How Did Ted Carter’s Tenure at Ohio State Go So Wrong? A former Navy man who built his reputation on integrity couldn’t avoid a scandalous downfall.

Ted Carter is someone who has thought a lot about personal ethics. He wrote in one paper: “Ethics is about choice. The decisions to ... act in accordance with ethical standards all revolve around personal choice.”

It makes his fall from grace all the more dramatic

www.chronicle.com/article/ted-...

From the peer review:

"What the paper actually shows is that there exists a system which can produce a mediocre workshop paper with limited human intervention ... This is very impressive in itself." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

S.F. school board restores 8th-grade algebra after 12-year hiatus Middle school students will be able to take Algebra 1 again for the first time since the Obama years — albeit as an elective

San Francisco's Board of Education has restored eighth-grade algebra after a 12-year hiatus

missionlocal.org/2026/03/san-...

T.S.A. Tipped Off ICE Agents Before Arrests at San Francisco Airport

Did you see the viral video of a woman being handcuffed by ICE agents at SFO Sunday night?

They knew where to find her because TSA officials tipped them off under a new Trump administration program.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/u...

Our @statnews.com survey of NIH-funded researchers drew nearly 1,000 responses from 45 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico). Here's a short thread on 5 scientists' whose labs and lives have been deeply impacted by federal policies 🧵

Federal judge blocks RFK Jr’s overhaul of vaccine recommendations Unprecedented changes to routine US immunization recommendations ‘arbitrary and capricious’, court says

BREAKING: A judge just blocked Kennedy's handpicked vaccine advisers, and all votes they've taken in the past year. They will not meet this week. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story Bettors are using death threats to try to get The Times of Israel's military correspondent to change his report on a missile impact in central Israel. This is his alarming account

Crazy crazy story. Times of Israel reporter ( English language Israeli news site ) gets escalating death threats to change story that’s at center of big polymarket bet. www.timesofisrael.com/gamblers-try...

“Although we hold varying views about Gaza, Israel, Zionism, and pro-Palestinian protests at UCLA — matters that have deeply divided the Jewish community — we are absolutely united in our vehement opposition to this ill-conceived lawsuit,” the letter says.

sites.google.com/view/ucla-je...

UCLA Jewish Faculty Say Justice Department’s Lawsuit ‘Will Do Absolutely Nothing to Protect Jews’ More than a hundred faculty and staff members signed a letter stating that the the lawsuit “takes advantage of Jewish concerns about antisemitism to attack free speech and academic freedom.”

NEW: After the Justice Department filed a lawsuit claiming that UCLA is hostile to Jewish employees, 130+ Jewish faculty and staff at the campus have signed a letter condemning the complaint. It “will do absolutely nothing to protect Jews at UCLA,” the letter says.

www.chronicle.com/blogs/the-tr...

One Battle After Another wins Best Picture

#Oscars

can you teach something at Texas A&M? just follow this flowchart.

www.chronicle.com/article/insi... via @jasperjsmith.bsky.social and @mzahneis.bsky.social

For journalists who want to dig into stories about scientific integrity: Here's an exciting new opportunity from two of my favorite science-journalism organizations, @retractionwatch.com and @theopennotebook.bsky.social. I'll be joining a webinar to help kick things off on March 26!

Unmasking Academe’s Gilded Boys’ Club The Epstein files reveal an elite, chummy, and venal scholarly network.

"Within a trove of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious sex offender whose wealth and connections proved alluring to academics in search of money, women in higher ed are seeing evidence that supports a story they know all too well." www.chronicle.com/article/unma...

Scientists face fallout for past associations with Epstein Jack Horner, who was a consultant for the Jurassic Park films, is among the researchers whose work or careers have been affected because of revelations from newly released documents.

Several scientists who are linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in files released last month are now facing consequences.

go.nature.com/4qXFkYS

Summers To Resign From Teaching Appointments, Relinquish University Professorship Over Epstein Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his University Professorship — Harvard’s…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of the academic year, following revelations of close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Hugo C. Chiasson and Elise A. Spenner report.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Jeffrey Epstein’s tissue samples ignited a furor in the Harvard lab of George Church Exclusive: Harvard geneticist George Church knew more about Jeffrey Epstein's activities than he has previously said, before accepting new donations from the sex offender.

Exclusive: Interviews with Harvard lab members reveal internal pushback against prioritizing Jeffrey Epstein's tissue sample for genome sequencing — which did not stop the Epstein from receiving special treatment.

But where is his sample now?

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the U.S. accessed through the WHO at a fraction of the cost, according to officials briefed on the matter.

Exclusive: After pulling out of WHO, the Trump administration is proposing spending $2 billion a year to replicate the global disease surveillance and outbreak functions the United States once helped build, which will cost about three times as much.

Higher Ed’s Most Divisive Chancellor Daniel Diermeier says reform will save the sector. His critics say he’s exploiting its crisis.

Wrote about the Vanderbilt chancellor for @chronicle.com. Depending on where you stand, he's a calculated opportunist or a savior of higher ed. www.chronicle.com/article/high...

N.I.H. Director Will Temporarily Run C.D.C. in Leadership Shake-Up

SCOOP: Jay Bhattacharya, NIH director, will also serve as acting CDC director, per two admin officials, until Trump names a permanent director.

POTUS will nominate Jim O'Neill, who left HHS on Friday, to run National Science Foundation.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...

go @danvergano.bsky.social !

The Multibillion-Dollar Foundation That Controls the Humanities Is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation the last best hope for American arts and letters—or is it killing them?

"What are the consequences when eye-watering sums of money are put behind the idea that the purpose of American arts and letters is not wisdom but advocacy?" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

NEW: Another NIH institute director hasn't been renewed — the director of NIAMS (arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases institute).

That leaves a whopping 15 of 27 institutes and centers without a permanent director.

Thanks to @cathleenogrady.bsky.social for including me in this important story! I'm quoted talking about how it's crucial to run your findings by experts, and how journalists have to accept that we ultimately don't control how our work gets used or interpreted.

I've had so much respect and admiration for the Post's health/science team over the years. The losses there (and throughout the whole newsroom) are heartbreaking

How Higher Ed Staved Off a Research-Funding Bloodbath — For Now Faced with potentially losing billions, colleges rallied behind a compromise plan. It now has a thumbs-up from Congress.

NEW: A year ago, the NIH said it would cap research-overhead costs, a change that would cost colleges billions. A ragtag group rallied behind a compromise plan—and it seems to have traction.

Here's how higher ed staved off a research-funding bloodbath (for now): www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

How Higher Ed Staved Off a Research-Funding Bloodbath — For Now Faced with potentially losing billions, colleges rallied behind a compromise plan. It now has a thumbs-up from Congress.

NEW: A year ago, the NIH said it would cap research-overhead costs, a change that would cost colleges billions. A ragtag group rallied behind a compromise plan—and it seems to have traction.

Here's how higher ed staved off a research-funding bloodbath (for now): www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show

Epstein files show a complicated relationship with science and journalism

Jeffrey Epstein aggressively sought access to publishers, mentions of Scientific American and other media in Department of Justice files show

www.scientificamerican.com/article/epst...

Tenure Will Be Eliminated at Most of Oklahoma’s Public Colleges, Governor Says Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, directed the state’s two-dozen regional universities and community colleges to phase out the practice. Existing faculty members will be grandfathered in.

Breaking, from me: An executive order from Oklahoma's governor directs most of the state's public colleges to "phase out tenure." #AcademicSky #HigherEd @chronicle.com
www.chronicle.com/article/tenu...

How Colleges’ Pursuit of a Diverse Professoriate Came Back to Bite Them What was once an urgent imperative has become a legal and political liability. One university’s experience shows how.

At Ohio State U, faculty hiring committees sometimes explicitly considered candidates’ race and sex, in pursuit of diversity.

I spent some time exploring how OSU, and all of higher ed, seemingly ignored both the legal and reputational risk staring it in the face.
www.chronicle.com/article/dive...

Final schedule F rule "will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or *obstruct the democratic process by intentionally
subverting Presidential directives.*"

(emphasis mine)

public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-02375.pdf