iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Paul Lewis

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

For some context, this kind of local police to ICE pipeline has been a dream for decades. “Secure Communities” under Bush/Obama was an early iteration, but never got anywhere near the funding ICE has now. It generated enough backlash against Obama that ICE was reined in. Very different times now.

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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 19/09/2026

My most boomer opinion is that you should be able to connect a printer straight out of the box with a cable to the pc and print. No wifi, no bluetooth, no freaking app.

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James S. Murphy @jamessmurphy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

For all their talk about eliminating barriers to diversity, not one Ivy Plus school has eliminated legacy admissions. Stanford decided it would rather give up millions in state financial aid dollars than give up legacy preferences.

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James S. Murphy @jamessmurphy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Legacy admissions is the real compact that highly rejective colleges have with the Trump Administration. For all their talk of merit and transparency, no one in the White House cares about legacy preferences.

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James S. Murphy @jamessmurphy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Elite" institutions continue to provide legacy preferences even though they acknowledge that legacies already have tons of advantages and that it turns admissions officers into fundraisers.

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James S. Murphy @jamessmurphy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

2) highly rejective colleges continue to cling to the practice of putting a thumb on the scale for the applicants that have already won the birth lottery.

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Paper Skygest Team @paper-feed.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

**Please repost** If you're enjoying Paper Skygest -- our personalized feed of academic content on Bluesky -- we'd appreciate you reposting this! We’ve found that the most effective way for us to reach new users and communities is through users sharing it with their network

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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

SCOOP: After the Census Bureau issued a highly unusual report tied to a President Trump-aligned think tank, the bureau’s parent agency, the Commerce Department, cut language banning political interference from its scientific integrity policy, @npr.org has learned www.npr.org/2026/08/31/n...

npr.org

Trump officials cut political interference ban after unusual Census Bureau report

After the Census Bureau issued a report tied to a Trump-aligned think tank, the bureau's parent agency cut language banning political interference from its scientific integrity policy, NPR learned.

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Jesse Coburn @jessecoburn.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

You and I — all of us taxpayers — funded this $533 million artillery plant outside of Dallas. It hasn’t produced a single usable shell. Yet the defense contractor, General Dynamics, has never been held publicly accountable. Nor has it had to pay a penny back… 1/

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

GAO: We think you should do something about drivers being unable to see people walking and cycling. USDOT: Nah, not interested.

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Michael Leo Owens @milophd.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

“FIFA takes the vast majority of the revenue from World Cup ticketing, media rights, sponsorship, concessions and parking, while cities are responsible for costs related to transportation, safety and security, extending…to FIFA Fan Fest locations, airports and even vehicles used in the competition.”

nytimes.com

The U.S. signed up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup – and its 11 host cities are paying for it

World Cup organizer FIFA pushes billions of costs onto its host cities, leading to frustration and a refusal to make the same mistakes again

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Top NIH officials have repeatedly said there's no "banned words" at the agency. But the NIH created an algorithm that checks every application for 235 "disfavoured" terms (eg 'gender', 'fossil fuel'). If it finds one, the grant is classified internally as “not clean.” We've published the list.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

If you don't want to read the book, read @benschneider.bsky.social's concise summary of a key part of the garden apartment boom: clever financing benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/the-most-s...

benjaminschneider.substack.com

The Most Successful Housing Policy You've Never Heard of

Nearly half a million rent control apartments were built in the decade following World War II with financial engineering rather than direct subsidy.

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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 11/06/2026

The amount of scammy AI-generated “let us make your book a best-seller with our book club/list” spam emails is truly impressive. As if!

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Tom Flood @tomflood.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

road violence and the decimation of youth mobility are direct results from this normalized and violent car culture. What our kids (and everyone) face on the streets is completely insane.

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Aleesha @charmaine116.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Spotted this ad for an F150 trim package. The goal is to be intimidating. They're not even pretending anymore.

Screenshot from a photo montage ad for Ford F150 truck trim package with the text, "Menacing Has Never Been So Captivating"

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Tiffani @tiffanimc.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

SSHD will focus on creating 2, 3 and some 4 bedroom homes. These larger family-sized units are rarely built by private market developers as they aren’t “profitable” or often by affordable housing sector due to financing constraints. www.fox13seattle.com/news/seattle...

fox13seattle.com

Seattle City Council committee approves financial power for social housing

A Seattle City Council committee approved a measure giving the city's social housing developer more flexibility to finance future housing projects.

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

New research examines Waymo's California robotaxi trips btw Aug 2023 and Dec 2025. Conclusion: 46% of miles driven involved no one inside the car. That's 40 million miles of deadheading, with Waymo vehicles using road space w/o transporting a human. doi.org/10.32866/001...

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

The joy of accessing scholarly journal articles (that your institution paid through the nose to subscribe to): youtube.com/shorts/cScoE...

youtube.com

Accessing scholarly journals in 2026 -- that your institution's library paid $$$$ for

YouTube video by Paul Lewis

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City & Community @cicojournal.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

New in CiCo: Using the 2020 George Floyd protests as a case study, Evan Ferstl finds that walkability is associated with higher protest frequency—both citywide and at the census tract level. A timely reminder about how the built environment can shape political action! See more at the link below.

journals.sagepub.com

Places for Public Discourse: Walkability and Protest in the United States - Evan Ferstl, 2026

Social movement scholarship on the emergence of protest has limited engagement with urban scholarship on the spatial production of social relations. Spatial cha...

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Congrats to the winners. But 800+ applicants for a $10k dissertation award, where the acceptance rate is 2.4%, says something about the dire state of research support for grad students in the social sciences.

Awards announcement email for the Horowitz Foundation's annual dissertation grants on social policy topics, stating that they received 845 applications for 20 awards. Awards are given in the amount of $10,000, except that the 1 top awardee gets $15,000.

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

From NYT review of the new Rolling Stones bio. It's OK -- at least RFK Jr. wasn't offering Keith any Tylenol.

Excerpt from NY Times book review of Rolling Stones bio describes a "passing mention" in the book about RFK Jr being one of Keith Richards's "drug buddies who 'revived Keith's appetite for coke and heroin' in the late 1970s".

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Federal immigrant "removal center" at Mesa airport is warned by the airport authority to stop exceeding its maximum occupancy of 203. Per this (non-paywalled) story, occupancy has repeatedly been 2x to 3x that limit. azmirror.com/2026/04/30/m...

azmirror.com

Mesa airport warns ICE facility's landlord that overcrowding may violate its lease

The Mesa airport warned the ICE facility's landlord that overcrowding documented by the Mirror may violate its lease agreement

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Reposted by Paul Lewis

Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

This shift at the individual and aggregate level has caused a big change in political geography. The proportion of a county's population with a graduate degree is now one of the strongest predictors of county-level vote outcomes--much stronger than just BA alone. 6/x

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

People who moved to exurban Gilbert now apoplectic that other people might be able to move there too. And even worse, that small townhomes might be allowed near their McMansions.

Arizona Republic story about how residential project has been approved by Gilbert's Town council now that the developer has agreed to remove apartments. One of the councilmembers who voted no complains that housing is a financial drain on the city, and he wants a sales-tax producing proposal instead.

Article quotes resident "aghast" at "small townhomes next to three-quarter [acre] homes, saying the project would lower home values."

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Reposted by Paul Lewis

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

However incompetent you think the Home Office are, there is always another level that they can reach.

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Jerod MacDonald-Evoy @jerodmacevoy.com · 10/04/2026

@repyassansari.bsky.social @repgregstanton.bsky.social and Rep Grijalva just conducted an unannounced oversight visit to this facility. Said there were at least 250 people (facility holds 157) with over 40 people in rooms with listed occupancy of 21. Deportation aircraft were there when they arrived

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Been thinking about this too: Is a built-from-scratch 'town center' in the burbs worth defending? "For the most part, we will have to take what we can get.... Mixed-use is a better use of space than single-use. Residential density paired with amenities is good, and more homes are good."

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

1966 NY Times front-pager on the growing campus drug culture notes that "no one knows, even approximately," how many students use drugs. But then it confidently asserts that English & Anthro majors are the biggest dopers.

NY Times article discussing the growing popularity of marijuana & LSD on Bay Area college campuses. It notes that "no one knows, even approximately, how many students take drugs," but later flatly states that the drug takers are mainly humanities & social science majors, especially English & Anthropology.

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Pam Davis-Kean, PhD @umpamdk.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...

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Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Aha! I have found the most perfect source that gives me a new and perfect perspective on the subject. *rubs hands together* This shall be a great boon for the project. Let me add it to my Zotero library. What’s this? The same source already added… in 2022 and 2019 and 2017…

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Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies @harvard-jchs.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

CHECK YOUR STATE: In almost every US state, renters are spending a higher share of their income on housing: from 2001–2024, median US rent rose 30%, while median renter income grew just 9%. www.jchs.harvard.edu/renters-are-...

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David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Bottom line: If we want fewer Americans to die while traveling, we need to measure the right number. It’s deaths per capita, not deaths per mile, that should guide road safety thinking.

bloomberg.com

The US Is Counting Traffic Deaths Wrong

By emphasizing the number of people killed per mile rather than deaths per capita, traffic safety groups risk normalizing the factors that make American roads so deadly.

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Interesting expenditures under AZ's "Empowerment Scholarship Accounts," even while public school districts are shuttering schools & laying off staff. Who's being empowered here?

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Matt Gannon @mattygannon.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

First publication! We show that the Supreme Court’s cessation of the pandemic-era national eviction moratorium increased food insufficiency among US renters with children by 3.17pp, a 20% relative increase. (1/2). Link: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/M32SY...

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Jen Fifield @jenafifield.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

NEW: A federal tool meant to find noncitizens on voter rolls is consistently marking citizens as noncitizens, especially if they were born outside the U.S., causing chaos as election clerks try not to disenfranchise voters, @zachdespart.bsky.social and I found. 🧵 www.propublica.org/article/save...

propublica.org

“Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes.

The Department of Homeland Security pushed out the revamped tool while it was still adding data. That led to widespread misidentification, particularly for citizens born outside the U.S.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

ICE has already spent $172 million to purchase two warehouses, one in Hagerstown, MD and one in Surprise, AZ. ICE will then have to pay more to convert them into makeshift detention camps. Leaked reports suggest each of these two warehouses will hold 1,500 people each.

On Jan. 16, the administration paid $102 million for a site near Hagerstown, Maryland, according to a local court filing. A week later, the government paid $70 million in cash for a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona. The price tags — roughly in line with the industry average for the warehouse market — cover just the acquisition of the sites, which are currently empty shells. ICE still has to pay companies to outfit the buildings with toilets, showers, beds, dining and recreation areas and then run them as detention centers.

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 28/01/2026

Trump’s fundraisers are now using the threat of dispatching ICE against citizens as an email engagement tactic.

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Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

🔎 We study the rural–urban divide in US politics—with a focus on when it emerged. Using longitudinal @electionstudies.bsky.social, CES and GSS data, we examine how the association between place of living and voting has developed over time in US presidential elections.

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Patrick Siegman @siegman.biz · 03/01/2026

Think back to Bay Area land use patterns in 1970. At Bishop Ranch, ~30,000 people now work in office buildings marooned in a vast sea of parking lots, next to a roaring freeway, with easy interchange access. Parking is abundant and free, transit is not. In 1970, this land was ranchland and orchards.

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Greg Shill @gregshill.com · 30/12/2025

Incredibly, not one of these milestones scores as a “win” using the traffic engineering metrics that quietly dictate city planning. Urban planning prof Jonathan Levine and I have one paper detailing why and another explaining why it has to change for any vision of abundance to succeed. Links below.

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Elise Wang @elisewang.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

There is no sight that more efficiently puts the lie to immigration “court” than the common sight of children “representing themselves.” Children too small to climb into the chair, children in pajamas who don’t know where they are, children not yet old enough to speak.

coppercourier.com

Three-year-old child forced to serve as her own attorney in Tucson immigration court

More than a dozen undocumented minors were forced to make their case in front of an immigration judge as the Trump administration ramps up removal proceedings.

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Paul Lewis @p-g-lewis.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Lest we in the U.S. forget, Black Friday used to refer to (among other things) a financial crash, societal crisis, or as in this song, an imminent catastrophe. Probably more apropos than the current usage. youtu.be/neJorQci-wI?...

youtu.be

Black Friday

YouTube video by Steely Dan - Topic

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