St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️

City hall reporter @sfchronicle. Boston born, Philly trained, TX forged. RPCV: Paraguay. Call me ‘Sinjin.'
Signal: stjbs.82

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

The Trump admin's mass deportation push, resting heavily on dirty tricks, legal sleight-of-hand, and the deliberate flouting of rules, has led to a deluge of habeas corpus lawsuits so large it has no historical precedent in American history.

[Fifty Shades of Whey @davenewworld_2]

An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle found that ICE's own death reviews identified deficient care in 23 cases out of the 29 deaths they examined between January 2025 and January 2026.

Some of the documented care failures included delayed treatments, medication mismanagement, and instances where staff failed to perform CPR during emergencies.

This is based on ICE's own internal findings.

These humans died in preventable ways. They should still be alive. There isn't a Hell hot enough for everyone who's responsible for this Nazi shit.

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

NEW: The @nytimes confirms that ICE deliberately electronically "disappeared" tens of thousands of people in detention and ordered contractors to refuse to reveal where they're held to family or lawyers.

30% of all immigrants detained in ICE jails now have their location hidden.

[St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ @stjbs]

This is actually a good addition to the discourse

[Jessica Huseman @JessicaHuseman]

I need PR people to understand that their jobs are not essential to journalism. Often, their jobs are to obstruct it.

Coming at reporters on X to insist we owe you a response because you are "adjacent" our work is a spectacular way to announce you have no idea what our work is.

[St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ @stjbs]

Omg this PR/journo debate UNSUBSCRIBE

[Josh Billinson @jbillinson]

No one owes you a response to a cold email! That’s kind of the whole thing with cold emails!

[Tobias "the pen" @Tobiasfornow]

We're all trying to do our job ... but clearly something is broken when there are 10-20x more publicists than journalists. I'd love to provide feedback, or even a simple no, to everyone ... but my job is to write (a lot! so much!) and I simply don't have the capacity

[St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ @stjbs]

UPDATE to this story: Yesterday, a federal judge ordered ICE to release Paula, the UC Berkeley student detained at SFO in late October. https://t.co/fUihM0wgN9

[St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ @stjbs]

UC Berkeley student arrested by ICE at San Francisco International Airport https://t.co/qiAIFETvoM via @sfchronicle

[Alejandro Serrano @serrano_alej]

New: Texas AG Ken Paxton dropped the agency's lawsuit against Houston-based immigrant rights group FIEL Houston, which it sought to shutter, per FIEL. This is the second suit targeting a group that works w/ migrants the agency drops, first was against Annunciation House.

[Karen Piper @PiperK]

This report makes some people, like Elon, look treasonous, but it perfectly explains the confusion around the shutdown of Starlink/Starshield a couple of weeks ago, as well as the simultaneous pinning of a U.S. satellite by a Russian one.

[St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ @stjbs]

Bleak

[Jake Bleiberg @JZBleiberg]

New: At least 11 National Security Agency and US Cyber Command workers died by suicide over roughly the past year, according to US officials and public records, a greater number than previously known.

https://t.co/oqvZMPl7mn

[Doggocrat @Doggocrat]

Beto walked so Talarico could run.

[Brad Johnson @bradj_TX]

New: @Senfronia4Texas names her transition team, which includes six former speakers.

Ben Barnes, Gib Lewis, Pete Laney, Joe Straus, Dennis Bonnen, and Dade Phelan. #txlege

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Incoming Rep. Don Leonard says top House Democrats have threatened to “make [his] life a living hell” and cost him re-election if he continues attaching conditions to his support for Hakeem Jeffries for speaker.

His conditions: 1) a vote on an amendment to end Citizens United and 2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.”

He says Jeffries is refusing to meet with him and the threats are like something “out of a movie.”

[Fav @favwontmiss]

HERE’S THE WHOLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS:
Boomers — workaholism
Generation X — alcoholism
Zoomers — burnout
Gen Alpha — ADHD
Millennials — a combo of all 4, no discounts.

[Clipping Wings @ClippingWings]

Jon Stewart: I get pessimistic when I see status quo leadership in place that has disappointed in the past. What will be different now?

What would you need to see from Democratic leadership to show they're moving with purpose and urgency?

Listen to Rachel Maddow's answer

[Lyndon Baines Johnson @lyndonbajohnson]

Harris County: the South. Counties directly West of Harris like Ft Bend, Waller, Grimes, and Wharton where they hanged Black people from lamp posts, and murdered Black deputies and went night riding and ruled by terror? "Largely Southerm Influenced" ... ok... -OS

[Hannah Wiley @hannahcwiley]

Feels like a good day to reintroduce myself! I’m Hannah, the new(ish) DC reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. I’m here to 👀 for California news out of the Capitol (and other corners of Washington). Add me to your press lists, and reach out for coffee!

[News to Remember @allchronology]

Listen to this. And then listen again. And again. Until you get it.