Jenna McLaughlin

Apologies to anyone who has emailed my NPR account and gotten a blank automatic reply. Turns out, I am not an Outlook expert...

I'm on maternity leave and back in the summer. Replies should be fixed now.

What a time to be alive and starting maternity leave…will be doing my best to Get Offline til this summer. Hang in there, fellow newsfolk.

NPR battles Trump executive order in court NPR was in court for a pivotal hearing arguing that the Trump administration had broken the law with its treatment of public media.

NPR fights Trump's executive order against public media

The case isn't getting much attention.

But it pits the press's right not to face government retaliation over coverage against the president's assertion of vast executive powers

My story:

www.npr.org/2025/12/05/g...

ALL IMLS grants restored in every state & territory.

In response to a ruling from a federal judge in Rhode Island, the Institute of Museum and Library Services reinstated all previously canceled grants in every state and territory. It's a huge win for libraries and our communities.

"The reinstatement of all IMLS grants means that libraries across the country will be able to resume vital services for learning, imagination, and economic opportunity. We are breathing a sigh of relief, but the fight is not over." ALA President Sam Helmick. Show up for our libraries, American Library Association.

NEWS: The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored ALL previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island last month.

This is a massive win for libraries & communities in every state & territory!

Learn more: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...

Wow.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled Lindsey Halligan's appointment unlawful and the prosecutions against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey therefore invalid.

Both indictments are dismissed without prejudice.

Big news on the corporate accountability (or lack thereof) front: The SEC just dropped its case against SolarWinds and its former CISO for allegedly defrauding investors about the company's cybersecurity posture prior to its major hack. www.sec.gov/enforcement-...

you don't have to embarrass our guest by asking if he had someone killed and hacked to pieces

In normaler times, this is front page, above the fold, all caps behavior by an American president

With each cloud outage, calls for government action grow louder Public interest groups want the feds to investigate the systemic risk from market consolidation, while tech and security experts worry about single points of failure.

For no reason at all this morning I feel the need to re-share my piece with Miranda Nazzaro from last week about how we are all overly dependent on a small handful of internet providers: cyberscoop.com/with-each-cl...

CPB agrees to revive a $36 million deal with NPR killed after Trump's pressure The Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed Monday to fulfill a $36 million, multi-year contract with NPR that it had yanked after pressure from the Trump White House.

CPB revives $36 million NPR deal killed after Trump’s pressure

www.npr.org/2025/11/17/n...

what a time to be alive and in multiple media group chats

Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone A Washington judge said images taken by Flock cameras are "not exempt from disclosure" in public record requests.

A Washington judge said images taken by Flock cameras are "not exempt from disclosure" in public record requests.

people who have been claiming for years that journalists just make everything up are always amazed at how much there is in place to stop journalists making anything up

Short-term renewal of cyber information sharing law appears in bill to end shutdown An expired 2015 law that gives companies liability protection when they share cyberthreat information with the federal government would be renewed through January 30 under Senate legislation to end th...

Short-term renewal of cyber information sharing law appears in bill to end shutdown

On @therecordmedia.bsky.social

therecord.media/cisa-2015-in...

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not seek reelection A shrewd political strategist, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi has had an unprecedented career in Congress. First elected in a special election in 1987, Pelosi went on to become one of the most effective leaders of the Democratic party.

JUST IN: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will not run for re-election, ending her historic tenure in Congress

I like to think that I personally ruined the workplace.

“This case, ladies and gentleman of the jury, is about a sandwich.”

Closing arguments from the defense in the DC sandwich guy case are now underway.

All worthwhile perspectives 🫠

"Ultimately, America has capability, it just needs to remove the chaos that surrounds it.

The challenge before policymakers is not to invent new talent or technology, but to create the legal, institutional, and market infrastructure that enables growth," authors conclude.

Interesting paper out of Dartmouth about private sector's role in U.S. offensive cyber landscape. Recommends a national offensive cyber strategy and a pilot program for private sector access to "low-risk" targets like crypto scammers and ransomware operators:

sergeybratus.gitlab.io/papers/Dartm...

New: The recent layoffs in CISA's Stakeholder Engagement Division have virtually shuttered SED, eliminating teams focused on critical infrastructure support, nationwide partnerships, and international coordination.

My story with details cuts and impacts: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-st...

Photograph of ongoing demolition of the East Wing of the White House.

Monday's photo from the Washington Post

NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.

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...

Justice Brett Kavanaugh: “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen...they promptly let the individual go."

The reality: Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

A must read from the very talented @nicolefoy.bsky.social:

it is impossible to understate the influence susan had on this network & the work that we do every day. truly one of the nicest people around; always encouraged people to be themselves; one of a kind.

NPR 'founding mother' Susan Stamberg has died Susan Stamberg, an original National Public Radio staffer who went on to become the first U.S. woman to anchor a nightly national news program, has died.

news from the network:

npr founding mother susan stamberg has died, aged 87

Cyber giant F5 Networks says government hackers had 'long-term' access to its systems, stole code and customer data | TechCrunch The company, which provides cybersecurity defenses to most of the Fortune 500, said the DOJ allowed it to delay notifying the public on national security grounds.

This one's a wild/messy one: Cyber giant F5, which serves most of the Fortune 500, said unknown government hackers had 'long term' access to its network:

• stole source code, some customer data
• accessed undisclosed vulns in BIG-IP
• DOJ allowed F5 to delay public notice citing national security

Also repeated DHS's Kristi Noem's line about cuts at CISA since the new administration being about getting back to the "core mission" and moving away from a focus on things like "censorship."

"It's really what we should be doing."

Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scen...

I'm so proud to have colleagues like Tom Bowman -- who in this opinion piece lays out why the new Pentagon press restrictions are so dangerous. www.npr.org/2025/10/14/g...

A Statement from NPR’s Editor in Chief on the Pentagon’s Press Policy.
Read More: www.npr.org/2025/10/13/g...