Crafters of #NYTcrossword may live in NC and VA but guessing they did not grow up reading Joel Chandler Harris - no spoilers but dubious

Meta and YouTube designed addictive products that harmed young people, jury finds Six-week trial including whistleblowers and top executives at Meta and YouTube was first of its kind to go to trial

Well, this is a start — a recognition of the problem and the role that Meta played is worth a lot. Understanding that something is manipulative and addictive is necessary part of being able to fight back.
www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

Taxpayer dollars flood pregnancy centers. Oversight hasn't followed. Editor's note: This is the first report in an ongoing series.The patient came in with a belly full of blood, Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung recalled. Her pregnancy was ectopic, no longer viable, and could ha...

The Supreme Court granted states almost unlimited power to legislate pregnancy in Dobbs. Now an important new study finds the deceptive crisis pregnancy center industry received at least $491 million in taxpayer funding across 21 states. With no oversight. www.newsfromthestates.com/article/taxp...

Anthropic responds to Hegseth. www.anthropic.com/news/stateme...

Possibly but at least in the first scenario you aren’t being surveilled - when you dim your lights it’s just between you and your light switch. (Well, putting aside your smart meter. 🙃)

Smart Homes Are Terrible You shouldn’t need a tech tour and app to turn the lights on.

Preach! “Tech makes many things better, but you shouldn’t have to learn how to use a house,” @jasonfried writes: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

When you realize you just have to make everything last bc you are never making a modern purchase.

Holding the line on privacy of the home - @dukelaw.bsky.social colleagues Kate Evans and Elana Fogel for the Hill on necessary restrictions for ICE

thehill.com/opinion/judi...

It is mind-bending how republican after republican in the hearing today evoked pervasive domestic violence committed by men against women as a justification for withholding evidence-based medical care from women. Male violence being used to limit women’s freedom — yet again.

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

NEW:

In 2024, Tierra Walker was sick and getting sicker. She was also pregnant.

She knew abortion was illegal in Texas, but thought there was an exception for women like her, whose health was at risk. Doctors told her there was no emergency.

Then she died.

www.propublica.org/article/texa...

Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fru...

NEW: Billions of pounds of food are imported to the U.S. each year.

The FDA inspects foreign producers to ensure what we're eating is safe from pathogens and dangerous manufacturing practices.

But now, after Trump's drastic staff cuts, these inspections have plummeted to a historic low.
🧵/

Attorney General Paxton Sues Big Pharma Manufacturers for Deceptively Marketing Tylenol to Pregnant Mothers Despite Known Dangers to Unborn Children Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue for deceptively marketing Tylenol to pregnant mothers despite knowing that early exposure to acetaminophen, Tylenol’s only active ingredie...

Paxton jumping on RFK’s anti-tylenol during pregnancy train claiming Johnson & Johnson “knew” acetaminephin causes autism and ADHD, relying on “considerable body of evidence” recently highlighted by Trump admin -
www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/release...

“The risk organization is responsible for overseeing and auditing all new products for potential threats to user privacy or changes that could violate the F.T.C. consent order the company agreed to in 2019”

Meta Layoffs Included Employees Who Monitored Risks to User Privacy

Because they need to innovate faster….
so utterly on brand for Meta. Without more effective regulation no company is going to spend the money to protect privacy. God forbid they have to have more conversations before sending another crappy product into the world.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/t...

And Slaughter continues to fight the illegal dismissal.
As a country we are so much worse off without these voices as part of the official narrative but we continue to benefit from their resistance to the way things are and their vision for a better way.

The illegal firing without cause of former FTC Commissioners @bedoyausa.bsky.social and Rebecca Slaughter robbed Americans of a bipartisan FTC working for the protection of the people - fortunately Bedoya is still sharing insights from his service, describing a way forward

Ring founder 'backs the blue,' says AI is helping Amazon-owned doorbell unit fight crime Ring founder Jamie Siminoff returned to the company he founded in April to lead the business, which is part of Amazon's devices division.

Ring founder: “I’m focused on: How can I get the highest density of camera coverage in a neighborhood matched with AI to make neighborhoods safer?…It’s not just hard crime.”

Just put this guy and the Flock guy on a deserted island together so they can surveill each other until the end times.

M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment

““Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” Dr. Kornbluth wrote.”
Love the leadership by MIT here
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Amazon’s Subsidiary Ring Plans to Scan Every Face at the Door - TechStory Amazon’s subsidiary, Ring, is reportedly developing and testing an advanced system designed to perform facial recognition and identification

Honestly what will it take for people to quit buying into this Amazon surveillance nightmare?
Hard pass - ditch the ring
And of course people whose jobs require them to go to people’s homes will have no choice. Oh right…. Amazon employees.

techstory.in/amazons-subs...

“By law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must approve an application if it demonstrates that the generic drug is identical to the brand-name drug”
Well, these days, good to see a law actually being followed….
And good news for accessibility.

“Pupils of a glitchy new methodology may not admit it, but no method of constitutional interpretation entirely eliminates judicial discretion. Originalism’s sales pitch gaslights.” priceless.
“Institutional competence” - Goals.

Justice Eddins went even further in a concurrence joined by two other justices. He flamed the U.S. Supreme Court for choosing to "steamroll" the First Amendment's separation of church and state by mandating government support of religion. He wrote: The federal wall cracks. The Supreme Court's recent religious clause cases wreck the relationship between free exercise and non-establishment.... The Roberts Court casually dismisses the lessons of American and world history, the warnings of prominent early Americans, and the judiciary's storied legal minds. Bad things happen unless government and religion are completely separated. Justice Eddins also wrote about something you and I have been talking about for a long time, which is the conservative supermajority making up facts. He called out Kennedy v. Bremerton, the notorious "praying coach" case, writing: "As it often does, the Court repackaged and whitewashed facts to achieve a desired outcome." This is the same point that Sherrilyn Ifill has made on the show about how the record in that case, and so many others, is ignored.

I am pleased to report that Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins has dropped another total evisceration of the Supreme Court.

He says originalism is a fraud—and the Republican justices are shamelessly making up facts and history to impose radical Christian nationalism: slate.com/news-and-pol...

What Women Wish They’d Known Before Trying to Get Pregnant Many Americans lack basic fertility knowledge. More robust sex ed could help.

Many Americans lack basic knowledge about fertility. @olgakhazan.bsky.social spoke with doctors and other experts about the information they think should be included in sex ed for middle and high schoolers:

“The images shared do not violate our policies” - maybe meta policies need an update and co. should rethink using pics of adolescent girls to promote threads to grown men www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A growing crowd - Acronyms of cowardice.

Appeals court allows Trump's administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood A U.S. appeals court panel has allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to block Medicaid fund to Planned Parenthood while legal challenges continue.

Meanwhile apnews.com/article/plan...

Mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medication abortion, has an EXEMPLARY safety record. But a bunch of extremist politicians are trying to cast doubt on its safety and efficacy, as part of their attempt to take away access to abortion care. Don't be fooled—here are the facts:

Two models of Amazon smart glasses—one for hip consumers who can order products on the go, and one for wage workers, whose efficiency and whereabouts will be tracked continuously. One is a luxury item, one will be mandatory. Both ensure nonstop surveillance. Both are extractive. Both are handcuffs.

Wow

Maria Rojas, a midwife in TX, was arrested in June for allegedly providing illegal abortions. But the indictment only has details about 1 case, which shows that Rojas was providing miscarriage care ‼️ The witness says Rojas prescribed misoprostol b/c she thought the pregnancy was not viable.