Kirk believed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a destructive force in American politics, calling its passage a “mistake” that he said has been turned into “an anti-white weapon.”

Today’s headlines. China? Or the United States 2025?

Who owns @propublica.org ? NO ONE. We don’t have corporate owners, advertisers or shareholders pulling the strings. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our only obligation is to the truth. This model only works because readers choose to fund it. Today, your $ will be doubled.

The resignation follows years of mounting tensions between Unilever, which acquired the ice cream company in 2000, and the Ben & Jerry’s founders, who have long been outspoken on social issues. The relationship especially deteriorated since the start of the war in Gaza.

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Montgomery County Public Schools I’m here for this 8th grade American Studies syllabus. Bravo to all teachers who refuse to whitewash American history as they teach kids to connect the past to the present. 💪🏾 ✊🏾

SCOOP: Three Trump Cabinet Members Have Multiple Primary-Residence Mortgages @robert-faturechi.bsky.social @justinelliott.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

Thoughtful bipartisan lunch convo at @pressclubdc.bsky.social between Maryland's @govwesmoore.bsky.social & Utah Governor Spencer Cox

NEWS: CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states and DC — even to people who meet the new FDA criteria — because the CDC hasn't signed off and isn't expected to do so (if it does so) for at least three weeks.

School has just started. For the day. For the new year. When children were gunned down as classes celebrated their first Mass. “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”

Great reporting by my former team, @washingtonpost.com health reporters @lenasun.bsky.social @ddiamond.bsky.social @laurenweberhp.bsky.social ! Monarez declined to immediately resign and enlisted Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), chairman of the Senate’s health committee.

It is true!!! Can confirm!! I am thrilled to be joining @propublica.org next month. (Pam has all the best sources 🖤)

1/3 New Lancet editorial calls it like it is: RFK Jr & MAHA are emboldened, escalating, and dangerous. We know that danger firsthand - our windows still have bullet holes, put there by a man who targeted us over COVID vaccine conspiracies. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

So incredibly proud of @richardawebster.bsky.social's important reporting for @propublica.org + @veritenews.org on Lloyd Gray's case and the latest impact of Gov. Jeff Landry's criminal justice rollbacks. A hearing Tuesday in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court could decide Gray's fate.

This Louisiana prisoner — & 1,000+ others like him — remain in prison despite split jury convictions that SCOTUS has ruled unconstitutional. MUST READ @richardawebster.bsky.social’s latest in his series about Gov. Jeff Landry’s criminal justice rollbacks www.propublica.org/article/loui...

Yesterday, Politico reported a “lack of street-level backlash” to Trump’s DC takeover. There IS backlash—it’s just a less formal version of it, carried out by Washingtonians with iPhones & spare time rather than by politicians marching the streets with TV cameras. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Houston Police Department Detective Kyle Stringer noted that real officers do not wear ski masks.

In the face of intense public opposition, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce has gone to unusual lengths to promote Elon Musk's xAI supercomputer, including sending a mailer with inaccurate information about the governmental oversight in place to monitor the facility. By @wendicthomas.bsky.social

The Trump administration has refused to say how many workers have been lost. My @propublica.org colleagues did the analysis & here, in unprecedented detail, is what they found: In total, 20,500+ workers — 18% of the Department of Health and Human Services’ workforce — have left or been pushed out.

Erin McCanlies spent almost two decades at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health studying how parents’ exposure to chemicals affects the chance that they will have a child with autism. This spring, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eliminated her entire division.

Federal agents violently detained a food delivery driver as he emerged from a D.C. coffee shop Saturday morning. The incident captured on video showed the officers throwing him to the ground and beating him before sweeping him away in an unmarked vehicle. wapo.st/45Egtkc

Pandemic learning. Washington, DC. August 2020. Feels like a lifetime ago. Such dark times. But filled with so much possibility for change. And yet . . .

Grateful to @oregonian.com for sharing our story about the role misinformation played in killing Oregon's wildfire risk map. (And to @opb.org as well.) Thanks, also, to @klccoregon.bsky.social for having me on: www.klcc.org/podcast/oreg... ICYMI: www.propublica.org/article/oreg...

As a longtime public health reporter covering the rise of anti-vaccine groups, I have seen them use personal stories to raise doubts about vaccines. Today I saw immunization advocates push back by highlighting the stories of the toll of vaccine-preventable illness. A thread:

Congrats to @sawyerloftus.bsky.social at @bangordailynews.bsky.social on the end of his @propublica.org Local Reporting Network year! Don’t miss Sawyer’s latest investigation into how public housing tenants end up with evictions on their permanent records, even if they were never actually evicted.

1/ “I would like the whole world to know that my son is not a criminal. He’s not a terrorist.” That’s what the mother of Yolfran Alejandro Escobar Falcón told us. Yolfran is one of the 230+ Venezuelan men who the Trump admin. imprisoned in El Salvador.

This is who Trump shipped to a Salvadoran dungeon: An event planner A coal miner An Uber driver Tortilla maker Barber DoorDashers Soccer coaches Furniture-maker Car washers Taxi drivers HVAC techs Auto parts worker Tire plant worker and 240 more... projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...

Albert Jesús Rodríguez Parra Was Sent to CECOT Days After Appearing in a Chicago Immigration Court www.propublica.org/article/vene...

2—In 2022, Arnold sued Alvarado and Sheriff Joe Lopinto, claiming the dept attempted to cover-up the deputy’s use of excessive force. This March, the case went to trial. Lopinto agreed to the financial settlement, though he denied any wrongdoing. veritenews.org/2025/07/23/l...

1—In 2021, Jefferson Parish Deputy Julio Alvarado was caught on video dragging Shantel Arnold, a Black woman, by her hair and slamming her head into the ground. Four years later, that incident has resulted in a $300,000 settlement and a new police accountability law. THREAD

Wrapping up an inspiring visit to @mlk50.com’s newsroom, launched by The Great @wendicthomas.bsky.social who I’m so lucky to work with in @propublica.org’s Local Reporting Network! 💪🏾 Until next time, Memphis!

BREAKING: A 2nd Major Children's Hospital Will Cease Offering Gender-Transition Treatments Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, follows Children's Hospital LA in capitulating to Trump threats and ceasing prescribing gender-transition drugs to minors benryan.substack.com/p/a-2nd-majo...

A @propublica.org + @bangordailynews.bsky.social investigation by @sawyerloftus.bsky.social reveals the government's failure to follow its own guidance for monitoring a direct loan program for impoverished, first-home homeowners who live in the most rural parts of the United States.

It may seem unfathomable. But history provides a warning: In this country, when the circumstances are right, the fragile norms around race can be dislodged, and freedoms can erode and then evaporate.

An AI tool for muddying, flattening and mealy-mouthing the description of objective facts www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/law3... @andrewdeck.bsky.social

While Elon Musk took D.C. by storm, his company representatives & lobbyists were notching big political wins in the heart of his vast business empire: Texas. * New laws making it faster & easier for homeowners to install backup power generators, like the kind Tesla makes, on their properties

Amid increase in ICE arrests, here’s what’s legal — or not — in agents’ tactics While the Trump administration has upended norms, much of what the public is seeing is permitted under U.S. law By @arelisrhdz.bsky.social

Closure of East Palo Alto school show the risks for communities that depend on wealthy donors for essential services or support. A billionaire’s change of heart can destabilize vulnerable families or local government finances.

So proud of @mariasacchetti.bsky.social, one of the BEST immigration reporters in the country, for this outrageous @washingtonpost.com scoop! Always read Maria.

Hooray! Congrats to @propublica.org's newest Local Reporting Network partners! Excited to work with you over the next year.

GOP lawmakers want to nationalize Medicaid work requirements to offset Trump’s proposed tax cuts. Georgia is the only state with such a mandate. Its experience shows that the federal effort could threaten health care for nearly 16 million Americans & cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Success for MAGA would be if moms stayed at home. On Saturday, to raucous applause, Kirk declared: “We should bring back the celebration of the Mrs. degree.” 🤔

Was wonderful connecting with so many reporters (and editors!) from local newsrooms at #IRE25 @ire.org in New Orleans! Looking forward to reading your project proposals in the coming weeks. And remember, we’re here to help you fine tune your proposals. Email us at [email protected]

Beer + Old Fashioneds + Crawfish. That’s how Local Reporting Partnerships are cemented! Thank you @richardawebster.bsky.social @charles-maldonado.bsky.social & @veritenews.org for your hospitality in New Orleans!

Way back in 2011, my then-colleague @mariancw.bsky.social wrote a primer for @propublica.org on the War Powers Act. Worth a read today: What Exactly Is the War Powers Act and Is Obama Really Violating It?

Read my new story that DHS said is "fundamentally unserious and [reflects] the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism" wapo.st/3HHrHMu

Ocean Vuong’s beautiful writing and photography: “Unlike writing, which is a vocation mired with maybes, the camera, for all of its complex mechanisms, can only say yes. . . . Once the photo is made, the only way to turn back is to destroy it.”

“Shoot a couple, the rest will go home,” said a meme circulating on Telegram channels of groups affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys. Far-Right Groups Buzzed With Violent Talk on How to Respond to ‘No Kings’ Protest

“It’s a mistake by ignorant conservatives and wishful liberals to believe she’s moderating,” said Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor who befriended her when they clerked at the court. “She’s exactly the person I met 25 years ago: principled, absolutely conservative, not interested in shifting.”

A 2023 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute + Brookings Institution showed that one-third of Republicans support violence as a means of saving the country, compared with 22% of independents & 13% of Democrats.

The brilliant @petridishes.bsky.social always 🔥🔥🔥 “Five months is no time at all to make something. But to destroy something—a minute is enough.”