Read the full email Sharyn Alfonsi sent her team about CBS pulling their segment on the Trump admin’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants

Selena Simmons-Duffin at NPR broke the news about the trans kids’ health care ban, and now she’s following up. Note that she actually talks to doctors and trans kids, not just politicians. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

NPR talked to and quoted a transgender teen whose treatment is threatened. Did your news organization? www.npr.org/sections/sho...

If you’re concerned about the new HHS rulings on trans care, my daughter @selenasd.com breaks it down on the PBS Newshour www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Scoop by me: "During the federal shutdown, the current leadership of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health changed Admiral Levine's photo to remove her current legal name and use a prior name.” www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Pretty crazy to stumble on this @nytimes.com Editorial Board piece from 2015: "Being transgender today remains unreasonably and unnecessarily hard. But it is far from hopeless." www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/o...

GREAT JOB ALERT! ProPublica is hiring another senior editor for our Local Reporting Network. The editor will edit the work of 4-5 reporters from our partner newsrooms, collaborating on projects that spur change. 💰 Salary range: $150,000 to $195,000 ➡️ Apply: propub.li/3JAIqme

New: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

When science is understandable, we all win. I've started a national petition calling on all institutions of higher education, and their accreditors, to require science communication and public engagement training for all STEM degrees. Share and sign today, it only takes a few seconds: bit.ly/3LbnfHB

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

My colleague says his heart sank as he got a glimpse of the devastation in Gaza. Must listen: www.npr.org/2025/11/05/n...

After a whooping cough outbreak killed two babies, Louisiana health officials appear to have deviated from the typical playbook for public health, waiting two months to warn the public. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Thank you @selenasd.com ! Your coverage is so important!

I keep seeing people say, oh, trans people must take a hit for the greater good and, first of all, no, you don't get to discard someone else's rights and second, we know from past experience that marginalized communities like theirs are merely the first to be targeted. They'll come for you next.

Exclusive from @npr.org: the Department of Health and Human Services plans to introduce a rule in early November eliminating Medicare & Medicaid funding of any kind for any hospital that offers care for transgender youth. This would make care nearly impossible to access. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Trump’s proposed national ban on gender-affirming care for trans youths “could open the door for any White House to withhold all federal funding from hospitals over the provision of medical care that it disfavors.” Will abortion, birth control, vaccines, Tylenol be next? www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Reporters (one of whom is my daughter) were ousted from covering immigration court hearings. Trump regime using shutdown to impinge on free press and coverage of their actions. @hcrichardson.bsky.social cnsmaryland.org/2025/10/28/l...

New from me: After a whooping cough outbreak killed two infants, Louisiana health officials waited months to officially alert physicians or do public outreach. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

I’m reporting on the RIFs at HHS Office of Population Affairs. If you have info for me please get in touch on Signal @selena.02

If 982 is the total number at HHS staff who were supposed to be fired, it seems the bulk of those laid off are at @CDCgov. HHS can you provide a breakdown by agency? 3/3

I’m going to post one here that just happened that is so upsetting.

This is a remarkable statistic: 18.7 million out of the 24.3 million Obamacare enrollees are in states won by President Trump in 2024. www.kff.org/quick-take/m...

Thank you for your support!

Wow

Our senior producer @emilypisacreta.bsky.social spoke with @selenasd.com on @npr.org’s morning edition about the Obamacare rate hikes she’ll face if expanded ACA premium tax credits expire: Https://www.npr.org/2025/09/25/nx-s1-5552639/shutdown-nears-as-democrats-fight-to-extend-aca-tax-credits

Trump’s directives on Tylenol on Monday, compared with communications from the FDA: www.cnn.com/2025/09/24/h...

"In the name of 'fighting antisemitism', the Trump administration is publicly making an example out of arguably the most famous Jewish public intellectual in the country today."

Wrote about The Heritage Foundation's plan to weaponize the FBI against transgender people's existence, which includes banning me from saying that's what they're doing

Rolling the dice on a vaccine preventable illness is never the better option. Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a rare and fatal complication of measles that can occur several years after the original infection. This is sad, this is avoidable. Vaccinate kids! www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

It Only Tuesday https://theonion.com/it-only-tuesday-1819569397/

WOW great work by these student journalists.

Happy 71st Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.

We recently wrote a guide for Marketplace enrollees on price hikes they should expect come November if federal subsidies expire. @npr.org spoke with one enrollee who estimates that if the subsidies expire, her monthly costs will skyrocket from $479 to $2,800. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

There have been a ton of 20th anniversary "best of" podcast lists lately, and it has started to feel a bit like an obituary for an industry. [gift link] defector.com/the-future-o...

Four journalists were killed by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital today, including Mariam Dagga, a freelancer with the @apnews.com. She has a 12-year-old son, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war. She was a true hero, like all of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza. tinyurl.com/3cn5c9vb

At least 192 journalists killed in Gaza in the 22-month conflict, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Comparatively, 18 journalists have been killed so far in Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to the CPJ. apnews.com/article/mide...

NEW: For years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed discredited theories linking vaccines to autism. Now, scientists studying the condition fear he has preconceived notions that will harm the field and taint new funding for research. propub.li/41JYl7o

Federal immigration authorities detained a woman seeking medical care at the National Institutes of Health’s flagship research hospital after the patient presented a non-real ID while passing security.

NEW from me and @brianmannadk.bsky.social: The CDC will be able to fully fund the Overdose Data to Action or OD2A program ahead of a key budget deadline. CDC staff say this appears to be good news, although the funding situation is still fluid and confusing. www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Do you live in DC? Then you want @maustermuhle.bsky.social covering local government for you. Let’s make it happen @51st.news givebutter.com/SsQ8CG

A Republican-backed spending bill would allow the hiring of political appointees to state elections administrations staff. www.wunc.org/politics/202...

Just read the Brown University agreement and this really jumped out. "The University will not perform gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to any minor child for the purpose of aligning the child's appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex."

By a vote of 52-47, the #Senate invoked cloture on the nomination of Susan Monarez to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Party line vote with Senator Justice not voting.

Public media has been defunded. Your support keeps journalists on the ground, lifts unheard voices, and connects communities. Help us plan for what’s next. Make a monthly gift today. Stand with public media: n.pr/458sOhq

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Half a dozen gender care providers in blue states have announced in the last week or so they are shuttering their programs. I'm hoping to talk to families who uprooted their lives and moved to one of these states for care and now face losing it again. Happy to find ways to protect your identity!

“ACA health insurance will cost the average person 75% more next year, research shows” “The average person who buys Affordable Care Act insurance will be paying 75% more for their premium, according to the analysis from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.”

As a longtime public health reporter covering the rise of anti-vaccine groups, I have seen them use personal stories to raise doubts about vaccines. Today I saw immunization advocates push back by highlighting the stories of the toll of vaccine-preventable illness. A thread: