Thousands of people read this newsletter hoping to stay informed about reproductive rights, yet time and time again, there are glaring factual errors. This Alabama woman is still in prison as the linked release plainly explained. Getting to a point where folks need to double check what’s printed

Protesters in DC have shut down U Street

I hope more people are thinking about how dangerous cop cities are right now and how they have to be shut down now.

For those keeping score, Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team, & Washington Post's Visual Forensic team have all published analysis showing the ICE shooter wasn't in the path of Renee Nicole Good’s vehicle when he shot her, contradicting statements by the President & his cronies

So many unrealistic promises sigh

Breaking News: Gov. Kathy Hochul, partnering with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, will unveil a plan to expand free or affordable child care for New Yorkers across the state.

/9 Anyway, a substantial project of the Right is to make it dangerous, expensive, and ideally illegal to speak the truth about them. Don’t give up an inch of ground.

Expect to see a surge of proud ignorance and proplawganda about what you can say about ICE agent Jonathan Ross, identified by local media as the person who shot and killed Renee Good. In particular, expect a repeat of Rittenhouse-era “accusing him of murder is defamation” rhetoric. It’s not. /1

/2 Defamation requires a false statement of provable fact. Things that are not provable fact include hyperbole, rhetoric, insult, and things the audience understands are expressions of opinion rather than expressions of verifiable fact. Your interpretation of what you see on a video is an opinion.

Scoop: Inside "60 Minutes," it's not just the CECOT story that Bari Weiss has sent back with notes. I'm told an Anderson Cooper piece on South African refugees, in the works for months, has also been subjected to extensive editorial feedback. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/60-minutes...

NEW: Data released by ICE shows that virtually the entire growth of detention in the last few months has been among people with no criminal record at all - no prior convictions (no matter how minor) and no pending criminal charges.

Pastor: I said to this ICE agent, 'Take me, stop harassing her.' The agent got in my face, pointed a gun at me, and said, 'Are you afraid now?' To which I said, 'I am not afraid.'

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

Bari Weiss's Free Press website ran this screed by Matt Taibbi defending his lawsuit against a book author. But the Free Press apparently never reached out to the author. Even though Weiss spiked that 60 Minutes piece for not reaching out to enough Trump officials www.thefp.com/p/matt-taibb...

Our major media orgs--even during the best of times when they're merely profit-driven outlets and not ideological mouthpieces and playthings of right-wing oligarchs--primarily serve the role of status quo managers. They rationalize & normalize elite actions & interests. They rarely defend democracy.

Mamdani rescinded every executive order issued by Eric Adams after Adams's indictment, but still the "New York Times" is focusing exclusively on two of those orders that had to do with Israel. There is someone singling out Israel here. And it isn't Zohran Mamdani.

People are going to try and lure you into debates about whether Maduro was a good guy or not and the thing is, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of discussing whether violent kidnappings and extrajudicial murders by the US government are ok. No, they aren’t! End of convo.

I reached out to the author of this viral Reddit post thinking there might be a story in it. He sent me an employee badge that Gemini flagged as being AI-generated and supporting documents that I suspect were also generated by AI. Be careful out there folks! www.reddit.com/r/confession...

This is why they want us to be upset about day care centers.

A DC Water policy change this year left renters without access to water at home for weeks due to their landlords' inaction. Four days after we published this story from @maustermuhle.bsky.social, the D.C. Council amended the municipal regulations. Help us make more impact in 2026? 51st.news/signup

Seems like there's a line to be drawn from Occupy Wall Street to Bernie as national figure to AOC to Mamdani. Many other factors, of course! But maybe messy, beautiful 2011, crushed so brutally by Bloomberg & countless other mayors, forgotten in the Trump years since, was a turning point after all.

Our reporting spurred readers to donate their time, money — and for one reader, a kidney — to make a difference in neighborhoods across Chicago. How Block Club stories made an impact in 2025: blockclubchi.co/3Yj75iN

What if America was a cigarette store just over the border in Indiana

“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner.” In March of this year, from ICE detention in Louisiana, Mahmoud Khalil recounted his arrest without a warrant for speaking out for Palestine—and warned of a broader crackdown on dissent. inthesetimes.com/article/mahm...

We underrate the degree to which wealth and wealth inequality just fry some peoples’ brains. Monarchists, the longevity guy, founder worship, whatever the hell this is…

As this hell year ends, we choose to look back on the beautiful things we did for each other. ICE watches & community defense. Feeding & clothing each other when folks were scared to leave their homes or out in the cold. Court support & bail funds. May next year bring more justice & more peace.

More than being supremely antidemocratic, this is wrong. Barack Obama and Kamala Harris both primaried democrats! John Kerry fully intended on primarying a longtime incumbent when another seat opened up! FDR famously tried purging conservative southern senators!

We also focus on subscribers because it's the most reliable way to stay in touch. The Internet is bursting w/ AI slop, misinformation, and tools for ppl to make disinformation appear credible. Trustworthy local news, sent straight to you, is priceless (and free, it's our mission) 51st.news/signup

While 3,000 new ppl is a LOT, we know so many more local residents who *want* local online news, and who already know our journalists, are out there. When WAMU laid me off in '24 and experimented w/ blocking public access to DCist[dot]com, we had more than 70K subscribers: 51st.news/lost-51-000-...

As a journalist and DC resident who worked for both, @51st.news is better. Just not yet as large or well resourced. But as a founder, I'm biased. So don't take my word for it. Here's what subscribers are saying: 51st.news/nine-reasons...

Another reason I know this is achievable today: bsky.app/profile/51st...

^It’s no wonder our “guide to giving and receiving help in D.C.” explainer—published in January 2025— remains a top-performing story on our site. That public service journalism is *my* favorite kind of work we do. Here are some others selected by our team: 51st.news/our-favorite...

We chose to focus on newsletter subscribers instead of a $ fundraising goal because we're a community-centered newsroom. And it's been a hell of a challenging year for so many of us in DC. Anyone can help achieve it—regardless of your financial situation—in less than 1 min 51st.news/why-were-set...

This COULD be the first time we don't meet a goal for @51st.news 😰 Our nonprofit has been working to reach 3K new email subscribers (free or paid) by 2026. But we're only 1/3 of the way there: we'd need 2K new people in 2 days. Can YOU help? 51st.news/signup (More on the why and the how ⬇️ 🧵)

What. A. Year. It. Has. Been. Locals have lost jobs because of the slashing of the federal workforce. D.C.'s local laws and budget have been targeted by the GOP. And Trump flooded the streets with federal troops. I can't imagine a more important time for independent media.

Welcome to 2026. 🥳😮‍💨

As @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social says, “I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win."

Something that many (at least online) seem to forget it how high this man was flying in January and where he is now. Yes he is richer and still terrible but the Tesla protests pierced the sense that he was beyond reach. And that matters a lot. Thanks to everyone who joined those ongoing protests.

Among the nationally confirmed cases, the CDC says about 93% are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.

As we're counting down the final days of 2025, reminder that any $ support you send our way before Jan 1 will be DOUBLED thanks to a program called Newsmatch. If you've been thinking about joining as a member or donating, now is a great time.

We're always tracking our work's impact — awards we've received, radio appearances and press coverage, legislative or judicial action, and more. What means the most to us is seeing and hearing that our local journalism is making our neighbors’ lives better. This year's top moments:

“It has been so inspiring to see the way that people are like, ‘OK, I'm not just gonna sit by. I'm gonna do something. We're gonna do something in Congress. ... We're gonna do something in the streets. And we're going to continue to be here." —Frankie Seabron, @harrietsdreams.bsky.social

Add supporting local journalism to your new year resolutions, please and thank you!

"South Carolina’s health department on Tuesday reported 20 new measles cases since Friday, bringing the state’s total this year to 179. That tally is higher than the number of measles cases recorded for the entire US in 6 of the last 10 years. This year, the country had over 2,000 measles cases"

Iowa-based journalist Laura Belin compares Bari Weiss' adventures at CBS to Putin's makeover of supposedly independent Russian media, which she covered for RFE-RL twenty years ago. www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/12/25/o...

“This could look like a user asking how much ibuprofen to take for a headache receiving a promoted ad for Advil in the chatbot’s response. Meanwhile, actual results on correct dosage may be brushed to the side, or buried under a mountain of ad text…”

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

well, looks like i’m staying home with a sick toddler today. i don’t have pto at this job, it’s just lost pay. and i hate that i’m even thinking about money when my baby is sick, but that’s the society we’ve built for ourselves, one where you have to choose: income, or caring for your sick child.