Sam Schulz

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

Got a tip recently about how Trump's tariffs are preventing libraries from sharing books, and causing their loaned books to get stuck or lost in other countries: www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

It’s true. I still recall fondly perhaps my favorite headline I’ve ever written, one from probably a decade ago that resembled this lede, after a truck full of butter got wedged beneath an underpass on the Hutch: “Crashed butter truck clogs major NY artery.” Is there anything more satisfying?

A smiling, tattooed person with a mustache pushes a laughing blonde child in a swing on a playground. Photo is by Ana Ramirez, The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Beyond their own futures — a few are planning cross-country moves — they wonder what this means for a military already struggling to recruit & now losing experienced members.

“The DoD cannot, one for one, replace us overnight.”

(Photo: Ana Ramirez, U-T)
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/13/s...

A smiling person wearing a Sparta Pride T-shirt lifts weights in their home gym. A United States Marine Corps flag hands in the background.

They know they can be identified. But they're staying for now.

One has a mortgage to pay. One has a local community she loves. For another, it's a matter of "personal pride in being able to say that I completed all of the things that I set out to do."

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/13/s...

A woman wearing an orange embroidered robe stands in her bedroom, holding a naval officer's bucket cover. Photo is by Ana Ramirez of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

“I grew up in a military family. I grew up all around it … and I had a desire to do that,” she said. “If you were to sit down and ask me, ‘When you get out of the service, what’s your plan?’ I have no idea.”

(Photo: Ana Ramirez / San Diego Union-Tribune)
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/13/s...

Stay or go? For some transgender San Diego sailors and Marines, Trump’s ban leaves one option: ‘Come and find me’ Some who spoke with The San Diego Union-Tribune wonder how their own military community will be impacted, especially if people leave the region once they’re forced out of the service.

They're a Marine captain, Navy officers in air control, nuclear propulsion, medical corps — people for whom the military was a life, a career, a purpose, an identity.

One is so dedicated to serving she re-enlisted after being booted in Trump's first ban.
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/13/s...

Stay or go? For some transgender San Diego sailors and Marines, Trump’s ban leaves one option: ‘Come and find me’ Some who spoke with The San Diego Union-Tribune wonder how their own military community will be impacted, especially if people leave the region once they’re forced out of the service.

As Trump's ban on trans people in the military took effect, we spoke with some San Diego-area members about their lives, plans and uncertainty, and whether they'll leave the service quietly.

Most of them won't. As one Marine said: "Come and find me."

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/13/s...

What the data say about who ICE is arresting in San Diego More than half the arrests locally this year were of people with no criminal record

Who's ICE arresting in San Diego? Mainly people with no criminal records, our analysis found.

"While 20% of arrests in April were of individuals without criminal convictions or charges, it rose to 62% in May and 76% in early June, according to the data."
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/06/w...

This is exactly what the data in San Diego bear out, per @sandiegouniontribune.com reporting.

"While 20% of arrests in April were of individuals without criminal convictions or charges, it rose to 62% in May and 76% in early June, according to the data."
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/06/w...

Michelin-starred sushi, $2,500-a-seat dinners: Vice President Vance wraps up San Diego visit He drew protesters outside a restaurant in University Heights and was presented an award by a conservative think tank.

Here’s our local story: www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/07/07/m...

US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Asso...

“Palestinians arriving at the sites say they are caught between Israeli & American fire, said the contractor who shared videos with the AP.

‘We have come here to get food for our families. We have nothing,’ he recounted Palestinians telling him. ‘Why do you shoot at us?’”
apnews.com/article/pale...

This is great—I don’t think I’ve seen baby stick sunscreen before. Have you tried Cetaphil sheer mineral liquid sunscreen? It’s not good for heavy activity, but it’s the only non-ghostly daily mineral face sunscreen I’ve used that doesn’t break me out or cause a rash around my eyes. I recommend it.

It’s true!

As for the immigration stances of the candidates in the race that will decide which party controls San Diego County?

Lucas Robinson recently dug into what they’ve said — and refused to say — about ICE, legal aid & more. Check it out: www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/06/10/w...

Elite charter schools CEO resigns just after Union-Tribune investigation Records show just-departed CEO Meghan Freeman and founder Brent Woodard built a wealthy lifestyle while running the small charter school network.

Kristen Taketa investigated a small charter school network with huge executive pay—& cozy ties with its top vendor.

The CEO quit 2 days after our story ran. But public records reveal how she & her predecessor built a lavish lifestyle running the network.
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/06/22/e...

Faith leaders stand in solidarity with immigrants at San Diego federal building San Diego Bishop-Designate Michael Pham called on the federal government to treat migrants with “kindness, compassion, dignity and respect.”

"For at least the part of the day that the religious leaders were inside courtrooms, there were no arrests outside. Pham and others said they witnessed ICE agents in the hallway as they entered the courtrooms, but said they then left."
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/06/20/f...

“Obviously, [the New York Times editorial board] decided they didn’t care enough about New York City to make an editorial endorsement, and then they show up with this wimpy, disingenuous editorial basically justifying why people should vote for someone corrupt in Andrew Cuomo.”

“If you go into coverage with the resources of the NYT looking for people to tell you there’s a problem, you’ll find a problem … & if you’re the NYT, more people will flock to you to ask you to tell that story — no matter how contorted the focus of your reporting becomes because of that.” Read this:

What Covid “Lab Leak” and “Rushing Kids into Transition” Have in Common and more general thoughts about conspiracy theories and negativity bias

This essay by @juliaserano.bsky.social — on the parallels between the Covid “lab leak” theory & conspiracy theories about the origins of transness — is so, so, so smart & succinct & necessary. juliaserano.substack.com/p/what-covid...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered a new, crushing blow, upholding Tennessee's ban in a 6-to-3 decision. In allowing Tennessee to outlaw blockers and hormones, the court not only shielded similar laws on the books in some two dozen states. It effectively closed the door on extending new constitutional protections to trans people. Some advocates fear that Skrmetti could open the door to banning medical transition for adults and perhaps other health care that some conservatives oppose, like birth control or in vitro fertilization - even vaccines. The fate of a once-obscure medical treatment could have profound consequences for American law.

If an 11,000-word story has a major, factual error in the fifth graf, it probably should be seen for the biased, hit-piece it is.

Grossmont school trustees regularly discussed board business in private texts and emails The messages portray an insular political circle of select board trustees and administrators that has fought to maintain control of the district by strategizing against employees they regard as opp…

Grossmont trustees regularly talked board business (& griped about perceived political enemies) in private messages, raising questions of open meetings law violations, per records Kristen Taketa & @jemmakstephenson.bsky.social obtained. Hell of a story:
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/06/13/g...

Gloria, Jewish groups back away from San Diego Pride over headliner Kehlani’s Gaza stance In a letter to the groups, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria called the event’s headliner ‘disappointing’ and said organizers had revised the singer’s contract to bar them from &#…

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria & local Jewish groups are backing away from the city’s Pride festival over headliner Kehlani’s remarks on Israel.

Gloria also told the groups that SD Pride revised the singer’s contract to bar “engaging in political speech.”
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/06/06/g...

On top of the speculation about top officials’ inner lives, there’s that “you can see this just by looking at him” line. That kind of language is always a red flag, but for a journalist to use it — especially about somebody Jewish — is especially troubling.

A tweet from HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from @CDCgov recommended immunization schedule. Bottom line: it's common sense and it's good science. We are now one step closer to realizing @POTUS's promise to Make America Healthy Again.

A huge step from HHS that is at odds with science showing significant risks for young children and pregnant women — and that directly contradicts *the FDA's own publication* from last week listing pregnancy as a high-risk condition that would qualify people for this fall's Covid vaccine

and because you could drive so scarily fast in it, since so few drivers dared use it

“The subtext of this rhetoric is menacing. It suggests that the loyalty of noncitizens should be seen as inherently suspect—and that they should be seen … as a fifth column of potential spies and saboteurs, whose sleeper-cell progeny shouldn’t be given citizenship for the security of the republic.”

“N.W.S. staff will have an impossible task to continue its current level of services,” the NWS leaders write in the letter. “Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.”

Just coming out and saying you want to put Harvard under a federal receivership because they made Bill de Blasio an adjunct puts the lie to all the other attacks they've made on higher ed in the last few months under the guise of combating anti-semitism.

In research-rich San Diego, Trump cuts hit studies of HIV, domestic violence and more The Union-Tribune interviewed local researchers who have had funding cut or are at risk of losing funding. Here’s what they had to say.

HIV prevention. Violence against pregnant women. Autism in children.

Trump's funding cuts are halting research into these issues & more in San Diego.

Kristen Taketa spoke with local scientists about their work & the cuts' impacts. Here're their stories.
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/03/30/s...

A case of mistaken identity kept one man in a San Diego jail for 7 weeks, and cost the other his job They’re 18 years and two time zones apart. But repeat mix-ups by law enforcement in San Diego County have had serious repercussions for both men.

The two strangers were 18 years & two times zones apart. But a persistent case of mistaken identity by police cost one man his job & landed the other in jail for 7 weeks. This from @kellylynndavis.bsky.social is a Kafkaesque nightmare, & a hell of a read. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/03/30/a...