Venuri Siriwardane

Q&A: As vaccination rates dip, how are Allegheny County leaders responding? As the Trump administration tries to upend vaccination practices, Allegheny County's top immunization official and a key advocacy group counter with research.

As we enter the fall and winter respiratory virus season, @venuri.bsky.social interviewed local public health experts to learn how Allegheny County is navigating the shifting landscape of federal vaccine policy.

Actually I think more media unions should work some kind of right to expression into their contracts. It’s ridiculous that every major newspaper chain plus NYT and WaPo restricts journalists from expressing any meaningful opinion for the entirety of their careers.

Treble NLS suggested we return to the place where he was handcuffed in the midst of a mental health crisis for portraits for @venuri.bsky.social's story on how involuntary ‘302’ hospitalizations fall more heavily on Black patients. Trusting his vision, I met him at the edge of the Mon Wharf. 🧵

Do you live in Allegheny County and have you or a loved one experienced involuntary mental health commitment? Public Source would like to learn from you for our ongoing series When Care is Compulsory. Please email venuri@publicsource.org if you are in a position to share.

And experts are very clear: these people are fringe.
Scientific consensus is that race and IQ studies are shoddy.

But journalism has trouble saying that; it’s nearly impossible for them to figure out what whole fields believe. That’s why “Merchants of Doubt” work.

Magee is the latest hospital to push for a union amid anger at UPMC executives Nurses say executives' jetsetting stands in contrast to low staffing levels and employee burnout.

Magee nurses say executives' jetsetting stands in contrast to low staffing levels and employee burnout:

political journalists obsess over the public’s lack of trust in our profession but strangely see that as downstream of things like “we didn’t talk enough about how biden was old” and not “many of us appear to be indifferent to a nihilistic attack on the constitution”

This kid is 15, and so has a moral clarity and uprightness that no adult elected official would or could ever have. There aren't really and never have been two sides of this issue, but if it has to be argued as a binary thing I don't see how anything less than this could seem like the side to be on.

Emerging journalists/photojournalists– come join our independent, nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh! Delight in the joys of holding power to account & Pittsburgh's fries on salad habit. @publicsource.org interns get to work across their interests from reporting to fact checking to engagement & more.

Pitt faculty, students and staff sent an open letter to university officials this morning. It's got 902 signatures and counting. Among their demands:

1) Protect the campus from immigration raids
2) Fight "unjust federal grant termination"
3) Avoid layoffs
4) Create a crisis task force

The Trump administration is cutting staff and grant funding at Health and Human Services including the NIH. Those agencies fund much of Pittsburgh’s research. Are you an affected researcher? Please consider emailing PublicSource at encrypted publicsource412@proton.me or Signal at PublicSource.412

'Democrats Lost Them': Here's Why 2020 Biden Voters Sat Out The 2024 Election Dems staying home fueled Donald Trump’s 2024 win and cost Kamala Harris, according to research from Way to Win, Catalist, and Lake Research Partners.

New from @tessastuart.bsky.social

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

My uncle is a big time IP lawyer in NYC. I cannot stress enough how taking away IP laws would benefit the wealthy who would steal and then out produce any ideas they find useful. Thus destroying all creatives and their livelihoods.

Follow a buncha local journalists and news outlets here: go.bsky.app/FzSc9z

They're way better than our substandard national press.

So many student visas have been revoked that Inside Higher Ed started mapping them

Want to stay up to speed with what our PublicSource journalists are sharing about news in Pittsburgh? Check out our PublicSource journalist starter pack: go.bsky.app/8xEPt5J

Many Medicaid recipients do not know they receive it because Medicaid is called different things in different states. The public narrative of Medicaid focuses on a distant other, but 40% of US children and 60% of nursing home residents receive Medicaid. Just SOME of the names by state are below:

7/ Many thanks to @anastasiabusby.bsky.social for taking some great 📷 of Dr. Jarlenski.

6/ It would be very hard for states to find the funding to mitigate the damage at scale, but they can band together to do it. Interstate compacts already exist and “I don’t see why that type of agreement can’t be developed" for medical assistance, said Dr. Jarlenski. compacts.csg.org/faq/

Report: Pa. Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section Charged More Medicaid Fraud Cases than any other State in the 2024 Fiscal Year AG Sunday’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section ranked No. 3 in criminal convictions nationwide; a few recent cases are highlighted HARRISBURG – Attorney General Dave Sunday announced the release of an ann...

5/ Trump and Republicans in Congress said cuts would only target Medicaid fraud. Experts said that's misleading. And PA has a robust system for combating fraud, said Dr. Jarlenski. Our state prosecuted more fraud cases than any other in the last fiscal year. www.attorneygeneral.gov/taking-actio...

What Does the Recent Literature Say About Medicaid Expansion?: Economic Impacts on Providers | KFF This issue brief updates prior KFF literature reviews by summarizing 24 studies published between April 2021 and December 2022 on the economic impact of Medicaid expansion on providers.

4/ And cuts to Medicaid would mean fewer insured people seeking care at hospitals and community health centers, which would have ripple effects through the health care industry, Dr. Jarlenski said. Pittsburgh's economy — powered by "eds and meds" — could take a hit. www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

How Many People Use Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports and How Much Does Medicaid Spend on Those People? | KFF KFF examines how many Medicaid enrollees used Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) for aging, illness, or disability in 2020, how much Medicaid spent on these enrollees, and policy issues to watch i...

3/ Even if you’ve been financially comfortable your whole life, your assets will likely be gobbled up by the cost of nursing home care. That’s when Medicaid would kick in, but these cuts could put that safety net in jeopardy, said Dr. Jarlenski. www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

2/ I sat down with Dr. Marian Jarlenski of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health. An expert on Medicaid policy, she broke down the most likely types of cuts and how they could hurt everything from reproductive care to benefits for people with disabilities to local economies.

Pitt researcher: Cutting Medicaid would reduce health care Marian Jarlenski researches health equity at Pitt. She says you can’t slash Medicaid without hurting the health care access of people with disabilities, low-income workers, children, pregnant people.

1/ Think cuts to Medicaid won't affect you because you have fancy private insurance? Here's my Q&A with an expert who explained how even those with high incomes could suffer under the cuts that Congress is considering. www.publicsource.org/medicaid-cut... 🧵

Hundreds of international students wake up to an email asking them to self deport for campus activism - The Times of India US News: The US Department of State has asked hundreds of international students, including Indians, to self-deport over alleged campus activism. Learn about the visa revocations and government…

THIS IS SERIOUS: The Times of India is reporting that there are hundreds of international students getting their student visas immediately revoked, reportedly for supporting Gaza on social media, based on a Marco Rubio directive to analyze/surveil students' social media posts.

When scholars of authoritarianism and fascism leave U.S. universities because of the deteriorating political situation here, we should really worry.

Still, Alvarado was detained by ICE outside his apartment in early February and brought in for questioning, Juan Enrique Hernández, the owner of two Venezuelan bakeries in the Dallas area and Alvarado’s boss, told Mother Jones. One day later, Hernández went to see him in detention and asked him to explain what had happened. Alvarado told Hernández that an ICE agent had asked him if he knew why he had been picked up; Alvarado said that he did not. “Well, you’re here because of your tattoos,” the ICE agent replied, according to Hernández. “We’re finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos.” The agent then asked Alvarado to explain his tattoos and for permission to review his phone for any evidence of gang activity. “You’re clean,” the ICE officer told Alvarado after he complied, according to both Hernández and María Alvarado. “I’m going to put down here that you have nothing to do with Tren de Aragua.” For reasons that remain unclear, Hernández said that another official in ICE’s Dallas field office decided to keep Alvarado detained. María Alvarado said her brother told her the same story at the time.

An ICE agent told Neri Alvarado "We're finding and questioning everyone who has tattoos, and that's why he was arrested.

Stunningly, after Neri explained his autism tattoos' meanings, THE ICE AGENT SAID HE WAS CLEAN. And yet he stayed detained — then got sent to El Salvador!

Obeyesekere: The Relentless Iconoclast Editorial Gananath Obeyesekere, a man larger than life, passed away today. His death marks the end of an intellectual force that reshaped the very foundations of anthropology, psychoanalysis, and the....

Prof. Gananath Obesekere has passed away slguardian.org/obeyesekere-...

NYTimes headline: Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Education Department. Live updates. CNN: Trump's expected Education Department order looks to fulfill a campaign promise but raises questions for students and parents Forbes: Trump's Presidency And Student Loans: Today's Education Department Announcement Explained NBC News: Trump signs executive order to dismantle the Education Department

Seems like the media should *at least* point out *in the headline* that you can't shut down the Department of Education via an Executive Order? But... I guess that's asking too much.