Emily Elena Dugdale

L.A. TACO Investigative Journalism Fund By L.A. TACO

We're at 55% of our $25,000 goal to help me launch @lataco.bsky.social investigative news desk. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed or shared our fundraiser! We're already putting the money we've raised to use 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says his memory was so jumbled after a beating by immigration officers that he initially could not remember he had a daughter and still struggles to recall treasured moments like the night he taught her to dance. But the violence he endured last month in Minnesota while being detained is seared into his battered brain. He remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend’s car on Jan. 8 outside a St. Paul shopping center and throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, then punching him and striking his head with a steel baton. He remembers being dragged into an SUV and taken to a detention facility, where he said he was beaten again. He also remembers the emergency room and the intense pain from eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages.

ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”

What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.

MEDIA STATEMENT: “Irresponsible, reckless rhetoric from political leaders attacking law enforcement has real & dangerous consequences for officers on the street. Full statement in picture.

Demonstrators at the January 7, 2026, evening vigil for Renee Nicole Good. A tall flag reads "Fuck ICE."

Minneapolis.

Minnesota Could Prosecute the ICE Shooter. Trump Can’t Pardon Him. Shortly after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, city leaders began looking into whether the officer had violated state criminal law.

Wrote a piece for @slate.com explaining that states have a long history of prosecuting federal officers when they allegedly use excessive force. Federal officers are only immune from such prosecutions when they act reasonably in carrying out lawful duties.

For the last few days on X, people (mainly women, and sometimes children) have had nonconsensual images of them in swimsuits (or much worse) requested by users and created by Grok.

Musk's only apparent response thus far has been to crack jokes about it.

Dating App Cover-Up: How Tinder, Hinge, and Their Corporate Owner Keep Rape Under Wraps Editor’s note: Graphic details could be offensive or disturbing to some readers. The company behind more than a dozen dating apps, Match Group, has known for years about the abusive users on its...

AI Fellow @eedugdale.bsky.social & Hanisha Harjani revealed that Match Group knew for years about abusive users but chose to keep millions of customers unaware.

Stephen Matthews was first reported for rape to Hinge in 2020. Only his arrest in 2023 got him off the apps. bit.ly/4b7RCrp

Tiny homes are a flawed solution to LA’s homelessness crisis, investigation finds Investigation uncovers flooding, broken heaters, and safety concerns. Critically, more than half of residents end up homeless when leaving LA’s tiny home villages.

Thanks to my sources; editors Jenna Chandler @zenagrossa.bsky.social @eedugdale.bsky.social @rina.bsky.social; LAPP's design/web/audience team (like Alyson Yee & @adelcidlugo.bsky.social); and publisher Matthew Tinoco for all your help.

hooooooooly shit he is not fucking around

What we know so far, 9:30pm

—Dems flip VA-Gov & VA-LG.
—BIG Dem gains in VA House
—Dems win NJ-Gov
—Mamdani up
—Dems seem to flip 2 statewide offices in GA
—JD Vance's half-brother loses in Cincy.
—Dems sweep Orlando council
—PA: Dem justices up big
—Maine anti-mail vote measure down
—Krasner wins

it's almost like running young, leftist, authentic politicians MOTIVATE VOTERS

And then the entire politics staff was fired. RIP Teen Vogue.

Is it good when federal judges have to schedule Sunday night 10 pm hearings about absurd military invasions of their state.

Hey, you guys?

Is it a good sign or a bad sign if a federal judge has to remind you (multiple times) that you’re a lawyer and an officer of the court?

Several months later, I spoke to Maxwell Aguirre’s parents, who sued LA County and LASD claiming that they did not adequately monitor their son, who had attempted suicide while in custody less than three weeks before his death.

lapublicpress.org/2024/06/lasd...

A man died by suicide at Twin Towers while guards allegedly watched videos An inmate died by suicide, while deputies who were supposed to be performing wellness checks were watching videos.

Here’s the article from 2023 @lapublicpress.bsky.social where I spoke to jail healthcare providers and social workers.

At that time, LASD placed restrictions on internet use for some deputies working the jail.

lapublicpress.org/2023/10/a-ma...

The family also obtained surveillance footage showing that 22-year-old Maxwell Aguirre, who hung himself, was “affixing the ligature in plain sight” of deputies watching videos.

The family is demanding that the LA County DA’s office prosecute the deputies.

In 2023, I wrote about a young veteran who ended his life in jail as LASD sheriff’s deputies watched videos on their computers and failed to perform standard welfare checks in his dorm.

Today, his family revealed new evidence that deputies also falsified safety check records.

We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract 404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.

New: 404 Media is suing ICE. We have filed a lawsuit demanding ICE release its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware to break into phones and read encrypted messages. This is expensive for a small outlet but this info is important
www.404media.co/were-suing-i...

The right to speak freely is the ultimate personal liberty and the foundation of Karen’s 11-year career at The Post. We’re proud to call Karen a colleague and a longtime union sibling. The Post Guild stands with her and will continue to support her and defend her rights.

Their jails are atrocious and unsafe. The OIG for the LA County Sheriffs reported that from April to June, seven people died in the department’s custody. Of those seven, four were suicides. YTD, the department has reported 36 in-custody deaths.

Full complaint here:

oag.ca.gov/system/files...

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit today against LASD and LA County over “unconstitutional and inhumane conditions” at LA County jails.

Bonta highlights that we’re on track to have “more in-custody deaths in 2025 than at any time in the past twenty years.”

Context in our @lapublicpress @latimes collab from September: @keribla.bsky.social

www.latimes.com/california/s...

These Los Angeles tenants are saying no to rent hikes How one complex organized to take on their landlord—and the city's housing crisis.

How one Los Angeles complex organized to take on their landlord—and the city’s housing crisis.

“I didn’t know how to explain it to her. I just said, ‘No, we aren’t going to move.'”

Huntington Park mayor directs police to enforce ICE agents’ self-identification Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores released a statement Saturday, condemning what he called “masked abductions” amid immigration raids across Los Angeles County, and directing police to intervene …

The mayor of Huntington Park had formally directed the police department to enforce laws against ICE concerning unmarked vehicles, visible license plates and required agency identification.

Rude

Headed to #IRE2025 and a reminder that you can always say no to this ❌

Federal agents attack press and protesters with pepper balls at DTLA’s federal building during protests against ICE arrests. @shoton35mm.bsky.social reporting on the scene.

ooo she sounds smart and hot wonder if she has a name!!!