Barry Yeoman

North Carolina Created Complaint Systems for Its Industrialized Farms. They Don’t Work Very Well. - Inside Climate News Complaints become part of the record only if a violation is found, but the state has only 14 inspectors for thousands of hog, poultry and cattle farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations, ...

North Carolina's complaint system for regulating swine, poultry, and cattle farm waste is broken, reports @lisasorg.bsky.social in @insideclimatenews.org. Complaints become part of the record only if a violation is found, but the state has only 14 inspectors for thousands of industrial farms. #ncpol

An American Missionary in Greenland — The Dial In this small community, the pastor is the only one who won’t talk politics.

In the town of Ilulissat, an American pastor who has spent the past 19 years leading Greenland’s only Baptist church is now evangelizing to a population deeply divided over the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Juliette Pavy shares photos from Ilulissat and the church.

A Year After His Arrest, Mahmoud Khalil Lives in Limbo and in Fear

A year ago, Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, became the face of the White House’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators. More than 250 days after he was released by a judge, he is still living the life that the Trump administration imposed on him. @jonesieman.bsky.social

A Reporter in Nashville, Detained by ICE Estefany Rodríguez, a journalist for a Spanish-language outlet, was covering immigration raids. The next day, agents arrested her without a warrant.

Estefany Rodríguez, a reporter for a Spanish-language outlet in Nashville, was covering immigration raids. The next day, ICE agents arrested her without a warrant. Read Carolina Abbott Galvão. www.cjr.org/analysis/est...

Ted Genoways, in his story for FERN and The Guardian, reports on why food giants like McDonald’s and other food industry players are accusing beef packers of collusion and price-gouging. ⬇️

https://thefern.org/2026/02/big-four-beef-processors-under-fire-as-prices-for-steaks-and-hamburgers-soar/

Big news: FERN is a finalist for a National Magazine Award, aka the "Ellie." Reporter Elliott Woods spent over two years reporting on the 2022 migrant tragedy in Texas. We're so honored and proud!

https://thefern.org/blog_posts/editors-desk-understanding-why-beef-prices-are-so-high/

#ncpol 🧵

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) Calls for DHS Secretary Kristi Noems Resignation YouTube video by C-SPAN

Newly liberated Tillis goes after Noem: "You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it's a leadership lesson... Those are bad decisions...not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis." #ncpol

How ICE Turned Charlotte’s Democratic Primary Into a Battleground A key vote and a floor speech on immigration have turned Rep. Carla Cunningham's primary into one of the most bitter in the state.

In today's hottest primary election for the North Carolina legislature, a seven-term Democrat is facing a challenge after declaring, in a viral floor speech about immigration enforcement, that "all cultures are not equal.” Greg Lacour reports for @theassemblync.bsky.social. #ncpol

Israel Eguaogie Israel Eguaogie was 17 when he left Nigeria and relocated to Germany as an asylum seeker. A decade later he moved to Dublin and soon after that, shifted north to Belfast. It was a decision that hor…

Israel Eguaogie left Nigeria at 17 and now lives in in Belfast. He worries that the communities who once battled one another are now finding common ground opposing immigrants. But he also sees community support—a reason for hope. From "The Troubles," John Noltner's Northern Ireland interview series.

This is the most fascinating, and most propulsive, political profile I've read in maybe ever.

Why Alamance County’s Pro-Trump Sheriff Iced Out ICE Sheriff Terry Johnson stopped holding immigrant detainees just before a sweeping federal enforcement operation in North Carolina.

For years, Alamance County NC sheriff Terry Johnson—a Republican who claimed immigrants were "raping our citizens"—held ICE detainees at his jail in return for millions of federal dollars. Then, in November, he ended the agreement with ICE. @jacobbiba.bsky.social @theassemblync.bsky.social #ncpol

Considering the Federal Trade Commission’s Double Standard on Media Bias The FTC's regulatory and policy assault on media bias is itself clearly rife with bias, writes Philip M. Napoli.

The Federal Trade Commission's assault on media bias is itself clearly rife with bias, writes Duke's Philip M. Napoli. But more important — and more concerning — are the ways in which these actions are exploring a range of regulatory rationales to circumvent the First Amendment, he says.

Some bullet points that I post from time to time. My answer to a reader who asked me: what could our journalists do NOW to break with some of their more corrosive habits.

Was This Professor Fired for Having Tourette Syndrome? We want to ensure harassment-free climates in schools and workplaces, and we want to protect the rights of people with disabilities. What happens when these imperatives collide?

At the BAFTAs, a man with Tourette syndrome yelled a racial slur with Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan on stage. A few years ago, @barryyeoman.com tackled a similar issue when a professor with Tourette syndrome made some students feel sexually violated. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Inside the deadliest immigration-related disaster in U.S. history | Food and Environment Reporting Network The brothers were starting to wonder if their smugglers had left them to rot. For more than two days, Begaí and Mariano Santiago Hipólito had been holed up with roughly two dozen other migrants in a…

Here's the other.

Woods won in the magazine reporting category. There's a full list of this year's Polk winners at liu.edu/polk-awards/.... It's an impressive list: testament to the outstanding accountability journalism still being published. (2/2)

A deadly passage | Food and Environment Reporting Network María Victoria Velasco Jiménez buys votive candles by the case. For more than two years, she has kept one lit on a shelf above the microwave and mini fridge in the apartment she shares with her…

Elliott Woods spent more than two years reporting on the 53 migrant workers who suffocated in the back of a tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022. His two articles have now won the Polk Award—a well-deserved honor for brave and searing work. @thefern.org @texasmonthly.bsky.social

Here's one. (1/2)

The TikTok Channel Telling Male Athletes to Love Each Other Lessons from Heated Rivalry in IRL sports culture.

The TikTok account "Sex Ed for Guys" was started by athletes at Colby College in Maine. Their videos promote emotional vulnerability and openness, strong male friendships, safe sex and consent. Death, Sex & Money's @annasale.bsky.social talked with three of those athletes and their faculty mentor.

imagine how many reporters you could employ for their entire career with just the tax savings from this year.

Unravel: Snowball | Unravel - ABC listen

The Australian podcast Snowball is fabulous. It follows journalist Ollie Wards as he unravels the story of how his family was taken down by a charming American con artist who married his brother. Tracking her from New Zealand to California, Wards tries to find out how she scammed them and why.

Tom Junod Finally Reckons with What It Means to Be a Man In a long list of classic stories, the legendary magazine writer helped teach readers what masculinity looks like in the 21st century. To write his first book, he had to confront the man who first tau...

My friend @johnhendrickson.bsky.social has written an honest, beautiful Esquire profile of journalist Tom Junod, whom you might know for his stories about Mister Rogers or the 9/11 Falling Man. The article explores masculinity, secrets, and betrayal, and it's told with John's big open heart.

The Morrow You Know Michele Morrow is betting the name recognition she earned in 2024 will help her win a U.S. Senate seat. But is all publicity good publicity?

In 2024, Republican Michelle Morrow garnered 49% in the race for North Carolina's schools chief—despite her calls for the execution of Hillary Clinton, Roy Cooper, and Anthony Fauci. Now running for US Senate, she's barely polling at all. @carlibrosseau.bsky.social @theassemblync.bsky.social #ncpol

UNC Admin Can Now, Officially, Secretly Record Faculty The new policy prohibits students from recording class without permission but explicitly allows administrators to surveil professors for any “lawful purpose.”

“This is something that governments in Iran and Syria and East Germany and maybe military regimes back in the day in Argentina and Brazil would do, but in the United States? That’s just crazy.” @emmawhitford.bsky.social #ncpol

Grandmother languishes 9 months in detention as ICE holds more elderly people; family says dementia worsens in Arizona facility Family says 79-year-old detainee Julia Benitez’s dementia has worsened during months in Arizona ICE custody, as advocates warn more elderly immigrants are being held without humanitarian release.

A 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker with worsening dementia, who uses a wheelchair, has been detained in Eloy, AZ for nine months, despite her family's pleas to let them care for her. @tucson.com tucson.com/news/local/b...

Thank you for writing this.

Opinion | Why Did I Trust Jeff Bezos?

There is so much fretting about trust in news these days. Maybe there shouldn’t be. My latest, on how Bezos won my misplaced trust the same way the media often did: by telling me what I wanted to hear. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/o...

Chris Rose's newspaper columns after Hurricane Katrina helped channel all of New Orleans' grief and rage. Carrying a city's collective trauma broke him; he slid into addiction and lives in the woods with end-stage cirrhosis. This year he's back in Louisiana for one last Mardi Gras. archive.ph/jD6cz.

Actually, the Washington Post Layoffs Were a Bigger Bloodbath Than You Thought - Washingtonian The layoffs announced last week at the Washington Post were disfiguring to the esteemed news organization, with whole sections and departments—sports, books, staff photography—wiped away, and devastat...

As @postguild.bsky.social assesses the damage from last week’s layoffs, it turns out between 44% and 47.5% of the newsroom has been axed. It “may have been the biggest one-day wipeout of journalists in a generation.” washingtonian.com/2026/02/09/a...

The antidote to People Magazine's unfortunate headline, "Bad Bunny's Halftime Show Mostly Avoids Politics." A deep decoding rom a journalist who spent years covering the Caribbean.

Still Singing the Blues, again A music-rich radio documentary gets a second life. Plus, some journalism recommendations and a song for the moment.

Our 2010 radio documentary series "Still Singing the Blues" will be resurrected this month by @kmuw.bsky.social. The series, about Louisiana's blues traditions, brought Richard Ziglar and me into back-of-town bars and rural honkytonks from Pigeon Town to the Old Breaux Bridge Highway. Details below.