Rainesford Stauffer

Tennessee Wants to Let Schools Ban Immigrant Kids, Threatening to “End Public Education as We Know It” A Tennessee bill would take the right to education away from undocumented children. The Heritage Foundation is pushing it in other states.

Tennessee wants to ban undocumented children from access to a free public education, and turn school administrators into immigration informants. The Heritage Foundation wants to take that plan national. Read my latest for @theintercept.com:

Hahahahaha

Kentucky superintendents group signals support for executive director accused of misconduct The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents suggests it will keep Jim Flynn in his role.

After we ran our story about alleged sexual misconduct in Shelby Co, I reached out to all 22 district superintendents who make up the board of KASS, to ask if they are still behind their ED, who was the subject allegations from two graduates.

www.lpm.org/investigate/...

Seeing people in the news industry say that articles should be AI-generated is absolutely bonkers and the antithesis of why so many of us became journalists in the first place—because we aspired to the art of reporting AND writing. I will never release AI slop under my byline.

I know everybody is overworked/inboxes are unmanageable but I wish I could send every editor who replies to pitches, even if it is a no, a giant basket of snacks of their choice.

My 11-year-old, reading the news at breakfast: Kids my age have lived through some rough stuff--two Trump administrations, a pandemic, and now a new war. It's a lot.

these laws are a political project by which the state attempts to assume the power to decide sex and gender, power it does not have—and power it will express “incorrectly” because that’s power, too

Sex Workers Versus the Algorithm No seriously, fuck the algorithm.

HAPPY FLYTRAP TUESDAY!! This week, @sesmith.lol writes about the "algorithmic violence" navigated by sex workers across platforms, how it robs SW of their time, creativity, and (most importantly) their money.

READ BELOW:

www.theflytrapmedia.com/sex-wor/

It was an honor to speak to you for this, and an honor to get to read your work. Grateful to not only learn from your work itself, but also how you approach it and think about the larger context. Thank you for this incredible book and everything you continue to do!

I had the honor of interviewing @brian-goldstone.bsky.social last year, & still think about points he raised in this conversation often. "If you can drastically limit the magnitude and scope of a crisis, or even deny the existence of a crisis, you can more easily claim that you’re tackling it."

I know I've said this before, but this is hands-down one of the most important books I've ever read (and is beautifully written and reported, too). Get your paperback copy of There Is No Place For Us:

When I have conversation with my deceased mom in my dreams, I wake up filled with wonder and awe: Was it really her talking to me? What did that weird thing she said mean? Why was she carrying a bird?

To try to take away the rich mystery that grief can bring is naive and sad.

Why You Should Do More Things Alone Sometimes the most important person to meet at the ballet is yourself, writes Rainesford Stauffer.

For @time.com, I wrote a short essay about the first time, years ago, that I went to a ballet alone, where I entered the theater with a cheap, single ticket and emerged with a love of solo outings. I also chatted with people about activities they love to do alone, from hikes to movies to meals out:

Prosecutors Keep Charging Women Who Have Abortions For Crimes They Did Not Commit Kentucky’s fetal homicide law does not apply to people who end their own pregnancies. This woman got charged anyway.

Lot going on but: A Kentucky prosecutor admitted to not reading the law closely before charging a woman with fetal homicide after an abortion

"When we looked at it for the grand jury, we took a more intense look at it, and we realized we were unable to prove it." Only dropped charge post-indictment

*recalls people responding to a post about liking pancakes by asking "what about waffles??"*

SF Ballet will no longer perform at Kennedy Center The board voted to pull out of its scheduled May run of Mere Mortals at the Kennedy Center. Staff confirmed the decision to The Bold Italic at tonight's opening of The Blake Works

“Pulling out aligns SF Ballet with the broader arts community's stance that performing there under current leadership isn't a neutral act.”

San Francisco Ballet's Kennedy Center shows will 'no longer take place' The shows were set for May 27-31.

“For months there has been speculation and a growing petition for the San Francisco Ballet to cancel their May performances at the Kennedy Center. This weekend, after reporting from the Bold Italic, the SF Ballet Board of Trustees announced that the company will no longer be performing at the venue”

Idaho considers an 'apocalyptic' choice for disabled people and families Difficult budget decisions in a number of states are threatening vital programs for disabled people at home and caregivers in the workforce.

States have started proposing steep reductions in disability services to cope with Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Idaho is the first to suggest scrapping home care altogether — An action with a high human cost. My latest @19thnews.org.

ICE has detained this high schooler for 10 months. Here’s what he and his classmates want you to know Dylan Lopez Contreras, a student at Ellis Prep academy, was taken by ICE in May. The Guardian invited him and five of his classmates to share their lives and dreams

This was one of the most meaningful projects I've worked on recently. Dylan Lopez Contreras, a student at ELLIS Prep academy in the Bronx, was taken by ICE. Here's what he and his classmates want you to know...

“When you see that happen at a neighborhood association, you realize that it’s not just the usual, you know, ‘radical Antifa cells,’” Reilly said, “it’s crossed over into the minds of your SUV driving soccer moms.”

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!

Trump administration is sending pregnant migrant girls to South Texas shelter flagged as medically inadequate Government sources and advocates for the children worry the goal is to concentrate them in Texas, where abortion is banned.

A must read www.tpr.org/news/2026-02...

what a terrible time to not have foreign bureaus b/c the billionaire owner of a news org decided to shutter them

This is such a cool program.

"The five-day, all-expenses-paid boot camp will be held May 31 to June 4, 2026, in New York, with remote sessions via Google Meet throughout the year."

Worms in food, poor medical care, lights on 24/7: Families tell of life in Texas detention center When ICE officers in Minneapolis detained a 5-year-old boy and his father last month and sent them to a Texas detention center, many Americans were alarmed.

NEW: An uncomfortable but essential read.

We heard about the trauma endured by children in detention at Dilley, including the mother whose child used a plastic knife to hurt herself and the haunting images she created to vent her fears.

“We are all Liam,” one mom said.
apnews.com/article/chil...

Graphic listing paperback tour dates for There Is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone. 3.3 — Decatur, GA Charis Books & More at Auburn Avenue Research Library In conversation with Josie Duffy-Rice 3.12 — Washington, D.C. National Low Income Housing Coalition Housing Policy Forum 3.17 — Virtual Event House Our Neighbors 3.23 — Portland, ME PRINT at Mechanics Hall, in partnership with Project Home In conversation with Nicole Witherbee 3.24 — Boston, MA EMPath Disrupting Poverty Conference Boston University 3.27 — Dover, NH Community, Accessibility, and Belonging Conference University of New Hampshire 4.1 — Winston-Salem, NC “How to Be Human” Lecture Series Wake Forest University 4.9 — Kansas City, MO Common Thread / Marguerite Casey Foundation In conversation with Matthew Desmond and Tara Raghuveer 4.14 — Chicago, IL Family Action Network 4.18 — Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 4.20 — Columbus, OH Housing Ohio Conference 4.22 — Fort Wayne, IN Fair Housing Summit 5.14 — Atlanta, GA Atlanta Studies Symposium Georgia State University Footer reads: For ticket info, visit briangoldstone.net.

The paperback tour for THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US begins this month.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be in conversation with organizers, scholars, and journalists about mounting precarity in America and what it would mean to treat housing as a basic right.

I'd be grateful to see you if I'm in your city.

X Is Drowning in Disinformation Following US and Israel’s Attack on Iran WIRED has reviewed hundreds of posts on X that promote misleading claims about the locations and scale of the attack.

NEW: X Is *drowning* in disinformation following US and Israel’s attack on Iran. WIRED has reviewed hundreds of posts on X that promote misleading claims about the locations and scale of the attack.

read @davidgilbert.bsky.social:

sometimes things don’t have to be about us when bad things happen in the world

nothing they do makes any sense unless you focus on the fact that they have nothing approaching a belief or policy or worldview except a wish for their revolving door of perceived ‘enemies’ to suffer + a total lack of regard for human life. and then everything they do makes sense.