Sylvia Chi 齊思涵
@sylviachi.bsky.social
lawyer but not your lawyer. admin law enthusiast. i work on environmental and climate justice, public banking, and public power. she/they 🇺🇸🇹🇼 Nutmegger in Oakland opinions are my own!
We could replace the Cabinet with randomly selected Americans and probably end up better off.
Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 34m agoThis is gonna sound unfathomably arrogant but I think I could do every current cabinet secretary’s job better than it is currently being done
Help re-elect my stepmom-in-law, Dr. Rosemary Lesser for House District 10 (Ogden)! She was outspent by $100K and only lost by 309 votes in 2024, when she was the only Democrat in the state legislature outside SLC. Chip in here: secure.actblue.com/donate/ws-le...
Help Re-Elect Rosemary Lesser!
Rosemary is committed to running a strong campaign, but she needs your help to win. Will you make your donation and join Team Lesser as we help re-elect Rosemary as the Representative for House Distri...
secure.actblue.com
mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 4h agoBLUTAH? 👀
Our government is desperately working to kill our citizens for corporate profits.
Kim Kelly@kimkelly.bsky.social · 5h agoResearch from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health released this week has confirmed what many in the Appalachian coalfields knew to be true: black lung rates are higher than they have been in 50 years. www.npr.org/2026/08/05/n...
That’s enough to build multiple new subway lines in every US city above a million people
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 6h agoBreaking News: A new class of warships backed by President Trump will cost 50% more than expected, for a total cost of $275 billion.
I did not know this---really casts a different light on the existence of the bar exams
Dru Stevenson@drustevenson.bsky.social · 7h agoTIL something (recommended reading): www.linkedin.com/posts/charle...
It seems pretty problematic that the experience we're having with LLMs is diverging so sharply depending on what you're using it for. My husband (software engineer) recently told a coworker that my experience attempting to use LLMs for research was terrible and the coworker was shocked.
Lora Kolodny@lorak.bsky.social · 8h agowas discussing with a fellow traveler today -- but programmers, coders, developers are having an *entirely* different experience of LLM-based products and services than the rest of us, especially the plagiarized plebeians among us (writers, reporters).
How much water do data centers really use, why do they use so much, and is it a problem? I talked to researchers and industry experts to understand the true water footprint of the AI boom: Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Why Do Data Centers Use So Much Fresh Water?
The artificial intelligence boom has inspired one of the largest infrastructure build-outs seen in decades: Tech firms are investing billions into constructing the data centers powering AI. This has m...
bloomberg.com
Chilling effect ⬇️ www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...
Detentions of International Scholars at Airports Raise Alarm
A Johns Hopkins University researcher was detained at an airport by immigration officials and later released. Cases like hers make travel fraught for foreign scholars.
insidehighered.com
Mr. Holani was: 1. Unlawfully detained without due process, 2. Shackled & coerced to sign a document, and 3. Lied to about the document, which authorized the gov’t to deport him. This is a government without decency, without respect for the constitution, & not worthy of your respect.
Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 24h agoJudge Wise finds that ICE coerced a 20-year-old Tongan man — admitted legally to the country three years ago — to sign a document accepting deportation, despite no criminal record or immigration proceedings against him. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
This is also a big night for Muslim Americans. The U.S. has never had a Muslim senator. The post-9/11 country my generation grew up in has been plagued by rampant Islamophobia—some of that bled into this Michigan race. El-Sayed’s win tonight is a huge deal.
🚨🚨 Abdul El Sayed wins the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, NBC News projects. He defeats Haley Stevens.
Decision Desk HQ projects William Lawrence wins the MI US House 7 Democratic Primary #DecisionMade: 10:41 PM EDT
People talk about how Gavin Newsom is running for President so he's not paying much attention to the needs of regular Californians (like housing, transit, clean air and clean water). Hopefully this gets his attention and he undoes those funding cuts
Carter Lavin@carterlavin.bsky.social · 2d agoSouth Carolina is now the first state in the nation for the Democratic Primary and this just ran in The State, the newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina. Come out to the rally and lobby day next week in Sac and help get our legislators to undo the cuts! actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...
1.5 million of those were children www.cbpp.org/blog/number-... There is no job data showing 5 million people, or anywhere close, found new jobs because work requirements don't work and many of these people were already working. www.cbpp.org/blog/work-re...
Number of Children Receiving SNAP Continues to Drop Under Harmful 2025 Republican Reconciliation Law
In the 19 states with publicly available data or that have shared unpublished data, the harmful Republican reconciliation law has taken SNAP food assistance away from more than 1 million children...
cbpp.org
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayRollins: "For those who love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it's a pretty big win when we've moved 5 million people off food stamps, y'all."
We've spent so much effort, for so long, to get this. And they lit so much money on fire. Imagine how much community organizing $60 million could have gotten in Michigan. But organized community wasn't the goal.
April Glick Pulito@aprilglick.bsky.social · yesterdayEl-Sayed numbers truly INSANE this is a movement
1/Ilya Shapiro on black women law professors: “But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman,” Shapiro wrote in a tweet. “Thank heaven for small favors?” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news....
Georgetown Law administrator resigns after tweet about 'lesser black woman' on Supreme Court
Ilya Shapiro was placed on leave and investigated after he criticized President Joe Biden amid the process of selecting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court.
nbcnews.com
Corey Rayburn Yung@coreyryung.bsky.social · yesterdayIn addition to having no experience in immigration, their website shows Ilya Shapiro (!) and disgraced former law prof Joshua Wright (!) as Senior Counsel. I don't think this massive contract was awarded to give immigrant children effective, zealous advocacy. burkegroup.law/our-team/
Also, just noting that this appears to be a 100% white law firm. Probably due to all the meritocracy.
Corey Rayburn Yung@coreyryung.bsky.social · yesterdayIn addition to having no experience in immigration, their website shows Ilya Shapiro (!) and disgraced former law prof Joshua Wright (!) as Senior Counsel. I don't think this massive contract was awarded to give immigrant children effective, zealous advocacy. burkegroup.law/our-team/
Nurses in Portland, Maine are protesting tomorrow after one of their colleagues was taken by ICE despite her pending asylum case
Zeldin is a lunatic so I think he will likely petition for cert and/or seek a shadow docket intervention. The question is: How unhinged is SCOTUS? This article doesn't even get into the facts, but the facts are that EPA's claims are not supported by evidence. That won't stop SCOTUS though.
Jeff St John@jeffstjohn.bsky.social · yesterdayA federal court says the Trump admin improperly terminated $20B in "green bank" funds — a big win for the nonprofit groups fighting to restore clean-energy and climate lending. But a likely Supreme Court appeal may delay them from getting their money: www.canarymedia.com/articles/cli... #energysky
For context, 150mg is a lot. 10mg is a standard gummy dose in California (and most states, I think).
David Earl Williams III@dewforpolitics.bsky.social · yesterdaySen. Bernie Moreno said Rep. Max Miller refused to return his granddaughter’s favorite blue bunny. Reports also show that photos of a syringe and 150mg weed gummies were found in Miller’s bedroom.
He touts his record of voting to protect Obamacare. What is he referring to? Because he voted to pass H.R. 1/OBBBA last year which gutted Obamacare subsidies, which is why Marketplace premiums are up by double digit percentages again. www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/how-mu...
How much and why ACA Marketplace premiums are going up in 2027 - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker
For 2027, across 276 insurers participating in the ACA Marketplaces from all 50 states and DC, the median proposed premium increase is 15%.
healthsystemtracker.org
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayTAPPER: Hold on -- hold on, 'cause I'm not done with the list of women who have accused you of violence. Are all three of them lying? REP. MAX MILLER: Yes. And I'm not getting out of the race because in 2016, President Donald J Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world ...
Here's a news article about this decision: www.reuters.com/business/ene...
Trump's EPA was wrong to terminate billions in climate grants, US appeals court rules
A federal appeals court on Tuesday said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot claw back about $20 billion of clean energy grants from several nonprofit groups, handing a defeat to the Trump...
reuters.com
Sylvia Chi 齊思涵@sylviachi.bsky.social · yesterdayI really just logged onto this website fully expecting everyone to be talking about how the plaintiffs were finally vindicated in the GGRF litigation at the D.C. Circuit. Where are your takes!? www.courtlistener.com/docket/69899...
I really just logged onto this website fully expecting everyone to be talking about how the plaintiffs were finally vindicated in the GGRF litigation at the D.C. Circuit. Where are your takes!? www.courtlistener.com/docket/69899...
Judgment Filed (En Banc) – #01208875417 in Climate United Fund v. Citibank, N.A. (D.C. Cir., 25-5122) – CourtListener.com
PER CURIAM JUDGMENT [2186441] filed (without memorandum) that the portion of the preliminary injunction enjoining EPA Defendants from effectuating EPA’s March 11, 2025, “Notice of Termination” (“parag...
courtlistener.com
The Adler brief here is telling and suggests a major cleavage within the Supreme Court's conservative bloc. For the oil and gas industry to win here, the conservative justices would have to compromise on a lot of dearly held conservative principles. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...
E&E News: Republicans join push for Supreme Court to allow climate lawsuits
Former Republican EPA leaders and a conservative scholar join Democrats supporting local efforts to sue for climate-related damages.
subscriber.politicopro.com
In the wide world of dishonest polls, this one is bad. Justifying mass expansion in real-time, constant, and city-wide surveillance by saying it will just watch "hotspots" and "open-air drug markets"---people will point to this skewed nonsense to justify policy that could have wild consequences.
Urgent Need: In-Person Mam Interpreter in Phoenix We are seeking an in-person Mam interpreter in the Phoenix area for four asylum interviews during the last two weeks of August. If you are available or know someone who may be able to assist, please contact us at ctoroperez@firrp.org.
In case you were, like me, affected by the Chinese cybersecurity attacks on OPM ~10 years ago, the identity protection service they offered is expiring soon. Members of Congress have intro'd legislation offering lifetime protection. www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/pre...
Warner, Norton, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Give Lifetime Protections to Federal Workers Whose Information Was Stolen in Cyberattacks
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced the Reducing the Effects of the Cyber...
warner.senate.gov
NEW: Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts is *pissed* at DOJ. She does not hold back, calling out DOJ's bad-faith litigating in the TPS cases, in addition to the overarching "shameful cruelty" of what the Trump administration is doing. From her latest order in the Somalia TPS case:
![Leaving aside the shameful cruelty inherent in eschewing a “wind down period” for
people under threat of deportation, many of whom are productive members of our communities
who have lived here for years, built a life here, worked here and raised their families here, the
Court is mindful of both the Supreme Court ruling and the recent First Circuit judgment in this
case. That said, the Court will also not abdicate its responsibility to make thoughtful, wellreasoned decisions after affording all parties a full and fair opportunity to be heard. It is
therefore ORDERED that Plaintiffs respond to Defendants’ motion to lift the stay, [ECF No.
97], by 5:00 p.m. on August 5, 2026. The Court further amends the scheduling order on
supplemental briefing, [ECF No. 82]. Pursuant to the amended schedule, Defendants’ brief is
also due by 5:00 p.m. on August 5, 2026, and any reply brief by Plaintiffs will be due by
5:00 p.m. on August 6, 2026. The Court anticipates a decision on Defendants’ motion, which
will be accompanied by a decision on Plaintiffs’ emergency motion if the Court decides to lift
the administrative stay, early next week. Should Defendants return to the First Circuit prior to
that as they threaten in their motion, the Court will assume that it has lost jurisdiction, which will
delay its rulings.
SO ORDERED.
August 4, 2026 /s/ Allison D. Burroughs
ALLISON D. BURROUGHS
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreidyjkwygfgvpjd52dgdyfqvi4w5f66on3whxjfukc2ug2ufdv5nem)
This will get a fraction of the attention that Zohran Mamdani got for calling Netanyahu a war criminal.
Kyle Clark@kylec.bsky.social · yesterdayDepicting Jewish people with horns is a centuries-old, dehumanizing, antisemitic trope. Democratic Gov nominee Phil Weiser is outspoken about his mother’s birth in a Nazi concentration camp, his family members killed in the Holocaust, and the threat posed by antisemitism today.
