Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Elena Dennis

Meredith Shiner

@meredithshiner.com

Columbia and Northwestern are the academic homes to the most prestigious journalism schools in the country and they are the two universities that caved to the Trump administration’s extortion demands that are directly connected to the First Amendment. Just gonna sit with that for a while.

November 29, 2025 at 4:29 AM

Reposted by Elena Dennis

Daniel Radosh

@radosh.bsky.social

I feel like I'm losing my mind. Here is the transcript of what Zohran Mamdani actually said about the phrase "globalize the intifada." This is his "refusal to disavow it." This is what has people terrified. Just fucking read it.

Source: podscripts.co/podcasts/the...

Q: So I wonder what you think about that, about the phrase “globalize the intifada” and what we've seen as some anti-semitism coming from the left-wing protesters.

A: The first thing as you were saying is anti-semitism is a real issue in our city and it's one that can be captured in statistics, the ones that you're citing. It's also one that you will feel in conversations you have with Jewish New Yorkers across the city. And I remember one conversation I had with a friend of mine after the horrific war crime of October 7th. He was telling me that he went for Shabbat services at his temple and he was facing forward when he heard the door open. And he turned back with a chill going up his spine because he didn't know who was coming in. And that's more than a year ago.

And then just a few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a Jewish man in Williamsburg who told me that the same door he would keep unlocked for decades is one that he now locks out of a fear of what could happen in his own neighborhood. And I think that this is something that has to be the focus of the next mayoral administration, is not just talking about it, but tackling it. And these are the conversations that have informed our commitment around increasing funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800% in our Department of Community Safety.

To the question of language that's being used. I am someone who I would say am less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words and that I think it is more evocative of a Trump style approach to how to lead a country. And-

Q: Does that just make you uncomfortable? Like the phrase globalizing intifada. And like the phrase from the river to the sea, does that make you uncomfortable? Or do you think-

A: Okay, those are different. Those are super different.

Q: They're not really.

A: Those are like different genres.

Q: I'm sorry, I'm asking so wrong. Then they're not really different to me. And to some people they are not different.

A: I know people for whom those things mean very different things. And to me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights. And I think what's difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw ghetto uprising into Arabic because it's a word that means struggle. And as a Muslim man who grew up post-911, I'm all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning. And I think that's where it leaves me with a sense that what we need to do is focus on keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe. And the question of the permissibility of language is something that I haven't ventured.

June 26, 2025 at 7:50 PM

Reposted by Elena Dennis

Ryan Marino, MD

@ryanmarino.bsky.social

Toxicologist here! This will improve the health of zero Americans. Current synthetic food dyes are not causing health problems, and are often times used because they are actually safer than natural food dyes. Reminder that guns are the #1 cause of death of children but we are going to ban food dyes.

Unusual Whales @unusualwhales.bsky.social · Apr 22

BREAKING: The FDA has officially announced they will be banning artificial dyes in the food supply by the end of 2026

This includes Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3

April 23, 2025 at 3:45 PM

Reposted by Elena Dennis

Mina Kimes

@minakimes.bsky.social

Head Start, an early childhood education program for low income families, is on the chopping block. Growing up, my own mom was an aide with the program; it’s helped countless young mothers, including the one who tells her story here.

www.kqed.org/news/1203596...

April 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM

Reposted by Elena Dennis

manny

@punkjax.bsky.social

Now that it is tax season I remind everyone:

DO NOT USE TURBOTAX.

THEY WERE REMOVED FROM THE IRS FREE FILE SYSTEM AND ARE NOT BOUND TO THOSE RULES.

Instead, if you make $84k or less a year, use any of the IRS Free File options found here: www.irs.gov/filing/irs-f...