Ethan Brown

Obviously reading any Pam Colloff piece is a must but also be on the lookout for Justine van der Leun’s outstanding new book, UNREASONABLE WOMEN, which will be published in June. Criminalized survival is a scourge.

They Were Convicted of Killing Their Abusers. A New Law Offered a Second Chance at Freedom. An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of women who killed their abusers. Why are nearly all of them still in prison?

My latest, with @propublica.org + @nytimes.com:

An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of domestic violence survivors who fought back -- women who are serving long sentences for killing their abusers. Why are nearly all of them still in prison?

www.propublica.org/article/okla...

They Were Convicted of Killing Their Abusers. A New Law Offered a Second Chance at Freedom. An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of women who killed their abusers. Why are nearly all of them still in prison?

NEW: The Victims Who Fought Back

An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of women who killed their abusers.

Why are nearly all of them still in prison?

By @pamelacolloff.bsky.social

Crime plunges in major cities despite Trump's crackdown rhetoric Big cities are safer and here's what the numbers show.

Violent crime dropped sharply across America's biggest cities in 2025, according to new data reviewed by Axios.

Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”

Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist

The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”

The looming return of Jim Crow to America’s second Blackest state Louisiana’s political system could soon look more like 1966, the end of the Jim Crow Era, than 2026, and it’s time to acknowledge the full extent of the greatest threat to the American Experiment in decades.

The looming return of Jim Crow to America’s second Blackest state

Louisiana’s political system could soon look more like 1966, the end of the Jim Crow Era, than 2026, and it’s time to acknowledge the full extent of the greatest threat to the American Experiment in decades.

State prisons in US grew deadlier and more violent amid guard shortage, review finds The US locks away more people than any other nation, including about 1 million people in state-run prisons. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

DOJ: The death rate among state prisoners increased 47% between 2019 and 2024 ... The deaths include homicides, suicides and violence, and the report concluded that understaffing and high turnover “likely contribute” to the increase

Louisiana paroles its lowest number of prisoners in 20 years under Gov. Jeff Landry The state parole board freed 185 prisoners during Landry’s tenure, compared with 858 in the two years before he took office. Hundreds who would have been released under previous governors remain incarcerated with little chance of earning parole.

Louisiana paroles its lowest number of prisoners in 20 years under Gov. Jeff Landry

The state parole board freed 185 prisoners during Landry’s tenure, compared with 858 in the two years before he took office. Hundreds who would have been released under previous governors remain incarcerated with…

Alex Pretti, the man killed by federal agents today in Minneapolis, appears to have been a registered nurse, an athlete, a son and a brother, with ties to Colorado and Wisconsin.

Here is a photo he used for several accounts.

‘Like we’re starting all over again’; Chicago man acquitted on Bovino murder-for-hire charges now in ICE custody A day after a Chicago construction worker was acquitted by a federal jury of charges he offered money to kill Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino he found himself back in custody.

A longtime snitch with an armed robbery conviction told the government that a construction worker with no sheet is a high-ranking Latin King trying to kill Greg Bovino. The “case” fell at trial but the government is trying to deport the man anyway.
www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/24/m...

Musk’s Chatbot Flooded X With Millions of Sexualized Images in Days, New Estimates Show

We set out to determine how many images of women and girls Grok created during its nudifying spree. What we found was “industrial-scale abuse,” experts said. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

House Committee Presses NYU, Columbia Over Epstein Ties Victims say Jeffrey Epstein promised to help them get admitted and paid for them to study at the prestigious universities.

Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein lured some of his victims in the 2000s by promising to help them get into New York University and Columbia University, then sometimes footing the tuition bills.

Predawn fire reduces parts of Mississippi's largest synagogue to charred ruins - Mississippi Today A fire heavily damaged Jackson’s only synagogue before dawn Saturday – the same house of worship that was firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 because the rabbi had been an advocate for civil rights...

"A fire heavily damaged Mississippi’s largest synagogue before dawn Saturday – the same house of worship in northeast Jackson that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights." mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...

Federal agents shoot 2 people in East Portland Two people were shot Thursday by federal officers operating in East Portland, according to the Portland Police Bureau. The victims were transported to a local hospital. It was not immediately clear th...

Federal agents have shot two people in Portland, just a day after ICE shot and killed a woman in Minnesota. Follow @alexzee.bsky.social for updates. www.opb.org/article/2026...

The woman killed by ICE today was a poet. She won the 2020 Academy of American Poets, University & College Poetry Prize at Old Dominion University.

(And this is Renee from confirmed socials- a photo of a different woman with red lipstick is going around, but that was a classmate.)
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31 years wrongfully jailed: Suit against Baltimore Police may lead to $14M payout Baltimore will likely pay a $14 million civil rights settlement to Gary Washington, who was wrongfully convicted of killing a teen in the city in 1986.

"Baltimore will likely pay a $14 million civil rights settlement to Gary Washington, who was wrongfully convicted of killing a teen in the city in 1986.": www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/06/b...

Inspector general report finds serious failures led to an inmate wasting away from treatable cancer A federal inmate died of treatable colon cancer after waiting six months for an urgent colonoscopy. Medical neglect like this is widespread in prisons.

Latest: The Justice Department Inspector General released a report detailing a fatal case of medical neglect, where Bureau of Prisons officials let a man waste away from treatable colon cancer.

A federal judge held the BOP in contempt over its treatment of the man. reason.com/2026/01/06/i...

He was sentenced to death. Rob and Michele Reiner loved him like a son. Nanon Williams was sent to death row for a murder he says he didn't commit. Decades later, through daily emails and weekly prison calls, the Reiners became family.

Nanon Williams was sent to death row for a murder he says he didn’t commit.

Rob and Michelle Reiner learned about his fight for freedom and built a bond through daily emails.

“They became my family,” Williams told NBC News after their deaths.

Mississippi Welfare-Fraud Trial Spotlights National Oversight Failures A safety-net scandal totaling at least $77 million resembles one in Minnesota, according to a Republican auditor.

The first trial in the Mississippi welfare scandal is set to begin this week, with former professional wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. standing trial.

The most telling Bari Weiss incident came when "The Free Press" excused George Floyd's murder, @radleybalko.bsky.social highlighted factual errors, and Weiss's reaction was not to make corrections, but to invite Balko on a podcast.

There is no truth, there are no standards, there is only content.

The Incident That Prompted Trump to Ban Epstein From Mar-a-Lago’s Spa Mar-a-Lago sent an 18-year-old spa worker on a house call to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. She complained to her bosses that Epstein pressured her for sex.

Exclusive: The incident that prompted Trump to ban Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago’s spa.

Somebody sent this to me and it's completely false. Murder is falling because shootings are plunging not because emergency medical technology suddenly improved in 2023.

A Year Without Clemency: Hochul Leaves Prisoners in Limbo Despite Broad Support for Release The governor promised to use clemency on a rolling basis. In 2025, she hasn’t freed anyone, including people whose release has been endorsed by prosecutors, prison leaders and even the judges who sent...

District attorneys. Prison superintendents. Even sentencing judges. They’ve urged @governor.ny.gov to grant clemency.
She hasn’t freed anyone all year — despite promising to grant pardons and clemencies on a "rolling basis."
www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/30/h...

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NEW: Pardoned January 6 rioters have been advising Justice Department officials how to pursue – and perhaps prosecute – the very prosecutors who helped put them behind bars.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Trump says he's pardoned Tina Peters, but that may not save her from prison Trump has no jurisdiction over state-level cases to offer the pardon.

I don’t want to see “experts say Trump can’t pardon a state conviction.”

That’s like “experts say sun rises in east, and some scientists claim water is two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen atom.”

It’s just a fact.

He CANNOT do this.

And the media DAMN well better get their coverage right.

Travis County district attorney moves to exonerate wrongfully accused yogurt shop murder suspects The district attorney filed paperwork on Thursday to formally clear the names of four young men accused of the 1991 murders.

"Travis County district attorney moves to exonerate wrongfully accused yogurt shop murder suspects": www.kut.org/crime-justic...

ICYMI: Deaths from criminal homicide, drug overdose, alcohol, and traffic accidents all spiked during COVID. They're all rapidly falling today. I wrote about the positive trend behind death rates from some causes in the US today.

jasher.substack.com/p/its-not-ju...

Entire Chain of Command Could Be Held Liable for Killing Boat Strike Survivors, Sources Say Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions could spark investigations for war crimes or outright murder, sources told The Intercept.

EXCLUSIVE: Entire Chain of Command Could Be Held Liable for Killing Boat Strike Survivors, Sources Say

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions could spark investigations for war crimes or outright murder, sources told The Intercept.

theintercept.com/2025/12/02/h...

“.. This is X in 2025: Potentially fake accounts crying at other potentially fake accounts that they aren’t real, all while refusing to acknowledge that they themselves aren’t who they say they are — a Russian nesting doll of bullshit.”

@cwarzel.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...