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. Here are a handful—all read in their entirety by me before adding—that I wanted to share:
Education:
After-school period club makes sure students and Howard county residents have access to free menstruation products (The Baltimore Banner)
How Trump’s $100K H1-B visa fee could affect:
Maryland colleges and schools (The Baltimore Banner)
Includes graphs to show projected fees to the universities and which fields most university visa holders work in/study
Texas public schools (Houston Chronicle)
Dallas ISD alone sponsored 225 H-1B visas in 2024, more than any district in the country
Texas Hispanic-serving colleges slated to lose millions in grants (Houston Public Media)
Montgomery County Public Schools update code of conduct, some worry it’ll be more harsh to students of color (Bethesda Magazine)
HBCUs respond to far-right groups trying to set up shop on their campuses unannounced (Capital B)
White House considers funding advantages for colleges that align with Trump’s policies (Washington Post gift link)
A Maryland school board decided to stop having in-person meetings after a shouting match with a parent over the conservative board’s funding decisions (The Baltimore Banner)
A federal judge ruled that Trump’s threats to deport university students and activists for pro-Palestinian speech was unconstitutional (USA Today)
[Judge William G.] Young, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, opened his Sept. 30 opinion with a scrapbook-style copy of a threatening, handwritten postcard sent to his office and dated June 19, 2025. It read: "Trump has pardons and tanks... What do you have?"
Science, Critters, Healthcare and Environment:
MTA officials are considering geothermal technology to cool some particularly sweltering underground stations (Gothamist)
Fort Worth Zoo is taking votes on the name of their first female baby Asian elephant in over a decade (Houston Chronicle)
An Alabama town amended its zoning laws to allow for a new data center, despite overwhelming opposition from residents (Inside Climate News)
World-renowned primate behavior expert Jane Goodall passed away at 91 (Washington Post gift link)
Wealthy homeowners in DC’s Ward 3 are eliminating mature trees to renovate their homes (Washington City Paper)
Scientists prepare for the impacts of the government shutdown (Chemical & Engineering News)
Tracking blue crab populations with a parasitic worm (Chesapeake Bay Journal)
Technology:
YouTube bets big on AI-generated videos, shorts and podcasts (Wired)
Meta will call its app “Vibes” (TechCrunch)
OpenAI has plans to release an AI-generated video sharing platform for some reason (Wired)
macOS 26 brings the Journal app to Mac and iPad (9to5Mac)
Alexa is hemorrhaging money for Amazon. Could a subscription service and more expensive gadgets remedy that? (ArsTechnica)
Applicants are getting creative to trick the AI reviewing their applications, often using AI themselves for suggestions (New York Times gift link)
States are playing catchup to regulate mental health chatbots (Associated Press)
Leaked documents show Discord has access to some users IDs for age verification in preparation to new international child safety laws (The Guardian)
The bubble of searching for “AI bubble” has burst, but the actual bubble might have more time (CNBC)
Meta updates its terms of services to sell AI chat logs and visual searches to advertisers (TechCrunch)
There is no way to opt out, according to Meta.
People and Relationships:
The rise of AI chatbots on dating apps (the Cut)
Chance of paywall
International aid cuts are hurting African women particularly hard (New York Times gift link) CW: mentions of rape and sexual assault
As I’ve noted many times, there are reasons of self-interest to be alarmed about Trump’s aid cuts. Diseases are global, so if we lose health surveillance abroad we are more vulnerable to epidemics at home. Failed states produce waves of migration that eventually reach us. Humanitarian assistance is a tool of foreign policy: We confront China with submarines but also with humanitarian assistance programs meant to cultivate soft power.
But to me the most powerful argument is ethical: If we can easily and cheaply save children’s lives, we should do so. And after decades of providing assistance that people rely on and that saves an estimated 3.3 million lives a year, we shouldn’t suddenly pull the rug out from under them with no time to adjust.
The Rural News Network organized a project between several nonprofit newsrooms to showcase how communities are addressing food access, food deserts and other challenges
Meet the Black women feeding rural Mississippi (Capital B)
Who feeds the communities feeding the country as SNAP and other cuts loom? (Investigate Midwest)
Some very sobering graphs about changes in food insecurity
Students struggle to access fresh food after federal cuts (Enlace Latino NC)
Communities made their own grocery stores to combat food deserts (The Beacon)
What happens when small-town grocers close (Minnpost)
Related: the Trump administration will no longer report on hunger in America after October 2025 (Associated Press)
Dads need love, too: the men creating ‘a vulnerable space’ to be with their kids, and each other (The Guardian)
Democrats realize that they’ve lost the gym bros and are paying some left-leaning fitness influencers a lot to play catch-up (Wired)
The names and stories of more than 18,000 Palestinian children killed during Israel’s genocide, two years in (The Guardian)
35% of Montgomery County residents are food insecure, an increase from years prior (Montgomery Community Media)
North Texas suburb—that voted overwhelmingly for Trump—to host its first-ever Pride event, despite conservative opposition (Chron)
"We thought how much that would have meant to our younger selves and how it could have allowed us to live as our true selves much earlier on," said Dreyer. "We wanted to get that out in front of this community, especially now, because they are being attacked."
Some conservative women are realizing that they’re lesbians much later in life, compulsory heterosexuality may be factor (the 19th | Uncloseted Media)
A Montgomery County bus driver helped reunite an elderly woman with dementia and her family (WTOP)
What Black, particularly Baltimore, ASL looks like (The Baltimore Banner)
More parents are turning to AI chatbots for parenting questions (USA Today)
News Media:
Word in Black has a new Education Reporter: Alvin Buyinza
Dallas Morning News shareholders rejected an acquisition to known newspaper killer Alden Global Capital (Nieman Lab)
The Root is once again Black-owned (CNN)
The 51st celebrated its first birthday! (The 51st)
A New York journalist was injured covering an ICE raid, the latest in a disturbing trend in attacks on the press (MSNBC)
[Podcast] How MAGA billionaires influence the news you see (CNN)
[Podcast] NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie draws parallels between Trump’s assault on media and McCarthyism (On the Media)
More Americans than ever are getting their news on TikTok (Nieman Lab)
Full study from Pew Research Center
Mediocrity W: Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News (Mediaite)
The Austin Monitor is now the Austin Current. They’ll continue covering education, local government and community developments (Austin Current)
Culture, Art and Food:
Comedians known for bits on cancel culture headline Saudi Arabian comedy festival with explicit rules on what they can say (AV Club)
Okatsuka posted about the festival on Threads this weekend, writing, “FYI there are more of us that said no to the Riyadh comedy festival in Saudi Arabia.” In her post, Okatsuka also posted the list of things comedians have been told they weren’t allowed to talk about, including jokes “that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule” Saudi Arabia, its ruling government, royal family, or any religion or religious figure, period. Okatsuka also takes time to point out that “The money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, ppl with nonlethal drug offenses, bloggers, etc without due process. A lot of the ‘you can’t say anything anymore!’ Comedians are doing the festival 😂 they had to adhere to censorship rules about the types of jokes they can make.” (Worth noting that comedian Tim Dillon has said he was kicked out of the festival for a response video he made about accepting the gig, joking, “So what, they have slaves?”)
Deadline article on comedians posting their contract info for the festival
[Documentary] How immigrant-led restaurants in Montgomery County are getting by under Trump (Montgomery Community Media)
Disclosure: this was made by another group in my summer fellowship but I wanted to plug because they did such a great job
A guide to DC’s zine scene (Washington City Paper)
Zinefest will be at the MLK Library Nov. 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Eleven Houston-area women helping define the city’s music scene (Houston Chronicle gift link)
What compels people to participate in rage bait debate shows like Jubiliee (Vulture)
Gallaudet University to host Deaf Way Film festival and audiences, hearing or not, are encouraged to attend (NBC4 Washington)
In her greedy era? Taylor Swift’s latest album flops (Defector)
The allegedly AI-generated promo videos Swift made for the album have gone missing after online outrage (Wired)
One of KPop Demon Hunters songwriters knew Golden was a bop when she wrote it (Polygon)
DC-area food and drink specials for the government shutdown (Washingtonian)
The Trump and Bad Bunny saga adds a layer (MSNBC)
A rediscovered coffee technique might help the industry navigate climate change (Chemical & Engineering News)
May encounter a paywall
Video Games:
ICE used the Pokémon theme for a roundup video and Nintendo didn’t like that (The Hollywood Reporter)
How Makoto Koji gave Silksong‘s Hornet a voice all her own, even if it’s gibberish (The Verge)
Little Nightmares and the power of feeling small in video game storytelling (Endless Mode)
A Texas Super Smash Bros player was banned from tournaments over his pro-Israel social media posts, including responding “LMAO” to footage of a Palestinian woman who lost everything. He’s suing claiming that his civil rights were violated (Chron)
An international survey showed that the majority of gamers are actually women (Gamesindustry.biz)
Described as a mix of Animal Crossing and Silent Hill, Easy Delivery Co. might be the eerie delivery sim for you (Aftermath gift link)
People are selling modded Borderlands 4 guns on eBay, but aren’t making much for their efforts (Eurogamer)
Critics really like Hades II so far:
Electronic Arts went private and its funding sources are very sketchy (The Guardian)
How the Saudi Arabian influence impacts this deal and the future of gaming (Kotaku)
A compilation of crushing anecdotes about what finding a job in the games industry is like these days (Aftermath gift link)
Books:
Indie bookstores are having a moment, especially in Texas (Texas Standard)
(Podcast) New York Times opinion editors weigh in on how Kamala Harris’s new memoir misses the moment
Interview with Patricia Lockwood, author of Priestdaddy, on COVID, finding humor in the absurd and losing loved ones to misinformation (The Guardian)
She also did a talk at Politics and Prose recently
Mychal Threets, known for his viral TikToks about public libraries will the new host of Reading Rainbow two decades after its cancellation (NBC News)
Banned Book Week: Oct. 5—11
Women are overrepresented in the top five most banned authors (the 19th)
Read PEN America’s annual report on book banning
An interview with Jodi-Ann Burey on her book about the myth of workplace authenticity, particularly for Black women (Wired)
May encounter a paywall
Government:
Government shutdown:
How Black Americans—20% of the federal workforce—are affected (Capital B)
A history of American government shutdowns (USA Today)
NASA furloughs 83% of its federal workforce—about 15,000 people (Houston Chronicle)
DC residents, contractors and tourists (Washingtonian)
How a shutdown could affect Texans (Texas Tribune)
Trump administration says law requiring back pay to federal employees doesn’t apply just because (Washington Post gift link)
On the first day of the shutdown, Kash Patel fired an FBI trainee for having a gay pride flag on his desk a year ago (MSNBC)
News of the trainee’s firing spurred some agents in the FBI’s Washington field office to scour their work stations and social media accounts for signs or comments — anything that could be viewed as offensive to Trump, his top appointees and MAGA supporters, according to one person familiar with the reaction within the government.
Hundreds of federal workers fired by DOGE are being asked to come back, some agencies incurred steep fines for letting building leases lapse (Huffington Post)
The final Planned Parenthood clinic in Idaho plans to stay open, despite federal cuts (Idaho Capital Sun)
Israel and Hamas agree to first phase of peace plan (Associated Press)
Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatens to withhold funding for cities and counties that “advance political agendas” such as rainbow sidewalks (Chron)
Maryland State Troopers were incentivized to make more stops with candy (The Baltimore Banner)
Federal agents have been kidnapping people out of their homes, kicking in doors and leaving destruction in their wake in Chicago, some of whom were brought there on sanctuary city buses from other states (The Triibe)
Additional coverage about an apartment building terrorized in the night (Chicago Sun Times)
Gavin Newsom to vote on bill allowing tenants to avoid evictions due to late social security payments as government shutdown looms (CalMatters)
ICE wants to use IRS filings to target immigrants. Labor and watchdog groups asked a federal judge to intervene (Houston Chronicle)
I’m not sure why grandpa is doing this,” one House Democrat said of Chuck Schumer’s offer to reopen the government—and cave to Republicans thus giving up the one ounce of leverage they have—in the event of a shutdown (Axios)
Pete Hegseth assembles top military leaders to fat-shame them (Mother Jones)
Experts estimate this meeting may have cost millions and could’ve easily been an email or Zoom call (USA Today)
A Houston woman faces deportation after police ignored her family’s request to take her to a hospital during a recent mental health episode (Houston Chronicle gift link)
“Miss Reyna has had episodes before, in the past, and an arrest did not happen; ICE was not called. So, what has changed? We know what changed,” he said. “What's going on in the federal government is now infecting the local governments. [And] local police departments are now funneling our people through the unjust and cruel detention centers.”
DC residents challenge US attorney over federal presence, crime data (WUSA9)
"This is not law enforcement. This is lawlessness. This is a reign of terror," one neighbor said. "If crime is gonna go down because we're all staying in our houses, have we gained anything?"
Eric Adams drops out of NYC mayoral race (Gothamist)
DC councilmember Brooke Pinto joins race for Eleanor Holmes’ seat in Congress (WUSA9)
Trump’s indictment of James Comey is as legally toothless as it is vindictive (Vox)
Meet the kinds of people who show up to an ICE job fair in Utah (NPR)
D.C. police accountability group found that MPD regularly omits key, legally required details in stop-and-frisk reports (WUSA9)
Masked officers continue to terrorize D.C. residents (The 51st)
The White House has said that driving unmarked vehicles and wearing masks have allowed officers to make “targeted arrests”, while the Department of Homeland Security has argued that ICE agents are wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted online.
Benavente counters that it pales in comparison to the terror that targeted communities are facing. “ICE agents get to take off their uniform… and go home to their families,” she says. “Immigrants, particularly immigrants of color, do not get to take off their identities and be safe at home, or at school, or at the grocery store.”
Economics:
Starbucks—and its CEO who made $96 million in four months—announces layoffs and store closures (CNBC)
Here’s how much it would take to be considered rich in Houston compared to nation-wide (Houston Chronicle)
Might encounter paywall
First Purple Line test rides have begun (NBC4 Washington)
Some people are co-buying homes with friends to deal with an increasingly unaffordable housing market (NPR)
College graduates are baring the brunt of the stagnant job market (CNBC)
A lot of eye-opening charts in here
Sports:
Athlete, rapper, fashion icon, role model to dark-skinned girls and a million other things. Flau’Jae Johsnon is the quintessential multihyphenate (Teen Vogue)
JuJu Watkins to miss entire 2025-2026 season as she recovers from a torn ACL (Sports Illustrated)
Check out the 25 highest paid college football coaches this season (USA Today)
LeBron James says he won’t delay retirement to play with his son, Bryce (People)
Here’s how much WNBA players would make if they were paid the same percentage of their league’s revenue as NBA players (New York Times gift link)
Napheesa Collier calls out WNBA commissioner for lack of accountability (The Next Hoops)
The Lynx’s head coach, Cheryl Reeves, was recently fined for her criticism (ESPN)
Jaylin Williams will be the last NBA player to wear the No. 6 (OKC Thunder Wire)
The first edition of “Out Fits” has released. The column spotlights the fashion and style of queer athletes (Out of Your League)
