NEW: Another DFW-area activist, Lucy Fowlkes, was just arrested by the FBI in connection to the Prairieland ICE Detention Center protest last July, bringing the total to 19 defendants. Fowlkes, like ~1/3 of those charged, wasn't at the protest, but in the DOJ's discovery... (🧵)

Since July, Trump’s DOJ has used a protest outside an ICE facility to justify the roundup of leftwing activists, labeling them an “antifa cell.” For @newrepublic.com I gained access to nearly 6 TB of discovery—CCTV, bodycam, warrants. The DOJ’s story doesn’t add up

One of those stories where folks I’d never spoken to before have privately reached out to thank me for reporting it out. Happy to be in @texasobserver.org’s top ten this year

“This is New York’s first portfolio-wide union in recent memory, and surely the first to be built at such dizzying scale: In a matter of months, 40 Pinnacle buildings across three boroughs have formed tenant associations.” mr mayor-elect, sir, please intervene in this bankruptcy auction

"This is New York’s first portfolio-wide union in recent memory, and surely the first to be built at such dizzying scale: In a matter of months, 40 Pinnacle buildings across 3 boroughs have formed tenant associations and joined the union to coordinate their demands." newrepublic.com/article/2042...

The Pinnacle bankruptcy has upended the lives of thousands of NYers in rent-stabilized units, a constituency to which Mamdani has pledged himself. But as Sam Russek reports, a fast-growing tenants' union is forming in advance of the change at Gracie Mansion newrepublic.com/article/2042...

Our top story, @samrussek.bsky.social: As a Latina immigrant elected in her mid-twenties, Lina Hidalgo faced unique headwinds that can’t be ignored when reckoning with her time in office, yet what she did with the power she won must still be judged on its own merits.

What was Lina Hidalgo? When was Lina Hidalgo? Why was Lina Hidalgo? For @texasobserver.org, I appraised Democrats' erstwhile shining star—a beacon of Texas progressivism under Trump 1.0—whose second term will soon end in disappointment. www.texasobserver.org/lina-hidalgo...

New from @samrussek.bsky.social: While some local Democratic party chapters speak effusively of their partnerships with Texas Majority PAC, others liken it to a bait-and-switch operation that commandeers the grassroots manpower of established county parties & fails to deliver on its lofty promises.

SCOOP: A Soros-backed PAC in Texas expects a massive budget—$20 million a year, each year, until 2032—but the group has been roiled by territorial disputes and allegations of "data falsification" & "systemic" voter outreach fraud. And here come the midterms. In @texasobserver.org: bit.ly/3IYSfdc

Update: Franklin Pena's defense in the Jocelyn Nungaray case just asked the DA's office to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Ogg for misuse of official information, and both the DA and defense are planning to file bar complaints against her.

Explosive motion just filed in Harris County: DA Sean Teare has asked for the court to revise its rules on extrajudicial statements after his predecessor Kim Ogg went on the local Fox affiliate to leak new info on the Jocelyn Nungaray case. The order doesn't mince words:

ICYMI: A little-known Republican's entry into the race to replace Lina Hidalgo was unremarkable save for one detail: Her campaign's ties to a '24 SuperPAC that used antisemitic tropes to undercut Harris's appeal with Muslims in Michigan. In @newrepublic.com: bit.ly/3SiSWzc