Via @andreadotweb.bsky.social: Two Alabama House committees Wednesday approved bills that could require school boards to mandate the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance and allow public prayers and the reading of religious texts in schools.

Kristi Noem, while governor of South Dakota, supplemented her roughly $130,000 salary by secretly accepting $80,000 donated to a political nonprofit she was affiliated with, records show. She never disclosed this income on federal ethics forms. (Published June 2025)

In just over a year since taking office, Trump has authorized military action in seven nations, even after he repeatedly promised American voters that he would end, not start, wars. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...

NEW: Local emergency managers, the behind-the-scenes coordinators who mobilize help during disasters, have raised the same point time and again: We need resources to protect people in harm’s way — before the harm arrives.

Epstein Files Are Missing Records About Woman Who Made Claim Against Trump www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/u...

An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump. n.pr/4qTItsU

As I have watched measles cases in my home state of SC skyrocket to almost 1,000, I wondered why I hardly ever heard anything about the severity of complications. Here’s what I found.

NEW: South Carolina, which doesn’t require hospitals to disclose measles-related admissions, has reported only 20 such hospitalizations since Oct. 2. That leaves doctors with an incomplete picture of how the outbreak is affecting the community. By @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

NEW: South Carolina Hospitals Aren’t Required to Disclose Measles-Related Admissions. That Leaves Doctors in the Dark. by @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

A bill sponsored by several state reps seeks to prevent hospitals and doctors from questioning or interfering “in any manner” with a patient’s right to refuse treatments or vaccines. South Carolina hospitals aren't required to disclose measles-related admissions @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

I got to do some reporting in my home state…

An arts commission stacked with Trump’s allies approved his $400 million ballroom, bypassing the normal review process and fast-tracking the vote on a project that would transform the profile of the White House. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/u...

Republicans, Braced for Losses, Push More Voting Restrictions in Congress www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts It has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for info on accounts that track or comment on ICE, officials and tech workers said. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

Across Trump’s administration, racist images and slogans have become common on official sites. The White House, Labor Department and Homeland Security Department have all promoted social media posts that echo white supremacist messaging. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/u...

NEW: A 19-year-old accused of setting a Mississippi synagogue on fire allegedly dubbed Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.” The phrase echoed antisemitic rhetoric used almost 60 years ago by a KKK leader accused of masterminding a bombing of Beth Israel.

"We’re witnessing a murder," writes @ashleyrparker.bsky.social. "Jeff Bezos ... and Will Lewis, the publisher he appointed at the end of 2023, are embarking on the latest step of their plan to kill everything that makes the paper special." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Must read: A 19-year-old accused of setting a Mississippi synagogue on fire allegedly dubbed Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.” The phrase echoed antisemitic rhetoric used almost 60 years ago by a KKK leader accused of masterminding a bombing of Beth Israel. @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

"In my few days in Minnesota, I’ve been witness to countless scenes that remind me of moments I’ve seen during previous trips covering conflicts around the world," photojournalist @cengizyar.com writes. "The wars we’ve carried out as a nation abroad have come home." More: https://propub.li/4acxEeY

This is happening TONIGHT on the UNC-Asheville Campus, 5:30pm ET. If you would like to listen virtually, DM me and I'll send you a link. #NCwx #Disasterology #Helene @samlmontano.bsky.social

More www.propublica.org/article/segr...

Some of the most incisive education reporting over the past 3 years (especially in the South) has come from @propublica.org—and I’ve been proud to be included in several of their stories. As Black History Month begins, a reminder that history is present.

Exclusive: A U.S. official has alleged wrongdoing by U.S. spy chief Tulsi Gabbard in a complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to people familiar with the matter.

This is wild. Trump Had Unusual Call With F.B.I. Agents After Election Center Search www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...

Flight attendants on board ICE Air were instructed to follow strict rules: Don’t talk to the detainees. Don’t feed them. Don’t make eye contact. “You don’t do nothing. Just sit down in your seats and be quiet.” (Published April 2025)

NEW: The FBI’s search warrant, which sought 2020 election ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data and voter rolls from Fulton County, GA, marked what experts described as a significant escalation in President Donald Trump’s breaking of democratic norms.

👀 Judge Schlitz, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, has ordered the head of ICE, Todd Lyons, to appeal personally in court Friday and threatened him with contempt for the agency’s repeated violation of court orders. “The court’s patience is at an end.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

ICE is changing tactics in Maine: "Now, the volunteers in Maine say federal agents have started showing up at their homes and intimidating them or threatening arrest. Some of them, masked and wearing tactical gear, have issued stark warnings not to follow them." www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/i...

This was a common frustration point for ICE public affairs, per the internal chat messages we obtained, given they were also trying to sloganeer the idea they were targeting the "Worst of the Worst." They scrambled to find ways to insinuate the detainees were bad people anyway wapo.st/49JTkjQ

New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Pretti Shooting www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

Important thread:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a news conference he has activated the state’s National Guard and said the federal government could “not be trusted to lead this investigation” of the shooting. Follow for live updates:

The man, an ICU nurse, was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. Videos contradict the federal government’s description of the shooting, a New York Times analysis found. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Neuroscience is finding that even the smallest amount of time noticing nature -- 10 observations over 14 days -- significantly improves our sense of hope. In this dark winter for our nation and for our planet, we need that. Gift link to my latest column. wapo.st/3NsnT4T

Videos Showing Aggressive ICE Tactics in Minnesota Fuel a Backlash www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Have a larger story on this coming, but I’ve been embedded with this group, and this story from yesterday is part of what they’ve been doing in the city: religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...

Given the news about erasing the history of slavery, this story is a must-read about why learning and studying history matters. @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

[Monday, January 19 Analysis] A major cross-country snow and ice storm is increasingly likely this weekend. Confidence is growing in a widespread swath of over 12" of snow & a significant ice storm. I'll cover the big picture & forecast uncertainties in this thread:

DHS is working to deport the two men who spoke out about how they saw guards choke an ICE detainee to death www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/... @douglasmac.bsky.social

How Much Can One Man Make From Being President? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

“What makes this crisis both remarkable and unnecessary is that it appears so deliberately manufactured by Mr. Trump himself.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/u...

Legal and criminal justice experts said a ruling by a federal judge last week revealed conduct by immigration agents that evokes the civil rights era. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/u...

“It reads as a message about who the agency is speaking to and the audience it is trying to reach.”

Last July, ProPublica documented nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering car windows to make arrests — a tactic experts and former ICE insiders say was rarely used before President Trump began his second term:

To put 200 active measles infections in one state in context, the Disneyland measles outbreak a decade ago - which I did some work on in grad school - was 131 total cases in California. That was a notable outbreak. That's an outbreak with its own Wikipedia page. And it's just like this now

The Defense Department has told 1,500 active-duty troops to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, where President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act as a response to protests against the killing of a Minneapolis woman by a federal immigration officer.

Thousands of employees whose contracts end this year will lose their jobs, FEMA managers said at personnel meetings this week. The cuts could hobble the nation's disaster agency. n.pr/49XXPXO

Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...