#ResistanceEarth Living in the high desert of New Mexico, I can attest to this trend. We get occasional periods of heavy rain in which the landscape becomes lush (by desert standards) followed by extended drought. Scientists explain better how this harms ecosystems. www.kvoa.com/weather/clim...

CLIMATE MATTERS: American Southwest drylands face escalating instability, study shows

TUCSON, Ariz. -- More than 80% of global drylands are experiencing escalating instability that could threaten agriculture and livestock rangelands. A study published in Nature Climate Change reveals t...

kvoa.com

NEW: After Colorado officials failed to implement stricter testing protocols that were planned to take effect in July, a marijuana manufacturer recalled dozens of products when a third-party lab found contamination by a chemical that can cause cancer. with @denvergazette.com

Colorado Marijuana Company Voluntarily Recalls Dozens of Contaminated Products Amid State Regulatory Delays

After state officials failed to implement stricter testing protocols that were planned to take effect in July, a marijuana manufacturer recalled dozens of products when a third-party lab found contami...

propublica.org

NOBODY should be killed by heat at work, whether in the fields or at an airport. 1/2

Measles outbreak in Illinois grows to 16 cases

Measles outbreak in Illinois grows to 16 cases

chicagotribune.com

The last thing Arizona needs is something else generating heat other than the sun!

Every stitch tells a story of love, community, and remembrance. Volunteers across MN created the "Stolen Neighbors Quilt" with 11,000 squares to honor Minnesotans detained by ICE. Each fabric square represents a neighbor, a family member, and a life impacted by deportation. We stand for Justice!

Give me all the borbs and blorbs and perfect orbs.

Lori Batchelor🇨🇦@lorichirp.bsky.social · 18h ago

Per Rob Crank: "Alan as asked me to cover today's #BirdOfTheDay theme, which is #Borbs, birds looking plump. The Alt theme is #Brown, birds with Brown in their plumage." #birds #photography #ECK A White-crowned Sparrow Borb!

Today in old weird diseases...

Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 16h ago

Los Angeles Has a Flea Problem—and It’s Fueling Typhus Outbreaks gizmodo.com/los-angeles-...

A woman was drugged, raped, and sexually trafficked to members of a fraternity. Two of the men involved were expelled. Five were given the opportunity to mitigate suspension by *writing an essay.* The dozens of other men who knew this was happening and said nothing? You already know the answer.

EDITORIAL | Cornell Won’t, We Will

The Editorial Board demands that Cornell stops protecting the alleged Chi Phi rapists through the University's opaque sexual assault policies.

cornellsun.com

“At least six babies in Pennsylvania have been born infected with measles, with two so sick they had to be admitted to intensive care.” H/t @ameshaa.bsky.social

America had wiped out measles. Now babies are infected at birth.

Congenital measles has rarely been seen in the U.S. That’s changing as vaccination declines and more pregnant women become infected.

nbcnews.com

Four students from Brighton school infected in measles outbreak

Vaccine clinic opens after four teens infected in measles outbreak

A temporary vaccination service has been set up for a school community in Adelaide's southern suburbs after four students tested positive for measles.

abc.net.au

"RKF took money earmarked to provide health care for Black infants and spent it on his personal security detail" is a ludicrous headline. Comic book villainy.

Exclusive | RFK Jr.’s Enhanced Security Was Funded With Money From Minority Health Office

The cost of the health secretary’s security grew from roughly $10 million in fiscal year 2025 to $17 million in fiscal year 2026.

wsj.com

#BREAKING: In non-Missouri emergency docket news, #SCOTUS *grants* the Trump administration's request for a stay in the SAVE case, allowing DHS to have access to certain Social Security information. The three Democratic appointees dissent.

Do you think it bothers Trump that President Xi has such a robust head of hair?

Syracuse missed its undergraduate-enrollment target, creating a $30-million deficit. Now its new chancellor wants a mostly faculty committee to propose “disruptive and potentially unpopular” reforms — and answer what a $95,000-a-year education is worth. https://chroni.cl/4xLOIlR

After Missing Its Enrollment Goal, Syracuse U. Is Questioning Everything

The university sets out to ask what its degree is really worth — and hints at “potentially unpopular” reforms.

chronicle.com

A maternity ward doctor donated his own blood during surgery to keep a pregnant patient alive. One woman gained fewer than 10 pounds over her entire pregnancy. Another collapsed and had seizures during labor. (Published Dec. 2025)

What I Saw at a Maternity Ward in Kenya After the U.S. Cut Off Food and Foreign Aid

Photographs tell a story of two mothers determined to help their babies gain enough weight to leave the hospital — only to face little to no food again.

propublica.org

Apple "detectives" wanted to identify a gnarly old tree growing on a remote plot of land in Maine. What they discovered was the key to a centuries-old apple mystery.

How apple detectives solved the mystery of an ancient tree—and rewrote the history of fruit

And how they might have helped save the future of American apples

scientificamerican.com

Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.

ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals

OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.

motherjones.com

Seeing the Emerson poll this morning that showed Trump's net approval dropping 50 pts among Gen Z since he took office made me curious about voter registration trends among those voters in key states. Starting with PA...

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

"Don't play games with me" -- Sen. Kaine isn't buying it when Overton repeatedly refuses to directly answer questions about whether she's aware of discussions within the administration about rolling back tobacco safety regulations (she clearly is but doesn't want to admit it)

ICE wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in its immigration detention expansion efforts because it didn’t have a strategic plan, a new GAO report found. www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/...

A Watchdog Says ICE Wasted Millions in Its Detention Expansion

The agency had no strategic plan as it bought warehouses to turn into migrant detention centers, a report says. It still doesn’t.

washingtonsun.com

The youngest person his pager attack killed was 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah, who had just started 4th grade. The pager was on a table when it went off and she picked it up to take to her dad. It exploded in her face and reports said it covered the room in her blood. She wanted to learn English.

Eli Valley@elivalley.bsky.social · 2d ago

Boasting to the world of his mass terrorist atrocity:

🚨BREAKING: The California Supreme Court ruled that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco violated state law when he seized roughly 650,000 ballots from last year’s special redistricting election after pursuing debunked claims of a massive ballot discrepancy. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

California Supreme Court orders GOP sheriff to return seized ballots, affirms state’s power over local law enforcement

The twin rulings stand to make it significantly harder for local law enforcement to create election chaos and use unsubstantiated fraud claims to seize ballots outside California’s established electio...

democracydocket.com

Fresh class action as top college accused of deceptive conduct for running unaccredited degree

Class action launched as another unaccredited degree revealed

A leading private university has been accused of misleading and deceptive conduct in a Supreme Court class action by students who were shocked to discover their degrees were not professionally accredited. 

abc.net.au

This is an excellent article about what has been happening with federal funding for scientific research.

These 6 charts show how NIH research funding has been reshaped under Trump

Stories of science funding being cut, labs shutting down and scientists losing jobs have flooded the media under Trump's administration. These six graphics show how those changes have affected U.S. biomedical research.

npr.org

New — I had the opportunity to see NAZA, the documentary freaking out the Israeli government because of its horrifying firsthand descriptions of the way the IDF has used AI to target and massacre Palestinian civilians. My thoughts on the film’s damning revelations, and the banality of evil:

I saw the documentary the Israeli government doesn’t want you to see

'NAZA' dispels once and for all the myth that the IDF didn't target civilians in Gaza.

thehandbasket.co

Tea has finished brewing, got some apple slices and cheese, let's do this www.chronicle.com/article/dart...

Dartmouth’s Provost Quietly Used AI in His Published Work. It’s Touched Off a Campus Firestorm.

The incident adds fuel to a debate at the college over its embrace of AI.

chronicle.com

ABA's status as the federally recognized accreditor of US law schools remained in limbo on September 23 after a Department of Education committee failed to reach consensus on ending or renewing its role. The committee opted to revisit the matter today reut.rs/4iF2V09