I dug into the transit tax proposal that Pima County residents can vote on in the next month, and how to weigh your vote depending on what transit future you're looking for: azluminaria.org/2026/02/13/r...

My colleague @shannonconner.bsky.social has been at the forefront of breaking some of the biggest stories in education in southern AZ lately. Her latest is about parents lawsuit over a plan to move Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind out of Tucson azluminaria.org/2026/02/03/a...

My time with The Washington Post is up. I was laid off with hundreds of folks I am so honored to call my colleagues. I covered it all at The Post (really), so now I'm looking for my next adventure. ➡️ kbellware [at] gmail dot com Website update coming soon @postguild.bsky.social forever

404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for the Palantir-made tool called ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address. www.404media.co/here-is-the-...

Since last year, we’ve been reporting on ICE extensively. But every week brings new information, and it’s getting harder to keep track of what’s happening, let alone remember what’s already happened. So here’s a quick thread to help.

The adults in the family stopped going to work. Volunteers now drop off groceries. The only members of the household who go outside are nephews and nieces who catch the bus to school. However, they struggle to concentrate in class, worrying that ICE might return while they're gone.

“We had to deliver them to a detention center,” principal Jason Kuhlman said about the second grader and fifth grader.

Yesenia had walked thousands of miles through the Darién Gap and through Mexico to get a modicum of safety and security for her children in Tucson. Then a traffic stop destroyed it all @jwashing.bsky.social follows the story of one family after deportation azluminaria.org/a-long-way-h...

One human rights observer in Maine said agents followed her home, blocked off her street, and came to her door to say they know where she lives. Her children are now staying elsewhere, to keep them safe.

I've seen a lot of upsetting images in the past .. well, I guess years, but this one from Richard Tsong-Taatarii is immediately burned into my memory. Here's the photojournalist's insta if you want to follow him. www.instagram.com/rtsongphoto/...

I recently met a widowed 71-year-old woman still working two jobs and living at an extended-stay hotel because even two jobs don't pay her enough to afford rent. This is what "one more year of work" looks like in America.

Willian Giménez González, Chicago day laborer and beloved worker leader in Chicago, has been released from ICE custody. I spoke to him about his 47-day detention, and what solidarity looks like in this moment. "I owe my freedom to being organized," he says.

We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.

One of my biggest takeaways from reporting this story was how much media reports in the aftermath of police shootings, in particular with the police union spokesperson putting forward a narrative of an incident, were then used as key pieces of evidence for a future investigation.

lots of cop hagiography today, while this is also a big part of the story of police and J6:

Police officers move to new departments all the time. What is the responsibility of local agencies to make sure they're not hiring officers accused of misconduct? @samstecklow.bsky.social and I look at the hiring of one officer in Phoenix www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix...

In the first of three stories, @yanak.bsky.social and I report on how self-imposed pressures on the Phoenix PD pushed officials to hire increasing amounts of "lateral transfer" officers from other departments — or other states. @invisible.institute + @theappeal.org + @phoenixnewtimes.com

I don’t ever want to hear anyone say “the raids aren't as bad.” this is the last 2 days. lataco.com/daily-memo-d...

Nearly a quarter of HIV-related deaths in Maricopa County involved people who were housing insecure, a @lookoutnews.bsky.social investigation of medical examiner data found www.lookoutnews.org/lookout-repo...

The number of children in Nevada taken from their families due to housing has been rising since eviction moratoria and pandemic supports went away nevadacurrent.com/2025/12/03/h...

@nodesertdatacenter.com has been one of the most energetic and fast-growing organizing efforts I've covered - this summer it was a loose group of people opposed to a water-heavy development, and its closing out 2025 as a national model for fighting data centers azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/t...

Nearly 1400 people have been ordered into Pima County’s Restoration to Competency program to see if they can stand trial That can mean more than a year in jail, waiting. My colleague @jwashing.bsky.social writes about when jail becomes a mental health facility azluminaria.org/2025/11/24/w...

Today, Tucson City Council is discussing a proposed ordinance that would create a new offense of "drug-related loitering". Indications that could trigger an arrest for this include officer knowledge of a prior drug conviction, or the so-called "fent fold." tucsonaz.hylandcloud.com/221agendaonl...

A new ordinance under consideration in Tucson would allow police to arrest people who raise a “reasonable suspicion that they are about to engage” in public drug use azluminaria.org/2025/11/18/a...

NEW: a contractor is paying random people $300 to physically track immigrants for ICE. They're given addresses, vehicles, told to monitor the target. That information then goes back up to ICE. These are not licensed private investigators; members of the public www.404media.co/contractor-p...

Rest in power to Sister JoAnn Persch - I met her at the Broadview detention center circa 2010-ish, where she was among a group that lay down in front of a deportation bus blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/18/s...

Wrote about the contentious Project Blue — a massive proposed data center in Tucson AZ — for my first feature with @theguardian.com! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Nice to see homies at national outlets running full features on this story. Homies at local indie nonprofit outlet @azluminaria.org have been keeping a steady vigilance on this story, which has led to greater community engagement, which led to greater national significance. A virtuous news cycle.

Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador. Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

The non-disclosure agreement also says the county will not share the name of the final user for Project Blue with county personnel unless it is legally obligated.

From a mother evicted and grieving her brother, to a woman rotating between shelters and her car, to families in a mobile home park with failing power — Tucson residents show what it takes to survive in extreme heat

The latest on efforts to build a data center in the Sonoran Desert:

Pima County's jail healthcare provider has been in consistent violation of certain performance indicators over the past year, @jwashing.bsky.social reports azluminaria.org/2025/09/11/s...

While President Trump calls opposition to the Resolution Copper mine that would destroy a sacred site for Western Apache people “anti-American,” I have the actual details on what’s happening and why the mine is so controversial. insideclimatenews.org/news/1908202...

Immigration enforcement in America's second largest city: "The masked agents pull up quickly. They jump out of unmarked vans or trucks. They wear blue jeans or battle fatigues. They approach Latino men, at times yelling and carrying assault rifles." calmatters.org/investigatio...

AI-processing data centers require massive amounts of energy and water, and relatively low power prices, state tax incentives, and lax regulations are attracting them to the West, threatening water supplies and straining the grid.

Local reporting uncovered Amazon was behind the water-guzzling data center slated for the desert. Residents fought against the data center. Today, the city council unanimously voted against Project Blue. If you care about local journalism that drives impact, consider donating to @azluminaria.org!

Responding to vehement opposition and public service journalism, Tucson's mayor/council unanimously vote to reject a mega data center project from Amazon. Tucson ain't Eddington. Read @yanak.bsky.social‬'s latest from city hall. azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/t...

The Tucson city council unanimously rejected the Project Blue data center today. That comes after weeks of dogged organizing plus our little team @azluminaria.org going hard on helping Tucson understand who was behind this project and its impact on our community azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/t...

My latest on Project Blue: The mega data center has more site options and will be built “regardless of what the City of Tucson decides,” said one council member Tuesday azluminaria.org/2025/08/05/t...

The Trump administration is using federal jails and facilities as well as reopening shuttered facilities to detain a historic number of immigrants, the Marshall Project team reports www.themarshallproject.org/2025/08/01/t...

The Trump administration’s deportation machine has made women invisible targets. If you’ve ever wondered, like me, what happens to all the women ICE detains:

NEW: I spoke with a woman named Andrea about her experience being detained by ICE after calling the cops for help during a domestic violence incident. She was recently postpartum, breastfeeding & put in an all-male facility. She was detained for 2.5 months.

More on Tucson's Project Blue, the Amazon data center project cloaked in secrecy for years. @yanak.bsky.social and I pieced together more of the timeline, finding that City of Tucson officials moved to annex the land BEFORE the first public hearing on the project. azluminaria.org/2025/07/28/c...

Averaged out, a journalist has been killed every 3 days since the conflict began.

Nearly 70% of mobile home parks running their own water systems violated safe drinking water rules in the past five years apnews.com/article/mobi...

So important to remember when writing about homelessness: In no state today can a minimum-wage worker afford a two-bedroom apartment. thebaffler.com/latest/invis...

For much of this summer, a public process to bring a massive data center to Tucson moved ahead w/o revealing the company behind the center Now, through public records, we can share that the company is Amazon Web Services by @jwashing.bsky.social and I azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/a...