Eli Flesch

welcome, blog brethren A website, a blog, space to vent... good things to have in 2026.

And a little intro note: www.eliflesch.com/welcome/

Fiction: Dathan with a 'D' Until Dathan, I never photographed the dead. I’m a surf photographer.

I started a blog! Hoping to put out some more creative writing over there, so here’s a short story to kick it off: www.eliflesch.com/dathan/

“woke” is when you acknowledge that black people have contributed to the united states

Holy crap Kara Walker chopped up a Stonewall Jackson statue and revealed a monster

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

in light of the kimmel news, just a reminder that a few days ago a prominent fox news host literally called for killing homeless people. right afterward, someone shot up a couple homeless encampments.

that fox news host still has his job.

L.A.'s Original Pantry to reopen with new owner and same workers The beloved downtown diner closed in March, after 101 years of business. Leo Pustilnikov bought the diner and an adjacent parking lot for $5.5 million.

NEW: The classic of all classic diners The Original Pantry is reopening with new owners — including all former employees, in a deal pushed by their very shrewd union, Unite Here Local 11. More via @suhauna.bsky.social 🗒️ www.latimes.com/business/sto...

20 years have passed since Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf states. I looked at some ways the storm amplified race and class inequities, affected perceptions of risk, and changed an insurance landscape that has grown more challenging for New Orleanians:

www.law360.com/insurance-au...

Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity - Nature By analysing the smartphone data of 2,112,288 participants, in particular observing and comparing the activity of the same individual in two different environments, we find that increases in the walka...

Seminal paper published by Althoff et al. in Nature last week.

"...moving from a less walkable (25th percentile) city to a more walkable city (75th percentile) increased walking by 1,100 daily steps, on average."

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

‘We faced hunger before, but never like this’: skeletal children fill hospital wards as starvation grips Gaza For months Israel kept food shipments to Gaza far below starvation rations. Now the death toll is rising rapidly

“Mohammed was born healthy but his mother was too malnourished to produce breast milk, and the family has only been able to get two cans of baby formula since.

At seven months old, he weighs just 9 pounds.”

Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die July 21, 2025 AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip since its staff journalists left in 2024. Along with a few others, they are now the only ones left to report what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The international press has been banned from entering the territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die. One of them, Bashar, has been working with AFP since 2010, first as a fixer, then freelance photographer, and since 2024, as lead photographer. On July 19th he managed to post a message on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” Bashar, 30, works & lives in the same conditions as all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another under Israeli bombings. For > a year he’s lived in utter destitution, working at extreme risk to his life. Hygiene is a major issue for him, with recurring bouts of severe intestinal illness. Since Feb, Bashar’s been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, 4 brothers & sisters and the family of one of his brothers. Their house is devoid of any furnishings, except a few cushions. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had “fallen, due to hunger.” Even though these journalists receive a monthly salary from AFP, it’s no longer enough to buy food, or they have to pay completely exorbitant prices. The banking system has collapsed, and those who exchange money via online bank accounts charge a commission of up to 40%. AFP no longer has the ability to provide them with a vehicle and there is not enough fuel to allow these journalists to travel for their reporting. Driving a car means becoming a target for Israeli airstrikes. AFP reporters therefore travel on foot or by donkey cart. (alt txt continued in next post)

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"

Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

That CEO’s wife has the chance to do the funniest thing ever at a U2 concert

Tell Law360 That You Want To Read News Produced By Humans, Not AI Law360’s parent company LexisNexis recently informed the newsroom that our journalists will be required to use an untested, faulty and unhelpful AI tool developed by the company. This tool includes a ...

For folks interested in keeping Law360 a trusted source of legal news and analysis, please consider signing a petition of support for our experienced reporters: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

Good piece on a troubling development in our newsroom. The idea that error-prone A.I. systems with their own biases should be used to question the editorial judgment of skilled reporters is pretty insulting.

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

The ruling essentially relieves foreign insurers from state laws that prohibit arbitration in insurance disputes. Those laws exist in states like Louisiana with huge climate risks and frequent property insurance disputes.

While the 2nd Circuit ruling centered on hurricane claims, it would apply to any dispute that implicates a policy requiring arbitration for resolution. With the 2nd Circ. covering major insurance hubs in New York and Connecticut, this ruling gives insurers more authority to avoid costly litigation.

Insurers outside the U.S. won big last week with a 2nd Circuit ruling holding they can arbitrate rather than litigate hurricane claims. For my first foray into the complicated world of international arbitration, I wrote about how the ruling closes a circuit court split www.law360.com/insurance-au...

A baby surrounded by medical devices is being held up by someone with gloved hands. A headline reads: "Baby Is Healed With World's First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment." Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania.

Breaking News: A baby with a rare disorder made medical history by receiving the first custom gene-editing treatment. The technique used has the potential to help people with thousands of other uncommon genetic diseases. nyti.ms/4j49xBy

This expands a similar purge recently at the Naval Academy library, in Maryland. Last month, civilian Navy officials, following orders originating from Mr. Hegseth, pulled from shelves books including one that critiqued “The Bell Curve,” a 1994 text that argues that Black men and women are genetically less intelligent than white people. But the academy kept “The Bell Curve” itself on its shelves.

You’re allowed to argue that black people and women are genetically inferior. But you’re NOT allowed to argue they are NOT inferior because that’s divisive. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/u...

Under Texas’ Abortion Ban, Where a Woman Lives Can Determine Her Risk of Developing Sepsis While the rates of dangerous infections spiked across the state after it banned abortion in 2021, women in Houston fared far worse than those in Dallas, according to ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind ana...

NEW: The rate of sepsis in Houston surged 63% after Texas banned abortion.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where hospital leaders empowered doctors to intervene before patients’ conditions worsened, it rose just 29%.

Wisconsin governor can lock in 400-year school funding increase using a veto, court says The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that the Democratic governor legally used the state’s uniquely powerful veto to lock in a school funding increase for 400 years.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s governor can lock in a 400-year school funding increase using his uniquely powerful veto, top court says.

Insurers Accuse SoCalEdison Of Sparking Eaton Fire - Law360 Ten carriers blamed Southern California Edison for costing the insurance industry billions after negligently starting the January Eaton Fire, telling a California state court that the blaze was caused by a poorly maintained transmission tower whose wires arced, igniting vegetation.

Ten carriers blamed Southern California Edison for costing the insurance industry billions after negligently starting the January Eaton Fire. www.law360.com/artic...

Et voilà: our NEH grant with Harriet Murav for “In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union” has been terminated. This project does not, the letter notes, support “the furtherance of the President’s agenda.” I guess work on Jews surviving genocide is out of step with the agenda of this presidential administration whose only use for Jews is the weaponization of Jewish safety to destroy higher education.

My @nehgov.bsky.social grant “In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union” was canceled by “DOGE.” The project doesn’t support "the furtherance of the President's agenda.” Jews surviving genocide: out of step w/ the agenda of using Jews to destroy higher ed.

FEMA moves to end one of its biggest disaster adaptation programs In an internal FEMA memorandum obtained by Grist, the Trump administration announced it plans to dismantle the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.

Scoop from me and Jake: FEMA is ending BRIC. grist.org/politics/fem...

Louisiana voters reject 4 constitutional amendments, handing Landry major defeat • Louisiana Illuminator In a stunning rejection of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, Louisiana voters turned down all four of his constitutional amendments Saturday.

ELECTION COVERAGE: Louisiana voters reject 4 constitutional amendments, handing Gov. Jeff Landry a major policy defeat. @jsodonoghue.bsky.social & @greglarose.bsky.social report. lailluminator.com/2025/03/29/l...

Brenna Trout Frey • 3rd+ Former Attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Mea... 1h • Edited • © + Follow Skadden Resignation Today the executive partner of my former firm sent us all an "update" that attempted to convince some of the best minds in the legal profession that he did us a solid by capitulating to the Trump administration's demands for fealty and protection money. Fellow Skadden attorneys: If you agree with Jeremy London's position that the firm should not engage in "illegal DEI discrimination," should devote prestigious Skadden Fellows to the Trump administration's pet projects, and should help "politically disenfranchised groups who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms," (taking into account the robust pro bono work that major national law firms already do), then by all means continue working there. But if that email struck you as a craven attempt to sacrifice the rule of law for self-preservation, I hope you do some soul-searching over the weekend and join me in sending a message that this is unacceptable (in whatever way you can). As one of my more eloquent former colleagues put it: "Do not pretend that what is happening is normal or excusable. It isn't." There is only one acceptable response from attorneys to the Trump administration's demands: The rule of law matters. The rule of law matters. As an attorney, if my employer cannot stand up for the rule of law, then I cannot ethically continue to work for them.

A Skadden attorney resigned today, citing the firm’s decision to strike a deal with Trump amid pressure campaign on law firms.

“[I]f my employer cannot stand up for the rule of law, then I cannot ethically continue to work for them,” the former Skadden lawyer, Brenna Trout Frey, wrote on LinkedIn.

Extreme heat without AC in Texas prisons is unconstitutionally cruel punishment, judge rules A federal judge has found the extreme heat in Texas prisons that don’t have air conditioning is “plainly unconstitutional.”

A judge has ruled that extreme heat in Texas prisons without AC is cruel and unusual punishment, but declined to force the state to turn the AC on: apnews.com/article/texa...