Since it is New Year's Eve and I am working, here is one of those overly-sincere threads about things I loved writing in 2025. To begin: A wistful love letter to the asteroid that is seemingly not going to hit us www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/ar...

Good morning. ICYMI: The @chicagotribune.com published our in depth report on the Trump raids of the city, and it’s well worth your time to read and understand the chaos of our times www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/28/c...

NEW: Churches in Charlotte are hosting trainings on how to response to ICE agents — with *hundreds* filling pews. At one training, a child led those gathered in "This Little Light of Mine" — but changed the words to “All around Border Patrol, I’m gonna let it shine" religionnews.com/2025/11/20/a...

Escape room where the thing you are trying to escape is reading about Olivia Nuzzi

I’m begging the media to bring ethics back

An absolute powerhouse of a @propublica.org team has done what U.S. officials refuse to do: identify the men and women swept up in that midnight raid in Chicago. Life in the building was not perfect, but reporters found little evidence to back up government claims: www.propublica.org/article/chic...

I'm really proud of this story and my colleagues -- @jodiscohen.bsky.social @tchristianmiller.bsky.social Sebastian Rotella and @mariamelba.bsky.social ... best collab ever. We got help from A LOT of people @propublica.org and beyond, including Ronna Risquez, and Andrea Morales from @mlk50.com

You probably saw videos of a nighttime raid in Chicago. Agents rappelling from a helicopter, bursting down doors, questioning brown-skinned immigrants. We investigated -- and found little evidence to support the government’s claims about Tren de Aragua. www.propublica.org/article/chic...

The Chicago Headline Club Foundation has launched the Essential Equipment Fund to help independent and freelance journalists buy gear like respirators and helmets. headlineclub.org/2025/10/11/e...

“So, what would you like for me to say?” the woman asked. “Honestly, my next question is, are you pro-life? Is your church pro-life?” Monroe asked. The church hung up. thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/11/t...

"My father remained at the Texas detention center until October. During those six months, he went completely blind in one eye and lost most of the vision in the other, because he wasn’t receiving adequate medical care for his Type 2 diabetes."

I try

Nandy, a 22-year-old in Kentucky, has Type 1 Diabetes. Foods he's supposed to eat are more expensive, he said. He goes to Walmart and Kroger trying to find lowest prices. He's been eating one meal a day to stretch food out. It's impacting his health: “It’s like a death sentence for people like me”

More on this moment, as described by Rev. Black himself, here: religionnews.com/2025/10/07/i...

It feels a bit weird to post right now in light of what has happened to @teenvogue.com and so much of the incredible team there. What sources shared here is important, & I’m grateful I got to work on this. I reported on how young people are being impacted by delays to SNAP: “It’s about survival.”

PSA from 404 Media: you can opt-out of a data broker selling your flight travel data to the government to be searched without a warrant. Here's how I did it. This is ARC, the data broker owned by major U.S. airlines like United, Delta, American, etc www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...

I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day. certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.

NEWS: ICE arrests Chicago man whose teenage daughter is fighting cancer: “He belongs with her.” I spent yesterday afternoon with Ofelia Torres and her mother, Sandibell, talking about Ruben Torres. Here’s the story www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/21/i...

BREAKING: A unanimous appeals court panel rules that reporter Catherine Herridge must testify about her source for a story that has become the subject of a leak investigation. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...

Every culture’s death rituals are different, but they're all meant to allow us to live our lives even as we carry our dead. This is what happens when those rituals go awry. Belatedly, my latest story (& first @esquiremag.bsky.social / @houstonchronicle.com collab!) www.esquire.com/news-politic...

NEW: The law is supposed to protect unaccompanied migrant children from being summarily whisked out of the country by ICE in the dead of night. But that didn't seem to matter on Labor Day weekend, when the Trump administration tried to do just that. My latest: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

it was the stupidest of times; it was the worst of times

And wildly misaligned with my salary but thanks, I guess

current writing stage

RFK Jr just buried a big report on the link between alcohol and cancer. Luckily, @smencimer.bsky.social had written this a few years back:

the punchline being, it may be me, depending on how the day goes

Currently on "who will eat the week old cupcakes in the newsroom" watch

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Federal judges tell NBC News the Supreme Court has got to do a better job of explaining emergency rulings, with frequent decisions in favor of Trump at least appearing to validate harsh criticism of the judiciary at a time of rising threats: www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Found in the wild

Today in @thenation.com we have harrowing, unforgettable accounts of the Israeli massacre that killed Anas al-Sharif and 5 others—from three journalists, including al-Sharif's cousin, who were there. Unfathomable that the world's media doesn't care about this. www.thenation.com/article/worl...

I think/post about this a lot but I also wonder if I've underestimated the appeal of not thinking to other people

The amount of reliance on ChatGPT in newsrooms to do a task that a human brain could do in a very short amount of time feels like if the dinosaurs had that asteroid in a slingshot and aimed it at themselves.

Epilogue packs quite a punch after a wild story-

And... there's more www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

Oh my god www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/20/w...

Modern news headline formula, option 1: [random number] of the [superlative adjective] [SEO noun] to [verb] [preposition] [SEO proper noun]

Texas funeral commissioner's ‘problematic’ texts about Islam raise questions about her leadership, by @sarahesmith23.bsky.social and Dug Begley www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investi...

The untold origin story of Trump Burger: A $250K murder-for-hire plot, ICE arrest and vaccine scam - Houston Chronicle www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

EXCLUSIVE: @timmiller.bsky.social spoke to Andry as he shared his journey through U.S. detention that led to imprisonment in El Salvador. He speaks about abuse, survival, and rebuilding his life through faith and his hope for the future. Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySs...

I took a little foray into that Trump Burger saga for @houstonchronicle.com The subplots include an ICE arrest, a vaccine scam and a $250,000 murder-for-hire plot. Yes, really. www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

The untold origin story of Trump Burger: A $250K murder-for-hire plot, ICE arrest and vaccine scam www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston... by @sarahesmith23.bsky.social

More evidence that @sarahesmith23.bsky.social is one of the @houstonchronicle.com's best writers. This origin story about Trump Burger is bonkers+.

Another officer says, “They’re starting to resist more now,” to which an officer replies: “We’re going to end up shooting some of them.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

After returning from the Maine coast to Houston and its 95 degree heat with 91% humidity, I must continuously remind myself that in August I will look back on this longingly

“Robert is, in fact, an innocent man,” Brian Wharton, the lead detective on Roberson's case, now a pastor, said from the pulpit. “But you don’t have to know that. What you do have to know is as disciples of Jesus the Christ, is that We. Do. No. Violence.” www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

“Robert is, in fact, an innocent man,” Brian Wharton, the lead detective on Roberson's case, now a pastor, said from the pulpit. “But you don’t have to know that. What you do have to know is as disciples of Jesus the Christ, is that We. Do. No. Violence.” www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

After the devastating Texas floods, an ode to that sacred, messy, beautiful thing that is girlhood (@houstonchronicle.com gift link) www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...