I might play this as my alarm every morning for the next month

New: More than two weeks after a court order ruled the Trump administration's termination of 1000+ grants illegal, Harvard's research funding is still frozen—with one exception. On Wednesday, NSF reinstated both Harvard's grants and access to funds. My reporting:

Exactly this

Here are the _public_ email addresses for the reporters and the standards editor listed on the WSJ site. Standards editor: [email protected] Journalists who wrote the article: [email protected] [email protected] Politely and peacefully demand a retraction and an apology.

If I don't see multiple ~media reporters~ columns about the extraordinarily irresponsible Wall Street Journal report from yesterday morning — and their extensive promotion of that inflammatory report — you all should just pack up and go home.

Appreciate the timeline cleanse 😂

FIGHT FOR SCIENCE RALLY ‼️🧬💪 ⏰WHEN: Weds, Sept. 17th at 8am ET 📍WHERE: 1200 New York Ave NW, Washington DC 🔗📲JOIN US at the LINK in BIO, or in the REPLIES BELOW ⬇️

👎 BOO: Federal judge just denied a preliminary injunction to reinstate terminated NSF grants (link below). Also allows Trump admin to still apply the lawless new "priorities" to pending NSF proposals, at least for now (www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...). A thread... (with call to action for Congress) 🧵

What's going on with politically-motivated terminations of federal grants? How should social psychologists react and respond? Where do we go from here? No good answers but join me and other affected researchers for a virtual discussion next Friday.

A student told her professor “President Trump’s laws state that there are two genders,” and that the lesson was “illegal” for contradicting that. It’s not. Executive orders are not laws. Compliance with authoritarianism will not protect universities. Either we stand up for our missions or we fall.

Join @aeraedresearch.bsky.social tomorrow, September 10, at 2 p.m. ET for an informational webinar about the AERA-NSF Grants Program! The AERA-NSF Grants Program is accepting proposals for both Dissertation and Research Grants through Oct. 6. Registration required: aera.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Chaired law professor at NYU its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofi... When people who've devoted their careers to the law start talking like this...

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

oh noooo

RFK pressured her to *pre approve* panel recommendations for a panel that had not actually met! "Once trusted experts are removed and advisory bodies are stacked, the results are predetermined. That isn’t reform. It is sabotage."

Join us in 30 mins as RFK Jr. testifies at this morning's Senate hearing — we will be posting updates live. #ImpeachRFK www.c-span.org/event/senate...

New statement: IDSA, APHA and partners call for RFK Jr. to resign: "Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue — not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe." bit.ly/3JOgDya

Key initial win in court for Harvard and academic freedom!! Ruling based on free speech rights under 1st Amendment. Judge ruled that distinguishes the case from recent Supreme Court decision on NIH grant terminations. "This is not Calvinball." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

SCOTUS favorability dropped from 70% to 48% in just the past five years. Largely driven by sharp decline for Dem voters.

Deleted previous post about this as "good news"... it's just a less bad version of what could be. Why can't HUD move there instead, rather than annexing NSF's custom-built building? Have heard that several review panels went back to in-person or hybrid in some directorates too, contrary to article

I know, I know, but: The president of the US saying, literally, "we're going in" in reference to sending the military to an American city for no reason beyond terrorizing the local population should be the most immediately impeachable shit imaginable

BREAKING: President Donald Trump said he will order federal law enforcement intervention in Chicago and Baltimore, despite local opposition.

Look guys, the martial law is temporary. It’s just a brief vacation from having any rights.

A1 above the fold in the @nytimes.com. The message is getting through. Keep pushing everyone. We can save the #CDC, save the #NIH from the clutches of #RussellVought #StephenMiller and #DonaldTrump. Keep the pressure up on your members of Congress and the media (letters to editors, op-eds).

🧪 This House bill would also cap NIH indirect rates at 43% for elite private unis & colleges. Not the extreme 15% cap. But also inflexible / 👎 BUT THIS IS MALLEABLE. There's time for pushback (including for other things like multi-year funding). Details in next post (h/t joshuasweitz.bsky.social)

I'll keep saying it: RFK Jr. is a deadly threat to our public health and safety.   He is razing CDC, NIH, and other health agencies to the ground—putting politics and deranged conspiracy theories over science.   We need bipartisan oversight immediately, and he must be FIRED.

👎 Less good: the bill would slash CDC's budget by $1.7 billion, a -19% cut. From the Dems' summary: democrats-appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su... CALL YOUR REP. Also call for RFK Jr. to resign for his ongoing coup of CDC.

This is very good news. BUT, as we saw this year when NIH was operating under a flat budget, Trump and Russell Vought can effectively destroy NIH even if Congress holds the budget flat. To stop Vought and make sure NIH can function, Congress must go much further than “no cuts to budget.” 1/

🧪 And House appropriators say: no cuts to NIH budget! House subcommittee version just came out (link below). Holds NIH flat at $48 billion. To be clear: this is far from over. But a good sign that science still matters across both sides of aisle. YOUR VOICE MATTERS!!

NEW: Don't ask too many questions, but... NIH may not re-terminate the 900ish grants at issue in the main NIH lawsuits after all. To the PIs of reinstated grants, SPEND NOW! 🧵 Here's what NIH is probably thinking. Bear with me:

This is VERY. BAD. Russell Vought at OMB wants to rip away Congress' most important power, the power to set the budget, and put it in the hands of a president-king. This illegal impoundment stuff runs contrary to the most important principle of Anglo-American gov't—

Especially if you have a Republican senator or House rep: URGE CONGRESS TO DEFEND THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS OF THE PURSE

“You don’t want to cut out all the talented people in geosciences and life sciences and psychology and sociology in favor of giving everyone who’s doing AI a fellowship.” -said @susanelise.bsky.social, former NSF program officer for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

This is good: With Trump/RFK destroying CDC, JB Pritzker's officials are exploring the possibility of buying Covid vaccines from manufacturers and distributing them in-state themselves, source tells me. Dem govs must step up and fill the void. New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/1998...

Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.

this is doing the thing i hate most in this moment aside from the authoritarianism itself. you are not being savvy or clever when you do this. you are instead paving the way and making it easier for them. stop doing it.

Breaking: BILL CASSIDY is calling for CDC's vaccine advisers meeting to be postponed. "If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership."

"She had two lines in the sand ... One was anything that was deemed illegal. And the second was anything that she felt flew in the face of science. And she says she was asked to do both of those.” www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...

The newly ousted director of the CDC refused to fire top agency leaders or approve changes to vaccines from RFK Jr.’s hand-picked panel of advisers.

"NIH employees [could] refuse to terminate grants because such terminations are illegal and unconstitutional. " "Defending the Constitution now may require opposing illegal Trump administration actions, even when the Supreme Court provides political cover for those actions." Good post

If you'd been planning to apply to NSF's ECR:Core program in October, take note 👇 ECR:Core supports fundamental research on STEM ed (e.g., more basic science on STEM learning). But eligibility *just changed* for preK-12 & informal learning proposals. More details here: ecrhub.org/resource/com...

NEW: As the Trump GOP higher ed agenda of funding cuts and fines weighs down on University of California, a new poll finds common ground among California Republicans and Democrats: 75% of Republicans have positive views of UC health centers and 58% favor UC research: www.latimes.com/california/s...

For those justifiably concerned/angry about this, there's a way to make your voices heard. Public notice and comment on this proposed rule goes through Sep 27 Go to this link and click "Submit a public comment" at the top: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

The brain drain created by this Administration’s anti science policies will affect research for decades. They are robbing your children of the cures they would have seen. Stealing science, killing cures.

Follow the #NIH on Bluesky!

1/Our client was notified tonight by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired. As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her.

I had serious doubts about CDC Director Monarez’s willingness to stand up against RFK Jr.’s personal mission to destroy public health in America—I’m glad that I was wrong. If there are any adults left in the White House: we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what's left of CDC. FIRE HIM.

RKF Jr. is a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation—leaving us unprepared for the next deadly pandemic and snuffing out potential cures while he’s at it. My full statement.

REMINDER: in this moment, the thing you want your Congressperson to do is (1) demand resignations and (2) threaten endless hearings. Impeachment isn't going to work. Read the article if you don't want to take my word for it - Larry is the most respected health law expert in America.

Re-upping: if you work at EPA, NOAA, FEMA, NIH, CDC, USDA or other agencies that involve really any sort of science in their work, and you have something you want the public to know, I would always love to hear from you. Signal is davelevitan.26 and you can remain anonymous.