Health811 is touted as a way to provide Ontarians with free, 24/7 health advice, writes @wencyleung.bsky.social. But data obtained by The Local shows wait times have risen dramatically since 2022, and it’s unclear where callers end up once they do speak with someone. thelocal.to/health811-te...

The fake AI journalists are only getting worse

Getting a mole checked can takes months, but Botox appointments are readily available. @rebeccaga0.bsky.social on why dermatologists say their practice is the canary in the coal mine for privatized care. thelocal.to/dermatology-...

Tuning into Olympics coverage takes me from “who is Hashimoto?” to, three minutes later: “wow, this really isn’t like Hashimoto.”

The tunnelling rate of a mole, Kardashian career-spans, Jamaican patties-per-capita—we had to pull out unorthodox units of measurement to understand the Eglinton Crosstown. Amazing art by the great @michaeldeforge.bsky.social. thelocal.to/understandin...

Ontario's corporate pharmacies, like Shoppers Drug Mart, have faced allegations of overworking their pharmacists and setting high targets for medically unnecessary tasks to bolster profits. The resulting burnout, @kunalchaudhary.bsky.social writes, is an impending crisis. thelocal.to/shoppers-dru...

We're thrilled to introduce Gabrielle McMann, our yearlong early career fellow in partnership with @thephilanthropist.ca! Over the course of this year, Gabrielle will be working together with the Local team, learning the craft of magazine-style community journalism. thelocal.to/gabrielle-mc...

You can see the exact moment in October 2024, as readership is headed for an upswing, when Bezos cans the Kamala endorsement and the Washington Post loses 10 percent of subscribers. The solution, of course, is to fire all the reporters. www.natesilver.net/p/the-sad-an...

I had a lot of questions about the millions of online pharmacy ads that have popped up in recent years, hawking hair loss treatment and ED medication and weight loss drugs. @royinori.bsky.social answered them! thelocal.to/online-pharm...

"It’s a certainty there will be active cancer somewhere in her body—in her brain, in her liver, in her bones—for the rest of her life, however long that may be." @wencyleung.bsky.social @thelocal.to thelocal.to/cost-of-canc...

I had fun talking about AI journalism and Victoria Goldiee on the kill switch podcast. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

So much going on, but make time for this piece by @wencyleung.bsky.social. A gorgeous, surprisingly uplifting story that tackles an enormous subject, really the biggest subject, and tells is with such careful intimacy. thelocal.to/cost-of-canc... #longreads

How many journalists did Jeff Bezos fire while paying $40 million for an authorized Melania documentary

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

There’s video floating around. You don’t want to watch it. News feed will be updated continuously. No paywall. www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...

When Gautham Krishnaraj first came to the pediatrics unit as an idealistic medical student, he was immediately confronted with a piece of hospital equipment he’d never expected to see—a credit card processor. thelocal.to/uninsured-bi...

In 2020, Ontario began pushing some of its publicly funded cataract surgeries into private, for-profit clinics. Why what happened next, writes @alisonmotluk.bsky.social, offers a window into the possible future of care in this province. thelocal.to/cataract-sur...

I'll be talking AI and journalism at this CJF online panel later today. Should be interesting!

Launching our "Cost of Care" issue @thelocal.to today, about the places where money and medicine collide. Here's @alisonmotluk.bsky.social writing the best, clearest thing I've seen on what a routine surgery says about the possible future of care. thelocal.to/cataract-sur...

Great, startling data story out in The Local today about the growing number of underqualified personnel working in child care roles across the province. No standardized qualifications = no universally understood practices of care & no accountability when existing standards aren't met.

Yeah, not any better a year later

I spent the week in Minneapolis. About the only thing I’m sure of now is that more people are going to die. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

"At best, this is all a very weird misunderstanding, and there's simply another journalist named Nicole Carpenter who has no online presence whatsoever... At worst, Modern Newsstand is using the names of verifiable journalists to make its work look trustworthy."

Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a group of journalists grabbed it and are relaunching the food magazine as a worker-owned co-op. Love it. [gourmetmagazine.net]

It's that time of year again, when The Local staff gather round the figurative fireplace and look back on a year in publishing. From election after election, to wildlife reporting, to some standout office snacks, take a look at the Local's Year in Review: thelocal.to/2025-year-in...

Great to see my investigation into "Victoria Goldiee" make this New Yorker list (one slot ahead of the Ryan Lizza chronicles). www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...

concluding that people don't need their newspapers to be accurate is professional self-harm done for no particular reason other than to justify layoffs and satisfy the AI lords

Was glad to participate in @niemanstoryboard.org's year-end best of package! I picked stories from @defector.com / @laurentheisen.bsky.social and @thelocal.to / @nickhunebrown.bsky.social.

"Horse racing was once the only form of legal gambling. The story of the sport’s decline is, among other things, the story of an industry losing its monopoly power..." I'm late to this tough but very good @nickhunebrown.bsky.social about the state of horse racing in Ontario. (CW horse deaths.)

News today about the Ontario Science Centre: Its "temporary location" will take over most, or possibly all, of Harbourfront Centre. 86,000 square feet is a larger fraction, if not all, of Harbourfront's buildings. news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...

So hard to find the font that best expresses my specific political ideology.

"In 2025, powerful people, companies, and institutions welcomed fakeness and deception like never before"

Two years ago, @thelocal.to did an issue on how this long-awaited transit line promised to transform northwest Toronto. Yesterday, @royinori.bsky.social and photographer Duane Cole rode the line with locals to try to find out if the LRT can keep up with its promises. thelocal.to/finch-west-l...

Guess where The Local is today!

Big milestone in Toronto transit history: the first Line 6 delay notification

“We don’t have enough social care, we don’t have enough supportive housing, and we have a lot of people under a lot of stress... So who is going to have to deal with that? At the moment it looks like the TTC."

Three horses euthanized at Woodbine last weekend. www.thestar.com/news/gta/thr.... A reminder that this industry is wholly dependent on government subsidy. thelocal.to/breakdown-at...

Great story from @curiouslana.bsky.social. “We don’t have enough social care, we don’t have enough supportive housing, and we have a lot of people under a lot of stress... So who is going to have to deal with that? At the moment it looks like the TTC." thelocal.to/ttc-mental-h...

Since publishing our investigation into "Victoria Goldiee" at @thelocal.to, I've heard from editors from around the world who've had their own run-ins. A quick follow-up, plus a conversation with @cstarnino.bsky.social about journalism in a world of AI fakery. thelocal.to/fallout-from...

Jack White is the king of “indie dudes love sports too” representation matters baby

I spoke to @thewalrus.ca EIC Carmine Starnino about Victoria Goldiee, fake reporters, and what the hell journalists are supposed to do in this AI slop era. thewalrus.ca/the-phantom-...

Genuine question, cuz this isn't my beat, but what do the AI overlords say is the SECOND step, once recipe makers, journalists, product reviewers, etc, stop doing the work because all their traffic is stolen by crappy AI summaries?

“Freelance journalism in 2025 is an incredibly difficult place to build a career,” Nicholas Hune-Brown writes. “But, it turns out, it’s a decent enough arena for a scam.” @jacobfeldman.bsky.social's favorite this week thelocal.to/investigatin...

Advocates have long struggled to improve special education at the TDSB. But now that the board is under supervision, they’re finding transparency and accountability are disappearing. New from @wencyleung.bsky.social: thelocal.to/tdsb-special...

Well put by @drrachelbarr.bsky.social

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves... this generation’s internet scammers are scavenging in the wreckage of a degraded media environment." Oof, this bleakly fascinating story from @nickhunebrown.bsky.social is today's media industry must-read, and with a hell of a kicker:

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." This @nickhunebrown.bsky.social piece about journalism grifters in the age of AI slop is fantastic, bonkers & sad on so many levels thelocal.to/investigatin...

This is a wild ride, from surprise to anger to sadness. Fantastic storytelling about storytelling.

"Every media era gets the fabulists it deserves." Brilliant essay/investigation by @nickhunebrown.bsky.social into journalism scammers in the age of AI. thelocal.to/investigatin...