Nicholas Kerr

Here's what the third day of elementary school looked like in Mount Pleasant, Washington DC.

Map of local National Weather Service office "areas of responsibility" modified (using polygons with black outlines and red fill) to indicate where recent/expanding cuts to NOAA/NWS have resulting in understaffing so extreme that some offices can not longer operate on a 24/7 basis.

I just created a quick map depicting which portions of the United States are now (as of today) or will imminently be (by early June) without 24/7 local National Weather Service coverage (per Washington Post reporting). #CAwx #CAfire #CAwater #ORwx #AKwx #WYwx #KSwx

Baltimore Banner wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of overdose crisis The Baltimore Banner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for groundbreaking local journalism that exposed Baltimore as the deadliest large city in the nation for drug overdoses.

Baltimore Banner wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of overdose crisis

Trump's tariffs target the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands.

Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time” Current and former flight attendants for GlobalX, the private charter airline at the center of Trump’s immigration crackdown, expressed concern about their inability to treat passengers humanely and t...

The stories shared by ICE Air flight attendants paint a different picture of deportations from the one presented to the public, especially under President Donald Trump.
@mckenziefunk.com

Trump’s U.S.A.I.D. Cuts Hobble Earthquake Response in Myanmar While China, Russia and other nations have rushed emergency response teams to the devastated country, the U.S., once a leader in foreign aid, has been slow to act.

China, Russia and India have dispatched emergency teams and supplies to earthquake-ravaged Myanmar. So have Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. The U.S., the richest country in the world and once its most generous provider of foreign aid, has sent nothing.

“…people in unmarked clothes swarmed her car. They busted her window and dragged the 4-foot-10, 49-year-old mother of two out of her driver's seat, scratching her arm in the process. She has been detained ever since.”

Boston judge launches inquiry after ICE agents apprehend defendant mid-trial - The Boston Globe ICE has arrested hundreds of people across Massachusetts in recent days, sending shockwaves through the state’s immigrant communities.

"A Boston Municipal Court judge has launched an inquiry after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a man in the middle of his criminal trial — allegedly with the advance knowledge of the case’s prosecutors." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/28/m...

David: Are you concerned about retaliation from the Trump administration because of this story? Jeffrey: It’s not my role to care about the possibility of threats or retaliation. We just have to come to work and do our jobs to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, in our society today—we see this across corporate journalism and law firms and other industries—there’s too much preemptive obeying for my taste. All we can do is just go do our jobs.

A fantastically important postscript to this piece: David Graham asks Jeffrey Goldberg about possible retaliation, and Goldberg gives a perfect answer — with perfect swipes. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Immigrant women describe 'hell on earth' in ICE detention No shower for days, cameras trained on the toilet, women crammed into cells 'like sardines,' among the allegations.

"There was no access to a toilet, so guards told the women – whose accounts in some cases occurred on different days or different buses – to urinate or defecate on the floor... "

www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

This generation gets stumped by questions that were answered by Medieval Persians a thousand years ago. We are so cooked.

"the president is asserting dictatorial power and ‘constitutional crisis’ doesn’t capture the gravity of the situation.”

Here's an expert saying that "constitutional crisis" isn't the right term **because it doesn't go far enough.**

"The president is asserting dictatorial power and ‘constitutional crisis’ doesn’t capture the gravity of the situation.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/u...

Note: If this flies, there is absolutely no safeguard against the Trump Administration doing this to any one of the 340,000,000 people who live in the United States.

I wrote back in 2023 why designating fentanyl as a WMD was a dangerous stepping stone to illegal US military action in Mexico.

www.crisisgroup.org/united-state...

'Move Fast': Inside Team Trump's Furious Defiance of the Courts Donald Trump's advisers are attacking judges for daring to “control” him. Trump wants the one objecting to his deportation plans to be “IMPEACHED!!!”

One close Trump adviser simply says that the president’s ultimate leverage against certain judges who try to stand in the way of his agenda is that the judiciary does not command an army, while the president of the United States does.

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

In partnership with @freedom.press, WIRED will make all of its FOIA-based reporting free to access for anyone. Public records should be public, and I hope to see more outlets follow suit:

freedom.press/issues/wired...

Trump administration deports hundreds of immigrants even as a judge orders their removals be stopped The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration ta...

Carefully chosen instance to defy the courts. But if they get away with it, anything goes.
apnews.com/article/trum...

It seems I've also been placed on leave, just like the rest of my VOA colleagues.

Truth is, I can't know for sure, because when I woke up this morning in Seoul, I'd already been locked out of all VOA-related systems and accounts.

Latest information suggests main storm threat may not come through DC region until 7 to 11p tonight or so. There is a chance these storms will be severe. We'll have the latest at cwg.live

During the Chernobyl disaster, VOA radio was often the only source of genuine news the Soviet population had. www.latimes.com/archives/la-...

Iranian officer tells N12 News: Revolutionary Guards believe Hamas & Hezbollah will not be able to recover from the war.

I've written about the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Fun trivia: When the administration that signed it tried to stop what it xenophobically called an "invasion" of French immigrants, James Madison argued deportation was unconstitutional absent war: repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol120/i...

Statement from the director of the Voice of America (who has been placed on administrative leave).

In emergency Alien Enemies Act hearing before Chief Judge James Boasberg happening now.

On first question from judge, government attorney says he doesn't know when the Proclamation was signed.

Here's the Proclamation, saying it was signed yesterday.⬇️

(Important to issue of date of effectiveness)

(AP) — Trump invokes Alien Enemy Act of 1798, assuming wartime authority to speed up mass deportations.

Screenshot of a McConnell tweet declaring “this week in the Senate proved that clumsy partisan jams will not work” after he filibustered a Democratic spending bill and Democrats agreed to allow a McConnell-preferred clean bill to pass to avert a shutdown.

In 2021, McConnell successfully filibustered a Democratic CR ahead of a government shutdown and forced them to accept a clean one instead. What happened this week - a total cave on a totally partisan long-term funding bill - hasn’t happened in the 20 years I’ve covered Congress.

A few words on journalism, risk and what I actually said.

A movie theater screened this year’s Oscar-winning documentary about Palestinians, so the mayor of Miami Beach is trying to destroy the movie theater

Health Department Issues Notification About Potential Measles Exposure | Department of Public Health Health Department Issues Notification About Potential Measles Exposure

measles exposure reported in south philly --