“It’s like we’re seedling plants & now they’ve plowed the field & said it’s not going to happen.” The USDA has slashed a $300 million grant program designed to help underserved farmers access land, capital & training, putting roughly 50 projects at risk of collapse, Kat Grimmett reports.

“Co-workers wouldn’t eat with him. They would say, ‘You are impure, untouchable.’” NY bill confronts caste discrimination at work & in public institutions, reports @yashicadutt.bsky.social. South Asian New Yorkers spoke of losing jobs or being turned away from places of worship because of caste.

There is ‼️ONE WEEK LEFT‼️ to apply for this summer's RJP session on movement journalism for immigration justice! Join us for four weeks of award-winning training from reporters, editors, and publishers using journalism as a tool for liberation ⤵️ prismreports.org/reflective-j...

GOOD NEWS: The drilling operation plan has been officially withdrawn. What a great win for the Pe' Sla Protectors!

What does it mean to be a mother in prison? It can mean heartache, regret, and painful silence. It can also mean community. For @solitarywatch.bsky.social, @prismreports.org, and @themarshallproject.org, Kwaneta reflects on Mother's Day:

“Thousands of people were arrested, including students & faculty. There were images of snipers on rooftops at universities.” Macy Hanzlik-Barend & @meghnadbose.bsky.social consider why the protests against the war on Iran have been relatively muted in the U.S., given its historic unpopularity.

“Tonight, if your child is within reach of your arms, hold them. Hold them if you understand that somewhere, a mother is sitting with the memory of plexiglass between her hand & her child’s hand & a phone pressed to her ear, listening to a voice she will never hear again,” writes Kwaneta Harris.

Read @nikkivinck.bsky.social's latest piece with @prismreports.org on the latest attack on medication abortion. "Even after Roe was overturned, anti-abortion extremists have continued their relentless crusade to further ban abortion nationwide.” prismreports.org/2026/05/04/m...

Florida uses public universities to build conservative civics pipeline ahead of ‘America 250,’ Alexandra Martinez reports. Several civics centers opened in Florida’s public colleges as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s America 250 Civics Education Coalition to “renew patriotism.”

“They are doing absolutely everything they can to influence the midterm elections. This is a calculated attempt to disenfranchise Black & brown voters.” Last week, SCOTUS ruled that the law’s electoral protections cannot prevent the state from partisan gerrymandering, Biplob Kumar Das reports.

“On television, the politician does not so much offer the audience an image of himself, as offer himself as an image of the audience.” The nepo baby who failed up to lead the fifth-largest economy in the world may soon find himself overseeing the world’s last superpower, writes Avik Chatlani.

“Pe’ Sla is our sacred land & we are doing everything we can to protect it. We will not cease our ceremony in the face of destruction, disrespect & illegal drilling.” Indigenous groups escalate fight to block drilling near sacred Lakota site Pe’ Sla, @alexmar.bsky.social reports.

Prisons are deathmaking institutions, & solitary confinement is torture.

"Solitary confinement does not rehabilitate. It does not protect. What it does, with quiet efficiency, is remove every person who loves an incarcerated human being from their reach, & then, when that person dies, it turns to the mother & asks what she could have done differently." —Kwaneta Harris

As the CA Governor continues to tease a 2028 election run, Avik Jain Chatlani reflects that "sometimes, the empty suits who don’t believe in anything (except, perhaps, in the cost and cut of the suit) have the potential to be even more vicious than ideologues and demagogues."

One student in the Occidental College encampment last month was “definitely the first encampment that’s lasted 24+ hours since 2024,” @hurwitz.bsky.social reports. After universities & a hostile federal govt. have deployed massive resources to crush protests, students have not stopped organizing.

Alexandra Martinez reports that faculty critics, student organizers, and academic freedom advocates say the initiative is using the machinery of public higher education to normalize a right-wing version of U.S. history and political life.

“Their entire futures were being destroyed, and then people wonder why don’t you have the same response from students who are protesting,” historian Assal Rad said. Macy Hanzlik-Barend and @meghnadbose.bsky.social report: https://prismreports.org/2026/05/06/iran-war-college-protests-palestine/

As prison telecom providers push for favorable FCC regulations & funnel a minuscule portion of their billions in revenues into charities, incarcerated people are paying the price, Tatiana Walk-Morris reports. “I’m sure, in all honesty, that doing that is for them simply a tax write-off.”

For @prismreports.org, I wrote about prison telecom companies donating to nonprofits, particularly charities focused on at-risk youth and communities impacted by incarceration. prismreports.org/2026/05/05/v...

Upon learning that Aventiv donates to nonprofits, incarcerated author & activist Patricia Trimble questioned the company’s motives: “I’m sure, in all honesty, that doing that is for them simply a tax write-off... I’m positive they’re not just doing it out of the kindness of their heart.”

Pe' Sla defenders were able to get a two-week reprieve from pending imperial attacks:

In a sweeping judgment on April 29, the court concluded that Louisiana's current electoral map was unconstitutional and that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act cannot prevent the state from partisan gerrymandering. Biplob Kumar Das spoke with voting advocates about what comes next:

UPDATE: Today a federal court granted a temporary restraining order halting the drilling. The full case will be argued later this month, says @ndncollective.bsky.social president Wizipan Garriott, and "this is the first big step in this fight to protect Pe’ Sla & clean drinking water for all.”

Last year, 91,000+ people used telehealth to access mifepristone by mail—care that was paused after a May 1 lower court ruling following a lawsuit brought by Louisiana. Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, an OB/GYN physician's assistant, says the ruling was ideological; it had nothing to do with safety.

Community members held a ceremony at two drill pads near Pe’ Sla on April 30 in direct action against exploratory drilling that has started close to the sacred Lakota site in the Black Hills around South Dakota. @alexmar.bsky.social reports:

The Supreme Court just *temporarily* restored access to mifepristone after a federal appeals court blocked clinicians from prescribing abortion medication by telehealth/mail. But access to this medication shouldn't be threatened by ideological courts in the first place, writes Nicki Sapiro Vinckier:

“Thank you for being part of this journey with me. I cannot wait to make you proud.” Prism is proud to celebrate columnist Derek R. Trumbo, Sr., recipient of the Writing Freedom Fellowship. In “One bite at a time,” Derek writes about what this validation means for a writer who was once behind bars.

“By controlling the media we have access to, the state can manage how the oppressed understand their oppression.” In Texas prisons, survivors are force-fed a steady diet of Fox News & content from white Christian nationalists, shaping how they understand power & violence, writes Kwaneta Harris.

“It’s just absolutely disgusting that money is more important than human life.” Trump’s EPA moves toward deregulating a cancer-causing gas, ethylene oxide, ray levy uyeda reports. Communities will have to take measures into their own hands as the EPA ruled it will no longer consider public health.

The Austin Police Department updated guidelines last week to require officers to call immigration officials when people have ICE warrants, Fatima Khan reports. The move comes months after the ICE arrest of a mother & her child after she called police for help dealing with a friend’s alleged abuser.

We will not beat back repressive power with a bunch of fragmented “leftists,” writes William C. Anderson in “Another way out.” Instead, we can look to what political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz called “the mosaic” to break free from orthodoxy & bring our politics to life.

“What we’ve seen over the last decade … is an increasingly privatized immigration enforcement controlled by a web of contractors who have made themselves indispensable.” DHS is buying access to real-time location data—expanding its “invasive” surveillance tech, @mauriziogro.bsky.social reports.

Earlier this week, HUD aims to roll back landmark civil rights protections for trans people in federally funded housing & shelters. A proposed HUD rule would remove references to gender & replace them with “sex” & allow facilities to confirm people’s sex, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.

Trump’s plan to reopen Alcatraz prison is inhumane & a waste of money, activists say. Indigenous peoples say Alcatraz Island is a sacred space & symbol of Indigenous resistance, while abolitionists say the money to rebuild the prison should go toward the community, @vevalenz.bsky.social reports.

“Becoming a Writing Freedom fellow is more than just a blessing,” writes Derek R. Trumbo, Sr. ”It is a reminder that my life matters & that the stories we write from prison can be a balm for others.” 💫Prism is honored to celebrate this major victory with Derek & be a home for his work.

“In the past, to get location data, law enforcement had to use a warrant approved by a judge,” @mariotrujillo.bsky.social told @prismreports.org. “Without that judicial oversight, these kinds of tools can be abused. People can be tracked for any reason or no reason.”prismreports.org/2026/04/29/...

“I am a survivor incarcerated in Texas, where the television you have access to in state prisons is not determined by your curiosity, your education, or your hunger to understand the world,” writes Kwaneta Harris. “It is determined by your security classification.”

DHS is buying access to real-time location data—the latest expansion of its “invasive” surveillance technology, @mauriziogro.bsky.social reports. The new $2.9 million contract with Penlink PLX allows Trump’s Homeland Security Task Force to track people’s movements.

Trump’s EPA moves toward deregulating a cancer-causing gas, ray levy uyeda reports. A Biden-era rule would have eliminated 90% of ethylene oxide emissions, reducing risk of cancer exposure, but the EPA said it will no longer consider public health. May 1 is the final day to provide comments.

BREAKING: In Louisiana v. Callais, SCOTUS ruled against a new voting map that added a second majority-Black district to fix past discrimination. Now, Louisiana & other states will be able to draw districts that completely disenfranchise Black communities. Read Matt Olszewski's past reporting⤵️

For a year, mothers incarcerated in Florida prisons are allowed to pump & freeze their breast milk, which approved relatives, family members & guardians of the infants can then pick up at regularly scheduled visitation sessions. Congratulations to Catherine LaFleur for this award-winning reporting!

💌 Applications are open for @prismreports.org's Reflective Journalism Project: ICE Melts in Summer 💌 prismreports.org/reflective-j...

A mother & her child were deported after she called Austin police for help. A Prism analysis shows that last year, the Austin Police Department collaborated with ICE at least 37 times, Fatima Khan reports. “A family has been torn apart because of the police’s cooperation with ICE.”

Coming this June: ICE Melts in Summer! 💌 Applications are OPEN for the latest cohort of Prism's Reflective Journalism Project, where you can learn from journalists who’ve reported from the front lines of immigrant justice movements & editors who have built movement-aligned media organizations.

We need a mosaic movement, not fragmented ‘leftism,’ writes columnist @williamcson.bsky.social. Instead of a call for resentment-filled “unity” or traditional fronts, we can look to what former Panther, Black Liberation Army member & political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz called “the mosaic.”

"We don’t have an oppositional or even functional left. We have “leftists” and “leftism,” and there’s a difference.” @williamcson.bsky.social for @prismreports.org prismreports.org/2026/04/28/l...

Former Panther, BLA member, and political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz described “the mosaic” as a model of what’s possible. It helps us see beyond the posturing and corniness that pervades US left sects, which remain stuck. Here's my latest for @prismreports.org. prismreports.org/2026/04/28/l...

“Palestinians know better than to take such promises at face value from the U.S., which has armed, funded & politically shielded Israel’s destruction of Gaza.” Trump’s ill-named ‘Board of Peace’ plan treats the Strip as a blank canvas for real estate, reports Ahmad Abushawish.

Today, the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development unveiled plans to roll back protections for trans people in federally funded housing, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports. The proposal is the latest in Trump's yearslong crusade to undermine queer & trans people’s access to fair housing.