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Ariel Wittenberg

@arielwittenberg

Public health reporter at POLITICO’s E&E News. New Englander at heart. Mom. Hobbyist watercolorist. PEN Guild forever ✊🏼

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11.10.2023
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Latest posts by Ariel Wittenberg @arielwittenberg

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

02.03.2026 20:39 πŸ‘ 8069 πŸ” 2220 πŸ’¬ 120 πŸ“Œ 70
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It could be the biggest US data center β€” next to a Civil War battlefield A Virginia court heard arguments Tuesday over the Digital Gateway project that would border Manassas National Battlefield Park.

β€œIf this can happen here, what’s to stop data centers like this happening outside the gates of Gettysburg or the entrance to Yellowstone?”

My latest data center piece for @eenews.bsky.social

www.eenews.net/articles/it-...

26.02.2026 15:39 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Readers deserve journalism that lives up to our ethical standards regardless of how it is created. And journalists deserve to have a say in how new technology impacts our work.

23.02.2026 19:16 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Staff at Fortune magazine win historic three-year contract with NY Guild | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA Staff at Fortune have won their first contract for both digital and print employees, a deal that lifts wages a total of 11% for the life of the deal

NEW: After years of bargaining, unionized editorial staff at Fortune have won their first contract for both digital and print employees with @nyguild.bsky.social!

The deal lifts wages 11% for the life of the deal, provides job security protections and more.

newsguild.org/staff-at-for...

20.02.2026 18:34 πŸ‘ 39 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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MAHA unleashes on White House after Trump backs pesticide MAHA advocates promptly denounced the move and said it would threaten Republicans’ chances in the midterms.

But RFKjr *has* expressed support for a new Executive Order this week ensuring adequate supplies of the herbicide glycosphate, which has been linked to cancers and which he previously sued the manufacturer over

www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

20.02.2026 21:08 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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RFK Jr., once poisoned by mercury, is silent as EPA weakens rules against it The HHS secretary has fought mercury pollution for years. He’s now in an administration that wants to make it easier for industries to dump it into the air

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that contaminates people when air pollution settles on rivers and streams and gets into the fish we eat. Current Health Secretary RFK jr once had mercury poisoning from eating too much tuna, but has been silent these rollbacks

www.eenews.net/articles/rfk...

20.02.2026 21:02 πŸ‘ 41 πŸ” 22 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
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Pollution from coal plants was dropping. Then came Trump and AI. Data centers’ hunger for electricity is prompting some states to keep their coal-burning power plants from closing β€” while DC relaxes air pollution limits.

I wrote about deregulation in the name of AI a few months ago. At the time, the new coal loophole was just a proposal, now it's final.

www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

20.02.2026 21:01 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump spares power plants from mercury emissions clampdown The rollback is the latest salvo in the president's multipronged push to boost the coal industry.

This rollback is especially notable as more coal plants are staying online past previous retirement dates to power data centers and AI.

www.eenews.net/articles/tru...

20.02.2026 21:00 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Prince Andrew's Arrest Across the pond in Britain, justice and accountability is a serious matter

Never in a million years did I ever fathom when I resurrected the Epstein story in 2018 that it would lead to first arrest of a British Royal in four centuries. Not since King Charles I was arrested in 1647.
open.substack.com/pub/jkbjourn...

19.02.2026 14:32 πŸ‘ 33825 πŸ” 7841 πŸ’¬ 1934 πŸ“Œ 785
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NewsGuild-sponsored digital security training on Feb. 26 | The NewsGuild - TNG-CWA Join us on Thursday, February 26, 2026, for a digital security training with the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

When FBI agents raided the home of Post journalist Hannah Natanson last month, they seized her devices and refused to return them.

To help journalists protect themselves, we are sponsoring a digital security training with @freedom.press. Join us Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. ET

newsguild.org/newsguild-ho...

17.02.2026 20:03 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Please tell all journalism professors that The Plain Dealer was the best outlet its size in the world until Chris Quinn showed up to dismantle it and ran us all off, and attribute it to a former assistant managing editor thx

16.02.2026 14:41 πŸ‘ 230 πŸ” 51 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 2

Oh god no it is not
Your local journalists mostly have 2nd and 3rd jobs
No joke - you give up a lot to love journalism

17.02.2026 02:50 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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E&E News: β€˜The industry comes in and kills the work of local citizens’ States and feds are doing little to affect data center growth. People in a Virginia county are pushing back but running into big obstacles.

An amazing, deeply-reported story from @arielwittenberg.bsky.social on how data centers are subverting local democracy and upending entire communities. Really calls into question the whole "Abundance Liberal" movement. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

17.02.2026 13:45 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before Minneapolis shootings Internal agency emails show a surge in reports of ICE officers using more force going back nearly a year, but DHS leadership did not see it as a concern to be addressed.

EXCLUSIVE: ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before the Minneapolis shootings.

Internal agency emails show a surge in reports of ICE officers using more force going back nearly a year, but DHS leadership didn't see it as a concern to be addressed.

17.02.2026 13:09 πŸ‘ 466 πŸ” 225 πŸ’¬ 47 πŸ“Œ 31
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Meet Minnesota Bathrobe Lady Sam Stroozas of MPR News | Minnesota Public Radio Earlier this week, an unexpected and fast-moving incident unfolded in St. Paul, Minnesota involving both federal and local law enforcement. As crowds gathered and questions mounted, one of our MPR New...

hello minnesota and beyond! thank you for your kind messages. it is very weird to be the news when you cover the news. i love this beautiful state and journalism, and i am hopeful for better days. but we will be forever changed bc of the last two months.

14.02.2026 04:44 πŸ‘ 5510 πŸ” 1162 πŸ’¬ 94 πŸ“Œ 77
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β€˜The Industry Comes In and Kills the Work of Local Citizens’ States and feds aren’t doing much to affect data center growth. Residents here in one Virginia county are trying to push back β€” but running into some big obstacles.

The Trump administration pushes for more AI--but what does that mean for communities on the ground?

For @politico.com Magazine, I tell the story of one VA county where local politics is struggling to reign in data center impacts on residents' health/peace of mind

www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

13.02.2026 18:55 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Reliability of LLMs as medical assistants for the general public: a randomized preregistered study - Nature Medicine In a randomized controlled study involving 1,298 participants from a general sample, performance of humans when assisted by a large language model (LLM) was sensibly inferior to that of the LLM alone ...

"When civilians ask large language models questions about their health, the technology often gets it wrong."

"The advancements could inadvertently expose more people to medical misinformation." h/t POLITICO Pulse
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

10.02.2026 11:34 πŸ‘ 37 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 3

Puerto Rico hasn't had reliable power in a decade.

The grid sends occasional surges through the wires that fry appliances.

Electricity rates are among the highest in the entire U.S.

Heat waves are getting intense in the summer, and outages mean A/C is no guarantee for an aging population.

09.02.2026 01:49 πŸ‘ 3898 πŸ” 1182 πŸ’¬ 34 πŸ“Œ 37
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Hurricane's death toll in Puerto Rico put at nearly 3,000 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) β€” Puerto Rico's governor raised the U.S. territory's official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975 on Tuesday after an independent study found that the number of...

Environmental health reporter in me seeing Bad Bunny's linemen and thinking of all the Puerto Ricans who died due to lack of power following Hurricane Maria (and the political controversy over the death count that followed)

apnews.com/article/a705...

09.02.2026 01:47 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 17 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Donate to Support for Washington Post international employees, organized by Michelle Lee Among the hundreds of journalists laid off by The Washington Post on … Michelle Lee needs your support for Support for Washington Post international employees

We have launched a new fundraiser to support The Washington Post's courageous international employees and local staff who were laid off, who are not eligible for Guild protections, and who face additional logistical challenges and security risks.

Please give & share widely:
gofund.me/e765aab9f

05.02.2026 15:33 πŸ‘ 104 πŸ” 57 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 12
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another year of us not running a super bowl ad

06.02.2026 19:41 πŸ‘ 2549 πŸ” 746 πŸ’¬ 45 πŸ“Œ 54
Post image Post image Post image

Today's rally at The Post building was a powerful show of solidarity from fellow unions, community members, longtime Post readers, past and current Post journalists, international press, city council members, and everyone else who knows that we must #SaveThePost

Thank you for your solidarity. ✊

05.02.2026 20:34 πŸ‘ 82 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4
Hand-made signs with cut-out letters. One says "We [heart] Post Reporters". The other uses the print newspaper section heds to write: "METRO,  SPORTS, STYLE, THE WORLD PROTECT THE WASHINGTON POST"

Hand-made signs with cut-out letters. One says "We [heart] Post Reporters". The other uses the print newspaper section heds to write: "METRO, SPORTS, STYLE, THE WORLD PROTECT THE WASHINGTON POST"

A large crowd rallies in front of a building. A sign reads "Democracy cries in darkness".

A large crowd rallies in front of a building. A sign reads "Democracy cries in darkness".

Our members joined the #SaveThePost rally in D.C. today to protest the mass layoffs at the Washington Post. We stand in solidarity with @postguild.bsky.social. Support laid off workers: www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t... + www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo... ✊

05.02.2026 20:40 πŸ‘ 50 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
I couldn't string sentences together yesterday, Maybe that's a sign that I shouldn't have been spared when all my fantastic colleagues who unfairly lost their jobs pushed through their grief to write beautiful notes about their careers and the situation at The Washington Post.

The health team lost 8 out of 13 reporters yesterday despite health listed as part of The Post's new pared down focus. Just six months after becoming an editor and having the honor to lead an all-star team covering federal health agencies and public health, I have to go back to reporting because there are barely any health reporters left to edit.

I'll say more about the reporters we lost later today, but as a team, we did everything we were supposed to do under the vision for The Post to be a digital innovator that breaks news, offers hard-hitting accountability and directly address reader concerns. We landed exclusives on the CDC director's firing, plans to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, projections for steep ACA marketplace rate increases and more. We avoided dutiful iterative stories and covered storylines such as the expiration of enhanced ACA premiums with smart targeted angles that were widely read. We broke the mold of a traditional newspaper with clever formats including a pop-up newsletter and live chats to help readers navigate new restrictions on coronavirus vaccines, a quiz to understand new dietary guidelines and vertical videos to showcase reporter expertise. 

The Metro section where I started my career (and offers a clear reason for millions of potential subscribers to pay for us instead of or in addition to other national outlets!) is hollowed out. Reporters around the world wiped out after the owner set a vision for international relevance. A sports department home to journalistic legends shuttered. And so much more bleeding across the entire newsroom.

I couldn't string sentences together yesterday, Maybe that's a sign that I shouldn't have been spared when all my fantastic colleagues who unfairly lost their jobs pushed through their grief to write beautiful notes about their careers and the situation at The Washington Post. The health team lost 8 out of 13 reporters yesterday despite health listed as part of The Post's new pared down focus. Just six months after becoming an editor and having the honor to lead an all-star team covering federal health agencies and public health, I have to go back to reporting because there are barely any health reporters left to edit. I'll say more about the reporters we lost later today, but as a team, we did everything we were supposed to do under the vision for The Post to be a digital innovator that breaks news, offers hard-hitting accountability and directly address reader concerns. We landed exclusives on the CDC director's firing, plans to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, projections for steep ACA marketplace rate increases and more. We avoided dutiful iterative stories and covered storylines such as the expiration of enhanced ACA premiums with smart targeted angles that were widely read. We broke the mold of a traditional newspaper with clever formats including a pop-up newsletter and live chats to help readers navigate new restrictions on coronavirus vaccines, a quiz to understand new dietary guidelines and vertical videos to showcase reporter expertise. The Metro section where I started my career (and offers a clear reason for millions of potential subscribers to pay for us instead of or in addition to other national outlets!) is hollowed out. Reporters around the world wiped out after the owner set a vision for international relevance. A sports department home to journalistic legends shuttered. And so much more bleeding across the entire newsroom.

The Washington Post gutted the health team which I helped to lead despite our stories being among the most widely read, impactful and adept at reaching new audiences.

05.02.2026 16:16 πŸ‘ 369 πŸ” 131 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 13
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How Epstein’s wealth opened doors at a prestigious New York hospital The convicted sex offender enjoyed unusually close access to Mount Sinai doctors, records show.

NEW: A look at how Jeffrey Epstein’s tremendous wealth and connections opened doors at a prestigious New York City hospital β€”Β from a 24/7 hotline for the "board and donor community" to house calls.
www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

04.02.2026 15:11 πŸ‘ 49 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2

I was told today my Washington Post job is being eliminated

It's just a job, but it's one that I was proud to do for 8+ yrs alongside the best in the business

I'm here for opportunities to tell stories about the natural world and how we impact it

dino.grandoni@gmail.com

04.02.2026 18:54 πŸ‘ 55 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 8
This is an image of a poster promoting the rally that will run from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at 1301 K St. NW to save The Washington Post newsroom from rumored mass layoffs.

This is an image of a poster promoting the rally that will run from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at 1301 K St. NW to save The Washington Post newsroom from rumored mass layoffs.

Join us Thursday for a rally to #SaveThePost!! The rally will run from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday at 1301 K St. NW!!

Bring friends! Bring gloves! Bring a love of journalism!

02.02.2026 22:47 πŸ‘ 129 πŸ” 73 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 15
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Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund

Terrible day for many amazing, hard-working, intelligent journalists at the Washington Post. I'm still here and trying to figure out how to best support my colleagues who have lost their jobs.

If you feel able to share or contribute, please do:

www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...

04.02.2026 16:37 πŸ‘ 86 πŸ” 42 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 1
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Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund

If you are able, The Post's union has started a layoff fund for those fired by the world's fourth-richest man today. gofund.me/a310d0286

04.02.2026 16:35 πŸ‘ 541 πŸ” 354 πŸ’¬ 17 πŸ“Œ 13
Post image

X is hiring a creative writing specialist at $40 an hour to make Grok better at writing and a true LOL at the qualifications

30.01.2026 20:14 πŸ‘ 5743 πŸ” 1148 πŸ’¬ 475 πŸ“Œ 816