This is a textbook example of how infrastructure built to monitor exceptional circumstances (football games with 100,000 attendees) can easily be co-opted into becoming a tool of political surveillance.

For the cover of Businessweek’s December issue, I wrote about the reigning queen of America’s strip malls: Ulta Beauty, the country’s biggest beauty retailer (yes, bigger than Sephora) and quietly one of the more fascinating retailers in the country. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

DHS is deploying a powerful surveillance data sharing program at college football games www.404media.co/dhs-is-deplo...

That’s @foiaball.com mentioned!

FOIAball is in @404media.co today, as the bar bathroom prophecy foretold!

“According to an Event Action Plan obtained by FOIAball, at least 11 different departments were on the ground at the Ole Miss-Georgia game, from Ole Miss campus police to a military rapid-response team.”

@esq.social Hey Andrew, my name is David Covucci and I'm a journalist looking to speak to an expert about a tax matter for a story I'm working on. Would you give me a follow for a DM?

@stevenchung.bsky.social Hey Steven, my name is David Covucci and I'm a journalist looking to speak to an expert about a tax matter for a story I'm working on. Would you give me a follow for a DM?

This holiday season, try FOIAball pot pies. Available now for preorder in our FOIAball shop

I have a cold and missed gumbo night at @foiaball.com’s house so he sent some over for me 😭

Pro tip: vacuum seal some okra in the summer for gumbo in the fall

Gus Johnson on every snap right now

TINY UMBRELLAS FOR PYLON CAMS

Rate my roux

Someone took the Wawa Gobbler on a trip south of the border and we're all better off for it

And yes, DHS does some sicko in them. In March 2019, they were watching MEAC-tion BB.

In 2023, students at Ohio State blocked the doors to the president's office. Little did they know, live video from campus CCTVs were being fed straight to DHS. It's part of a little-known, decades-long surveillance effort built on the back of college football. www.foiaball.com/p/dhs-colleg...

I don't think enough people understand how much we're living in an AI-enabled panopticon now.

"According to documents obtained by FOIAball, the Ole Miss-Georgia matchup was one of at least two games last year where the school used a Department of Homeland Security information-sharing platform to keep a watchful eye on attendees." Crazy reporting from @foiaball.com:

oh inject this directly into my veins

Oh, love finding this out as a staff member at a university who works our football games. I love living in the US Surveillance State

Well this is interesting

In 2023, students at Ohio State blocked the doors to the president's office. Little did they know, live video from campus CCTVs were being fed straight to DHS. It's part of a little-known, decades-long surveillance effort built on the back of college football. www.foiaball.com/p/dhs-colleg...

What is the most "I worked in an open plan office in NYC during the Facebook media bubble" album and why is it this?

This is the content we NEED

How I wish this art was for a story about Lane Kiffin caught cheating. (We do have his luxury box guest lists that show when his GF stopped getting invited to games) No, this is for a much bigger story tomorrow about DHS surveilling college games. Sign up here to get it: foiaball.com/subscribe

cube is ice, ice is cube.

I decided to call Big D's #27 in Laramie, Wyoming and have learned the truth about cube. A free sticker to whoever gets it right and joins me in the prism of understanding

Hail cube. Love cube.

i actually prefer not to know what is cube

Meanwhile, Wyoming appears to entertain recruits with cube

If your team is considering hiring Dan Mullen this coaching carousel, you should know... no balloon

So Don, what do recruits really love?

Never thought my journalism white whale would be balloon installations, but the Washington Huskies dropped $13,000 in one weekend for a recruiting visit

What goes into being on a head coach search committee? Here's the contract Virginia Tech sent to members of its eight-person group looking for its next coach.

Who is slacking the most on the Virginia Tech head coach search committee? That would be launchpail work ethic espouser Bud Foster

okay the kids are off to school so I filed dozens of FOIAs to learn what programs were selling the most booze the answer is obviously Wisconsin (by a LOT lmao) but here's who else cracked the top of the list. raw sales data and per capita data here: www.extrapointsmb.com/p/who-is-sel...

TIL student athletes can make prop bets on the Super Bowl, so long as they do not impact the game. So they can't bet the coin toss, but they can bet the over/under on the national anthem

Put this thread (and a lot more details) into a post over on FOIAball. Go give it a read now! www.foiaball.com/p/mike-lomba...

That wasn't the only story we dropped this week. If you're planning on betting today, we don't have can't miss picks. But we do have a big breakdown of all the data schools get from sportsbooks. www.foiaball.com/p/ncaa-gambl...

Bill Belichick got his first ACC win last night! Mike Lombardi? Still taking Ls. Read all the new details we got on his Saudi Arabia trip here. www.foiaball.com/p/mike-lomba...

Greatest city in the world

Maybe bird is the word after all

I think Google AI just invented a Virginia Tech slogan out of thin air?

Let out an audible sigh on my morning dog walk this morning as I realized the onslaught of FrankLANE headlines VT fans are gonna be beset by next year

Bill Belichick got his first ACC win last night! Mike Lombardi? Still taking Ls. Read all the new details we got on his Saudi Arabia trip here. www.foiaball.com/p/mike-lomba...

Put this thread (and a lot more details) into a post over on FOIAball. Go give it a read now! www.foiaball.com/p/mike-lomba...

Mike Lombardi's approval form for travel to Saudi Arabia< He went to "explain the great things the Athletic departjent can achieve with help!"