Snippet of my Bluesky bio
Hi! This is another edition of Link Roundup here at Forney’s Findings. If you follow me on Bluesky or Instagram (or happen to be in a Discord server with me), you’ll know I love me some links. Pullquotes will cite the author(s) of the article above, not necessarily the quote's speaker. Here are a handful—all read in their entirety by me before adding—that I wanted to share:
Education:
Who is college for in the age of AI? (Intelligencer)
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Only now are colleges realizing that the implications of AI are much greater and are already outrunning their institutional ability to respond. As schools struggle to update their curricula and classroom policies, they also confront a deeper problem: the suddenly enormous gap between what they say a degree is for and what the labor market now demands. In that mismatch, students are left to absorb the risk. Alina McMahon and millions of other Gen-Zers like her are caught in a muddled in-between moment: colleges only just beginning to think about how to adapt and redefine their mission in the post-AI world, and a job market that’s changing much, much faster.
Who gets to borrow money for graduate school in 2026? (New York Times)
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Trump administration drops appeal to stop schools from teaching about DEI (Word in Black)
You think a little “snowcrete” will stop DC public schools from opening on a two-hour delay? Well, residents might agree with you (WTOP)
In what must be trolling, Governor Greg Abbott appoints former University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy to Higher Education Coordinating Board (Texas Monthly)
Government:
ICE joins Bluesky and quickly becomes one of the most-blocked accounts (TechCrunch)
ICE was all over the news after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota:
An FBI agent investigating Good’s shooting has resigned (New York Times gift link)
A timeline of Alex Pretti’s killing (Minnesota Reformer)
Packwatch: Border Patrol Chief, Greg Bovino is demoted following his handling of the Minnesota surge (The Atlantic gift link)
Calls for DHS secretary Kristi Noem to resign grow stronger as the GOP looks for a scapegoat (NBC News)
ICE agents involved in Pretti’s shooting are placed on leave, left unidentified (Politico)
Maryland Senate advances a bill to prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE, the use of face coverings and more (Maryland Matters)
ICE’s recent behavior has caused a riff among some Republican mayors (Politico)
A judge has threatened to hold the acting director of ICE in contempt for ignoring multiple court orders (NBC News)
Italian foreign minister downplays presence of ICE in Italy, saying “it’s not like the SS are about to arrive” (NPR)
DHS’s funding arguments could lead to another government shutdown (CNBC)
Senate agrees to fund DHS for another two weeks. A partial shutdown is still likely as funding deadlines loom (USA Today)
Hundreds protest plans to use of a warehouse as an ICE detention facility in Virginia, leading to county rejecting DHS’s plans (Virginia Mercury)
Inside the confusion and dysfunction of immigration courtrooms (MS Now)
Pete Buttigieg says the “ground is shifting” as anti-ICE protests increase (Advocate)
Congressman Maxwell Frost was attacked at a film festival (Blavity)
Representative Ilhan Omar sprayed with mysterious substance in town hall attack (CNN)
Maryland holds first votes on mid-decade redistricting (The Baltimore Banner)
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Trump tries to arrest Don Lemon for being in the same building a protest occurred. Judge is not pleased (Politico)
He has since been arrested on unknown charges (Associated Press)
Georgia Fort, another independent Black journalist, was also arrested (KARE 11)
Inside Kash Patel’s dysfunctional FBI (New York Times)
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Some absurd quotes in there
I did not go to law school, go to Quantico and work counterterrorism operations overseas to be doing traffic control for arrest-a-brown-person day.
As the US builds an “armada” near Iran, the country prepares for war (Al Jazeera)
People and Relationships:
Gen Z is bringing millennial style back (Washington Post gift link)
The United Health Foundation mapped the states from least to healthiest (Axios)
This couple received $200,000 settlement after university criticized the smell of their Indian food (New York Times gift link)
Are femboys having a moment right now? (Them)
Do people really want to go back to 2016? (The Cut)
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The internet’s misguided obsession with DL men (Them)
Immigrant families held in a detention facility protest for a 5-year-old taken from Minnesota (Associated Press)
Lee, an attorney from Michigan, said was in the waiting room for a scheduled client visit when guards walked in and ordered everyone out.
“That children and their parents would risk retribution under these conditions to speak up is a testament both to how courageous they are and how abysmal the conditions of this place is,” he said.
The Ethiopian population of Montgomery County has increased 150% in recent years, citing an immigrant-friendly environment (The Baltimore Banner)
43 ways to add a bit of joy to your life (the Guardian)
Technology:
Microsoft swears they’re going to make Windows suck less this year (The Verge)
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Bluesky teases drafts, better discovery and video support in its 2026 roadmap (TechCrunch)
TikTok was officially spun off, at least partially, to American companies and people are concerned:
ByteDance spins American portion of TikTok into TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC (TheDesk.net)
An alleged data center outage left users wondering if their posts were already being censored (Wired)
Actress Meg Stalter deletes her TikTok account, citing recent censorship (Variety)
Instagram’s top executive thinks people want more AI on the platform (The Verge)
The trend of posting baby thumbnails like YouTube clickbait briefly reminded us what posting used to be (Aftermath)
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The facial recognition app DHS has rolled out seems to have skipped all regulatory processes (Wired)
While CBP says there are “sufficient monitoring protocols” in place for the app, ICE says that the development of monitoring protocols is in progress, and that it will identify potential impacts during an AI impact assessment. According to guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, which was issued before the inventory says the app was deployed for either CBP or ICE, agencies are supposed to complete an AI impact assessment before deploying any high-impact use case. Both CBP and ICE say the app is “high-impact” and “deployed.”
DHS and ICE did not respond to requests for comment. CBP says it plans to look into WIRED's inquiry.
Demand for OpenAI’s Sora 2 has plummeted after an initial wave of hype (Sherwood News)
Snapchat wants to give parents data on their children’s screen time and who their kids are interacting with in the name of safety (TechCrunch)
Can Apple’s AirPod translation help you through Tokyo? (New York Times gift link)
YouTube Music on web will now sync with mobile app playback (9to5Google)
Adobe wants to use AI to turn PDFs into podcasts for some reason (The Verge gift link)
Science, Critters, Healthcare and the Environment:
Winter Storm Fern shook huge swathes of the country
D.C. residents were left wondering, who should actually clear the ice from bus stops? (Greater Greater Washington)
Southern Black communities are especially vulnerable due to outdated infrastructure and historic disinvestment (Capital B)
A new study shows more evidence that a life of discrimination shortens Black life expectancy (Washington Post gift link)
A new approach to Medicaid would only pay companies if their gene therapies work for patients (KFF Health News)
A collapsed sewer line has released hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River (Bay Journal)
Written by me!
The richest 1% only took 3 days to use their annual carbon budget (the Guardian)
The U.S. government has lost 10,000 STEM PhDs since Trump took office (Science)
At 14 research agencies Science examined in detail, departures outnumbered new hires last year by a ratio of 11 to one, resulting in a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s.
Trump’s EPA is the most fossil fuel-friendly administration in recent memory (Associated Press)
A recently-signed international treaty to protect the high seas establishes conservation zones (New York Times gift link)
Texas could soon be a top market for data centers (Texas Tribune)
The White House is entertaining bipartisan support to force tech companies to fund their own power plant construction (Washington Post gift link)
OpenAI says that they might maybe, eventually or at some point could perhaps pay for their own electricity and water usage (The Verge)
Economics:
More than half of surveyed CEOs saw no revenue growth or cost savings after going all-in on AI (The Register)
Job applicants file a lawsuit against the “black box” of AI hiring software, making comparisons to the regulations that led to credit reporting transparency (New York Times)
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It is among the first cases to invoke credit reporting laws as a way to try to protect applicants against what some might refer to as “black box” employment decisions, where the applicant is kept in the dark about why they were disqualified.
Congress enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970, not long after credit reporting agencies began using computer databases to compile their dossiers of personal information and turn them into numerical scores. To protect people against errors in those records, lawmakers required reporting agencies to disclose that information to consumers and allow them to dispute inaccuracies.
The law is broader than the credit reporting requirements for which it’s named. It defines a “consumer report” as any gathering of information on someone’s “personal characteristics” that is used to determine their eligibility for various financial services or “employment purposes.”
All Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores will close, the jobs affected remain unclear (The Baltimore Banner)
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Black women’s unemployment is as bad as white women’s was during the Great Recession (the 19th)
Austin musicians are being priced out of the Live Music Capital of the World (Austin Current)
Records show that Trump bought $1 million in Netflix and Warner Bros’ bonds before merger was announced (Washington Post)
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Deploying federal troops has cost taxpayers nearly $500 million so far (Associated Press)
What Discord’s potential IPO could mean for the games’ industry (Game Developer)
Homebuyers are cancelling sales contracts at record highs (USA Today)
There are finally more people with mortgage rates above 6% than below 3%, potentially freeing Americans from the lock-in effect (Washington Post gift link)
Books:
Green Dot author on chosen family in her next, queer novel (the Guardian)
Get ready for the Heated Rivalry copycats from publishers (Literary Hub)
Publishers are already checking fan-fiction sites for more (Vulture)
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Check out the most popular books in DC-area libraries (Washingtonian)
Meet the wine blogger writing a romance novel (Grub Street)
Video Games:
The live-action Legend of Zelda movie will be a Netflix exclusive (Famitsu)
Xbox Cloud Gaming teases new UI design (The Verge gift link)
Could Grand Theft Auto VI end games’ discourse as we know it? (PC Gamer)
Yoshi is a confirmed sweetie in the Super Mario Galaxy trailer (Vulture)
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We have gameplay footage of Street Fighter 6’s Alex (Street Fighter)
Nintendo confirms new Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream title in recent Nintendo Direct. They’re including more gender options and same-sex relationships for Miis (Polygon)
Mio: Memories in Orbit is a punishing, watercolor painting of a game that takes inspiration from Hollow Knight and Ori (Game Informer)
Xbox Cloud gaming hints at ad-supported membership tier (Eurogamer)
Ubisoft announces studio closures, layoffs and cancelled games including the long-awaited Prince of Persia remake (Aftermath)
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Ubisoft unions in France call for international strike (Game Developer)
As games get bigger and more costly, each one is higher-stakes (The Verge)
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“What we’re seeing is a classic risk-aversion strategy,” Joost van Dreunen, a New York University games professor who also writes about the industry, tells The Verge. “When markets get choppy, large publishers retreat to what they know works: their established franchises. It’s a rational response to uncertainty, but it comes with real costs,” he adds, like recycling proven franchises instead of developing new experiences and potentially raising prices to justify big-budget sequels. “This strategy might work for publishers with deep catalogs of beloved franchises, but it’s not a guarantee of survival,” van Dreunen says. “It’s more like buying time than building a sustainable future.”
Dispatch has its Switch 2 release censored at Nintendo’s request (Eurogamer)
It’s “ball and gun” gamers versus everyone else (Washington Post gift link)
Sports:
Can men put aside their fragile masculinity and root for climate action? (Climate Colored Goggles)
Rick Pitino tallies his 900th on-court win by beating his son, Richard (ESPN)
How the NFL is punishing Azeez Al-Shaair for standing up for Palestinians (Current Affairs)
Trump says he’ll skip the Super Bowl because Green Day and Bad Bunny don’t like him (USA Today)
Alex Honnold climbs the tallest skyscraper in Taipei without a rope (the Guardian)
Chicago Sky star, Angel Reese will join season 2 of Hunting Wives (The Hollywood Reporter)
The excitement for Philadelphia’s Unrivaled tour stop bodes well for the city’s future WNBA fanbase (High Post Hoops)
The Portland Fire debut their jerseys (KPTV)
Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler drops 46 in upset of Purdue (ESPN)
This Duke sophomore was known for her viral dunk videos, but her game is expanding (Washington Post)
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Jimmy Butler has suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the 2025-2026 NBA season (Yahoo Sports)
Art, Culture, Food and Entertainment:
Hundreds of creatives launched a campaign against AI’s theft of their work (The Verge gift link)
TikTok quietly launched an app for exclusive microdramas (TechCrunch)
To the surprise of no one, Melania Trump’s documentary is flopping:
Theaters across Texas are showing to empty theaters (Chron)
After a tumultuous production, many crew members would like to be left uncredited for the film (The New Republic)
Maryland’s own Rei Ami has secured an Oscar nomination for K-Pop Demon Hunters (The Baltimore Banner)
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The Oscars can’t keep acting like anime doesn’t exist anymore (The Hollywood Reporter)
20 years later, Kenchi: The Mightiest Disciple will stream on Netflix (ComicBook.com)
How Bandcamp became a refuge for video game soundtracks (AV Club)
The absolutely insane saga that led David Ellison and his daddy’s money to the upper echelons of Hollywood (Vulture)
Every paragraph gets worse
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Disney had to delete a thread because people kept posting anti-fascist movie quotes in it (The Verge)
Sinners runaway success shows that “woke” has plenty of fans left (Wired)
Speaking of, Sinners, has secured the most Oscar nominations in history (The Hollywood Reporter)
Somehow, this is also Michael B. Jordan’s first Oscar nomination
Michael B. Jordan on his career and the Netflix-Warner Bros deal and more (The Hollywood Reporter)
Evil bisexuals: Ranked (Them)
It seems Timothée Chlamet has dropped Black culture now that he doesn’t need it anymore (Vulture)
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Christina Hodson, Prey, Flash and Bumblebee, is tapped to write for new Batman The Brave and the Bold movie (The Hollywood Reporter)
This Dungeons & Dragons shop in Silver Spring offers a safe space and community (The Baltimore Banner)
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Sydney Sweeney is too busy hanging bras from the Hollywood sign to worry about being a political pawn (both Vulture)
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Mark Haddon’s moving piece on a loveless childhood (the Guardian)
We assume it’s hard when a loved and loving parent dies, but it can be just as hard when you lose a parent whom you don’t love and who never loved you. When Mum and Dad died it was a relief for me. For my sister it was the moment when she knew for certain that she would never hear them say sorry.
What does it mean, the injunction not to speak ill of the dead? Which dead? For how long after their passing are we meant to hold our tongues? And does speaking ill mean telling lies or telling the truth?
A vintage Dr. Pepper mural in Texas will be preserved along with the building it’s painted on (CBS 19)
News Media:
Google refuses to stop artificially generating article headlines (The Verge gift link)
After Elon’s continued attacks, X hopes to win back the journalists it pushed out (Social Media Today)
Essentially, Elon wants journalists’ content, but hates journalists as a whole, which creates something of a disconnect in X and xAI’s business models.
Though, like most of Musk’s problems, he’s seemingly hoping that he can just throw money at it, and then continue to benefit from journalist content while maintaining his own bias.
Mothership, a feminist video game journalism site has officially launched (the Guardian)
Check out their official welcome editorial (Mothership)
Bari Weiss is the symptom of everything wrong with legacy journalism, not its cause (Defector)
I worry some of my colleagues in the industry are getting the Bari Weiss phenomenon exactly wrong. She isn't a saboteur brought in to destroy one of the last remaining citadels of high journalism. She is one of high journalism's purest products, a perfect symptom of its old, unresolved contradictions. Her disingenuousness about motive is the industry's in miniature.
Weiss claims CBS is “toast” without a strategy shift, so she’s hired a bunch of Free Press contributors to peddle misinformation to a national audience (Washington Post)
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