📰 As today’s email indicated, we’re at 66% of our $50,000 year-end goal. We have two days to go. Let's see where we end up.

always honored when @lexroman.com includes @51st.news in a roundup of theirs!

In Mount Pleasant, a tight-knit D.C. neighborhood where immigrants are deeply embedded into the social fabric, the Trump administration’s targeting of migrants has shaken the community. This poignant story about the impact from @samdelgado.bsky.social was one of our team's favorites this year.

All gifts and memberships to The 51st are: ✅ Tax deductible ✌️ Doubled through the end of the year, thanks to Newsmatch 🗞️ Directly funding local, worker-led news in D.C. Become a member today: 51st.news/signup

If you live in or near Spokane — I can’t overstate how wonderful @rangemedia.co is. Worked owned local news doing vital work! Look at this holiday gift: rangemedia.co/public-flock...

Our executive editor @christurdisani.bsky.social wrote for @ampress.bsky.social about our expanding Community Connectors project: Working with people who genuinely connect with D.C. natives and Ward 7 residents, "the program bridges our news outlet and the communities we’re trying to reach."

"Wherever the agents appear, even when they lean idly, chatting, we see the cold threat of violence and the fragility of freedom. And in the brave crowds who gather to confront them, scrambling their illusion of total control, we see the power of solidarity..." hammerandhope.org/article/ice-...

If you haven't subscribed to @51st.news, what are you waiting for? 51st.news/membership/?...

tragically your social media team (it's just me) forgot to attach the photos of Jeff W. and the heroic email he sent to his friends.... plz like and share! Take Jeff’s advice: www.51st.news/signup

In some ways shit like this is convenient. When someone tells you who they are, LISTEN.

SCOOP: Grazi Chiosque works for the Social Security Administration. Her wife is in immigration detention. They’re three months into an insane battle in which one DHS agency is bouncing them back and forth to the other, but nobody appears to be trying to help. www.advocate.com/news/married...

I continue to believe that in the current context zines are an important modality for exchanging and distributing information.

i want this! and want to grow the ‘important journalism ➡️ distributed via beautiful zine’ pipline

tapping the "please support billionaire free, worker run, reader supported news" holiday edition

Sometimes journalism can feel like an impossibility in 2025. Especially journalism that holds power accountable, that fights against elite interests. Fascist governments seek to silence us, whether by bullying, censorship and intimidation or more directly bombs and bullets.

📬 This week's newsletter: 🍻 Three beers for journalism 🗳️ Bowser’s big announcement 🛍️ A "procott," 🚼 An incoming childcare cliff Get the next edition in your inbox: www.51st.news/signup

Life expectancy in DC can vary by as much as a decade depending on the ward you live in. I’m honored to be a fellow at @mhhjcenter.bsky.social this year, which is supporting us in launching a health equity beat, where we’ll dig in to the city’s health issues. www.mhhj.org/networks-fel...

Proud to experiment with this approach to year end fundraising—everyone no matter their $ realities can help us reach this goal ❤️‍🔥

The value of reading history is you know that in 1860 there were abolitionists who were so demoralized that they thought chattel slavery would be permanent. 5 years later those still alive had lived to see its end.

Today, DC took a huge step toward combating poverty across the District.   We just passed an amendment that will deliver real cash relief to working families through the EITC and Child Tax Credit — two of our most powerful tools to lift families out of poverty.

⚠️PAYWALL DROP ALERT⚠️ As we all watch New Yorkers vote, why not read @katelynburns.com's case for shortening the election cycle? Free to read today only!

feeling emotional and delighted watching the @hellgatenyc.com election results live stream — also enjoying the commercials so so much leave it to worker owned news ~ opening up realities never before imagined

just a reminder you can watch the nyc election results from a WORKER OWNED NEWSROOM !!!

Not even close to joking when I say this is the absolute highlight of my 20+ year career in journalism. I'm so gd proud. I'm so gd proud of our cofounders, and I'm so gd proud of our Flytrap community. Today, in this moment, we needed good news and good journalism more than ever and we're doing it.

Absolutely amazing: they've got so much solar in Australia that they need more people to use more of it, so the gov't has instructed energy retailers to offer *at least three hours of free power* during the middle of the day. Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...

if there was a rich person with the will, you could build the most incredible news organization that has ever existed just from the wreckage of this year alone.

good time to respectfully tap the "please support worker-led, billionaire-free, independent news" sign

From the union statement in the story below:

Three cheers for @theflytrapmedia.com and for the rise of writer collectives!!

People fucking hate this guy. They fucking hate ICE. They fucking hate how much power he has. He is at 63% overall disapproval to 37% approval. That's lower than their poll after January 6th. And this poll was done before he started intentionally starving people. I wish our media would reflect this.

IRS agents. what's going on in DC is truly shameless

"The newly launched DC Resource Bridge (DCRB)...connects eligible D.C. residents to free or low-cost legal services to help with family law cases, issues with public benefits, financial issues, and cases in the D.C. Court of Appeals" @streetsensedc.bsky.social streetsensemedia.org/article/a-ne...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

"You don't choose the times you live in, but you do choose who you want to be, and you do choose how you want to think." – Grace Lee Boggs

For those asking how to support, here’s how: www.greenbootsgardens.com/get-involved

🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 more worker-led 🕯 🕯 newsrooms 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯

We may be D.C.’s first worker-led nonprofit newsroom. But we’re part of a larger system of cooperative organizations working to build a better world. Last week, one of our co-founders spoke at a gathering of these businesses, from credit unions to neighborhood grocers. What she's bringing back:

“We can’t afford to act like this is a normal moment” Support your local journalist-owned media, and worker-owned businesses

By the letter of the law, the D.C. Council shouldn't have been able to to discuss an issue behind closed doors that was on their public agenda that day. But earlier this year, they created a loophole. What happened this week, and why does it matter? @maustermuhle.bsky.social reports:

For 1,250 days, Alan has given out free water at a busy Brightwood intersection. He calls it Alan's Oasis — and his constant presence has built a community that stood up for him recently when he seemed to be facing eviction.

The D.C. Council is considering a bottle-deposit bill, touting it as a boon for recycling and a solution for litter that pollutes the Anacostia River. Local brewers say it could threaten the survival of businesses already operating on slim margins, @maustermuhle.bsky.social reports.

When people in the highest levels of our government are leaning on narratives about D.C. that we know aren’t true — but could influence our political future, our independent journalism is even more vital. Will you support it? 51st.news/signup

my library card just expired, what a way to realized i’ve spent over a decade in DC!! 🥲

Put your $ where your values are, help our worker-led, independent newsroom reach 551 new members by the end of October! ➡️ 51st.news/signup

Guys @51st.news is one year old 🥲 What a bright thing during a dark time. "Being an independent news source, able to cover this historic moment — free from billionaire owner meddling — has been vital. We’re only beholden to readers like you." @christurdisani.bsky.social 51st.news/one-year-of-...

once again encouraging you all to support billionaire-free, worker-run, reader supported, and/or independent local news when and how you're able

pictured here: "stupid 90 year old white hippies"?

Martin’s hard at work today reporting on the council’s second budget vote — happening now! Help us reach $50,000 by tonight (only a little more than $6k away!) to ensure we can hire Martin full-time, and continue delivering you this unbeatable budget coverage. givebutter.com/SsQ8CG

Five years ago, D.C. sued ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP over allegations that the companies lied about their impact on climate change. Now congressional Republicans are using a budget bill to sneakily upend the lawsuit: 51st.news/dc-lawsuit-o...