John has been my model of cerebral reporting, thoughtful inquisitiveness and boundless integrity. He helped inspire my career in journalism. I know he only has better things to come.

folks, please be sure to support actual journalists! there's so many amazing newsrooms doing amazing work right now.

So this ad revenue metric is indicative of such a fascinating and weird set of business decisions by Google to inexplicably kill of SEO-- and I honestly don't get how they think this is going to pay off for them in the long run. 🧵 1/

Time for debate night bingo ✅ We're co-hosting the final NYC mayoral debate tonight with NY1 and WNYC. Let's play. (Psst, stream the debate for free here, no paywall or sign-in: www.thecity.nyc)

My article “Does an Arrow a Day Keep Satan Away? Late Antique Magical Subtexts in Babylonian Rabbinic Narratives” is now OA in HTR! It argues that a Talmudic story about a rabbi’s encounter with Satan adjudicates between competing incantations in late antique Iraq www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A 2nd article is also out today, w/Michele Scarlassara! We present a previously unpublished Syriac incantation bowl from the Penn Museum, w/a formula paralleling several Mandaic bowls, w/intriguing social-historical implications 1st bowl published using spectral imaging! brill.com/view/journal...

meanwhile every day for like a month curtis sliwa has been out here saying stuff like “the only way I’m getting out of this race is if you physically push me onto the tracks and even then I might survive I’ve done it before”

If you know you’re speaking to reporter, assume they will report. You can’t unsay what you’ve said. This retroactive off-the-record is a move sources pull all the time, and it’s often done in bad faith. And as a legal reporter, my tolerance for attorneys playing confidentiality games is low

I should have been clearer: Both sides (implicitly) agree not to write down any deal. They understand Trump will fill the silence with outlandish claims, delivering him a political win. And our trading partners are obliged to deliver nothing, giving them the economic win.

I rarely comment on these things, but these are unusual times. 249 years ago the Declaration called Natives "Merciless Indian Savages.," and the Constitution excluded us from protection while enabling our dispossession. We remember this history not to cause harm, but to grasp the consequences./1

Since May: Federal district courts have ruled against Trump admin 94% of the time. Supreme Court has sided with the Trump admin 94% of the time. A judiciary at war with itself.

🎧EXCLUSIVE AUDIO — ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt at the Republican Attorneys General national meeting in NY this morning: “Mahmoud Khalil… was not some child. He was one of the ringleaders of this group, and I am sure we’re going to find out about his ties to groups overseas.”

NEW: @law360.bsky.social has created a *public* database of legal cases involving President Trump's executive orders and other actions. The data is searchable and sortable and will be updated regularly; links to coverage for subscribers. Graphics by @benjayingly.com www.law360.com/trump-legal-...

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM

These moves only make sense to corporations that care about journalism that's cheap, not good. A deceased columnist's fans don't want a digital simulacrum approximating an opinion of a gallery. Greed paired with a disregard of quality yields ghoulish outcomes

I am fed up with the app-ification of things. I don't want 327 apps on my phone or whatever in order to see my bills and pay my bills and order pizza and check the weather and find out when the garbage is being collected and get notified of emergencies. This is ridiculous.

A good demonstration of how journalism is a unique mess of a field where despite the often high stakes, the professional accreditation is minimal and the ethical guidelines varying and often self-enforcing

It's absolutely critical that Kamala Harris strongly emphasized that a Dem president and Congress will codify Roe nationally in her first speech as presumptive nominee. This has huge political benefits that are going underappreciated. 1/ New piece: newrepublic.com/article/1841...

the state of journalism.

Pushing Biden — or any unwilling incumbent — aside is pretty uncharted waters that, at minimum, require a huge amount of coordination from basically every major lever of the Democratic party. Inertia is the deciding factor here.

Between 1998 and 2023, Israel declared 28k dunams as "state land" (=land for settlers). In 2024 alone, Israel declared 24k dunams as state land. (1 dunam = 0.25 Acre)

As a legal reporter, I struggle with describing the Supreme Court’s decisions as “findings.” It’s a term of art in the legal world, but I worry it implies that the justices are engaging in a good-faith effort to “discover” the law rather than interpret it in a way that confirms their existing views

“Can you have a debate built on reason, to measure reason, when a candidate insists on something beyond reason?” youtu.be/0X2xaM4w8AI?...

Companies are attaching "AI" to seemingly everything, but it's not what they always make it out to be. I wrote about how regulators and investors are beginning to hold them accountable www.law360.com/insurance-au...

Shameless plug for my brother @simchagross.bsky.social’s book, now officially launched! Simcha is the most profoundly rigorous and brilliant truth-seeker I know, and it’s a joy and privilege to see his talents achieve this shining revision of crucial Jewish history www.cambridge.org/us/universit...

The Federal Trade Commission, of all entities, is out here writing absolute bangers about AI snake oil. www.ftc.gov/business-gui...

I don’t understand the urgency of this turnaround. None of what Hochul raised appeared to be new concerns, and the state has been defending this plan in courts for years. Hochul was supporting this policy until very recently. What changed? www.thecity.nyc/2024/06/05/m...

Hey, I’m a journalist covering the legal field. My greatest hits include: - NRA can keep suing a NY official for allegedly trying to mess with finances - AI is worrying insurers; AI regulations may worry them more - Trump asks SCOTUS to shield taxes from Manhattan DA (spoiler: didn’t work)

Don't know if any other important cases came out yesterday, but anyway here's what I wrote about the National Rifle Association victory at the Supreme Court over their free speech fight with an ex-New York official www.law360.com/articles/183...

Vox just ok'd open AI to use all its writers' work and WaPo is generating AI summaries of their writer's work so readers can ignore the rest of it.

Today is Nakba day. My family was expelled from West Jerusalem & spent 3 years in Aqabet Jaber refugee camp before being able to return to East Jerusalem. We were lucky we had a place to stay and rebuild there - others were not so lucky.

What stands out in these agreements is that the protestors (as of yet) haven’t received complete divestment—it’s nearly always investment transparency or more engagement with administrators or, at most, a vote on divestments

The last hours inside a Florida abortion clinic before the state's six-week ban. Brutal read. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/...

Approaching 1400 arrests now. Updated with arrest, charge, and prosecutor info at: -Uni of New Mexico in Albuquerque -Uni of North Carolina in Chapel Hill -Uni of Connecticut in Storrs -Virginia Commonwealth Uni in Richmond -Uni of Utah in Salt Lake City theappeal.org/prosecutors-...

NEWS: My friends and I now own and run The Onion. I’ll be the CEO. We’re keeping the entire staff, bringing back The Onion News Network, and will share the wealth with staff. Basically, we’re going to let them do whatever they want. Get excited.

I do not know if Justice Merchan will hold Former President Trump in contempt after the hearing on 4/23. I do know that Justice Merchan just made it clear he believes that FPOTUS has acted in violation of the pre-trial order & imposed a pretty significant sanction - withholding order of witnesses.

States are going after insurers over their AI use, but is their bark worse than their bite? I talked to some experts on AI, regulatory compliance and consumer advocacy to learn more. t.co/sAqvnLVpwz

Celebrating my brother @simchagross.bsky.social on his long-awaited book! Babylonian Jewish encounters with empire were formative experiences, shaping their society in ways that remain important millennia later. Get it early or wait for paperback! www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...

Happy publication day to my friend, @simchagross.bsky.social ! www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...

When magazines were fun (and had money): I was going through a drawer and just found one of the more lunatic things I ever greenlit. These are outtakes from a 1996 Oscars photo shoot we did at Entertainment Weekly--one if Babe won an Oscar, one if it didn't.

i think this is the first time i’ve ever seen this disclaimer on a news article (and it links to a cornell law page on presumption of innocence)

literally every news organization that publishes cop press releases should be doing this not just some little local news website in mendo county lol

Worth noting that the Arizona legislature had multiple opportunities to repeal the statute in subsequent abortion laws. Instead, they recodified it four years after Roe v. Wade and left it in place since.

One major reason harm reduction advocates don’t push sobriety is because it’s an obvious priority to help people *not die of overdose*

I’ve had attorneys try to pull an “actually this is all off the record” after an interview, but after a *deposition* is another level of chutzpah entirely