We used to be a country

A Post investigation found that kindergarten vaccination rates have dropped significantly since the pandemic, with many schools easing enforcement of mandates. https://wapo.st/49gqeHj

I wanted to post my 2025 work. But after a year of raising a baby and stressing about this country, I’m chilling right now. I wrote eight stories I’m proud of, breaking news about data centers, oil refineries and climate impacts in California. Cheers to 2026. capitalandmain.com/author/aaron...

“Many of our studies in 2025 focused on heavy rainfall events in the Global South…gaps in observational data and the reliance on climate models developed primarily for the Global North prevented us from drawing confident conclusions” bsky.app/profile/fred...

NEW: Climate change is worsening California’s suffocating living costs I spoke with a woman made homeless by the Eaton Fire, & folks at a food pantry beaten down by high prices Amid converging crises some want energy companies to foot a chunk of the climate bill capitalandmain.com/the-poor-are...

Who actually gets help after a climate disaster? As public recovery systems erode, access to rebuilding increasingly depends on wealth, connections — and a few private companies. @vox.com via our partners @grist.org / @climatedesk.org: www.vox.com/climate/4735...

This account got bullied off bluesky after just a month or so bsky.app/profile/home...

The surge of AI slop, deceptive synthetic videos & images flooding our feeds, is driven in large part by Agentic AI Accounts (AAAs). aiforensics.org/work/agentic... Key findings: -Over 43,000 mostly AI-made posts generated 4.5 billion views -More than 65% of accounts were created in early 2025 1/

Leguizamo deserved an Oscar nomination for this delivery

2024 was the hottest year in modern history. There has never been a better—or more urgent—time for journalists to report on the actions, promises, & misconduct of the industry driving climate change. So today, @gijn.org published the first of our seven-part Guide to Investigating Fossil Fuels.

Well well well. Looks like Phillips 66 and the US EPA are settling a criminal case after P66 intentionally dumped 790,000 gallons of oil and wastewater into LA's sewer system. Filing uploaded today, the day after Christmas. No details on settlement yet.

Here's a fascinating post-outage non-apology from Waymo.

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

CBS News correspondent accuses Bari Weiss of 'political' move in pulling '60 Minutes' piece

it is almost Christmas which means it’s Muppet Christmas Carol season and that, in turn, means it is time to revisit this delightful interview with Michael Caine, who loves everything about that movie even more than you do

NEW: Climate change is worsening California’s suffocating living costs I spoke with a woman made homeless by the Eaton Fire, & folks at a food pantry beaten down by high prices Amid converging crises some want energy companies to foot a chunk of the climate bill capitalandmain.com/the-poor-are...

Please donate to @capitalandmain.bsky.social! This quality of reporting without any paywall is truly a bargain, and depends on support from readers: bsky.app/profile/capi...

Once a pariah, Saudi Arabia is now Hollywood's hot cash source

🎙️ON AIR: We're talking to @wired.com's @mollytaft.com and @capitalandmain.bsky.social's @aaroncantu.bsky.social about what data center growth means for the environment — and for ratepayers — and how we're responding. ❓Have you been impacted by data center growth? What are your concerns? 📻 Listen:

NEW STORY: Three nursing home residents died because employees of UnitedHealth Group helped delay or deny them critical hospital care, 2 pending lawsuits and a complaint to state authorities have alleged 🧵 on our 6,000 word story below: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

🚨New from the @nytimes.com, with research from @fieldnotes.co: Energy Transfer is using an astroturf group run by a powerful DC shadow lobbying firm to block a first-of-its-kind countersuit in the Netherlands. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/c...

Most podcasters aren’t guided by accountability but attention and access. That’s why politicians go there instead of press www.latimes.com/california/s...

Great article by Gaige on the impacts of LNG export facilities on local communities. The tax breaks are stunning in their scale as these communities deal with poverty and job loss. “For all the money that is spent on [tax breaks], why is downtown looking like this? This is the heart of the city"

Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.

⚡️NEW from Drop Site: Garbage Is Poisoning Gaza Wtith Israel controlling all of Gaza’s major landfill areas, 900,000 tons of solid waste have been dumped across the enclave, exacerbating a public health crisis. Story by Abd Sabbah & Sharif Kouddous www.dropsitenews.com/p/garbage-po...

“It’s not totally out of the realm of possibilities that this idea was planted or floated by whoever this confidential human source might be.”

Capital & Main’s findings are based on data collected by testers hired by the news organization to pose as Section 8 voucher holders. Jamison buildings were the only ones where leasing agents said they could not rent to Section 8 tenants. capitalandmain.com/this-big-l-a...

Capital & Main's multi-part series, Locked Out, investigates how major landlords exclude section 8 tenants. The yearlong investigation found that some of L.A.'s largest rental property owners skirted anti-discrimination laws. capitalandmain.com/how-some-of-...

This construction, “it’s not x, it’s y,” is generally a poor way of achieving emphasis and we should all agree to never write it again and cede it to the bots. bsky.app/profile/aaro...

The European Union is planning to ditch a controversial ban on combustion engine cars and more on today's Green Daily

Interesting things about this case: - attribution science showing climate change supercharged Odette - research estimating costs associated with that super-charging - ICJ ruling tested in court - Seeking damages for past not future events drilled.media/news/odette-... by @roycerk2.bsky.social

An important legal victory. If DOE is going to appoint a group of contrarian scientists to assist in efforts to repeal the Endangerment Finding, they must show their work to the public: www.eenews.net/articles/jud...

Copy editors are important

New: here's how a U.S. citizen was scanned with ICE's facial recognition tech. Jesus Gutiérrez was stopped in Chicago by agents, he said he was a citizen. Still detained, put in a car. Only after they scanned his face did they let him go. From 404 Media and Reveal: www.404media.co/how-a-us-cit...

Seeing There Will be Blood as a college freshman. It was the only thing playing at the time and I’d never heard of it. Theater was full so sat on the floor near the entrance. Ended up utterly blown away bsky.app/profile/dave...

Slop-writing apparent in their damage control statement: “This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.” www.latimes.com/business/sto...

🚨Pam Bondi just ordered the FBI to compile a list of American "extremists" and to establish a bounty fund to reward tipsters, per DOJ memo leaked to me: www.kenklippenstein.com/p/leak-fbi-l...

Clearly @propublica.org should just hire Nicole bsky.app/profile/nico...

Google AI racism

AI is the economy and incels are the culture. bsky.app/profile/lbyo...

By @ninalakhani.bsky.social and me: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I wrote up some tips for reporting on orphaned, abandoned and inactive wells for @sejorg.bsky.social. Honestly a very fun beat if you like mysteries! www.sej.org/publications...

#GivingNewsDay is an opportunity to boost your impact and support paywall-free journalism: If we reach 100 new donors by Dec 31, we’ll receive extra funding through a generous NewsMatch contribution. Can you help us reach our goal today by giving $1 or more? secure.qgiv.com/for/capitala...

“Can you trust them to report this honestly?” Steve Castleman, supervising attorney of Berkeley Law’s Environmental Law Clinic, spoke to @theguardian.com about potentially dangerous levels of airborne plutonium in San Francisco https://bit.ly/48skgCO #BerkeleyLaw

My younger cousin has started a business that converts your old VHS tapes (like family home videos) into digital format. Really cool idea! www.thirdcoastvcr.com

Big change: FDA to impose strict new vaccine requirements under RFK Jr ally Vinay Prasad signaled changes to annual flu shots, concurrent vaccines + more Prasad said his team found link between covid-19 shots and kids' deaths, necessitating a new approach overall with @rachelroubein.bsky.social