Aliyya Swaby

It's simple — @propublica.org workers should not be replaced by artificial intelligence. Our contract proposal specifically says that generative artificial intelligence ("GAI") should not be used to replace employees. Management struck out this entire section in their response to our proposal.

Screenshot of post on X from VA Secretary Doug Collins. The text reads: @ProPublica is an extreme liberal news outlet that will do anything to make the Trump Administration look bad. But this week, the far-left editors there reached a new low by sending @VernalColeman to stalk @DeptVetAffairs employees at their homes. This creepy behavior will discourage good people from coming to work at VA. @ProPublica, please do better and stop letting your hatred of the Trump Administration continue to warp your judgment.

It's a journalist's job to ask questions of government officials, no matter which party is in power. That often means respectfully knocking on doors to get answers people deserve to know.

Tips and evidence are essential to our nonpartisan work: www.propublica.org/tips/

It's hard to write about a complex visa program in a way that can resonate with everyone. But @maxblau.bsky.social and Zaydee Sanchez did it with the narrative of a single woman, told with such respect and care.

Read the thread and the story below:

projects.propublica.org/h2a-visa-far...

Four people on a sidewalk talking

People hand out flyers

Our members flyered the @ire.org gala to rally support for a fair contract with a transparent disciplinary process and protections against journalists being replaced by AI.

You can show your support here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

“It’s sort of like saying you have one Black friend. You may have one, but what are you doing to either keep them happy or to pave the way to have more people like them in these positions?”

I wrote about Anna Lange's case with @lucaswaldron.bsky.social back in 2023. Among the takeaways was just how taxing this judicial rollercoaster has been for Lange and other trans people hoping for coverage.

www.propublica.org/article/geor...

I will be on @thisisnashville.bsky.social today talking about students charged with crimes for what they do on their phones. In my latest story, 16 middle school cheerleaders in rural TN were charged for making a TikTok video roleplaying a school shooting.

www.propublica.org/article/soci...

🤔🤔🤔
He said he became convinced the peptides weren’t the cause of the severe reactions after plugging everything he knows about the incident into an artificial intelligence app, which he said gave him a 57-page report that “basically says that it is impossible it was the peptides.”

Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime. Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats. Authorities say harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crac...

Rather than school leaders and law enforcement asking themselves, "Where did we go so wrong that a group of middle school kids would make a video portraying a school shooting?" they just charged the girls, as young as 11, with a crime.

New, @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social @propublica.org

Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime. Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats. Authorities say harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crac...

In Tennessee, police have arrested and charged students for making or sharing threatening posts on social media. Law enforcement argues harsh punishment is necessary to deter students from making online threats. Experts disagree.
@aliyyaswaby.bsky.social

Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime. Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats. Authorities say harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crac...

MUST READ: Middle School Cheerleaders in Tennessee Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime. @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social

Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime. Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats. Authorities say harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crac...

NEW: Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats.

Authorities argue harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crackdown won’t make schools safer.

By @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social

Middle School Cheerleaders Made a TikTok Video Portraying a School Shooting. They Were Charged With a Crime. Social videos, memes and retweets are becoming fodder for criminal charges in an era of heightened responses to student threats. Authorities say harsh punishment is necessary, but experts say the crac...

In rural Tennessee, 16 middle schoolers waiting for cheerleading practice to start made a TikTok video seeming to role play a school shooting.

The sheriff's office charged every single one with a crime.

www.propublica.org/article/soci...

I'm launching a new @propublica.org beat! Legal affairs under Trump: his assault on Big Law, his judicial nominees, his defiance of the courts, the politicization of executive branch legal offices, favor-trading for dropped investigations, White House legal strategy—you name it.

Important to note — this is in the second tweet in the thread — that the stop-work order is effective July 17, so the service is going away very soon but as of today is still available. The Trevor Project can also be reached directly: www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

I'm sure a lot of trans kids could use that hotline option, given today's ruling out of the Supreme Court.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Tennessee’s Law on School Threats Ensnared Students Who Posed No Risks. Two States Passed Similar Laws. Despite an outcry over increased arrests in Tennessee, two states — Georgia and New Mexico — followed its lead by passing laws that will crack down harder on hoax threats.

Tennessee lawmakers from both parties have voiced dissatisfaction with the state's school threats law, citing the harm done to children who did not pose real danger.

“I’m still struggling through the unintended consequences,” said Sen. Kerry Roberts.

By @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social‬

Trans Troops Given A Black Mark Discharge Code Under Military Ban “This is the kind of code that they gave to homosexuals and communists in the '50s.”

1. Trans troops are now being separated from their jobs, and we have learned what discharge code they are being given:

"JDK," a code that was used to remove communists and gay people, and can be seen as a "black mark" on their service.

The latest from S. Baum.

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Several Tennessee lawmakers from both parties criticized the school threats of mass violence law this session, citing the harm done to children who did not pose real danger.

But the Legislature chose not to fix those issues. Instead, they passed a new higher-level felony for school threats.

Tennessee’s Law on School Threats Ensnared Students Who Posed No Risks. Two States Passed Similar Laws. Despite an outcry over increased arrests in Tennessee, two states — Georgia and New Mexico — followed its lead by passing laws that will crack down harder on hoax threats.

We got data showing the number of Tennessee students charged with threats of mass violence has significantly increased since last year. They were rarely found guilty in juvenile court. The youngest was 6 years old.

This year, two states passed similar laws.

www.propublica.org/article/scho...

"His former secretary, his personal lawyer, the judge for whom he served as a campaign treasurer and a pallbearer of his wife’s casket all sat on the board over time as voting members."

A maddening story by @paigepfleger.bsky.social & @mariamelba.bsky.social

He Died Without Getting Mental Health Care He Sought. A New Lawsuit Says His Insurer’s Ghost Network Is to Blame. The mother of Ravi Coutinho, the subject of a recent ProPublica investigation, is suing Centene for publishing “misleading” information that gave her son a false impression about the kinds of mental h...

Ravi Coutinho died after being unable to find mental health treatment. Following @propublica.org's investigation, his mother is now suing his health insurer, saying it broke the law by publishing false information that misled its customers. My latest story: www.propublica.org/article/cent...

"Officials knew that only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses, such as retail theft or traffic violations."

Amazing work and multinational collaboration by this team of reporters ⬇️

James' parents had no idea the threat assessment even existed until I told them about it, more than a week after it took place.

No one from the school notified them of it or interviewed them for it — which is not recommended by experts.

A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law Under the settlement, the Chattanooga charter school also agreed to implement training on how to handle threats of mass violence at school, including differentiating between “clearly innocuous stateme...

An 11-year-old autistic boy was cuffed at a birthday dinner after a Tenn. school called cops over a "threat" he didn’t make. The school will now pay $100K and train staff to tell real threats from innocent words. Impact from reporting by @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social www.propublica.org/article/tenn...

A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law Under the settlement, the Chattanooga charter school also agreed to implement training on how to handle threats of mass violence at school, including differentiating between “clearly innocuous stateme...

NEW: A Tennessee school has agreed to pay $100,000 to the family of an 11-year-old student with autism who was arrested under the state's school threats law, by @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social by @paigepfleger.bsky.social w/ @wpln.bsky.social

A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law Under the settlement, the Chattanooga charter school also agreed to implement training on how to handle threats of mass violence at school, including differentiating between “clearly innocuous stateme...

NEW: A Chattanooga public charter school has agreed to pay the family of an 11-year-old boy $100,000 to settle a federal lawsuit claiming that it wrongfully reported the student to police for an alleged threat of mass violence.

By @aliyyaswaby.bsky.social & @paigepfleger.bsky.social

Also read our original story about Junior ⬇️

A sheriff's deputy arrested him in the parking lot of a LongHorn Steakhouse last year, outside a family birthday party, based on a rumor that he made a threat.

www.propublica.org/article/tenn...

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❤️ Miss you!