Ariel Wittenberg

A family opened a town’s first bookstore. A bathroom bill is driving them away. The Phelans ran the only bookstore in Vermillion, South Dakota. They sold it and moved after a new law would’ve required their daughter to use a boy’s bathroom.

A story designed to break my heart specifically: "The Phelans ran the only bookstore in Vermillion, South Dakota. They sold it and moved after a new law would have required their daughter to use a boy’s bathroom."

‘Hot Wasps’ Found at Nuclear Facility in South Carolina

Cool

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/s...

Journalists at The Hill overwhelmingly ratify first-ever union contract | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA Journalists at The Hill have voted to ratify their first union contract, securing increases in pay, vacation time and family leave.

🚨NEW: We have a deal at The Hill!

After three years, journalists @thehill.com voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first collective bargaining agreement, securing increases in pay, vacation time, family leave and more.

newsguild.org/journalists-...

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

There's much more in the piece, with commentary from the great @mattdpearce.com, @arielwittenberg.bsky.social, @mishal-khan.bsky.social, and @jasonkoebler.bsky.social, who touched on this dynamic in the barnburner linked below.

In sum, the fight over AI in journalism is just beginning to erupt.

Legislators in New York have proposed the FAIR act, which would provide a raft of protections against AI abuse in journalism—bosses would be required by law to tell staff about AI products, disclose to consumers when they're using AI, and so on. Given NY's centrality to US media, it could be big.

This work, of safeguarding journalism from bosses who are all-in on AI, and see it as a way to automate and speed up work, dodge accountability, and show investors they're on the cutting edge, will largely fall to journalists themselves, and their unions. It may get some help from New York, too.

This clash reflects a growing struggle over AI in journalism, between executives and managers eager to embrace AI, and journalists on the ground forced to comply with those directives while protecting—and doing—their work.

The very next week, the CEO of Axel Springer, Politico's parent company, declared that it would be mandatory for employees at all of his companies, journalists included, to use AI.

Tell POLITICO Management: AI should work with journalists, not against us! Last year, PEN Guild members ratified a groundbreaking first contract that included some of the strongest provisions in the industry around artificial intelligence. These protections not only gave uni...

Now, Politico journalists are fighting back. In one of the first such cases of the AI era, staffers are taking their bosses to arbitration over AI use that violates their contract and puts journalists' work and reputation at risk.

They issued the following petition asking for support:

None of this was supposed to happen. Politico's union, the PEN Guild, had bargained for—and, in 2024, won—some common sense protections from bosses' AI use.

Their contract stipulated that management had to give them 60 days notice of any new AI use that would impact their work. They got one hour.

Undeterred, Politico teamed up with an AI company to release an AI "report builder" that premium subscribers can use to generate bespoke reports, drawing ostensibly from archives of its reporters' work. The report builder frequently makes egregious errors and invents organizations that do not exist.

The mistake-ridden and standards-violating posts were simply deleted—without the sort of corrections that would be mandatory if such errors were made by any human staffer.

The AI quickly misspelled Kamala Harris's mother's name, and produced other dubious content.

Politico management rolled out the AI *again* during the vice presidential debates. When Vance called migrants "illegal immigrants" the AI bot printed it—a term forbidden by Politico editorial standards.

Politico's editorial staff was surprised for a number of reasons: They had been told only an hour before it was launched, in the middle of the Democratic National Convention, and placed on prime homepage real estate—real estate normally occupied by stories and reports written by humans.

Great report from Brian on how Politico's journalists are taking the lead in a larger industry-wide fight over AI in the newsroom.

I broke the story about their legal fight with management back in May, for additional context: www.wired.com/story/politi...

The struggle over AI in journalism is escalating Politico journalists are taking on management for using AI products that risk damaging their reputation and replacing their work. Their fight is emblematic of an embattled industry.

During two of the year's biggest news events, Politico reporters watched in surprise as management installed an AI bot atop the homepage—openly violating a deal with staff. It promptly made embarrassing errors and violated editorial standards. No corrections were issued.

Today, EPA Admin Lee Zeldin writes in FOX that he's going to only follow 'minimum requirements' for public participation in AI-related permits

www.foxnews.com/opinion/lee-...

E&E News: Enviros appeal permit for Musk’s xAI turbines The Shelby County, Tennessee, Health Department issued a permit to xAI for 15 methane gas turbines after months of the company operating dozens of the machines without pollution controls.

Yesterday, enviro groups appealed a Clean Air Act permit for xAI, arguing regulators didn't adequately address public comments.

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Contracts Show Millions of Dollars and Diverted Disaster Resources Were Used to Build DeSantis’ ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ TPM has obtained and analyzed over a dozen contracts and invoices related...

EXCLUSIVE: DeSantis diverted disaster prep resources during hurricane season in the rush to build the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention camp
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/co...

Is your family member or client at Alligator Alcatraz? We obtained a list The Trump and DeSantis administrations have refused to release a roster of detainees, none of whom seem to appear in ICE’s online database.

Bravo to the @miamiherald.com for publishing this list in full www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Here we go! 💪🏼

Help us stand up for ethics in journalism and sign our petition!

pub-lick health

Proud to represent this group holding management accountable to journalism ethics even as we use new technology

Employers are not just pressing #OSHA to "edit" the proposed heat reg (OSHA always does that), but to significantly weaken the proposal by adopting a problematic standard like the Nevada's (see below) or a so-called "performance" standard that would be impossible to enforce. 1/2

Employers to OSHA: Don’t kill the heat rule. Weaken it. Business interests have shifted strategies now that President Donald Trump is back in office.

Pushing OSHA to edit, rather than delete, its heat regs marks a strategic shift for industry — as many business interests previously have advocated against the need for any specific regs the federal level.

The difference appears to be Trump.

My latest

www.eenews.net/articles/emp...

This is not actually a subtweet of anything specific right now, but I do want to make a plea to everyone to a) attribute and link to the source of any information you're sharing b) only share posts that do so.

This isn't (just) about credit, it's about creating a chain of custody for information.

Proud to have contributed to Corbin’s excellent series, and to have also been a member of a second finalist reporting team (with Tom Frank and @arielwittenberg.bsky.social) for our package on the dangers of extreme heat. Great night for Politico’s E&E News 🎉

big beautiful basket weavers www.semafor.com/article/06/0...

E&E News: DOJ tells Trump he can wipe out national monuments An opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel says the Antiquities Act of 1906 allows presidents to shrink or eliminate designations by previous presidents.

Office of Legal Counsel upends 90 year old precedent, clears a path for Trump to erase national monuments

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...