Little Bits: Issue #22 for February 2025
Exciting times are ahead, a motivational message and loads of new curated bits found in February 2025 while surfing the Internet for you to enjoy.
news
For years, a Connecticut towing company got to cut the line at the DMV in exchange for selling towed cars at deep discounts, according to a DMV report, allowing one DMV employee to resell them for steep profits.
How the Terrorgram Collective’s Neo-Nazi Influencers Groomed a Teen to Kill
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The murders of two people outside an LGBTQ+ bar at first looked like the act of a lone shooter. A ProPublica and FRONTLINE investigation shows they were, in fact, the culmination of a coordinated, international recruiting effort by online extremists.
https://www.propublica.org/article/telegram-terrorgram-collective-bratislava-murders-neo-nazi-online-hate?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
News-gatherers on Mastodon
Mastodon has become a great source for news and opinion. And for this we can thank a few wonderful news-gatherers who tirelessly roam the internet grazing on current events.
Short list of some top Mastodon news-gatherers for you to follow:
Laffy @GottaLaff - the amazing Laffy
Nonilex @Nonilex - great summaries
Sue Stone @knittingknots2 - an indefatigable gatherer
William Lindsey @wdlindsy - brilliant threads
Kriszta Satori @fulelo - international stories
Edited 1y ago
Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs
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A ProPublica investigation found that for more than a decade, the FDA gave substandard factories banned from the United States a special pass to keep sending drugs to an unsuspecting public.
https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-drug-loophole-sun-pharma?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Federal Monitor Slams NYPD Unit Whose Aggressive Policing ProPublica Exposed
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A report from a court-appointed watchdog details “troubling” conduct and “unconstitutional” stops by the Police Department’s Community Response Team — a unit championed by Mayor Eric Adams.
https://www.propublica.org/article/nyc-nypd-police-community-response-team-stop-frisk?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Connecticut Lawmakers Seek Overhaul of Towing Laws
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A new bill addresses nearly all of the issues raised in a Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica investigation that found people’s cars were being sold shortly after they were towed.
Church leaders held meetings where children were told to forgive the man who sexually abused them and forget the abuse. An internal church document also suggests that, when appropriate, both parties be brought together for a discussion.
https://www.propublica.org/article/minnesota-old-apostolic-lutheran-church-investigation-takeaways?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Minnesota #Duluth #Abuse #Church #Religion #Law #Crime #Epstein
Massive Layoffs at the Department of Education Erode Its Civil Rights Division
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Only five of the agency’s civil rights offices remain nationwide. Those who are still with the department say it will now be “virtually impossible” to resolve discrimination complaints.
#News #Education #CivilRights #Trump #Discrimination #Students
Migrants detained in Panama expressed fear of returning to their countries.
“They will execute me without hesitation,” one texted.
“I am LGBT. My country harass these people. I cannot live a normal life in my country,” said another.
When Joe DeMayo’s donated kidney started to fail earlier than expected, he didn’t know that the drug he was taking could’ve left him vulnerable — and that one of the most formidable drug regulators in the world may have failed to protect him.
https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-tacrolimus-kidney-transplant-patient?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Washington Blues: A Government Town Faces a Gloomy Future
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For years, Washington, D.C., was insulated from many of the economic forces that decimated many older U.S. cities. Now, as Elon Musk’s mass layoffs shake everything from employment to real estate, the region faces the prospect of decline.
https://www.propublica.org/article/washington-dc-trump-musk-federal-government-cutbacks-gloomy-future?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
How ProPublica Uses AI Responsibly in Its Investigations
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When our reporters prompted a large language model to help identify “woke” themes in a database of grants, AI helped them tell a vital accountability story about science funding and Ted Cruz.
https://www.propublica.org/article/using-ai-responsibly-for-reporting?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #AI #Tech #Journalism #Media #Research #Data #Technology
"Fascism: Here To Stay? How Do We End It?"
W/ #DavidShuster, an "Amped Up!" INTERVIEW w awesome historian/scholar on #authoritarianism, Ruth Ben-Ghiat!
https://www.blueamp.co/p/fascism-here-to-stay-how-do-we-end #politics #world #fascism #trump #us #usa #ai #donaldtrump #history #press #media #war #iran #israel #eu #tv #uk #russia #ukraine #middleeast #news
"Noem isn’t doing homeland #security. I’m not sure she knows its meaning. Like habeas corpus, which she thinks is an Ecuadorian offshoot of MS-13. Instead of safety and security, Noem’s turned the agency into the rabid attack dog she wanted Cricket to be"
READ MORE https://www.blueamp.co/p/were-all-cricket-and-the-united-states #news #usa #politics #dhs #ice #losangeles #la #tv #nato #media #press #russia #ukraine #eu us #unitedstates #america #trump #donaldtrump #cliffschecter #blueamp #cliffsnote #cliffsedge #davidshuster
Custom Keyboard Company WASD Keyboards Goes Defunct?
Can keyboard enthusiasts find answers to the questions we all have been wondering, has WASD Keyboards company gone out of business or was it acquired?
How Hotels, Once a Last Resort, Became New York’s Default Answer to Homelessness
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Statewide spending on hotels has more than tripled in recent years. The shift away from shelters has prevented families from accessing services like child care and help finding housing.
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-homelessness-hotels?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #NY #NewYork #Homelessness #Homeless #Hotel #Housing #Shelter
N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign a bill that bans anonymous complaints to the state child abuse hotline. The law would still maintain the confidentiality of callers.
The change comes in the wake of a 2023 ProPublica investigation that showed how the hotline had been weaponized by people endlessly calling in baseless allegations against exes or rivals.
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-bans-anonymous-child-welfare-reports?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Curious How Trump’s Cost Cutting Could Affect Your National Park Visit? You Might Not Get a Straight Answer.
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National Park Service staff have received talking points ordering them to describe layoffs as “workforce management actions” and to reassure visitors that changes resulting from the cuts won’t impede “memorable and meaningful experiences for all.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/national-parks-staff-cuts-talking-points?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Trump #Government #NPS #NationalParks #DOGE #ElonMusk
Inside the Schools Alaska Ignored
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Two inches of raw sewage. Black mold. A bat infestation. Reporter Emily Schwing shares what she uncovered as she investigated dangerous conditions inside Alaska’s deteriorating public schools.
https://www.propublica.org/article/alaska-deterioriating-public-schools-reporting?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Journalism #Alaska #Education #School #Native #Indigenous #Students
NEW: Insiders tell ProPublica that Amy Gleason is only in charge on paper, while Musk’s top lieutenants really run #DOGE.
One person who has been in meetings with Gleason described her as having “little to no actual decision making” responsibilities.
News continues to flow at breakneck speed and independent newsrooms continue to reveal and analyze what’s happening around the world. Highlights for us this week were @ProPublica's exposé on DOGE’s potential impact on social security, @KnowableMag's explainer on pregnancy at altitude, and a lovely interview by @thecontinent of the beloved Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed. Please check out these stories and all the others in this thread, comment, like, follow their accounts and give them your money. ⤵️
#Media #Journalism #News #Newstodon #MastodonMigration #FollowFriday
"A federal judge in California ruled Monday that Anthropic likely violated copyright law when it pirated authors’ books to create a giant dataset [...] but that training its AI on those books without authors' permission constitutes transformative fair use under copyright law. "
https://www.404media.co/judge-rules-training-ai-on-authors-books-is-legal-but-pirating-them-is-not/
Parents Sue Trump Administration for Allegedly Sabotaging Education Department’s Civil Rights Division
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The class-action lawsuit claims that decimating the agency’s Office for Civil Rights will leave it unable to address issues of discrimination at school — violating the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment.
https://www.propublica.org/article/department-of-education-civil-rights-lawsuit-trump-parents?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Education #Trump #CivilRights #Discrimination #Parents #Disability #School
A New Trump Plan Gives DHS and the White House Greater Influence in the Fight Against Organized Crime
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Internal documents and interviews show that an overhaul led by Stephen Miller would scale back prosecutors’ control over investigations.
https://www.propublica.org/article/stephen-miller-trump-dhs-fbi-doj-war-on-drugs?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Trump #WhiteHouse #Crime #DHS #FBI #DOJ #StephenMiller