My latest Anthony Comstock-inspired cautionary tale. theconversation.com/censorship-c... #censorship #Kimmel #freespeech

Censorship campaigns can have a way of backfiring – look no further than the fate of America’s most prolific censor

Anthony Comstock’s decades-long censorship campaign ended up turning him into a laughingstock.

theconversation.com

“As traditional sources of news crumble, there is Coker and hundreds of others like her who are keeping journalism alive.” www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/...

What keeps local reporters going? ‘We live here and we want a better society.’

One in 3 U.S. counties no longer has a single full-time reporter, depriving communities of a reliable mirror. Meet Margaret Coker and the other journalists fighting to keep local news alive.

csmonitor.com

New round of #grants! This is an “initiative to help historic preservation-related not-for-profit organizations and similar institutions identify and maintain their archival resources related to stories of historic preservation.” www.nypap.org/shelby-white...

Public art is all about process and collaboration. The conservation of Exodus and Dance exemplifies this fact. I hope it inspires young residents to become interested in art and its history, and in the incredible work of conservators, in this instance, EverGreene and Jablonski. Thanks to all.

It has been a long and dispiriting year at Columbia, yet today's PhD graduation reminded me of what is best about academia: bright people consumed with new ideas and novel ways of thinking about the world.

Highly recommend following the work of the Southern Environmental Law Center who have tracking this and other polluting data center projects in the South www.selc.org/topic/data-c...

Data centers across the South

There’s a data center boom in the South, with inadequate consideration of how we will provide energy to these facilities that consume 10 to 50 times the amount of energy of a typical commercial buildi...

selc.org

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last yr.

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

Next Thursday, May 15th, Hell Gate is teaming up with @nysfocus.bsky.social for a one-of-a-kind mayoral forum. A livestream for the event will be available on 👇this page👇, where you can also find a 😎 Google Cal invite 😎 to set a reminder for your future self 👍 hellgatenyc.com/mayoralforum/

New Mayor, New Media: A Democratic Mayoral Candidate Forum

Hell Gate is teaming up with New York Focus to present a forum at The Public Theater with the leading Democratic candidates for mayor.

hellgatenyc.com

Pritzker: If you're not out there protesting in front of a Republican congressman's office, or out in the street making your voice heard, or calling your friends in another state to have them do it.. then you're not doing what's necessary to put pressure on them to vote the right way.

Team Trump is cutting money for deaf kids. “Pediatric deafness is a neurodevelopmental emergency. Without support, deaf and hard of hearing children do not learn to communicate, which has cascading effects on brain, language, social & occupational development.” www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/202...

Funding Cuts to Deaf Education Impact Disabled Students & Families

Across the country, from rural Utah to Florida, students who are deaf or hard of hearing will face dwindling access to critical support services

tc.columbia.edu

Jake Tapper: "One 60 Minutes source tells me, 'The lawsuit was baseless. Bill Owens wouldn't apologize. He wouldn't bend. He fought for the broadcast and for independent journalism and that cost him his job. It's shameful.'"

The corollary to the statement "Anti-Zionism is always antisemitism" that the Trump administration has asked so many American institutions to adopt is the statement, "My Zionism prima facie protects me from possibly being antisemitic." And fewer people want to talk about that second part.

Small colleges have taken the lead -- but they are now joined by 6 of 8 Ivies: Cornell, Penn, Princeton, Yale, Brown, and -- yes -- Harvard. And, finally, by a handful of big publics: U. of Washington, Wisconsin, Rutgers, SUNY Buffalo and Stony Brook, UC Riverside, UVa, UMD.

Judith A. Miller@1789jam.bsky.social · last yr.

A powerful call has just gone up on the website of the @aacu.org : “A Call for Constructive Engagement” signed by almost 200 college & university presidents (more sure to join), from community colleges to R1s! #academicsky #edusky @academic-chatter.bsky.social www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

Something like 90% of the grad students in my department are federally funded (research grants covering both their stipends and their tuition). There is no way to plug the hole if that money disappears. The number of grad students would shrink by an order of magnitude if not more.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · last yr.

The problem is the teaching will also collapse w/o the federal research funding. Fewer labs, postdocs, faculty, & grad students, plus the end of the “hard” sciences subsidizing what’s left of the liberal arts. So fewer courses, majors, & degrees. The entire model collapses. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Fun fact: before pasteurization became widespread (1920s in the US), milk was a regular carrier of tuberculosis, diphtheria, and typhoid. Before FDA food inspection standards, inferior milk was regularly adulterated with chalk, lead, alum, plaster, and even arsenic to improve its color and texture.

Reuters@reuters.com · last yr.

US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts reut.rs/4cHdnz3

😬

Stephen West@stephenwest.bsky.social · last yr.

Don't put in the newspaper that she is a history buff. The review of the Smithsonian museums for "improper ideology" is being led by a 35-year old lawyer who has no experience or credentials in history or museum studies. But one supporter says she is an avid "fan of history."🗃️

Wangechi Mutu, The Seated III (2019), bronze

Yes, and if the history of military conflict teaches us anything, it's that shooting the people in your own trenches is definitely a winning strategy

@bmkhawk.bsky.social · last yr.

I don't give a shit who says it, but Dems need far fewer conflict adverse geriatrics that don't have the energy to fight. It's a political war right now and we need more people that act like it.

The turnout in small towns across the country has been incredible drawing crowds of thousands. We’re already seeing over one million in attendance nationwide, and events are still underway. Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Ohio all had especially surprising showings.

Chloë Bass at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington.

Trump’s illegal abduction of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is fascism. Full stop. Sign to demand his return:

Bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia Home

Kilmar is not alone. He is one of over 250 immigrants deported without due process, as part of Trump’s $6 million deal with Bukele’s government—a plan to funnel immigrants, often with no criminal…

moveon.org

Svrl “media rights grps issued new guidance that urged student newspapers to consider being more flexible abt requests to remove content or ID’ing material from their stories.” “Offering anonymity [is not] just protecting sources from losing their jobs, but… more existential upending of their lives”

Student Journalists Wrestle with Censoring Their Own Work

Navigating a surge in requests to take down previously published material.

cjr.org

The 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War is this weekend, a moment when a leader’s arbitrary exercise of power sparked a rebellion.

Opinion | The king we overthrew — and the king some now want

Americans need to reconnect with their innate dislike of arbitrary rule.

washingtonpost.com

Not the headline I want to post. But for everyone trying to understand what’s happening at UMass Chan, why things are so difficult, this is what’s happening. We are a service institution. We educate; we care; we give; we serve rural MA. We dont make money. Our own govt is crushing us. Link below

We are publishing a series of profiles to spotlight local journalists using public records to hold power to account. Our first one features @pickoffwhite.bsky.social, director of the California Reporting Project, which helps reporters pool public records resources.

Pooling public records resources for journalists

Lisa Pickoff-White and the California Reporting Project help journalists hold power to account

freedom.press

Congress’ investigative and oversight powers are in danger. Protecting FOIA offices, which serve as hubs for all kinds of information requests, could help ensure the legislative branch has the information it needs to do its job.

Congress’ investigative powers face existential threat

FOIA office firings thwart congressional oversight

freedom.press

Biden actually spent a ton of time talking up infrastructure grants and IRA tax credits. Just because it didn't make it into your algorithmic feed doesn't mean it didn't happen.

it's hard to find a motivation for DOGE other than 'hatred of the good.' these are bad people fundamentally envious or un-understanding of the idea that you might work or give for others, and attempting to punish it.

molly taft@mollytaft.com · last yr.

NEW: i spoke with several young AmeriCorps volunteers around the country who were abruptly pulled off projects building homes, readying forests for wildfire season, and working at food banks Tuesday afternoon. they are now on their way home thanks to DOGE cuts —

For World Banana Day: "Nude Banana on Sheraton Style Sofa," a work on paper by little-known gay artist Dudley Huppler, who in the 1950s was close to Andy Warhol (on at least one occasion Huppler referred to Andy uncharitably as "Warthole") collections.artsmia.org/art/128356/n...