Irena Hwang, PhD

@irenatfh.bsky.social

Data reporter currently at @nytimes.com, formerly at @propublica.org. Trained in STEM, obsessed with stories.

🚨 ACTION: The U.S. should welcome foreign journalists—not kick them out. DHS is trying to gut the journalist I visa program and weaken press freedom at home and abroad. ▶️ Will you join over 13,000 and submit your own comment?: newsguild.org/action-newsg...

ACTION: NewsGuild-CWA joins calls on DHS to withdraw journalist visa proposal | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA

The NewsGuild-CWA calls on DHS to withdraw its proposed rule that would change the I visa program for foreign journalists working in the United States.

newsguild.org

In the episode, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis touches on: - RFKJ turning down briefings from the CDC - Vaccine policy changed without input from CDC leaders - CDC leaders denied access to data after policy changes were made - Worry that public health policy will be driven by ideology, not science

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 11mo ago

There is a growing sense of despair inside the CDC, which is reeling after mass layoffs. A former CDC official explains why he chose to take a stand. Listen to "The Daily."

"Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who led the center that oversees emerging diseases and vaccine safety, said he decided to resign before he was dismissed, in part hoping that doing so would allow Dr. Monarez to continue as the director."

Apoorva Mandavilli@apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 11mo ago

After six months of turmoil, the loss of the new director and a round of high-profile resignations marks a new low at the CDC (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/h...

It looks like officers stopping a Massachusetts family as they drive home from church on Mother’s Day, shattering their window, and letting the kids in the back of the car watch as their dad is forced to kneel, then slammed chest-first to the ground. 9/

So “Is this legal?” may be the wrong question. “Is this normal?” was the better one. We did eventually find 8 instances of ICE and Border Patrol smashing car windows in the decade before Trump’s second presidency. But we’ve found nearly 50 instances in the six+ months since. 5/

An article screenshot reads: "YOUR CAR is a constitutional gray zone. It doesn’t have the same Fourth Amendment protections as homes. You can refuse to open the door of your home if officers don’t have a judicial warrant; you can’t refuse to step out of your car.

The Constitution still limits when officers can use force and how much they can use. But there are no firm rules. Should they shatter windows just minutes or seconds after making a vehicle stop? Should they drag someone through broken glass when they could wait to make the arrest another day?

“Use of force has to be objectively reasonable,” says Bruce-Alan Barnard, a retired Fourth Amendment instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, where ICE officers train. The problem with “objectively reasonable,” Barnard says, is that “it’s an oxymoron. What’s reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me.”

Immigration officers are given little guidance on whether or how they should breach car windows, former federal law enforcement..."

"New York City’s hospitals... depend heavily on international residents... At Brookdale, the rate of visa-holding residents is even higher, in part because the hospital has challenges attracting American medical graduates." by @annaoakes.bsky.social www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/14/b...

Visa Whiplash Threatens Foreign Doctors Who Keep This Brooklyn Hospital Running

Residents at Brookdale Hospital mostly come from overseas, working in jobs American medical students overlook.

thecity.nyc

I spoke with Kari Jordan and Erin Becker of The Carpentries about why they declined a $1.5M NSF grant intended to expand data science training. Their decision highlights the growing intersection of #science, #DEI, and federal policy. Read the full story on Forbes: www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Nonprofit Refuses $1.5M Science Grant Due To New Federal DEI Rules

A coding nonprofit turned down a $1.5M NSF grant after new DEI restrictions, highlighting the clash between federal policy and scientific community values.

forbes.com