ajbaker115.bsky.social
@ajbaker115.bsky.social
Reposted
“These publications have the First Amendment right to be free of viewpoint-based discrimination, but UA is explicitly citing their viewpoints to justify killing their publications. No federal antidiscrimination law authorizes the university to silence student media it dislikes.”
Alabama Ends Black-, Women-Focused Student Magazines
The university pointed to a July Department of Justice memo that warned against “unlawful proxies” for race or sex. It’s another example of administrators restricting student media.
www.insidehighered.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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Roohi Dalal used to study the distribution of dark matter. Now, as deputy director of public policy at @aas.org, she interfaces with government officials to ensure that the astronomical community's needs are met. #whatcanphysicistsdo #physics #astronomy
Roohi Dalal advocates on Capitol Hill for the astronomy community
physicstoday.aip.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:15 PM
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I watched the 1st meeting day of RFK Jr’s handpicked committee of vaccine advisors. It was utterly depressing. 1/
September 19, 2025 at 1:46 PM
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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert just dropped its first response to ABC, FCC chair, and Disney firing Jimmy Kimmel.
This is a must-watch. 🔥 #cdnpoli
September 19, 2025 at 8:46 AM
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I truly cannot emphasize enough how this is straight up Lysenkoism.

Because of the incredible work of our nation’s scientists, we have our finger tips on the closest thing humanity has ever come to “a cure for cancer”, but brainworm over here doesn’t believe in it.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...
Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts
www.nytimes.com
August 6, 2025 at 1:41 AM
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Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.
Release from HHS: HHS will wind down its development of the mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
August 5, 2025 at 10:54 PM
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Ousted members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices describe RFK Jr.’s first meeting—featuring anti-vaccine presenters pushing unfounded claims.

They now call for the creation of an independent vaccine panel outside the federal government.

zurl.co/x2itL
Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned under RFK Jr.
Seventeen experts ousted from a U.S. vaccine committee are expressing little faith in what the panel has become.
zurl.co
July 31, 2025 at 10:18 PM
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Breaking: NSF is suspending roughly 300 grants with UCLA, following a DOJ finding on Tuesday that the university violated Title VI by "creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students."
July 31, 2025 at 5:53 PM
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NSF staff release their appeal—slightly different format than the declarations of dissent from EPA/NIH/NASA; a more formal petition to Congress to redress attacks on the agency and its employees. 149 signatories (48 named)
democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/do...
July 22, 2025 at 4:56 PM
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The first photos from the Vera Rubin Observatory are stunning — thanks in part to the University of Arizona, which helped build its mirror. Proud to see Arizona leading the way in space science.
July 17, 2025 at 11:35 PM
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To be sure, both parties have supported ICE in the past.

But Trump has given ICE more cops than the FBI, more jails than the federal Bureau of Prisons, and a larger budget than most countries' militaries.

This isn’t business as usual. This is a fast track to full-blown dictatorship.
July 17, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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Kristi Noem didn’t approve FEMA rescue teams for over 72 hours after the Texas floods, following a rule she imposed that required her personal sign-off on any operation over $100K.

This is inexcusable. She should resign.
July 10, 2025 at 5:06 AM
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Every American should read this ACLU lawsuit about what is happening in Los Angeles and California. It is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. This is not immigration enforcement. It is positively stuffed with videos and articles documenting racial profiling on a scale unseen since Jim Crow.
July 9, 2025 at 8:21 PM
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So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...
Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees
Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.
www.ipm.org
June 30, 2025 at 9:12 PM
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Move to hold the agents who assaulted a sitting senator in contempt of Congress. Call for articles of impeachment against Noem. Stop working on crypto legislation. Demonstrate the stakes of what is happening in LA with your actions.
Sen. Chuck Schumer: "I just saw something that sickened my stomach; the manhandling of a United States Senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on."
June 12, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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Lyft driver picked me up from UNC, turned out he was a medicinal chemistry post-doc in a building near mine, until his grant got cut last month.

Worked on novel antivirals.
June 4, 2025 at 8:33 PM
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AAS and 52 other science societies and organizations sent a letter to Congress this morning expressing concern over recent organizational and financial developments at NSF, and urging Congress to exercise its oversight authority to preserve American STEM leadership. aas.org/press/letter... 🔭
May 30, 2025 at 3:48 PM
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My people, we need two LIGO sites to prove sources are astrophysical and not, like, a rabbit hopping nearby. ⚛️
NSF budget would close down one of LIGO's sites. This would be, to put it lightly, a catastrophe for gravitational wave astronomy.

"In FY 2026 NSF will operate only one of the two sites
and will support a reduced level for technology development."
bsky.app/profile/hast...
May 30, 2025 at 10:31 PM
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I need to actually get to my gate in time, but am stuck processing this particular table:
May 30, 2025 at 9:05 PM
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Small point of clarification from NSF source: "The single grant per institution for all fellows is a formality for ease of administration of money ... So this is a stop to Harvard being able to draw down the money but the students are still GRFP Fellows."
Yup, one of the terminated NSF awards was #2140743, which allows Harvard to draw funding for its NSF graduate research fellows (GRFP), all current and new.

Confirmed here: www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

Just cruel.
All NSF GRFPs to students choosing to attend Harvard in the Fall were just terminated
May 23, 2025 at 2:25 PM
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I'm a current Harvard graduate student and I found out today that I had my NSF GRFP terminated without notification. I was awarded this individual research fellowship before even choosing Harvard as my graduate school
May 22, 2025 at 9:38 PM
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All NSF GRFPs to students choosing to attend Harvard in the Fall were just terminated
May 22, 2025 at 7:38 PM
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BREAKING: Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced he has ordered the FDA to consider new nationwide restrictions on medication abortion — and that President Trump, not scientists or doctors, will make the final decision.
May 14, 2025 at 9:50 PM
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I am the U.S. Senator for Maryland.

The scientists RFK fired, the loyal civil servants at the NIH, the FDA, the CDC, that he's fired: those are my constituents.

And I will never stop fighting for them.
May 15, 2025 at 6:32 PM