Stacy Kess. -30-

This is my favorite issue so far.

Home - The Word March 2026: NICAR 2026 takes on Indianapolis, AI, accountability, and accessibility. Plus trauma in journalism, starting a newsletter while disabled; getting more people to read your long-form pieces ...

We made it! Live from #NICAR26...

Plus:
• trauma in journalism
• starting a newsletter as a disabled journalist
• going beyond quotes in articles
• and how to get people to read to the end of your long-form piece

the-word.news

As soon as our servers are back up, the March issue of The Word will be published. We promised.

Yes, this means today's edition of The Word will be late. But we're working to get the March edition out as soon as we can.

Le sigh…

When you're trying to publish the magazine and suddenly, you're dealing with either a dying laptop, a crashing website, really slow hotel wifi... or something. And you'd love to diagnose the problem, but one of those three things is preventing you from also diagnosing the problem. AHHH.

I miss my dogs right now.

...And, yes, I miss Mr. Kess too.

Every time I travel, I remember...

I really don't like traveling. I like being at home.

Home is where the dogs are.

Landing in LaGuardia never gets less like Oh My Fucking God Am I Going To Die This Time!

And then you land and you think, why the fuck did they build an airport like this. Anyway, an hour until my next flight takes off and I can do it in reverse.

Massachusetts has announced it will secede from the union

I speak on behalf of Boston when I say:

You will never take our iced coffee! Dunkin’ or otherwise!

An extremely belabored metaphor with minimal payoff but ok, point carries.

Printing out this advice and hanging it above my desk.

Excuse me, but I ordered good weather and a better transit system for my time in Indy…

I'm leaving Boston, where it is currently 31° F and my street is covered in ice and I'll be landing in Indianapolis where the high today will be 57° F. I'm wearing my winter coat and feel ridiculous. It will be in the 60s the entire time I'm there and in Detroit except the last day when it snows...

I just packed 9 days of stuff (clothes, boots, snacks, toiletries, meds) into one carry-on rolly bag. And yes, there's still space for the laptop and the cord and stuff.

Worship my packing skills, people.

And if you need more incentive to go to this session, yes, we'll be providing some kind of goodies.

That's all I'm saying.

#NICAR26 #Accessibility #AltText

schedules.ire.org/nicar-2026/#...

This is a great way to make sure your social posts are accessible! And if you don’t know how to write alt text, join @stacykess.bsky.social and I for our “Implementing Accessibility” session at #NICAR26 on Friday!

Stacy Kess, reporting from [insert new location here].

And yet... these people are in charge now.

Never forget that the Middle East is but the setting and Muslims and Jews are just dispensable characters in the apocalyptic fever dream of right-wing Christian fundamentalists.

She’d Never Changed Her Gender Marker. Kansas Invalidated Her License Anyway. — Assigned A trans Kansas resident recently changed her name but not her gender marker on her license, fearing what Kansas may do if she did. The Kansas DMV still flagged her ID.

This story, from @natezuke.bsky.social, is absolutely wild. A trans woman who never changed her gender marker was issued a letter invalidating her license. At the DMV they cut up her license, which had an "M" marker.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

My first nursing job was as a home care vent nurse for a five-year-old boy.

After the car crash, my husband (then boyfriend) did most of my care. It allowed me to rehab in a safe place: home.

Living at home, living with family, being in the community, matters. Home care matters.

Idaho considers an 'apocalyptic' choice for disabled people and families Difficult budget decisions in a number of states are threatening vital programs for disabled people at home and caregivers in the workforce.

States have started proposing steep reductions in disability services to cope with Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Idaho is the first to suggest scrapping home care altogether — An action with a high human cost. My latest @19thnews.org.

Good excuse to get a whole new laptop, imho...

"I can't use this one anymore. @lollardfish.bsky.social made me laugh and now it's got cheerios stuck to the screen. It's broken."

(Also, you can take or leave my info as a Bostonian, Baystater, New Englander, etc.)

Michiganders vs. Michiganians — what's the history, and which one is better? One of our names was an insult, and the other is sort of dull — so what's your pleasure, fellow citizen?

When I worked in Michigan in the early 2000s as a reporter and editor, our style book directed us to use Michiganian.

But it's up for debate linguistically.

www.freep.com/story/news/l...

Thanks. This made me laugh out loud while eating my breakfast. Now I have Cheerios stuck to my laptop screen.

Exit strategy? Who needs it?

I'm the founder of @equalaccesspublicmedia.org. We focus on #accessibility in the field of journalism and public-facing news products.

I've not just been saying this. I've been screaming this.

Now @chadtopaz.bsky.social has the data to show it.