Aaron Sankin

Evidence Grows That Google's AI Overviews Have Eviscerated the Media Industry Google's AI overviews have eviscerated the media landscape, with some top publications losing up to 97 percent of their web traffic.

Welp. The internet had a nice run.

Some outlets have lost over 90% of their traffic since the "AI" summaries rolled out.

"...the four worst-hit publications [now] get less monthly web traffic combined than the r/ChatGPT subreddit gets on its own."

Tesla sued after Austin shooting suspect allegedly assaulted co-worker A 65-year-old woman says the automaker ignored warning signs before Ndiaga Diagne, the suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting, assaulted her. She sued Thursday.

the Austin mass shooter was a Tesla employee who assaulted a coworker during a company-allowed prayer break late last year

the company refused to give the victim her assailant's name so she could press charges, and he went on to become a mass shooter

www.statesman.com/business/art...

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ Protestor A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the ...

New from 404 Media: Proton Mail, the privacy-focused email service, gave authorities data that let the FBI unmask an anonymous 'Stop Cop City' protester. It was payment data linked to the anonymous email account. From that, FBI ID'd them, then tracked their movements www.404media.co/proton-mail-...

NOEM TAKING QUESTIONS - DOES NOT APPEAR TO KNOW SHE WAS FIRED

Florence ICE detainee dead after untreated tooth infection, official says An ICE detainee, who had been at a Florence detention center for four months, died Monday following an untreated tooth infection.

An ICE detainee in Arizona has died of a TOOTH INFECTION after it went untreated for weeks, a local official says. He was a Haitian asylum seeker imprisoned in Florence, Arizona. @emilybregel.bsky.social reports.
tucson.com/news/local/b...

“The Alabama Solution,” The Oaklandside, and Mississippi Today/New York Times/Reveal Honored for Outstanding Contributions to Free Speech and Open Government The First Amendment Coalition announced the winners of its 2025 Free Speech and Open Government Awards.

The First Amendment Coalition honored Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray, and Ricardo “Raoul” Poole from "The Alabama Solution." The incarcerated whistleblowers risked their lives to take viewers inside Alabama’s prisons using cellphones they purchased through the prison’s black market:

As Texas Restricts Cashless Bail, More People Will Be Jailed for Months Based on an Accusation Despite evidence that cashless bail doesn’t increase crime, several states are moving to restrict it.

Taken together, SB 9 and Proposition 3 illuminate a two-pronged effort to stiffen pretrial detention: They simultaneously tighten the money-bail pathway for some offenses, while widening the menu of cases where people can be held without bail at all.

All data falls into two categories: spreadsheet or PDF.

Children getting an early opportunity to experience what it feels like to be an Oracle client

They're telling me - listen to this - they're telling me to not... to not, to never get involved in a land war in Asia! I don't know. That's what they say but I don't know. Should I do it? They're telling me it's one of the "classic blunders" but I might do it. Should I do it?... I'm going to do it

Hello! I am a trans journalist looking to speak with trans kids and parents of trans kids across the US who have been impacted by the clinic closures---please get in touch or share!

Important story from @themarshallproject.org on what happens when families are released from DHS detention:

“It boggles the mind why we're disrupting people from their immigration proceedings only to abduct them, incarcerate them at Dilley, and then just recycle them out the back door”

After Detention, Families Stranded in Border Town Face Harrowing Journey Home Parents and children from a detention center in Texas found themselves dropped at a border town shelter with few means to leave.

After detaining children and parents for weeks, or months, inside Dilley detention center, ICE is dumping them at a shelter in Laredo, TX. They are often thousands of miles away from where they were arrested, with no money to get back home. THREAD (1/)
www.themarshallproject.org/2026/03/02/i...

Reminder that Donald Trump Jr. sits on Polymarket's advisory board and his firm invested double-digit millions into the platform last year.

The DOJ and CFTC both had active investigations into Polymarket that were dropped after Trump took office.

OpenAI posted the terms of the deal. Reveals that it absolutely does allow for domestic surveillance. EO 12333 is how the NSA hides its domestic surveillance by capturing communications by tapping into lines *outside the US* even if it contains info from/on US persons.

openai.com/index/our-ag...

New: As David Ellison prepares to take control of CNN, legendary CBS News producer Mary Walsh, who is exiting, sent a goodbye note to colleagues.

In the note, Walsh writes, "We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that."

A reminder that Girl Scouting of America has welcomed trans and nonbinary girls from the first one that asked, has always had lesbian and bi members and adults, never declared bankruptcy to avoid paying for sexual assaults, and never poached the other side to recover from said bankruptcy.

MAMDANI: And I just think that there are barriers, barricades, to helping Americans that we can break down
TRUMP: Uh huh
MAMDANI: And breaking down barriers? Reminds me of a certain Broadway show *smiling widely* where they worked together to break a barricade?
TRUMP: *sitting bolt upright* Phantom

UPDATE: Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal says that "ICE used a phony missing persons bulletin for a 5 year old girl," to lie and get into a Columbia residential building and detain a student.

"It is unconfirmed at this time whether they impersonated an officer to do so," he adds.

I just love all the trans people in my life and want them to be safe and happy!!!!!

In Your State, Are Cops Being Called on New Mothers? The Marshall Project found more than 70,000 cases referred to law enforcement over allegations of substance use during pregnancy. Explore the data for your state.

Our investigation found state agencies shared allegations of pregnancy substance use with law enforcement 70,000+ times over six years. Allegations are often based on unreliable drug testing, which can return false positives.

Use our interactive tool to explore the data and policies in your state:

when I broke story abt Hanania being Nazi, almost none of folks he was tied to - Substack, NYT, WaPo, Atlantic, Stanford, UT, U of Austin, WSJ, Andreesen, Thiel, Ramaswamy, Sacks, Vance, Federalist Society - would comment

my book describes how this was indicator of this fascist political moment

CNN follows NPR and Politico in finding that DOJ scrubbed the Epstein files of evidence related to a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 years old.

Officers responding to a planned snowball fight in Washington Square Park were struck by members of the crowd. The NYPD commissioner described the incident as "illegal" and said authorities are investigating.

It's Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto - FuelArc News We now have a full year of data for the Cybertruck, and a strange preponderance of headlines about Cybertrucks exploding into flames, including several fatalities. That’s more than enough data to comp...

The Ford Pinto had a death rate of 85 people for 10 million cars sold. The Cybertruck hasn't sold 10 million, but the fatality rate so far maths out to 1,452 people killed per 10 million sold.

The Cybertruck may be the deadliest road car, for the occupants, ever sold.

fuelarc.com/evs/its-offi...

50/50 odds of that happening

The Score by C. Thi Nguyen: 9780593655658 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books “Mind-expanding . . . The Score is so exuberant and readable that the depth and seriousness of its insights almost sneak up on you.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “Brilliant...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735252...

Net-Approval For Trump's Handling Of Tariffs:

All: -30%

DEM: -90%
IND: -48%
GOP: +52%

Non-MAGA GOP: -12%
MAGA GOP: +75%

Ipsos / Feb 17, 2026

Federal Prisons Bar Gender-Affirming Care for Trans People ‘People will die,’ an advocate warns, as standard treatments for gender dysphoria are replaced with therapy and antidepressants after Trump’s order.

BREAKING: The federal prison system will stop providing gender-affirming medical or social transition care to almost any transgender people, under a new policy released by the Bureau of Prisons Thursday. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/02/19/t...