter with LaNeve, who suggested it would be best if the review was scuttled.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/08/2026
If you just happened to pick this week to start yelling about the importance of academic freedom, I sure hope you did more than watch silently for the past 18 months as the Trump administration assaulted everything from mRNA vaccine research to gender studies to the very idea of having universities.
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Old-school Twitter would never.
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Why am I even on this site if I could somehow miss, for two whole months, the fact that the final season of The Bear was out.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
As usual with these "cancelled" right-wing heroes, Cofnas hasn't been fired. The university has temporarily suspended him while it investigates whether his actions violate its discrimination policy. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
In an update on Thursday, a spokesperson said: “Ghent University formally notified the staff member concerned of the launch of a preliminary disciplinary investigation.

“As part of this process, the university is assessing whether there are sufficient grounds to refer the case to the competent disciplinary body for further consideration. Pending this preliminary investigation, Ghent University has suspended the staff member as a precautionary measure.”
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Amazon having a dedicated facility where it feeds rare books into the AI maw and destroys them is exactly the kind of cartoon villainy I expect from our era.
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Lucy Prebble @lucyprebblish.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
One of the sad things about the death of writing is that we are going to be taking life advice primarily from visually attractive people now who don’t know shit. ideally you want the world filtered through awkward homunculi filled with rage who know the plural of homunculus
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Somehow, this is the guy we allowed to kill 14 million people.
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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 13/08/2026
14 million souls ended in a single year by Elon Musk's cruelty and stupidity Here are some of the comparisons: Rwandan genocide: 800k dead Cambodian genocide: 3 million dead The Holocaust: 7 million dead
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UCSC Science Communication Program @ucscscicomm.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
⭐ BIG NEWS ⭐ The SciCom Program is expanding its reach! We're now offering online courses on the basics of science communication beginning this September. Learn more here: www.ucsc-extension.edu/series/scien... Enroll by Aug. 15 for $100 off!
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 12/08/2026
This is my frustration with the moment, because everyone wants to yell about being a fighter and unafraid to take on the right etc, while at same time ignoring if not tacitly supporting the police being able to do whatever they want to people in communities like mine.
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Finished this stunning book today. Highly recommend, especially the audio book. A bonus for me is that it takes place around the turn of the millennium on an island off the west coast of Scotland, which happens to be around the same time I spent five months living in the area.
Cover of the book John of John by Douglas Stuart
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Arthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I imagine there were Victorians who said “we can’t afford sewers”, knowing that deaths from poor sanitation happened mostly to people they didn’t know. This is much more serious, of course.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Republican elected officials, particularly Rand Paul and Ron Johnson, are a disgrace. Aside from their repeated attacks on Dr. Fauci, I ask you this: Who in their right mind will ever try to lead an American pandemic response again if the consequence is being harassed for the rest of your life?
nbcnews.com
Senators vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for pleading the Fifth during tense hearing
Fauci declined to answer senators’ questions more than 100 times during last week’s hearing, angering Republican lawmakers who have targeted him for years.
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Alexandra Petri @petridishes.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
stop wasting your life! www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
theatlantic.com
Now, Thanks to Sam Altman, You Never Have to Speak With Your Kids Again
AI can handle these kinds of pointless interactions.
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
NEW: Meta reviewed, approved, and ran more than 50 ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads. They ran for nine months. Some were live this week. After WIRED asked about them, researchers found ~30 more
wired.com
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Evidence of the great benefits of AI: it used to take a huge amount of time and effort to make yourself look this stupid; now AI allows you to humiliate yourself almost instantly.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 30/07/2026
Let’s be clear here, when scientists say mistakes were made at the start of the pandemic, we DO NOT mean that we did too much. We mean not socially distancing quickly enough, not making tests widely available, and not acknowledging COVID is airborne and distributing N95 masks to everyone.
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Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Really driving away editors as potential customers with these naming decisions.
Part of a confirmation email for a hotel advertising eateries called brewr and Skewr, both with two dots over the e
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
2020 was bad. very bad. horrific in every sense of the word. unfortunately it can get a lot worse. the seriousness of these threats — for which the clock is ticking — is barely reflected in our politics, largely for reasons every disability scholar has written on at this point. these are the stakes
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Melody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 26/07/2026
I want to add one more point. You can argue that some MAHA supporters aren't anti-vax. But their leader, RFK Jr, has been anti-vax for decades. He is the movement! It was founded on him! It is intrinsically and inseparably anti-vaccine.
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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
#ClimateChange is ridiculously expensive! — more so than phasing out fossil fuels. A new study says that NY State will surpass half a trillion dollars on infrastructure spending related to climate change by 2050. Now this is just one state. And one type of cost! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/n...
nytimes.com
New York Faces Half a Trillion in Storm Prevention Costs, Report Finds (Gift Article)
A study from a group called Rebuild by Design estimates that the money will be needed to repair the effects of climate change in the next 24 years.
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Roberta Kwok @robertakwok.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
It's pub day for Lost in Curiosity -- please re-post widely! "Lively and revelatory" (Elizabeth Kolbert), "beautifully written" (Alan Lightman), "an utter delight" (Sabrina Imbler), "the kind of trip you won't want to miss" (Deborah Blum) www.robertakwok.com/book
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Melody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 21/07/2026
NEW: The HHS just paused $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota. They used AI to identify "suspected fraud and noncompliance." From me: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
RFK Jr pauses $1bn Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota
Trump’s health secretary says AI used to identify potential fraud in Democratic-run states
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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The 1997 Flores settlement says children can only be in immigration detention for 20 days. A new legal filing shows that kids at CoreCivic's detention facility in Dilley, TX have been there as long as 323 days, & includes firsthand accounts of the abuse guards are inflicting on children.
prospect.org
Trump Administration Routinely Violating Immigrant Children’s Rights - The American Prospect
The 1997 Flores ruling requires immigrant children be released from detention after 20 days. Trump is keeping some for as long as 323 days, new filings in a lawsuit state.
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
"It feels good to stand up and say, 'This is not legal or constitutional so we will fight back.'" Proud to call @thrasherxy.bsky.social a friend. Whatever your views on his politics: "Members of the U.S. government… should not be deciding who is and who is not teaching at university campuses."
chicagotribune.com
Denied tenure and alleging discrimination, Northwestern University professor sues school and government officials
A Northwestern University professor filed a federal lawsuit alleging federal officials pressured the school to deny him tenure.
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