Big win for local news: California commits $15 million in renewed funding for its Local News Fellowship Program. The funding will support new reporting and editor-level fellows, along with sustainability training. Learn more: journalism.berkeley.edu/15-million-t...

Today @rebuildlocalnews.bsky.social and @muckrack.com released a major new study on the number of local journalists per 100,000 people. The local news crisis is more severe and widespread than we thought.

Your Prime Day reminder that half of Amazon warehouse workers struggle with food & housing costs. A third have had to rely on government assistance like SNAP — which is about to get cut. If Bezos can spend $50M on a wedding, Amazon can afford to treat its workers with dignity.

care > punishment

I've obtained a trove of leaked documents about today's federal crackdown on Los Angeles' MacArthur Park. One revelation is its codename: "Operation Excalibur"

Just scrolled the court dockets to see if there was any new interesting filings for this evening’s talk. We’re gonna have to break some news at my panel, #ire25

Hello #IRE25! I'll be presenting tomorrow on a panel about localizing data for investigative reporting. @cephillips.bsky.social, Samantha Sunne and Nicole Lewis are all on the panel as well! Not to be missed. schedules.ire.org/ire-2025/ind...

Feeling very fortunate that I'll get to spend 9 months with these fabulous journalists.

Quite something.

This week we spoke with @conplnk.bsky.social & @johnmooneyirl.bsky.social on reporting on transnational organised crime and how they found a hidden side to one of Irelands most notorious cartel bosses. On podcast platforms search 'Stage Talks with Bellingcat' to listen back. rss.com/podcasts/bel...

Strong story ...

Trump vowed to use the DOJ to reward allies and seek retribution against perceived enemies. As interim U.S. attorney for D.C., Martin has dismissed all outstanding Jan. 6-related cases while firing more than a dozen prosecutors in his office.

Can Border Agents Search Your Electronic Devices? It’s Complicated. (Very short answer: Prepare your devices to be boarded) www.aclu.org/news/privacy...

Nonprofits known as 527s can raise unlimited sums for political spending. As a reminder, we've got a database that allows journalists, researchers and others to more easily search these organizations’ finances:

As major public flagship and private universities fall like dominoes to the current regime, bolstered by billions in endowments but no strong adherence to espoused principles, smaller schools such as LMU in Los Angeles have this to say:

Next up...Harvard... www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

I'll have an "ask me anything" (AMA)-style livestream this Wed, Apr 2nd, at 2pm Pacific Time! Join me then to ask whatever is on your mind in weather, climate, or wildfire realm. (I will also briefly discuss recent & upcoming CA weather.) #CAwater #CAWx youtube.com/live/edG...

Trump's comments imply he has no idea what is in the damning Signal text chain that was leaked to Jeffrey Goldberg. Trump says Pete Hegseth, who texted the attack plans, had "nothing to do" with it: "How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it." (He had everything to do with it.)

And it's only Wednesday ...

Yes.

Wesley Lowery exits Investigative Reporting Workshop and American University following student complaints. www.cjr.org/news/wesley-...

Playing with FOIA: Pushing back on DOGE’s lack of transparency, by @sarahgrevy.bsky.social of @towcenter.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...

A few words on journalism, risk and what I actually said.

“The ecosystem of research and the creation of new knowledge in universities has been so powerful for American prosperity, American freedom, American ingenuity. To have that disrupted by government overreach is a disaster for this country.” —Wesleyan University President Michael Roth on @msnbc.com

Materials on the Arlington National Cemetery website highlighting the graves of Black and female service members have vanished. The cemetery, which is operated by the Army, said it was working to restore the content. Among the obscured pages was material about civil rights.

Columbia University pushed out professor @katherinefranke.bsky.social because of her pro-Palestine advocacy. She joins @premthakker.bsky.social to discuss the systematic free speech crackdown at Columbia and across the US. Watch the full conversation: zeteo.com/p/columbia-t...

A few spots left! Women in Journalism Workshop is $75 for professionals, $50 for students. Includes 2 meals a day, a reception and other fun surprises! We learn data security, self-defense, leading change in your newsroom and more. bit.ly/wij25

🧵 This is a perfect example of what I've be describing as disordered discourse, and it's threat to democracy. Politicians are afraid to speak openly about key issues. Why? Because disordered discourse has captured the system itself—forcing obedience, punishing dissent, and making truth irrelevant.

🎓 Columbia University! @badiucao.bsky.social and I are looking forward to our YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION lunchtime talk this Tuesday, March 11th. Kind of the 🤨 right time to show up on campus to discuss resistance. 🔗 Registration required: bit.ly/columbia-revolution

This is a terrific opportunity to be part of leading Bellingcat's expansion in the U.S. I had the opportunity last fall to spend 2 days immersed in the Bellingcat global community of researchers & citizen journalists and it was incredibly inspiring. www.on-ramps.com/jobs/3408

Journalists, get training with IRE this spring. We have virtual events and in-person workshops coming up in Missouri, Utah, and of course, our data journalism conference in Minneapolis next week. Join us. www.ire.org/events/

american masculinity is so amazing. caring about clothes as a man apparently makes you "gay" but our position on geopolitics totally depends on whether you wear a suit

An annotated directory of how-to guides, exemplary journalism and policies — plus a cool online game rjionline.org/news/resourc...

U.S. journalists who are working on applications, the deadline clock is ticking — 1 pm PT tomorrow! We don't accept late applications.

Let me tell you a story – one of the more haunting I’ve seen in 20 years of journalism. It’s about greed, death and denial. It took two years to unravel one doctor’s myth, a hospital’s complicity in creating it, and a documented trail of suspicious deaths…🧵

Show us your best work of 2024! The IRE Awards are now open for submissions. The deadline to enter is Jan. 15. www.ire.org/awards/ire-a...

My new piece for the New York Times, where I make the case that we need a lot more education to deal with disinformation, not more censorship and fact checks www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/s...

Lol. One week after the Economist published this chart showing the dude can't stop tweeting in the middle of the night, Elon removes time stamps from tweets.

Join us Thursday at 10am EST/4pm CET as we speak to the @cornelluniversity.bsky.social team behind @caucasushw.bsky.social . With @godin.bsky.social we'll be unpacking how you might use open source tools to monitor and assess damage to cultural heritage during conflict. discord.gg/nCrVdaUA?eve...

I did a session for @icfjorg.bsky.social last month about how open source investigative techniques can aid reporters. ICFJ have very kindly produced a short write up and listed some useful tools ijnet.org/en/story/fun...

I'm not sure how much longer our Mississippi Free Press account will post to X, but for now it makes a good case study—and a good case for why other newsrooms shouldn't fear moving to BlueSky. Look at the difference in engagement for identical posts with the same links. Left: BlueSky, Right: X 🧵

A clear sense of what it values, and what it wants users to do with it, is a superpower for a platform. Grateful someone on the internet still values links and is backs that up with product decisions!

U.S. journalists: Here's your chance to learn about the JSK Journalism Fellowships & get your questions about the program & our selection process answered. Register to join us! Application deadline: Jan. 15. bit.ly/jsk-dec03

One week left, international journos! Still enough time to prepare a great application, if you start now.

Misinformation is a global crisis. Led by JSK alum Martina Guzmán, VERDAD (Verifying and Exposing Radio Disinformation and Discourse) helps fight back by monitoring Spanish-language radio for false and harmful narratives. rjionline.org/news/verdad-...

JSK alum Kristen Muller shares powerful insights on the future of journalism. From the importance of community connection to embracing an ecosystem approach, she lays out five thought-provoking observations that challenge us to rethink the media landscape.

it begins www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/u...

Important context about this platform. "They did care about their users. They just cared about other stuff, too, and, when push came to shove, they chose the worsening of their services as the lesser of two evils." pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/u...