“I’ve never seen federal agents so out of control and acting in such a malicious manner,” a former federal prosecutor and federal judge said. “They said they were going after ‘the worst of the worst,’ then they became the problem. Read this by @jonschuppe.bsky.social & @natashakorecki.bsky.social

Since it's almost Sunday, sharing again: loved highlighting stories I loved reading for @thesundaylongread.bsky.social. It includes pieces on a mom running a donation network in Minneapolis, a young writer in Gaza interviewing neighbors on a block, & more. I hope you read all these amazing stories!

NEW: For the second time in 2026, Kentucky state police have charged a woman with homicide after a pregnancy loss. Both were criminalized after seeking medical care—one for a miscarriage and one for self-managed abortion—and face charges of abuse of a corpse and concealing a birth @autonomynews.co

For @propublica.org’s weekly newsletter, @micarosenberg.bsky.social wrote about speaking with a 9 year old who was in immigration detention for four months. She was supposed to go to Disney World. Instead immigration agents put her on a plane to Dilley, Texas. www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

If you're currently a student at a college with a faculty member who showed up in the Epstein files, I'd like to talk to you about the campus response for an article. You can reach me at [email protected] or millionbear.44 on Signal.

Since it's almost Sunday, sharing again: loved highlighting stories I loved reading for @thesundaylongread.bsky.social. It includes pieces on a mom running a donation network in Minneapolis, a young writer in Gaza interviewing neighbors on a block, & more. I hope you read all these amazing stories!

Reporting live from intermission at a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, where someone excitedly whispered after the first act “they look just like Bridgerton!”

Really smart take here. A good amount of harm that generative AI is producing in modern society is coming from the fact that a ton of people (sometimes including police) have bought into fantasies about what the technology can actually do.

People joking about the Epstein files, including the disturbing "you're in the files" subject line marketing gimmick I keep seeing screenshots of, makes me sick to my stomach.

A high-speed car chase involving a federal agent in St. Paul ended with a multi-vehicle crash and injuries to the fleeing driver, who was taken away in an ambulance. bit.ly/4kvJo0M 📸: Leila Navidi

Olive Garden making some interesting points.

"Some were as young as 13, and at least half of those taken in so far became pregnant as a result of rape, sources said."

Apply to become 100 Days' New Rural Landscape reporter by February 16 www.reportforamerica.org/reporters/

“It was at least the fourth such event in two days among Fayette County Public Schools. On Tuesday, between 200 and 250 students at Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School participated in a walkout to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

Some children in Dilley were so distraught they cut themselves or talked about suicide, parents told ProPublica. They said kids lost their appetites after finding worms and mold on their food, had trouble sleeping, and were constantly sick.

For Everything is Political, I reported on young people working multiple jobs. It's about more than side hustles—factors like worker exploitation & lack of opportunities to break in have impacted multiple generations. Now, some young adults say working only one job has never felt viable.

Olive Garden making some interesting points.

Love how colon cancer keeps killing people under 50 and yet insurance doesn't cover colonoscopy without cost-sharing until age 45. I just paid $1,584 out of pocket for mine thanks to my deductible and copays

We hired the manager of The Lying Store and Mr. Steal Your Money to push our new technology and people are still skeptical?

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

EXCLUSIVE: A whistleblower tells @thebarbedwire.com he spent years burying radioactive fracking waste, which melted the bones in his neck and jaw. Then a residential community — and an elementary school — was built on top. 🧵 thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/11/a...

The costco rotisserie chicken is literally cheaper than making it at home.

Happening now: members of Congress and Epstein survivors are set to speak at a news conference ahead of AG Pam Bondi’s testimony before House Judiciary

Absolutely horrifying. (And incredibly important reporting from The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin.)

"Images obtained by CBS News appear to show the zip ties and bruised wrists of Anabel Romero's 14-year-old daughter SueHey, a U.S. citizen who was tending to her 6- and 8-year-old siblings when the agents descended on the crowd in military-style gear and herded them into a confined area."

The world is what it is but books continue! Agents + writers: looking for deeply researched and imaginative nonfiction manuscripts about the South, for publication in 2027/28. Literary nonfiction, personal/reportage & cultural criticism are highly welcomed. DMs open for pitches or [email protected].

I wrote about the Epstein Files and the (incredibly unhealthy) need to monitor, to bear witness. lithub.com/finding-the-...

The state of field itself might be terrible, but there are so many people doing absolutely extraordinary journalism, and I loved getting to highlight some of the pieces I loved reading last week for the Sunday Long Read:

This is incredible. "A consumer is a person whose preëxisting tastes you strive to satisfy over and over; a reader is someone you hope to change, convince, and surprise."

NEW: ICE is leasing offices throughout the US as part of a secret, months-long expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

Gen X man on Hinge spiraling after one message exchange

“Every single hospital we called said she was not there,” said Sarah Sherman-Stokes, an attorney with the Boston University School of Law Immigrants Rights Clinic. “We’re pretty despairing.”

"At least two Lexington high school principals told families in separate letters Wednesday that students would be counted absent and could be subject to discipline if they walk out of class to protest ICE."

The Wall Street Journal just illustrated the core argument of my book: a system rigged to reward capital over labor is one in which even full-time work no longer secures the most basic material needs. This is the economic order that produces the "working homeless." www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

NEW: ProPublica went inside the detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next.

The state of field itself might be terrible, but there are so many people doing absolutely extraordinary journalism, and I loved getting to highlight some of the pieces I loved reading last week for the Sunday Long Read:

Kids "learn that calling 911 is dangerous. They learn that police are not there to protect them. They learn that even citizenship does not guarantee safety when your family is undocumented. And they learn, most devastatingly, that they are disposable."

Between the incorrect assumption that spread all over the internet that Liam Conejo Ramos was in Bad Bunny's halftime performance and a whole discourse I'm seeing on how "gift link" or "gift article" = paid ad (???), not feeling too hot about the state of media literacy.

now that's the power of a union

This morning at @propublica.org, we published a pair of stories about the children held at the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. www.propublica.org/article/life...

People have worn out "performative." We often perform things that are real, you know. Posting is a kind of performance of one's politics. Performative doesn't actually mean "fake" or "empty," it just gets deployed that way. We actually need performance. Case in point: last night's performance.

very very cool for my new book, TO CATCH A FASCIST, to be on the @bookshop.org list of 25 best-selling books last week, alongside Heated Rivalry & Wuthering Hts & George Saunders! bookshop.org/lists/booksh...

for my latest @us.theguardian.com talked to teens leading and joining anti-ICE walkouts from TX to MD to WI. one NYC teen: "I feel scared [of ICE] every day... But I’m not going to let that stop me, because bravery is just the positive way to say you’re scared, and I’d rather be brave than scared."

Do you or a family member live in Idaho and rely on an HCBS waiver? Want to talk to a reporter about it? Please email sluterman at 19thnews dot org or DM. #JournoRequest

Please take the time to read what the children detained in Dilley wrote me in their own words: www.propublica.org/article/ice-... 10/

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

A detail I don't want to get lost in this: So far, Bri and her network have helped more than 500 families with grocery deliveries and more than 300 with diapers and wipes. In just two months.

Morning! Today, we're honored to hand editing duties over to @rainesford.bsky.social, a freelance writer, reporter, and author. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Esquire, ELLE, The Washington Post, and other publications. mailchi.mp/sundaylongre...

happy Super Bowl Sunday! for all you commercials sickos, I make the case that this game's ad blitz will be to A.I. what 2022's was to crypto and 2000's was to the dot-com boom—with all attendant implications for our broader economy and the celebrity-promotion complex: slate.com/technology/2...