curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Amanda Ulrich @ Guardian:
He has a work permit, a coffee shop – and an ICE ankle monitor: ‘Is this America?’
Deep within the bowels of San Diego’s federal courthouse, Assim Alkhawaja sat on the floor outside a nondescript office, waiting to be called for his ICE-mandated immigration appointment. …
… The 53-year-old knew that, in the past, others in his situation had been detained and deported on the spot at these types of check-ins, without warning.
…
In February, ICE agents arrested and detained him while he was dropping off two Lyft passengers at Camp Pendleton, the sprawling military base in San Diego county. At first, Alkhawaja, who was working as a ride-share driver to make extra money, thought it was a misunderstanding – that he might even receive an apology. He has a valid work permit, a pending asylum case, no criminal convictions, a doctorate from the University of San Francisco, and a popular local coffee business that’s growing steadily.
Those things didn’t matter. Alkhawaja spent the next eight days in an ICE detention center and was placed in removal proceedings. His left ankle was strapped with a bulky GPS tracker, the kind that is typically only given to high-risk individuals on parole, like registered sex offenders. He must report to immigration officials on an almost-weekly basis, either at the courthouse or via home visits, to prove that he hasn’t absconded.
“I keep questioning myself,” Alkhawaja said, sitting in the sun outside the San Diego courthouse, sporting both the ankle monitor and a stylish quilted jacket. “Is this America?”
(Amanda Ulrich @ Guardian more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson:
Letters from an American – August 21, 2026On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved American, led about 70 of his enslaved and free Black neighbors in a rebellion to awaken his white neighbors to the inherent brutality of slaveholding and the dangers it presented to their own safety. …
And states across the South passed laws making it a crime to teach enslaved Americans to read and write.
…In 1831, southern lawmakers tried to create a white nation by making it a crime to educate Black Americans. In 2026 the intent to exclude certain Americans from participation in the Enlightenment principles that undergird the nation remains the same, only less explicit.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Lucian K. Truscott IV:
Stars strippedThe big story that’s all over the place this afternoon is the firing of the editor of Stars and Stripes, the quasi-governmental semi-independent newspaper that is provided for free to service members around the world. The paper’s publisher, who had recently announced his retirement at the end of September, was fired yesterday. The editor in chief, Erik Slavin, told the Associated Press that he was fired “for insubordination” after giving an interview to CBS in which he stated that “censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line.” A reporter for the paper who covers the Middle East, Lara Korte, was also fired after she told CBS that she works “for Stars and Stripes, not the Pentagon, not the administration, and not any policy maker.”
Stars and Stripes, which has a daily circulation online and in print of about one million readers, is distributed to members of the military all over the world. In many, far-distant locations, it is the only English language paper servicemembers have access to.
(Lucian K. Truscott IV more…)Edward Helmore @ Guardian:
Pentagon fires publisher and editor of US military news outlet Stars and Stripes
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Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson (Retired):
Hegseth’s Shutting Down Drones in the Era of Drone War
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Miles Taylor:
The president’s go-to accusation has become his most self-incriminating admission.A few weeks ago, I was standing in the lobby at CNN, catching up with a journalist I respect. And he said something that I haven’t been able to shake.
He’s a good man and a hard worker. A great reporter, in fact. We were talking about the conservative influencers who’ve been caught taking money from foreign governments to stake out lunatic positions online.
I made a wry comment, something like: “Must be nice. Wouldn’t it be great if people were getting paid big bucks to stand up to Trump?”
He smiled and said: “Well, isn’t that what you’re doing?”
(Miles Taylor more…)
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Jennifer Rubin:
Judges stop Trump’s arrogant power grabs.
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Mattathias Schwartz @ NY Times:
Judge Strikes Down Trump’s 75-Country Visa BanThe ruling from the Southern District of New York found that the policy went beyond Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s legal authority.
(Mattathias Schwartz @ NY Times more…)
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Jason Sattler:
Why Marcy Wheeler Stays on X(ittter)And she thinks you should leave.
(Jason Sattler more…)
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Christopher Cox @ NY Times:
Christopher Cox traveled to California and Nevada and interviewed more than two dozen experts in grid technologies and grid reliability.
(Christopher Cox @ NY Times more…)
Climate Solutions Explorer
Have I Been Flocked?
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
Mike Ludwig @ truthout: ICE Says 51 People Died in Custody Under Trump. Experts Say That’s an Undercount.
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- August 1: Edwin Lopez-Cornejo
- July 19: Jose Chajon-Raxon
- July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
- July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
- July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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