I’ve been teaching about Prudence Crandall recently and thinking about the history of so-called local control.
CT’s 1833 Black Law made it illegal for out-of-state black students to attend a CT school w/out “local permission.”
Local control…never been great!
connecticuthistory.org/prudence-cra...
My name is Marisa Kabas, and I'm an independent journalist who publishes The Handbasket. I'm reaching out about a matter that involves your team and that continues to trouble me. In June of last year, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and I filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan Police Department to compel them to release body camera footage from the March 17, 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace. What followed was months of back and forth with their lawyers, arguing why it was in the public interest to release the un-redacted footage in its entirety. Though tiny segments were handed over, that wasn't enough: We wanted all of it. On February 18, 2026, a DC judge ruled in our favor, and your reporter Mark Segraves sent a kind note of congratulations that day. Then on Monday, March 2nd, the footage was handed over to me and excitedly announced I'd received it and would be reviewing it in the coming days and sharing what I learned. When Segraves emailed me this past Thursday asking for my phone number, I didn't think much of it. But when he called me just before 2pm on Friday to let me know NBC4 Washington would be airing a segment at 5pm, I grew concerned. Segraves said he'd obtained some of the footage via a FOIA request that week after he heard the footage had been released to me. He said he'd credit the work of RCFP and me, but it was little comfort. I asked if he'd known the day before when he emailed me for my number, why didn't he tell me then? He didn't have a good answer for that. He acknowledged all the hard work I'd done getting this footage released. I asked him if he could hold the story until Monday, to which he replied that he's "not just a blogger" (implying that that's all I am, presumably) and that he'd have to check with his editor. I said fine. Nearly an hour later he called back to say his editor refused to hold the story, but that they were happy to interview me via Zoom to add to the package, and I said I would.
What followed was two hours of furiously writing and posting clips of the footage to Youtube so I could get something published before the 5pm broadcast, and in the midst of that, recording a quick Zoom interview with a person who was about to take credit for my work. At 4:59pm ET, The Handbasket published a piece titled "Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid." Then I tuned into NBC4 Washington via your website to catch the broadcast, and my instinct to rush to get something out first was proven right. "It's a story you're seeing first on News4," your newscast began. "For the first time we're getting an inside look at what happened the day the Trump administration took over the US Institute of Peace. News4 obtained more than four hours of police body camera video from that day." What followed was more than six minutes of clips and commentary from Segraves, but it's not until six minutes and 21 seconds into the piece that he mentions my name (mispronounced though he asked for the correct pronunciation on Zoom), "The Handbasket blog," and the RCFP's foundational role in bringing this footage to light. I was angry, but didn't feel there was much I could do. Then I saw the version NBC4 posted to Instagram and TikTok—the video itself made ZERO mention of the RCFP or my work, only briefly acknowledging it in the written caption on Instagram, and not even bothering to do that on TikTok. An average viewer with no background on the case is lead to believe that this footage was released because of your efforts. When I saw that, I decided I couldn't let this go. It's difficult to explain what it's like to spend nearly a year working on a story only to have another reporter and outlet surreptitiously take credit for it; months of work and personal risk only to have another reporter lying in wait to swoop in. What NBC4 did was immoral, unethical, and to be frank, just truly sucked.
I just sent this email to the news director at NBC4 Washington about the unprofessional and disrespectful way they handled publishing the body camera footage of the DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace that was obtained via my FOIA lawsuit:
"I want readers to know that Native people are still here. Beyond that, I want them to know we have so many beautiful stories that have been handed down from generation to generation."
Read our conversation with Kickapoo chef Crystal Wahpepah. ⬇️
I don’t know if I have the mental capacity to witness Ds going on the ‘supporting (bad person/legisation) was a big mistake’ tours. How did all of us know it was a mistake but none of you did?
This story has everything, a focus on desal that led to overlooking other water sources, a city manager making $400K/yr saying don’t panic, a former water system manager saying residents should absolutely panic, and magical thinking: “The last hope to avert disaster was a 20- to 30-inch rainfall.”
This is honestly the treatment Trump voters should get in the U.S. too. Don't let them try to hide from the effects of their choice. It's always the people who believe in the worst things that get mad when someone "makes things political."
if you fall for this you should be put in a conservatorship
Time is so fake, “oh we added more daylight” no you didn’t, daylight is portioned by the cosmos repent of your hubris
Fuck him. He'd rather fund the bombing of school children and the gassing and poisoning of a city of millions than find a god damn spine.
BRENNAN: The US is suspending some sanctions on Russia. But doesn't Russia financially benefit?
WRIGHT: Right now we're worried about Iran & US consumers
B: Russia was helping Iran
W: Well, there's been rumors. We don't know
B: Iranian drones have Russian parts in them. They're sharing intel
Wow -- as first spotted by @BadFoxGraphics on X, Fox & Friends this morning used *old footage of a previous dignified transfer* to mislead their audience about the fact that Trump wore a baseball cap during the one yesterday
Chris Murphy: "I think it's likely the United States that carried out this attack on this school. I think it's unforgivable under any circumstances, but the fact this was one of our first targeting decisions speaks to the incompetence of our leadership at the Dept of Defense."
TAPPER: You know that if you vote against an additional $50 billion of funding for operations in Iran, that vote will be cast as you voting against the troops.
CHRIS MURPHY: Come on. The American people do not want this war. If you support the troops, you should be voting against this war.
The war on Iran is unfolding alongside a wave of mass layoffs in the US. These are not separate crises. They are two sides of the same offensive by the ruling class against the working class.
A newspaper headline from over a century ago, reading: WOMEN ANARCHISTS HAVE BECOME THE TERROR OF WORLDS POLICE Their Daring Crimes Are Said to Have Out- stripped the Deeds of Brothers of the Red Search for the Woman is Becoming a Safe Rule in Crimes Proceeding From Anarchistic Violence—The Guardians of the World Nearly Always Finda Woman Implicated When a Ruler is Stricken Down—Emotional Women Lose Sense of Fear.
Happy International Women's Day. 🏴
We don’t need talkers right now. We need fighters.
And no matter how many times they knock me down, I’ll get back up and fight with you. Every. Single. Time.
There's something deeply obscene and broken about the fact that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are bombing elementary schools in an illegal war of aggression, and there's still a sense among the opposition that it has to be explained in terms of gas prices in order to get American voters to care.
So according to the WSJ a US Senator conspired with another country to manipulate the US into starting a war, am I getting this right
It's the middle of the night in Chicago. Reporters and electeds are trying to figure out why a US citizen was detained by CBP, why her phone was inside an ICE detention center tonight, and where she is now.
Also unclear what happened to the other five people she was detained with at O'Hare airport.
Hegseth needs to stand trial after this as a war criminal. Between this attack and the girls' school, there's no ambiguity. He is responsible for mass murder and must be held accountable.
Looking forward to finding out why this administration has started this war
Jesus Christ
Two white nationalists I exposed in a recent article showed up to try to intimidate me in person last night.
This is a press freedom issue.
Here’s what happened:
Week, month, year.
This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...
I have so much contempt for all the institutions and corporations who have been collaborators.
If it’s true that the United States bombed an elementary school and killed scores of children it is an unfathomable crime. I have never been more disgusted to be an American.
We bombed a school and killed a bunch of kids. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/w...
This is a huge story.
The US lethal attack on a girls school in Minab, that killed about 180 mostly young girls, will forever been connected by the world with Pete Hegseth's pronouncement that "we won't be following any stupid rules of engagement." It's a war crime plain and simple.
