We must #BlockTheMerger to #StopTheCorruptTakeover

News — University of Central Florida (UCF) abruptly shut down two of its three libraries today, plus an important resource desk within the main library. Staff were given no warning. UCF is the 2nd largest public university in the country w/ ~70k students. Library hours page confirming closures:

NEW: NYPL is terminating its largely volunteer-based Jail & Prison Services Branch, eliminating library access to people detained at Rikers Island. The decision was made to “focus on reading engagement by staff at all of our branches,” per email provided to me from an NYPL lead.

The unusual access to an experimental drug has captured the attention of the American public as well. Democrats press White House on who got special access to Eli Lilly’s new obesity drug. www.statnews.com/2026/06/25/s...

BREAKING: Alligator Alcatraz has officially closed. A lot of outlets won’t report on this, but the Miccosukee Tribe played a key role in the fight.

A data-driven analysis of how the New York Times's treatment of transgender subjects shifted "from rights-based framing toward more skeptical, conflict-driven coverage" since 2014, centering trans-rights opponents over trans people themselves. www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

Today's Second Amendment decision has little to do with law and less to do with history (which Alito ignores or denies as needed to reach his conclusion). It's all about power—the supermajority shoving its preferred gun policy down our throats with brute force. Odious. slate.com/news-and-pol...

The NAACP sued Musk's xAI over pollution from gas turbines powering one of its data centers. Now federal government lawyers are asking the court to throw it out

Thirty-eight journalists have died on the job while gathering news for The Associated Press over the years. Thursday marks the 150th anniversary of the very first: Mark Kellogg, one of five civilians killed alongside Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

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This is a tremendous piece by Judy Stone at @forbes.com. This new OMB rule is going to hurt communities from coast to coast. Federal grants are not just about research! www.forbes.com/sites/judyst...

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Two ICE agents tracked down a woman *inside a polling place* yesterday. Why? They demanded that she take down an Instagram post in which she named Jonathan Ross as the man who shot & killed Renee Good (after the Star Tribune identified Ross). www.syracuse.com/news/2026/06...

#ShouldBeFrontPage but isn’t.

A Statement on behalf of the Australia Cartoonists Association regarding the murder of exiled Russian cartoonist Robert Kuzovkov, aka Semyon Skrepetsky.

On the anniversary of Dobbs and in the aftermath of the decimation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, we should remember that our Constitution does not require that we, the people protect failing institutions. 1/

NEW: USPS won’t deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to turn over lists of voters under a proposed rule, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday My latest for @statesnewsroom.com www.newsfromthestates.com/article/stat...

Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts

I saw this a while ago and it’s super. Excited to have another chance to watch it!

"Dearest Suzanne, We are encamped this day at the Reflecting Pool, and I am charged with a duty most grave: to defend it against vandals. The summer rain came upon us sudden and fierce, and we have taken shelter beneath a fine old elm, twelve of us pressed together like cordwood. ..."

I just learned about this USDA bee lab that is about to be shutdown by the Trump administration. Like many science related decisions from this admin, this short sighted decision will have longterm scientific, ecological, and economic consequences. #SavetheBees theconversation.com/shutting-dow...

The fight for democracy depends on fighting back against "media capture". 6/25 Join our FREE virtual event w/panel: @anntelnaes.bsky.social (Pulitzer Prize x2) @seth-stern.bsky.social @lauranix.bsky.social Find out how people are fighting back - and what you can do! bsky.app/profile/medi...

'Raise Doubts'??? C'mon, @nytimes.com How about: - 'Show Otherwise' - 'Counter His Claim' - 'Tell Different Story' - 'Prove Claim False' - 'Don't Match Claims' - 'Show Another Lie' [ok, too far.] Etc. Headline gives him 100% underserved benefit of the doubt.

Looking forward to our screening + fantastic conversation with Ann Telnaes, Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Milo Vassallo, and Laura Nix! @mediaanddemocracy.bsky.social @anntelnaes.bsky.social @freedom.press @lauranix.bsky.social FREE Thurs @ 7PM! kinema.com/events/Democ...

A travesty. Springer Nature offloads SciAm—the most storied science magazine in the US—onto a content mill consortium, LabX, during an almost certainly successful union vote. LabX now says it will lay off 15 people, over 1/3rd of the unit and 60% of the bargaining committee. Pure union busting.

More than 200 trainees at Lackland Air Force Base have been struck with influenza, less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lifted the annual flu vaccine requirement. Read more: www.stripes.com/branches/air... #Flashes

Media oligarchs are degrading press freedom & democracy. Bezos captured WaPo, Ellison captured CBS JOIN US Thurs 6/25 as we screen "Democracy Under Siege" & a stellar panel + actions! w @anntelnaes.bsky.social @seth-stern.bsky.social @lauranix.bsky.social #BlockTheMerger kinema.com/events/Democ...

President Trump probably can’t get rid of her yet, but FCC commissioner Anna Gomez still checks her email every day to see if he has. Until then, she wants to stand up for the First Amendment. www.wired.com/story/the-bi...

We need to #BlockTheMerger to #StopTHeCorruptTakeover tiny.cc/fightbigmedia tiny.cc/fightbigmedia

The Ellisons are grifting their way to influencing Americans’ information diets: TikTok, Paramount, CBS, 60 Min, UFC, Colbert… are just the start! Powerful thread showing how & why the proposed Ellison takeover of Warner-Bros is harmful. We must #BlockTheMerger to #StopTheCorruptTakeover Share 👇

2/ The Paramount merger also won't just result in layoffs. It would mark the next step in the financialization of the film & TV industry, where even *Oscar-nominated* documentary filmmakers can't find work... if it's not about cults, celebrities, or true crime.

1/ Paramount's merger with WBD won't just cut jobs in LA and New York. It'll also decimate *Atlanta* where people have had their lives torn apart by merger after merger, and where they are on the chopping block due to overlap with Paramount operations. From our town hall last week🧵

The right funds their agenda while the real Academy that operates on peer-reviewed and quality of work eviscerates its own talent pool (with a lot of help from the right). The salary range for this shit is $200-$450k.

More essential work by @theintercept.com

What does an AI-intermediated future look like for news and public information? My theory, and thoughts about what do about it, in my latest post for the Tow-Knight Center at CUNY. A sort of season 1 recap of the whole substack. You're welcome. restructurednews.substack.com/p/whats-it-a...

#Somalia: 1/2 IPI condemns threats against @SJS_Somalia Mohamed Bulbul by an intelligence officer. The grave situation has forced Bulbul into hiding, disrupting his life & ability to report freely. We call on authorities to immediately cease targeted harassment of journalists.

On this day in 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation creating US Department of Justice. Two primary reasons for DOJ’s creation: protection of formerly enslaved people’s civil rights & to oppose domestic terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Image: Thomas Nast, “Halt.” Public domain.

Moldova has made its choice clear. In one election after another. With implementing sweeping reforms. And despite constant pressure from Russia. Your future is in our Union.

Ozymandias watch: -Airports have three letter codes. LAX ATL ORD, etc -They don't get changed. DC National was re-named for RReagan but remains DCA. -One famous exception: Idlewild, IDL, became JFK in Dec 1963. Now another exception. Palm Beach Internat'l PBI is now DJT. Per Flying magazine:

Dave Perry is a phenomenal, old school journalist. I moved from Colorado years ago and still read the (Aurora) Sentinel. Local ownership makes a difference - along with great editors like Perry.

I was the photographer and a co-editor on this story, here are my photos shot for @thesouthlander.com. 1) Portrait of Kriten Huizar, MOCA employee who had to take on a second job to make ends meet.

"Implies a defense of memory. But public historians know the truth: this fight isn’t about memory—it’s about power. Whose story gets told, whose pain gets acknowledged, whose freedom is imagined. This is not a theoretical crisis. It’s happening in real time, with real consequences, for real people."

Italy still has vibrant newspapers and they are in an uproar this morning over Trump lashing out at Meloni. (Some are mocking Meloni but everyone mocks Trump.) TRUMP IS AN ASSHOLE "Italy Doesn't Beg" The War of the Kneepads Trump Insults Italy "The USA turns backwards as the world moves forward"

Accurate information and reality are hard to come by these days. “Deal” “Memorandum of Understanding” Here is a useful monitor of Strait of Hormuz traffic. hormuzstraitmonitor.com

Again, we simply aren’t having the same National Conversation™️ about gas prices, inflation, & the Least Responsible Economic Policy in 40 Years that we were having when Joe Biden was POTUS amidst a raging global pandemic. Like, not even remotely close, even though it's all orders of magnitude worse.

When a news story includes claims by Trump that are unverified, it should run with a logo reading, ”He’s probably lying.”

It kinda got lost in the madness, but the federal conspiracy case against anti-ICE activists in Minnesota - the Minneapolis 15 - is a big deal It's not just the 1st Amendment abuse. It's part of their plan to crush dissent ahead of a stolen election My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

“Extreme wealth is always an extreme power. It’s the power to stifle competition, the power to shape public discourse…” @gabrielzucman.bsky.social Media ownership is agenda-shaping power. In the fight for democracy we must #BlockTheMerger & the Ellison takeover www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...