Daniel Melling
LightNews LightNews
danielmelling.bsky.social
Daniel Melling
@danielmelling.bsky.social
130 followers 170 following 110 posts
Who dares, wins. Los Angeles
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Daniel Melling
maxtani.bsky.social
amazing q&a with paul krugman
June 25, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
cmonstah.bsky.social
Tryin to imagine a Waymo merging onto the Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena in heavy traffic.
November 13, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
sammyroth.bsky.social
NEWS: CBS News gutted its climate team as part of the big Paramount layoffs this week. These journalists had been doing incredible reporting on extreme heat, flooding, clean energy investments and more.

I've got details for Climate-Colored Goggles: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/cbs-news-g...
CBS News just gutted its climate team
Paramount and Bari Weiss aren't off to a great start. Here's why David Ellison should change course.
www.climatecoloredgoggles.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
katharinehayhoe.com
If you take the time to read the whole Gates memo (which I did), the bulk of the content was mostly solid and encouraging. Really!

It was the FRAME that was off--very off, from the first line.

And when your framing is off, then how you make decisions and set priorities is off. THAT'S the problem.
My quote from an Axios interview, stating that: People often think of climate change as a separate bucket at the end of a long row of other buckets of problems we're trying to fix that are wrong in the world," Hayhoe told Axios. This includes poverty, disease and access to clean water. "Climate change is not a separate bucket," Hayhoe said. "The reason we care about climate change is that it's the hole in every bucket."
October 30, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
evanlgeorge.bsky.social
Great to see attention to this from @sammyroth.bsky.social. We surveyed 610 LA Times stories from Jan-Feb and found that only 13-15% of stories included a mention of “climate change” or “global warming” during those two months. Full survey is here: law.ucla.edu/news/missed-...
October 28, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
greenlawchina.bsky.social
None of NYT, WaPo, LAT, and WSJ have a story about the fire at this South Carolina judge's home yet. time.com/7323442/sout...
House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Burns Down
Authorities are investigating a fire at the home of a South Carolina judge who had reportedly received death threats in what could be the latest incident of political violence across the country.
time.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
davidakaye.bsky.social
every word of erwin's oped is 🎯 - a must read. and good for @governor.ca.gov in taking such immediate action. gift link --> www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion
www.nytimes.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
blakeprof.bsky.social
The University of California, the jewel of American public education, is going to lose so much talent and dignity if it keeps down this path.
Give In or Fight Back? Colleges Are Torn on How to Respond to Trump.
www.nytimes.com
September 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
jaweedkaleem.bsky.social
BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered Trump to restore $500 million in frozen UCLA NIH grants. The same judge, Rita F. Lin, previously ordered all UCLA NSF grants reinstated. Lin has now nearly entirely reversed Trump's July de-funding of UCLA research: www.latimes.com/california/s...
Federal judge orders Trump to restore $500 million in frozen UCLA medical research grants
A San Francisco-based federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to restore all National Institutes of Health grants to UCLA, roughly $500 million, that the government suspended in July.
www.latimes.com
September 23, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
latimes.com
Protesters flood Hollywood over 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' suspension, calling for an end to censorship
Protesters flood Hollywood over 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' suspension, calling for an end to censorship
More than 100 locals and visitors took to Hollywood Boulevard outside of El Capitan Theatre — where 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!" is filmed — to protest what they see as the Trump administration's role in the indefinite suspension of the program.
www.latimes.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
tomscocca.bsky.social
When Karl Rove is more ready to call bullshit than ABC is
carlquintanilla.bsky.social Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · Sep 18
ROVE: “.. Using Charlie’s murder to justify retaliation against political rivals is wrong and dangerous. It will further divide and embitter our country. No good thing will come of it.”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/opinion/they...
September 18, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
awalkerinla.bsky.social
I simply cannot believe that in the year 2025 we're tearing out 41 mature shade trees to build a brand-new palm-lined freeway overpass
A wider shot of the new LACMA building which looks like a freeway overpass set with black glass as it rises up and over Wilshire, with office towers in the back. In the front two pedestrians walk their dogs across fresh asphalt that has no shade because the city let LACMA plant dozens of palm trees. Caption: The broad sidewalk in front of LACMA’s curving David Geffen Galleries is visually interesting with its new corridor of palms, but pedestrians walking the block from the La Brea Tar Pits east of the museum to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to the west won’t find much in the way of shade. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times) In the case of LACMA, the museum agreed to pay $120,590 into the fund after it got permission from the city’s Board of Public Works to remove 41 mature trees to build the Geffen Galleries.
September 4, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
legal-planet.org
Telling, learning, and sharing American history is a form of dissent: @evanlgeorge.bsky.social. The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news.

legal-planet.org/2025/08/28/h...
How to Dissent? Learn American History - Legal Planet
Telling, learning, and sharing American history is a form of dissent: The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news.
legal-planet.org
August 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
greenlawchina.bsky.social
Trump actions are threatening the greatest public university system in the country. All Americans should see this for the impending disaster it is. www.latimes.com/california/n...
The 'death knell' of America's top public university?
Your morning catch-up: UC fights the Trump administration, voters in deep-red NorCal are fuming about Newsom’s maps, and more big stories.
www.latimes.com
August 22, 2025 at 2:31 PM
danielmelling.bsky.social
Carpet at Oceanside Surf Bowl
Galaxy-themed carpet with bowling balls
August 17, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
blakeprof.bsky.social
🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...
Dear President Milliken, Regents, and Governor Newsom, As faculty members of University of California law schools, we endorse Governor Newsom's commitment to resist the Trump Administration's unlawful actions taken against the University of California, Los Angeles. The Governor is on firm legal ground. The Trump Administration's termination and suspension of federal funds has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in numerous ways. Governor Newsom and the University of California Regents will protect the vital interests not only of Californians but of all Americans if they defend the University of California's rights. The U.S. Department of Justice notified UCLA on July 29, 2025, that it had found that UCLA had "violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Chancellor Frenk subsequently announced that "the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for federal grant terminations. UCLA faces losses of at least $584 million, funding that has supported vital research on matters ranging from treatments for pancreatic cancer to advances in online security. The Trump Administration has made no pretense of following the law. Title VI permits a federal agency to terminate funding only if it has found that the particular program receiving that funding has violated the law's non-discrimination provisions. Funding cannot disappear just because the agency's policy or political preferences differ from the institution's. Moreover, the agency can act only after following specific procedural steps. Importantly, Title VI requires a formal administrative hearing—a proceeding much like a trial-before the agency can terminate funding. At the hearing, the agency would have the burden of proving the university's alleged violations of Title VI before an impartial decision-maker. If the agency prevails at the hearing, the university or other interested persons could appea… factually supported and consistent with civil rights laws. Without the steps Title VI requires, there is no protection against an administration alleging discrimination as a pretext to force compliance with its policy or partisan preferences. Title VI's procedures guarantee the constitutional due process requirement that no person can be deprived of liberty or property without fair notice and opportunity to be heard. They protect the university and its members' academic freedom, an endowment essential to scientific research, intellectual discovery, and open debate. We are deeply committed to the core principle of non-discrimination codified in Title VI and in the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The principle that no person may suffer discrimination because of race, color, or national origin protects equality and ensures fairness in political as well as social life. Allegations of discrimination deserve serious and careful consideration and, where established, effective redress. But this enforcement effort must follow the law. We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California's rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration's failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government's charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial decisionmaker. It is precisely because we cherish the principles of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution that we encourage Governor Newsom, the UC Regents, and the University of California to fight back. Through its grantmaking powers, the federal government wields vast influence over social and economic life. If not held to account by the procedural protections enacted by Congres…
August 15, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
calmatters.org
Breaking: A federal judge ordered the Trump admin. to restore a portion of the 800 federal science research grants that it suspended at UCLA, delivering a major setback to efforts to force the university into a $1 billion settlement buff.ly/cJKbdTY

📝 @mzinshteyn.bsky.social
📸 Jules Hotz
Participants in the “Kill the Cuts” rally march against the Trump administration’s proposed research funding cuts in Los Angeles on April 8, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters. Hed: Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore hundreds of UCLA research grants
August 13, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
davidakaye.bsky.social
university presidents think they're cutting deals to restore their funding. i get their pressures. but this is what's happening: ramping up the extortion, creating homogeneous zones of government-directed curricula, shutting down campus speech.
UC says Trump demand for $1-billion fine would 'completely devastate' university system
The Trump administration has proposed the University of California pay more than $1 billion to settle antisemitism charges and restore frozen grant funding at UCLA.
www.latimes.com
August 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
maxkozlov.bsky.social
NEW: A federal judge has demanded NSF explain in court how the UCLA grant suspensions are not in violation of her June order that restored grants to UC scientists
August 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
crampell.bsky.social
Trump canceled the research grant for America’s — perhaps the world’s? — top mathematician (via @weakinstrument.bsky.social)
August 3, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
bencollins.bsky.social
when they close it all up, I do believe this will go down as the funniest video on the internet
July 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
bykarlamendes.bsky.social
I'm extremely emotional to be the 1st Brazilian to win the John B Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism
@columbiajournalism.bsky.social! Thanks to @mongabay.com @pulitzercenter.bsky.social for the support & thanks to the Guardians of the Forest for the trust! @sejorg.bsky.social
columbiajournalism.bsky.social Columbia Journalism School @columbiajournalism.bsky.social · Jul 23
🏆 Congratulations to Karla Mendes and @mongabay.com for winning the 2025 #OakesAward!

Their reporting uncovers illegal cattle ranching and violence threatening Indigenous lands in the Amazon, exposing urgent environmental and human rights crises.
July 23, 2025 at 4:04 PM
danielmelling.bsky.social
5 months since I first got my “No Musk Coup” sign out the Tesla Diner is opening in Hollywood this weekend and will be the site of protests from 5-7pm on both Sat and Sun
July 23, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Daniel Melling
blakeprof.bsky.social
Democratic leadership is going to suddenly remember it cares about immigrant rights when public opinion turns sharply against Trump’s brutal enforcement policy, and not before. They are habitually unable to take the initiative and shape the narrative.
July 16, 2025 at 2:54 PM