Bryce Covert

what we're cutting:
health care
food stamps
preschool
environmental protections
international aid
scientific research

what we're buying:

“I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility Hundreds of children are currently being held with their parents at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. In letters and drawings, eight kids convey the pain of feeling trapped with no end...

"Extraño a mis amigos y siento que me van a olvidar." www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Trump Has Made Haitians Fear for Their Lives While the Trump administration continues to try to revoke Temporary Protected Status, even Haitians with full U.S. citizenship now fear violence and deportation.

Even Haitians who have been U.S. citizens for decades are constantly looking over their shoulders. “If they can do it to white people in Minnesota, they can do it to anyone.” My latest:
newrepublic.com/article/2062...

Childcare Providers Around the Country Are Being Targeted by Vigilante Surveillance In response to bogus allegations of fraud in Minnesota, strangers are filming them, knocking on their doors, demanding to be let in. It’s scaring parents and costing providers.

It's not just Minnesota. Childcare owners across the country told me that after the hyped up allegations of fraud they've been targeted by harassment and surveillance. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Childcare Providers Around the Country Are Being Targeted by Vigilante Surveillance In response to bogus allegations of fraud in Minnesota, strangers are filming them, knocking on their doors, demanding to be let in. It’s scaring parents and costing providers.

The Minnesota ICE occupation started with a video by rightwing Youtuber Nick Shirley, who claimed without evidence to uncover fraud in Somali-American daycares. He has since gone to California and has been harassing childcare owners there. I spoke to one of them: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

How Olympic snowboarder Shaun White became a part of the #MeToo conversation Shaun White's death-defying, near-perfect jumps in the halfpipe snowboard competition secured him a place in history as the first American male to win gold at three Winter Olympic Games. But the celeb...

MeToo ruined men’s careers so much that Shaun White is one of NBC’s three main Winter Olympics hosts this year www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Childcare Providers Around the Country Are Being Targeted by Vigilante Surveillance In response to bogus allegations of fraud in Minnesota, strangers are filming them, knocking on their doors, demanding to be let in. It’s scaring parents and costing providers.

Nick Shirley, the rightwing Youtuber who claimed without evidence to find fraud in Minnesota childcare centers, has gone to California and showed up at a provider's home-based daycare there. I spoke to her about the "panic" it caused for her and her staff: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Okay folks, I'm restarting the newsletter I had years ago. Sign up if you want a monthly link dump in your inbox to keep tabs on my work: mailchi.mp/39215d5120eb...

How Women Harmed by Men in Their Private Spaces Can Get Justice Women who have experienced transgender-identifying males invading their private spaces at work have grounds to file a claim.

After urging white men to file charges of discrimination based on their race and gender with the EEOC, Trump's Chair Andrea Lucas is now urging women to file charges of discrimination if trans people use the same bathroom as them www.dailysignal.com/2026/02/06/b...

The City Where Traffic Fatalities Vanished For nine straight years, Hoboken, New Jersey hasn't seen a single fatal crash. Here's how they did it.

The changes that led to Hoboken experiencing zero traffic fatalities over nine years are really pretty simple reasonstobecheerful.world/the-city-whe...

Yes, thank you. It costs me time and money to put on makeup to make myself "acceptable" on video that no man has to expend.

Childcare Providers Around the Country Are Being Targeted by Vigilante Surveillance In response to bogus allegations of fraud in Minnesota, strangers are filming them, knocking on their doors, demanding to be let in. It’s scaring parents and costing providers.

“Somebody can come with a gun and shoot us. That is a big fear." www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Childcare Providers Around the Country Are Being Targeted by Vigilante Surveillance In response to bogus allegations of fraud in Minnesota, strangers are filming them, knocking on their doors, demanding to be let in. It’s scaring parents and costing providers.

After Trump elevated a video with unfounded claims of fraud in Somali-American run childcares and used it as context for the ICE occupation of Minnesota, childcare providers around the country have been subject to vigilante harassment and surveillance www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Trial rescheduled in Nike sex discrimination case Due to schedule conflicts, the five-day trial will now begin July 13.

Never mind that Nike is still fighting against a mass lawsuit from female employees who have accused it of systematically devaluing and demeaning women. It's the DEI programs that are of course the problem. www.oregonlive.com/business/202...

Nike, Accused of Bias Against White Workers, Is Under Federal Investigation

Well, here it is: the EEOC is suing Nike over anti-white bias www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

DC local news deserves better than Jeff Bezos Help us build our local newsroom, by D.C. for D.C.

The Post layoffs are an incalculable loss for local journalism, and one that we won't recover from anytime soon. But as billionaires destroy beloved institutions, it’s our job to build new ones. The @51st.news can't fill this void alone, but I think we owe it to DC to try.
51st.news/dc-bezos-was...

As always, if you find yourself newly having to or wanting to freelance, reach out! I'm happy to share advice and what I've learned along the way.

The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But new documents make no mention of the gang and reveal federal agents had information about “ille...

Remember that midnight raid in Chicago supposedly to arrest Tren del Aragua members? Newly revealed court docs show that the raid was facilitated by the building owners who are now accused of using the raid to evict tenants. DHS never mentions TDA in their filings: www.propublica.org/article/chic...

"About 1 in 4 Minnesota voters took part in the January 23 day of shutdown and protest against ICE, or have a loved one who did"

I love freelancing but this is true. There are stories I simply cannot do without a newsroom behind me. There are also practical reasons some people can't just freelance, like needing health insurance or paid time off.

Striking Starbucks workers urge customers to delete coffee chain’s app Unionized baristas continue to fight for a fair contract and ask public for solidarity as strike stretches into third month

Starbucks workers are asking customers to delete the mobile app amid their ongoing strike to push the corporation to reach a first contract with the union and to stop union busting
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

EEOC Quietly Hired Lawyer Who Crusaded for Cases of Discrimination Against Men — Including His Own The EEOC quietly hired Benjamin North, a lawyer who crusaded against what he said was discrimination against men in sexual assault cases.

The EEOC, which protects workers from sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment, just hired a guy who was suspended by his college over a rape accusation and then sued the university alleging it had violated his gender rights theintercept.com/2026/02/04/e...

Congrats Jamil!

Snowstorms are hell for wheelchair users—but they don't have to be "You can't physically move. You can't do anything."

Snowstorms are more than just an inconvenience for wheelchair users. Inadequate snow clean-ups means a loss of autonomy for many. New for me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Riffing off Brendan's method of juxtaposition in this awesome report, I'd like to offer another comparison:

Food assistance cuts versus new funding for DHS in the "Big Beautiful Bill"

Republicans cut food assistance by $187 billion while providing $191 billion in funding for DHS

GQ Man of the Year!

Nurses Hold the Line for Workplace Safety - The American Prospect In New York, nurses mark the fourth week of their strike with a march on Gov. Kathy Hochul. A West Coast strike is in its second week.

Hospital executives want to make the NYC nurses strike all about wages, but nurses told me that's the lowest priority on their list. What they want the most is a safe work environment and safer staffing levels. New from me in @prospect.org:

'Reminds me of Anne Frank': Jewish seniors are offering to hide their Haitian caregivers as Trump's TPS end looms - Jewish Telegraphic Agency The end of Temporary Protected Status has Holocaust survivors offering to hide Haitian staffers, according to the CEO of a senior-living center in Florida.

"About 500 seniors live at Sinai Residences in Boca Raton, Florida, including many Holocaust survivors. Recently, some of them asked if they could hide the building’s Haitian staff in their apartments."

“Potential” and the Gender Promotion Gap† By Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue* We show that subjective assessments of employee “potential” contribute to gender gaps in promotion and pay. Using data on 29,809 management-track employees from a large retail chain, we find that women receive substantially lower potential ratings despite receiving higher performance ratings. Differences in potential ratings account for approximately half of the gender promotion gap. Women’s lower potential ratings do not reflect accurate forecasts of future performance: Women subsequently outperform male colleagues, both on average and on the margin of promotion. We highlight two mechanisms driving the gender potential gap: strategic retention and stereotyping. (JEL J16, J31, J71, L81, M12, M51)

"...women receive substantially lower potential ratings despite receiving higher performance ratings... lower potential ratings do not reflect accurate forecasts of future performance: Women subsequently outperform male colleagues..."
pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...

What's doubly galling about this, and all of the federal departments under Trump, is that we're being harmed both by the weaponization of DOT and by it ignoring its actual work. "A Department of Transportation focused on persecuting foes is one that is failing to improve lives."