Taylor Kate Brown

Dunks iced coffee not good per se, but iconic. Happily will have one when it’s hot out.

Reporters Seek Comment. What Happens Next May Surprise You.

Sources often ask me, "Are you going to go to FILL IN THE BLANK (person/company/official) and ask them about what I'm accusing them of?" YES, 100% of the time, ALWAYS. But getting a response isn't always easy, so I appreciate this breakdown of why and how we do that: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/i...

Hey maybe a large global hedge fund should have a well developed sense of geopolitical risk???

Tracking the Historic Rise of Habeas Cases Filed by Detained Immigrants ProPublica is tracking the historic rise in challenges filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal.

For those looking for additional data points about what's happening with immigration enforcement in Minnesota and other states, our habeas case tracker has just been updated. TLDR new cases have dropped: projects.propublica.org/habeas-track...

Cover of The Lancet:

@thelancet.com
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

How Trump's FEMA Secretly Dismantled Program to Prepare Americans For Disasters The administration last year closed a division that helped individuals get ready for emergencies.

Helping neighbors help each other, no more www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Report shows large drop in traffic deaths in DC and Maryland - WTOP News Preliminary analysis from the National Safety Council shows a 12% decrease in the number of U.S. traffic deaths in 2025. D.C. and Maryland’s safety improvements exceed the national average.

Any theories about what drove this?? wtop.com/local/2026/0...

‘A Disaster Waiting to Happen’: How the Fracking Boom Put an Oil Field in the Guadalupe River Floodplain - Inside Climate News Lack of a state floodplain policy in Texas enabled oil companies to build in areas hit by an epic inundation less than 30 years ago.

"There’s a whole lot of tanks full of oil that are going to float away" insideclimatenews.org/news/0802202...

Milan Designed an Unmonumental Winter Olympic Games Plus: Discover the Art Deco history of Greyhound bus stations.

The "scattered" and "recycled" Olympics (complimentary) www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Feds announce $26.5 billion loan for electric power expansion in Georgia and Alabama Federal energy officials say they will loan a record $26.5 billion federal loan to Georgia Power and Alabama Power to expand electricity supply. U.S.

*googles market cap of Southern Company* Hmmm. apnews.com/article/geor...

The Government Just Made it Harder to See What Spy Tech it Buys On Wednesday, the government stopped supporting FPDS.gov, an indispensable resource for finding what ICE, the FBI, and every other agency is buying. Its replacement site completely sucks.

NEW: On Wednesday, the government stopped supporting FPDS.gov, an indispensable resource for finding what ICE, the FBI, and every other agency is buying. Its replacement site completely sucks.

Judge who allowed FBI to search Washington Post reporter’s home rips into Justice Department | CNN Politics A federal judge ripped into the Justice Department on Friday for failing to inform him of the applicability of a law intended to protect journalists from government searches and seizures when it asked...

"How could you miss it?" : All due respect to the judge but Trump's DOJ has been missing a lot of stuff it should be mentioning in court

www.cnn.com/2026/02/20/p...

Hello! I’m the reporter who has been tracking citizens detained by immigration agents. And last night, I noticed something: A lot of them were at the State of the Union, including a number of whom I’ve written about.

Their stories should be known:

For those wondering why I said this is a life-or-death matter for patients:

bsky.app/profile/alex...

I've been doing more consulting work with Substack authors recently and I now better understand how and why it is drawing in writers but also why I want to throw its analytics offerings into a trash compactor. www.taylorkatebrown.com/newsletter-s...

Less than a week later, Senate Finance and Appropriations Chairperson @senlouiselucas.bluesky.bot said she wants to end the exemption Jan. 1.

Asked how firm she is on holding that date, Lucas said "as firm as concrete."

insideclimatenews.org/news/2302202...

I did not get such an email from Washington Gas 🤔

I saw a fox news graphic the other day associating high electricity bills with Dem-led states and struggled to not start yelling about causation/correlation.

Why are electricity rates so high in D.C.? A new auction just set the highest power price in nearly a decade. Here’s what that means for Pepco customers in D.C.

Lol Pepco sending a damage-control email about why winter bills are higher. 51st.news/dc-electrici...

Amazing writers, great topics, trash fire approach to offering them actionable information

I've been doing more consulting work with Substack authors recently and I now better understand how and why it is drawing in writers but also why I want to throw its analytics offerings into a trash compactor. www.taylorkatebrown.com/newsletter-s...

I'm working on an investigation right now that involves a lot of info sourced from a CDC department that's basically been shuttered. Everything I'm using has to be found through the Wayback Machine because the Trump administration has wiped it from the CDC's website.

I try to put a spotlight on others' amazing work, and I think sometimes its harder to do so for myself.

NO SLEEP 'TIL FAIRBANKS by Eva Holland | King's Co-op Bookstore For the past fifteen years, Whitehorse-based journalist and author Eva Holland has been exploring and writing about the North. Travelling across the Yukon, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, and Nunav...

Since it's a very snowy day in many places today, a reminder that I have a book of mostly pretty snowy nonfiction stories out in the world! Halifax's delightful @kingsbookstore.bsky.social has copies in-store and ships across Canada for $5:

U.S. Forest Service Stops Issuing Firefighter Pants That Contain PFAS, Following ProPublica’s Reporting Officials at the agency knew about the use of potentially dangerous “forever chemicals” in protective gear years before publicly acknowledging the issue, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.

"Following a ProPublica article revealing that the U.S. Forest Service had for years issued clothing to wildland firefighters that it knew contained potentially dangerous “forever chemicals,” the agency has stopped distributing those garments. " www.propublica.org/article/pfas...

Some people suggesting this is a gen z formulation but Do Not Speak to Me of the Old Ways (xfiles web ring fan sites, circa 1998)

Record harvest sparks mass giveaway of free potatoes across Berlin From zoos to soup kitchens, people are hauling away tonnes of surplus spuds after the biggest crop in 25 years

The Kartoffel-Flut! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

underrated aspect of this: some kids might get to see special features about how movies are made

My “people aren’t profiting” T-shirt is raising questions etc

Hey, as a librarian I need to tell you:

Our funding depends on usage.

So go ahead and check out that book even if you don't think you'll finish it. No one will know. Check out that DVD even though you might not like it. Get ambitious in your quest for knowledge.