Chris McDaniel

After justices warned of prolonged suffocation, Alabama subjected Anthony Boyd to the longest nitrogen execution in U.S. history. Boyd was the chairman of Project Hope, a death row-led nonprofit. Its members are left reeling in the wake of their leader's suffocation execution.

Just over an hour after 3 Supreme Court justices warned that Alabamian Anthony Boyd would suffer psychological torture, he was subjected to the longest nitrogen gas execution in US history, gasping for air more than 225 times. Read my eyewitness account: www.treadbylee.com/p/after-just...

Unanimous First Circuit takes pains to emphasize that this was an incredibly easy case to decide, despite writing a very long opinion knocking down every ridiculous argument the Trump admin made.

Update: The Committee to Protect Journalists says Mario Guevara was deported from the United States early Friday.
www.democracynow.org/2025/10/3/ma...

feel free to DM me

"This Court has listened carefully to the reasons given by Öztürk’s captors for masking-up and has heard the same reasons advanced by ... ICE. It rejects this testimony as disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable. ICE goes masked for a single reason—to terrorize Americans into quiescence."

On trial for journalism in Kentucky. Two months after their arrests while covering a protest, a pair of local reporters face criminal charges.

Two journalists are set to be tried in Kentucky this week.

Their crime? Covering a protest of the immigration detainment of Ayman Soliman, who himself fled persecution for his journalism in Egypt. Soliman’s lawyer called it a “cruel irony.”

"If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn't complain" is an instant hall-of-famer.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. 25A264 (25-332) DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL. U. REBECCA KELLY SLAUGHTER, ET AL. ON APPLICATION FOR STAY [September 22, 2025] The application for stay presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him referred to the Court is granted. The July 17, 2025 order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 25-cv-909, ECF Doc. 52, is stayed. The application is also treated as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment, and the petition is granted. The parties are directed to brief and argue the following ques-tions: (1) Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U. S. 602 (1935), should be overruled. (2) Whether a federal court may prevent a person's removal from public office, either through relief at equity or at law. The Clerk is directed to establish a briefing schedule that will allow the case to be argued in the December 2025 argument session. The stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.

BREAKING: SCOTUS will hear a case over whether it should overrule Humphrey's Executor — in a shadow docket order that also allows Trump's firing of Rebecca Slaughter as an FTC commissioner to take effect while the appeal is considered, which should not be allowed under Humphrey's Executor.

#BREAKING: Over dissents from Justices Sotomayor, Kagan & Jackson, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the Slaughter case (allowing President Trump to remove the last Dem member of the FTC), *and* grants certiorari "before judgment" to decide whether to formally overrule its 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor.

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Jimmy Kimmel & the FCC: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Here’s last night’s story about Jimmy Kimmel, the FCC, freedom of speech in the U.S., and why certain broadcast groups could learn a thing or two from Love Island. youtu.be/ohPToBog_-g

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Jimmy Kimmel & the FCC: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Really grateful to work with my colleagues on this one. Even more grateful to work at a place that's not currently under FCC influence www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPT...

Some news from me: I was laid off yesterday from Rolling Stone. Kind of in shock, but will be looking for a new gig. Here are Quincy and Lou

Multiple journalists killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital A hospital strike in southern Gaza has killed at least eight people, including four journalists. The attack happened on Monday.

Four journalists were killed by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital today, including Mariam Dagga, a freelancer with the @apnews.com. She has a 12-year-old son, who was evacuated from Gaza earlier in the war.

She was a true hero, like all of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza.
tinyurl.com/3cn5c9vb

Federal district court blocks FTC investigation into Media Matters, finding the "expansive" investigation is "a retaliatory act" for Media Matters' criticism of Elon Musk. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

"prior behavior" being... journalism?

In court today, Kaplan heard about migrants sleeping in areas that reek of sewage and ICE agents “holding up a water bottle and spraying it into the mouths of the individuals who wanted water as if they were animals.”
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

New level of dystopia achieved: A state Supreme Court has announced a death sentence ruling via an AI spokesman

The full list of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, in video form.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Health Insurers Are Denying More Drug Claims, Data Shows

I've been dealing with some prior authorization bs (now resolved) over some migraine meds over the past month, and this piece was very validating and infuriating.

NEW FROM @reuters.com: Top U.S. law firms have sharply scaled back their efforts to challenge the federal government in court, especially on behalf of pro bono clients, in the face of threats from President Trump.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Journalist Discovers Google Vulnerability That Allowed People to Disappear Specific Pages From Search Negative articles about a tech CEO vanished from Google after someone made fraudulent requests using the Refresh Outdated Content Tool.

This is extremely bad: Journalist Jack Poulson discovered a vulnerability in Google that was being exploited to get his reporting about a CEO deleted off of the search rankings.

This is a wet dream for reputation management companies, censorious regimes, etc

www.404media.co/journalist-d...

An attempted hunger strike in April made conditions worse, González said. Guards fired rubber bullets and plastic pellets at some detainees. When they asked for a lawyer, he said, guards told them: “That word doesn’t exist here.” At one point, the detainees used sharp iron pipes to cut themselves and write messages in their blood on white sheets as an act of protest, Suárez said. “We are not terrorists,” the messages read. “We are migrants.” Advertisement They were served meals of tortillas and beans three times a day, González said. Blanco said the food was the only relief in his day; detainees would occasionally be given pancakes for breakfast or hamburgers for lunch, he said. There is no outdoor space for recreation in CECOT and only certain corner cells have access to the sun, Suárez said. “With time we all lost our fear because we were practically dead people living,” Blanco said. “We felt dead.”

Those imprisoned by the Trump admin in El Salvador without due process "felt dead." A hunger strike was put down with rubber bullets and pellet guns. They were never allowed outside in four months.

When they asked for lawyers, guards would say "that word doesn't exist here."

🚨Now that the men imprisoned by the Trump admin in El Salvador are free, their stories are coming out; and they are horrific.

One man describes how Salvadoran officials at the prison beat them regularly, stole money from them, and denied them medical care — even painkillers.

Opinion | I Watched It Happen in Hungary. Now It’s Happening Here.

Former US ambassador to Hungary: "After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence." (h/t @bnovak.bsky.social)

“Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have collaborated with private security to surveil largely peaceful protesters opposed to the Thacker Pass mine, according to a ProPublica review of thousa...

Law enforcement agencies have collaborated with private security to surveil largely peaceful protesters opposed to a Nevada mining project called Thacker Pass.

A creek with atomic waste from WWII is linked to increased cancer risk A new study in JAMA shows how proximity to Coldwater Creek, where nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project was improperly stored, affected cancer rates over the decades.

A new study in JAMA shows how proximity to Coldwater Creek, where nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project was improperly stored, affected cancer rates over the decades.

JUST IN: Judge Sullivan rules that that Trump administration broke the law by concealing realtime data about how the government is spending congressionally mandated funds.

He notes this data is crucial amid concerns about potential illegal impoundment. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

hell ya

Where Congress’s Cuts Threaten Access to PBS and NPR The loss of federal funding threatens scores of public TV and radio stations across the United States.

I got my career started at @stlpublicradio.bsky.social and before that, I worked as a student journalist at @kbianews.bsky.social and @lpm.org. These were great places to learn as a young reporter, and vital to the community. Worried deeply about what this will do to coverage throughout KY and MO.